Volume 1 Chasing the Baseball Dream Chapter 001 Brother, what a waste!
Zhang Han and his family live in an old building in the suburbs of Tokyo. When he returns home, the neighbors around him nod and smile at him cordially.
Most of the people who rent here are migrant workers from other countries. Some came from China more than a decade ago, and some came from small countries like the Philippines and Indonesia.
Because everyone is not well-off and is struggling to make a living, they cannot do without supporting each other.
As for the relationships, they are all pretty good.
Zhang Han's mother came here to work with her older sister from her hometown after graduating from technical secondary school at the beginning of the century.
It has been nearly twenty years now.
Zhang Han had never heard his mother mention his father, but he could imagine that this kind of situation was not uncommon in this place.
It's nothing more than a man and a woman living together and then going their separate ways.
Many of these children were left unattended and sent to local orphanages, but some, especially women in the country, chose to raise them themselves.
Zhang Han’s mother is one of them.
The rented place has two bedrooms and a living room.
Zhang Han has his own bedroom, and his mother Lan He and sister Lan Yu live in another.
Since Zhang Han was very young, his younger sister has been endlessly loved by his mother. All the good things in the house belong to his younger sister.
When they were young, Lan He couldn't take care of two children at the same time and had to send one of them back to her hometown.
The one who was sent back was also Zhang Han. He stayed in the urban-rural fringe area next to the coastal town until he started primary school, when his mother took him back.
When Zhang Han was in his hometown, he once heard such a saying.
Raise sons in poverty and daughters in wealth.
That means that the son should be raised in poverty. Only in this way can he know how to rely on himself to fight for the future.
Daughters should be raised in wealth, to prevent them from being shortsighted and being cheated by others for little things when they grow up.
My mother should love me. The reason why she gave me and my sister unequal living conditions was probably for this purpose.
Overall, isn’t the cost of both your schooling and daily life not low?
Maybe my mother is not as poor as I see her, she is actually a hidden rich woman.
After all, to be honest, there are not many people who can afford to rent a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment in the place where they rent.
Until Zhang Han returned to Tokyo and lived with his mother for a few years.
Then he realized that he was overthinking.
That kind of setting only exists in some amateurish online novels. How can such a thing happen in real life?
"Mother!"
"baby!!"
"Mom, you work so hard! Otherwise, I won't go to school anymore!"
"How can that be possible? Even if mom sells everything she has, she won't let you guys not go to school!!"
When Zhang Han entered the room, the emotional drama that had been prepared long ago began to unfold on time.
The two women closest to him were hugging each other and crying.
Zhang Han felt a severe pain in his head.
He looked at the two women in front of him speechlessly, took a deep breath, and pretended not to see anything.
After changing into slippers, Zhang Han prepared to return to his room.
"You little heartless bastard, don't you see your mother is crying?"
Zhang Han had no choice but to stop what he was doing and turn his attention back to the sofa, looking at the mother and daughter crying together on the sofa.
He found his seat in the corner, pulled it over, sat opposite the mother and daughter, and pretended to listen attentively.
Seeing Zhang Han’s face, the mother and daughter, who had just been crying, immediately changed 180 degrees.
"As the only man in this family, have you ever thought about making some sacrifices and contributions for this family?"
"I really feel disappointed to have a brother like you!"
"The school selection fee for each of you is 3 million (equivalent to 200,000 Chinese dollars). For both of you, it's 6 million. As the eldest son of this family, why can't you make a sacrifice and sign a contract with them? I'm not asking you to do anything against the law. You're just..."
When she said this, Ms. Lan seemed to be stuck suddenly.
"If I call grandpa and tell him that you asked me to be a porn actor, do you believe he would break your legs?"
Ms. Lan looked embarrassed.
"What can we do? With your current grades, you won't be able to pass the high school entrance exam even if you go home? Besides, if we don't tell him, how would your grandfather know?"
Their hometown is Qi and Lu, which is the place with the most difficult exams even in the whole of China.
With so many talented people in their small county, the admission rate for the high school entrance exam is less than 40%.
In other words, it would be good if 4 out of 10 people can successfully enter high school.
When Zhang Han was in his hometown, his grades were pretty good, so he should have had no problem getting into high school or even a second-tier university.
But he has been away from his hometown for 4 years.
I studied in Tokyo for four years. The professional cultural knowledge, especially courses such as history and biology, are very different from those in China.
With what he has learned now, he will return to China to take the exam.
Except for the multiple-choice questions, it would be a blessing if he didn't get zero points.
How is it possible to get into high school?
Now the only way out for Zhang Han and his sister Lan Yu is to go to high school in Tokyo and then successfully get into university.
With a diploma from Tokyo, it will be much easier to find a job in Tokyo or return to China for development in the future.
Otherwise, his future would be completely ruined.
And Tokyo also has its own rules.
First of all, their high schools are divided into public and private. The tuition fees for public high schools are relatively cheap, but you must have local household registration.
In fact, this is the same in China. For schools supported by the state, the state has to pay a huge sum of money.
This taxpayers' money should of course be spent on taxpayers. It can't be spent on outsiders, right?
Not to mention a foreigner like Zhang Han, even if it was an out-of-towner, that would absolutely not be allowed.
Private schools. Relatively speaking, they do not have the same rules and regulations as public schools, but they do require money.
Even for locals, tuition fees are not cheap. Foreigners like Zhang Han need to pay a lot of school selection fees.
3 million per person is equivalent to Lan He’s total income for a year without eating or drinking.
How could she have so much savings when she is raising two children alone?
If we add up all the money in the family, at most we can only afford the school selection fee for one person.
"Don't worry about my school selection fee. I will find a way myself."
Before going home, Zhang Han heard from the team coach that several high school team coaches were interested in him.
I think it should be able to reduce .
After saying that, Zhang Han returned to his room.
Lan He wiped away the non-existent tears from her eyes and said to her daughter beside her with a smile.
"Look, it's solved!"
Lan Yu was a little disappointed: "Brother, it's such a waste that he doesn't become an actor!"
Lan He looked at the closed door and nodded, "Yes!"
…
