On Monday afternoon, after school, Lip took Mandy on the subway to the University of Chicago to find the University of Chicago philosophy professor named Hearst.

The campus of the University of Chicago is less than ten kilometers away from the Gallagher House, which is only ten minutes away by car and half an hour by bicycle.

If you take the subway, you need to change from the pink line to the green line, and Cordez station to Garfield station, because there are many detours, so it takes almost an hour.

When he found Professor Hearst's office, he was almost out of work.

Professor Hearst originally had a lecture, and he had waited until now to wait for Lip, and the time for the lecture was about to come, so he told Lip to go out and talk as he went.

"So, in addition to being an investigator for the National Council on Education, you're also a professor at a university?" Lip said.

"I'm a part-time investigator for the National Council on Education, and I'm a college professor, and I'm also the admissions officer for the school!" Hearst said.

"There's a lot of work!" Lip said.

"Life is so hard! If you want to live better, of course, you have to work harder! Working as an investigator for the National Board of Education allowed me to buy a boat, and now I can go wind-fishing on Lake Michigan on the weekends and enjoy life!" Hearst said.

"However, being an admissions officer at the University of Chicago, I don't have any money to take it, this is my interest! I, the admissions officer, will not make a move easily, only when I meet someone like you!" Hurst raised an eyebrow.

"What is it like for someone like me?" asked Lip.

"Genius! a genius like you!" Hearst said.

"Wow! It's the first time I've been said that, and at school, everyone calls me a nerd!" Lip said.

"Hehe, you're not a nerd, a nerd can't do anything like that!" Hearst said.

"Life is so hard! I can't afford to buy a boat and go on vacation on Lake Michigan, but I can live a little better!" Lip said.

"Okay, I won't talk to you! I want you to come to college next semester, of course, to apply to the University of Chicago! When you go back, you will prepare your usual grades, or applications, and you don't have to prepare the letters of recommendation yourself, I will write them for you!" Hirst said.

Lip was waiting for Hearst's words, but now he had to make a reluctant look, "I can't! I'm only in 11th grade now, and I still have a year and a half to graduate, and I still have a lot of credits to go!"

"Then hurry up and take it! You can get a perfect score on the SAT, and those high school courses are not too difficult for you!" Hearst said.

"And how to solve the tuition fees? There are also accommodation fees, food expenses, textbook fees, you should know my family situation, I can't afford to pay such high tuition and fees!" Lip said.

"You can apply for scholarships, or other grants, or student loans!" Hearst said.

"And then after four years of college, I'm going to have a $500,000 loan and work for a bank for decades!" Lipper said.

"Isn't it what you're best at taking advantage of the government, and besides, don't talk about you, I'm now, and I'm still worried about paying my mortgage every month!" said Hearst, patting Lip on the shoulder.

"Wow, you're a professor at the University of Chicago, and you're still worried about these things, so the path you found me isn't that easy!" Lip said.

"It's better than the other!" Hearst said.

"What's the other way?" asked Lip.

Hearst glanced back, and Mandy was listening to Hearst's assistant teacher explain the scenery along the way, and said to Lip, "The other way is that one day you make the belly of the girl who came with you bigger, and then you drop out of high school and find a job to support them!"

"If you are lucky, when you are thirty years old, you can become the supervisor of the supermarket, or the foreman of the restaurant, but it is more likely that soon after you join the company, you will be overwhelmed by the repetitive work every day, and then go home every day and face firewood, rice, oil and salt, and wait for the birth of the child, your nightmare will really come!"

"Believe me, you're never just such a big little thing, how can you have such amazing energy to drive people crazy!"

"Then, you'll use alcoholism, or @drugs, to escape reality!"

"If you meet a good girl, she may help you re-accept reality, and then you spend an ordinary life with her......; Bad girl, she is just as unbearable as you are under the weight of life, and she is driven crazy, then your life will be ......"

"Like my father?" said Lip.

"Your father?" Hearst asked.

"Yes, he's a drunkard, he gave birth to six of us siblings, but he never did anything for us, my mom is what you call a 'bad girl', she ran away from home when Liam was two months old, and now she doesn't see anyone alive or dead, we all treat her as dead!" Lip said.

"Okay, it seems that you know a lot about this path, do you want to repeat your father's life?" said Hirst.

Lip was silent.

After a while, he said to Hirst, "If I accept the first path, can you help me apply for a full scholarship?"

"That's what you need to do nicely! And if I get a scholarship for you, you'll need to sign up with the University of Chicago and not apply to any other university!" Hearst said.

"Deal!" was what Lip was waiting for.

"But I can only guarantee that you will get a scholarship in your first academic year, and whether you can get a scholarship in the next few years depends on your own ability! If you don't study hard in college and don't get a comprehensive score of B or above, your scholarship qualification will be cancelled!" Hirst reminded.

"Understood!" said Lip.

As Hearst walked into the school building, Mandy leaned over and asked, "How did you talk to him?"

"Let's go! When I go back and finish the rest of my high school credits, I can prepare my materials and apply to the University of Chicago, and Professor Hearst can help me get a full scholarship, so if all goes well, I can come here next fall!" Lip said.

"Really, great!" Mandy said heartily happy for Lip.

"It's not far from Wallace North Street, and when I come here to go to school, if you don't understand anything about your studies, you can come to me! City College of Chicago is not far from here, and you can apply to that community college in the future if you want." Lip said.