We can’t blame you for buying your title. The 56-year-old Chinese millionaire, Liang Shui, a candidate for the “gaokao”, the equivalent of a high school in China, failed the tests for the 27th time.
After beginning his career with a menial factory job, the 50-year-old founded his own building materials company, making him a millionaire.
But the fifty-year-old says that he has always kept a frustration, that of not having obtained a sufficient grade in the “gaokao” to be able to join the prestigious university in Sichuan, the southwestern province of China where he lives.
12 hours of revisions per day
After failing the exam for the first time at the age of 16, this stubborn man had repeated it, always to no avail, nearly ten times, before having to stop, reaching the age limit of 25 imposed at the time. As soon as this limit was removed in 2001, Liang Shi thought that he had another chance. And this was his 27th attempt this year.
Liang Shi, however, has always imposed a “monk’s life” for himself: getting up every day at dawn to spend 12 hours a day on school books, with no alcohol, no distractions, not even playing mah-jongg, his favorite game. , with your friends.
Last Friday, like hundreds of thousands of high school students in his province, he took to the internet to see how many journalists now follow him each year. Even before seeing his score, he understood from his disappointed look that he had failed once more.
“I don’t know for now if I’m going to try again next year”
The result of this year makes him doubt. “I thought that I would not have a high enough score to enter Sichuan University. But I did not expect that my score would not allow me to enter any university, even the lowest ranked ones,” he confesses.
Until now, he had never been discouraged, announcing every year immediately that he would retake the exam the following year.
“But if I really don’t see any improvement, I tell myself that maybe it’s not worth trying anymore. I have really worked very hard every day. I don’t know at this point if I’m going to try. again next year,” he said wearily.
On the other hand, he finds it hard to imagine giving up. “If I stop attending gaokao, every cup of tea I drink for the rest of my life will taste like regret.”
Source: BFM TV
