Chapter 64 Pavlov's Dog

After the report meeting at the No. 2 County High School, Lu Jingyao agreed to the school's request to tutor the top students in the repeat classes.

The reference books she had brought back from the capital for her younger brother became open teaching materials, copied onto the blackboard every day for everyone to study freely.

Xia Yue and the others treated these materials like treasures, which also provoked students from several other repeat classes to rush over and fight for them.

Naturally, Li Ye's group of eight was excluded from this process.

Hu Man and the others simply went to the classroom to attend the teachers' lectures as usual. However, the classroom was packed with people from all three repeat classes, and the girls found themselves vaguely pushed out to the periphery. They all returned in a huff.

Li Ye said calmly, "Isn't it a blessing in disguise that they won't let you into the classroom? From now on, don't go over there looking for trouble. Just study all day in the No. 2 Grain Station."

Hu Man said indignantly, "It's not that we wanted to learn from them. We just wanted to see what was so special about the reference books from the capital and compare them with the ones we found ourselves."

Fu Yingjie added, "Xia Yue and the others have formed a study group, and now with Lu Jingyao's help, they've secretly spread the word that they want to compete with us!"

Li Ye remarked, "Monks coming from the capital don't necessarily know how to chant better scriptures. Unless there are high-level teachers providing one-on-one or one-on-two tutoring for Xia Yue and the others, no matter how they study, their scores won't improve much."

During this time, Li Ye had actually observed the academic level of the first repeat class. To put it bluntly, the vast majority of them were just going through repetitive, futile motions, destined to remain stagnant in place.

Even if Lu Jingyao was willing to help now, how many days could she help? How much difference could she really make?

It simply could not compare to Li Ye's "small-class instruction."

"Then... fine! The day we defeat Xia Yue and the others, I'll definitely return all the frustration we suffered today right back to them."

"Right, we are just assassins hidden in the pre-dawn darkness, waiting only for the day the college entrance examination arrives."

Watching Hu Man and the others encouraging and pumping each other up, striking heroic "combat poses," Li Ye felt both a slight headache and a sense of amusement.

However, what happened next was what truly gave him a real headache.

......

"Wen Leyu, are you really not coming home with me for the New Year?"

Wen Leyu raised her big eyes, looked at Li Ye, and said nothing.

"Sigh~~"

Li Ye let out a long sigh, once again marveling at this young lady's stubbornness.

In fact, after Teacher Ke left, Li Ye had discussed with Wen Leyu multiple times about moving in with his family once the school vacation started.

Yet Wen Leyu consistently refused, insisting that she would be "just fine" staying alone at the school.

Once the school went on vacation, the dormitory would be completely empty! Besides the old gatekeeper, Wen Leyu would be all by herself—how could that possibly be fine?

No matter what Li Ye said, Wen Leyu only reluctantly agreed to come to his house for New Year's Eve dinner at most, but she absolutely refused to stay overnight.

The strict separation between men and women in the 1980s was truly a headache for Li Ye.

If Wen Leyu stayed overnight at his house, malicious rumors might spread, and within a few days, sensational gossip about Li Ye and Wen Leyu could sweep across half of Qingshui County.

Similarly, with Wen Leyu being the only person left at the school, it wouldn't be appropriate for Li Ye to break down the door of the boys' dormitory just to keep close watch over her.

Groundless rumors and gossip in the 1980s were like swords that killed without drawing blood—despicable, yet endlessly exciting to the gossips.

Hearing Li Ye's sigh, Wen Leyu remained silent for a few seconds before softly saying, "I want to go with you, but I can't! People will gossip, and it will drag you down."

Something struck Li Ye's heart hard, leaving it feeling warm, slightly bitter, and sweet all at once.

Having lived two lifetimes, his heart was not easily moved, but at this moment, he truly experienced the feeling of being touched.

The young lady was unwilling to give people any reason to suspect their relationship, not by prioritizing her own reputation, but by considering the trouble it might cause Li Ye.

Li Ye said, "But when Teacher Ke left, she told me to take good care of you. If you stay in the school dormitory by yourself, what if you catch a cold or run a fever?"

Wen Leyu replied, "It's fine. A cold or fever won't kill anyone. I've weathered through it many times before."

Li Ye tried again, "Then what if there's a giant rat suddenly appearing in your dorm?"

Wen Leyu answered calmly, "I can stomp it to death with one kick."

Li Ye pressed on, "Then what if, for your safety, I stand guard outside the school wall in the freezing wind?"

Wen Leyu paused for just a second before saying, "I'll stand outside the wall with you in the freezing wind."

Li Ye swallowed a breath, feeling like the melodramatic, hopelessly devoted male lead in a pure-love TV drama.

Was he moved?
Yes, he was.
Was it a bit foolish?
Well, a little bit!

If this trivial problem occurred in later generations, a cheap hotel costing a hundred yuan or so would solve it entirely. Yet right now, it forced Li Ye to rack his brains for a solution.

......

"Clang~" went the sound of a gong.

"Woof~" went the bark of a dog.

"Plop~" a chicken bone was tossed to the ground.

"Crunch, crunch~" the dog chewed the bone.

"Clang~"

"Woof~"

"Plop~"

With a bronze gong in his hand and half a basin of leftover chicken bones at his feet, Li Ye squatted in the courtyard of the No. 2 Grain Station, playing happily with a large yellow dog.

While he was having a great time, everyone else was suffering.

Inside the small warehouse, Hu Man and the others were furrowing their brows, struggling bitterly with their test papers. Outside in the courtyard, the clamor of gongs and barking dogs created an irritating noise that drove them crazy and made them want to hit someone.

However, recalling Li Ye's formidable martial prowess, and thinking back to his solemn explanation about "anti-interference training," not a single person dared to step up and make a fuss.

In the end, Hu Man turned her attention to Wen Leyu.

Wen Leyu had finished her test paper long ago and was currently copying a manuscript. Seeing her look of absolute concentration, it seemed this anti-interference training had zero effect on her.

"Wen Leyu, do you know what Li Ye is doing outside?"

"I don't know."

"Then why don't you go out and ask?"

Wen Leyu turned her head, looked at Hu Man, and asked, "You can't figure out the questions, can you?"

Hu Man gave an awkward, sheepish smile and said, "I really can't solve them. Could you please help a little?"

Wen Leyu narrowed her eyes as she looked at Hu Man, Han Xia, and the others. After thoroughly enjoying the pleading gazes of all the girls, she stood up, gracefully lifted the curtain, and walked outside.

The moment Wen Leyu stepped out, Hu Man and the others scrambled up from their stools, rushed to the door, and lifted the curtain just enough to peek through a narrow slit.

They saw that Wen Leyu, who had been cold and aloof just a moment ago, obediently squatting down beside Li Ye, resting her chin in her hands without saying a word.

Li Ye asked Wen Leyu, "Why did you come out?"

Wen Leyu replied, "I wanted to figure out what kind of game you're playing with this dog."

"Pfft~"

Li Ye chuckled and said, "I'm conducting a world-famous biological experiment called—Pavlov's dog."

"Pavlov's dog? Is that an experiment from the Soviet Union?"

"Right." Li Ye began to popularize science for Wen Leyu. Of course, it was a proper, serious scientific explanation, not the kind of wild, rambunctious showing-off seen in comedies.

"This experiment is named Pavlov's dog, but it can actually be applied to many animals, like the monkey-trix we usually see on the streets..."

"Do a backflip, get a piece of apple; kowtow once, get half a sweet potato; do a push-up, get half a watermelon directly... It won't take long before a monkey genius is successfully trained."

Li Ye chattered away, successfully arousing Wen Leyu's interest.

In an era when televisions were not yet widespread, wandering circuses traveling across the country had a huge market. Of course Wen Leyu had seen street monkey performances, and those clever monkeys had always amazed and fascinated her.

Now, hearing Li Ye explain it this way, she realized that as long as she had apples in her hand, she could train a stupid monkey into Sun Wukong the Monkey King.

So Wen Leyu took the bronze gong from Li Ye's hand and began to strike it: clang, clang, clang.

The large yellow dog cooperated brilliantly, barking louder and louder with every "woof, woof, woof," which thrilled Wen Leyu to no end.

Of course, humans didn't understand canine language; for all they knew, the pooch might have been thinking, "What a pair of stupid bipedal creatures. I just have to howl and I get another piece of bone. Don't you dare stop, or I'll win all your underwear off you."

After playing for a while, Wen Leyu handed the bronze gong back to Li Ye and urged him, "Quick, you teach it how to do a backflip."

To her surprise, Li Ye shook his head and said, "No need. It just needs to know how to bark."

Wen Leyu didn't understand and asked uninterestedly, "Just bark? What's the use of that? What dog doesn't know how to bark?"

"It's useful, extremely useful."

Li Ye pointed in the direction of the school and said to Wen Leyu, "From here to the dormitory where you live, the straight-line distance is 89 meters. If anything happens, even if you screamed your lungs out, I might not hear you."

Li Ye picked up the bronze gong and said, "As long as you strike this gong once, Big Yellow will bark wildly, and within twenty seconds, I will appear right in front of you."

"........."

Wen Leyu stared blankly at Li Ye, only realizing the meaning behind his words after several long seconds.

Li Ye had gone through all this trouble to stage some sort of Pavlov's dog experiment, just to let her know that as long as the gong rang, he would appear by her side?

Was it strange?
Was it funny?
Yet under the social climate and environment of 1981, it seemed... neither strange nor funny at all.

Wen Leyu took the bronze gong from Li Ye, hugged it tightly to her chest, and her face gradually flushed red.

Meanwhile, Li Ye felt a tiny trace of guilt.

[Sigh, I just used a classic low-level simp technique—text-message summoning—to move a girl's heart. Am I being a bit despicable here?]

Actually, Li Ye had also considered simply having Wen Leyu take Big Yellow over with her to stand guard and provide self-defense.

However, a young girl living alone in a strange place—does she need a boyfriend who will ride on colorful auspicious clouds to rescue her at a single call in times of danger?
Or does she need a dog?
A dog that could be beaten to death with a single strike from a bad guy's club?