Chapter 51: Chapter Fifty-One: What Kind of Students Are These?

County No. 2 Middle School valued the end-of-year exam in late 1981 far more than Li Ye had imagined.

Not only did County No. 1 and No. 2 Middle Schools jointly prepare the exam papers, but the invigilators were also jointly assigned from both schools, and even the examination rooms were swapped.

The remedial class from County No. 2 went to take the exam in County No. 1’s classrooms, while County No. 1’s students came to County No. 2.

Even the exam papers were printed collectively, sealed in envelopes, and opened on-site.

It was said this was a “clever suggestion” from a teacher at County No. 1.

Because in past years, students from both schools had underperformed due to psychological pressure, the school aimed to simulate the solemn atmosphere of the college entrance exam to strengthen students’ mental resilience.

Precisely because it was too complicated, they didn’t scramble classes or assign single desks as in the college entrance exam.

Li Ye wasn’t sure how effective this system was, but today’s students indeed had poor emotional regulation.

As soon as the papers were distributed, Li Ye noticed several classmates sweating on their foreheads, their pens trembling slightly.

【Pure-hearted kids, never beaten by the cruelty of society! Back in my day, I knelt twenty-three times straight—my fingers were as steady as an old dog.】

Li Ye flattened the paper, his pen gliding across the page, weaving precise lines into correct answers—calm, composed, like an old... damn it.

Today’s first exam was math; the easy warm-up questions required no thought from Li Ye—he finished them in a daze.

When he turned to the second page, the invigilator at the podium walked down and passed along the aisle to stand behind Li Ye.

Li Ye glanced back, then silently lowered his head and kept writing, offering no acknowledgment.

Over two months had passed, and Li Ye hadn’t expected to see Yao Director from County No. 1 again.

Yao Director was the main organizer of this county-wide joint exam; logically, he should have stayed in his office overseeing things, yet he personally took on the role of invigilator.

When assigning exam rooms, Yao Director “coincidentally” ended up assigned to County No. 2’s elite class—the remedial class One.

When Yao Director saw Li Ye, he was also taken aback.

He remembered Li Ye’s academic performance—it fell far below County No. 1’s standard for regular remedial students.

If a student like Li Ye could enter County No. 2’s elite remedial class, then County No. 2’s student quality must be abysmal.

As soon as the exam began, Yao Director’s hawk-like sharp eyes scanned the students in Class One repeatedly.

Yao Director’s purpose today wasn’t just to catch cheaters—he also wanted to identify County No. 2’s top students.

His method was simple: three exam papers per subject; whoever finished the first paper first became his focus.

【Is it Jin Shengli? Or Xia Yue?】

Yao Director had done his homework; some students from County No. 1 knew Xia Yue and Jin Shengli, so both were pre-selected by him.

But no matter how hard he guessed, he never imagined Li Ye—the “poor student”—would finish the first paper first, and at an astonishing speed.

Yao Director was a math teacher; he knew the difficulty of this paper inside out.

【Even copying couldn’t be this fast. Is he just leaving everything blank?】

Unable to suppress his curiosity, Yao Director strode quickly behind Li Ye.

What he saw was Li Ye rapidly solving the second paper—his speed was unbelievable.

Even copying from an answer key wouldn’t be much faster.

Yao Director’s first thought: the exam papers had been leaked.

But he immediately dismissed the idea.

It was just an end-of-term exam, not the college entrance exam—who’d bother stealing papers?

Not worth it.

【Could I have misjudged him? Is this kid a genius?】

Yao Director stood behind Li Ye, watching him fill in answer after answer, solve problem after problem.

Correct. Correct. And still damn correct.

As Li Ye neared completion of the second paper, Yao Director suddenly felt overwhelming regret.

【This kid won’t get a perfect score, will he? How did I reject a student like this?】

But the next moment, the pen that had been flowing smoothly across Li Ye’s paper suddenly stopped.

Then he flipped back to the first paper and stared intently at the easy questions.

Left, right, front, back—he examined them.

After finishing the first paper, he turned to the second.

Yao Director was baffled and finally couldn’t hold back: “Why aren’t you working? What are you looking at?”

Li Ye replied coldly: “I’m checking my answers.”

Yao Director blinked, gritted his teeth: “There are still so many hard questions left—why check the easy ones?”

Li Ye answered instantly: “I can’t solve the rest.”

“............”

Yao Director’s vision darkened—he nearly spat yellow phlegm onto Li Ye.

【If you can’t solve them, just say so—why answer so confidently?】

Yao Director stormed off in anger, but soon returned.

Because Wen Leyu was the second student in the class to finish the second paper.

Yao Director studied Wen Leyu’s answers closely—her ability, even at County No. 1, was top-tier.

But when he reached the difficult problems, he couldn’t understand her work.

Wen Leyu didn’t simply write “can’t solve,” but her scratch paper was covered in chaotic scribbles, like demonic glyphs.

After a long while, Yao Director suddenly understood.

These scribbles were Wen Leyu’s mental calculation aids—numbers and symbols.

She hadn’t written out any equations on her scratch paper; if she could calculate mentally, she wouldn’t write a single step. A problem with five or six steps might only have half a step written down.

Yet every final answer was correct.

“Cough.”

Li Ye cleared his throat softly; Wen Leyu immediately copied him, stopping her writing to check her earlier answers.

Yao Director exclaimed urgently: “Miss, you haven’t finished yet!”

Wen Leyu coldly replied: “Can’t solve.”

Yao Director: “..........”

【What kind of students has County No. 2 taken in?】

Compared to Li Ye and Wen Leyu’s “can’t solve,” many students in the exam hall were truly unable to solve.

This year’s exam was extremely difficult.

Even Xia Yue and Jin Shengli struggled heavily, let alone average students.

But the members of the eight-person group were relatively relaxed.

Hu Man, Li Dayong, and others didn’t have Li Ye or Wen Leyu’s talent, but they could answer most memorization questions reasonably well, and for the hard problems, either they knew how to solve them or figured out the correct approach after some thought.

Except for Jiang Xiaoyan, they all did their calculations only on scratch paper—on the exam paper, they either left the hard problems blank or scribbled nonsense.

The skill of score control was beginning to show.

Jiang Xiaoyan quietly tilted her head toward Jin Shengli in front-left.

Seeing he was already working on the third-to-last major problem, she sighed in relief and quickly copied the steps and answers from her scratch paper onto the fourth-to-last problem on her exam paper.

After Li Ye explained the importance of score control, Jiang Xiaoyan was the only one who raised her hand, declaring she wanted to rank in the top ten.

At the time, she had bowed her head, bracing for Li Ye’s scolding.

But Li Ye had just stared at her for a long time, then lightly agreed—only warning her to be careful, not to exceed the target, and to barely squeeze into the top ten.

Jiang Xiaoyan was deeply moved; she thanked Li Ye for not questioning her, preserving her dignity.

In truth, Jiang Xiaoyan’s remedial journey had been extremely rough. Her grandparents strongly opposed her continuing to retake the year.

Because a retake student cost over a hundred yuan per year—fifty or sixty per semester.

“What’s the point spending money on a girl? She’ll just end up married off anyway.”

Her father was meek and silent; if her mother hadn’t been fierce and borrowed thirty yuan from her aunt’s family, Jiang Xiaoyan couldn’t have even paid her tuition.

But that thirty-yuan debt was a thorn in a family that lived off the land.

When she returned home last time to carry grain, her grandfather gave her a final ultimatum:

“If you don’t rank in the top ten this semester, don’t come back next year—save the money for Huzi’s retake.”

Jiang Xiaoyan cried all night, then left before dawn, carrying her grain.

Huzi was her younger brother—he’d already retaken middle school twice and still hadn’t passed high school. Why let him retake again while denying her, a high school student?

Just because he had a penis?

Two months ago, Jiang Xiaoyan would never have dreamed of the top ten—her grades barely placed her in the top twenty.

But then she’d joined Li Ye’s circle, and her scores steadily improved, giving her the confidence to continue.

This was also one of the main reasons she’d stood by Li Ye during the recent conflicts.

What Li Ye gave her, no one else could.

Because it was freedom over fate.

So this time, Jiang Xiaoyan resolved to follow Li Ye’s orders strictly—each subject, score just slightly below Jin Shengli, and she’d safely land between fifth and tenth.

But she could only see which problems Jin Shengli hadn’t solved, not whether he’d solved them correctly—so she remained anxious.

【If only I could see more clearly.】

Jiang Xiaoyan stretched her neck again—when suddenly a furious shout rang out.

"Do your own exam paper; next time it will be treated as cheating."

Jiang Xiao panicked and quickly pulled her head back.