Failures

  1. Two entrance exams

    2018–2022

    I did badly in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam. Later, one failed attempt at the kaoyan, the national postgraduate entrance exam, cost me a year. At root, both came down to my own ignorance at the time, and both left deep scars. Even now, I sometimes dream it is the night before the gaokao or the kaoyan, and wake up with a start in the middle of the night.

  2. My first paper

    2024–2025

    It was rejected five times before it was accepted.