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Chapter 31: Feigning Maturity is the Most Deadly
In Sabin City, there were a total of twenty-two middle schools, which people often referred to as high schools. There were no junior high schools here, only elementary, middle/high schools, and universities.
Elementary school students needed to spend nine years in school before advancing to middle school for three years. After completing twelve years of education, they could enter university.
However, not everyone could attend university. Currently, the university admission rate was still below seventeen percent, primarily due to two reasons.
One was that the cost of university was still too high for ordinary families, which was unlike elementary and middle schools where costs were relatively lower; not all families could afford the expenses of a four-year university education.
Another one was that the current state of education was essentially a joke. According to surveys conducted by certain consulting firms, around ninety percent of university students came from private schools rather than public ones.
The failure of public education, including financial issues within families, ultimately limited people's opportunities to attend university. Lynch was unable to go to university in this manner, even though he diligently filled out the application forms.
In other words, excelling academically wasn't crucial for university admission. What was essential was having a family capable of bearing high expenses or having some sort of influence.
The current president of the Baylor Federation won the election primarily for two reasons. Firstly, he promised to resolve healthcare issues during his term, reducing medical expenses to make healthcare accessible to everyone.
Secondly, he pledged to carry out a new round of educational reforms during his term, increasing the percentage of public high school students entering universities from around ten percent to as close as possible to twenty percent. That was why people chose him.
However, whether he would fulfill... perhaps it would only be known after his term ended. But there would always be some people who held onto the immature belief that things would miraculously turn for the better at the very last moment to face this world.
Of course, there wasn't absolute despair for the current education system. Every school offered scholarships. Compared to the cutthroat competition in public schools, scholarships in private schools were more easily obtainable. The school board could decide who would receive them, which was why sometimes people said power equaled or even surpassed wealth.
Michael's son, Michael Junior, was such a "good kid" who managed to receive scholarships every year. Academic performance was just one aspect of a student; their life, extracurricular activities, and post-school activities also served as criteria for measuring a student's performance. At least, he excelled in these three aspects, which complied with scholarship standards.
Coupled with his family background, Michael Junior had many good friends at school.
During lunchtime, Michael Junior borrowed three thousand bucks from a friend. However, this amount was far from sufficient. He needed at least two thousand more, but that was already all the money he could borrow from the people in the school.
For the money he couldn't borrow, no matter how much he pleaded, others wouldn't lend it to him.
Finishing his lunch hastily, he paid little attention to his girlfriend's attempts to keep him and drove back home.
At this moment, Mrs. Michael had not yet returned from the hospital. To prevent the criminal from returning to harm Mrs. Michael again, she remained at the hospital under police protection.
Many criminals had an inexplicable penchant for silencing witnesses. The chief officer feared this, hence there was no one in Michael’s home.
Upon returning home, Michael Junior began searching every nook and cranny for cash. Mrs. Michael was a full-time homemaker, meaning she kept plenty of loose change at home for emergencies.
Soon, Michael Junior found several hundred bucks in loose change. However, it wasn't enough to cover the bartender's fee. He hesitated for a moment, then opened Michael's study.
When Michael was home, he didn't allow Michael Junior to enter the study without permission. Sometimes there would be some case files or evidence brought back for investigation lying around casually. Once these items were damaged, it would significantly impede the case investigation and unfairly implicate Michael. However, now, these were no longer enough to deter Michael Junior from seeking vengeance for his mother while proving his own ability.
He stood at the door for a while, then cautiously entered the room. Although he knew Michael wasn't at home, he was still extremely cautious.
He casually looked around before focusing on the desk. He had seen Michael occasionally stash change in the drawer. Not everyone liked carrying too many coins as they deformed clothes and made one uncomfortable.
He sequentially opened the drawers and found the money he needed. However, he wasn't satisfied and continued to explore until he opened the second-to-last drawer, where he found a gold ring beneath a document that had a noticeable bump.
He held the ring in his hand, initially intending to put it back, thinking it might belong to Michael or Mrs. Michael. However, during the process of returning it, he noticed an inscription on the inner ring.
Curiosity led him to read it under the light: "My Dearest Katherine."
Michael Junior was momentarily stunned. It was clear that Mrs. Michael's name wasn't Katherine, nor was Michael likely to be called "Katherine" by anyone. Thus, it was undoubtedly someone else's ring, at least prepared to be given to someone else.
The injury Mrs. Michael suffered last night, and his exhaustive efforts to investigate the truth - all shattered in front of this clearly betraying ring.
Anger surged within Michael Junior; they were under threat, yet the head of the family, Michael, had betrayed them!
His initial thought of returning the ring vanished. He clenched the ring in his hand, and after a moment of silence, he decided to use his somewhat immature yet feignedly mature mind to devise a plan for himself.
He wanted to destroy this ring that could potentially disrupt his family harmony. Pretending to be mature, he wanted to give Michael, his father, a chance to redeem himself for the family, just as depicted in many TV shows.
At that moment, he felt he had grown up, matured, and wasn't as naive anymore. It seemed only natural for him to destroy the evidence.
If he sold this ring, he could gather almost enough money.
Sometime later, Michael Junior appeared outside an antique shop. He learned from his father and his colleagues' conversation that some antique shops were involved in selling stolen goods.
They never questioned the origins of items, labeled them as antiques, and then purchased them while issuing receipts.
The antique shop he found was on the other side of the city. The reason he ran so far was to avoid being recognized by the shop's owner. This was his inexplicable way of considering himself mature.
"A gold ring..." The antique shop owner, appearing to be in his fifties with a receding hairline, wearing a brown short-sleeved shirt, inspected the rolling gold ring in his hand and read the inscription inside it. He then looked up at Michael Junior. "How much are you selling it for?"
Michael Junior was somewhat nervous; it was his first time doing such a thing. He didn't want to appear childish and aimed to seem as mature as possible. Feigning composure, he said, "At least five hundred bucks! It's pure gold!"
The antique shop owner sneered, "Just because you say it's pure gold doesn't mean it is. I need to test it with fire. Wait a minute!" Without waiting for Michael Junior's agreement, he took the ring and turned to walk into a room behind him.
A truly experienced person would have noticed some issues. No one would let a ring out of their sight except those immature individuals pretending to be mature.
The antique shop owner quietly picked up the phone in the back room and dialed a private number.
"Someone's selling a ring... Yes, the one you mentioned last time. I understand. I'll keep him occupied."
The antique shop conducted its illicit sales openly because they were "cooperating" with the police or the investigation bureau agents.
If Michael Junior had listened to his father and his colleagues' entire conversation that day, he would have known they hadn't discussed the antique shop's involvement in selling stolen goods but rather had found a clue from the shop.
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