The narrator tells us that he has been approved to go to the medical school at the Shanghai Jiaotong University. He asks if this is the type of school that would promote him to an official position after the internship. The narrator says that a lot of his friends applied for this position, but they did not get approved. He tells the narrator that he and Lin are going to the same school, but that Lin is going to a different school because he wants to be promoted. He says that he is worried that he will not be able to support himself and his family for the rest of his life. Lin tells him that the distance between the two schools is too great for them to be friends.