Chapter 64: Pavlov

After the county No. 2 Middle School’s report meeting ended, Lu Jingyao agreed to the school’s request and tutored the “top students” in the retake class.

The reference books she brought back from Jingcheng for her younger brother became public textbooks, copied onto the blackboard every day for everyone to study together.

Xia Yue and others treasured them, drawing visits from other retake classes eager to snatch copies.

During this process, Li Ye’s eight-member group was naturally excluded.

Hu Man and the others went to class as usual, but the room was packed with students from three retake classes, pushing them subtly to the periphery; they all returned home fuming.

Li Ye said coolly: “If they won’t let you in, isn’t that better? Don’t go over there looking for trouble anymore—just study all day at the Second Grain Store.”

Hu Man snapped: “We’re not trying to learn from them—we just want to see what’s so special about these Jingcheng reference books and find out how they differ from ours.”

Fu Yingjie said: “Xia Yue and the others formed a study group, and now with Lu Jingyao’s help, they’ve quietly declared they’re going to compete with us!”

Li Ye said: “A monk from Jingcheng doesn’t automatically know how to chant scriptures. Unless they have high-level teachers giving one-on-one or one-on-two tutoring, no matter how hard they study, they won’t improve much.”

Over this period, Li Ye had observed the academic level of Class One—he could say most of them were doing repetitive, useless work, destined to stand still.

Even if Lu Jingyao is willing to help, how many days can she help? How much can she truly help?

It’s nothing compared to Li Ye’s “small-class instruction.”

“Then... fine! When we beat Xia Yue and the others, I’ll return every bit of today’s humiliation.”

“Right—we’re the assassins hiding before dawn, waiting only for the day the college entrance exam arrives.”

Watching Hu Man and the others encourage each other, adopting a “battle stance,” Li Ye felt both a headache and a faint amusement.

But what happened next was what truly gave him a headache.

“Wen Leyu, you really won’t come home with me for the New Year?”

Wen Leyu lifted her big eyes and looked at Li Ye without speaking.

“Sigh~~”

Li Ye sighed again, once more impressed by this girl’s stubbornness.

Actually, after Teacher Ke left, Li Ye had discussed this many times with Wen Leyu—once school closed, she should come live with him at home.

But Wen Leyu always refused, insisting she could manage alone in the school dormitory.

But after school closed, the dorm would be empty—except for the gatekeeper, only Wen Leyu would be there. How could that work?

No matter how much Li Ye pleaded, she only reluctantly agreed to come home for New Year’s Eve dinner—but absolutely refused to stay overnight.

The gender boundaries of the 1980s were truly a headache for Li Ye.

If Wen Leyu stayed overnight at Li Ye’s home, and someone maliciously spread rumors, within days half of Qingshui County would be whispering about Li Ye and Wen Leyu’s “scandalous affair.”

Similarly, if Li Ye went to the school where only Wen Leyu remained, he couldn’t just smash open the boys’ dorm door to guard her closely.

In the 1980s, malicious gossip was a knife—it disgusted people yet excited them.

Hearing Li Ye’s sigh, Wen Leyu fell silent for a few seconds, then whispered: “I want to go with you, but I can’t. People will talk. It would drag you down.”

Something struck Li Ye’s heart hard—warm, bitter, sweet.

In two lifetimes, he rarely felt moved—but now, he truly tasted the flavor of being moved.

This girl refused to be alone with Li Ye not to protect her own reputation, but because she considered his troubles first.

Li Ye said: “But when Teacher Ke left, he asked me to take care of you—what if you get a headache, fever, or cold alone in the dorm?”

Wen Leyu said: “It’s fine. Colds and fevers won’t kill you—I’ve weathered them many times before.”

Li Ye asked again: “What if a giant rat suddenly appears in the dorm?”

Wen Leyu replied calmly: “I can crush it with one kick.”

Li Ye pressed: “What if I stand outside the school wall all night to guard you from the cold?”

Wen Leyu paused for only a second, then said: “I’ll stand outside with you and catch the cold too.”

Li Ye held his breath, feeling like the lovestruck male lead in a pure romance drama.

Moved?

Moved.

Foolish?

A little.

In the future, this whole mess could be solved with a hundred-yuan hotel room—but now, it forced Li Ye to rack his brains.

“Dang~” A gong rang.

“Wang~” A dog barked.

“Pa~” A chicken bone was thrown on the ground.

“Slurp slurp~” The dog ate the bone.

“Dang~”

“Wang~”

“Pa~”

Li Ye held a bronze gong, a half-basin of leftover chicken bones at his feet, crouched in the Second Grain Store’s courtyard, playing happily with the big yellow dog.

He was having a blast—but others were suffering.

In the small warehouse, Hu Man and the others were struggling with their test papers; outside, the gong rang and the dog barked, driving them mad with irritation.

But remembering Li Ye’s physical strength and his serious “distraction-training,” none dared to protest.

Eventually, Hu Man turned her attention to Wen Leyu.

Wen Leyu had already finished her test paper and was now copying a manuscript, her focused expression suggesting the distraction training had no effect on her.

“Wen Leyu, do you know what Li Ye is doing outside?”

“No.”

“Then why don’t you go ask?”

Wen Leyu turned her head and asked Hu Man: “You can’t solve the problems, right?”

Hu Man smiled awkwardly: “I really can’t—help me out!”

Wen Leyu narrowed her eyes, glancing at Hu Man, Han Xia, and the others, savoring their pleading looks, then stood and strolled out, lifting the curtain.

As soon as Wen Leyu stepped out, Hu Man and the others jumped from their stools, crowded to the door, and peeked through a crack in the curtain.

There, the previously cold and aloof Wen Leyu sat obediently beside Li Ye, cheeks propped on her palms, silent.

Li Ye asked Wen Leyu: “Why did you come out?”

Wen Leyu: “I wanted to figure out what game you’re playing with this dog.”

“Puff~”

Li Ye laughed and said: “I’m conducting a world-famous biology experiment—the Pavlov’s Dog experiment.”

“Pavlov’s Dog? The one from Soviet Russia?”

“Yes,” Li Ye began explaining to Wen Leyu—seriously, not like Huang Bo’s showy antics in “Alien.”

“The experiment is called Pavlov’s Dog, but it applies to many animals—like the monkeys we’ve seen in street performances...”

“Do a somersault, give it an apple; bow, give it half a sweet potato; do a push-up, give it half a watermelon... Soon enough, you’ve trained a clever monkey.”

Li Ye chattered on, and it indeed sparked Wen Leyu’s interest.

In an era before TV was widespread, traveling circus troupes were popular—Wen Leyu had seen monkey shows, and the clever monkeys had amazed and intrigued her.

Now, after Li Ye’s explanation, she realized that with an apple in hand, she could train a dumb monkey into Sun Wukong.

So Wen Leyu took the bronze gong from Li Ye and began ringing it: “Dang dang dang!”

The big yellow dog cooperated perfectly, barking louder and louder, thrilling Wen Leyu.

Of course, humans didn’t understand dog language—perhaps it was thinking: “What stupid two-leggers—I bark once, get a bone. If you’ve got guts, don’t stop—I’ll win your underwear.”

After playing awhile, Wen Leyu returned the gong to Li Ye and urged: “Quick, teach it to do somersaults!”

But Li Ye said: “No need—it only needs to bark.”

Wen Leyu didn’t understand, sounding bored: “Just bark? What’s the use? Every dog barks.”

“Useful. Very useful.”

Li Ye pointed toward the school and said to Wen Leyu: “From here to your dorm, it’s 89 meters straight—if you scream until you lose your voice, I might not hear you.”

Li Ye picked up the gong: “But if you strike this gong once, the dog will bark wildly, and within twenty seconds, I’ll appear before you.”

“........”

Wen Leyu stared blankly at Li Ye, then realized it after several seconds.

All this effort—Pavlov’s Dog—was just to tell her that whenever the gong rang, he’d come to her side?

Strange?

Funny?

But under the social climate of 1981, it seemed... neither strange nor funny.

Wen Leyu took the gong from Li Ye and hugged it tightly, her cheeks slowly turning red.

But Li Ye felt a tinge of shame.

【Sigh, I just used a low-level ‘lickspittle’ trick—text summoning—and won a girl’s heart. Am I being a little dishonest?】

Li Ye had also considered letting Wen Leyu take the dog to her dorm in a few days, to guard her.

But does a girl alone in a foreign place need a boyfriend who rides a rainbow cloud at the sound of a phone call?

Or a dog?

A dog that a thug could knock dead with one blow?