Chapter 52: Chapter Fifty-Two: I Wanted to Take It Easy, But You Guys Just Won

Li Ye’s final exams went smoothly enough,

because after the first exam, he went to find Teacher Luo and accused Director Yao of trying to poach students.

The director of instruction at County No. 2 High, Tang Feiyu, rode his bicycle over in a flash,

then pulled Director Yao aside, chuckling and joking about something—anyway, he disrupted the proctor’s duties and spared Li Ye the sight of him.

After the exams ended, the school prepared to close for the holiday, waiting only for the results to be posted before everyone went home with their report cards.

Students who did well would be praised by their mothers and enjoy a joyful New Year.

But for those who did poorly? Who knew what kind of punishment—mental and physical—they’d face.

During the two days waiting for results, Li Ye saw several students crying.

Because after exams, everyone always compared answers—and the more they compared, the more they got wrong, until they finally broke down.

Eighteen- and nineteen-year-old boys cried like children, both pitiful and absurd to watch.

In this era, students’ minds were simple; in their lives, there were no King of Glory or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds to vent emotions,

no distracting action teachers—only studying and passing exams, and when that obsession was shaken, the emotional turmoil ran deep.

Back then, sudden emotional shifts often led to mental trauma and serious illness—far from rare.

But within the eight-member group, the atmosphere was surprisingly good.

“I got all three of those questions right—don’t believe me? Look at my final answers.”

“I got two right, but that one... how did I mess that up?”

"Calculating it up, I got about 55 points correct, but didn't write them on the exam paper."

“I got about 60... add in the estimated score from the paper, and it’s 360... that can’t be right!”

“The questions were a bit easy this time—probably meant to boost our confidence by lowering the difficulty...”

Li Dayong, Hu Man, and others were also comparing answers; though they didn’t match Li Ye’s near-perfect scores, they all felt pretty good—even disbelieving.

After all, 360 points on the college entrance exam would already guarantee admission to a junior college, and with bold choices, even a regular college.

But after carefully observing Xia Yue and Jin Shengli for two straight days, Li Ye had a different take.

“These exam questions weren’t easy—those few have been frowning for two days straight.”

The afternoon after the exam ended, Director Tang of County No. 2 High’s instruction office, homeroom teacher Luo, and several subject teachers walked into the remedial class one.

Xia Yue hurriedly told the students in the front row to move to the back and share benches with others so the teachers could sit.

Director Tang stepped onto the podium and whispered to Xia Yue: “Go get Zhuang Hongxing from Class Three.”

Xia Yue rushed off and soon returned with a student with premature gray hair, seating him.

“Cough, everyone’s here! I’ll announce a few things.”

Director Tang’s voice rang out: “The purpose of this county-wide mock exam is to assess your hidden potential, so the questions were deliberately harder—don’t lose confidence just because your scores are low.”

Below the podium, Xia Yue, Jin Shengli, and others immediately looked relieved.

But Hu Man, Han Xia, Fu Yingjie, and others exchanged glances, their eyes anxious.

Especially Jiang Xiao Yan—her face turned deathly pale, sweat breaking out.

【The questions were harder? How could they be harder? Not... too hard at all!】

“This exam was designed to gauge your hidden potential so we can better guide your college application choices in a few months,”

Director Tang continued on the podium: “You should know that every university has limited enrollment slots each year—

for example, last year, Peking University admitted only thirty-some students from our province, and Peking Foreign Languages College only forty-some.”

“If everyone rushes to apply to the same school, you’ll end up clashing—

so we’ll hold more mock exams to fully map your true scores and coordinate with sister schools to make the best application choices.”

Li Ye understood: Director Tang wanted students with similar scores across the county to spread out their applications, increasing their chances of admission.

Whether this method worked, Li Ye didn’t know—but the college application system in the early eighties was truly bizarre.

Unlike today, where you apply after seeing your scores—or even after the exam—you applied before taking the college entrance exam at all.

That meant candidates submitted their applications before even sitting for the exam, leaving them no chance to estimate their scores.

This made admission wildly uncertain.

Some students performed exceptionally well and got in with scores dozens of points above the cutoff.

Others performed poorly and failed miserably, watching classmates they’d always outperformed get accepted.

Of course, some overestimated their abilities and applied too ambitiously, or were too timid and wasted their scores.

In short: guess blindly, and pray for luck.

For example, in the early eighties, new students at Qinghua and Peking University had score differences exceeding a hundred points—

meaning a 550 and a 450 could both get in. Was that fair? This was a national exam!

The only basis for applications was your ranking in school performance.

At this time, compiling a city-wide ranking was impossible,

so County No. 1 and No. 2 Highs had teamed up to create a county-wide ranking to give everyone a clearer sense of where they stood.

“Cough, quiet down—I’ll now announce the top twenty students in our school’s exam.”

“Twentieth place: Yang Shugao, 271 points.”

“Nineteenth place...”

“Eleventh place: Li Dayong, 294 points.”

「..........」

“Ninth place: Qi Meijuan, 301 points.”

Xia Yue had turned around three times already, staring at Li Dayong.

In her mind, Li Dayong was a student ranked outside the top thirty in remedial class one—sure, he might ace a few subjects, but his total score shouldn’t have cracked the top twenty.

Though Director Tang didn’t say it outright, the top twenty were clearly the ones needing to “coordinate applications with sister schools”—the students most likely to get in.

Those outside the top twenty had slim chances.

【Li Dayong scored 294—so how much did Hu Man get? What about Wen Leyu?】

Xia Yue grew anxious and glanced secretly at Jin Shengli, who was watching her with equal tension.

How many of that isolated eight-member group had a shot at college?

Hu Man was a strong student—Xia Yue knew that. Wen Leyu didn’t need mentioning—just her English alone could lift her score by thirty or forty points.

Right now, it looked like Li Ye’s group would have at least three in the top twenty, with two in the top ten.

This... was unacceptable.

【Fourth place: Xia Yue, 316 points.】

When Director Tang called Xia Yue’s name, her heart sank, then filled with bitter resentment.

She had always believed she was the top student at County No. 2 High.

Jin Shengli might have seemed slightly ahead, but he was already on his third year of remedial study,

Lu Jingyao had written to Xia Yue saying students like Jin Shengli had exhausted their potential—further progress was nearly impossible.

Only someone like her—experienced in the exam, solidly grounded, with huge untapped potential—was most likely to get into college.

【How am I fourth? Am I three ranks behind Jin Shengli? And... I lost to Hu Man and Wen Leyu?】

Xia Yue hunched over, head down, staring fixedly at her hands, her nose tingling, something threatening to spill out.

Losing to Jin Shengli, she could accept—but losing to Hu Man? Unthinkable.

They’d recently screamed at each other, even insulting each other’s parents—now losing to her? Absolute humiliation.

But just as this thought formed in Xia Yue’s mind, she heard Jin Shengli’s name.

“Third place: Jin Shengli, 318 points.”

The entire class erupted.

Everyone turned to stare at Hu Man.

Last time, Hu Man had been top of remedial class two, transferred to class one because of it—

now, the two class champions had finally clashed head-on?

Director Tang didn’t stop the chaos below, but continued announcing the last two names.

“Second place: Zhuang Hongxing, 321 points.”

“First place: Jiang Xiao Yan, 345 points.”

The class fell silent—then exploded.

“Who? Jiang Xiao Yan?”

“Jiang Xiao Yan is first? How is that possible?”

“345 points? That’s enough for a junior college!”

“Pfft, last year, Zicheng Normal’s junior college cutoff was 335.”

“So she can get into university?”

“Not necessarily—she used to be worse than us, probably just got lucky this time.”

“Yeah, definitely just lucky.”

The class buzzed with chatter, but no one noticed Li Ye’s killing glare.

Li Dayong, unnerved by Li Ye’s cold stare, squirmed on his bench like a bear,

then leaned over with a forced grin: “Bro, I didn’t make the top ten.”

Li Ye’s expression didn’t change—but Li Dayong read his eyes clearly.

【Didn’t I tell you over and over to hold back? Didn’t I tell you to take it easy?】

Li Dayong’s broad, round face twisted into a knot, half crying, half laughing.

“Brother, I was almost swept into Qingshuihe, but who knew they... were no good at all!”