Chapter 4 — After taking the university entrance exam, I transferred my household registration to my adoptive mother's house

On the other end of the line, Ms. Chu was silent for a moment then asked further:

“When will test scores be available?”

“Just a few more days.”

"How did you do the test? Have you calculated it in your heart?"

“A little bit.”

“That's good.”

She stopped for a moment.

“Do your best.”

I hung up the phone, changed into clean clothes and went out. At the police station, Ms. Chu gave me a new household registration card. I bowed my head and looked at the information above. Head of household: Trieu Que Lan. Relationship: Adopted child. Address: No. 28 Bac Quan Street, Lieu Ha Town, Nghi Thanh District. My name is still Lam Chu. But the household address has changed. From Lam Kien Quoc's three-room apartment... Transformed into Trieu Que Lan's old house with a flat roof. From the inner city... Moved to a small district town. Female police officer Chu watched me put away my household registration card and casually asked:

“Do your biological parents still not know?”

“Yes, don't know yet.”

“Wait until they come back and find out, maybe they will come and make a fuss.”

“That's their problem.”

Ms. Chu looked at me for a few seconds, then finally nodded.

"Okay. You know what you're doing."

I walked out of the police station, stood right in front of the door and called Trieu's mother.

“Mom, it's done.”

The other end of the line was silent for a few seconds. Then there was a long, trembling deep breath. Next came a choked voice mixed with laughter:

“Okay… okay… my daughter is home…”

I said nothing. His fingers tightened the thin household registration card in his hand, so tightly that his fingertips turned white.

"Mom, wait until the test scores come out, I'll go home."

“You can get as many points as you want, I don't care.”

“But I care.”

I'm interested. Because I know how much I can pass. The day I finished comparing the answers, math 148, natural combinatorics 289, literature 127, English 143. Total score 707. I looked up the benchmark scores from previous years. The natural valedictorian in the whole province usually fluctuates between 700 and 710. At least it is in the top 3 in the whole province. With a little more luck… Maybe first place. I've never said this to anyone. Trieu's mother didn't know. The biological parents don't even know. No one knows. In their perception, I was just a "pretty good student". The sentence Tien Le Hoa likes to say the most is:

“Chu Chu studies very well, top ten in the entire grade.”

Top ten in the entire block. She didn't even know I was first in class. Not once. But continuously for three years. She never saw my transcript. Nor have I ever attended any parent teacher meetings. Every parent meeting, I sign it myself. Imitate her signature. I imitated it for three years, to the point that her handwriting was more similar than her own writing. One time, homeroom teacher Ly really couldn't stand it anymore so she called my mother. Tien Le Hoa said on the phone like this:

"Oh teacher, I'm so shy, I'm so busy these days. Chu Chu is a very self-aware child, there's no need to worry. Please pay more attention to her."

After hanging up the phone, Ms. Ly looked at me, her lips trembling for a long time, unable to say anything. Maybe she wanted to scold people. But her status as a teacher makes her uncomfortable. So I translated the monologue in her heart for her:

“No need to worry?”

"Your daughter is number one in the whole grade and you don't even know it, there's really no need to worry."

It's all over. Now the household registration has been transferred. Test scores are also coming soon. Just wait. Waiting for the big drama to begin. June 23. Test score announcement date. I checked the score at 0:01. The moment the website displayed the results, I saw three lines of information: Total score: 709. Provincial ranking: 1st place. Admission: Aspiration for the first round. Two points higher than my estimate. Literature gets two extra points, so the essay will probably be graded a bit more generously. First place in the entire province. Valedictorian of the natural division. I stared at the screen for a long time. Don't cry. Don't laugh. Also don't jump up in excitement. I saved the screenshot and sent it to Trieu's mother. Trieu's mother immediately sent back a voice clip that was one minute and three seconds long. I click open. The first thirty seconds were all crying. In the middle, they also called out "Chu Chu".