How I Tamed My Wolfish Husband Back in 80s-Chapter 132: Congratulations_1

Li Qiao waited for Du Xinxin’s emotions to stabilize and then sought out a teacher to explain the situation.

Mr. Zhou exclaimed with joy, "You really made us proud! Good job."

Mr. Zhou couldn’t hide his happiness, and the corners of his mouth had been up since seeing Li Qiao.

Li Qiao was equally happy, but the most important thing now was to check Du Xinxin’s grades, "Mr. Zhou, do you know Du Xinxin’s scores? They’re too far off from her usual performance. Can we take a look at her exam paper to check it?"

The teacher frowned, "The exam papers were all collected. How do we check? It’s a problem for the school to even get your own paper back."

Li Qiao said, "Think of something. I suspect Du Xinxin’s scores were miscalculated."

Mr. Zhou immediately replied, "Impossible! Two teachers from the school were appointed to mark the papers, and several teachers worked together to verify and record the scores after repeated checks."

Li Qiao said, "Nothing is absolute. What if there was a mistake? What if the marking was wrong? This concerns a student’s future and career. Can we let Du Xinxin fill in her choice of college based on her estimated scores first? Can’t we try to find a way to check the paper afterwards?"

Mr. Zhou pondered, "To fill it in is possible—her records can be sent over. The key issue is who will admit her?"

Li Qiao said, "Have her fill it out first, and wait until her scores are cleared up before submitting her file, right? Mr. Zhou, please help us."

After hesitating for a moment, Mr. Zhou said, "Alright, fill it in here, and leave the form with me after."

Li Qiao got the form and guided Du Xinxin in filling out her choices.

At this moment, Du Xinxin was somewhat dejected, teary-eyed, "Will it really matter if I fill it out?"

"Of course, it matters. I haven’t given up on you, how can you give up on yourself?" Li Qiao said.

Encouraged by Li Qiao, Du Xinxin perked up a bit and filled in her choices based on her estimated scores.

After leaving the office, everyone else had also finished filling in their forms.

The educated youth were worried about Du Xinxin’s situation, but had no immediate solution.

Li Qiao, however, had an idea. She told Du Xinxin to make a commotion at the doors of the education department, to beat drums and gongs proclaiming that her scores had been calculated incorrectly, and to threaten to petition in Beijing. As long as the matter caught the attention of the higher-ups, there would be a chance to recalculate the scores.

By then, the school would definitely send a teacher to assist personally in verifying. If the scores did turn out to be in the 400s, it would be easier to accept the outcome.

Thinking about being left alone in the countryside in the future, Du Xinxin’s heart felt shattered. "Will it really work?"

Li Qiao affirmed, "It will definitely work! But you’ll have to do it yourself; we can’t help with this."

"I, I..." Du Xinxin twirled her hair, feeling apprehensive, "There are so many people, I’ll be too embarrassed."

Li Qiao held her forehead, in such a situation who cares about embarrassment? "Pride is actually the most useless thing. It can neither be eaten nor drunk. Isn’t having a future more important? If it were me, I’d burn my boats and fight with my back to the river, never stopping until I achieve my goal."

Du Xinxin clenched her fists, "I’ll make a scene!"

Li Qiao supported her, "I’ll take care of your gong."

"I’ll write the big-character poster!" Wang Nannan said.

Finally, Du Xinxin’s mood improved a bit.

But upon returning to the youth spot and facing the inquiries of the fellow villagers, Du Xinxin broke down and cried again. It wasn’t appropriate for the others to tell the villagers in front of Du Xinxin, "We all got in."

Seeing that their expressions were off, the villagers thought that none of them had passed. Those who had given gifts in advance started to indirectly ask for them back, leaving the educated youth shocked and speechless.

.....

Once Li Qiao arrived home, she told Old Mrs. Qin about her scores.

Old Mrs. Qin immediately burned a stack of paper money facing south, chanting, "Ancestors bless, ancestors bless. The Qin family has a daughter-in-law with achievements now, a top scholar twice over."

Li Qiao smiled faintly, a top scholar twice over? Alright then!

After Old Mrs. Qin finished burning the paper money and securing the brazier, she finally had time to ask about the other educated youth.

Li Qiao said, "They all got in too, but there might be a problem with Du Xinxin’s scores."

"A problem? Won’t it interfere with getting into university, will it?"

"It might," Li Qiao was not sure herself. Based on what she knew before, Du Xinxin should have no problem getting into university. After all, her hard work was apparent, and her performance was consistently good; there was no reason for her to fail. They would have to wait and see.

She prepared to go weed the fields with Qin Jin.

Old Mrs. Qin stopped her, "Qiaoqiao, the sun is strong and your skin is delicate, you shouldn’t go. Let Jin do it; his skin is rough and thick; he doesn’t fear the sun."

Qin Jin: "..."

Li Qiao laughed and said, "I’m not going to work, I’m going to supervise him working."

Old Mrs. Qin said, "Alright then, take an umbrella, the sun in the field is stronger than at home."

Li Qiao laughed out loud, "A straw hat will do." She slipped on sleeve covers over her T-shirt, changed into a pair of rubber shoes, and went down to the field with Qin Jin.

Along the way, others asked him, "Are you weeding?"

He replied, "How did you know my wife got national first place?"

Before long, the whole village knew that Li Qiao had achieved national first place. In ancient times, that was equivalent to becoming a Top Scholar.

The commune had a meeting and decided to present the Qin family with a Top Scholar plaque.

Neighbors nearby came to offer their congratulations and took the opportunity to inquire about the scores of the educated youths from Old Mrs. Qin.

"They all got into university."

"Really? How come I heard that all of them flunked?"

"Who said that?"

"People living near the youth spot told me."

Old Mrs. Qin said, "Qiaoqiao mentioned that only Du Xinxin had some issues with her scores, and it wasn’t clear for a moment; the others probably didn’t want to upset her by talking about it." Du Xinxin was the youngest among them, only fourteen or fifteen when she arrived, having come as a substitute for her sick elder sister. Just graduated from junior high school, so everyone in the village took good care of her.

"So you’re saying our village has six college students?" The crowd was skeptical.

College students are not wholesaled; how could one village have so many?

Old Mrs. Qin nodded, "Qiaoqiao’s words cannot be false."

"Oh my dear mother! Is our village a geomantic treasure spot? College students keep popping up everywhere."

"Once they graduate, they all have to become officials, right? How much will they earn a month?"

Old Mrs. Qin said, "Qiaoqiao told me before that she was going to be an engineer or something, I don’t really understand, but surely it’s a lot of money; later on they will be given ration cards, a few dozen kilos of commercial grain each month. Plus, the kind of work they’ll do won’t expose them to wind or sun, very comfortable."

Hearing this, those who previously said that studying was useless started making plans to send their kids to school with the hopes they’d go to college in the future.

....

Early the next morning, Du Xinxin, following Li Qiao’s advice, took a gong and created a commotion at the entrance of the Education Department.

The security guard tried to drive her away, and she, resolute, started rolling on the ground and making a scene like the village women.

When the guard attempted to drag her away, Li Qiao, hiding among the crowd that had gathered to watch the commotion, immediately shouted, "They’re beating people up... they’re beating people up..."

With her shout, the other educated youths joined in the uproar.

The guard suddenly found himself powerless, and even the person in charge, after being informed, had no good way to stop it, so they let it be.

Li Qiao, through Qin Jin, found out the exact location of the family courtyard and told Du Xinxin, instructing her to have a full meal in the evening and continue to make a fuss, and even provided her with a whistle to blow from time to time. They would protect her from the shadows.

Two days later, the office workers couldn’t bear it any longer, worried about the impact escalating out of control, and instructed someone to call Du Xinxin in for a talk.

Du Xinxin was overjoyed; Li Qiao’s method was indeed effective.

She tearfully recited the well-rehearsed reasons.

The listener immediately arranged for her scores to be re-evaluated.

The school instructed Mr. Zhou and Mr. Song to go, and together with the exam paper administrator, they found Du Xinxin’s paper.

It turned out she only got 20 points in English.

The English teacher said, "Du Xinxin usually scores in the eighties or nineties; even with her eyes closed, she couldn’t possibly have scored 20 points, could she?"

Upon closer examination, there were traces of alteration on the test paper next to the words ’Xinxin.’

A group of people studied the original text, and finally, with the help of a technician, they discovered that it originally said ’Du Meimei.’

Everyone then checked the student list and found there was only one Du Meimei, a student from the neighboring Yan Village Commune, who had taken the exam at the same school as Du Xinxin and had their papers corrected in the same batch.

When they reviewed Du Meimei’s paper, they confirmed that she had stolen Du Xinxin’s English score.

Du Xinxin’s real score was 96. The teachers recalculated Du Xinxin’s scores, totaling 532.