Chapter 95: Exams

Qiao Mingze isn’t a bad person per se; most of the time, he even has good intentions. However, he can be a bit oblivious.

He has always been surrounded by friends and classmates from Shanghai who, while not necessarily wealthy, had access to state-issued vouchers during the 1970s and 1980s, ensuring they could afford necessities.

Even though the situation has changed somewhat in recent years, with more job opportunities available in Shanghai, he still doesn’t truly understand what it means to be poor.

The village where Feng Yi and Lu Haijun come from isn’t exactly impoverished. Situated in a fertile region rather than in the mountains, and with increased job opportunities since the 1980s, even Feng’s grandfather could make a living selling vegetables.

However, there are indeed genuinely impoverished areas, as Lu Haijun described his hometown to Feng Yi.

His parents had to work hard to save up enough money for him to go to school. They would cut firewood and walk for a whole day to sell it in the city, little by little, accumulating enough funds.

Without his outstanding academic performance and the favour of his teachers, Lu Haijun wouldn’t have had the opportunity to attend middle school, let alone high school.

After arriving at H University, he was willing to spend twenty cents on each meal because the university provided students with nineteen yuan worth of meal tickets each month, which roughly equated to sixty cents per day.

Since university tuition fees were waived, his father repeatedly reminded him to eat well to avoid malnutrition. Therefore, he never considered exchanging meal tickets for cash to send back home.

Feng Yi also believed that eating well was essential. If he went hungry, he wouldn’t be able to focus on his studies.

Feng Yi has some understanding of poverty, but Qiao Mingze… Previously, in their dormitory, Qiao Mingze even claimed his family was very poor.

Feng Yi didn’t respond to Qiao Mingze’s remark and instead asked him, “Do you want a balloon?”

Qiao Mingze: “…”. How could a college student possibly want such a balloon?

Ignoring Feng Yi, Qiao Mingze went to line up for hamburgers, followed by the three others who came with him.

Jiang Liyun observed the situation.

It seems Feng Yi doesn’t get along well with his classmates.

This isn’t surprising; Feng Yi isn’t particularly fond of making friends. While he can avoid conflicts and integrate into groups, he doesn’t form close friendships.

In his past life, Feng Yi lived for decades without many friends. In this life… After leaving the brick factory, Feng Yi didn’t keep in touch with his former colleagues, nor did he miss them.

It’s different for Sun Jinshan; he occasionally returns to reconnect with his former colleagues.

In Jiucun Town, everyone knows Sun Jinshan, and they all think he’s wealthy, like a big boss.

Soon, it was Shao Chengdong’s turn to order.

Since Shao Chengdong was treating, he stood at the front of the line.

Jiang Liyun, being perceptive, noticed Shao Chengdong’s expensive clothes and valuable wristwatch. His family must be quite wealthy.

Sure enough, Shao Chengdong ordered a hundred yuan worth of food.

The bestselling item at Charles Hamburgers is the basic fried chicken burger, and even the slightly more expensive chicken leg burger isn’t very popular.

Items like pizza are rarely ordered.

Yet Shao Chengdong deliberately chose the best items and even ordered four cups of coffee.

The coffee at the store isn’t cheap!

Jiang Liyun was observing Shao Chengdong, and in turn, Shao Chengdong was sizing up Jiang Liyun.

The appearance of the Jiang sisters was not lacking, with Jiang Liyun’s looks not inferior to Jiang Liping’s. If it weren’t for this, Xie Zugen, who had always been picky about appearances when choosing a partner, wouldn’t have fallen for Jiang Liyun at first sight.

In terms of temperament, Jiang Liyun was even more outstanding than Jiang Liping. Moreover, after her rebirth, Jiang Liyun consistently prioritised her health. Ensuring adequate sleep, maintaining a balanced diet, and regular exercise had kept her in excellent physical condition.

At the age of twenty, even without makeup, she was attractive, let alone now with light makeup.

Although Shao Chengdong’s family was wealthy, the small town he came from was nowhere near as prosperous as Shanghai. Since coming to Shanghai, he has been captivated by the city’s glamorous world, thinking everything here was excellent. Now, he was completely astonished—even a hamburger service staff member was so beautiful.

Did she keep looking at him because he was generous with money and she was captivated by him?

Standing upright, Shao Chengdong felt that he must be quite attractive now.

Jiang Liyun smiled and said, “You guys are Feng Yi’s classmates, right? Let me treat you to a small snack platter.”

Although they spent a hundred yuan, according to the rules, they were only entitled to one serving of boneless chicken fillet. However, given the substantial order and the fact that they were Feng Yi’s classmates, Jiang Liyun decided to upgrade it to a small snack platter.

The platter included boneless chicken fillet, fried potato sticks, fried pumpkin pie, fried shrimp balls, and fried chicken wings—a generous spread that would cost eighteen yuan if purchased separately.

Even though Jiang Liyun mentioned Feng Yi, Shao Chengdong still believed she was offering more because he spent more.

Feeling quite proud, he carried a large amount of food upstairs with the others.

People around them were envious of them!

The sense of pride wasn’t limited to Shao Chengdong; Qiao Mingze and the others felt pretty good too.

When they sat down, Shao Chengdong couldn’t help but comment, “That server is really beautiful.”

The other two local students nodded in agreement. “Yeah, she’s really beautiful!”

“And very elegant!”

However, Qiao Mingze felt a bit sour. “She’s Feng Yi’s sister.” He had thought Jiang Liyun was beautiful when he first saw her on the first day of school. However, she was Feng Yi’s sister, and since Feng Yi didn’t like him, he didn’t like Feng Yi’s sister either.

“Feng Yi’s sister?” Shao Chengdong was a bit surprised.

“On the first day of school, she was the one who brought Feng Yi here,” Qiao Mingze explained.

Shao Chengdong smiled. “Then, we are quite fateful!”

Since arriving in Shanghai, Shao Chengdong has eagerly absorbed everything around him, wanting to live the life of city dwellers. He also wanted a beautiful girlfriend.

Jiang Liyun was the most beautiful person he had seen during this time, but her status seemed a bit lower—just a service staff member in a shop.

However, he wasn’t looking for a wife; he just wanted a girlfriend, so it didn’t matter.

The more Shao Chengdong thought about it, the more idealistic it became. He took a fried shrimp ball and, after just one bite, was utterly amazed.

Although Shao Chengdong came from a wealthy family, he had never tasted fried chicken before. Today was his first time, and all he could think was—this is too delicious!

The fried shrimp ball was delicious, and everything else was delicious too!

Foreigners have a different way of eating.

Sipping coffee and enjoying fried chicken, Shao Chengdong suddenly felt like he had upgraded to a higher class.

The items at Charles weren’t cheap, but with a hundred yuan, they could already buy a lot of food.

Their table was full of delicious snacks.

However, these four young men, all under twenty, were at the age when they could eat the most, and in the end, they devoured all the food, leaving their bellies round.

“The hamburgers here are really delicious!”

“So, this is what pizza tastes like.”

“I’m having coffee for the first time today, and it’s so fragrant!”

…

As they rubbed their full bellies and headed downstairs, they happened to see three foreigners entering the shop.

Qiao Mingze and the other two locals had seen foreigners before, but Shao Chengdong was seeing them for the first time, looking at them curiously.

People in the shop also looked curiously at the foreigners. Even those waiting in line instinctively stepped aside, letting the foreigners place their orders first.

Jiang Liyun sighed quietly when she saw this scene.

Their country had not yet developed, and everyone felt like they were inferior.

“Is the food here good?”

“Does fried chicken taste similar?”

“It’s not easy to find a place to eat. I don’t even know what they’ll serve me.”

…

The three foreigners conversed in English, discussing what to eat.

Since these foreigners entered, others stopped ordering, especially since the other staff didn’t understand English. Jiang Liyun proactively spoke to them in English, “Hello. What would you like to eat? Shall I recommend a few items for you?”

One of the foreigners looked at Jiang Liyun in surprise and said, “You can speak English?”

“A little.” Jiang Liyun smiled and continued to communicate with them, recommending several dishes. She suggested relatively expensive items, but these foreigners certainly wouldn’t find them costly.

The three foreigners ordered according to Jiang Liyun’s suggestions, paid happily, and left.

While it was a small event, the people present were amazed when the foreigners left. They looked at Jiang Liyun in surprise and said, “Young lady, you can speak English?”

“Young lady, you couldn’t be a university student, could you?”

“Young lady, you’re really impressive.”

…

Jiang Liyun smiled and said, “Continue with your orders, everyone.”

At this moment, she felt quite happy. Although she had practiced speaking English well, she was always afraid that she might not be able to speak when facing real foreigners. She also feared that she might not understand what the foreigners were saying, as they often had accents. However, smoothly communicating with the foreigners this time boosted her confidence.

People in line continued to order, and they whispered to each other, “This shop is really special.”

“Is this shop owned by foreigners? That young lady can actually speak English!”

“Foreigners are coming here to eat; it must be authentic.”

…

Jiang Liyun found their comments amusing.

Shao Chengdong and his group, on the other hand, had a different view of Jiang Liyun.

Feng Yi’s sister could actually speak English!

She might even be a university student!

Well, when she was conversing with those foreigners just now, they could only understand a few individual words. Once the words were put together, they couldn’t comprehend. Feng Yi’s sister was able to communicate with them—it was truly impressive!

Shao Chengdong was extremely excited.

Earlier, he thought Feng Yi’s sister was pretty but lacking in education, not up to his standards. However, now it was different!

Of course, she still wasn’t perfect—she was a bit older.

Shao Chengdong approached the cashier and asked Jiang Liyun, “Are you Feng Yi’s sister? What’s your name?”

Jiang Liyun smiled. “My name is Jiang Liyun.”

“You don’t have the surname Feng?” Shao Chengdong asked. “What characters make up your name?”

Before Jiang Liyun could answer, Feng Yi interjected, “Jiang as in Jiang Taigong’s fishing, Li as in naturally beautiful, Yun as in clouds and longing for elegance. Sister Liyun is my girlfriend.”

Feng Yi’s instinct told him that Shao Chengdong was interested in Jiang Liyun.

Jiang Liyun just smiled.

Her name was really ordinary, but when Feng Yi said it like that, it suddenly seemed different.

In addition… Feng Yi’s eager declaration of sovereignty was quite cute.

In her past life, even before she became paralysed, some people had expressed their fondness for Jiang Liyun. In this life, it was even more common. When she conducted business outside, some greasy men wanted to spend money on her.

Jiang Liyun was already used to people having a crush on her. She didn’t take Shao Chengdong’s attempt to strike up a conversation seriously.

Single men of this age being attracted to a beautiful young woman was perfectly normal.

Since they didn’t have much interaction, there was no need to pay too much attention.

However, if Feng Yi wanted to make their relationship public, that was also fine.

Previously, she refrained from saying she was Feng Yi’s girlfriend because he was still in school.

At this time, societal norms were different from thirty years later. During university, if a female student got pregnant, she could be expelled due to misconduct.

As for relationships… Many students had relationships privately, but they generally didn’t make them public.

In a country where university students didn’t pay tuition and received various allowances, the expectation was for students to focus on studying, and maintaining a good lifestyle was even more important.

If it became known that Feng Yi had a girlfriend outside the university, it wouldn’t be a good thing. Of course, it wouldn’t lead to his expulsion, but it wasn’t ideal.

Jiang Liyun smiled and looked at Feng Yi. “I’ll handle the balloons; you go and take care of your classmates. Then we can have lunch.”

Feng Yi stood up and handed the pump to Jiang Liyun, then addressed Qiao Mingze and the others, “I’ll see you out.”

Shao Chengdong, upon hearing that Jiang Liyun was Feng Yi’s girlfriend, felt extremely disappointed and became even more dissatisfied with Feng Yi. He didn’t want Feng Yi to see them off.

Feng Yi, in a good mood, saw them to the door, saying, “Take care; there is no need to see you off.”

Having said that, Feng Yi went back inside, ready to have lunch.

It was already one in the afternoon, a bit late for lunch, but that’s how it was when you worked in the food service industry—either eat early or late.

Entering the kitchen, Feng Yi saw Lu Haijun busy.

“Have you eaten?” Feng Yi asked.

“Not yet,” Lu Haijun replied.

Some of the kitchen staff had gone to eat at ten, but he wasn’t hungry yet and had just started his shift, so he didn’t rush to eat.

Later on, he got busy and didn’t have time to eat.

“I haven’t eaten either. Now that it’s less crowded, let’s go have lunch,” Feng Yi said, taking Lu Haijun to the staff break area and grabbing a boxed lunch.

Today’s boxed lunch included braised pork, braised dried tofu, and stir-fried snap peas.

Besides a box of vegetables, there was a full box of rice.

“Eating this well?” Lu Haijun was a bit surprised.

Eating such a boxed lunch outside should not be cheap. If this included two meals, it would be equivalent to an additional three or four yuan in wages!

So he could earn more than ten yuan for a day’s work?

“Eating well gives you energy to work,” Feng Yi chuckled.

Lu Haijun was devouring his food eagerly.

He felt that working here was really good.

If he could eat like this on weekends, he wouldn’t mind skipping meat on regular days!

With the money he earned, he could even send some back home, making life easier for his parents!

After finishing their meal, Lu Haijun was full of energy and started working again. He worked until 7:30 in the evening before rushing to catch the bus.

This time, when he paid for the bus, he didn’t feel any heartache.

The part-time pay was given daily, and after a day’s work, he received ten yuan!

For a moment, Lu Haijun was full of hope for the future.

Lu Haijun was in a good mood, but Qiao Mingze and Shao Chengdong were not.

Feng Yi unexpectedly had a beautiful girlfriend who could speak English!

Qiao Mingze was just a bit unwilling, but Shao Chengdong was both jealous and envious.

Feng Yi, a poor student, had no right to have such a beautiful girlfriend!

Over the weekend, Feng Yi continued to help at the hamburger shop.

On Sunday evening, he and Lu Haijun took the bus back to school together.

Lu Haijun was very grateful to Feng Yi and said, “Feng Yi, let me treat you to a meal tomorrow.”

“No need; let’s study together tomorrow,” Feng Yi replied.

Jiang Liyun provided him with a monthly living allowance of two hundred yuan, and she would also buy him clothes. His money truly couldn’t be spent.

“Alright, let’s study together tomorrow!” Lu Haijun said. “Computers are really amazing. I don’t know when we’ll get to use them.”

Lu Haijun had also been transferred to the computer science department. Before coming to study, he was quite puzzled.

Computers like the ones with added batteries that vendors used for counting money—was that what they would study at university? What is software?

Later, he asked someone and found out that this computer was different from what he had thought.

Now, after studying for a week and hearing the professor constantly talk about how amazing computers were and how they needed to catch up with the world, he began to take this major seriously.

“Let’s focus on mastering the theory first. We’ll have a chance to use computers eventually,” Feng Yi said.

The two returned to their dormitory at nine o’clock.

Qiao Mingze and the others were each busy with their own things, not talking. However, a roommate from North-east China asked Feng Yi, “Feng Yi, do you have a place to stay in Shanghai?”

“Yes, I rented a place in Shanghai.”

He lived with Jiang Liyun, but he didn’t mention that, fearing what others might say about Jiang Liyun.

“Do you work part-time on weekends?” the roommate asked.

“Yes, the Charles Hamburger shop is busy on weekends, so they hire part-timers.”

“Do they still need people? I’d like to go too.”

“They have enough staff now. If you want a part-time job, you can try other places,” Feng Yi advised.

“Oh, I see. Well, I’ll go look when I have time. No rush,” the roommate said.

The next day was Monday, and Feng Yi, as usual, got up early to study and review.

Lu Haijun naturally followed Feng Yi.

Shao Chengdong woke up relatively early that day and sneered at the sight, “Putting on a show.”

He disliked people like Feng Yi, who held books all the time and acted as if they loved studying.

Studying was hard work, and he didn’t believe Feng Yi truly enjoyed it.

What they were doing was just to please the teachers.

As fate would have it, in the first class of the morning, the professor handed out a mimeographed test paper. “Last week, we learned a lot of theoretical knowledge. I reminded you to study well and to memorise everything. I don’t know if you listened. The questions on this paper total one hundred points, with sixty points as a passing grade. If you can pass, you can use the computer this afternoon!”

Since the beginning of the semester, they have completed a full week of classes. During this week, because they were learning theory, everyone found it somewhat dull. Coupled with the fact that they had just started university or arrived in the city… Almost all the students went out to play over the previous weekend.

The professor chose this day to give the students a test, hoping to make them nervous, redirecting their focus from leisure to study.

The mimeographed test papers, with a distinct smell of ink, were distributed to each student.

The simplest questions on the paper were about how to turn on and off the computer, as well as the meanings of the keys on the keyboard.

The more challenging ones covered theoretical knowledge presented in lengthy discussions in the textbook.

Feng Yi received the paper, glanced at it, and immediately began answering without hesitation.

The material he memorised every morning was about how to use computers, including the professor’s lecture content and even the parts of the textbook that hadn’t been covered.

On this paper, Feng Yi found that there were about sixty points worth of basic questions discussed in class; another thirty points were slightly harder questions related to knowledge from the textbook that hadn’t been explicitly taught. The remaining ten points covered content that hadn’t been covered in class yet.

At the beginning of the school year, many students hadn’t entered study mode yet, but as long as they listened attentively in class and diligently completed the assigned homework, scoring seventy to eighty points was not an issue.

For him… He could answer all these questions.

Feng Yi started working through the questions diligently from start to finish.

When he was answering the questions, the professor intentionally walked over and observed his paper.

Feng Yi’s first choice was computer science, and his high school entrance exam results were excellent. Although he was slightly older than the others, the professors at the school had high expectations for him.

It was said that he left the school on Friday night and didn’t come back the entire weekend, which left them somewhat disappointed.

H University didn’t schedule classes on weekends, but there were some activities for students to participate in. The school hoped that students would attend these activities or study on campus. Feng Yi, leaving on Friday nights, didn’t look good.

The professor initially thought he could criticise Feng Yi once he couldn’t answer the questions, but now he couldn’t be more satisfied with Feng Yi.

Feng Yi not only mastered all the content from class but also self-studied material that hadn’t been covered yet. So what if he went out on the weekends?

The professor left in satisfaction, but as he walked a few steps, he saw that Shao Chengdong’s test paper had large blank spaces.

His expression instantly turned cold.

There were many people, like Shao Chengdong, who couldn’t answer the questions.

The few who could smoothly answer the questions were in the minority. Apart from Feng Yi, the one who answered most smoothly was Lu Haijun.

Feng Yi memorised the textbooks every morning, and Lu Haijun learned by mimicking Feng Yi.

Even on the weekends, Lu Haijun would get up early to memorise the textbooks before going to work at Charles Hamburger. This morning, he reviewed everything he had learned over the past week.

Most of the questions on the test paper, Lu Haijun could answer.

He was truly following Feng Yi’s example!

As time ticked away, it quickly became time for the teacher to collect the test papers.

After collecting the papers, the teacher did not leave. He sat on the podium and corrected the papers on the spot, allowing the students to self-study below!