Chapter 33

On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, at the town post office, the director specially handed a package and a money order to the mailman responsible for Meijia Bay, saying, "This nephew of the Meijia Bay family is really something."

The few people sorting the mail nearby chimed in, "Yes, at such a young age, what he has earned in these few months is equivalent to what I work hard for two years."

That evening, in the postal residential building, all the children who were in school were encouraged.

The director's son, who was in the second year of junior high school in town, wanted to go downstairs to play basketball after dinner, but was pulled back by his mother, who grabbed his ear, "All you think about is playing. The final exams are coming up. From today on, after dinner, you stay at home to review."

The son came to the director for help. While tidying up the table, the director glanced at his wife washing dishes in the kitchen and whispered to his son, "Don't provoke your mother these days, or I won't be able to protect you. Besides, you should start working hard. You were only thirteenth in your class last semester. You know, there are younger students in the first year of junior high who not only have good grades but also know how to earn money. If you don't study hard now, how will you compete with them in the future?"

On the day of the Minor Cold, the mailman came to Meijiazhong's house again to drink water and handed him another package and a money order, this time slightly less, 2,001 yuan.

The mailman joked with Meijiazhong, "If your grandson weren't so young, several female employees in our office would have come to propose marriage. Even though he's young, with his skills, he can already support a family."

Meijiazhong naturally felt pleased, "Hehe, they really overestimate him."

When Feng Yiping came back on the weekend, the two of them took out the money and first paid off the chestnut debts owed to the villagers by his grandfather. There was less than 400 yuan left. Feng Yiping bought thick sweaters and pants, and spent 50 yuan to have a down jacket made on the street, which cost over 100 yuan. With the remaining 200 yuan, plus the money left for living expenses by Meijiazhong, they had over 400 yuan in total.

Feng Yiping and his grandfather discussed and decided to buy a set of clothes for each of the eight children in the families of his three uncles, 50 yuan per child, totaling 400 yuan.

However, they couldn't buy the clothes now. They would wait until the others bought theirs first, so that the eight cousins would have two sets of new clothes for the New Year.

In the last two weeks of the semester, everyone tightened their schedules. Many people's routines were the same as those in the third grade, and Feng Yiping was no exception. The final exams were different from the monthly exams, which were organized by the school. The final exams were county-wide, and they were more important for both the school and the teachers.

Feng Yiping had been the top student in the grade for every monthly exam, and he couldn't afford to slip up on the final exams. It would not only embarrass him but also the teachers and the school.

Wang Yumin told him that he should even exceed his usual performance, aiming for full marks in subjects like math, physics, chemistry, and English. For Chinese, politics, history, geography, and biology, full marks weren't required because the teachers would always find a way to deduct a point or two, making it very difficult to get full marks. Wang Yumin required that he strive to be in the top three in the county.

To be honest, Feng Yiping also wanted to know where he stood among the first-year junior high students in the county. For the next half month, he studied day and night, focusing mainly on history, geography, and biology, which required a lot of memorization and thus took up more time. He estimated that the top students in other schools would also excel in the main subjects, so the key to scoring higher would be in these three minor subjects. This was really studying for the sake of the exam, as he remembered that in the second semester of the first year, these three subjects would be open-book exams, and from the second year, they wouldn't be tested at all, only self-study.

If the teachers said they wouldn't be tested, who would really study them?

During this period, the seating arrangement was changed several times. Feng Yiping and his classmates were moved to the outermost seats, while Huang Jingping and her group were moved to the innermost seats. Perhaps out of concern for the exams, she became bolder, often coming over to ask Feng Yiping questions, much to Xiao Zhijie's envy.

The day before the exam, the weather was unusually good, and the teachers were more relaxed, allowing everyone to review freely.

After lunch, the three of them, each with a book, went to the small hill where the water tower was built. They leaned against the water tower, sitting on the withered grass, basking in the warm sun. Feeling full and warm, they were quite comfortable.

Feng Yiping and Xiao Zhijie didn't even turn the pages of their books, just pretending to read. After finishing a pack of soybeans, they both closed their eyes, while Wang Changning continued to flip through his politics textbook, reading softly.

Xiao Zhijie found him annoying and, perhaps not wanting to highlight his own lack of seriousness, snatched the book from Wang Changning, "At this point, what's the point of reading? It's useless."

"Give it back, give it back. It's useful now, you know. This is called last-minute preparation; it may not be sharp, but it will be shiny," Wang Changning said.

"Can you really focus? I don't even want to look. What about you, Feng Yiping?" Xiao Zhijie asked.

"Let Changning read if he wants to. Don't disturb him or my nap," Feng Yiping said without opening his eyes.

"Fine, I know you don't need to read. You've got it all, right? Go to sleep, but be careful, we might not wake you up when we leave," Xiao Zhijie said resentfully, but still opened his English book.

After a short while, he called out again, "No, no, it's not working. Changning, let's quiz each other. You quiz me on politics, and I'll quiz you on English."

"Sure," they exchanged their books and started quizzing each other on the key points their teachers had highlighted, which increased their enthusiasm.

In the cold classroom, they reviewed freely for a class period. Seeing other students from other classes moving around outside, and the teachers not interfering, Feng Yiping and his friends couldn't sit still. The three of them went back to the water tower. Xiao Zhijie and Wang Changning continued to quiz each other, while Feng Yiping, holding his history, geography, and biology books, closed his eyes but occasionally opened them to look at the books. He systematically reviewed each subject from beginning to end, recalling the table of contents, each section, and the key points, moving through them one by one and referring to the books when he got stuck.

Actually, like most students, Feng Yiping didn't really want to study at this point. It wasn't that he had already mastered everything, but simply that he didn't want to study. However, like most students, he seized every moment before the exam to review again and again.

Most students forced themselves to review at this point, mainly due to their uncertainty about the future and a faint sense of fear. Feng Yiping was different. Thinking about the hardships and suffering he had endured later in life, overcoming this slight reluctance now was nothing.

Since fate had given him a second chance, he needed to overcome and change some of his bad habits.

In the following thirty years, Feng Yiping had met many successful people, from workshop managers in private enterprises to executives in multinational corporations, from small business owners in townships to large private enterprise owners.

Their salaries ranged from thousands to tens of thousands, the number of employees they hired from dozens to tens of thousands, and their assets from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions.

He had also witnessed a company struggling to sprout in the wilderness and growing into a towering tree in just a few years.

From a common worker to a workshop manager, from a regular employee in a multinational company to an executive, from a common farmer to a small business owner, and from a small business owner to a millionaire. Besides some opportunities and luck, he found that these people did not succeed easily. One should not only see their success but also consider the efforts behind it.

When you were working hard, they were working harder; when you were striving, they were working harder; when you were resting, they were still working hard. By making efforts that ordinary people wouldn't make and paying the price that ordinary people wouldn't pay, some of these people finally succeeded.

For Feng Yiping, knowing the trends of the next few decades, he could easily achieve greater success than before. But to rise even higher and live more comfortably, he needed to develop some good habits from now on.

For example, overcoming his habitual laziness from now on.

Having thought this through, Feng Yiping decided to review the Chinese, politics, English, and physics exams from the afternoon before the exam to the morning of the exam day. On the evening of the first day of the exam and the morning of the second day, he would review the subjects for the second day from beginning to end. Finally, he would review the math exam for the third day.

Attitude determines everything, and this saying really held true. Once he was fully engaged, he actually enjoyed the state of mind. Knowing all the key points and being able to answer any questions from his classmates made him feel very secure and calm about the exams.

After dinner that day, his cousin Lin Hui, who had finished eating, returned to school and called Feng Yiping to a quiet spot at the back of the classroom, giving him a large bag of sunflower seeds. Feng Yiping couldn't help but laugh; it was just as he had expected. Lin Hui was a bit surprised but not at all embarrassed, "Yiping, it's all up to you for the exam!"

"No problem, I'll find a way to pass the answers to you without you having to remind me," Feng Yiping said, tossing the bag of sunflower seeds in his hand. If he remembered correctly, this was the first time he had turned knowledge into direct economic benefits. At the time, he hadn't eaten the sunflower seeds but had taken them home during the holiday. His parents were very happy when they heard about it.

Since it was the final exam, it was much more serious than the usual monthly exams. From the principal to the vice-principal, the class teachers, and the subject teachers, they all repeatedly emphasized not to cheat.

Wang Yumin also stressed that the first thing to do after receiving the test paper was to write down the class and name, a good habit that should be cultivated from now on. She recounted a story about someone who, during the high school entrance exam, had not written their school, class, and name at the beginning, resulting in a zero score. The second thing to do was to check the test paper for any flaws, such as blurred or misaligned sections, and immediately ask the invigilator to replace it. Answer the easy questions first, then the difficult ones, and don't waste too much time on the hard questions, leaving no time for the easy ones. Finally, don't rush to hand in the paper; if there's time, check it three times.

After these reminders, Wang Yumin carefully inspected the classroom, mainly looking for any writing on the desks.

She did catch one student who had written all the key points of the subjects in dense handwriting on the middle section of a desk made of paulownia wood. Wang Yumin was furious, "You don't study hard during the year, but you spend so much effort on cheating. If you could put this much effort into cheating, why not put it into studying?"

She called the class monitor to bring a sickle from the cafeteria and watched the student scrape the writing off the desk. She warned those who still harbored侥幸 (侥幸 means侥幸, which can be translated as '侥幸' or '侥幸') to take this as a lesson.

The invigilation was much stricter than usual, and the invigilators were not from their own class. All the teachers in the school were mixed and assigned by the academic affairs office. Besides the invigilators, there were also patrolling teachers.

The distance between the desks was required to be wider, and the desks had to be clean, with no paper left on them. If the desks had locks, they had to be locked, and if a student needed to open the desk during the exam, they had to get the invigilator's permission and be supervised.

The first subject, as usual, was Chinese. It wasn't a school-printed test paper but a photocopied one issued by the county. The paper was white, and the text was in standard Song typeface, much more formal and impressive than the usual test papers.

Feng Yiping first checked the test paper, found no flaws, wrote down his class and name, and then started answering the questions from the first one.

The difficulty of this exam was moderate. Feng Yiping answered the questions one by one, and when he reached the essay, the teacher had just announced that there was one hour left, meaning he had spent only half an hour. The essay was a narrative about a familiar person, requiring 800 words, which was also simple.

Feng Yiping wrote the answers on the draft paper, waited for the patrolling teacher to pass, and when the invigilator was warning a student who was looking around, he quickly rolled the paper into a small ball and threw it to Lin Hui at the back of the room.

Feng Wen, who noticed this, signaled Feng Yiping to move the paper a bit closer to him and not to press his hand on it. Feng Yiping placed the completed paper at the front and started drafting the essay.

Thus, Feng Wen had a chance to look at the answers, and when he finished, he kicked Feng Yiping to signal him to turn the page. The innermost student, Wen Hong, looked at Feng Wen's answers, and this chain of passing answers continued. The invigilator, a third-grade Chinese teacher, couldn't stand it and came over. Seeing Feng Yiping focused on writing the essay, he didn't even notice the teacher, who helped him organize his paper. Feng Yiping then looked up and smiled at the teacher, saying "thank you" softly.

Because of Wang Yumin, no one dared to submit their paper early, including Feng Yiping. After finishing the essay, he checked it several times and, with half an hour left, silently reviewed the English words and key points for the next exam.

In the last ten minutes, the invigilator reminded everyone to check if they had written their class and name. When the bell rang, the invigilator asked everyone to stop writing and hand in their papers. Some students rushed to the podium, and the classroom became a bit chaotic. Some students took the opportunity to look at the answers of those around them and quickly wrote them on their own papers. Those who had already handed in their papers stood by the windows, laughing at the scene.

One student who was always slow in answering was still writing, and the teacher had to go over and forcibly take the paper.

As soon as the teacher left, many students eagerly returned to the classroom to review their books. Feng Wen, for example, said, "Oh, I saw you choose C, and I thought you were wrong, so I chose A. Who knew it was really C?"

Feng Yiping smiled and took out his English book. He didn't want to check the answers immediately after the exam, as it wasn't a good habit. Being disappointed by a wrong answer could affect performance in the next exam. By the third year, teachers would also emphasize not checking answers immediately after an exam.

Xiao Zhijie ran over to ask Feng Yiping, but Feng Yiping advised him not to check, as it was useless after the exam. It was better to use the time to review a few more words.

Feng Yiping didn't need to check either. For this level of difficulty, he wouldn't lose points, except for the essay, which might be deducted a few points.

Thus, after two and a half days, with the last math exam, the final exams ended, and the semester came to a close, marking the beginning of the first winter vacation of junior high school.

Wang Yumin was still speaking on the podium, reminding them to come to school on the 17th of the lunar month to collect their report cards and not to forget their winter homework while enjoying the New Year. She also reminded them that school would resume on the 8th of the first lunar month and not to be late. The students, however, were already eagerly packing up.

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