[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981":3,"chapter-that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-88":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","That Year, the Flowers Bloomed in 1981",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2294506,4489,"Chapter 88: Have All of You Failed? Hahaha!","that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-88",88,"\u003Cp>In the 1982 college entrance exam, only Chinese was tested in the morning; after two and a half hours, everyone felt they had done okay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chinese, after all! Even the worst students felt they’d done well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you couldn’t remember, you could guess; if you didn’t understand, you could make it up—anyway, you could fill in most of it and get some psychological comfort.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one knew if testing Chinese first every year was meant to help students build self-confidence to better adapt to the brutal exam environment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After leaving the exam hall, the eight-member group all wore happy expressions, exchanged glances, and smiled in unison.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What could be better than guessing the essay topic correctly?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So as they queued to return to County No. 2 High, Hu Man and the others gathered around Li Ye, chattering away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Li Ye, Li Ye, how did you guess this year’s essay topic?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How could it be called guessing?” Li Ye replied seriously: “It was inevitable after full preparation—we practiced over a dozen essay topics; the odds were a fraction, not luck!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s true, that’s true—we suffered so much before!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone remembered the hard days earlier, when Li Ye’s pressure was even harsher than the school teachers’, painful yet satisfying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Others in the line looked at the eight-member group with far from friendly eyes—almost “brimming with malice.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【What are you showing off for? You just guessed one essay topic right!】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back at school, Li Ye said: “Alright, remember our agreement—no discussing anything about the exam. Go back and rest, prepare for afternoon chemistry.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since chemistry was at 2:30 p.m., there were four hours to rest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye went home for lunch; the others cooked and ate at the Second Grain Store, then returned to the school dorm for a nap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was Wu Ju’s mandatory rule—otherwise Li Ye would have stayed glued to Wen Leyu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the exam, she’d return to Beijing with her mother; this separation might last two or three months—who knew how many times they’d meet in dreams?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Li Ye rode home, he happened to see his aunt Li Mingyue leaving the house, radiating resentment as she brushed past him without a word.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye was puzzled, but once inside, Li Juan quietly told him: for the sake of her beloved grandson’s exam, Wu Ju had directly kicked Li Mingyue out and forbade her from arguing with Li Ye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Grandma loves you so much.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As she said this, Li Juan’s eyes were full of envy, even faintly glistening with tears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since childhood, I’ve been the worthless girl neither grandma nor auntie loved—how could you understand my bitterness?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But luckily, this older brother is better than my own uncle—he promised to give me that Phoenix bicycle in a few days!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then I’ll polish it three times a day, shiny as new.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lunch was cold noodles with fried small fish—Wu Ju’s signature dish: fry the fish first, then stir-fry with vinegar, scallions, and spices—tart and fragrant, perfect with rice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After lunch, Li Ye returned to his room for a nap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Juan and Li Ying, the two little girls, stood guard—one at the door, one in the courtyard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this point, not even that annoying aunt could return; even a chicken approaching the gate would be ruthlessly shooed away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No one is allowed to disturb your brother’s sleep,” were Grandma Wu Ju’s exact words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the afternoon, Grandma Wu Ju told Li Juan directly: “Go, wait outside the school gate; if anything happens, immediately find your grandfather.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the afternoon chemistry exam, Li Ye also felt good—not necessarily a perfect hundred, but ninety-seven or ninety-eight was certain; though different from future exam formats, the problems weren’t hard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The others in the eight-member group also felt good; half a year of problem-set drills had finally paid off—they could finish the paper within two hours.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Other candidates weren’t so lucky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many students emerged from the exam hall with gloomy faces, frantically asking others questions, then sinking into gloom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The worst feeling was knowing you couldn’t solve it while others could.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, Xia Yue and Jin Shengli weren’t among those who hadn’t finished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After receiving Lu Jingyao’s self-study series on Chemistry, they’d worked extremely hard, and their close-knit study group had also benefited greatly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The eight-member group and Xia Yue’s team all felt this year’s exam would be a smooth campaign—victory’s fruits would surely be reaped in three days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But everything changed on the morning of the next day’s math exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>………………\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Jinbu hadn’t slept well last night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye had repeatedly stressed: before the exam ended, don’t discuss questions or check answers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since they weren’t filling out college applications yet, Yan Jinbu and the others had already fixed their choices; estimating scores now was useless—only added mental stress, no benefit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Yan Jinbu still couldn’t resist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During chemistry, he’d been unsure about several answers and couldn’t help comparing them with others—he got a mediocre result.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d made mistakes, but others had too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was agonizing—after all, the battlefield was the entire Dongshan Province, not Qinghe County or County No. 2 High.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So when Yan Jinbu entered the exam hall the next day, his spirits were low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he reached his seat, he happened to lock eyes with Xia Yue behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huh?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xia Yue seemed…… also sleep-deprived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At eight sharp, the math exam began.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Papers were distributed from front to back; before reaching Yan Jinbu, some students up front let out soft gasps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No talking, no looking around, no whispering.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The invigilator’s stern voice silenced the murmurs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Jinbu received his paper, glanced at it—and froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How…… could this be?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The 1982 math paper had no multiple-choice or true\u002Ffalse questions—only “large questions.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nine large questions—that was the entire 1982 exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was literally a nightmare for struggling students!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No multiple-choice—how am I supposed to guess?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No true\u002Ffalse—how do I bluff?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Jinbu stared at the dizzying paper, feeling the examiners’ clear malice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Struggling students, fear! Leave the chance to those with real ability!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Jinbu wasn’t a struggling student, but neither was he a top scholar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet after carefully reading the questions twice, he suddenly thought…… why did they look so familiar?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>………………\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xia Yue was also stunned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What kind of exam questions were these?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Chinese essay topic was already unexpected—why was math so “arbitrary” too?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two years ago, the essay was writing a reflection on “Painting Eggs,” interpreting Da Vinci’s dedication.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Last year’s was based on “It’s Easy to Destroy Trees, Hard to Plant Them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two years before that, it was rewriting or summarizing some “New Era” article.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this year’s essay? “Worry before the world worries, rejoice after the world rejoices.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Is this really something a high school student should care about?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Do you think you’re a scholar-official?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fine! I’m a successor of socialism—you’re right!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if unexpected, Chinese was our mother tongue; composing an essay from a famous quote tested basic skills—if you couldn’t even handle Chinese……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what was this math exam?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nine large questions: one set of functions, three geometry, one parabola, one sequence—do you want to kill us?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within minutes, Xia Yue’s palms were drenched in sweat, her pen slipping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the paper was already in hand—no matter how hard, she had to push forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If I can’t do it, no one else can either!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xia Yue silently encouraged herself, gathered her focus, and began solving the first set of functions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She’d only finished the fifth of six fill-in-the-blank function problems when she heard the sound of pages turning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked up—it was Yan Jinbu in front, already on the second page.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He…… can’t be doing it—he must be leaving blanks?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the recognized top student in the remedial class, Xia Yue had held the school’s top math position for half a year until she was surpassed by Jiang Xiaoyan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Yan Jinbu reach the second page faster than her, she certainly didn’t wish him well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But when Xia Yue reached the second page herself, still guessing which curve to draw on the Cartesian plane from the equations, that annoying page-turning sound came again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked—Yan Jinbu was on the third section.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How…… is this possible?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xia Yue glanced at the fourth question on page two—a cone geometry problem that made her head spin—how had Yan Jinbu solved it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without thinking, she leaned forward to peek.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Girl in the fourth row, back—first warning. Look at another’s paper again and you’ll be expelled.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xia Yue instantly pulled back, heart pounding with panic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If he can do it, so can I.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unconsciously, Xia Yue had changed her self-encouragement tone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Zhang Xuefeng once said a joke—“If you don’t know xx, you can just make it up! If you don’t know xx, you can copy from the reading comprehension! If you don’t know math, all you can do is write ‘Solution’!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To unravel a difficult math problem by peeling away its layers, you must first find the loophole the examiner deliberately left for you, then shove right in—and everything will flow smoothly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if you fumble around and can’t find the key point, no matter how skilled you are, you’ve got nowhere to apply it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thirty minutes remaining. Candidates, pay attention to the time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When thirty minutes remained before the exam ended, Xia Yue was still staring blankly at the four “Solution”s on her paper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She hadn’t solved a single problem. She hadn’t forced her way into any of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ding ding ding~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The exam ended, and a chorus of wails rose up; nearly all of the dozens of candidates looked as if they’d lost a loved one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Except Yan Jinbu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Jinbu glanced around, instantly thought “This place is too dangerous to stay,” packed his stationery, and stood up to slip away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Xia Yue quickly caught up to him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yan Jinbu! Yan Jinbu! Stop right there!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xia Yue grabbed Yan Jinbu and demanded, “Why are you running?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I…,” Yan Jinbu said, “I’m in a hurry to buy soy sauce! We’re out at home for lunch.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You run a grain and oil shop and you’re out of soy sauce? Huh~ Huh~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xia Yue caught her breath and asked Yan Jinbu, “Tell me—did you solve all nine problems?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“………”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Jinbu didn’t answer. Li Ye had warned them not to speak with anyone until after the exam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he was honest—if Xia Yue asked how many he’d solved, he might make up a lie. But when she asked if he’d solved them all, he froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You really solved them all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shocked, Xia Yue didn’t notice that as she argued with Yan Jinbu, many other candidates had gathered around them.\u003C\u002Fp>",1773,"2026-06-20T05:04:59.129Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","4fcfa968ac403c4ef0cad9e8f036629a3f8d85b28200c1484dac4b024cfef14d","that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-89","that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-87",884,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthat-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-cover.jpg"]