How I Tamed My Wolfish Husband Back in 80s-Chapter 116: Scolding_1

Li Jinhua had an emotional breakdown and hit Dong Lamei, and kept rambling on about how marrying Qin Jin would make her a rich lady, until her parents, thinking her crazy, locked her up.

If a loser could get rich, then pigs might fly.

Every day he’d ride around on a foreign bike, now wanting to beat up one person, now wanting to hit another, busy with fertilizers and weaving.

To this day, he still lives in two broken-down rooms, and the kitchen is just a makeshift shed.

The bowls in his house are either chipped or cracked.

If he were truly wealthy, why wouldn’t he build a big-tiled house?

With his behavior, could he really live in a house bigger than the entire village? Why doesn’t he just ascend to heaven?

The news of Li Jinhua’s madness spread swiftly, reaching Li Qiao’s ears, who could only sigh.

Fine and well she didn’t study, but now she’s caused harm.

Now it’s over, isn’t it?

Without the Li Family’s harassment, her life was peaceful and at ease.

As the examination date drew closer, the school finally persuaded the Feng Family Village collective in the last month, who after a meeting, decided to let the sent-down youths enter the school to study and return to work after the Gaokao.

Several of them trembled with excitement upon receiving the notification.

Now that the village had allocated land to them, their lives would be somewhat better going forward, but it also signaled that they would be stuck here forever. Attending university was their only way out of the countryside, but the combination of daily labor and revision was exhausting.

They all dreamed of entering the school.

Previously, Li Qiao mentioned it to them once, and after hearing nothing for over a month, they had given up, not expecting things to take such a favorable turn.

It happened to be a Saturday, and the five of them took the chance on their day off to go to the market and buy fish and meat, preparing a whole table of dishes to personally invite Li Qiao for a meal.

Li Qiao had just gotten home when Old Mrs. Qin was starting a fire to cook noodles for her.

Li Qiao was delighted for them upon hearing the purpose of the sent-down youths’ visit, "That’s great! From now on, we’ll be classmates. I just happen to have a set of test papers that I was planning to give to you."

Du Xinxin accepted the papers and called for Li Qiao to come with them.

"Old Mrs. Qin, Jin, come along, we’ve prepared quite a feast today."

"Oh, how could we impose?" laughed Old Mrs. Qin.

"Come on," Wang Nannan and Liu Jing coaxed Old Mrs. Qin, taking her by the arm.

Han Ting pulled Qin Jin along.

"Allow me to lock the door first," Old Mrs. Qin said, unable to resist their enthusiasm.

As the group walked toward the youth spot, villagers who had heard about the young intellectuals going to study at the middle school congratulated them. "If you all get into university, our village might as well be called Top Scholar Village."

"We can’t shoulder that burden."

"You’re cultured people already; you’re up to the task," they retorted.

They made their way to the youth spot, exchanging pleasantries with the locals.

Two big platters of main dishes were on the table, surrounded by a ring of vegetarian dishes.

After everyone had taken their seats,

Zou Qing brought out some liquor, wanting to have a couple of drinks with Qin Jin.

"I’ve quit," said Qin Jin.

"Quit? For real?" Zou Qing didn’t believe it; Qin Jin’s love for drink was well-known in the village.

Qin Jin replied earnestly, "For real." His wife disliked how he smelled of liquor and wouldn’t let him get close, so he had no choice but to quit.

He had quit smoking too, though he kept some on hand for others.

Han Ting picked up the conversation, "Let’s skip the drinking and get right to eating."

"Right, let’s eat."

Everyone picked up their chopsticks and started. Li Qiao wasn’t used to the youths’ flavors and didn’t eat much.

Old Mrs. Qin, on the other hand, enjoyed the two cold dishes and inquired who made them and asked for the recipes.

A meal took nearly an hour.

"No need to see us out."

The family of three headed outside, signaling for the educated youths to go back.

Upon exiting, they encountered several villagers holding chickens, eggs, and white sugar, and upon inquiring, they discovered these were gifts for the young people at the youth spot. These villagers had previously bad-mouthed Li Qiao, causing a feud with the Qin family and refusing to sell them any fat. Now, with the prospects of these educated youths perhaps attending university in the future and becoming useful to them, they had to curry favor.

If they failed to get admitted, the villagers would simply return to reclaim their gifts.

After all, they were just young outsiders, so there was no fear of them avoiding the issue.

Old Mrs. Qin sighed lightly. People are too pragmatic. At first, when her daughter-in-law wanted to study for university, everyone discouraged her from wasting money and belittled the child, saying they wouldn’t pass a thing. When there was no admission notification after supposedly passing, they accused the child of boasting.

But now, everyone was fawning with smiles, praising her good fortune, her grandson’s good looks, and his great abilities, saying he could marry a university student.

They’ve said it all, the good and the bad.

......

Monday was the day the educated youths started school.

The school held a special meeting to welcome them; considering they were vigorously recruited by Mr. Zhou, who had persuaded the principal, they were placed in Mr. Zhou’s class.

The educated youths treasured the opportunity to attend school, taking their studies more seriously than the other students in the class.

The teachers often used them as models during class, urging the other students to learn from them, which made them quite embarrassed.

By noon, dorms were assigned.

Li Qiao’s dormitory was short of Li Jinhua, and Du Xinxin was assigned there.

The other two girls were placed in the dormitory managed by the dorm supervisor.

There were no vacant beds in the boys’ dormitory, so Han Ting and Zou Qing opted to commute.

A dozen miles away wasn’t too far by bike.

Having settled in at the school, the educated youths could promptly address any questions they had. Their progress was swift, and in the practice tests, Hu Xiufang invariably ranked third, holding the big green fish awarded by the school, she felt a wave of relief, "I only scored one point higher than the fourth place, he was dozens of points behind me before, how did he catch up so quickly this time? Luckily, this is the last practice test, otherwise my prize would definitely have gone to someone else next time."

Li Qiao was amused, "You’ve done quite well too, you’ve improved a few points."

"You’re just comforting me."

Flaunting her paper with a total score slightly over 500, Du Xinxin boasted, "If I could score this high in the college entrance exams, I should have a secure spot at university, right?"

"You still can’t let your guard down, though," Li Qiao said. "Many who didn’t get admitted last year will try again this year, plus the new graduates will be joining, and the cut-off score might be raised."

"Right!" Du Xinxin dared not relax; among the five of them, she was still at the bottom.

She was the most likely to fail.

What would she do if everyone else went off to university and she was left behind?

In the blink of an eye, it was July.

As the examination date drew nearer, every student wanting to attend university was like a clock wound up, never stopping.

Two days before the exam, the school gave the students time off to ease their tense nerves.

The next day Li Shengcai came over, "Qiaoqiao, you have the exam tomorrow, don’t you? I got you a peace charm, to ensure your exams go smoothly."

Qin Jin narrowed his eyes, "Where did you go this morning?"

Why didn’t you get a peace charm when you went to Beijing for the competition?

Li Qiao wore it in front of him to send him away, "I’m very pleased with it."

Li Shengcai was equally satisfied, cast a timid glance at Qin Jin, reminded Li Qiao to do well in the exam, and left.

No sooner had he left than Li Qiao immediately took out the peace charm and threw it away.

Li Jinhua used to secretly slip her talismans to drive her away; who knows if this was a wicked stepmother’s tool for harm. She wouldn’t wear it.

Li Shengcai returned home.

Feng Lamei couldn’t wait to ask, "Did you give her the peace charm?"

"I did, and she put it on," Li Shengcai replied, puzzled, "Why didn’t you let me give it to her earlier? I ended up getting an earful from that loser."