Chapter 82: Mastering the Art of Burning a Cold Stove

In Principal Chang’s office, he was alone.

After Li Ye entered, he was even given a seat.

“Li Ye! I’ve seen this year’s preliminary exam results for you and the others… I was shocked, truly surprised!”

Li Ye said nothing.

Principal Chang gave Li Ye a meaningful glance and said, “Your self-study group has eight members, yet six of you made it into the top ten of your class,

and two even scored over four hundred—what’s your secret?”

Li Ye thought for a moment and said, “Probably because this year’s exam questions were relatively easy.”

Principal Chang frowned, unsure what to say.

Easy? You’re telling me this year’s questions were easy?

Six students suddenly shot up from outside the top twenty into the top ten, taking first and second place—and you’re saying it’s just because the questions were easy?

Why didn’t we find them easy?

So your little self-study room is better than our county No. 2 High School, with all our professional teachers?

Principal Chang took a deep breath and said, “If you think the questions were easy, then why did you score the lowest?”

Li Ye replied calmly, “I didn’t bother. The preliminary exam is just a qualifier—no need to score high. Better to spend that time outlining and writing a few pages of a novel.”

“……”

【If it weren’t for your grandpa being a bureau chief, I’d slap you right now… Didn’t bother? Why don’t you just not bother eating?】

Principal Chang picked up his teacup, took a sip to calm himself.

“Alright, fine, say you didn’t bother. But if you did try your best, how much could you score?”

“Who can say for sure?”

“Just guess.”

Li Ye tilted his head, watching Principal Chang blow on his tea leaves and sip slowly, then smiled faintly.

Just as Principal Chang swallowed a sip, Li Ye “seized the moment” and gave his score.

“I can score six hundred.”

“Puh~”

“Cough cough cough— I… cough cough cough…”

Li Ye spread his hands, looking unconcerned. “See? I told you you wouldn’t believe me.”

“I… I… cough cough…”

Principal Chang coughed violently, pointing at Li Ye, and after a long moment finally spat out one word.

“Fuck~”

Don’t think cultured people aren’t crude—these days, principals all came out of wartime; if you didn’t have some fighting history, you wouldn’t dare sit in this chair.

Without a few killer moves, how could you control the place?

Principal Chang’s chest heaved violently.

Li Ye sat quietly.

After a long while, Principal Chang sat down calmly.

“I don’t believe you can score six hundred, but you might still hit four hundred—trust my experience and judgment…”

“You scored three hundred five this time, a big improvement over last year—you’re already guaranteed admission to a college or vocational school.

I know you write novels well, but if you pause your writing for now and focus entirely on the college entrance exam, getting into a vocational school isn’t impossible…”

Li Ye felt Principal Chang’s earnest concern and knew he spoke sense.

He’d even considered putting The War-Running Deserters on hold, just to catch his breath.

But…

【Those reader seniors are just too… enthusiastic!】

For the past few months, Li Ye had mailed out new chapters of The War-Running Deserters roughly every ten days to ensure the special readers in Beijing kept up with the serialization.

Every time, four or five days after sending, he’d receive passionate feedback.

Some praised the writing, some complained it was too little, others criticized him for holding back and not going deep enough,

but without exception, every reply ended with a similar line.

【I’m eagerly awaiting the next part, but please prioritize your college entrance exam.】

One reader from the power system even asked if he’d consider enrolling in a vocational school under that system.

With readers like this, how could Li Ye dare to stop updating?

How could he possibly feel justified?

Even a little less wouldn’t do!

Seeing Li Ye silent, Principal Chang had no idea what to do.

For any other student, the head of discipline, Tang Feiyu, could have handled them easily—

these days, head of discipline were all “martial arts masters,” hitting kids until they screamed for their parents.

But Tang Feiyu flat-out refused to deal with this case.

Why?

Not just because Li Ye had a bureau chief for a grandfather—Li Ye himself was now a “writer,” not an ordinary student.

The novel The Infiltrator had been published for months, yet the county Xinhua Bookstore still couldn’t keep it in stock—only two shipments arrived, both sold out quickly.

When they asked the city Xinhua Bookstore for more, even they were barely getting enough. Giving us two shipments was a special instruction from the publisher.

How wildly popular was this?

A few teachers who studied related fields had whispered privately that if this trend continued, Li Ye might even join the provincial Writers’ Association.

So who in their right mind would go after Li Ye?

Principal Chang finally sighed helplessly: “Even if this year’s questions were easy, Jiang Xiaoyan still scored second in the entire county! With such results, why won’t you share your methods? Classmates should be supportive…”

Li Ye rolled his eyes and said directly, “Principal, you should ask Jiang Xiaoyan yourself. What’s the point of asking me?”

“……”

Principal Chang froze for two seconds, then flew into another rage.

“Ask you? You’re the ringleader! If I don’t ask you, should I ask those little followers of yours? What’s the point of asking you? Huh?”

“Ringleader” was a local dialect term for a kid who led a gang of troublemakers.

Li Ye naturally rejected the label.

He retorted coolly: “Principal, if you call me that, I won’t accept it. I never led classmates to steal chickens or sneak around, never led them to street fights,

and for the sake of class harmony, I deliberately avoided conflict and found my own space to ensure everyone could study normally… so how am I a ringleader?”

Principal Chang, still furious, sucked his teeth, his cheeks trembling.

He now felt he was facing not an eighteen-year-old student, but a cunning, seasoned hunter.

Was Li Ye a good student?

Probably… not?

No one in school ever called him a well-behaved kid.

But he really hadn’t caused any trouble.

Last month, the Chengnan Police Station came to investigate: a student had broken into the farm machinery station at night and rammed a newly repaired tractor into a wall—

hundreds of yuan in damage! Principal Chang had to beg and plead to calm it down.

A few days ago, a group of second-year students got into a brawl with outsiders on the northern street—he rushed there with seven or eight teachers to prevent disaster.

But what about Li Ye?

He’d only caused a minor class dispute—and he’d voluntarily stepped back.

You… can’t even find a reason to pick on him. What now?

Forget it.

Li Ye had already mentioned his “voluntary avoidance”—that was his way of expressing dissatisfaction.

When you had the conflict with Xia Yue and the others, why didn’t you say anything about “classmate harmony”? Are we stepchildren?

Now that we’ve gone off on our own and achieved results, you suddenly remember we’re your own?

Principal Chang closed his eyes, meditated for a few seconds,

and when he opened them again, some of his earlier thoughts were gone.

“Alright, all roads lead to Rome. If you want to pursue writing, that’s your choice—but don’t let your novels interfere with Wen Leyu.

I heard you often have Wen Leyu copy your manuscripts for you? Look, she only scored three hundred six this time, and her English was just twenty-six… what’s going on?”

What’s going on? Same as me—controlled scoring.

But that girl’s so clueless—you’ve got an English teacher for a mom, and you still managed to score twenty-six in English? Are you kidding a fool?

Maybe Wen Leyu wasn’t kidding anyone—she just didn’t care what others thought.

You told me to control my score, so I did. What others think or believe? I don’t give a damn.

“Principal, you’d better ask Teacher Ke. I don’t understand girls’ affairs.”

「..........」

“Alright, go back now. Study hard, aim for success in both writing and the exam, produce more outstanding literary works, and get a better score on the college entrance exam.”

Li Ye left.

A few minutes later, Teacher Luo, Teacher Hu, and the homeroom teacher of the retake class, Teacher Liu, walked in.

Teacher Liu asked first: “Principal, how’d it go?”

Principal Chang said: “No problem—their study group has a good learning environment, and the students are diligent, so their grades naturally improved.”

“Impossible,” Teacher Liu declared firmly. “I know Jiang Xiaoyan’s past grades. Scoring second in the entire county? Without exclusive review materials, that’s absolutely impossible.”

Principal Chang glanced at him and said, “Even if they do have exclusive review materials, so what? If they don’t want to share, are you going to steal them?”

Teacher Liu’s face darkened, but he insisted: “I’m only doing this for the school’s reputation! Principal, ask again—Li Ye is a selfless kid. I heard their study group eats meat every day—all paid for by his manuscript fees...”

To his surprise, Principal Chang suddenly raised his voice: “If you want to ask, go ask yourself—I won’t humiliate myself like that. Besides, when Old Luo pooled money to buy the review materials, where were you? Now you’re panicking...”

Teacher Liu fell silent, embarrassed.

When Xia Yue asked Lu Jingyao to buy the college entrance exam materials, she intended to pay—otherwise, how could Lu Jingyao, a penniless girl, have gotten the highly sought-after Haidian Teacher Training School materials?

Altogether, dozens of yuan were spent. Teacher Luo paid, and the students in Class One chipped in—but Teacher Liu’s Class Three contributed nothing.

Everyone thought once the test papers arrived, they could just copy them—but Xia Yue formed the “Book Protection Group.”

We can’t even copy enough for our own class! How could it possibly be your turn?

Teacher Liu was angry, but he didn’t lower himself to ask Teacher Luo.

But he never imagined how valuable the review materials would be—this time, Xia Yue scored 404, Jin Shengli 375.

What level is that?

Two students at the college level—even one college, one undergraduate level!

Everyone knows the materials are crucial.

But isn’t free material even better?

Now that they can’t get any, they’re forced to beg Principal Chang, hoping for a dose of regret medicine.

“Xiao Luo, I remember last year... Li Ye mentioned transferring schools to you?”

“..........”

Teacher Luo blinked, then quickly nodded.

“These kids must be kept. Lose even one, and I’ll hold you responsible.”

Principal Chang looked at the two other teachers, their resentment clear, and said coldly: “There’s less than a month left until the college entrance exam. It’s too late to warm up cold stoves now!”

I warn you—if you cause trouble and hurt the students’ scores, I won’t forgive you.”

Principal Chang’s final words sent a chilling frost through all three teachers.

This year, the school is clearly going to reap a harvest—if we can send five or six students to university, this perennial second-place principal will finally have his moment in the spotlight.

As for the opinions of a few homeroom teachers? Keep them to yourselves.

The teachers bowed their heads and left. Suddenly, Teacher Liu turned back: “Principal, could you talk to Teacher Ke? Ask her to help us buy some college entrance exam materials—we’ll pay, even a high price.”

Principal Chang said nothing—only stared coldly at him. Less than five seconds later, Teacher Liu walked away, defeated.

“Sigh~”

“You still don’t understand—the era of selfless mutual aid... is over.”

It wasn’t that Principal Chang didn’t want to help the students—he just couldn’t speak freely with Teacher Ke anymore.

Packages from Beijing kept arriving, and phone calls from Beijing rang nonstop.

The school phone was in the principal’s office—all calls from XX Department, XX Committee. He was just a lowly principal; he couldn’t afford to offend them.

At first, Principal Chang would sit in his office, straining to listen. Now, when Teacher Ke answered the phone, he no longer dared to stay.

“Sigh~~”

【If Teacher Ke really returns to work, then this Li Ye kid has lit a very clever cold stove indeed】

(One of my high school teachers once told me about a top student who ignored all classmates’ questions, refused every social activity that wasted study time, lived alone, and was despised by peers.)

(Later, he got into a top university and left. Years later, at a class reunion, they didn’t even invite him... the story was told with contempt.)