Doing It Over Again [Rebirth]

11: Memento

When Shen Shao inquired about Furong No. 3 Senior High a while ago, he learned that the school only offered one hundred places to external students, but there would be thousands of applicants. The students who came to sign up for the admission test usually had excellent grades, otherwise they wouldn't even be able to register.

It was like picking a marshal from a group of generals. Shen Shao was mentally prepared, but when he saw the entrance to the school swarming with an army of students who were there to take the exam, he still lamented a little. Here were thousands of troops, all trying to cross a single-plank wooden bridge.

The test consisted of three subject exams over two days. The first exam was English, which was difficult enough to sink a lot of students in the sand. Shen Shao looked at the complicated vocabulary in the reading questions and sighed to himself. How was this a high school admission test? It was more like a battery of fiendishly difficult English problems. Native English-speaking students might take this exam and not even get a high score.

After finishing the English test, a lot of the examinees' faces were a desperate gray color. During the physics exam in the afternoon, Shen Shao looked at the test questions which were comparable to the International Physics League and gained a new understanding of the perverse level of test questions for the No. 3 High School. The poor student next to him was pale with anxiety.

After the physics test, the examinees, who were originally so confident, were shaken to the core. As they left the exam room their voices were weak.

Shen Shao thanked heaven for giving him a good brain. He couldn't guarantee that all his answers were right, but at least he was able to finish all of the questions.

The next morning, Shen Shao took the last exam for mathematics. It was yet another extremely difficult test, which far exceeded the normal knowledge level of junior high school graduates.

When the exam ended, some people were happy and some were sad. Shen Shao checked out of his hotel and took a bus to the Taoxiang District of Furong City. Although the Taoxiang District was part of Furong City, its economy wasn't well-developed. A lot of people who worked in other parts of the city weren't optimistic about the economic prospects of the area.

For example, there was a large bungalow with a yard, but no one wanted to buy it even at an asking price of thirty thousand yuan. Houses with asphalt shingle roofs cost even less. Unfortunately, no one wanted to buy a house in this kind of place.

Shen Shao saw a lot of announcements about houses for sale, and the prices were unbelievably low. If you showed these ads to people a few years later, they'd jump to buy ten or eight buildings immediately. Even if they didn't do anything with the houses, the land alone would be worth a lot of money.

Shen Shao decided that buying a few of these houses would be a good memento of how low housing prices were in Taoxiang District at the moment, before it developed. If he didn't take advantage of the opportunity he'd feel unworthy of himself.

Shen Shao stayed in Taoxiang District for a few days and looked at several houses. In the end, he spent a total of 110,000 yuan on five large bungalows with yards. Although they didn't have many other advantages, they were sited on big lots and the asking price was low.

At the moment, real estate documents weren't as complicated to deal with as they would be in the future, so Shen Shao quickly completed all the paperwork. When he was done, he was clearly recorded as the owner of the houses. If the properties were eventually demolished and relocated, it would have nothing to do with the previous owners.

After finishing up his affairs in Taoxiang District, Shen Shao went to the No. 3 High School to see the results of the exam. He found that the results had been posted a few days ago.