After leaving the exam hall, Qi Lei headed straight off campus.
Although he had attended No. 2 Middle School for junior high, he was also quite familiar with the area around No. 1 Middle School since it was close to his home.
He remembered there were many bookstores outside No. 1 Middle School.
He randomly picked one, walked in, and asked, “Boss, do you have junior high physics and chemistry textbooks?”
“Yes!” The bookstore owner nodded.
It was common for students to lose or misplace their textbooks before the semester ended, especially boys, so bookstores often stocked them.
However, these weren’t official editions but pirated copies from small workshops—poor quality yet more expensive than the originals, making the store a tidy profit.
After pointing Qi Lei to the right shelf, the owner waited by the counter to collect payment.
Selling to students had its perks: no need for customer service or marketing. If they asked, they’d almost certainly buy.
But after waiting a while, not only had no sale been made, but the boy hadn’t even reappeared. Puzzled, the owner wondered what was going on.
He left the counter to look for Qi Lei and found him sitting on the floor, holding Physics Volume 1 in one hand and using his knee as a desk to copy formulas with the other.
“Hey!!” The owner was amused yet annoyed—this wasn’t a library with unlimited browsing time.
He snatched the book back. “Are you buying or not? If it gets worn, who’ll want it?” His tone was harsh and intimidating.
Most kids would have been embarrassed and scurried away, but Qi Lei remained unflustered.
“Sorry, uncle! I’m a ninth-grade examinee. There are some points I haven’t memorized well, and with the exam coming up, I’m anxious, so…”
The owner paused, then teased, “An examinee? Even so, you can’t just flip through my new textbooks like that!”
“Sorry! Sorry!” Qi Lei was very polite. “Look, I’m being careful not to damage it.”
The owner glanced down and saw there wasn’t even a crease, softening a bit.
Before he could speak, Qi Lei cut him off.
“How about this? I didn’t bring enough money. Could you let me use it for a while? I’m really in a hurry! I’ll come back this afternoon with the money and buy this copy.”
Hearing this, the owner’s sternness melted away.
Besides, people were generally kind-hearted in those days.
Looking at Qi Lei, who clearly wasn’t from a wealthy family and seemed genuinely distressed, the owner felt a twinge of guilt for giving the kid a hard time.
He thought, Forget it, he’s having a tough time. If this affects his exam, it could change his whole life.
He handed the book back to Qi Lei. “Go ahead, look at it. Just be careful.”
He didn’t mention the purchase again.
Qi Lei took the book, still wearing a pleasant smile, and said, “Sorry for the trouble!”
The owner waved magnanimously and walked away.
Alone by the bookshelf, Qi Lei smiled slightly and checked the wall clock.
He had left the exam hall about twenty minutes after it started. Now, there was still an hour and a half until the Math Comprehensive exam ended, plus a twenty-minute break—meaning he had nearly two hours to spend here.
Qi Lei’s strategy was as follows:
Completely abandoning Math Comprehensive, he planned to submit the next subject Politics and the afternoon’s Chinese language exam as early as possible, saving all the extra time for tomorrow’s Science Comprehensive.
Though no matter how much he squeezed, it still wouldn’t be enough, he could at least cram the physics and chemistry formulas—they’d be somewhat useful.
As for why he didn’t allocate time to Politics and Chinese…
It just wasn’t worth it!
Scoring high in Politics and Chinese relied purely on rote memorization. The effort needed to memorize an entire text could cover how many formulas?
Moreover, memorized texts might not even be tested, but formulas would definitely come in handy.
The second advantage of his middle-aged soul was knowing how to manage time.
Two hours.
Qi Lei estimated he could copy all the physics formulas from three years of middle school. After the Politics exam, he’d go home and copy the chemistry ones.
The shop owner hadn’t expected…
“A few formulas you couldn’t remember clearly” and you sat for two hours? And during that time, he’d even peeked over—the kid had switched to the second volume of physics.
The owner regretted it so much—he should’ve just taken the money!
But he held back in the end.
Only when there were five minutes left before the next exam did Qi Lei close the “Chemistry Textbook Volume 1” and prepare to leave.
In that time, he hadn’t just copied all the middle school physics formulas and theorems but had also made a start on chemistry’s first volume.
The bookstore owner let out a long sigh of relief—this round was a loss!
But since he’d already agreed, there was nothing more to say. Before seeing him off, he kindly reminded him:
“Don’t take those draft notes you copied with you—they’re not allowed in the exam hall. Good luck, hope you get into a good high school!”
Qi Lei smiled, thanking him as he walked. “It’s fine, the next exam is Politics. Physics formulas aren’t against the rules.”
“Huh!?” The owner was stunned. “Not Science Comprehensive?” (Local term for the combined physics and chemistry paper, not the traditional Science Comprehensive.)
Qi Lei looked innocent. “Science Comprehensive is tomorrow morning, still early.”
“I—”
The owner nearly strained his back. It’s tomorrow? If it’s tomorrow, why are you causing trouble today? This unlucky kid!
Back in the exam hall, the preparatory bell hadn’t rung yet, and the invigilator wasn’t present. Some candidates were waiting at their seats for the exam to start, while others hadn’t returned.
Passing by the short-tempered girl with short hair, he met her unfriendly gaze and naturally raised his hand in greeting. “Hello, Auntie!”
“Pfft!” The girl burst out, torn between anger and laughter as she glared at Qi Lei. “Wait, who are you calling auntie?”
Qi Lei shrugged. “Well, you wouldn’t like ‘miss’ either, would you?”
The girl was utterly speechless. “This classmate, you tell me, is ‘miss’ something normal people say? Only my dad calls people that!”
Qi Lei wanted to laugh—this conversation was going nowhere. If it continued, he’d be taking advantage of her.
“Alright then, what should I call you?”
As he spoke, he habitually extended his right hand like an adult. “I’m Qi Lei, from No. 2 Middle School. How should I address you?”
The girl was dumbfounded. This greeting and self-introduction were so smooth! But aren’t we too young for handshakes?
Blinking her big eyes, she stared blankly at Qi Lei and mimicked his tone: “I’m Xu Qian, from No. 1 Middle School, nice to meet you! But… we don’t need to be so old-fashioned, do we?”
Actually, after extending his hand, Qi Lei also realized it was inappropriate—he hadn’t controlled himself and had slipped into workplace mode.
But it was too late to take it back. To ease the awkwardness, as soon as Xu Qian finished speaking, Qi Lei immediately put on a disappointed expression. “See? You won’t even give me a chance? I’ve never held a pretty girl’s hand before!”
“Get lost!” Xu Qian laughed and scolded to cover her shyness, naturally labeling Qi Lei as “quite funny” and “a bit special.”
Just then, the invigilator strode into the exam hall with the preliminary bell, his first glance landing on Qi Lei’s seat.
Qi Lei naturally withdrew his arm and prepared for the exam.
He chuckled inwardly, You little girl! Can’t handle you? This time, I’ll copy a couple more answers from you. Surely you won’t block and glare at me again?
But… Xu Qian? Why does that name sound so familiar? He instinctively glanced at the old desk, where “Farewell, Xu Qian!” caught his eye.
Qi Lei’s jaw dropped, and he stared dumbfounded at the girl next to him. What a coincidence!
He wondered which hopeless romantic had originally owned this desk.
His gossipy soul began to burn, but just then, the invigilator reached him while distributing papers and sternly scolded, “Student, stop looking. The answers aren’t on her face.”
Boom.
The exam hall erupted in laughter. Even with Qi Lei’s thick skin, he felt somewhat embarrassed.
He knew the invigilator was warning him to keep his eyes to himself during the exam.
The politics exam had only one paper, worth 40 points total, with one hour to complete it.
Don’t be fooled by the low point value—to score high according to the standard answers, you’d have to memorize all six volumes of the politics textbook.
Moreover, in the 1998 Harbin region middle school entrance exams, students had to choose between politics and history. Both subjects required extensive memorization, and the exam subject was decided by lottery before the test.
In other words, for these 40 points, you had to memorize both politics and history. It was downright inhumane.
But for Qi Lei, he was fortunate to have drawn politics instead of history.
The precise dates, events, and historical significance required for the history exam could drive you insane—get one word wrong and you’d lose points.
Politics was different. Although it also had standard answers, politics had one great advantage: you could make educated guesses.
As long as you grasped the main idea of the question and wrote the core content, you could fill in the rest with stuff like the Four Cardinal Principles, core socialist values, Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, etc. Even if you didn’t get full marks, you could still score decently.
Moreover, after seeing the exam paper, Qi Lei realized it wasn’t as bad as he’d feared.
Many questions required rote memorization for middle school students, but for someone in his thirties who had taken postgraduate entrance exams, they were like common sense.
For example, one fill-in-the-blank question: “(??) is China’s fundamental political system.”
Those who hadn’t studied properly would probably fill in “(Socialism) is China’s fundamental political system.”
But Qi Lei knew at a glance that (the People’s Congress System) was China’s fundamental political system!
Then there were questions like: “multi-party cooperation and political consultation,” the three mountains being: imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism.
Our Party’s governance philosophy: serving the people wholeheartedly, establishing the Party for the public and governing for the people, etc.
For a middle school student, these were knowledge points that needed memorization. But for him, they were things he knew by heart.
In the end, Qi Lei managed to answer quite a few questions on the politics exam based on his own knowledge. For those questions he genuinely couldn’t figure out, he took advantage of the invigilator’s inattention and sneaked several glances at his neighbor’s paper.
Xu Qian noticed this but ultimately chose to ignore it, focusing solely on her own exam.
Half an hour later, with another half hour remaining until the end of the exam, Qi Lei, as usual, was the first to hand in his paper.
Once again, this drew sidelong glances from both Xu Qian and the invigilator. They couldn’t help but sigh inwardly: such a fine young man, if only he would put his heart into studying.
The invigilator habitually flipped through Qi Lei’s paper and noticed that it was much better than his previous exam—at the very least, he had filled in all the answers.
……