Chapter 5: Jiang Yao, the Little Devil

Zhou Yuhong was Jiang Yao’s homeroom teacher from her first year to her third year of high school. A middle-aged woman in her forties, she was transferred to the Education Bureau when Jiang Yao was repeating a grade for the first time.

“Old Zhou,” Jiang Yao closed the door and went to sit down. “Why are you back?”

Zhou Yuhong didn’t explain the reason, but was surprised to see her leg in a cast. “Oh, how did you get your leg?”

Jiang Yao didn’t seem to mind. “I fell. You teach Class 7?”

“Surprise, huh?” Zhou Yuhong spread her hands. “I told you in advance that you weren’t allowed to mess around while I was teaching.”

Jiang Yao raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

Zhou Yuhong looked at her and recalled the past. “I’ve been a homeroom teacher for over twenty years, and your class was the most chaotic back then. Chen Qing finally graduated, and you stayed for two years.”

Jiang Yao and Chen Qing were classmates. In Zhou Yuhong’s words, they were the class’s two biggest villains, and everyone else was just a bunch of little scoundrels hanging around with them.

“Tell me, why did you repeat two years?”

Jiang Yao leaned back nonchalantly, her impudent demeanor immediately apparent. “Since you couldn’t bear to leave us at graduation, I stayed to keep you company for another year, but you were transferred.”

These words were even more despicable than Jiang Yao herself, and Zhou Yuhong was furious.

She knew Jiang Yao too well, and knowing she wouldn’t get any further, she stopped asking. She opened a drawer, pulled out a candy, and offered it to her: “Go back to the classroom. We still have plenty of time.”

Jiang Yao took the candy, quickly unwrapped it, and stuffed it into her mouth: “Then I’ll be leaving first.”

Leaving the office, Jiang Yao chewed the candy in a few bites and swallowed it, then turned a corner and went to the bathroom. The bathroom was empty at noon, and after Jiang Yao entered, she heard rustling outside. When she got up and pushed the door, it wouldn’t open.

Jiang Yao shook the doorknob, and a laugh emanated from outside the cubicle. She twitched, twisted the handle, and gave a short, forceful push.

With a click, the object propped against the door fell to the ground. Jiang Yao glanced over. It was a mop. Not far away, Lu Shiyue stood there, stunned.

Jiang Yao glanced at her, then slowly washed her hands and shook them off. As Jiang Yao passed Lu Shiyue on her way out, he paused and said flatly, “I remember I told you this morning not to mess with me.”

“But,” Jiang Yao gave her a meaningful smile, “if you’re really that bored, I’d play with you.”

Lu Shiyue shuddered, and when she turned around, Jiang Yao was gone. She rubbed the back of her neck and realized she was sweating.

“Psycho.”

Jiang Yao didn’t cause much noise when she returned to Class 7. Zhao Tianci, with his back to the door, was chatting with Fu Mingyi in the seat behind Li You and didn’t notice her. Chen Qing had just texted her, so Jiang Yao didn’t approach, leaning against the door to continue the conversation.

Li You noticed her return and nudged Zhao Tianci, who was deep in the middle of a game conversation, “Jiang Yao’s back.”

Zhao Tianci’s words faltered. He turned around, saw Jiang Yao, and stood up quickly. “Excuse me.”

“Nothing.”

She put her phone down, reached back, and rolled her neck.

Jiang Yao had slept all morning, but couldn’t fall asleep during lunch break. She had no books and was tired of playing games, so she just sat there alone, just to let her mind wander.

Something suddenly shoved in front of her. Jiang Yao looked down. A book of required Gaokao practice questions lay neatly on her desk. The open page was filled with multiple-choice questions, and one question had a small circle in red.

She looked at Li You in confusion. It was lunch break, and the classroom was quiet. Li You didn’t say anything, but instead pushed the book toward her.

Jiang Yao pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized something. She lowered her head to look at the questions and reached out to Li You: “Pen and notebook.”

Li You blinked, realizing Jiang Yao hadn’t brought anything. She quickly pulled a pen from her pencil case and dug out a notebook. She thought for a moment and was about to write “Ask me if you don’t know” when her pen was suddenly taken away.

Li You was stunned.

Jiang Yao scribbled a C behind the circled multiple-choice question and then reached out to grab the paper from Li You’s hand. She pushed the book toward Li You and lowered her voice. “The problem has the expression for F(x), and the function at the end has an absolute value…”

Jiang Yao drew coordinate axes on a piece of paper and plotted the function. “In the second case, there will always be four zeros, so it always holds true when k is less than 0, right?”

Jiang Yao finished, looking at Li You. Seeing she was still confused, she frowned and looked back to see where she hadn’t explained it clearly. After reading it twice, Jiang Yao felt she had explained it clearly enough.

“What part didn’t you understand?”

“No, nothing.” Li You finally came to his senses and shook his head.

Jiang Yao tucked the paper and pen into the book and pushed it back to Li You. “Ask again if you have any questions.”

Looking at the book that had been pushed back, then at Jiang Yao, who had returned to a state of vacant thought, Li You couldn’t remember what he was supposed to do.

Oh, she saw Jiang Yao had nothing to do and was worried she’d get bored, so she gave her the required Gaokao practice questions!

Li You flipped open the page. She really didn’t know how to do that problem. She’d circled it at the time, but then she’d forgotten to ask the teacher. Now the C at the end of the question stood out. Jiang Yao’s handwriting was very different from hers, with a sharp, sharp stroke that filled the entire box. But the calculations on the draft paper were neat, each step clear and distinct, as if written specifically for her convenience.

Li You read carefully from beginning to end, her train of thought suddenly clear. She took out her notebook, wrote down the solution, and then went to see Jiang Yao. Jiang Yao was still in a daze, her phone lighting up a few times on the desk, but she didn’t notice.

Lunch break passed quickly. Li You finished her practice and lay down for a while. She woke up just as the bell rang for the first afternoon class. Jiang Yao had fallen asleep at some point, her head resting in her arms, only her furry back showing. She looked harmless.

She nudged Jiang Yao, and she stirred, rolled over, and then fell silent again.

Li You was about to call her again when Zhou Yuhong suddenly pushed the door open. She hurriedly placed her books on the desk and glanced down. “Hello, students. I’m Zhou Yuhong, your senior year homeroom teacher. I’ll be teaching you math.”

She stepped down from the podium, leaned over Jiang Yao’s desk, and pulled a hair tie from her pocket. While chatting with the others, she calmly tied Jiang Yao’s loose hair up, then gently tapped the desk.

Jiang Yao slowly sat up, wiped her face, and woke from her doze.

Zhou Yuhong was a highly capable person. Jiang Yao assumed she would begin her lecture right after introducing herself, but the next moment, she suddenly smiled and said, “I’ll take attendance and recognize everyone.”

Jiang Yao’s heart skipped a beat, a bad feeling welling up.

Sure enough, when her name was called, Zhou Yuhong paused. “Come on, new student, introduce yourself.”