Chapter 25: The Split Between Arts and Sciences

Chapter 25: Choosing Streams

This was only the first step. The second was to prove to them that he had no intention of immigrating.

Thus, he had to present his school enrollment certificate, family records, and photos taken with his family to show that he was living a good life in his home country, had a large family, and had no intention of staying in the United States permanently.

Consequently, he obtained his visa without a hitch and began mapping out his route, exchanging currency for US dollars, and booking train and plane tickets.

To be honest, his parents still felt uneasy, but over the past three or four years, Li Jingkun’s conduct had consistently surpassed that of an average teenager, giving them a sense of reassurance. That was why they allowed him to make the decisions regarding his younger siblings' schooling, and why they were eventually persuaded to let him travel abroad alone. Furthermore, in their minds, the United States was a prosperous nation and should be quite safe.

In truth, for the Chinese people, the safest place remains their own country. In the United States, aside from a few bustling metropolises, it is best not to go out after eight or nine in the evening in most other areas. However, as Li Jingkun was only visiting major cities where public safety was relatively better, there was no need for excessive worry.

A few days after the summer vacation began, Li Jingkun took a bus to Guangzhou, and from there, flew to the United States. His plan for this trip was to visit Los Angeles and New York, spending fifteen days in each city. If he had time and money left over, he would consider whether to explore other places.

Taxi fares from airports in the United States are very expensive. The hotel Li Jingkun had booked was not too far from the airport, yet the ride still cost over a hundred dollars. There was no helping it, however; taxis in Los Angeles are notoriously difficult to hail and must be booked in advance. Plus, since he didn't have a driver’s license, he couldn't rent a car for a road trip. It was precisely for this reason that he only planned to visit Los Angeles and New York—without the ability to drive himself, he would miss out on many other locations. In the United States, driving yourself is undoubtedly much more cost-effective.

Upon arriving at his hotel, he bought a SIM card and called his family to report his safe arrival. He decided to rest at the hotel for the day and set out the next morning. It had been many years since he had traveled, and suddenly venturing so far away filled him with a sense of excitement.

Human nature is a curious thing; whenever he reached such moments, his proactive mindset would kick in. Coupled with the thought of how much money this trip was costing, he ordered some food to his room, opened his laptop, and began to write his novel. His second novel, titled "The Phantom River Map of Qingming," totaled 300,000 words and would be published in two volumes. He was nearly finished with it. Even once completed, he wouldn't release the standalone book immediately; it would first need to be serialized in "Young Sprouts" for a period before moving to publication.

...

The month-long trip to the United States came to an end quickly.

A month later, Li Jingkun returned to his hometown with hundreds of photos, a suitcase full of souvenirs and gifts, several tens of thousands of words of new novel chapters, and over twenty thousand words of travelogues.

He spent three or four days at home, resting while organizing his photos. Ideally, one should select photos on the same day they are taken, but each night he felt too exhausted to look at them. Besides, he felt he had plenty of time to curate them later, and he preferred to dedicate his evenings to his writing and studies.

In reality, selecting photos is a grueling task. Sometimes every shot seems perfect, while other times, not a single one looks good. Occasionally, a scene from the day would flash in his mind, and he would lament missing a particular shot. After three days of sporadic work, he managed to select around twenty photos he was satisfied with. After five or six more days of simple editing, he uploaded them in batches to his Qzone and blog.

This immediately ignited his social media space. For the next few days, he was flooded with all sorts of comments from his elementary, middle, and high school classmates. Some asked which country he had traveled to, some asked who the two white women in bikinis in his photos were, others asked why he was singing on the street, and some demanded to know why he hadn't taken them along.

"So envious, I want to go too!" commented Zhou Jiani.

"The photos are beautiful, your life is so exciting," commented Xie Wenmin.

"That's the Empire State Building! I've been there," commented Wang Yajing.

"Look at you, rich kid. Your big brother here is barely scraping by, and you’re out traveling the world," wrote Liao Bingli, his close friend since childhood.

"Cool, you look sharp. 'Flash Band'—that name sounds a lot like ours," commented Gao Shun.

"Wonderful. I believe this must be an unforgettable journey!" came the official-sounding comment from his tenth-grade English teacher, Ms. Zhou Erlan.

The members of the Aurora Band also saw the photos of him singing with a street band in Los Angeles. The group chat was filled with their excitement as they bombarded him with questions. Li Jingkun told them it was a young band still chasing their dreams, and that he had even gone to a bar with them for an audition. He added that it was a pity he was too young to get into the bar; otherwise, he would have stayed a couple more days to watch them perform.

Li Jingkun’s blog, however, had little traffic because it wasn't verified. At that time, verified accounts could earn money, but he lacked the fame for anyone to take notice, so he couldn't be bothered to set it up. He simply posted the photos and left them be.

His only blog friend was Hu Yunying, and he rarely posted anything. Posting so many pictures at once made people think he had copied them from somewhere on the internet, especially since most were landscapes. He did get a few views, but they were mostly from spammers. Only Hu Yunying left a comment saying his photos were good, and that was it.

Furthermore, his blog name was still that old screen name: "Pretty Girl Chase Me Ten Streets."

...

During the final half-month of summer vacation, Li Jingkun began looking for an apartment in Liuchuan City while helping his younger siblings choose a school.

He already had two or three prospective schools in mind and was now digging deeper, checking tuition fees, locations, faculty quality, and past academic performance. Later, he took his parents and his siblings to visit the schools to see the conditions for themselves.

In truth, convincing his parents to let his siblings study in Liuchuan City had met with resistance. In their budget, the two younger sisters didn't need such a high-quality education, and they simply didn't have the money. However, Li Jingkun used both his savings and his powers of persuasion to win them over, promising that he would cover all their tuition and living expenses, and that whether they performed well or poorly, they were required to finish high school. Of course, he added that if they wanted to attend university, he would continue to cover all their costs.

By the end of August, Li Jingkun and his siblings moved into a three-bedroom apartment, ready for the start of the semester. In early September, his siblings began their new school and a new life.

On the first day of school, Li Jingkun walked into the classroom as well. Tenth grade was when students were divided into liberal arts and science streams. He had chosen biology, but like everyone else, he didn't know which class he would be assigned to. He had to go from classroom to classroom to look for his name, as every class had a name list posted on the front door. If your name was on it, that was your assigned class.

He started searching on the first floor, where he ran into Wang Honglang, who told him the biology classes seemed to be on the second floor and suggested he go check there.