Chapter 21: Office

Lin Yumo walked into the classroom bathed in the morning light. As she passed the third row, Wang Changyu was tidying up. The silver rims of his glasses caught faint, fragmented glints of sunlight.
“Congratulations.”

His voice was as soft as the sound of a page turning, and the red pen between his fingers still hovered over the notice of his ranking—50th in the grade.

That score was enough to knock on the door of the honors class, but the way he lowered his eyes, eyelashes casting shadows beneath them, carried a hint of unspoken regret.

“Congratulations to you, too.”

Lin Yumo paused mid-step, catching sight of the densely annotated mistakes on his scratch paper. She suddenly remembered that on the day of the monthly exam, when he moved his desk, there had been dust clinging to his cuff.

Wang Changyu only gave a faint smile and slipped the paper into his desk.

“Little Jasmine!”

Song Xingran burst into the classroom in a flurry, one strap of her backpack hanging askew, the ends of her hair still carrying a sycamore leaf.

With a bang, she slammed her thermos onto the desk, making the pens bounce.

“My dad’s phone just popped up with the scores! I was in the middle of buttering him up for the newest iPhone!”

The girl grabbed Lin Yumo’s sleeve with a mock-crying expression, fake tears clinging to her lashes.
“558th place… this number is basically a curse!”

“If you know you’re upset, then study harder.”

Lin Yumo flicked her reddened forehead with a finger, but Song Xingran suddenly wrapped an arm around her neck.

The girl stomped excitedly in place, whispering in her ear:

“You’re only 20 points behind Ling Shen! All four squares of the honor roll are filled with your photos—when I saw it on the bulletin board, I screamed so loud I almost got caught by the Dean!”

Song Xingran suddenly lowered her voice, her eyes sparkling like they were hiding stars.
“When you take physics, you’ll totally crush Ling Shen—”

“Watch your wording!” Lin Yumo coughed in embarrassment, the tips of her ears turning red.

Song Xingran only laughed harder, leaning forward so much her ponytail brushed Lin Yumo’s shoulder.

“Next time, let me copy your homework—no, I mean, learn from you! Once I get serious, top ten in the grade will be a piece of cake!”

“No copying, but I can teach you. And I’ll be watching.”

Lin Yumo raised her hand as if to knock her on the head, but was interrupted by the sudden bang of an eraser hitting the blackboard.

Mr. Zhang strode quickly onto the podium holding a ranking sheet, the corner of a paper labeled “Sports Meet Registration Form” sticking out of his suit pocket. The smile on his face instantly hardened into seriousness.

He knocked on the podium heavily, sending chalk dust fluttering down.
“Everyone’s seen the scores, right? Terrible! Our average is third-to-last in the grade—what’s the meaning of this?”

“Next time, we’ll beat the honors class!” someone shouted suddenly from the corner—Zhang Suo’s loud voice—followed by the clatter of desks and chairs.

The classroom instantly erupted in laughter, the sound bubbling like boiling water.

Mr. Zhang didn’t even finish his glare before his own composure cracked, and he chuckled, feigning anger.
“Who’s shouting? Come up here and share your study secrets with everyone!”

He cleared his throat, scanning the room until his gaze landed on Lin Yumo.
“A special congratulations to our class’s Lin Yumo—third place in the grade!”

Applause surged like a tide, and Lin Yumo stood up to bow to the teacher.

“Don’t get cocky,” Mr. Zhang said as he walked over to her desk, a mischievous gleam in his eyes behind his glasses.

“I just passed by the physics office—Mr. Li was holding your exam paper, sighing, and muttering about giving you some ‘special attention.’”

The smile on Lin Yumo’s face froze, and the corners of her mouth involuntarily drooped.

“Also, class committee member Wang Changyu made it into the top 50 in the grade—well done!”
Teacher Zhang’s tone shifted as he began reading the list of students who had made significant progress.

As each name was called, the classroom rang with waves of cheers and applause.

Finally, Teacher Zhang pulled out a registration form and waved it from the podium.
“This year’s sports meet will be held on November 4th. If you want to win glory for the class, sign up with the sports committee quickly!”

He paused, his gaze landing on Lin Yumo.
“You, come with me to the office. Everyone else, start morning reading.”

As Lin Yumo stood up, she heard Song Xingran quietly murmur behind her,
“Go, Jasmine, you got this.”

At the end of the hallway, the office door was half-closed. She pushed it open.

All the teachers’ eyes turned toward her like spotlights.

The English teacher, Ms. Yang, looked up from her teacup, the gold chain of her glasses swaying gently as she waved.
“Well, look who’s here?”
Her red-painted nails tapped the desk.
“Our perfect-score little champion has arrived?”

From behind a potted plant, the geography teacher, Mr. Chen, suddenly poked his head out, test paper still in hand.
“That question about the El Niño effect on Peru’s fishing grounds—”

He gestured excitedly,
“You were the only one in the whole grade to answer that the upwelling current weakens—that was a scoring point!”

Her earlobes grew warm, and her fingers twisted at the waistband of her uniform jacket.

Following closely behind Teacher Zhang, she passed the physics office area and faintly caught words like “electromagnetic induction” and “error log,” unconsciously quickening her pace a little.

“Sit.” Teacher Zhang tapped a rattan chair with his lesson plan. The scent of tea from a purple clay teapot curled between them.

On the math paper he pulled out, the final blank space of the last problem carried a glaring red comment:
[Lagrange Mean Value Theorem? That’s elective content for the second half of senior year.]

The handwriting pressed so hard it almost tore through the paper.

He slid a cup of warm water toward her; tea leaves swirled slowly at the bottom.
“Have you thought about joining the math competition?”

Lin Yumo stared at the desk, recalling the final problem she hadn’t finished during the monthly exam.

She had only written out the steps from memory of her previous life, never expecting the teacher to notice something unusual.

“Will it affect my regular studies?” she asked, tightening her grip on the cup as the coolness of the glass seeped into her fingertips.

Teacher Zhang twirled the red pen in his hand, the barrel tracing smooth arcs between his fingers. His gaze was bright and intense.

“How far along are you in math right now? If you’ve already gotten through the senior-year material, don’t waste evening study sessions in the classroom.

Spend one or two hours each night in the competition class instead. When their lesson ends, just stay there for self-study—the back-to-back focus will be more efficient.”

He tapped her homework notebook.
“As for the math homework I assign, you can skip it if you’re able.”

“You scored 149 in math—what you missed wasn’t because you didn’t know how, but because you didn’t have enough time to finish, right?”

As dusk crept across the windowsill, Lin Yumo’s lashes trembled slightly. When she finally looked up, her gaze was firm.
“Okay.”

“Alright, then tomorrow night you’ll report directly to the competition class. I’ll talk to Teacher Han over there.” Teacher Zhang smiled,

holding the competition class schedule as he prepared to leave the office—when a voice came from the side.

“Lin Yumo, come here a moment.” The familiar voice of the physics teacher reached her ears.

Her shoulders tensed involuntarily, a thin sheen of sweat forming in her palms as she gripped the schedule a little tighter.

Turning her head, she saw the physics teacher leaning against a desk piled high with test papers, a half-exposed red-and-blue pencil sticking out of his jacket pocket. Behind his lenses, his eyes held a faint, unreadable smile.

With a bitter expression, Lin Yumo walked over, her white sneakers making the faintest scuffing sound on the tiled floor.
“Teacher, you were looking for me.”