Pressing the answer key, Xia Yu heard the sorrowful voice of Gui Zixiao coming through.
“Xia Yu!”
“What’s wrong?” Xia Yu asked.
“Come out and have a drink with me.”
“No way.”
“If you don’t, you might not see me again,” Gui Zixiao threatened.
“Call me Dad.”
“Grandpa!”
“What’s the address?”
After confirming the details, Xia Yu walked out of his room, informed You Xue, called his regular taxi driver, waited five minutes, got in the car, and headed toward Gui Zixiao’s location.
After getting out of the car, Xia Yu saw Gui Zixiao waving at him at the crossroads.
“Why are you carrying a backpack?” Gui Zixiao reached out and unzipped Xia Yu’s bag.
Reaching inside, he pulled out a Blue Gang Secret Manual.
Quickly putting the test papers back into Xia Yu’s backpack, Gui Zixiao sighed with relief.
He said to Xia Yu, “Don’t let me see any test papers again; I’m already having a headache because of them.”
“Then you might have a long headache,” Xia Yu said.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll know soon enough.”
After entering a barbecue restaurant with Gui Zixiao and ordering skewers, Xia Yu took out the Blue Gang Secret Manual and started working on it.
“You’re doing exercises even when we’re out for dinner?” Gui Zixiao said helplessly.
“Time is precious; avoid wasting it,” Xia Yu replied.
“If you’re going to sing, sing properly; otherwise, retreat,” Gui Zixiao reflexively replied, coughed, and asked Xia Yu what drink he wanted.
Xia Yu ordered Sprite.
“I’m sad today; can’t you drink some alcohol?” Although saying that, Gui Zixiao still brought back two bottles of Sprite.
Opening the Sprite, Xia Yu said heroically, “Cheers,” and took a big gulp.
“Although the momentum is there, it’s still just a soft drink!” remarked Gui Zixiao, before letting out another sigh.
“Tell me, what’s going on,” Xia Yu asked while doing exercises.
“You know I did well in this monthly exam,” Gui Zixiao started explaining.
If this score were for the college entrance exam, there would be hope of reaching the first-tier university line.
“And then?” Xia Yu knew there would be a twist.
“My dad was so happy that he raised the requirement for the notebook originally promised for reaching the second-tier university line to the first-tier line,” Gui Zixiao said with a toothache; he hadn’t expected a good monthly exam score to bring such bad news.
“Will your dad not give you a notebook if you go to college?” Xia Yu questioned this reward.
“If I don’t meet the requirement, I’ll just get a lightweight notebook worth around 3,000,” Gui Zixiao said. “But if I do meet it, I’ll get a gaming notebook. A lightweight notebook that can’t run games has no meaning.”
“Since he raised the requirement, why didn’t you object?” Xia Yu asked again.
“He thinks I can make it, and he changed the reward from an original gaming notebook worth seven or eight thousand to a Pig-Head Man notebook,” Gui Zixiao’s face showed longing and regret.
Xia Yu took the skewers brought by the owner, placed them in the center of the table, and turned the skewer sticks toward himself.
He and Gui Zixiao began eating.
“Your score this time isn’t problematic, right? Focus on reviewing well next time, and there’s still hope of reaching the first-tier university line,” Xia Yu said while doing exercises, eating skewers, and chatting casually, all at once.
Gui Zixiao was silent for a while, then lowered his voice and said to Xia Yu, “Don’t you think my score this time is a bit abnormal?”
Xia Yu stopped writing, looked up at Gui Zixiao, and asked, “Did you cheat?”
“I did math myself, and I had done similar reading comprehension questions for Chinese,” Gui Zixiao paused here, “but as for history… you know I’m bad at history. This time, at least 20 or so points in history were inflated!”
“…You brought this upon yourself; who can you blame?” Xia Yu couldn’t find any reason to comfort Gui Zixiao.
“There was once a history exam paper from the history class representative placed before me. I cherished it, but only after obtaining it did I regret it deeply. The most painful thing in the world is exactly this. If heaven could give me another chance, I would say three words to that history exam paper: ‘Don’t copy, go to hell!’ And if I must add a time limit to this vow, I hope it’s ten thousand years.”
“Just work harder; maybe you really will get in!” Xia Yu could only say that.
In reality, he knew this monthly exam was already beyond Gui Zixiao’s normal level. Usually, Gui Zixiao was only at the level of the second-tier university line.
Therefore, Gui Zixiao would probably only bring a lightweight notebook to college.
Taking a sip of Sprite, Gui Zixiao kept sighing.
Xia Yu, while eating skewers and doing exercises, quickly finished the entire Blue Gang Secret Manual.
Letting out a yawn, he put down his pen.
At this moment, a young couple walked past him.
The girl pointed at Xia Yu and said to her boyfriend, “Look at him; he’s studying even while eating skewers!”
Glancing at Xia Yu’s superior looks, the boyfriend felt jealousy arise: “He’s just showing off.”
Not only can a woman’s beauty bring trouble, but a man’s as well.
Xia Yu didn’t have a good temper; he glanced at the boy and said, “Get lost.”
The moment he met Xia Yu’s gaze, the boy felt fuzzy worms crawling out from the boy’s hair, moving toward him.
“Ahh!” The boy hurriedly stepped back in fear, tripped over the door frame, and fell down.
“What’s wrong with you?” The girl quickly went to help him up.
“Let’s go, let’s go.” The boy pulled his girlfriend and hurriedly left.
Xia Yu stretched and felt cheerful.
Affected by the boy, a sudden inspiration flashed through his mind.
He asked Gui Zixiao, “Are you interested in learning math with me?”
“What?” Gui Zixiao didn’t understand.
“I might be able to raise your math score by ten or twenty points, so you can aim for the first-tier university line,” Xia Yu thought. The exam-oriented education skill was originally not meant for exams; teaching students was its true purpose.
Now he couldn’t find any exercise books to practice, and he was also tired of doing exercises. Using the method of teaching others to accumulate proficiency was quite good.
“Really?” Gui Zixiao wasn’t very convinced.
“Come on, try a problem,” Xia Yu placed the Blue Gang Secret Manual in front of Gui Zixiao.
“You’ve already finished it; how can I do it?”
“I wrote the answers directly without showing the process,” Xia Yu replied.
“Where’s your process?” Gui Zixiao was surprised.
“Just like I ask you what eleven times eleven equals, you’ll immediately think of the answer 121, but if I ask you to write down the process, you have to think again.”
“I give this show-off a full score.” Opening the pen cap, Gui Zixiao picked a penultimate question and started working on it.
He solved the first sub-question, got stuck halfway through the second, and didn’t even attempt the third.
Taking the pen, Xia Yu began explaining to Gui Zixiao: “This kind of question generally has three standard solutions. Let me tell you which one we used here…”
After finishing the explanation, Xia Yu found another question with the same solution method for Gui Zixiao to try. Following Xia Yu’s formula, Gui Zixiao managed to work it out with some difficulty.
“Can it really work?” Gui Zixiao looked at Xia Yu in surprise.
“Try another one.”
The two began discussing and solving problems on the table in the barbecue restaurant.
Their serious atmosphere infected other customers. At a nearby table, a primary school student who had come out for dinner with a backpack quietly took out his homework.
At the table in front of them, two college students took out their laptops and started discussing their thesis.
At the table behind them, four colleagues having dinner together couldn’t help but open documents on their phones and began discussing work.
A new customer who had just entered saw the serious atmosphere, pulled back the foot he had already stepped in, and quickly left.
At 7:30 PM, under the personal escort of the owner, Xia Yu and Gui Zixiao left the barbecue restaurant.
“So, are you in or not?” Xia Yu looked at Gui Zixiao.
“I’m in!” Gui Zixiao said energetically.
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