Chapter 24: Everyone Has Things They Are Good or Bad At
In an instant, all of Ruan Xi’s sleepiness vanished.
The interaction between Tong Yao and Ruan Xi clearly caught the attention of many. A group of students, never ones to shy away from a good show, followed Ruan Xi out. Several boys “happened to pass by” behind them, walking back and forth several times.
“Are you very sleepy?” Tong Yao leaned against the railing, her tone free of criticism or blame.
“Mhm…” Led to subconsciously tell the truth, the young girl jolted and quickly corrected herself, “No, I’m not sleepy.”
Her head was already spinning.
“Did you stay up late last night?”
Though it was a question, her tone was certain.
Ruan Xi hung her head and admitted it in a very small voice.
Tong Yao sighed.
“Learning is a gradual process. You can’t get fat from one mouthful. You need to rest well to have the energy to study the next day. Look at how sleepy you are… what types of problems did I cover in class?”
She suddenly threw out a question. Ruan Xi’s mind went blank. Relying on her memory from previewing the lesson, she managed to guess one correctly but couldn’t recall the others.
“This is the evil consequence of staying up late.” Tong Yao wanted to poke the young girl’s forehead, but her hand stopped halfway. She remembered there were many people around, and it wouldn’t be appropriate if someone saw. “Do the homework for this class properly. If there’s anything you don’t understand, come ask me. Get the notes from a student with good grades to catch up. Do you hear me?”
Even when she was a little angry, Teacher Tong’s voice was still so heartwarming.
But the more heartwarming it was, the more guilty Ruan Xi felt.
She hadn’t put her full focus on studying.
The price she had to pay for not giving up on manga was already becoming unbearable after just one day.
“Get a good sleep at noon, understand?”
Tong Yao reminded her before leaving.
Ruan Xi stood in the hallway, watching Teacher Tong’s back as she walked away. Her sleepiness briefly receded.
Actually… it’s not like I can’t handle it, right?
She had slept for four and a half hours last night. With a nap between classes and an early lunch break, she could get about six hours of sleep a day. She had heard that many third-year students were already in this state.
At the back of the classroom, the class rankings from the last exam were posted. Her name was fifty-second, the eighth from the bottom. To be honest, she didn’t like looking at that piece of paper. It was just a small page, yet it represented sixty people, as if her existence was less significant than the numbers on it.
But she couldn’t deny that she cared a lot.
She wanted her ranking to be higher.
Every teacher would look at this piece of paper. They would look at it during evening self-study, and they would glance at it when they walked to the back of the classroom during class… and that naturally included Teacher Tong. What was Teacher Tong’s mood every time she saw this report card? Disappointment? Helplessness? It definitely wasn’t happiness. She also didn’t want her classmates to question Teacher Tong for favoring a “poor student” like her.
She would persevere.
**
“Ruan Xi has been studying really hard lately.”
The girls discussed as they returned to the dorm at 11 PM.
Chen Xi glanced at the light on the balcony, finding it glaring. Then came the pressure.
It made her lose the mood to play.
This Ruan Xi is so annoying.
She cursed inwardly but still took out her practice problems and started working.
This routine continued for several days. Ruan Xi was surprised to find that it wasn’t as difficult as she had imagined. Every bit of progress, whether in her studies or her manga, brought her a huge sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. She cherished her sleep time even more, and the quality of her sleep seemed to be better than before.
But it seemed that something was missing compared to before.
The time she spent alone with Teacher Tong was getting less and less.
The young girl took out the ID card, looked at the photo on it, muttered a few words, and put it back in her pocket.
It won’t be too late to go find Teacher Tong after I’ve made a little more progress… right?
But the sense of loss in her heart could not be filled.
**
“Teacher Little Tong, I haven’t seen you giving Ruan Xi extra lessons lately?”
In the office, Li Hanqiang teased with a cheerful smile.
Tong Yao looked up from the mountain of homework, a little stunned.
“Is… is that so.”
Thinking about it, it had indeed been a while since she had talked to the young girl or had a meal with her.
Feeling a little guilty for some reason, she explained, “Mhm… she’s working very hard now. I don’t need to worry about her anymore.”
“Haha, if only all the other students were as motivated as Ruan Xi.”
She was also pleased to hear another teacher praise the young girl.
That child was really, truly moving in a good direction.
She buried her head in grading homework, but soon, she couldn’t help but frown.
Several students had copied each other’s homework.
Because the names belonged to a few boys who usually seemed to be good friends, the chain of copying was also obvious. It was the long break, so she took their homework and went to Class 7. At the back door, the young girl was resting her head on the desk, catching up on sleep.
Her braid hung down from her shoulder, revealing her fair neck. It was quite cute.
“Help me find Xie Yiran and Xu Hao,” she said, tapping Jiang Yiming, who was sitting next to her. “If they come back, tell them to go to my office.”
Jiang Yiming felt a tingle run down his spine from the tap.
However, her voice woke up the half-asleep young girl.
As if a radar had detected something, Ruan Xi looked up in a daze, glanced around, and saw Teacher Tong right behind her.
“Teacher Tong…” she murmured.
“Go back to sleep,” Tong Yao’s lips curled up, her tone carrying a hint of affection she herself didn’t notice. “I’m not here for you.”
“Oh…”
What followed was a thick wave of disappointment.
Ruan Xi sat up, leaned against the window, and watched as Tong Yao walked away.
Tong Yao waited in the office. Soon, the two boys came in and called out, “Reporting.”
Tong Yao looked up. When the boys reached her desk, she spread out two workbooks and tilted her head.
“Well, who copied from whom?”
The two boys looked at each other, one embarrassed, the other chagrined.
Finally, Xu Hao lowered his head.
“I copied from him.”
“Why did you copy?” Tong Yao knew that multiple-choice questions were far easier than short-answer questions, so she threw out a few reasons. “Were you busy with something last night? Or did you think the problems were too easy and not worth doing?”
Anyone would choose the first excuse.
Xu Hao stammered, “Last night… there was a Student Council meeting, I didn’t have time to do it…”
It was a lame excuse, like a student frantically filling in multiple-choice answers when the bell rang. Tong Yao didn’t care why he copied the homework; it was most likely due to laziness. She just wanted the student to know that she knew he had copied.
“No matter what, you can’t copy in the future, understand? It’s okay to hand it in a day late. This is the last time,” Tong Yao said. “I won’t tell your mom this time.”
Xu Hao’s mother was the head of the Chinese language department for their grade. It would be incredibly easy to snitch on him.
Xu Hao was clearly frightened and nodded frantically.
As for Xie Yiran, who had let Xu Hao copy his homework… Tong Yao didn’t have much to say. She had been a student too and knew how hard it was to refuse a good friend’s request to copy homework—so, she said to Xu Hao:
“Do your own homework. Don’t put your friends in a difficult position, okay?”
Xu Hao scratched his head, wishing he could crawl into a hole. “Mhm.”
Being criticized by Teacher Tong wasn’t hurtful, but just being looked at by her made him feel ashamed. Probably… because Teacher Tong cared so much about them, any bad behavior felt like a betrayal of that kindness.
The office door was pushed open again. Li Hanqiang, who had just stepped out, saw his two students in the office. His expression changed, and he asked, “Teacher Tong, what did these two do wrong?”
Xie Yiran was a bit better, but Xu Hao’s face turned pale. Labor Reform loved to make a big deal out of small things. If he knew he had copied homework, he would definitely have a chat with his mom.
But Tong Yao just smiled and said, “Nothing. We were just discussing a few math problems.”
After leaving the office, Xu Hao let out a long breath.
“Teacher Tong is the best.”
**
As late September approached, the school scheduled the sports meet for the end of the month. After the sports meet would be the three-day National Day holiday, followed by the monthly exam.
Scheduling the monthly exam after the National Day holiday was a way of telling the students, “Don’t you dare slack off during your break.”
But the sports meet was different. Everyone was very enthusiastic, thinking, “We can review during the National Day holiday.” Although it was inevitable that they would be holding their homework while watching the games, no one disliked an event like the sports meet, which was practically a holiday.
“Sign up, sign up!”
The sports committee member didn’t have much authority, so Ji Chen was in charge of the sign-ups. Few people were willing to sign up for events like the 1000-meter and 800-meter races. It would be embarrassing if the class couldn’t send anyone, so the class president had to step in and beg some of the more athletic students to sign up.
This was the first sports meet for the newly formed Class 7.
Who was good at sports could basically only be seen during PE class.
“Ruan Xi, I heard the girls say you’re very fast in the 100-meter dash, is that right?”
Ji Chen stood in front of Ruan Xi’s desk, his face pleading. Compared to the boys’ events, the girls’ events were the real problem.
Ruan Xi’s eyelashes drooped, and she hesitated.
She was more than just “very fast”; she was almost as fast as a sports student. She might be left behind in a 1000-meter race, but the 100-meter dash was definitely her strong suit.
But she wasn’t used to representing the class to compete for honor.
Will they cheer for me?
The thought of a group of people cheering for her… was a little embarrassing, but she also really wanted to experience it once.
If she could, she really wanted to be a popular person.
Many people were like this. They seemed indecisive, but in their hearts, they had already made a choice.
In the office.
“I don’t really want to sign up.”
Tong Yao said apologetically.
There were also sports events for the teachers.
Heaven knows how bad she was at sports. Because of her age, she had skipped a lot of military training and exercise when she was in school. The last time she had run was for the mandatory fitness test in her senior year of university. All the ailments of a modern person were on full display in her.
“But every grade group has to send someone…” Grade Group Leader Ye Wei persuaded her patiently. “Teacher Little Tong, look, the other female teachers are all seniors. They have the will but not the strength. Just sign up for the relay race. You can just go up and run casually. It’s okay if you’re slow. Winning or losing isn’t important.”
The teachers’ events were only the 50-meter shuttle relay and some fun events. The older teachers had signed up for the fun events, so the relay race could only be left to the younger teachers.
There were only a few young female teachers in the second year. If she didn’t participate, the senior teachers would have to.
Under the constant pressure, she couldn’t hold out. Head Ye was so eloquent and his attitude so humble that she could only agree.
Looking at her own skinny arms and legs, she fell into a deep state of self-doubt again.
