What's wrong with me, a school principal, listening to students' suggestions?

Lin Yucai read the message twice, his finger lingering on the screen for a moment.

The recruitment battle was won.

But Liu Jianguo is right, the college entrance rate is the most reliable indicator.

The college entrance examination results for No. 13 Middle School have not yet been released.

If things don't go well, Liu Jianguo can still nail them to the pillar of shame at the meeting.

July 10th.

Less than two weeks left.

Lin Yucai put down his phone and turned to look out the window.

The campus of No. 13 Middle School was quiet under the cover of night.

The row of newly planted ginkgo trees by the playground is still very short, and their branches and leaves cast faint shadows under the streetlights.

Everything is just beginning.

……

The July sun made the enrollment notice board at the entrance of the Education Bureau scorching hot.

Qian Wenhua stood in front of the railing, the printed report in his hand crumpled from being squeezed.

On the list of students he had his eye on for admission to No. 1 High School this year, the names of those top students were crossed off one by one.

Next to the crossed-out item, the same destination is marked in blue pen.

No. 13 Middle School.

"That's impossible."

Qian Wenhua's throat moved slightly, and he turned to the next page of the report.

The next page is even more striking: four out of the top ten students in Chengnan Experimental Junior High School filled in No. 13 Middle School.

That's a score that guarantees admission to the top class at No. 1 High School; any one of them would be a promising student.

"Principal Qian, some parents have called to express their intention to withdraw their money, saying they want to take another look."

The admissions director, Lao Zhou, who was following behind him, didn't dare to raise his head and kept his voice very low.

"What are you looking at? Looking at that run-down school that sells food?"

Qian Wenhua threw the report onto the glass of the bulletin board.

Old Zhou shrank back, not daring to reply, and turned around to pretend to sort through the brochures next to him.

Qian Wenhua stared at the notice board, feeling a tightness in his chest.

What makes No. 1 High School maintain its reputation as a key high school?

It all comes down to the top talents we select each year.

Good students will be recruited, and the college entrance rate will be impressive in three years.

A high first-tier university admission rate makes student recruitment easier.

This is a cycle that has been going on for over a decade, and no one dares to stop it.

But now, someone is reaching out and pulling the fattest piece of meat out of the circle.

Moreover, they were so blatantly arrogant that parents all over the city applauded them.

"Old Zhou." Qian Wenhua turned around, his usual official tone slipping from his face. "How many fewer students are interested in No. 1 Middle School this year compared to last year?"

After hesitating for a moment, Lao Zhou lowered his head and still reported the number: "It's about a quarter less than this time last year."

One-quarter.

Qian Wenhua rubbed his fingers against the edge of the report a few times, until his fingertips turned red.

The No. 1 High School enrolls 800 students every year, so a quarter of that is 200.

Behind each of the two hundred students are two hundred tuition fees, two hundred tutoring fees, and two hundred potential spots for admission to top-tier universities.

What's even more problematic is that most of these two hundred students are above average, which is precisely the group that can best boost college entrance exam pass rates.

"His school is at the bottom of the rankings, what makes him stand out?"

Qian Wenhua's voice was squeezed out from between his teeth.

Old Zhou said cautiously, "It's all over the internet saying that the No. 13 Middle School cafeteria is free, the dormitories have air conditioning, and there's that e-sports arena... the kids love going there."

"What good is it if the child likes to go? It's the parents who fill out the college applications!" Qian Wenhua interrupted him.

He stopped mid-sentence.

Because he remembered something he had overheard a few days ago in Jinxiu Community.

A mother was talking to someone downstairs, saying that she had originally enrolled her child in No. 1 Middle School, but the child cried and made a fuss about wanting to go to No. 13 Middle School.

The mother said that her child's words softened her heart.

The child said that going to No. 1 Middle School, arriving at school at 6:30 every morning and leaving at 10:00 at night, felt like being a beast of burden.

Going to No. 13 Middle School, at least you'll be treated like a human being.

At the time, Qian Wenhua just took it as a joke.

Now the joke has become a quarter missing from the report, and it's not funny at all.

……

At the same time, the atmosphere in the principal's office of No. 13 Middle School was a completely different world from that at the Education Bureau.

Lin Yucai leaned back in his chair, holding a stack of registration forms in his hand, flipping through each one with a smile.

Su Qingyan sat opposite her, with two laptops spread out in front of her. One was connected to the back-end registration system, and the other was making a summary table.

"Three more have arrived." She traced names on the touchpad with her finger, "Third Middle School in the East of the City, one with 572, and one with 568."

"572?" Lin Yucai leaned forward. "With that score, you're guaranteed a spot in the top class at No. 1 High School, right?"

"Not only that, they're the top-performing class at No. 1 High School." Su Qingyan turned the screen around to show him, "They insisted on applying to our class."

Lin Yucai stared at the two numbers, his eyes narrowing with delight.

When he first transmigrated here six months ago, the admission scores for No. 13 Middle School were so low that there was no lower limit; they accepted as many students as they could.

Now, there are actually kids who could get into the top high school's elite class, and they're voluntarily coming to this dilapidated building.

"What reason did you write in the remarks column?" Lin Yucai asked.

Su Qingyan lowered her head and read aloud, "I like the school's comic book club and e-sports arena, and... the new school uniform looks good."

"That's it?"

"That's it." Su Qingyan looked up at him. "A kid who could have gotten into the top class gave up the best high school in the city for a school uniform and an extracurricular activity."

The office was quiet for a while.

Lin Yucai didn't reply immediately. He gently placed the form on the table and tapped the words "The new school uniform looks good" with his finger.

"Do you know what this means?" he suddenly asked.

Su Qingyan waited for him to continue.

"This shows that these kids have never been asked what they want before." Lin Yucai's tone slowed down. "Everyone tells them how many points they should get on the exam, which school they should go to, and what kind of life they should live."

"Nobody has ever asked them what they like."

Su Qingyan stopped what she was doing.

She spent three years at No. 13 Middle School and saw too many children like this, their eyes empty, as if something had been ripped out.

She has also witnessed the light slowly returning to their eyes over the past six months.

"So they'd rather compromise their principles for a school uniform," she said softly.

"Yes." Lin Yucai leaned back in his chair. "Because that was the first time an adult was willing to listen to them."

Outside the window, on the playground, several ninth-grade students who had arrived early were taking pictures around the newly planted ginkgo trees.

Su Qingyan looked out the window and didn't say anything more, but her hands typed faster on the summary sheet.

……

The list of potential partners keeps piling up.

In the afternoon, Xiao Chen from the Academic Affairs Office rushed in carrying a stack of new registration forms, forgetting to even knock on the door.

"Principal! Principal Su! Two groups of parents from the four junior high schools in the north of the city came today, registering more than thirty people!"

"The teacher said that several of those scores were close enough to get into the top high school!"

Lin Yucai took the registration form, flipped through it, and then handed it to Su Qingyan.

Su Qingyan examined each kernel one by one, her expression growing increasingly complex with each kernel she examined.

"Lin Yucai." She looked up. "At this rate, we might have more than three hundred new students this year."

"How many?"

"I did a rough calculation, and the number of intentions has already exceeded four hundred." Su Qingyan put down her pen. "If all the applications are actually accepted, it will easily reach five hundred."

five hundred.

Lin Yucai's heart skipped a beat, not out of panic, but because something inexplicable welled up inside him.

Now their worry is whether there are enough classrooms to seat them?