[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981":3,"chapter-that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-2":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","That Year, the Flowers Bloomed in 1981",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2294420,4489,"Chapter 2: The Tiger That","that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-2",2,"\u003Cp>【First place: Hu Man, 61 points;】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Second place: Han Xia, 57 points;】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Third place.......】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Tenth place: Yan Jinbu, 35 points;】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the thin, small Hu teacher began class, she first announced the top ten scores from this math mock exam, then started going over the problems.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only then did Li Ye realize the little old man wasn’t trying to comfort him—he truly thought 28 points was “just a little low.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Recalling what that troublemaker He Weiguo had said earlier—that last time, he’d missed the cutoff by seven points, scoring only 21—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back then, every high school student had to pass the provincial preliminary exam to qualify for the college entrance exam, and the pass rate was under 50%.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A score of 28? It was solidly in the provincial middle tier. Can you believe it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t fair to blame today’s students for being stupid or lazy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After listening to Hu teacher explain problems for five minutes, Li Ye knew his level was even lower than Li Ye’s own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And he was a math teacher at a county-level remedial class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How long had the college entrance exam been reinstated since 1981? What was the educational environment like?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not only had middle and high school students suffered a knowledge gap from the closed era, but teachers’ own self-education had also been severed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So this was an era of overall revival in knowledge education—students were just as tough and diligent as those in the future, but their knowledge base was truly weak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye once heard a university student from the late 1970s say that when they got their college admission notice, they didn’t even understand linear equations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back then, Li Ye had laughed it off—but now, it didn’t seem so absurd.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Look at Li Ye’s remedial class: students ranged from eighteen or nineteen to over twenty-five.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many of them had to relearn from seventh-grade basics, then compete with peers over ten years older to cross the narrow plank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Li Ye’s former era, a 34-year-old who’d taken the exam fourteen times was a rarity—but now, candidates in their late twenties weren’t uncommon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, just over a decade ago, they’d been vibrant, youthful boys themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The national college admission rate now was 4%—not just for current graduates, but for the entire youth group aged sixteen to early thirties combined.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was normal for high schoolers to retake the exam for three or four years straight; in Li Ye’s class, there were students who’d taken it four times, and most who passed each year were repeaters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even with a total score of over 600, 400+ could get you into a key undergraduate program, and 300+ could land you in a junior college.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Surprising?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unexpected?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye didn’t know that back then, Ma Ali had scored only 19 on his second attempt at the math exam, nor that the average math score was barely over thirty—he only knew he was safe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the problems on this exam, Li Ye didn’t need to dredge up painful memories from his past life—he could solve them effortlessly, by instinct and mental reflex alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wasn’t bragging: if Li Ye took this era’s college entrance exam, it was a massive exploit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You expect high schoolers who can’t even grasp linear equations to compete with kids from the future drilled by relentless cramming?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What kind of experience was it, to be forged through endless mountains of books and seas of practice problems?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could today’s students even comprehend the torment of Huanggang’s secret papers? Could they endure the brutality of Hengshui’s training methods?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to them, Li Ye was Sun Wukong, born from Laozi’s alchemical furnace, refined into a spirit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the rest of the class, Li Ye barely listened to what Hu teacher was explaining on the podium.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He feared that if he listened too much, he’d be tempted to stand up and tell the teacher, “Student is Wei Shen,” then leap over and punch him in the face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Teacher, your explanation of this problem is way too slow, you know?】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Teacher, I know a better way to solve this.】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Spit~! Take this punch!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Transmigrated less than a day—dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye drifted off, quietly activating his mind to retrieve the long-buried “painful memories” from his “hard drive,” reviewing them himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back then, he studied until midnight every night, drowning in endless practice problems and unsolvable equations, riding the boat of books and problems, barely surviving the waves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, every exam that had blinded his eyes, every notebook that had chafed his fingers, if he wished, appeared crystal-clear before him—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and the knowledge points, annotations, details all seeped into his current body’s brain, flexibly merging into one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Copy. Paste. Transported successfully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sow Yi Zei.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That cruel, tear-inducing experience had now become Li Ye’s ultimate secret to leaping over the dragon gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the early 1980s, the dragon gate was real.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No need to rely on your father or grandfather—even if you were just a wild tadpole, you didn’t need your mother—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>just leap hard enough over the college entrance exam gate, and you’d collide with the miraculous fortune of rising as a dragon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The talent gap from previous years had opened vast space for capable, ambitious, diploma-holding young people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the early 1980s, many college graduates rose swiftly to the center of power; countless others held key positions in major state enterprises.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as you weren’t catastrophically unlucky, a college graduate then could use this shortcut to reach the peak of life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the village dogs had become police dogs—no joke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, nothing was absolute: some who passed were watered-down “special talents.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, Ma Zongshi, who pulled off “Lightning Five-Strike Whip,” was a 1977 pioneer student who single-handedly ruined the reputation of “traditional martial arts”—a legendary figure of epic proportions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bell rang. After holding class three minutes past time, Hu teacher left. Students trickled out, many openly smoking in the hallway outside the classroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The remedial class had many twenty-something educated youths—seasoned smokers—and teachers usually didn’t interfere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye didn’t go out for air; he’d had a two-day fever, and his body was still weak, too tired to move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He lay on his desk pretending to nap, sifting through the original owner’s fragmented memories to fully adapt to this world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But just minutes later, hurried, chaotic footsteps rushed toward the classroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Li Ye! Li Ye!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The class monitor, Hu Man, shouted from behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye turned quickly and saw Hu Man staring in terror at someone bursting through the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The intruder was a large, broad-faced man, gripping a broken chair leg, charging in with murderous intent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He Weiguo, I’ll f*** your mother... You tried to kill my brother... I told you before—if you mention that b-word again, I’ll break your legs...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Students in the classroom scattered, clearing a path for the enraged man.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the back, He Weiguo grabbed a weapon and shouted back: “Li Dayong, this is my class, not yours—don’t you dare mess with me, I’m not scared of you!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ll make you call me grandpa...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The broad-faced giant thundered past the podium, his heavy boots pounding the floor like a bear charging toward He Weiguo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as he passed Li Ye’s side, Li Ye grabbed his arm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The original owner’s lingering memories told him: this furious giant was his childhood best friend, here to avenge him for what happened before class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Li Ye had underestimated Li Dayong’s strength and rage—and his own body was still weak. He didn’t stop him; instead, he was yanked off-balance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Dayong instantly halted, steadying Li Ye with concern: “Brother, you okay? You okay?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m fine.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye regained his footing, snatched the chair leg from Li Dayong’s hand, and pulled him toward the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Li Ye “back down,” He Weiguo and his cronies, who’d been tense and ready to fight, perked up again, jeering: “Aoo~ Aoo~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Dayong’s temper flared instantly—but Li Ye reacted faster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t yell. He didn’t charge. He just turned and raised his hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Swoosh~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Clang-clang-clang~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chair leg flew from Li Ye’s hand, arcing across the entire classroom, grazing He Weiguo’s ear before slamming into the blackboard at the back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Weiguo leapt up in shock—if it had hit his head, a bump would’ve been the least of it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He glared at Li Ye in fury—then met his cold, terrifying gaze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Five seconds. Ten seconds. He Weiguo couldn’t utter a single threat. He didn’t even dare breathe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He felt that if he moved even slightly, this tiger would pounce, teeth and claws sinking into his face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Tiger slayer” was just a legend from textbooks—the trick of axe + slide to disembowel a tiger? He Weiguo knew he couldn’t pull it off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only because Li Ye had just come from forty years in the future, where you punch me and I immediately order the latest motorcycle on the spot, was he still adjusting to this era’s lack of legal restraint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, he might’ve actually lunged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But even pure intimidation had reduced He Weiguo to a brief, cowering state—only when Li Ye dragged Li Dayong out the door did He Weiguo finally gasp back to normal breathing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Why didn’t I ever realize he was this terrifying?】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Weiguo took two breaths, looked up—and froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone around him was staring, their expressions strange; some even showed contempt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nothing was more unbearable than this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One moment you’re pounding your chest, roaring like a gorilla—the next you’re tucking your tail between your legs like a lapdog. The contrast is too extreme.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What are you laughing at?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m too good to waste time on a Huang Shiren—what’s so great about a landlord dog?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Spit~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Weiguo spat, swearing: “If he gets into a university in Beijing, God’s gone blind.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1625,"2026-06-20T05:04:59.129Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","b76125f4e5b48b3f04d535b093dac5a73366ed80fe727652b9f833e10a23c492","that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-3","that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-1",884,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthat-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-cover.jpg"]