Chapter 77: The Preliminary Exam is also the College Entrance Exam

"Xiao Ye, have you ever seen high heels? Real high heels, just like the ones in the movies.

If a woman wears them, her calves are taut, really straight, super good-looking. I bought three pairs for my wife, but she ended up taking two tumbles..."

"Hahahaha~"

"Brother Xiao Ye, Brother Xiao Ye, do you know? When we were in Yangcheng... we saw that thing... you know... I wanted to spend thirty yuan to try it out... but Brother Peng beat me up..."

"Hahahaha~"

"I'm telling you, if I didn't beat you, you wouldn't even know how you died. Do you know what a 'honey trap' is?

From now on, if you can't keep your pants zipped, just stay home honestly and don't go out and embarrass yourself."

"Hahahaha~"

"I... I'm not like you, Brother Peng. You have a wife; a full man doesn't know a hungry man's hunger. I've grown this big and only ever touched my mother's hand. I don't know what a woman tastes like at all..."

"Drink your beer, you good-for-nothing. As long as you work hard, why worry about not having a wife?

Next year, or at most the year after, we'll each get an electric scooter, and we can pick whatever flowers we want from the dozens of towns in Qingshui County..."

"I don't want flowers, I'm not cow dung!"

"Hahahaha~"

In the small warehouse of the Second Grain Store, wine and meat were in full swing.

The four "heroes" who had ventured to Guangdong Province returned in triumph, excitedly slapping their chests, stomping their feet, spitting as they talked, bragging to the heavens, and showing off to Li Ye for quite a while.

They weren't just showing off for the sake of it; they wanted to share the "worldliness" they had seen outside with Li Ye.

But Li Ye just smiled without a word, nodding slightly, his calm and composed demeanor making Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng and the others feel a bit "unsatisfied."

Because when they returned, they had just flashed the high heels and bragged a bit, and the group of younger brothers who had been busy making maltose at home were all staring blankly with drool dripping down.

Even that simpleton Wang Jianqiang had grabbed Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng's sleeve tightly, snot and tears running down as he demanded that they must take him along next time.

But why was Li Ye so calm?

Hiss~~

Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng suddenly had a very bad thought.

【Could it be that Xiao Ye is no longer interested in women because of that bad woman Lu Jingyao?】

Of course, Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng was lucky he didn't say this to his face; if he had really said it, Li Ye would have spat in his face.

High heels, floral dresses—showing off to me?

Have you seen lace and long legs? Have you seen DJ sky-high heels?

Nineteen-year-old girls grabbing a steel pole and doing the splits—dare you even imagine it?

I've seen it all, and it was live.

And I haven't even introduced you to the various teachers yet!

If you had seen the skills of those teachers, you probably wouldn't last a few days before all running to see a traditional Chinese medicine doctor.

Of course, Li Ye didn't mean to look down on these brothers.

Just looking at Li Dayong, who was listening so intently that he didn't notice his cigarette butt burning his hand, made it clear that the young people of this era were truly "innocent."

In the entire small warehouse, only Hao Jian could maintain his composure.

Seeing Li Ye listening quietly without a ripple of emotion, he hurriedly raised his wine glass.

"Brother Li Ye, let's have one. You drink as you like, I'll finish mine!"

45-degree Fangzi white liquor, a small two-ounce tea bowl—Hao Jian downed it in one gulp.

Li Ye also finished his, though he was drinking beer that cost thirty cents a bottle.

Hao Jian and the others had returned more than a month late; it was already the third lunar month, and the solar calendar was well into April.

The preliminary college entrance exam was coming up soon, and he was under no small amount of pressure every day; getting drunk was absolutely out of the question.

Hao Jian put down his glass, bared his teeth, and hurriedly ate some food to suppress the alcohol, only then opening the floodgates of conversation with a sigh.

"Brother Xiao Ye, to tell you the truth, a year ago, I looked at the people around me and thought they were all fools, and that I, Hao Jian, was a talent of heaven and earth, a hero in hiding..."

"But after meeting you, Brother Xiao Ye, and venturing into the provincial capital for less than half a year, I felt like a frog at the bottom of a well..."

"But when we arrived in Yangcheng and saw that commercial hotbed you spoke of, we realized we weren't even frogs—at most, we were ants in a crack in the ground..."

Hao Jian laughed at himself and continued: "Brother Xiao Ye, you don't know, when I met that Guo Donglun, it was just like meeting you back then..."

"I really can't figure out how there can be so many monsters in this world. When the thunder struck on the second day of the second lunar month, why didn't it strike you down?"

"Hahahaha~~"

Li Dayong, Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng, and the others nearby all laughed.

Hao Jian's words were undoubtedly flattery toward Li Ye, calling him a monster with boundless magical power.

But Li Ye's expression was unusually strange, and his gaze toward Hao Jian was quite unfriendly.

【Ever since I started associating with you, I haven't laid a finger on you. Have you forgotten my ability to break bricks with one hand? Strike me down? I'll strike you down first!】

Hao Jian immediately sensed Li Ye's change in mood and said immediately: "I said it wrong, I said it wrong. Xiao Ye, you're a deity, you're on the same side as the Thunder God in the sky. I just think that Guo Donglun... is not simple."

The lame young man Hao Jian met at the Yangcheng machinery plant was named Guo Donglun.

At the time, after he proposed the "no investment, fifty-fifty split" deal to Hao Jian, Hao Jian couldn't make the decision himself and had to hurriedly send a telegram to Li Ye for instructions.

Li Ye quickly replied: "Ask him if he has connections in the Light Industry Bureau or the foreign trade system. If he does, then agree to it. Anyway, the channels we build later will be our own, so we won't lose out."

As it turned out, when Hao Jian went back to probe and negotiate with the lame man, the man was airtight, simply saying one thing: "I can get you a business license."

Damn, Hao Jian almost agreed on the spot.

As a "drifter" like him, he understood the importance of a business license all too well.

But Hao Jian still sent another telegram to Li Ye, letting this major shareholder make the final decision.

After all, in Hao Jian's view, that Guo Donglun was simply "too dark."

After Li Ye received the news, he also pondered for a while.

Hao Jian and the others' craving for a business license was due to their lack of understanding of historical events. In the eyes of a transmigrator like Li Ye, who could see through the fog, a business license wouldn't be worth much in just a few years.

In 1980, the first individual business license in Shenzhou was issued to a small department store, but the process from application to approval took over a year and was full of uncertainty.

By 1984, the first private enterprises in China were established, and in the same year, Lenovo Group, Haier Group, Vanke, Delixi, TCL, Jianlibao, and others were founded.

This speed of development was extremely fast.

But in early 1982, being able to easily obtain an individual business license, even in the forefront of reform and opening up, was not necessarily that easy.

And if they had this license, it would be a great help to Li Ye's money-making plan.

Hao Jian and the others were tinkering with maltose near Qingshui County; this was an agricultural product, and the nature of it was self-produced and self-sold, which could only flourish locally.

But flipping clothes was a matter of buying low and selling high, with middlemen making the difference.

Wouldn't that perfectly hook into "speculation and profiteering"?

If they had an official business license from Yangcheng, they would have room to operate, basically filling the biggest loophole in Li Ye's startup group.

So Li Ye agreed to Guo Donglun's conditions.

And Guo Donglun did indeed have the strength; in less than a month, he had obtained the license, prepared the sources of goods, and handled the transportation.

Then, Hao Jian and the others impatiently transported the goods back to the provincial capital of Dongshan and returned to report the good news to Li Ye.

"Here, this is a copy of the business license. I left the original with Sanshui; he's over on Gaodi Street, and he wouldn't feel at ease without a license."

Hao Jian gave a license to Li Ye.

Li Ye took it and looked: XX Clothing Wholesale Market, No. XX, XX Clothing Wholesale Department.

And the name of the registrant on it was "Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng."

This was the result of Hao Jian and Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng's discussion. Li Ye couldn't possibly be the one to step forward, and Hao Jian voluntarily yielded to Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng, but whether this "voluntarily" was willing or forced, Li Ye wasn't prepared to ask in detail.

With Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng's ruthlessness, if Hao Jian dared to have any small thoughts, that short knife he carried would probably come in handy.

Li Ye returned the license to Hao Jian, because the subsequent retail process would definitely require it.

Then, Li Ye said calmly: "Where is the official seal?"

Hao Jian took out a square little wooden box from his bosom with a "sacred" expression.

Li Ye took it and looked, wiped the box hard, and said: "The box is nice, where did you get it?"

Hao Jian smiled and said: "I bought it at a second-hand market while I was idle in Yangcheng. I felt that only this box was worthy of this official seal."

Li Ye smiled, opened it to look at the seal, and casually tucked it into his own pocket.

Hao Jian's eyelids jumped.

An official seal! An official seal from 1982—do you know what that represents?

It can travel the world!

Only an introduction letter with an official seal carries weight.

In Hao Jian's eyes, this seal was sacred authority.

But Li Ye tucked it into his own pocket, and he didn't have a single complaint.

"Xiao Ye, in the next few days, we're going to meet up with that Guo Donglun's people, and then we'll start distributing the goods. Do you think we should... be on guard?"

Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng watched Hao Jian complete the handover of the seal without blinking, only then chatting with Li Ye about his thoughts.

"On guard against whom? Guo Donglun?" Li Ye said lightly: "He's doing the supply, we're doing the channels. We'll play it by ear when the time comes. If he wants to cross the line, then we'll just part ways."

Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng nodded and said solemnly: "That Guo Donglun is not simple. When we were stocking up, shipping, and getting the license in Yangcheng, he never showed his face, nor did he let us know who his connections were.

Every time we needed him, he arranged everything and let us find the specific staff members. We can't figure out his background or methods. In the future, won't we have to look at his face in Yangcheng?"

"Heh, it's all the same! When outsiders come to our turf, don't they have to look at our faces too?"

Li Ye smiled and didn't say anything more.

They were all local snakes, just that the others played at a higher level.

Qingshui County was such a small place, the connections were simple, and it couldn't be compared to the tangled and chaotic Yangcheng. Besides, Li Ye's current level of connections wasn't that high.

He was just relying on his advanced knowledge and vision to avoid wrong dead ends, dodge man-eating traps, ride the wind and waves, and develop in hiding.

And an important part of that development was still the college entrance exam.

After the meal, when everyone was dispersing, Hao Jian said something to Li Ye with a puzzled expression.

"But I always feel that Guo Donglun doesn't take our big business very seriously, as if he's... playing a game."

Li Ye nodded, lost in thought.

【Hmm, perhaps he's just bored sitting in a wheelchair and playing a game.】

But Li Ye, wasn't he doing the same?

In early May, Hao Jian and Watching Watching Watching Jin Peng finally received the goods from the train station and began to distribute them bit by bit, cautiously.

And Li Ye also focused his mind on preparing for the first hurdle of the 1982 college entrance exam—the preliminary exam.

The college entrance exam preliminary system in Shenzhou began in 1981 and ended in 1989, aiming to reduce the immense pressure of college entrance exam evaluation.

In those years when everything was waiting to be rebuilt, too many people were crowding the path of the college entrance exam, and the processing capacity of relevant institutions was limited, which was why this cruel advance screening system existed.

In plains areas like where Qingshui County was located, the population was dense and there were many candidates; the candidates screened out in one round of the preliminary exam exceeded two-thirds.

That is to say, more than two-thirds of the candidates were not qualified to step into the official examination hall of the college entrance exam.

Think about it! After studying bitterly for more than ten years, in the end, you didn't even have the qualification to write your name on the college entrance exam paper. Isn't that cruel?

So, although the eight-person small group led by Li Ye all had the strength to be in the top ten of their class, they still asked Li Ye with trepidation when the preliminary exam approached.

"Li Ye, do we need to control our scores during the preliminary exam?"

"Yeah, Li Ye, how do we control the scores? What score is appropriate to control it at?"

This time, Li Ye couldn't answer either.

He couldn't just say, even if you skip one or two subjects, you can still pass the preliminary exam, right?

The preliminary exam is also the college entrance exam.

This kind of one-shot elimination promotion game—if you flip your car due to a moment of carelessness, it's a matter that affects a person's whole life.

In the end, Li Ye could only use himself as an example.

"I can't give you guidance, but if the difficulty of the preliminary exam is similar to the usual joint exams, I will control mine at around 300 points. You... do as you please." ===== CHAPTER 78 =====