Chapter 017: Do You Want to Drive Your Mother-in-law to Despair? (Please Follow Along)

“Alright, you said it yourself, four hundred and fifty points—don’t go back on your word!” Cheng Xueming pointed at his wife and emphasized his words.

Four hundred and fifty points—it was still a challenge for Cheng Xueming!

After all, this summer, Feng Jiayou’s own score in the college entrance exam was just 436, and the admission line for Yanjing University was only 423. The top scorer in Yanjing’s college entrance exam had only achieved 447.

Yet here was his wife, setting the bar at the very height of Yanjing’s top scorer, demanding that Cheng Xueming hit that target on this set of papers!

Fine!

Cheng Xueming said no more. He was quite willing to see for himself just how much of his past life’s prowess—having once attended a prestigious 985 university—still remained.

He had mastered that legendary exam-prep book, “Three Years’ College Entrance Exam, Five Years’ Simulation.” Even if only half of that skill remained, shouldn’t he be able to score 450?

Besides, the types of questions in this era’s exams were truly primitive and simple.

That was where Cheng Xueming’s confidence came from; otherwise, how could he have dared to boast in front of Feng Jiayou’s whole family that he’d get into Yanjing University next year?

“Alright, I’m waiting,” Feng Jiayou arched her eyebrows mischievously, equally eager to see just what Cheng Xueming’s real ability was in this trial run.

Though she had always had confidence in him, the set of exam papers her mother had brought back today—after taking Jiamei to report at Yanjing University’s affiliated high school—left her nervous and ill at ease.

She also knew her mother wasn’t joking. Yanjing University was Yanjing University; they would make no exceptions for her.

“Heh!”

At some point, Cheng Xueming suddenly laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Feng Jiayou set down her editing pen and looked up at him in confusion.

“Nothing, nothing. The English section is already done,” Cheng Xueming tossed the completed English paper over to her, grinning.

“You’ve finished English? So fast? Did you just use your formula and guess your way through it?” Feng Jiayou estimated that it had only taken him about twenty minutes—he’d finished the entire English exam already?

She thought back to before her own college entrance exam, when Cheng Xueming had insisted she memorize his secret English test-killing technique, and she asked in mock annoyance.

Feng Jiayou’s English had never been strong. Even with Cheng Xueming’s crash course, she hadn’t scored highly.

Luckily, English only counted for ten percent; even a zero would only mean a ten-point loss.

So, as a last resort, Cheng Xueming had shared his past life’s tried-and-true guessing trick for English: “If there are three long and one short, pick the shortest; three short and one long, pick the longest; two long and two short, pick B; all the same, pick A; if they’re all irregular, C is the champion.”

He made sure she had it memorized, then told her to rely on it in the exam.

Amazingly, Feng Jiayou—who usually struggled to even scrape a passing mark—scored an impressive seventy-six!

Yes!

In this era, before the English craze had taken off, hardly anyone had any real foundation in the language; most people hovered around thirty or forty, guessing their way through. Seventy-six was an extraordinary score!

“Now, tell me, isn’t my killer technique unbeatable?” Cheng Xueming had only realized after finishing, but verifying the formula’s accuracy, he found it was over ninety percent correct.

Such a high guessing accuracy was almost frightening!

But then, it made sense. This so-called “killer technique” really was a cheat code in the eighties and nineties.

It wasn’t by chance—the entire English exam format was borrowed from abroad, and the subtle patterns in the questions went unnoticed when first introduced to China.

It wasn’t until after the millennium, when the internet spread, that these folk tricks became widely known. Only then did examiners deliberately avoid those “coincidences,” rendering the killer technique obsolete.

But even so, generations of struggling students continued to revere and pass down these tricks, though they were now of little use.

But what era was this? The college entrance exam had only just been restored; English had only been tested once in a closed-book format—the one Feng Jiayou took that summer.

The previous winter’s exam was completely open-book.

So, applying these classics, distilled over the following two or three decades, to the very first years of the exam—what could it be but a total cheat?

“Listen to you brag!”

Feng Jiayou couldn’t help but laugh, thinking of the killer trick her husband had taught her and how devastatingly effective it had been.

But she quickly suppressed her smile and said sternly, “Don’t you dare share this with anyone else. I’m making this a family secret—passed down within, not without! I’ll even have to think twice before teaching it to Jiamei in two years!”

Thinking of the terrifying accuracy of that formula, Feng Jiayou couldn’t help but warn Cheng Xueming.

“Alright, alright, I won’t spread it around!”

“Family secret, huh? Why not just say it’ll be passed to sons, not daughters?” Cheng Xueming rolled his eyes. This woman, really—she wanted to make it a family legacy!

Once their son and daughter grew up, though, it likely wouldn’t work so well anymore.

“Just don’t spread it around!”

“Now, focus on your test. I’m taking this English paper to Mom!” She shot him a look and told him to continue working before taking the English paper and heading out.

“What’s the rush? Can’t you wait until I’m finished and take them all together?” Cheng Xueming asked with a wry smile, surprised by her eagerness.

“I’m not in a hurry—someone else is!” she replied, glancing back at him. “Do you want your mother-in-law to die of suspense?” With that, she ran excitedly to her mother’s room.

“Careful!” Cheng Xueming called after her. For someone about to be a mother, she still acted like a young girl.

Only after watching her enter the main house did he turn his attention back to the next paper—math.

“Mom! Here’s Xueming’s English paper—see what score you think he’ll get!” Upon entering, Feng Jiayou found her mother indeed waiting for her son-in-law’s test and handed the paper over as if it were a treasure.

“So soon? Don’t tell me he just guessed his way through?” Mother Gu Xueqing checked her watch. It hadn’t been long since she’d given Jiayou the paper to deliver—maybe half an hour at most?

And he’d finished a hundred-point English test in that time?

Guessed, definitely guessed! That was her first reaction to her country-bumpkin son-in-law.

After all, English was different from the other subjects. It hadn’t even been a required college entrance exam subject before—back then, it was Russian.

Not to mention there had been a ten-year gap.

English had only just become a foreign language subject to align with international standards after the exam was reinstated.

In the past, there were no review materials available in the country.

Even city students struggled to get their hands on English materials, let alone someone like Cheng Xueming from the countryside!

Had he even seen what an English test looked like?

She’d gone to great lengths to get this set of simulated exam papers from a contact at the Yanjing High School.

And now he just guessed his way through?

“Guessed or not—Mom, just mark it! You have the answer key, don’t you?”

If Feng Jiayou had been good at English herself, she would’ve checked it on the spot. But since she wasn’t, and knowing Cheng Xueming had used the killer technique, she figured he’d at least scrape a pass!

“Alright, let’s see what he managed to guess,” Gu Xueqing nodded and began marking the test against the answer key provided by the school.