Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 33: Final exam

On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, at the town post office, the director deliberately handed the postman in charge of Meijiawan a parcel and a remittance slip. 'This nephew of Meijiawan's is really good.'

Several people sorting mail nearby chimed in, 'Yes, at such a young age, what he's earned these past few months is equivalent to what I earned in two years of hard work.'

That evening, in the post office residential building, all the children who went to school were encouraged for a while.

The director's son, who was in the second year of junior high school in the town, wanted to go downstairs to play ball after dinner, but was dragged back by the director's wife by the ear. 'All you know is playing. It's almost the end of the semester. From today onwards, after dinner, you're not going anywhere, you're going to stay home and study.'

The son came to beg the director, who was tidying the table while watching his wife washing the dishes in the kitchen. He whispered to his son, 'Don't make your mother angry these few days, otherwise I can't protect you. Besides, you should study hard too. You know, there are people younger than you who have just started junior high school, not only do they get good grades, but they can already make money. If you don't study hard now, how will you compare with them in the future?'

On this day, the postman came to Mei Jianzhong's house again to drink some water. He handed him another parcel and a remittance slip, which was slightly smaller than the last one, 2,100 yuan.

The postman joked with Mei Jianzhong, 'If your grandson wasn't so young, several female employees from our office would have come to propose marriage. Although your grandson is young, he is already able to support his family.'

Mei Jianzhong was naturally delighted, 'Haha, they really overestimate him.'

When Feng Yiping returned at the weekend, the two of them withdrew the money and first repaid the chestnut money that Grandpa owed each family in the village, leaving less than 400 yuan. Feng Yiping bought a thick sweater and thick wool trousers, and then spent 50 yuan to have a down jacket custom-made on the street, which cost another 100 yuan. There was still more than 200 yuan left, plus the living expenses that Mei Jianzhong had kept in his hands last time, which added up to more than 400 yuan.

With this money, Feng Yiping discussed with his grandfather, and in his grandfather's name, bought a set of clothes for each of the eight children of his two uncles, fifty yuan each, just over four hundred yuan in total.

However, they couldn't buy them now, they would have to wait until they had bought their own clothes first, so that their eight cousins would have two new sets of clothes for the New Year.

In the last two weeks of the semester, everyone wound down their clocks. Many people's work and rest times were the same as those of the third grade, and Feng Yiping was no exception. The final exam is definitely different from the monthly exam. The monthly exam is organised by the school itself, but the final exam is a county-wide exam, which is more important for both the school and the teachers.

Feng Yiping has always ranked first in his class in the monthly exams, so he definitely cannot do poorly in the final exam, otherwise he would be slapping his own face, as well as the faces of his teachers and the school.

Wang Yumin told him that it would be best to do even better than expected, for example, getting full marks in the subjects of mathematics, physics, chemistry and English. As for Chinese, politics, history, geography and biology, full marks were not required, because no matter how well you answered these questions, the marking teachers would always find something to deduct a mark or two for, and it would be very difficult to get full marks. For the overall score, Wang Yumin demanded that he strive to be among the top three in the whole county.

To be honest, Feng Yiping also wanted to know where he actually ranked among all the first-year junior high school students in the county. He had spent the past two weeks studying like crazy, mainly focusing on history, geography, and biology, which required a lot of memorisation and therefore took a lot of time. He guessed that students from other schools with good grades would also do well in the other core subjects, and that the main reason for the difference in scores would be these three supplementary subjects. It was really all about exams for the sake of exams. Feng Yiping remembers that in the second semester of the first year, all three subjects were open-book exams, and from the second year onwards, they were simply not examined at all, and you were just expected to study on your own.

When the teachers said they weren't going to be examined, who was really going to study these subjects?

They had switched seats a few times during the period, and now Feng Yiping and the others had been moved to the outside, while Huang Jingping and the others had been moved to the inside. It was probably out of concern for the exams, but she was now much more bold, often running over to ask Feng Yiping questions, which made Xiao Zhijie feel jealous.

The day before the exam, the weather was beautiful, a rare good day, and the teachers were also lax, only letting everyone freely review.

After lunch, the three of them, each clutching a book, went to the hill by the water tower and sat on the withered grass, their backs against the tower, basking in the sun. They had eaten well and were warm from the sun, and their whole bodies were warm.

Feng Yiping and Xiao Zhijie didn't even bother to flip through the pages of the book they were holding, just going through the motions. After they had finished the bag of broad beans, they simply closed their eyes, while Wang Changning was still flipping through the political textbook and reading aloud in a low voice.

Xiao Zhijie thought he was noisy and probably didn't want to show that he wasn't paying attention. He grabbed the textbook from Wang Changning's hands and said, 'It's this time of night, what's the point of studying? It's useless.'

'Give it to me, it's useful to study now. You know, it's called "sharpening the sword at the last minute". It's better late than never,' Wang Changning said.

'You really can still concentrate on studying? I don't even want to flip through the pages anymore. What about you, Feng Yiping?' Xiao Zhijie asked.

'If Changning can read it, let him. Don't bother him, and don't bother me while I'm sleeping,' Feng Yiping said, without even bothering to open his eyes.

'Forget it, I know you don't need to read it, you've got it all mastered, right? Go to sleep, and be careful we don't wake you when we leave,' Xiao Zhijie said sulkily, but still opened the English book in his hands.

After reading for a while, he shouted again, 'No, no, it doesn't seem to be working. Changning, come on, I'll test you on politics and you can test me on English.'

'That's fine,' they exchanged the books in their hands and asked each other questions based on the key points the teacher had pointed out. Their enthusiasm was finally higher than before.

In the afternoon, they had a free review session in the cold classroom. They saw other students from other classes walking around outside the classroom, and the teacher didn't seem to care. Feng Yiping and the others couldn't sit still either, so the three of them went to the water tower again. Xiao Zhijie and Wang Changning still tested each other, and Feng Yiping still took history, geography and biology, still with his eyes closed, but occasionally opening the books to take a look. He systematically went through a subject from beginning to end, first recalling the table of contents, then each subsection under the table of contents, and then the key points in each subsection. He went backwards like this, section by section, and looked up the book again whenever he got stuck.

In fact, like most of his classmates, Feng Yiping didn't want to study at this time. It wasn't that he thought he had already mastered everything he needed to, it was just that he simply didn't want to study. However, like most of his classmates, he seized every bit of time before the exam to review again and again.

Most students at this time also force themselves to review, mainly out of uncertainty about the unknown future and a slight trace of fear. Feng Yiping is different. He thinks about the suffering and pain he will face later, so what is the point of overcoming this little reluctance in himself now?

Since God has given him a chance to start over, he must also overcome and change some of his bad habits.

In the 30-odd years since then, Feng Yiping has come into contact with all kinds of successful people. They range from the workshop director of a private enterprise to the senior executive of a multinational company, from the small boss of a township enterprise to the big boss of a private enterprise.

Their salaries range from a few thousand to several tens of thousands of yuan, the number of employees they employ ranges from a few dozen to several tens of thousands, and their assets range from a few hundred million to several hundred million to several billion yuan.

He has also witnessed firsthand how a business that struggled to take root in the wilderness grew into a towering tree in just a few years.

From an ordinary worker to a workshop director, from an ordinary employee of a multinational company to a senior executive, from an ordinary farmer to the owner of a township enterprise, from a small boss to a person with a huge fortune. Apart from some opportunities and encounters, you will find that these people have never succeeded by chance. You cannot just look at the glamorous appearance of others and not think about the hard work they have put in behind the scenes.

When you are struggling, he is struggling; when you are working hard, he is working hard; when you are relaxing and resting, he is still working hard. Having made efforts that ordinary people do not make, and having paid a price that ordinary people do not want to pay, some of these people have finally succeeded.

For Feng Yiping, knowing the general trend of the next few decades, he can easily achieve even greater success than before, but if he wants to go even further and have an even easier time than before, he needs to develop some good habits from now on.

For example, from now on, overcome his habitual laziness.

Having figured this out, Feng Yiping decided that from now on, this afternoon before the exam, until tomorrow morning, he would go over the Chinese, politics, English and physics that he had to rely on the first day, from beginning to end. The first night of the exam to the next morning, he would go over the same subjects from beginning to end that he would be tested on the next day, and finally, review the mathematics that would be tested on the third day.

The saying that attitude is everything really does have some truth to it. If you really put your mind to it, you can actually enjoy the state of mind. You discover that you have mastered all the knowledge points, and the questions from your classmates don't stump you at all. You feel very at ease, and you are not at all anxious when facing the exam.

After dinner that day, after returning from home to school after dinner, my cousin Lin Hui called Feng Yiping to an unoccupied area at the back of the classroom, and handed her a large bag of melon seeds. Feng Yiping couldn't help but laugh, and indeed it was still the same thing. Lin Hui was a little surprised, but she was not embarrassed at all. 'Yiping, I'm counting on you for the exam!'

'No problem, you don't need to rush me, I'll find an opportunity to pass the answers to you.' Feng Yiping smiled and tossed the bag of melon seeds around in his hands. If he remembered correctly, this was the first time he had turned knowledge into direct economic benefits. At the time, he hadn't been willing to eat the melon seeds, so he had brought them home during the holidays. When his parents heard about it, they were very happy to eat them.

After all, it was the final exam, which was taken much more seriously than the usual monthly exams. Before the exam, from the headmaster to the director of teaching, the class teachers of each class, and the teachers of each subject, they all took the trouble to emphasise again and again that they should not cheat, not cheat, not cheat.

Wang Yumin also emphasised again and again that after receiving the exam paper, the first thing to do was to write down their class and name, and this good habit must be cultivated from now on. She went on to repeat that someone, someone, had not written their school and class name at the top of the exam paper, and as a result, their score was counted as zero. The second most important thing is to check the exam paper for any defects, such as blurring or misalignment, and to immediately ask the invigilator to exchange it. Answer the easier questions first, and don't spend too much time on the difficult ones, so that you don't run out of time even before you get to the bonus questions. Finally, don't rush to hand in your exam paper; if you have time, it doesn't matter if you check it three times.

Having said these platitudes, Wang Yumin carefully surveyed the classroom, mainly looking at the desks of her students to see if they had written a lot on them.

She really caught one student who had written densely with pen on the middle section of the paulownia desk, covering it with the key points of knowledge from all subjects. Wang Yumin was furious on the spot. 'You don't study hard normally, but you spend so much effort on such a crooked way. If you can spend so much effort cheating, why don't you study harder normally?'

She told the monitor to go to the cafeteria and get a sickle, and watched as the student scraped the top of the desk clean in front of her. She also told the students who were still hoping for luck to take this as a warning.

The supervision was also much stricter than usual, and the supervisors were no longer just the teachers from her own class. The teachers were divided up evenly across the whole school, and the academic affairs office took charge of assigning them. In addition to the supervisors, there were also teachers who patrolled the classrooms.

The distance between the seats was increased as required, desks were cleaned, not a single piece of paper was left, and desks with locks were required to be locked. If a desk had to be opened during the exam, it had to be done with the consent of the invigilator and under his supervision.

The first subject, as usual, was Chinese, and it wasn't the kind of exam paper that the school had printed itself, but a photocopied exam paper issued centrally by the county. The snow-white paper had standard Song font, which was more formal and high-class than the exam papers they usually did.

Feng Yiping first checked the test paper, which was fine, without any flaws, and then wrote his class and name on it, before starting with the first question and working his way backwards.

The difficulty level was not high this time, medium, so Feng Yiping buried his head in the questions with gusto. By the time he had only the composition left, the teacher had just given a prompt, and there was still an hour left, which meant he had only spent a little over half an hour on it. The composition was a narrative about someone you know, and it required 800 characters, which was also simple.

Feng Yiping wrote the answer on a scratch piece of paper, avoiding the time when the teacher came to patrol. When the invigilator walked over to a student who was looking around, knocking on the desk to warn him, Feng Yiping took advantage of the situation, rolled the paper into a small ball, and threw it with lightning speed to Lin Hui in the last row of seats.

Feng Wen, who had noticed this, signalled Feng Yiping to move the paper towards his side a little, and not to press his hand on it. Feng Yiping simply placed the finished paper at the front and started drafting his composition.

Feng Wen then took the opportunity to look at his answers. When he had finished, he gave Feng Yiping a kick with his foot to signal him to turn the paper over. Wen Hong, who was sitting at the back of the row, was looking at Feng Wen's answers. Seeing this, the teacher in charge of the exam, who was a third-year Chinese teacher, couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable. When she came over, she saw Feng Yiping concentrating on writing his composition, and he didn't even notice her. So she took matters into her own hands and helped him organise his paper a little. Only then did Feng Yiping suddenly look up, smile at the teacher, and say thank you in a low voice.

For the Chinese exam, no one dared to hand in their paper early because of Wang Yumin, and Feng Yiping was no exception. After finishing his composition, he checked it over several times. With more than half an hour to go, he simply silently reviewed the English words and key points he would need to test on.

In the last ten minutes, the invigilator reminded everyone to check whether they had written their class and name on the heading. As the bell rang, the teacher told everyone to stop writing and hand in their papers to the teacher's desk. Some students got up and went to the teacher's desk, and the classroom became a little chaotic. Some students took this opportunity to look at the answers around them and quickly write them on their papers. Those who had already handed in their papers stood by the window and watched, unable to stop laughing.

One student who was always slow at answering questions was still buried in his work, so the teacher had to go over and forcibly take the test away from him.

As soon as the teacher left, many students couldn't wait to go back to the classroom and look through their books. There were many who regretted their answers. Feng Wen was nearby, exclaiming, 'Oops, I saw you choose C for this question, and I thought you were wrong, that you chose A. Who knew it was really C.'

Feng Yiping smiled, took out his English book and started reading it. He didn't want to check his answers right after the exam, because it was not a good habit. The frustration of getting the answers wrong would affect his performance in the next subject, and the teachers would start to emphasise this issue in the third year, telling students not to check their answers right after an exam.

Xiao Zhijie ran over to ask Feng Yiping, who advised him not to check the answers. The exam was over, so there was no point in checking the answers, and he might as well spend the time revising a few words.

Feng Yiping didn't need to check the answers either. With an exam of this difficulty, he wouldn't lose any marks, except for the composition, which might cost him a few points.

In this way, two and a half days passed, and with the last major class, mathematics, finished, the final exam was over, and the semester was also over at the same time. Finally, the first winter vacation of junior high school was ushered in.

Wang Yumin was still speaking on the stage, saying that students should come to school on the 17th day of the lunar year to collect their report cards, and that while they were celebrating the New Year, they should not forget to do their winter holiday homework. School would start again on the eighth day of the first lunar month next year, so they should not be late. The students below could not wait to pack up.