Chapter 1861: A Spot to Study Abroad

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

All schools resumed classes during the autumn. After a few quiet and peaceful days, Xia Wen suddenly came to Qiao Mei’s house. He held up a document and walked over to her with a smile. “l have good news for you. Make a guess what it is.”

“Is the economy fully open?” Qiao Mei asked.

Xia Wen shook his head and said, “Guess again.”

“Don’t tell me the country is giving me a new reward?” Qiao Mei asked again.

“There is indeed a reward for you, but I can’t tell you about it yet. The details are still confidential. Those seeds of yours have already been harvested and have sold well, so we’ve made a lot of money from overseas. However, the accounts are not finalized yet. When that is done, you’ll definitely get a reward. Don’t be too anxious,” Xia Wen said.

“Then… then can I choose my own reward?” Qiao Mei said excitedly.

“Let’s see how it goes. I’ll let you know after the decision is made. However,

I’m not here about this matter. I’m here about your education,” Xia Wen said.

“My education? Isn’t everything going well at school? Is there a problem?” Qiao Mei said.

“Remember you had asked me to look out for information about the quota of students who can go overseas to study? Now that the country is undergoing reform and the economy is opening up, the various universities are allowed to let their students go overseas on exchange programs. There’s a limit to the number of students each school can send. Since Capital University has many good students, it has more slots. Each faculty can send one student,” Xia Wen said.

“Really? Which country are we going to?” Qiao Mei asked excitedly.

“There’s no announcement on that yet. It probably depends on which foreign universities are taking part in the exchange programs. Students from different faculties will probably go to different countries. The competition for the slots to study abroad this time is quite tough though. Are you proficient in English?” Xia Wen asked worriedly.

Qiao Mei pointed at the English cassettes tapes and books on the bookshelf and said, “I’m all prepared. There’s definitely no problem!”

“Alright, then I’ll help you put in the application. I believe that they’ll approve it soon. You just need to get ready.” With that, Xia Wen left with Qiao Mei’s identification documents.

What Xia Wen brought to Qiao Mei was insider news, when the official approval had not been issued yet. The schools were only notified after another week. Many students rushed to sign up. Everyone cherished this opportunity to be able to study abroad.

Xie Jing was very interested as well. He had always dreamed of studying abroad. An exchange student in such a program did not need to pay tuition fees and only needed to bear personal living expenses. Such an opportunity was rare. If he could study abroad, he would even be willing to sell his house!

“Xie Jing! Stop daydreaming! The slot in the agriculture faculty is already taken! You should just study hard and strive to stay in school to further your studies!” the classmate beside Xie Jing said.

“What did you say? Who has taken the slot? Isn’t the news just released? How can the slot be gone so quickly?” Xie Jing asked as he looked at the person in disbelief.

“If you don’t believe me, go and ask your mentor. This slot has long been given to Qiao Mei, a freshman! Stop daydreaming!” That person left after saying that but many people had overheard their conversation.

It was so rare to have a slot to study abroad and they had not even started working hard for it, so how could the slot be already gone? If the person who had taken the slot was a student in the third or fourth year, they would find it hard to object. After all, such a student had already amassed enough knowledge. However, Qiao Mei was just a freshman and had not even learned much! What right did she have to take the slot?

This was an opportunity to bring glory to the country. Would it not be embarrassing to send someone who knew nothing to study abroad? It would be so embarrassing for Capital University and the students.

“We can’t accept this!”

“Why can Qiao Mei study abroad! We should be able to go too!”

“How can the slot be just given away! We object!’

Very quickly, many students held up protest signs stating that they were against Qiao Mei being sent to study abroad and they held a demonstration in front of the principal’s office building. Now that the economy was developing rapidly and everyone was striving for fairness and justice, such an incident of giving something to a predetermined person definitely made the public feel angry.

Xie Jing led the students from the agriculture faculty to protest and asked the school for an explanation. The school found it really difficult to appease the sudden public anger, so they called up Xia Wen and asked him for help. Xia Wen asked helplessly, “Should we just tell everyone about your collaboration with the country? This way, they can’t object to you being chosen anymore. It’ll be obvious that you deserve the slot.”

“Forget it. I don’t want to be so showy. If we do that, everyone will hate me even more,” Qiao Mei said..