Chapter 241 - Scholarships
Chapter 241: Scholarships
The longer she knew them, the better she knew them. She had just told them that she was the scriptwriter for “Legend of Wei and Jin”. They were astonished, but none of them blamed her for keeping it from them once they knew the reason why.
“I know that you are afraid of trouble. You always try to stay out of things, but things seem to come to you by themselves. I guess you are the busiest one out of all of us.” Wang Yuemu laughed.
The more one is afraid of trouble, the more work one gets…
“Legend of Wei and Jin” was the main topic of discussion throughout the entire summer. Even after summer ended and classes started, Tan Mo could still hear her classmates discussing it.
Time passed by slowly…and it was summer, then suddenly autumn was coming to an end, and winter was approaching.
The day that the scholarship awards list was finished, Counselor Hong came into the classroom with the list of scholarship winners, and he said, “This year’s scholarship winners list is out. It is based on the grades from your previous two semesters, extracurricular activities at school and outside of school, and any awards and nominations you’ve earned have also been taken into account.”
Counselor Hong laughed as he said, “This time, our class did very well. There are two scholarship winners in our class, which is a good portion of the total.”
“First is the national-level scholarship, only given to one student in our school, and that student is in our class.” Counselor Hong smiled brightly and said, “Tan Mo, congratulations.”
The other students looked toward Tan Mo and congratulated her. Lin Fuxi was the only one who didn’t speak. Her head was down, and there was fury in her eyes.
“Next is the top university scholarship, and the winner is Tan Mo again, congratulations,” Counselor Hong said. “Everyone knows that at our school, the national scholarship doesn’t coincide with our university scholarship. Also, only those who have achieved a university scholarship are considered for the national-level scholarship, and the best of the university scholarship winners is chosen for the national scholarship.”
Everyone nodded in compliance; they knew that already.
After receiving their acceptance letters from Beijing University, everyone had already done plenty of research to understand the criteria they needed to meet to win a scholarship.
Of course, that was before they knew Tan Mo’s level of expertise. After they found out about her, they were very clear in their hearts. They were out of luck for the scholarships.
Lin Fuxi was the only one who had challenged herself to win a scholarship. She lost every single time, but she surely had determination.
Her determination was touching.
Counselor Hong continued, “Next is Lin Fuxi.”
Lin Fuxi came back to attention and looked at Counselor Hong with anticipation.
Originally, Counselor Hong had thought that it took Lin Fuxi more determination and effort than anyone else to come here: to leave a small suburb to come to the city of Beijing. He had had a good first impression of Lin Fuxi and had tried to the best of his ability to provide her with some more opportunities.
Which is why he had chosen her as the temporary head of class. If she had done a good job, then in normal circumstances, she should have been the head of class for the next term. But things didn’t turn out as expected. When the formal head of class election took place, no one voted for her.
Everyone here was already an adult…of course, with the exception of Tan Mo.
But Counselor Hong was still concerned that the students might be discriminating against her, so he secretly kept an eye on everyone for a bit.
He realized that everyone was polite to Lin Fuxi, and that there was no discrimination happening in his class. But none of his other students were close with her. They didn’t do anything bad to her, but it seemed like they had no intention of becoming friends with her either.
He also got a closer look at Lin Fuxi’s personality. She was a bit antisocial.
That wasn’t something he could interfere with, so he decided to let it go.
Counselor Hong smiled and said, “Lin Fuxi, you earned a third-level university scholarship, congratulations.”
Lin Fuxi felt her expression harden.
She wasn’t given a top university scholarship?
The national-level award was given only to a few of the best. It was understandable that she was not chosen for it. She’d feel a bit better with herself if she earned the top university scholarship…
But they gave her the third-level university scholarship?
“Professor Hong,” Lin Fu stood up and asked, “I…I just wanted to know, why did I get the third-level scholarship?
“Tan Mo got the national award already, why should she also be given the top university award? I’m in the same class as Tan Mo, so I know what classes she is taking.
“She takes the core classes, and, out of all of us, she is the one with the least number of electives. She does just the number of electives required and nothing more. I’ve never seen her at any of the activities hosted by the finance school nor have I seen her at any of the university competitions. She didn’t do anything outside of school either. So, aside from her core and elective class grades, she has nothing else on her resume.
“So how did she get the national-level award and the top university award?” Lin Fuxi questioned. “I know, you guys don’t like me; you guys probably think, because we are all classmates, we shouldn’t say things so clearly and harshly.
“But this has to do with the fairness of these awards. If no one here wants to speak up, in fear of being disliked, then I will say it myself.” Lin Fuxi bit her lips and said, “I am not making trouble on purpose because I only received the third-level award. It doesn’t matter what type of award or how many awards I received. I received an award, and it is a gift from the university to students of excellence.”
Tan Mo’s mouth had opened slightly in astonishment. She was surprised surely…Lin Fuxi was so good at flattering herself.
“But I can’t tolerate injustice,” Lin Fuxi said in a lowered tone. “I know that Tan Mo’s family is rich…
“Tan Mo, you were born to a wealthy family. The scholarship money from the national award and the top university award combined is probably less than a month of living expenses that you get from your parents, not to mention the additional allowances that you get,” Lin Fuxi said in a thin voice, with a pitiful look on her face.
Everyone looked at her dramatic change of face.
“There are a lot of students at our school who come from impoverished families, and they rely on scholarships as part of their living expenses, so why steal the scholarship from them? This scholarship is nothing to you. You would spend that amount of money for a single meal. To you, it is a middling amount of money. But to those who come from less fortunate backgrounds, and those who rely on the scholarships for their living expenses, this money is very important. To them, that money is a matter of life and death.
“Even if you want the honor, because it’ll look good on your resume and others will praise you for it… you don’t have to steal the scholarship money that is so important to those impoverished students. You don’t need it anyway…” Lin Fuxi had a pitiful look on her face. Her eyes were red when she finished talking, and she quickly lowered her head, as if hiding her tears.
Everyone in class was already used to seeing her do that, so they were unmoved. But some classmates frowned at Tan Mo, because what Lin Fuxi had said made sense to them.
They were all in the same class, so they knew each other’s schedules well.
Just as Lin Fuxi had said, Tan Mo didn’t attend a single activity hosted by the Finance Department.
Just based on her class grades, even if she got a full score for all those classes, she shouldn’t have gotten the two highest level scholarships.
And, honestly, Tan Mo was always away doing her own thing. She didn’t spend a lot of time at the Finance Department.
Meng Yuxi frowned, she wanted to say something.
Tan Mo spoke instead. She turned to Lin Fuxi and said, “Head of class…”
“Oh, wait, you’re not head of class anymore. Sorry, I forgot.” Tan Mo lowered her head, as if she was sorry for accidently saying the wrong thing.