81: Chapter 81 Drunkenness 81: Chapter 81 Drunkenness Qingshui Garden Restaurant, the speed of serving dishes was fairly good.

A few people chatted idly in the meantime, and the dishes were already on the table.

A bowl of beef tendons, a bowl of duck, along with several stir-fries.

In these days when produce wasn’t abundant, such dishes truly weren’t something the average person could often taste.

Like in Chen Hai’s household, where going ten days to half a month without knowing the taste of meat was common.

It seemed that, to treat Chen Hai to this meal, Li Ying and Hu Zhiyong had indeed spent a fair bit.

Of course, the conditions of their families were certainly much better than Chen Hai’s.

The money spent on treating someone to a meal might not mean much to them, or maybe not.

When Li Ying tentatively asked Chen Hai to have a look at her grandmother’s situation, after his polite refusal, she didn’t persist endlessly.

Honestly, she was just trying her luck with the request.

Though the matter in Shuang State had preceded this, at that time, Chen Hai hadn’t shown any miraculous abilities.

His performance could at most make people think he was bold yet careful, just slightly more knowledgeable about strange and supernatural matters.

Given his young age, even Li Ying found it hard to believe he possessed any significant skills!

“Brother Hai, come, let me offer you a toast!”

“In the past, I was naive and followed Qian Bing around blindly.

Some things, once past, should be let go.

Please don’t take them to heart!”

Zhang Yong was the first to stand, took a glass of beer, clinked it with Chen Hai’s, and then he downed it in one go.

His toast was both an apology to Chen Hai and a way to express his gratitude.

Ever since being terrified by Chen Hai to the point of panicking, even up to now, he felt somewhat awkward around Chen Hai, finding it hard to relax.

Just one glass of beer might have seemed insufficient to Zhang Yong.

He drank three cups in a row until his stomach felt somewhat turbulent and then he finally set down his cup and sat back down.

From his behavior, it seemed he wanted to clear the air with Chen Hai and put their past conflicts behind them completely.

“Zhang Yong, whatever happened in the past, I’ve truly forgotten!”

“I just remember that we’re all classmates, and we can barely count as having gone through hardships together!”

Chen Hai replied with a slight smile.

The small conflicts he had with Zhang Yong, he hadn’t taken to heart.

Facing Zhang Yong’s apologetic toast, he was quite generous and, just like Zhang Yong, he drank three glasses in a row.

“Brother Hai, here, I’d also like to offer you a toast.

That night in Shuang State, if it hadn’t been for you, I don’t know how scared I would’ve been!”

“Zhang Yong offered you a toast, and you downed three glasses in a row.

I’m a girl offering you a toast, you can’t be unfair and must also down three glasses in a row.”

Barely having set down his glass, Li Ying hurried over from the side.

This dinner was primarily intended to treat Chen Hai.

Not just Zhang Yong and Li Ying, but the rest – Hu Zhiyong, Zhang Zhi, and the others – also made Chen Hai their first choice for toasts.

The topic of college entrance exam scores naturally faded into the background.

After all, among those present, only Hu Zhiyong and Li Ying had scored well enough to have a chance at university.

Turning the conversation to that subject would only serve to sour the mood!

At the dinner table, what was discussed the most was the incident that day in Shuang State.

The meal went over quite harmoniously.

Aside from Hu Zhongyong and Sun Fang occasionally displaying their affection, which made everyone else tease them a bit, there were no other unpleasant incidents!

With a sigh of irritation in his heart and initially looking to drown his sorrows in alcohol, Chen Hai was generally not refusing anyone’s toast.

He had no idea how long the meal had taken.

He also couldn’t remember how much beer he had drunk.

The only thing he knew was that when he came to, it was already the next morning, and he was lying in a room of a guesthouse in the town.

The one thing he felt grateful for was that, although he was shirtless, he still had his underwear on.

The misfortune of being picked up by some girl and being robbed while under the influence, which would cost him his virginity, thankfully hadn’t befallen him.

“Getting drunk is really dangerous, I must never drink that much again…”

“If I really had a mishap and was picked up by a group of girls and forced to do those shameful things, I would never be able to show my face again!”

Chen Hai patted his still throbbing head and muttered to himself.

The guesthouse room had very simple facilities.

However, there were disposable toothbrushes, toothpaste, and towels available.

After a quick wash, Chen Hai walked out of the room.

Guesthouses in those days didn’t have a front desk.

When checking in, you simply paid the money, and when leaving, there was no need to check out, you just left.

Before leaving, however, Chen Hai still asked the landlady, who was knitting a sweater at the stairway outside his room.

From her, he found out that the people who had brought him there last night were two men and a woman.

If he wasn’t mistaken, it must have been Li Ying, Hu Zhiyong, and the others.

After grabbing a bit to eat at a small store on the street, Chen Hai took a bus straight to Liuyuan County.

He only had a rough idea of where the Education Bureau was, as he had never been there before.

It was only around ten in the morning that he actually found the place.

Although there was a guard at the gate, when Chen Hai entered the courtyard of the Education Bureau, no one questioned him, and he could walk through unhindered.

Now that he was here, he had no clue where he could inquire about the high school examination results.

Entering the Education Bureau’s office building, Chen Hai walked past two offices that had opened doors but were completely empty.

“Excuse me, could you tell me where I can check the high school examination results?”

Finally, Chen Hai noticed a woman in her thirties engrossed in a Zhi Yin magazine in an office and quickly tapped on the doorframe before stepping in.

“Who are you calling ‘big sister’?

I’m only eighteen, okay?

Do I look that old to you?”

Chen Hai’s sudden appearance seemed to startle the woman.

She quickly moved her Zhi Yin magazine to a drawer under her desk.

However, upon getting a better look at Chen Hai, she placed her hand holding the Zhi Yin back where it was before.

After studying Chen Hai up and down, she huffed impatiently.

“Look at me, I just can’t speak properly!”

“This sister here is forever eighteen, always so young and beautiful!”

When you’re under someone else’s roof, you have to bow your head.

Chen Hai, in need of a favor, quickly recovered from his brief surprise and complimented the woman in front of him with a few insincere flatteries.

“That’s more like it.

At least you know what’s good for you!”

The woman’s stern expression finally softened a bit.

After a short pause, she continued, “Are you from this year’s cohort of high school examinees?

Haven’t all your results already been distributed to your schools?

“If you want to check your results, just go to your school!”

“In Liuyuan County, we have thousands of students who took the high school examination.

If everyone came to our department to check their grades, how could we get any work done?”

Despite clearly having enough free time to read Zhi Yin to pass the time, the woman responded to Chen Hai’s request with bureaucratic indifference.