101 Transfer Student Ye Xun
On Monday morning, Ye Xun stood in the teachers’ office on the second floor of the high school building. Facing the stern gaze of the homeroom teacher, the girl couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
This was an ordinary public middle school, ranking in the upper-middle tier in Rongdu. After her father returned to Lin City last week, he quickly arranged the transfer procedures through connections—compared to the messy company and debts, this matter was much simpler.
However, coming to the new school today, Ye Xun could only be alone. And it was foreseeable that in her future high school life, there probably wouldn’t be anyone to accompany her. The girl could only force herself to be strong.
In front of her was Teacher Yu, the homeroom teacher of Class 7, Grade 11, wearing thick glasses.
She stared at Ye Xun, her gaze shooting out from behind the lenses like a whip spinning a top, making one dare not relax. Even though it was their first meeting, Ye Xun knew that this teacher would definitely not be very kind, and… the teacher’s first impression of her didn’t seem good?
After a long silence, Teacher Yu finally spoke, speaking very fast and in a stern tone: “What are you doing with that hair? Are you a delinquent! Where did you go to school before that let you dye your hair?”
“Sorry, I used to be at…”
Ye Xun hurriedly tried to explain, but Teacher Yu had no intention of letting her explain and ordered directly, “I don’t care what aristocratic school you went to before. In my class, you have to follow the rules. Our school has school rules, school rules! No matter if you are a boy or a girl, dyeing and perming hair are strictly prohibited. The bangs in front cannot reach the eyebrows. And absolutely no makeup, do you understand?”
The girl was stunned for a moment.
Teacher Yu frowned. “Did you understand!”
Ye Xun hurriedly said, “Understood, understood.”
Teacher Yu adjusted her glasses. “I’ll give you two choices: either go to a barbershop or take a pair of scissors here and cut it yourself. Luckily, you only dyed your ponytail, otherwise you’d have to dye it back, which is troublesome.”
Ye Xun hesitated for two seconds and said weakly, “Teacher, are my bangs okay? If I don’t need to cut my bangs, then I’ll just…”
“A bit long,” Teacher Yu frowned again. “Forget it, let’s leave it like this for now. You cut the dyed part first, and cut the bangs next time when you have time.”
Ye Xun nodded obediently. “I understand, teacher.”
Then, Teacher Yu took a pair of scissors out of the drawer, pointed to the mirror on the cabinet door, and said, “Cut it.”
Ye Xun: “Right here?”
Teacher Yu retorted unceremoniously, “Where else do you want to do it?”
Ye Xun didn’t dare to say more and silently took the scissors. She glanced at them and found two long hairs caught in the middle of the scissors—these scissors must be very used to cutting girls’ hair.
The girl turned to face the mirror, grabbed her fiery ponytail, and placed it between the scissors.
After a moment of hesitation, she cut it.
The ponytail behind her head was instantly reduced to a small stub the length of a finger.
Teacher Yu asked again, “You’re not wearing makeup, are you?”
Ye Xun instantly felt a little fortunate. Luckily, she hadn’t even put on foundation today, so she could answer without a guilty conscience, “No.”
“Alright, come with me for the next class.”
**
The bell for the second class of the morning had already rung. This class was Teacher Yu’s English class.
The stern-faced, unsmiling middle-aged female teacher pushed open the door, and the noisy classroom instantly fell silent. She walked onto the podium and beckoned behind her.
Ye Xun braced herself and followed into the classroom, coming to the side of the podium.
Among the students, there was a faint sound of inhaling—was it surprise? Admiration? At this moment, Ye Xun had no time to distinguish carefully.
Teacher Yu slapped the podium hard with the blackboard eraser. “A new student has transferred to our class. Everyone must unite and work hard, learning together. I won’t say any more unnecessary words. New student, introduce yourself.”
Ye Xun asked in a low voice, “Teacher, should I write my name on the blackboard?”
Teacher Yu glanced at her. “Write it.”
Ye Xun nodded obediently, picked up a piece of chalk, and seriously wrote the two characters ‘Ye Xun’ on the blackboard. Although she used to practice calligraphy with a fountain pen, her chalk writing was also impressive, with a spiritual aura revealing itself in the neat structure.
After writing, she turned around, faced the fifty-plus students in the class, and said loudly, “Hello everyone, my name is Ye Xun. I used to go to school in Lin City…”
Then what should she say?
Looking at the teacher, hobbies and interests were definitely less important than studies, and might even be points deducted in the teacher’s mind. But about studies, what was there to say?
The private school she attended before had a different curriculum from here. Ye Xun wasn’t sure if she could adapt. She didn’t even know if she would be above or below the average score in the next exam.
Just then, Teacher Yu interrupted, “Alright, Ye Xun, you sit here.”
Following the direction of Teacher Yu’s finger, Ye Xun saw… an empty seat to the left of the podium.
No matter how far forward the other students sat, it was the first row. But this seat was to the left of the podium, the only seat level with the podium, the unique ‘zeroth row’ of the class.
Ye Xun didn’t dare ask the teacher why she was placed here, so she obediently sat there.
The teacher erased the name ‘Ye Xun’ from the blackboard and began the lecture, starting with summarizing the grammar points of the previous unit.
In the high-end private middle school she attended before, the students’ goal was not the college entrance exam, but studying abroad, so the requirements for English were quite high. In the eyes of Ye Xun, who had done many IELTS practice questions, the knowledge points Teacher Yu taught were not difficult. In comparison, the math class next period worried her more.
However, as the class continued, Ye Xun became more and more uncomfortable.
Perhaps because she was sitting in the zeroth row of the classroom, she vaguely felt… behind her, there seemed to be many students staring at her?
While Teacher Yu was writing on the blackboard, Ye Xun quietly looked back. Sure enough, many people were staring at her! Among these gazes, there were boys and girls, full of curiosity.
Meeting the girl’s gaze, the students staring at her quickly looked away. And Ye Xun, afraid of being discovered by the teacher, also quickly turned back.
Just like that, after about half an hour, the class finally ended.
Teacher Yu only dragged the class on for two minutes. After explaining the differences between certain sub-types of attributive clauses, she said “class dismissed” and left.
As soon as this old-fashioned and strict homeroom teacher left, Ye Xun breathed a sigh of relief. But immediately after, the students gathering around made her slightly nervous again.
The ones gathering around were all female students. Many male students were looking over curiously, but they didn’t come close.
“Student Ye Xun, you used to go to school in Lin City?” The girl who approached first tried to strike up a conversation.
Ye Xun smiled at her classmate and said, “Yes.”
Another girl asked, “You look so pretty. Are you not wearing makeup?”
“Thanks for the compliment,” Ye Xun maintained her smile. “No makeup. The school doesn’t allow it…”
“Then your skin is so good!”
It seemed that the classmates were all quite friendly. Her new high school life shouldn’t be too bad, right?
