Chapter 18 — The Child You Never Knew

On test day, cars were parked at the school gate. The children who came for the test were all dressed neatly, and some parents even hired professional interview instructors to rehearse in advance. Khuong Niem wore a clean white shirt, her hair tied in a ponytail. Tieu Chau wore a new jacket her mother bought online the other day, the zipper was pulled up to her neck. Registration requires a queue. As Khuong Niem filled out the form, a mother wearing a mink coat stood next to her, craning her neck to look at the information she had written, her facial expression magically changing.

“Are you Khuong Niem?” The mother examined her from top to bottom, "Is that the one on the variety show?"

Khuong Niem continued to fill out the form. "Yes."

"How is your child's performance? Khai Minh's entrance test is very difficult, the passing rate last time was only 12%."

“It's time to figure it out.”

The corners of the mink coat mother's mouth drooped down, turning to whisper loudly to another parent. Khuong Niem heard a few fragments: *"It's the person who was murdered"*, *"I heard he had a relationship with Pho Tu Nien"*, *"Relying on you to whiten him"*. Tieu Chau also heard it. The boy pulled Khuong Niem's sleeve and said in a low voice: "Mom, that girl is talking bad about you."

"Ignore her. Concentrate on your homework."

“If what she said is wrong, can you correct me?”

"No need. After the exam, she will automatically shut her mouth."

Tieu Chau thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes." The test is divided into three parts: Logical thinking, language expression and synthesis qualities. Parents wait in the waiting area, children enter the exam room. Khuong Niem sat on a plastic chair in the waiting area, surrounded by more than 30 parents, some anxiously walking back and forth, others huddled in groups of three to exchange information about extra classes. No one took the initiative to talk to Khuong Niem. She sat in the corner of the room, holding a bottle of mineral water, waiting quietly. An hour later, the supervisor came out to call the parents.

"Dear parents, the test has ended. The results will be announced after three working days. But there is a candidate with a rather special situation, we want to discuss directly with parents."

The supervisor looked at the crowd in the waiting area, his eyes swept around, then stopped on Khuong Niem.

"May I ask who are Khuong Du Chau's parents?"

More than thirty parents' eyes simultaneously turned to that direction. Khuong Niem stood up. "It's me."

“Please follow me.”

She followed the supervisor into the principal's office. Tieu Chau was already sitting inside, her legs swayed twice and then stopped. She looked up to see her mother entering, her expression relaxed a bit. The principal is a man in his fifties, wearing gold-framed glasses. Tieu Chau's exam papers are placed on the table.

“Miss Khuong, please sit down.” The principal's attitude was polite, but carried a hard-to-conceal surprise, "Let me tell you the results first. Your son got a perfect score in the logical thinking section."

Khuong Niem nodded, not surprised at all.

"The verbal expression section scored 97 points, but 3 points were deducted because when answering an open-ended question, the child refused to answer according to the standard format and gave his own answer. The exam teacher argued and finally decided to deduct points but still keep the notes."

“Is my child's answer incorrect?”

"True. Very true. But it doesn't fit with my usual way of thinking a five-year-old child, the exam teacher suspected it was because he had learned it by heart before." The principal turned another page, "The general qualifications part was the interview, the judge's assessment was 'thinking far beyond peers, normal to high social skills, unusually mature ability to control emotions'."

The principal took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Frankly speaking, I have been a principal for 21 years, this is the first time I have seen test results like this appear in a five-year-old child. I want to ask, has your child ever received any special education training before?

“Never.” Khuong Niem said, “The boy stays at home reading books and studying by himself. I bought my child a few exercise books about math and logic, the difficulty level is about middle elementary level. He did it very quickly, so I kept buying more difficult books.”

The principal looked at Tieu Chau. Tieu Chau was looking at the globe on the table, her finger slowly stroking along the equator.

“Miss Khuong, our school has a Genius Class project.” The principal lowered his voice, “It's a collaboration with the International Genius Education Alliance. The quota is very small, only accepting three to five children each year. I would like to nominate your child to participate in the interview for this project.”

Khuong Niem glanced at Tieu Chau. Tieu Chau withdrew her gaze from the globe, looked at her mother, and said nothing. The boy was waiting for her to make a decision.

“What about the cost?”

“Tuition for the Genius Class is paid by the Union fund, parents do not need to pay tuition. But there is one condition.” The principal hesitated, “The Union interview must be conducted in the capital, lasting three full days. You need to take the baby there.”

Capital. Three days. Travel tickets and accommodation are not small expenses.

“I will think more.” Khuong Niem said.

“Okay. The deadline to register for an interview is the 15th of next month.”