Chapter 085: The Endless Dream

The preliminary judging for the Southern City division of the calligraphy contest ended ahead of schedule at the end of March. Yang Tian advanced to the finals with the top score in his division, and the work he submitted was still those four characters: Dreams Without End.

What pleased him most was that Huang Juan also won third place in the division with a piece titled A Fairytale Conception and advanced to the final round. Over the past few years, she had often studied calligraphy alongside him under Yang Qingtang’s guidance, and her progress had been remarkable.

Yang Tian understood the meaning behind her piece well enough. That fairytale-like conception must have been a reference to the Daliu Tree Resort.

For Binhai First High School, this was nothing extraordinary, but for Class Eight of the First Year, it was a matter of real pride. After all, among first-year classes, it was rare for any class to achieve such results; for one class to have as many as three students place in the division judging was no small feat.

The third was none other than Zhao Shilei, with all his sly tricks. He placed seventh in the division and received an honorary certificate emblazoned with the tenth-anniversary emblem of the calligraphy contest. That Friday afternoon, he happily rushed home with the certificate in hand to tell his father the good news. His father was also a calligraphy enthusiast, and upon hearing it, immediately rewarded him with a hundred yuan. The money he used to rent novels for a month came from that.

Municipal Bureau of Culture, judging office for the national final of the student calligraphy contest

"Old Chang, did this round have anything especially outstanding?" asked Deputy Director Jiang Nan with a smile to Chang Qing, the chairman of the judging panel. Chang Qing was sixty-seven this year and the most knowledgeable person in the Binhai City Bureau of Culture when it came to calligraphy. He wrote both the Liu style and the Yan style very well, and whenever a public institution or private enterprise building was completed, or a celebration was held, they would ask him to write the inscription.

"Old Jiang, ah, I was just looking for you!" Old Chang said, excitedly putting on his reading glasses and taking a piece of calligraphy from a special little cabinet. "This time we’ve really got a prodigy on our hands! Look at this. This piece fully displays the rounded, forceful charm of the Yan style. Honestly, I haven’t seen handwriting this good in many years. It’s truly hard to believe it was written by a high school student!" With great excitement, he showed Jiang Nan the piece of calligraphy. It was none other than Yang Tian’s Dreams Without End.

"Well, isn’t that something. The spirit in these lines is quite comparable to Old Li’s handwriting back in the day!" Jiang Nan took Yang Tian’s work. At first glance, he, too, was stunned. Pushing up the myopic glasses on the bridge of his nose, he exclaimed in surprise.

"That may be a bit of an exaggeration. Old Li is the chairman of the Calligraphy Association for six provinces and one city in East China," Old Chang said, his face beaming.

"I’m not so sure. I don’t think even Old Li could have written something like this when he was in high school. Just as you said, it handles the Yan style with extraordinary mastery!" Jiang Nan stroked his distinctive thin mustache, laughing loudly. At once, all the judges joined in the laughter as well. They had been planning the tenth-anniversary celebration of the calligraphy contest for months, and at last their efforts had not been in vain. Truly, talent was emerging in abundance this year.

"Exactly. Old Li’s handwriting in high school wasn’t even as good as mine!" Old Chang said with a smile full of delight. "Old Jiang, what I’m most looking forward to now is the awards ceremony at the finals. I can’t wait to see how this kid managed to write such excellent calligraphy!"

Because this year marked the tenth anniversary of the contest, the top five students in the finals would have to rewrite their own work on the spot.

This would be one of the standards by which the finals were judged. In other words, if a student’s live handwriting differed greatly from the submitted piece, his ranking would drop sharply.

The preliminary rankings for the finals were announced quickly. Yang Tian ranked first in the city, and Huang Juan came in eighth. This news once again swept Binhai First High School into calligraphy fever. Although First High was the best high school in Binhai City, in the annual calligraphy contest its students usually only managed second or third place and seldom took first. This time, Yang Tian had truly brought honor to the school.

His classmates began to admire him, and there was no shortage of praise from the teachers either. Of course, there were also skeptics. Many people thought Yang Tian was a strange creature: usually lazy and careless in class, hanging around in Internet cafés, yet somehow always scoring so well on exams and performing so brilliantly in the calligraphy contest. It was hard to make sense of.

Late at night, Yang Tian rode his motorcycle to pick up Huang Juan after her tutoring session. The roads were dark at that hour, so he drove slowly.

"Xiao Tian, congratulations. You’ve finally taken first place in the city!" Huang Juan leaned her head against Yang Tian’s shoulder from the back seat and said with a smile. She had said this more than a dozen times already, but she still did not tire of it, because she was genuinely happy.

Though she did not know how delighted Yang Tian must have been at winning first place, she knew that if he had not won, he would certainly have been heartbroken. His grandfather had just passed away, and it had been his grandfather who taught him calligraphy. That loss had affected him deeply.

"It’s a little early to say that. This year is different from previous years; there’s still one final hurdle. We have to rewrite our own piece on the spot. If I don’t handle that well, who knows whose first place it’ll end up being?" Yang Tian said with a smile. It was not that he was underestimating himself; rather, he attached great importance to the final test. Perhaps the other students were all aiming only for ranking, but he was not. He wanted everyone at the awards ceremony to truly recognize the Yan style calligraphy of the Yang family.

"It doesn’t matter. I believe you’ll do beautifully. After all, you have a solid foundation in calligraphy, and that’s something no one else can compare with!" Huang Juan smiled brilliantly. She would be there on the day of the awards ceremony as well. Besides collecting her prize, she would also be there to cheer for Yang Tian.

Just then, the motorcycle reached an intersection. It was a small crossing, so there were no traffic lights.

From both the left and the right came a tangled roar of engines. Yang Tian could not help tensing up and slowed the bike, intending to wait until the traffic on both sides had passed.

No one expected that a long truck would suddenly surge out from the left, hurtling toward them. Yang Tian was startled. Though he had eased off the throttle, inertia still carried the motorcycle forward.

At that point, braking was clearly too late. The truck was moving too fast, coming straight at them.

Yang Tian had already sounded his horn, but the truck’s horn was much louder than his, and the driver could not hear it at all.

After the truck rounded the bend at speed, the driver seemed to realize his own carelessness. Seeing a motorcycle ahead, he quickly turned the wheel.

Unfortunately, the vehicle was far too long. The rear end still came roaring toward Yang Tian. Huang Juan was already completely frightened, clinging tightly to Yang Tian’s waist and not daring to move.

Yang Tian was covered in cold sweat as well. Acting without hesitation, he accelerated hard, twisted the handlebars, and charged toward the sidewalk on the right.

But it was still too late. The truck was moving too fast, and its rear lightly brushed Yang Tian’s motorcycle. The tremendous force immediately threw the bike off balance, and it began to topple sharply to the left.

Yang Tian strained with all his strength to control the vehicle, but the bike spun counterclockwise and in the end still went down.

The impact was immense. Hearing Huang Juan scream in terror, Yang Tian urgently twisted his body sideways, wrapped her tightly in his arms, and then leaped hard. The two of them sprang clear of the motorcycle and fell together onto the sidewalk on the right.

Yang Tian had used his own body as the cushion, so Huang Juan was unharmed, save for the shock. But his right hand was pinned so badly that he could not move it anymore.