They didn't have any intention of continuing to negotiate with me at all. The next day at dinner, my mom said that my dad had arranged a job for me in town through someone, working at a food packaging factory, working twelve hours a day, with a salary of 3,700, including meals and accommodation, no deductions.

My grandma immediately said, "If I had known you would end up working in a factory in the end, why bother going to high school, just a waste of money."

My younger brother chimed in, "Exactly, exactly."

My mom put a piece of meat in my bowl and said, "Your dad has sorted everything out. You'll transfer 3,000 to my account on the 15th of each month, the rest will be your living expenses. It's pretty good to have an additional 700 living expenses each month for a job that includes meals and accommodation."

I put down my chopsticks and asked her, "This is my money, why should I give it to you guys?"

My mom said, "You're still young, you don't know how to save money. We'll keep it for you until you get married."

Then she added, "You have to give it to me every month."

I didn't say anything, suddenly lost my appetite looking at the piece of meat in my bowl, got up and went back to my room.

I still went to work at the factory, where there were many people my age, most of them from our village, my elementary school classmates.

They all asked me, "Hey Yang Xing, didn't you get into high school? Why are you working here? Looks like you're not that great after all!"

"I thought you were going to a big city for college, why are you working here? Oh, I get it, you didn't pass the college entrance exam, right."

I remained silent, quietly doing my own work.

I won't give up on going to college, so when it came time to fill out my preferences, I still went ahead and filled them out, with the delivery point for the acceptance letter set at Teacher Zhao's house.

Teacher Zhao didn't know that my parents were unwilling to pay for my college education, so she asked me, "Why didn't you put your own address, so your grandparents and your parents could also share the joy?"

I said, "I've been working summer jobs here for the past two months, it's more convenient."

Teacher Zhao smiled happily, "I'm truly relieved, Xing Xing, you made the right choice not going to high school. You make your teacher proud!"