When I first had my library card I was in grade three. Before that I had never gone to a library, the place that I lived before didn't have one. Before that, I owned an illustrated version of The Four Classic Chinese Novels, adapted for children. I did not like neither of them, nor do I understand its content. I've never encountered classmates from my school during my weekends there.
Wang Zhen did not have a library card, she was the daughter of my parents' colleague who lived upstairs. She'd borrow from the employee's library at our parents workplace, there is a shelf for children. Now I am curious where the children come from in the children's reading room.After Wang Zhen's family moved out from the employee dormitory building, I visited her in her new home. We went to Ling Yu Bookstore together. Plastic bags from Ling Yu bookstore were a common sight circa 2002, later that branch had closed.
It's fair to say that Wang Zhen and I were two nodes that nourished from overlapping networks. Our parents worked in the same place. Because of that, Wang Zhen, me and other employee's children all went to the affiliated middle school. Upon finishing middle school, my father and her father schemed into midnight about our high school choice. We ended up in the same high school together.
Last November, when Wang Zhen was preparing application for going to France for school, the minister of France, Edouard Philippe announced that tuition for non-EU students will increase to over around 3000 euros; at the same time the near 3000 account for one third of actual cost to educate one student. The rest is subsidized by the government.