情 醉 潇 湘 梦‍（13）‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍—— 欧阳辉纯‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍Intoxicated by ‍the Dream of Hunan‍‍‍‍‍‍

躍龍

龙国祯是幸运的，他是他们整个石溪镇中学当年八百名初三毕业生考入石溪四中仅有的三名同学中的一名。毫无疑问，这在石溪镇是一个了不起的新闻。在家人中，最高兴的就是奶奶。奶奶常常把孙子这次成功，当成口头禅，“我龙仔是有出息的，考这么好的学校，将来是要当大官的。” 但是，事与愿违的是，最不高兴的却是他的父亲。在父亲的心里盘算的，是希望儿子考上中专。中专是包分配的，而且起码可以提前参加工作，这样可以让龙国祯更多地帮助弟弟妹妹。但是，可惜龙国祯没有考上中专，只差一分。

Long Guozhen was lucky. He was one of only three students in the entire Shixi Town Middle School who were admitted to Shixi No. 4 Middle School out of the 800 junior high school graduates that year. There is no doubt that this is a great news in Shixi Town. Among the family members, the happiest one is the grandmother. The grandmother often regards her grandson's success as a catchphrase, "My Longzi has a promising future. He will be a high-ranking official in the future after being admitted to such a good school." However, contrary to expectations, the most unhappy person is his father. In his father's mind, he hopes that his son will be admitted to a technical secondary school. Technical secondary schools are guaranteed to be assigned jobs, and at least they can start working in advance, so that Long Guozhen can help his younger brothers and sisters more. But, unfortunately, Long Guozhen did not get admitted to the technical secondary school, just one point short.

按理说，龙国祯是可以考上的，因为自读小学五年级以来，他的成绩都是全校最好的。小升初的时候，他的座位安排在最后一排，最后一排又是太阳暴晒的地方，结果他被晒得头昏脑胀，镇里的重点初中没考上，只是考了一个一般的初中。但还是当时全校第三名，全班第一名的成绩考入的。所以一进初中，他就被班主任选定为班长。一直到初三，他都是班长。按这样的优势，他被评为市优秀班干部肯定不成问题的，但是，因为自己的父亲是农民，他自己那时候也不懂事，结果，他的市优秀班干部荣誉称号，给了校工会主席的儿子，也是他的同班好友，一个从来没有担任过班干部和团干部的同学。

Logically speaking, Long Guozhen could have passed the exam, because his grades had always been the best in the school since he was in the fifth grade of primary school. When he was promoted from primary school to junior high school, his seat was arranged in the last row, which was exposed to the sun. As a result, he was dizzy from the sun and failed to pass the key junior high school in the town, but only passed the exam for an ordinary junior high school. However, he was still ranked third in the school and first in the class at that time. So as soon as he entered junior high school, he was selected by the head teacher as the class monitor. He was the class monitor until the third year of junior high school. With such advantages, it would be no problem for him to be rated as an outstanding class cadre in the city. However, because his father was a farmer and he himself was not sensible at that time, his honorary title of outstanding class cadre in the city was given to the son of the chairman of the school union, who was also his classmate and a good friend, a classmate who had never served as a class cadre or a league cadre.

为此，看重他的班主任还在学校的评选内部会议上发了一顿脾气，但是，终究是势单力薄，无济于事，这事也就这样风平浪静了很多年，直到后来龙国祯参加工作回初中母校和老师们聚会时，老师们酒后吐真言，说出来的，不然龙国祯一直都被蒙在鼓里。如果市优秀班干部给了他，他中考可以另加十分。加上这十分的成绩，龙国祯考上石溪师范学校是有绝对的把握。如果是这样，他父亲也就会对他另眼相看了。

For this reason, the head teacher who valued him even lost his temper at the school's internal selection meeting, but in the end, he was powerless and could not do anything. The matter remained calm for many years until Long Guozhen went back to his junior high school to work and had a party with his teachers. The teachers spoke the truth after drinking, otherwise Long Guozhen had been kept in the dark. If the city's outstanding class cadres gave him, he could get an extra ten points in the high school entrance examination. With this ten points, Long Guozhen is absolutely sure to be admitted to Shixi Normal School. If so, his father will look at him differently.

中专没考上，他在父亲的眼里，是儿子自己水平的问题。为这事，他没少挨父亲骂。“平时说的那么牛，说是全校前十名的优等生，怎么连个中专都没考上？”父亲常常这样奚落自己的儿子。不管黑猫白猫，逮住老鼠就是好猫。平时成绩再好，考试的时候考不上，都是胡扯。”父亲不仅这样奚落他，逢人在闲聊时也这样说。这让龙国祯有时候很没有面子。但是，确实这次是没有考好，所以他下决心要考个好的大学。“人不能两次踏进同一条河流。”他记住了赫拉克利特的这句名言，并且活学活用。

In his father's eyes, his failure to pass the technical secondary school entrance examination was due to his own level of ability. He was often scolded by his father for this. "You are so great in daily life, and you are said to be one of the top ten students in the school. How come you can't even pass the technical secondary school entrance examination?" His father often ridiculed his son like this. It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat. No matter how good your grades are in daily life, if you can't pass the exam, it's all nonsense." Not only did his father ridicule him like this, but he also said this to others in casual conversation. This sometimes made Long Guozhen very embarrassed. However, it was true that he did not do well in the exam this time, so he was determined to get into a good university. "You cannot step into the same river twice." He remembered this famous saying of Heraclitus and put it into practice.

不过，他中专以一分之差名落孙山，也不仅仅是他的原因和学校的原因，他父亲也是有原因的。按照教育局规定，凡是参加中专考试的初三毕业生，不能在本镇学校参加考试，需要到石溪市里参加统一考试。这就预示了，龙国祯需要乘车两小时到市里去考试。考试三天，但是至少得准备四天的住宿费和生活费，因为当天八点考试，当天赶到市里参加考试是不可能的。四天的时间，需要两百元的住宿费和生活费，由带队老师统一收取。可是，龙国祯的父亲仅仅把两百元交给了老师，而自己的儿子身上没多给一分钱，因为他怕把钱放在儿子身上不安全，全部由带队老师保管。

However, the fact that he failed to get into technical secondary school by one point was not only his fault and the school's fault, but also his father's. According to the regulations of the Education Bureau, all junior high school graduates who take the technical secondary school entrance examination cannot take the examination in the school of the town, but need to take the unified examination in Shixi City. This means that Long Guozhen needs to take a two-hour bus ride to the city to take the examination. The examination lasts for three days, but at least four days of accommodation and living expenses must be prepared, because the examination will be at 8 o'clock that day, and it is impossible to rush to the city to take the examination on the same day. For four days, two hundred yuan of accommodation and living expenses are required, which will be collected by the leading teacher. However, Long Guozhen's father only gave two hundred yuan to the teacher, and did not give his son a penny more, because he was afraid that it was not safe to leave the money on his son, and all of it was kept by the leading teacher.

这样的话万一出现什么差错，龙国祯就很麻烦。何况石溪市里也是龙国祯第一次去，十分陌生。遗憾的是，第一天考语文的时候，龙国祯就在早上吃了米粉之后，掉了队。老师同学上车了，带队的老师也忘了清点人数，赶到考场，发现龙国祯掉队了。老师急，龙国祯更急。因为他尽管头天去看了考场，但还是没搞清楚从哪里上车去考场。城里的路千万条，他开始不知道走哪条。

If something went wrong, Long Guozhen would be in trouble. Besides, it was Long Guozhen's first time to Shixi City, and he was very unfamiliar with it. Unfortunately, on the first day of the Chinese language test, Long Guozhen fell behind after eating rice noodles in the morning. The teachers and students got on the bus, and the teacher in charge forgot to count the number of people. When he arrived at the examination room, he found that Long Guozhen had fallen behind. The teacher was anxious, and Long Guozhen was even more anxious. Because even though he had visited the examination room the day before, he still didn't know where to get on the bus to the examination room. There are thousands of roads in the city, and he didn't know which one to take.