Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

Ever since Grandpa posted the family precepts in the main room that day, the atmosphere of the entire old house has changed.

Lin Ying no longer needed to worry about anything else. Every morning at 7:30, just as dawn was breaking, Li Yuzhen would place a bowl of red date and longan porridge at the door of the east wing, gently knock on the door twice, and not say a word.

Lin Ying got up, washed her face, drank porridge, sat down, and started reading a book.

She had already gone through all the third-grade material three times. What she was holding now was the fourth-grade first-semester textbook that Lin Lanying had asked someone to buy for her from a bookstore in the city a couple of days ago.

Math was a piece of cake for her; the multi-digit multiplication and division, the basic concepts of fractions, and simple geometric area in the fourth-grade textbook were like drinking water to her. The same went for English; fourth-grade reading comprehension and grammar fill-in-the-blank exercises were a step up from third grade, but it wasn't anything special.

The only thing that still makes her spend two hours practicing every day is traditional Chinese characters.

She wrote each character—"携" (carry), "归" (return), "联" (connect), "继" (continue), and "围" (surround)—until she could write them flawlessly with her eyes closed.

The exam was scheduled for July 20th.

Grandpa Lin Fu swallowed his pride and made two trips to curry favor, finally securing a spot for transfer to St. Paul's Private Elementary School through a friend with connections in the education field. There was only one spot, and it wasn't for third grade, but for fourth grade.

"The school principal said that you're the only one who applied to skip a grade and transfer to fourth grade this summer." Lin Lanying was a little nervous when she called back the day before yesterday. "The test covers all the knowledge points from first to third grade, plus a small amount of fourth grade first semester material. It's a written test and an interview, all done in one day, with results given on the spot."

The exam is completed in one day, and the results are given on the spot. There is no turning back, and no make-up exams.

------

July 20th.

Before dawn, He Dazhu was pacing back and forth in the corridor in his slippers, as nervous as if he were about to take an exam.

Lin Lanying ironed the clothes she was going to wear last night and hung them on the closet door handle: a white short-sleeved shirt, a dark blue cotton skirt, white cotton socks, and a pair of clean black leather shoes.

The leather shoes were specially bought from the city by Grandma Li Yuzhen last month. The uppers are stiff and a bit tight when worn, but they look very smart.

Lin Ying, dressed neatly, stood in front of the small mirror by the sink. The little girl in the mirror was thin and small, with delicate features and bright, expressive eyes.

She picked up the sharpened pencil from the table and put it in her pocket along with the eraser.

The pencil case was unnecessary; the exam center would provide one. But she was used to bringing her own, just like in her past life when she was hospitalized and always needed a book under her pillow to sleep soundly.

"Let's go," Lin Lanying urged from the doorway.

He Dazhu was carrying a plastic bag containing two loaves of bread and a paper-wrapped Vitasoy for Lin Ying to eat on the way.

Lin Qian is still living in his old house in the New Territories, where his grandparents are taking care of him.

Before leaving, Lin Qian hugged Lin Ying's arm and said, "Sister, you must pass the exam! If you do, I'll treat you to ice cream!"

"Where did you get the money?" Lin Lanying rolled her eyes at him from behind.

"I've saved eight cents!" Lin Qian said confidently.

Today is a workday, and the trams are crowded with commuters carrying briefcases.

He Dazhu talked a lot the whole way, it was hard to tell if he was talking to his daughter or to himself: "Don't be nervous, if we don't pass, we'll just try again..."

"Dazhu, shut up." Lin Lanying stood to the side, holding a file bag containing pre-prepared identification documents.

------

St. Paul's Private Primary School is located on a quiet street in Kowloon Tong.

The iron gate was very tall, with a bronze plaque embedded on each side of the gateposts. The left plaque bore the school's name in English, while the right plaque displayed the name in traditional Chinese characters. Several large banyan trees grew on the campus, their shade covering half of the playground.

The old man in the gatehouse glanced at the exam notification slip that Lin Lanying handed over, flipped through the registration book, and looked up at Lin Ying.

"Skipped four grades? Just this one?"

"Yes." Lin Lanying nodded.

The old man opened the iron gate and let them in.

The campus was quiet. Only a few teachers were on duty during the summer vacation. The walls of the first-floor corridor were covered with students' calligraphy works and English handwritten newspapers, and various trophies and banners were displayed in the glass cases.

The clerk from the academic affairs office led them to a classroom at the far end of the second floor.

The room wasn't big, with more than thirty desks and chairs, but only the one by the window was in use today. On the desk were two stacks of test papers, a box of new pencils, and an eraser.

On the podium at the front of the classroom sat a female teacher in her forties, with only one chair in front of her.

One classroom, one examinee, and one proctor.

"Parents should sit in the waiting area outside; they cannot enter the examination room," the clerk politely pointed to a few plastic chairs at the end of the corridor.

Lin Lanying squatted down and straightened Lin Ying's collar: "Take your time when writing, don't miss any strokes."

He Dazhu said in a deep voice from the side, "Sister, Lao Dou is waiting for you."

Lin Ying nodded, turned around and walked into the classroom.

------

The written test began at 9:00 AM sharp.

The three exam papers were: Chinese Language, Mathematics, and General Studies.

The proctor, surnamed Fang, handed all three exam papers to Lin Ying at the same time, glanced at her watch, and said, "Three written exams, two and a half hours in total. You can manage your time yourself."

Lin Ying first flipped through the math section.

From addition and subtraction in first grade, to multiplication, division and word problems in second grade, to fractions and decimals in third grade, and then to multi-digit operations and simple geometry in the first semester of fourth grade. The entire test paper has four pages, with questions arranged from easy to difficult, and the last two are the most challenging questions.

Lin Ying scanned the entire document from beginning to end, then picked up her pencil and began to write.

Thirty minutes to finish the math test.

She flipped the test paper face down on the table and then took out the general knowledge test paper.

The general knowledge section covered a wide range of topics: astronomy, geography, basic science, and Hong Kong's social system. All questions were presented in both traditional Chinese and English. Lin Ying went through each question, ticking the multiple-choice questions directly and answering the short-answer questions in neat traditional Chinese characters.

Another thirty minutes passed.

The last one was in Chinese.

Lin Ying opened the exam paper and quickly scanned the question types: pronunciation and definition of words, reading comprehension, correcting misspelled words, sentence construction, and short essay writing.

The first few categories were no problem. She wrote them down steadily, her handwriting neat and tidy.

She paused for a few seconds when she got to the short essay title.

The prompt requires you to write a short essay of no less than 150 words on the topic of "My Family".

After writing 150 words, she checked the entire paper again.

Above the character "携" in "携" (carry), she noticed she had written an extra stroke. Should she correct it or not? The writing was already quite solid; erasing it and rewriting it would make the paper messy.

She still erased it and carefully rewrote the character neatly.

There is half an hour left.

Lin Ying tidied up the three papers, stacked them together, and raised her hand to signal.

Teacher Fang stepped down from the podium, glanced down at her, and asked, "Finished?"

"It's done."

Teacher Fang collected the test papers.

------

There was a twenty-minute break after the written exam. Lin Ying walked out of the classroom and sat down on a plastic chair in the corridor.

He Dazhu immediately leaned over: "Was it difficult? How did you do on the test?"

"It's not difficult." Lin Ying took the warm water he handed her and drank two sips.

Twenty minutes later, the clerk came to inform me of the interview.

The interview consisted of two rounds. The first round, a Cantonese interview, was held in a small conference room in the academic affairs office. The interviewer was an elderly gentleman with gray hair, and he was very serious.

"What's your name?"

"Lin Ying".

"Which school did you attend before?"

"I haven't read it," Lin Ying answered truthfully.

The old man looked up and carefully examined the little girl in front of him. "You've never been to school, how dare you apply for fourth grade?"

"I learned it myself."

The old man's expression remained unchanged. He looked down and flipped through the form in front of him, then asked a few more questions, including his family situation, why he wanted to study at São Paulo, and his thoughts on the future.

Lin Ying answered each question one by one.

The old man drew several checkmarks on the form and waved for her to go to the next exam room.

The second round was an interview conducted entirely in English.

Sitting opposite me was a foreign male teacher in his forties, with blond hair, blue eyes, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, and a cup of coffee beside him.

Over the next fifteen minutes, the foreign teacher started with simple daily conversations and gradually progressed to oral question-and-answer sessions on reading comprehension, asking her to read a short English passage aloud and then summarize its main idea in English.

Lin Ying's pronunciation wasn't exactly authentic, carrying a somewhat harsh, Chinese-English accent, but her grammar was accurate, her vocabulary precise, and she used the correct tenses without a single mistake.

The foreign teacher picked up his coffee, took a sip, and said, "Very good. You may go."

------

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

Lin Ying was called back to the Academic Affairs Office. He Dazhu and Lin Lanying followed her in, and the three of them stood in front of the desk.

Teacher Fang and the academic affairs director sat opposite each other. On the table were Lin Ying's three test papers, each marked with red pen.

The academic affairs director was a middle-aged woman in her fifties. She opened the three papers and pushed them one by one in front of Lin Ying.

Mathematics: 100 points.

General Knowledge: 100 points.

Chinese: 99 points.

"You lost a point in Chinese?" Lin Lanying couldn't help but blurt out.

Teacher Fang pointed to a spot on the paper: "The character '携' in '携携' has obvious signs of correction. It was originally written incorrectly and then erased and rewritten. Although the character was corrected, one point was deducted for neatness."

Lin Ying looked at the word she had erased and rewritten, and pursed her lips slightly.

The academic affairs director collected the three papers and opened another folder.

"She passed both rounds of interviews. She received an A in both the Cantonese and English interviews." She looked at Lin Ying through her glasses. "She has never been to school and has always studied at home. She scored almost full marks in all three written exams and got two A's in the interviews. Such results are rare in our São Paulo transfer exam records."

She closed the folder and looked at Lin Lanying: "Congratulations, your daughter has been accepted; she will start fourth grade in September."

The academic affairs director pushed a stack of forms over: "Have you brought all the documents required for enrollment?"

Lin Lanying immediately opened the file bag she had been clutching all morning; she took out the files one by one and reported each one as she took them out.

"Birth certificate." Lin Ying's birth certificate, the edges of the paper were slightly yellowed, and Lin Lanying had carefully secured it with transparent tape.

"Identity documents." Lin Ying's child ID card, and copies of He Dazhu and Lin Lanying's Hong Kong ID cards.

"Proof of address." Housing documents and utility bills from Yu Fat Building.

"Vaccination Record." A small blue booklet stamped with the Department of Health's seal.

"Four passport photos." These one-inch close-up photos, clipped together with paperclips, were taken last week when He Dazhu specially took Lin Ying to the photo studio.

Lin Lanying laid out all the materials on the table without missing a single one, and finally pulled out an envelope from the inner layer of the document bag; inside the envelope was cash, neatly arranged Hong Kong dollars.

"The tuition for the first semester." Lin Lanying placed the envelope on the table.

The academic affairs director's clerk checked the materials one by one, registered and filed them, and Lin Ying filled in her name, date of birth and address on the student information registration form stroke by stroke.

The traditional Chinese characters were written neatly and without any corrections.