For the older generation of Chinese, true showing off
has never been about boasting how much money they spent, or how expensive a watch or luxurious a bag they bought.
Rather, it was about enthusiastically recounting how little they paid to get such a huge bargain,
and put it all in their pocket.
Even today, among the neighbors in Chinatown, the story Lin’s mother was proudest to bring up
was still how, back then, they had taken over their current shop space at an unbelievably low price.
And Lin Wansheng understood this principle well.
Carrying that brand-new LV handbag that had cost him absolutely nothing,
he went home in a very good mood.
“You child, wasting money again!” Sure enough, the moment Lin’s mother saw the bag in his hand, her brows furrowed.
She muttered, “What’s the point of buying this kind of thing? It’s not practical, and it’s ridiculously expensive!”
That was what she said, but her eyes betrayed her.
Even as she scolded him, her body honestly took the bag. She looked it over from left to right, then even ran to the mirror at the very back of the shop, slung the bag over her shoulder, and admired herself again and again, utterly pleased.
Lin Wansheng looked at his mother, who could barely contain her joy.
He silently returned behind the counter. With a thought, he took the [Word Spirit Fruit] out of the system inventory.
He had preset it in advance, materializing it into the form of the most ordinary apple.
Holding the apple, Lin Wansheng walked over to his mother.
“Mom, have an apple.”
Lin Wansheng looked at his mother and confirmed his decision one last time in his heart.
There really was no need for him to eat this for English anymore.
And why not give it to Father Lin?
Because he understood his father too well.
Father Lin’s creed was “the less trouble, the better.” He was someone who was extremely afraid of hassle, and also had severe social anxiety.
So even if he were given the ability to understand English,
when faced with situations where they needed to deal with the outside world,
there was a high chance he would still push his son to the front.
In the end, he would still be the human translation machine who could not get away.
But his mother was different.
She was fierce, lively, opinionated, and the true pillar of this family.
Only if she could communicate with the outside world without obstacles could this family truly break free from its dependence on him.
And only then could he truly obtain freedom.
Thinking this, he watched as his mother brought that perfect apple to her lips and took a crisp bite.
——
That very afternoon, the effect appeared.
A Black man wandered into the small supermarket by mistake. Looking at Lin’s mother,
he asked indistinctly, “You guys got some cheap vodka?” (Do you have cheap vodka here?)
Lin Wansheng wanted to see the fruit’s effect.
So he hid behind a shelf
and peeked out slightly.
He saw his mother very naturally pick up the conversation. “Cheap one? This way, sir.”
She led the Black man to a corner of the shelves, pointed at the cheapest bottle of Popov Vodka,
and said in fluent English, “Popov Vodka, 16.99. Very strong.”
Father Lin, who had been reading a newspaper off to the side, was so shocked his jaw almost hit the floor.
After the Black man paid in satisfaction and left,
Father Lin and Mother Lin stared at each other, as if both suspected that everything that had just happened was a dream.
At last, Lin’s mother pointed at herself, then at the door, and asked in a trembling voice, “Did I… did I just speak a whole string of gweilo talk?”
Father Lin stood up in excitement. “More than just spoke it! You didn’t even stutter once!”
“Really?!” Lin’s mother herself was almost dazed.
Lin Wansheng hurriedly stepped forward to smooth things over, forcing back his laughter as he said,
“Mom’s Netflix lately wasn’t watched for nothing, and all that hard work studying every night didn’t go to waste either!”
“Quantitative change finally caused qualitative change. They all say the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in the environment. Looks like it’s true.”
——
Watching Lin’s mother sling that brand-new LV handbag over her shoulder and eagerly head out to “complain” to the neighbors about her son wasting money,
Lin Wansheng smiled, then turned and went up the stairs.
Back in his room, he fished an iron box out from under his mattress and began counting all his savings from this summer.
During spring break this year, he had followed the school’s short-term campus tour group to visit several universities in and around New York.
But those were not his target. If he wanted to break free from the restraints of Chinatown, he had to go out of state.
He counted the wrinkled bills in his hand. In total, there were 1,089 dollars.
This was everything he had saved over the past two months by helping out at his family’s breakfast shop and by pretending to be a nonprofit employee to “collect donations.”
For most students, joining a college tour was to personally experience the campus atmosphere.
But for Lin Wansheng, his purpose was very simple.
This trip was meant to add an insignificant bargaining chip to his college application.
He wanted to write this experience into his application essay,
to show the admissions officer: I am not applying blindly everywhere, but truly yearn to attend your school.
Its effect might be negligible, but there was an old saying in Huaguo: Preparedness ensures success; lack of preparation spells failure.
In order to leave this place, he could not let go of even the slightest opportunity.
His target school was Northwestern University in Illinois, and that four-day tour group
was priced at 1,500 dollars. This meant that in the last two weeks before school started, he still had to find a way to earn nearly 400 dollars to make up the difference.
Thinking of this, he could not help but feel a headache coming on. And just then, the system interface unfolded in his mind without warning.
[The Road of Enlightenment has now begun.]
[A young child must not go unlearned; only jade that is carved can become a vessel. You are now ten years old, already past the age of first instruction. You should enter the elementary school in this place, enlighten your mind through letters, and thus not fail your youth, beginning a new life.]
[First Task: Seek out an elementary teacher and earnestly request their recommendation, so as to obtain a path to enrollment.]
[Should this path be completed, the Heavenly Craft Treasure Pavilion shall open for you.]
Lin Wansheng looked at this string of new mission prompts and, for a moment, did not even know where to begin ridiculing it.
It wanted him, a student about to become a Senior,
to find an elementary school teacher, then figure out a way… to attend elementary school?
This system had indeed arrived over a hundred years late; even its brain had short-circuited.
But then, with a second thought… huh, wait.
Elementary school teacher?
A flash of inspiration struck his mind.
Wasn’t Auntie Li, who ran the calligraphy class next door, a teacher at Chinatown’s Rong Hong Elementary School?
An absurd thought emerged.
Why not go to her and exploit a loophole, to see whether this broken system would recognize it?
Although he did not know what the final reward for this series of missions was, he had personally witnessed the immediate effect of the “Word Spirit Fruit.”
Since it was a mission chain, by normal game logic, the rewards would only be more generous.
Moreover, it would be even better if he could land a job.
That way, he would not violate his father’s order that he was not allowed to leave Chinatown during summer break,
and he could also earn a bit of money.
Thinking this, he could no longer sit still.
No sooner said than done!
Lin Wansheng quickly tidied up a little, then immediately ran downstairs, heading straight for the calligraphy shop next door with the plaque “Jingxin Studio” hanging above it.
This was a place that terrified the vast majority of Chinatown children at the mere mention of its name.
Every weekend, they had to be escorted here by their parents to learn those square characters they found dull and incomprehensible.
Just as he rushed to the entrance of his own shop, he heard Auntie Li’s full, forceful scolding voice coming from the neighboring “Jingxin Studio,” mixed with the sobs of a child.
Lin Wansheng slowed his steps and quietly moved up to the glass door of “Jingxin Studio.”
Through the window lattice on the door, he saw a girl in a white dress crouching down, gently helping the crying little boy wipe the ink stains from his hands.
As for quantitative change causing qualitative change,
let me explain…
This comes from my own real experience.
Before, I almost completely could not understand English.
In middle school, because of modern history, I stopped studying English class entirely.
Later, because of certain reasons, I was forced to learn English.
So I began listening to broadcasts nonstop, twenty-four hours a day.
I did not try to understand them. I simply treated them as background music.
Then suddenly, one day, I could understand…
I still remember now that it was a rainy day, and I was sitting in a taxi.
The broadcast was talking about Brexit.
I recommend everyone use this method. It really is very useful.