Chapter 3

Li Ye pulled Li Dazhuang out of the classroom. Li Dazhuang skillfully took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, handed one to Li Ye, and struck a match to light it for him.

"Brother, you shouldn't have stopped me just now. That bastard He Weiguo is pushing his luck. I told you last time, if he mentions that b again, I'll break his legs..."

Others were wary of He Weiguo's teacher uncle, but Li Dazhuang wasn't afraid. His grandfather's family was all in the power system, and the people in charge of the power grid were as powerful as those in charge of the radish heads.

But no matter how powerful Li Dazhuang's grandfather was, if he really cracked He Weiguo's head open, it would be a huge trouble, which was why Li Ye had held him back just now.

"It's not worth getting angry with this kind of person, cough cough cough..."

Li Ye only took one puff before he was choked into coughing.

What kind of thing is this?

Li Ye picked up the cigarette and looked at it carefully for two seconds, then threw it away in disgust.

Never mind that it didn't have a filter, but the tobacco inside was pitch black and uneven in length, mixed with a lot of small sticks. It looked like a piece of garbage made from scraps.

But before the cigarette Li Ye threw away hit the ground, Li Dazhuang nimbly darted out and grabbed it before several other classmates.

"My fault, my fault, I forgot that your throat is still uncomfortable from the fever. But this is all the rations I have. It's not like you, who can afford to smoke Daqian Sect..."

"..."

Watching Li Dazhuang extinguish the cigarette and carefully put it back into his flat cigarette case, Li Ye couldn't help but want to laugh.

However, he felt his pants pocket and sure enough, pulled out a pack of Daqian Sect.

"Here, smoke mine!"

Li Ye pulled one out and gave it to Li Dazhuang, then looked at the gazes of the people around him and casually started distributing them.

Several familiar classmates hurriedly took them, lit them, and started enjoying the smoke.

Students these days weren't like the "little emperors" of the past life, each with hundreds of dollars in their pockets, not blinking an eye when eating Haagen-Dazs or staying in a hotel with a girl.

Everyone generally had no money. It was normal to have a few cents of pocket money a month. Having a few dollars in assets made you a "monopoly."

With little money in hand, you had to be frugal. Students with poor conditions rolled their own cigarettes with tobacco leaves. Eight-cent "Economic" and nine-cent "Mass" cigarettes were quite presentable for student smokers.

If you smoked a fifteen-cent Goldfish, you'd have quite a bit of face among the students. If you gritted your teeth and bought a pack of twenty-three-cent Harvest, you'd definitely attract a lot of envy, jealousy, and hatred.

And Li Ye was the kind of person who was often envied, jealous, and hated.

Li Ye had a very bitter childhood. His father and grandfather had both lost their jobs, and he had no impression of his mother at all. It was said that she had divorced for special reasons and then never appeared again.

After his grandfather and father returned to work, Li Ye received compensation in the form of pampering. The Daqian Sect in his pocket and the brand-new Warrior shoes on his feet were luxury items that his little friends envied.

The Warrior shoes of this era were much more impressive than the Nikes and Adidases of Li Ye's past life. Whoever had a pair of new Warrior shoes could have their appearance and aura boosted by a few points.

So Li Ye had lived quite well for the past few years, until Lu Jingyao's backstab attack a few months ago, which turned a pure, kind, and confident little handsome guy into a timid, insecure, and withdrawn introverted man.

Li Ye and Lu Jingyao were high school classmates. He was handsome, she was beautiful, and in the season of youthful budding, they sparked the flames of love.

However, in this era, although the term "free love" had long existed, the Chinese people were still very reserved and traditional.

If middle school students in '81 were in puppy love, it was definitely "not learning well." Holding hands would probably be criticized by teachers, putting an arm around a waist would probably get you expelled, and if you dared to kiss, the spit would drown you.

So Li Ye followed the normal folk process—engagement.

Although the country was implementing family planning at this time, the local customs hadn't been corrected so quickly. It was very normal for eighteen-year-old children to get engaged. There were even classmates in Li Ye's class who were married without certificates at twenty!

Last winter, Li Ye begged his family to go and propose, paying the price of 120 yuan, a Phoenix bicycle, plus fish, meat, and various supplies, to make the Li family and the Lu family in-laws.

Just this dowry was enough to be counted in the entire Qingshui County.

Li Ye's grandfather was an old revolutionary who worked in the grain system after returning to work, and his father was a workshop director at a fertilizer plant. The conditions were quite good.

Lu Jingyao's father was just a substitute middle school teacher without a formal position. No matter how you looked at it, this marriage was the Lu family climbing up.

After the engagement, the Li family not only paid for the Lu family's house repairs but also used their connections to help Lu's father solve the problem of his formal position. It could be said that they truly treated Lu Jingyao as a granddaughter-in-law.

But when Lu Jingyao got into university a few months ago, everything changed.

After Lu Jingyao received her admission notice, the Li family immediately made a decision to have the two children get married.

Li Ye, who was fantasizing about the upcoming wedding night, ran excitedly to the Lu family to share this "good news."

In his view, the love between him and Lu Jingyao, which he had pursued regardless of his family's opposition and despite their mismatched status, had finally blossomed and borne fruit. The contraceptives he had hidden away were about to be put to great use.

But the Lu family's reaction dealt Li Ye a heavy blow.

The memory fragments inherited by Li Ye clearly recorded the scene of the next day.

Lu Jingyao's father, who had been cowardly for half his life, carried two big fish and half a pig's carcass, climbed the Li family's door timidly, and then pulled out a handful of small change that was clearly borrowed from here and there.

"My Jingyao got into university. She might not return to Qingshui County after she starts working, so... let's not delay your Li Ye anymore... I've returned the dowry... there's still 45 yuan missing, I'll pay it back soon..."

The Li family's anger was imaginable.

If it had just been a free love affair between two children, breaking up would have been fine. But Lu Jingyao and Li Ye had gone through the formal engagement process and had received the congratulations of the Li family's relatives and friends.

Could this kind of humiliation be tolerated?

Even Xiao Yan couldn't tolerate it, right?

Pestering and refusing to let go was not the style of a soldier. Li Ye's father, Li Kaijian, ignored Li Ye's pleas, took no action to save the relationship, and immediately threw the returned dowry out the door, cursing himself for being blind and saying the dowry was just fed to the dogs.

But turning around, Li Kaijian took his anger out on Li Ye, giving the original owner a beating with a leather belt that left his buttocks bruised and unable to sit on a stool.

【You're both going to the same school, why can't you get into university?】

【If it weren't for you insisting on marrying his daughter, how could I be so embarrassed?】

Li Ye felt aggrieved. Even though his buttocks were swollen and he couldn't ride a bike, he still had Li Dazhuang carry him to question Lu Jingyao.

At the door of Lu Jingyao's house, the Lu family's door was closed and they wouldn't receive Li Ye. It was still the loud-mouthed Li Dazhuang who started cursing directly, attracting the neighbors, before Lu's father led Lu Jingyao to see Li Ye once.

Lu's father said awkwardly: "I actually quite like you, Li Ye. If you can get into BJ next year... I won't stop you two..."

And when Lu's father said these words, Lu Jingyao stood by, head lowered, saying nothing, but her clenched fists and trembling body showed the resentment in her heart.

The simple-minded Li Ye believed Lu Jingyao's father's words and signed up for the repeating class at County No. 2 Middle School to prepare for the exam.

But a few days ago, a remittance slip from Beijing was sent directly to the school.

Lu Jingyao had actually sent Li Ye 45 yuan.

College students in the eighties had a "salary." The state would give Lu Jingyao a subsidy of 22.5 yuan every month for her food and clothing. She had saved it up for a few months just to get together 45 yuan. How strong was her desire to get rid of Li Ye?

No matter how slow Li Ye was, he understood Lu Jingyao's determination.

What was even worse was that several girls who had been on good terms with Lu Jingyao received letters from her, and no one knew what kind of story they had made up. Overnight, a large number of rumors appeared in the school.

They painted Li Ye as "Huang Shiren," forcing the Lu family to pay back the money, and if they didn't, they would use Lu Jingyao, this "Xi'er," to pay off the debt.

The original owner, who had been carefully protected by his family since childhood, had never been stained with such filth. He fell ill in bed that night and his soul flew away, allowing Li Ye from decades later to occupy the magpie's nest.

And the reason Li Dazhuang was so angry when he went to find He Weiguo just now was also because of this matter.

Everyone knew that Li Ye had just had a serious illness because of Lu Jingyao. Now that He Weiguo had said such heart-piercing words, Li Dazhuang wanted to smash his dog head.

When the cigarette was almost finished, several girls walked over and stood in front of Li Ye.

Li Ye had a deep impression of one of the round-faced girls; she was Lu Jingyao's "best friend," Xia Yue, who had also received a letter from Lu Jingyao a few days ago.

Xia Yue held a book, handed it to Li Ye, and said coldly: "This is a law book Jingyao sister sent you. Study it well."

Li Ye looked at the bright red book title "New Marriage Law" on the cover and asked with some surprise: "Are you sure it's sent to me?"

Xia Yue raised her eyebrows and said: "Of course it's sent to you. Someone like you needs to read more books and learn more law, so as not to..."

Li Ye interrupted her before Xia Yue could finish and said coldly: "Since it's sent to me, why did you open it without permission? Don't you know that opening other people's mail without permission is illegal?"

"..."

"A person who breaks the law mocks others for needing to learn the law. Don't you find it ridiculous?"

Xia Yue was stumped by Li Ye, opened her mouth, but couldn't say a word.

Looking at the strange gazes of the onlookers around her, Xia Yue's round face instantly flushed red.

"Hmph, no matter how you argue, you're still Huang Shiren."

In the end, Xia Yue still used her "unreasonable" attribute ultimate move, threw the book at Li Ye, and turned away.

"Who are you calling Huang Shiren? Stand still, have you been spreading rumors these past few days..."

Li Dazhuang immediately started cursing, but Xia Yue and the other girls walked away like proud peacocks.

Li Ye stopped Li Dazhuang from chasing after them, opened the book Lu Jingyao had sent, and found that this book had already been read by someone, with many paragraphs and articles marked with conspicuous red ink.

The "New Marriage Law" was promulgated on January 1, 1981, and it emphasized "freedom of marriage," and the parts marked in red were exactly related to this.

Li Ye was truly speechless.

What kind of sin did the original owner commit in his past life?

A dignified, handsome, and well-off kind child, how did he choose to fall in love with a girl who wields legal weapons?

Do you know how dangerous this is?

What's the difference between this and those medical girls who explain the principle of sponge expansion while clapping, and who crazily avoid vital points when they stab you?

The former ruins your wealth, the latter takes your life. Playing with wool?

Li Dazhuang saw that Li Ye had been silent and thought Li Ye was sad because of Lu Jingyao again, so he said bitterly: "Brother, why don't you and I go to Beijing to find her? Since she dares to be Chen Shimei, I'll shout it out so the whole school knows..."

Li Ye shook his head and smiled: "Chen Shimei is a top scholar. Is she qualified?"

Li Dazhuang said unwillingly: "Then just let her bully you like this? It's too bullying!"

Li Ye closed the book and said softly: "That won't do. But going to Beijing is too troublesome. Why should we look far away?"

"Brother, what do you mean?"

"Nothing, come with me to collect a debt after school today."

Originally, Li Ye didn't want to get entangled with Lu Jingyao anymore. After all, it was the original owner's past entanglement, but now it seems he still needs to give her a reminder not to make trouble for no reason.

"Reputation" is very important in this era. Being labeled as Huang Shiren might even affect his future entry into the party or marrying a wife. *** **Chapter 4: The Smart People of the Era**