"That girl was a little skinny! Her butt was small too—not good for bearing children."
"Hiss, what kind of eyes did you old woman have? That little girl stood straight and walked with the wind at her back. She looked delicate, but she was actually tough, just like that sanitation officer we had back then. That kind of grit was far rarer than being good at bearing children."
"Sanitation officer? What sanitation officer? Why hadn't I heard you mention her?"
"We hadn't seen each other for decades. What was there to tell you?"
"Well, well, Li Zhongfa. You hadn't seen her for decades, yet you still remembered her grit? Tonight, when we got home, you'd better explain yourself clearly, or just you wait."
"Aiya, she saved my life back then. How could I not remember her for the rest of my life? What nonsense were you thinking?"
Wen Leyu had already entered the school, completely unaware that the two kindly old people at the gate were scrutinizing her retreating figure and picking her apart, even dredging up an old grudge from years ago.
Li Zhongfa had been a leader for several years and knew how to play tai chi. He immediately changed the subject.
"No matter what that girl was like, as long as Xiao Ye liked her, that was enough. Hadn't you noticed Xiao Ye's recent changes? His spirit was so much better than before."
Grandma Wu Juying snorted. She did not pursue the matter of the sanitation officer any further, but sighed softly, somewhat worried.
"I also think Xiao Ye had changed, but that girl was from out of town. What if one day she flew away like that Lu Jingyao?"
"Where could she fly to?" Li Zhongfa glared. "Our Xiao Ye was about to become a great writer. Next year, once he got into college, even if she flew abroad, he could hook her back. Believe it or not?"
"That's true," Grandma Li nodded. "With our Xiao Ye's looks, take your pick from ten villages and eight towns.
But it would be better if only he got into college. Things were precious when scarce. If you asked me, you shouldn't have gone and done all this. Why help so many outsiders?"
"You even knew that things were precious when scarce? Then did you know that when brothers united as one, they could cut through gold?"
Li Zhongfa rolled his eyes and said unhappily, "If us brothers hadn't been united and looked after one another back then, I would have lost this life long ago. Once Xiao Ye left Qingshui County in the future, wouldn't he still need friends? Need classmates?"
Grandma Li tilted her head and looked at Li Zhongfa darkly. "Didn't you survive because of that sanitation officer? When she saved your life, hadn't you thought of offering yourself to her?"
"..."
Li Zhongfa suddenly felt guilty. Why was a woman's intuition so sharp?
Time flew like a shuttle. In the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed since Li Ye, Hu Man, and the others began leaving school to study on their own.
The school did not pay much attention to Li Ye and the others' actions, nor did any of the trouble Li Ye had worried about occur.
Instead, because Li Ye and the others had left, Retake Class One returned to its former tranquility, much to the relief of Teacher Luo and the others.
There was no more horseplay or cursing in the classroom. There was only the clear sound of reading aloud. All fifty-two students had their heads down, studying hard and enjoying the hard-won learning environment of this era.
This was how retake students ought to be!
Teacher Luo also sighed in relief. Thinking back on the frustrations of over a month ago, he regretted the democratic election that had put Hu Man in the position of class monitor.
More than a month of chaos had disrupted the students' study rhythm. He did not know whether those few top students would lose a few points on next year's college entrance exam.
In these times, a top student under a teacher's care losing a few points was enough to make the teacher's heart ache to death.
Fortunately, the earlier confrontation seemed to have stirred Xia Yue and the others' desire to study. Looking at Xia Yue and Hu Man studying with pent-up determination in the classroom, Teacher Luo began to hope that a loss on the frontier might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
But Teacher Luo never imagined that Retake Class One had already split into two entirely different groups. They were like two trains entering diverging tracks, traveling farther and farther apart.
Most of the students, centered around Xia Yue and Jin Shengli, were like an old, battered steam train that nevertheless brimmed with ambition, belching clouds of black smoke as it chugged and puffed its way uphill.
Li Ye's little group of eight, however, had switched onto electric rails, silently accelerating, accelerating, and accelerating again.
Li Ye and the others left school at five in the afternoon and ate dinner at six. While Jiang Xiaoyan cooked, Hu Man and the others had already begun copying questions and solving them.
After finishing dinner at six-thirty, until they stopped at ten-thirty, Hu Man and the others spent a full four hours pinned by Li Ye in a sea of questions, constantly flailing and choking on water.
By the time they returned to the dormitory, their minds were still filled with questions, questions, questions.
After they left, Li Ye would decide the range and difficulty of the next day's questions based on how they had performed that night.
With the help of the Biological Hard Drive in his mind, Li Ye gradually poured the exam papers from his previous life, from middle school entrance exams to college entrance exams, into Hu Man and the others, from easy to difficult.
If Hu Man and the others could all solve a type of question, that type would be directly skipped. If none of them could solve it, they would continue with it the next day and focus on explaining it.
During daytime classes, Hu Man and the others would concentrate on memorizing and tackling the knowledge that required rote learning.
There was no "exam syllabus" in the 1980s. A great many college entrance exam questions were memorization questions. It was truly an era where more memorization meant more points, and that was the signature skill of retake classes grinding away at the college entrance exam.
Top students like Hu Man and Xia Yue already had a solid foundation in memorization, leaving the middle- and lower-ranking students crowded behind them.
The extra lessons Li Ye gave them at night were battle techniques that took them one step higher, helping them contend at the Mount Hua Sword Tournament and challenge the heroes of the realm.
Now, many times, the teacher would explain a question at the front, and Hu Man and the others would look up and see—
I can solve this one.
I've seen this one before.
Was this question really that easy?
After that happened several times in a row, Hu Man and the others simply stopped looking, putting all their energy into memorization.
Li Ye would sort everything out for them at night anyway. Even if they missed a question, Li Ye would cover for them.
As winter break drew near, Teacher Luo suddenly announced a surprising piece of news in class.
"This semester's final exam was prepared jointly by us and County First High School. The same papers will also be used in graduating classes and retake classes throughout the county."
"You must take it seriously and show all your ability. Don't disgrace our County Second High School."
The class erupted in an uproar, and a tense atmosphere rapidly spread through the entire school.
For ordinary students, a county-wide joint exam might not feel like much. It was just another ordinary final exam.
But for retake students who had already experienced the college entrance exam, the psychological impact was completely different.
This was a rehearsal before the college entrance exam. Only a handful of students in the entire county got into college each year. If they could not achieve an extremely high ranking in the county-wide joint exam, it meant their hopes of getting into college were exceedingly slim.
Yet compared with some people's nervousness, Hu Man and the others in the group of eight were rubbing their fists and itching for a fight, ready to test their own weight in this exam.
"How high do you think we can rank this time?"
"I don't know compared to County First High School, but compared to our class... we could get into the top ten, right?"
"Mm, top ten."
Hu Man narrowed her eyes, though her words did not quite match what she truly felt.
Her goal this time was not to rank in the class's top ten. She wanted to wrestle with Xia Yue and Jin Shengli, the grade's top two.
Hu Man had performed poorly on last year's college entrance exam and had been assigned to Class Two when the retake classes were divided. She had been somewhat dissatisfied from the start.
After entering Class One, she had clashed with Xia Yue again. Now that she had the chance, she would definitely have a secret bout with Xia Yue and see who was stronger.
But they had only exchanged a few words when Li Ye, who was directing Jiang Xiaoyan as she cooked nearby, turned his head. "Who said you were going to rank in the top ten?"
Hu Man blinked, sensing that something was wrong. Then she heard Li Ye say loudly, "None of you are allowed to rank in the top ten."
"..."
The whole group was dumbfounded. They had learned the craft, but were not allowed to show it off? What was Li Ye trying to pull?
Li Ye walked over solemnly and wrote two large Chinese characters on the little blackboard.
"From today onward, all of you must learn a skill—Score Control!"
"Before the college entrance exam, none of the exams you take may attract anyone else's attention. Your class ranking could only be lower than before, never higher."
"..."
Han Xia had a quick temper and immediately objected. "Why? Why couldn't we score higher than Xia Yue?"
But Hu Man grabbed Han Xia. She had already vaguely understood Li Ye's intention.
"Li Ye, was this for secrecy? To avoid trouble?"
"Correct. It was for secrecy."
Li Ye explained, "If your grades suddenly changed drastically, the teachers would not stand by and do nothing. How would you keep it secret then?
"Once our secret leaked, if Teacher Luo came to ask me for questions, I could ignore him. But what about Principal Chang? Or people who were even harder to deal with?"
This was why Li Ye had gone to such lengths, even willing to suffer losses, to isolate himself from Retake Class One.
Compared to later times, the 1980s were even more of a society built on personal connections. If Hu Man and the others' grades improved drastically, believe it or not, someone would pull strings to reach Li Ye's grandfather that very night.
Li Ye said very seriously, "My ability was limited. At most, I could look after just a few of you.
"If more people joined, I would have neither the time nor the energy to tailor suitable questions according to each person's different situation.
"Nor would I give you targeted, individual explanations anymore. Your college entrance exam scores would inevitably be affected. Were you willing to accept that?"
Hu Man, Han Xia, and the others pressed their lips tightly together. No one spoke.
But they all had the same thought in their hearts: Whoever dared affect my college entrance exam score, this old mother would tear him alive.
Li Ye smiled smugly. "Now then, did anyone still want to rank in the top ten?"
But Jiang Xiaoyan, holding a spatula, timidly raised her hand.
"I want to rank in the top ten."
Before you continue