Chapter 8

In the span of a running exercise and morning break, the entire class witnessed Song Cheng’s assertiveness.

She actually forbade romantic relationships in the class!

This statement was so outrageous that it spread like wildfire, becoming more exaggerated with each retelling.

“Song Cheng said that if she finds out someone is in a relationship, she’ll report it to Old Li.”

“I heard it was the teacher who told her to keep an eye out. She’s Old Li’s spy.”

“Lin Hang’s incident has already been reported to the Class Six homeroom teacher!”

In a way, Song Cheng’s image had begun to instill fear in others.

Song Cheng herself was completely unaware of this. She was still immersed in the emotions from the running exercise.

According to Chen Zihao and the others, Lin Hang had been slowly approaching Wen Xiangyi during the exercises for several days now—three days, to be exact!

This guy was also quite cunning, starting by chatting with Qin Li.

Yesterday, he even managed to exchange a few words with Qin Li. If it weren’t for her being there today, would he have tried to talk to Wen Xiangyi?

Even though Wen Xiangyi would definitely ignore him.

But this guy’s intentions were deplorable!

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She was so upset that she didn’t even notice He Nianyao placing her English test paper on the desk.

Wen Xiangyi entered through the back door, and He Nianyao called out to her. As she stood by the desk and lowered her eyes, she saw Song Cheng frowning deeply at her own English test paper, her face as cold as ice.

He Nianyao whispered, “She’s been in a bad mood since she returned to the classroom.”

Wen Xiangyi glanced at Song Cheng’s score. “With a score like that, it’s understandable to be upset.”

He Nianyao: “…”

That actually made sense.

He Nianyao had called Wen Xiangyi over to return a borrowed workbook, but she couldn’t find it at the moment.

She searched everywhere, causing enough commotion to draw Song Cheng’s attention. When Song Cheng glanced over, she was startled to see Wen Xiangyi standing nearby and felt a bit inexplicably annoyed.

She stared at Wen Xiangyi for a long time.

Wen Xiangyi looked back calmly. “What?”

“…”

Song Cheng was at a loss for words.

Until Wen Xiangyi asked, she hadn’t even realized she had been staring at her.

After a brief moment of embarrassment, Song Cheng began to feel wronged.

She was just casually looking, but now Wen Xiangyi wouldn’t even let her look!

Times had changed; the past was long gone. Back in the day, in certain quiet moments, Wen Xiangyi would calmly order her to open her eyes even when she had them closed.

If Song Cheng was feeling lazy or unresponsive, Wen Xiangyi wouldn’t rush her. She would gently brush her eyelashes with her fingers, the soft tickling sensation spreading from her eyelids to the top of her head, until Song Cheng couldn’t take it anymore, grabbed her mischievous hand, and opened her eyes to look at her as she wished.

Compared to the Wen Xiangyi who used to commit countless “crimes,” she was now practically a saint.

And now she wouldn’t even let her look? Well, she was going to look!

Song Cheng stared boldly at Wen Xiangyi, not knowing what to say and not wanting to show any weakness. She glanced at He Nianyao’s test paper out of the corner of her eye and asked with mock seriousness, “Oh, how did you score?”

“147,” Wen Xiangyi replied.

“…”

Song Cheng lowered her head nonchalantly, silently chanting “out of sight, out of mind,” signaling with her actions that she was no longer interested in continuing the conversation with Wen Xiangyi.

The long-limbed girl lay down on her desk, her face buried in the crook of her arm. When she wasn’t smiling, the corners of her mouth were quite flat, and on closer inspection, they even turned downward slightly, giving the impression that she was unhappy or putting on a cold face.

But Wen Xiangyi had to admit that, objectively speaking, this recently inexplicable classmate was quite good-looking.

Wen Xiangyi took another look at her face and happened to notice that while she was talking to He Nianyao, Song Cheng’s delicate nose had twitched slightly, as if she were having a little tantrum.

Was she showing displeasure towards her?

Song Cheng’s strange behavior over the past few days had almost desensitized Wen Xiangyi. In short, nothing Song Cheng did would surprise her anymore.

But why the cold shoulder?

Because of her English score?

He Nianyao finally found the workbook, and Wen Xiangyi took it.

She could have left, but instead, she stood there and, in the spirit of reciprocity, asked:

“And you? What was your score?”

The head on the desk seemed to have been reminded of something and lifted slightly to glance at the top of the test paper. Then, it quickly lowered again, covering the score completely.

Song Cheng’s voice was full of indifference: “Pretty much the same as yours.”

She buried her face tightly, almost blushing from the pressure she put on herself, and said flatly, “Around 100.”

To be fair, with 100 as a starting point, both 73 and 147 are within 50 points up or down.

After Song Cheng finished speaking, she didn’t hear Wen Xiangyi say anything else, like asking for the specific number.

She quietly breathed a sigh of relief. The bell rang, and Song Cheng waited until the bell finished ringing before straightening up. Sure enough, Wen Xiangyi had already returned to her seat.

Her face hurt; it felt like it had been slapped red by an invisible hand. She opened the window to let in some air and turned her head to see He Nianyao trying to hold back laughter, wanting to say something but hesitating.

Song Cheng had a bad feeling. “What do you want to say?”

He Nianyao replied, “Well… it’s nothing, really. It’s just that even though our small tests don’t publish grade sheets, Wen Xiangyi already saw your score. Your performance just now was quite impressive.”

“???”

Song Cheng abruptly turned her head to stare straight ahead, glaring at Wen Xiangyi’s back across four or five rows of students.

Wen Xiangyi had always been sly since childhood!

After a few seconds, Song Cheng dejectedly lowered her head, the glaring red “73” clearly visible in her eyes.

Out of 150, she only scored 73.

Could this be her Waterloo?

Song Cheng recalled that, oh no, this was her normal performance in the second year of high school. Her worst moment was scoring in the 50s.

In her second year, she was focused on training and really didn’t have the energy to put into her academic subjects. It wasn’t until the third year that her grades started to improve a bit.

But comparing one year to others’ three years was never going to be a fair comparison, and in the end, her overall score barely made it to the middle of the school.

As soon as she got into college, it all reset to zero.

This time, she had two years left.

Looking at the score that was almost half of 150, Song Cheng muttered to herself, “I can definitely learn English well.”

Teacher Liu and Old Li happened to walk out of the office and pass by the back door.

These murmured words traveled through the open door and were heard clearly by the two teachers. Actually, Song Cheng’s voice wasn’t loud; the determination in a voice doesn’t need to be loud because it’s not meant for others to hear.

Old Li seemed to remember something: “Song Cheng mentioned to me that she wants to switch to being a humanities student.”

Teacher Liu, the English teacher, flipped through the grade sheet he brought with him, frowning. “With this score?”

“I haven’t agreed yet. Keep an eye on her for me,” Old Li said as he continued on to teach the third class, while Teacher Liu entered the fifth class and stood at the podium.

Wen Xiangyi called out, “Stand up,” and the students rose to their feet. For strict teachers, the respect and fear students feel often outweighs any sense of closeness. In Teacher Liu’s class, the greeting “Good morning, teacher” was always particularly neat, though not very loud.

Teacher Liu didn’t mind, nodding as he waited for everyone to sit down.

Last class, they had been assigned vocabulary to memorize, and as usual, there would be a dictation today.

Everyone secretly hoped the teacher had forgotten and would go straight to discussing the test papers handed back, but Teacher Liu never missed an opportunity to torment his students. His sharp eyes behind black-rimmed glasses scanned the room, and he began calling on students to come to the blackboard for dictation.

Making mistakes in dictation and being punished with extra writing was one thing, but enduring Teacher Liu’s scrutiny on the podium was an invisible and terrifying mental torture.

Class Five referred to this segment as “The King of Hell Calling the Roll.”

When the King of Hell opens the Book of Life and Death, except for the top students who are full of confidence, everyone else adeptly shrank their heads like quails, lightened their breathing, and tried their best to avoid eye contact with the teacher.

The only one who wasn’t used to this yet was Song Cheng, who had just returned to high school.

At a certain moment, her restless gaze met Teacher Liu’s.

Teacher Liu paused for a moment. “Song Cheng, come up.”

“…”

Song Cheng had no choice but to put down her pen and get up.

There were three students in total; Teacher Liu then called on Xie Rixin and Qin Li.

Song Cheng stood on the far right, in just the right spot for Wen Xiangyi to see her with a glance.

Everyone placed their books on the desk, waiting for Teacher Liu to announce the words.

Song Cheng stood with her back to the class, her right hand fumbling in the chalk tray until she found a piece of chalk. She then broke off a segment and raised her hand, ready for action.

Would she get it right?

Naturally, the number 100 with a margin of 50 points on either side came to Wen Xiangyi’s mind.

Teacher Liu’s first word group entered her ears.

Wen Xiangyi shook off her wandering thoughts and focused on writing.

Although dictation was a torment for some, it passed quickly.

In no time, four or five words had been called out, and Xie Rixin was horrified to realize that the blackboard in front of him was still blank, except for one simple word, and a couple of letters he couldn’t manage to complete.

Taking advantage of Teacher Liu being called out by someone from the administration, Xie Rixin quickly turned to the right, where Song Cheng stood, his fellow “sufferer,” and complained:

“You don’t know them either, right? It was only assigned last night, and today we’re doing dictation—Whoa, you’ve already written them all?”

Song Cheng nodded, generously saying, “Copy mine.”

Xie Rixin shook his head. “Eh, better not.”

“Didn’t expect you to have principles.” Song Cheng looked at Xie Rixin in a new light.

Xie Rixin: “Uh, it’s more that I’m afraid to copy yours. I’ll just copy Qin Li’s instead.”

Song Cheng: ?

Xie Rixin said, “If King Liu finds out we made the same mistakes…”

As if foreseeing some horrible outcome, he shivered.

Song Cheng was speechless.

So, he didn’t trust her skills!

Xie Rixin had just copied one word from Qin Li when Teacher Liu returned.

One by one, the remaining words were announced, and Xie Rixin’s expression grew more and more bitter. By the end, he was clutching his head as he rushed back to his seat.

He asked his deskmate with a last bit of hope, “I’m not the worst, am I?”

His deskmate looked puzzled. “If it’s not you, then who?”

“Song Cheng, of course.”

“What are you dreaming about? Why don’t you look up at the blackboard?”

Xie Rixin looked up with a question mark hanging over him.

In the second row, Qin Li sat down, full of confidence, saying, “Piece of cake. I got them all right, didn’t I?”

Wen Xiangyi replied, “You were careless. You wrote one root word incorrectly.”

“What?” Qin Li quickly checked and said in frustration, “You’re right…”

As her gaze returned, she couldn’t help but notice Song Cheng’s work on the blackboard—words neatly lined up, correct, correct, and correct again…

“Song Cheng… got them all right?”

On the platform, Teacher Liu began grading the dictation.

He scanned the three blackboards quickly, from left to right, first circling Qin Li’s mistake, then tapping twice on Xie Rixin’s blackboard as a warning, sending a chill down Xie Rixin’s spine. Finally, he arrived at Song Cheng’s board, looked over it twice, and made a big checkmark with the red chalk.

All correct.

“Wasn’t Song Cheng supposed to be at the bottom of the class?” Qin Li was slightly shocked. “Did she start studying seriously?”

Getting all the dictation right wasn’t difficult, but for Song Cheng, it was quite surprising.

Wen Xiangyi squinted slightly, as if she could see that upright figure standing before Old Li’s desk, saying she wanted to study the humanities well.

She made a soft sound of acknowledgment, almost imperceptible.

The big red checkmark stood out clearly, etched in the mind of the boy sitting in the last row.

Song Cheng was in a great mood.

It turned out that doing something well in your studies had a captivating aspect, much like running a good 100-meter sprint.

Teacher Liu began going over the test paper.

Song Cheng spread out her paper and focused on correcting it, not forgetting to cast a proud glance at the slender figure in front of her.

Such a big red checkmark.

A hundred points.

Wen Xiangyi, did you see that?!