杨维

不过杨维并没有感觉多么幸运。

Yang , however , wasn 't feeling very lucky .

他们经过的时候，杨维的父亲快速按响了一声喇叭。

As they passed , his father gave a quick toot of the horn .

杨维的母亲也离开了。

Yang 's mother was gone , too .

数周后，高考成绩公布了，我给杨维打了电话。

Weeks later , when the gaokao results were released , I called Yang .

现在，只剩最后一天了，杨维除了学习没时间做任何事。

Now there was only one day left , and Yang had no time for anything but study .

杨维说，曹英生仍然含混地表示，自己想成为一名英语教师。然而，他的未来看起来并不光明。

Cao still talked vaguely about becoming an English teacher , Yang said , but his future looked bleak .

杨维的童年伙伴曹英生考砸了——杨维说是因为恐慌。

Yang 's childhood friend , Cao , tanked on the exam - a panic attack , Yang said .

但是，对于那些家庭条件有限的人，比如杨维，经济上的不确定性反而加剧了高考竞争的激烈程度；

But for those of limited means , like Yang , the economic uncertainty has only intensified the gaokao competition ;

我坐在杨维的父亲摆在载货区的木制椅子上，椅子并没有固定。

I perched on a wooden chair that Yang 's father had placed , untethered , in the cargo area .

杨维的母亲林佳敏（音）辞去了制衣厂的工作，来支持他最后一年的备考冲刺。

Yang 's mother , Lin Jiamin , quit her garment-factory job to support him in his final year of cramming .

就在巷子里，距离杨维的房间不远处，我见到一位算命先生。他坐在凳子上，穿着并不合身的条纹西装，身旁是一面帆布的图。

Just up the alley from Yang 's room , I met a fortune teller sitting on a stool next to a canvas chart .

杨维的父母和我在一排排宿舍前徘徊，他在毛坦厂读书的头两年就住在这里。

Yang 's parents and I lingered in front of the rows of dormitories where their son spent his first two years at Maotanchang .

于是我与这家人告别，然后远远地看着他们挤进面包车，踏上了送杨维高考的最后一段旅程。

I bid the family farewell and , from a distance , watched them pile into the bread-loaf truck for Yang 's final gaokao journey .

在杨维的父亲担任村支书的跃进村，教学设施简陋，缺乏训练有素的老师。

Villages like Yuejin , where Yang 's father is the Communist Party secretary , have poor school facilities and a paucity of well-trained teachers .

她的焦虑开始让杨维感到紧张而烦躁，所以他问能不能在考前的最后几周，让爷爷接替母亲。

Her anxiety had started to make her son tense and irritable , so he asked if his grandfather could take over for her in the final weeks .

现在离高考只有69天了——镇里各处都能看到倒计时器——杨维已经进入了最后的疯狂冲刺阶段。

Now , with the gaokao just 69 days away - the number appeared on countdown calendars all over town - Yang had entered the final , frenetic stretch .

杨维的父母好像并没有特别迷信，但是他们愿意支付很高的租金，就为了住得离神树及树下大约三尺高的香灰近一些。

Yang 's parents did not seem especially superstitious , but they paid high rent to live close to the mystical tree and its three-foot-high pile of incense ash .

她们点燃的香束燃起滚烫的火苗，积起厚厚的香灰堆，让我们几乎无法挤过去，继续前往杨维的出租房。

The flames from their bundles of incense were so hot and the pile of ash so big that we almost couldn 't squeeze past to Yang 's rented room .

这个学年的早些时候，这个例行活动是让人高兴的，因为那时候杨维的成绩在不断提高，与入读中国近120所一类大学所需的水平越来越近。

The ritual was gratifying earlier in the school year , when Yang 's marks were rising close to the level needed to enter one of China 's nearly 120 first-tier universities .

尽管有一种隐隐的恐慌感，杨维的父母好像还是迫切地想向我展示这所学校的成功，似乎他们自己对向上流动的渴望靠的就是它。

Despite the creeping sense of panic , Yang 's parents seemed eager to show me evidence of the school 's success , as if their own aspirations for upward mobility depended on it .

杨维的成绩下滑时，妈妈没收了他的手机，还让他一直学习到深夜，自己就坐在他身旁做带有蝴蝶和鱼图案的十字绣拖鞋。

When Yang 's scores slipped , his mother confiscated his cellphone and made him study late at night while she sat next to him , weaving needlepoint slippers with butterfly and fish designs .

第二天早上天还没亮，杨维的父母就驾车从跃进村的家中赶来，准备接上儿子把他送到在六安市里考点附近租到的房间。

Before dawn the next morning , Yang 's parents drove from their home in Yuejin to pick up their son and take him to a rented room near the exam site in Lu'an city .

杨维的父亲飞快地开车摆来摆去，他的母亲焦虑地陷入沉寂，我连人带椅子也滑来滑去。他则一直在谈自己在田里种植的加州桃——他把这种桃子称作“大爱”。

Yang 's mother sat in anxious silence while his father careered around the curves , sending me and my chair sliding , as he talked about the California peaches he grows on his farm , which he had christened Big Love .

他穿着系了一半鞋带的高帮运动鞋，带领我穿过人群。三年来，杨维每天早上冲去上6点20开始的第一节课，晚上10点50最后一节课结束后才回到自己的房间，周末也不例外。

A peach farmer 's son in half-laced high-tops , Yang had spent the previous three years , weekends included , stumbling to his first class at 6:20 in the morning and returning to his room only after the end of his last class at 10:50 at night .

徐鹏的成就在毛坦厂家喻户晓，以至于杨维把他称作“偶像”。徐鹏和他母亲之前租住的房间，如今被宣传为“状元房”。

Xu 's achievement is so well known in Maotanchang that Yang refers to him as " a cult figure . " The tiny space that Xu and his mother rented out last year is now advertised as the " zhuangyuan room , " a reference to the top scorer in the ancient imperial exam .