When I saw Daning again, he was studying hard in the dorm room. He was concentrating hard on the textbook in his hands and looked like a truly studious student. Nobody would have imagined that this boy was actually someone who had failed more than 20 classes thus far.

I walked over and was still thinking about how I should ask him for help when Daning asked me for help first. “Muyun, you’re back! Come over and see if you can help me with this question!”

One who had failed 20 odd classes was asking one who had failed 30 odd classes for help – that alone was completely ridiculous. Daning quickly realized that asking me for help was as good as asking a hamster for help, so he kept the book away before I could even bend over to take a look. “Oh, forget it. I’ll try to find the solution myself.”

That made me feel really awkward, but I could only silently encourage him from the sidelines.

Even though it all seemed really pointless, Daning’s determination was truly admirable. It wasn’t just how hard he was working towards graduation despite failing more than 20 classes. He had been staring at this particular question for an hour now but he still hadn’t given up.

Just when I was filled with great admiration for him, Daning suddenly slammed the table and gave a shout.

My first thought was that Daning had suddenly made a breakthrough and had found the answer to this difficult question. I walked towards him to congratulate him as well as talk to him about creating my fake murder scene, but he completely ignored my presence. Instead, he sighed heavily and spat, “This question is too damned difficult! If only there was someone here who could break it down for me!”

Immediately after Daning expressed his frustration, that ‘someone’ appeared at the door. The RA walked in with a big grin on his face as he said, “What’s wrong, Daning? Have you run into another difficult question?”

Daning looked at the RA as if he had just spotted his savior. He instantly brightened up and was just short of kneeling and bowing down before the RA. “You’re here! Teach me how to do this question!”

The RA didn’t seem willing to display superpowers in problem solving. He said emotionlessly, “Let’s not talk about the question now.”

That confused Daning. A member of the Study Council who didn’t help fellow students with schoolwork was like the Goddess of Mercy leaving someone in the lurch to die. Daning asked anxiously, “Why?”

The RA’s reply sounded emotionless but his words were filled with disdain, “I could teach you question one, and you’d ask me about question two. Then when you figure out question two, you’d realize that you don’t know how to do question three either. How am I supposed to finish teaching you at this rate?”

This reply hit the nail so hard on the head that Daning didn’t know how to respond at all.

The RA paused for a moment before asking in a concerned voice, “Daning, have you ever thought about why this is the case?”

I immediately raised my hand to answer first. “Of course it’s because he’s stupid!”

The RA glared at me, then tried to phrase it in a nicer way, “Of course IQ plays a part, but the biggest problem is that your foundation in this subject is too poor!”

Daning was able to look at things objectively and agreed with a clap. “You’re right! As the saying goes, ice takes more than a day to freeze into a three foot deep block. Such a short time isn’t enough for me to catch up with four years of schoolwork!”

The RA laughed slyly and suddenly looked like he had come with good news. “You’re in luck! I’m actually here with good news!”

Knowing this RA, good news to him wasn’t necessarily good news to anybody else. But Daning ignored that and asked excitedly, “What’s the good news?”

The RA replied, “The school feels that it is only right for them to try and help the students who have fallen behind, so they’re going to organize remedial classes for students who wish to retake the exams. That way, any delinquent student who wishes to get serious about his studies can take the chance to catch up with all the classes they had failed and graduate on time with everybody else.”

By the time the RA finished his announcement, Daning was already crying tears of joy as he clapped and cheered with gratitude in his heart towards the school.

The RA held his hand up to stop Daning from giving an emotional speech and moved on to the more important part. “Which classes do you want to sign up for?”

Daning was very excited as he yelled, “I’ll sign up for every class I’ve failed! Every class!”

“You’ve failed more than 20 classes. You’re going to sign up for ALL of them?” the RA checked again with Daning.

Daning nodded vigorously. “Since the school has actually given me such a chance, I’ve got to take it!”

The RA seemed like he was really touched by Daning’s sincere efforts to get serious about his studies and encouraged him, “Excellent! Excellent! I really hope you can rise from the ashes and graduate on time!” After he said that, he threw a piece of paper at Daning and said, “Don’t forget to pass the money to the Accounts Department before next Monday.”

“Money? What money?”

“If you want to sign up for the remedial classes, you’ve got to pay the fees for those classes!”

Daning looked carefully at the piece of paper in his hands to see that it was a bill for more than $6,000. His eyes widened in shock. “So much?!”

The RA didn’t bat an eyelid. “You do know that you’ve failed a lot of classes, right?”

“20 classes cost more than six grand? That’s $300 a class!”

The RA felt bad when it came to the fees, so he quickly tried to explain the amount away, “This isn’t some random arbitrary number. Everything is calculated based on how many credits each class is worth. They’re charging $50 for every credit.”

After saying that, the RA could see that Daning was still not convinced, so he decided to reprimand Daning into feeling guilty instead, “Knowledge is a highly revered commodity and YOU are the one who chose not to take learning seriously! How dare you complain about the price! So, you’ve got money to spend on video games but you don’t have money for remedial classes? TSK!”

But going online didn’t cost this much. Even playing games overnight at the internet café only cost us $5. These classes were going to cost $6,000. That was enough to pay for a few years at the internet café.

Of course, Daning could only grumble inwardly and didn’t dare to say it out loud.

The RA felt relieved when he saw that Daning wasn’t going to argue with him anymore. Since there was money to be made, he decided to extend this kindness to me as well. He turned to me and said, “Muyun, look at how much Daning’s attitude has improved! Are you seriously going to continue wasting your life like this? Why don’t you sign up for the remedial classes too?”

I laughed mirthlessly. “Are you kidding? Mr. Chen barred me from the exam, so why should I bother with remedial classes? That’s as good as throwing money away.”

The RA realized that I was right and began to blame Mr. Chen inwardly for being so rash. How could he just bar a student from taking the final exam? And because of that, the remedial class fees for 30 odd classes had vanished into thin air just like that. That could have earned the school a good eight or nine grand.

Thinking about the money made the RA feel a little indignant about giving up on persuading me, so he tried to convince me again, “Mr. Chen said that because he was in a foul mood that day, you don’t have to take his words seriously. Why don’t you sign up and pay for the remedial classes first? Once you miss this chance, you might not get the chance again.”

I said, “Oh please. We’re talking about 9,000 bucks here, you know? And even if I somehow get lucky and pass all the 30 odd classes I previously failed, but fail the one class that Mr. Chen has barred me from, I still won’t be able to graduate.”

The RA started getting desperate. He patted his chest to promise me, “Don’t worry, I’m very sure Mr. Chen won’t actually bar you from the exam. As an educational institution, the school is obligated to help even students who are behind. How can they allow one teacher’s personal agenda to stand in the way of their obligations?”

Since he seemed so sincere in persuading me, I decided to be honest with him. “I’ll tell you the truth. I don’t want the school to help me. If I had so much money, I’d rather buy myself a computer with high specifications than to throw it away on remedial classes.”

The RA was taken aback for two seconds, then he lost his temper. “You’re seriously like a rotten piece of wood that cannot be made into anything else! Daning skipped classes and failed them too, but look at him now! He’s willing to study hard and wants to sign up for every class he can! It’s not always about the money! Your thirst for knowledge and desire for improvement is more important…”

Before the RA could finish his speech, Daning started bailing out as well. “Er…I think I won’t sign up for the remedial classes for now. I really can’t afford these extra fees!”

The RA was so furious that his face turned deathly pale. He shouted angrily, “Are you going to waste your life away too?!”

Daning was terrified and quickly explained his stance to the RA, “No, no! I might not be going for the remedial classes, but I’ll definitely try my best when it’s time to take the exam!”

The RA finally gave up trying to talk to us nicely. “I suppose neither of you know the policies of this school, so let me explain them to you right now. The school has stated very clearly that only those who have attended the remedial classes are eligible to retake the exam for that particular class. In short, if you want to retake any exam, you’ve got to pay for the corresponding remedial class. Otherwise, you can forget about it!”

With that, he scoffed loudly and spun around dramatically to march out of the room.

Immediately after he left, Daning suddenly let out a loud wail. He slumped onto the floor next to our bunk with a depressed look on his face as he murmured to himself, “I need to pay the school $6,000 before I am eligible to retake the exam? Isn’t that pushing me into a dead end?”

I quickly seized the chance to continue this conversation, “The school is really too harsh on its students. This is as good as telling us to die. But you know, even if we have to die, we’ve got to drag someone else down too.”

But Daning was only concerned with himself and didn’t care about dragging someone else down with him. He slowly got up to his feet, walked towards the window in a daze and looked up at the sky. Several minutes passed before he finally sighed and said, “The sky is so vast and the earth seems boundless. Why isn’t there a place for me in this world?!”

These words sounded like he was uttering his last words. Could it be that we were thinking the same thing? Did he also intend to jump out of this window?

There was no time for me to think. I quickly ran over to stop him from taking that leap. “Daning, don’t jump from here! If you really want to, I’ll bring you to another spot where you could even drag a teacher down with you so your soul can rest in peace.”

Daning only heard the front and missed the rest. He widened his eyes and asked me, “Jump? Wait, did you think I was trying to commit suicide?”

Since he refused to admit to this thought even after I had already read his mind, I decided to go straight to the point, “Didn’t you say there isn’t any place for you in the world even though the world’s so huge?”

Daning nodded gravely. “It’s true that there’s no place for me, but…” The depressed look on his face suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a look of hope as he said, “As the old saying goes, the sky is high enough for every bird to fly freely and the sea is wide enough for every fish to swim joyfully. As long as I’m willing to work hard, I’m sure I’ll be able to create a space of my own in this world!”

I said, “You can’t even afford the remedial class fees! How are you going to work hard?”

Daning said, “Actually, there’s a way to solve this problem.”

I asked curiously, “You have a way to get your hands on so much money?”

He nodded. “It’s just that…my method’s a little special.”

I was even more curious now. “Tell me about it.”

He shared his idea with me proudly, “It involves playing video games at the internet café every single day.”

This utterly confused me. “So, the more remedial classes you need, the more addicted you become to video games? Are you trying to fight fire with fire?!”

He quickly set the record straight, “I’m thinking of playing games to get in-game equipment that I could sell for actual cash. You could see it as doing a part time job.”

After Daning was done making this idea sound more noble than it really was, he went on to include me in his plan to greatness. He patted my shoulder and said earnestly, “Muyun, you’re better at playing games than I am, and you even run a successful gaming channel. It’s not going to be too hard for you to accumulate the amount of money you need for remedial classes.”

I cut him off right there. “Are you trying to convince me to take those classes?”

He nodded and used himself as an example. “You heard how the RA complimented me for having a good attitude earlier. How could someone with such an excellent attitude like myself fail to influence you into becoming a better person too?”