Chapter 79: The Ultimate Move—Self-Deception

Jiang Xiaoyan's psychological quality was indeed not very good, or rather, the psychological quality of students in this era was generally not very good.

High school students forty years later—let alone psychology, their thick-skinnedness was already well-trained.

But high school students at this time, when they encountered even a slight "accident" during an exam, their psychological state would have obvious fluctuations.

Jiang Xiaoyan had encountered an accident.

From the end of last autumn until the current preliminary exam, their eight-person small group had been reviewing for more than half a year according to Li Ye's review plan.

From the initial two or three papers a day to the later four or five papers, they had become accustomed to swimming in a sea of questions and had also become accustomed to a certain "smooth" feeling.

That is, the "giveaway questions" and "simple questions" at the beginning of each test paper could be done almost correctly with eyes closed, and they only started to concentrate and think when they reached the second page of the paper.

But today, when Jiang Xiaoyan just got the paper, she found that there were many situations in the first part of the paper where she was "unsure."

Li Ye usually produced very few Chinese papers, and even fewer pinyin questions.

Because the dialect accents of Jiang Xiaoyan and the others were too heavy, improving them was too much effort, so Li Ye simply took a detour to avoid involving too much review energy.

Who knew if there would be a few points of pinyin questions in the college entrance exam? You've studied for ten years, and your 'a', 'o', 'e' are already miles off—why are you still struggling with this?

In the entire County No. 2 Middle School, there were only two people who could speak standard Mandarin in class, and Teacher Ke tried her best to speak English.

You can just imagine the township middle schools and high schools!

Even in the early nineties, many middle schools in Dongshan Province didn't have a perfect Mandarin teaching environment!

When students answered questions in class or read texts, they all had a mouthful of local accent.

With this foundation, Li Ye would have to be stupid to waste effort on pinyin.

But Li Ye could figure out these principles, while Jiang Xiaoyan couldn't.

This morning, they were full of confidence, feeling that they were armed with sharp weapons and could kill in all directions, but as soon as the game started, they were hit by a dull blow, and they instantly began to doubt themselves.

This question doesn't seem right.

This question might not be right.

This question... should I guess?

After the first part of the paper was finished, Jiang Xiaoyan's mind was also in chaos.

For a 100-point Chinese paper, these repeaters could usually only get 70 or 80 points, and this was still the subject with the relatively highest score.

So the 20 or 30 points they got wrong were definitely things they weren't sure about!

This led to the fact that she always felt that something was wrong with the questions that followed, and the more she did, the less confident she became.

But fortunately, when the invigilator said "thirty minutes left," Jiang Xiaoyan's final essay was already in the finishing stage, and she had basically filled in everything regardless of whether it was right or wrong.

After the Chinese exam was over, the sense of loss of a peerless swordsman flipping over in the gutter made Jiang Xiaoyan feel like she was about to collapse.

"Let's go! Let's go out and get some air."

Li Ye knocked on Jiang Xiaoyan's desk and called her out.

The eight-person small group soon gathered together.

Candidates at this time didn't seem to understand that checking answers after the exam was a big taboo, and they started discussing and checking answers in a hubbub.

Li Ye didn't stop them either, letting them experience it in advance, treating it as psychological training before the official college entrance exam.

As a result, this discussion was not a small matter; the mood of several people became bad.

They weren't top students, so how could they not lose points?

"Li Ye, your Mandarin is the best. What are the answers to the pinyin questions at the beginning?"

Li Ye chuckled and decided to add fuel to the fire, telling them all the correct answers.

As a result, Hu Man and the others all had gloomy faces, as if it were the end of the world.

Calculating this and that, they could see that losing ten or so points was certain, and they didn't know how many uncertain points they had lost!

Li Ye lightly continued to strike: "Did you all control your scores? About how many points did you control?"

"........."

Everyone stopped talking, but their faces were all like black Bao Gong, super ugly.

【Control scores? We're almost failing, and you're talking about controlling scores? Boss, are you playing with us?】

Li Dayong said sheepishly: "Brother, I feel like 60 points is a stretch, so I didn't control the score."

Everyone nodded in unison, expressing the same feeling.

During school tests and joint exams, Hu Man and the others could control their scores without any pressure, but when they really reached the moment of the preliminary exam that concerned their fate, they were very conflicted.

And under the current circumstances, don't even talk about controlling scores.

However, after Li Dayong's voice fell, Watching Wen Leyu said lightly: "I have about 15 points worth of questions I didn't do."

Alright!

Critical hit, you two just keep hitting us with critical hits! We are not people from the same world as you.

Li Ye looked at Li Dayong, who was lowering his head without a word, and asked with a smile: "Dayong, are you feeling a bit panicked? Are you feeling a bit short of breath?"

Li Dayong touched his chest, nodded blankly.

"Brother, what should I do?"

"I'll teach you an ultimate move."

Li Ye pointed to the street outside County No. 1 Middle School and said: "Go out, hug that utility pole,

Don't care how others look at you, tell yourself... I am right, I am the best, I am stronger than all of you... repeat it twenty times."

"........."

Li Dayong's pancake face turned into a bitter melon face in the blink of an eye.

But Li Ye ignored him and continued: "Remember, when others look at you with strange eyes, you must treat them as fools, treat them as simpletons..."

Li Dayong asked with a bitter face: "Brother, is this... what... effective?"

Li Ye said firmly: "Effective."

Li Ye wasn't entirely messing around. For a period of time forty years later, many commercial stores had engaged in this kind of "self-motivational" (self-deceptive) activity.

Let's not talk about whether you can fool yourself while fooling others!

At the very least, it could give a wandering mind a temporary dominant spiritual consciousness, weakening and covering up the nervousness in the heart.

As for whether it was effective for Li Dayong and the others now, Li Ye couldn't be sure, but how much worse could it get?

For a college entrance exam where 300 points could get you on the list, what was the score of the lowest-scoring candidate?

A little over 200, right!

If someone with a little over 200 could pass the preliminary exam, could he, Li Dayong, with a normal score of over 400, not score over 200?

Li Dayong hesitated and couldn't move his feet, but Yan Jinbu behind him walked out of the school gate of County No. 1 Middle School without a word.

Then Fu Yingjie followed, and the two of them hugged a utility pole together.

Li Ye was very moved; children in the eighties were really easy to fool!

Li Dayong also lowered his head and went out. A moment later, Li Ye actually faintly heard the sound of "I am right, I am the best."

Watching Wen Leyu looked at Li Ye strangely and asked in a low voice: "I don't need to practice this ultimate move, do I?"

Li Ye was just about to say "you don't need to," but he saw Hu Man, Han Xia, and Jiang Xiaoyan next to him, all with their lips moving and muttering.

Li Ye said to Watching Wen Leyu: "Reciting it silently in your heart is also effective."

"Oh~"

The second exam was math.

After the paper was handed out, Li Dayong, who had practiced the ultimate move, had his eyes light up, like small light bulbs.

【Xiao Ye's method is actually really effective?】

What's effective!

Math questions were the subject the eight-person small group practiced the most; they had brushed those giveaway questions so many times that they understood them as soon as they saw them.

Li Dayong quickly finished the first page of the paper and turned to the second page.

I know this question.

I know this question too.

I just did this kind of question a few days ago!

Smoothness, a sudden burst of smoothness, almost affected everyone in the eight-person small group.

And the confidence brought by this smoothness lasted until all the subsequent exams.

By the time they took physics and chemistry on the second day, Hu Man and the others already had the confidence to control their scores a little bit.

After the three-day preliminary exam was over, the haze in the hearts of Jiang Xiaoyan and the others had long been swept away.

Because the exams for these subsequent subjects made them feel... somewhat simple.

Of course, not the kind of simple where you could get full marks; they didn't have that ability yet.

It was simple relative to last year's preliminary exam and college entrance exam.

Especially after the English exam was over, Jiang Xiaoyan and Hu Man both joked that if it weren't for the science class, they could have tried to apply for the Beijing Foreign Studies University.

The mute English environment of the eighties indirectly led to the limitations of English test questions; if you made the questions too fancy, everyone would just hand in a blank paper.

So, under Li Ye's targeted review and the infection of Watching Wen Leyu, who was an English top student with family heritage, the English test-taking level of the eight-person small group actually had the strength of "a monkey being king."

And Lu Jingyao's success made them all somewhat obsessed with "shortcuts," which was why they had this strange idea.

The third day of the exam ended very early, and the school gave the students participating in the exam a holiday, letting them relax for a rare moment.

Li Ye first sent Watching Wen Leyu back to school, then took a package of things out of the kang tunnel of the Second Grain Store and rode his bicycle home.

Hao Jian and the others' distribution of goods was basically smooth; although they were a bit cautious in expanding channels at the beginning, seeking stability, the money they made was not on the same level as wholesaling maltose.

Now Li Ye had to take money home every few days for Li Zhongfa and Li Kaijian to hide.

Li Zhongfa, who had even played guerrilla warfare with the Japanese soldiers, was quite skilled at hiding things.

After arriving home, Li Ye found that there were guests at home—his aunt Li Mingyue's family.

Seeing Li Ye enter the door, his aunt greeted him with a smile: "Li Ye is back. How was the exam? Is it okay?"

Whether I did well or not, doesn't your son know clearly?

Li Ye looked at his aunt's smiling face, a bit unable to figure it out.

Because that smile was a bit fake, but it wasn't mockery.

Li Ye had been controlling his scores with all his might during these three days of exams, and the large blank spaces on the paper were seen clearly by his neighbor Cui Aiguo.

Judging from the frequency of this little bastard curling his lips at least three times an hour, he must have despised Li Ye to Java.

And since the two had a grudge, it was impossible for Cui Aiguo not to tell his parents.

However, Li Ye soon found out that the reason his aunt Li Mingyue had a smiling face toward him wasn't because of concern or family affection, nor was it mockery.

It was because of the Mido watch on his wrist. ===== CHAPTER 80 =====