ATLAS TRANSLATES

After bowing, Tao Zhi remembered something else. She grabbed the microphone and stood up, casually adding: “Oh right, PS — if I see this kind of thing again, I might still lose control.” Tao Zhi held up her index and middle fingers in a V-shape, pointing forward. “I’m watching you.”

The girl’s brazen voice echoed across the entire field through the speakers. After a moment of silence followed by laughter, everyone burst into cheers.

The disciplinary director went on stage with a livid face. Wang Zhezi pointed at her with a shaking arm: “Tao Zhi — get down here right now!”

Tao Zhi snuck down from behind the disciplinary director, deliberately circling around Wang Zhezi to quietly return to her place at the back of the line.

Li Shuang Jiang was still laughing, holding his stomach: “I can’t take it, Monitor. How are you so awesome? They asked you to self-criticize but you ended up lecturing everyone instead.”

“Science and education will strengthen our nation. Some crooked branches of our motherland just need some forceful pruning, you know?” Tao Zhi spoke grandly while tugging on Jiang Qi Huai’s uniform sleeve, hiding behind him and timidly peeking out. “Old Wang isn’t coming to hit me, is he?”

“No,” Li Shuang Jiang wiped away tears of laughter. “Our monitor is right, our monitor is truly a warrior of justice.”

Tao Zhi ducked her neck while observing Wang Zhezi and the disciplinary director’s movements, nodding rapidly like a pecking chicken: “Right right right, I’m Experimental’s guardian, the light of righteousness.”

Jiang Qi Huai looked down at his uniform sleeve that she had wrinkled from pulling: “You’ll pull it off.”

Tao Zhi let out an “ah” and released her grip.

Jiang Qi Huai raised his hand to straighten his crooked uniform collar.

His shoulder and back outline looked somewhat thin and slender wrapped in the loose jacket, but his frame was broad, making for an attractive silhouette in the uniform.

Tao Zhi leaned forward a bit and said softly: “Your Highness, I saw you smile up there just now.”

Jiang Qi Huai was silent for a moment before saying flatly: “No, I didn’t.”

“I saw it.”

“You saw wrong.”

Tao Zhi nodded, not arguing with him: “You didn’t smile, I saw a dog smile.”

Jiang Qi Huai: “…”

As expected, after Tao Zhi’s earth-shattering self-criticism speech, Wang Zhezi called her to his office for another lecture.

She was still quite happy when she returned, until she saw it was math class.

Since that small quiz, Wang Er seemed to have targeted her, pursuing her relentlessly for several days in a row, calling on her an average of three times per class.

Tao Zhi had never seen a teacher like this. Most teachers, after seeing her behavior, basically adopted a hands-off attitude, turning a blind eye and not bothering with her. The Wang duo truly lived up to their notorious reputation.

As soon as Wang Er entered the classroom, he slammed two stacks of test papers on the math representative’s desk with a bang: “Come on, stop chatting, class is starting. It’s already the third week, and next week after it’s over we have monthly exams. Why aren’t any of you feeling the pressure? Zhao Ming Qi, look at your test paper — you got as many wrong as right. You’re quite keen on balance, aren’t you? If you’d just spend a fraction of your basketball time on studying, you’d get one more right than wrong.”

Li Shuang Jiang was chuckling beside him.

“Li Shuang Jiang,” Wang Er glanced at him. “You dare laugh? Did you write that last big problem with your foot? What kind of calculation is that? You couldn’t even get the first sub-question right.”

Li Shuang Jiang immediately fell silent.

Wang Er criticized a few more students before turning: “Monitor.”

Tao Zhi nervously raised her head.

“Don’t worry, not you yet — the one behind you,” Wang Er looked down at the test papers. “This weekend’s problems weren’t up to your usual standard. Not feeling well?”

Jiang Qi Huai didn’t speak.

Tao Zhi turned back in surprise — it was the first time Jiang Qi Huai had been called out.

“Don’t rush when solving problems, take your time,” Wang Er continued. “And you in front, stop looking at your colleague. If you’re going to copy, at least put some effort into it. You even copied the numbers wrong. I won’t put too much pressure on you — just try to pass the monthly exam, okay?”

Tao Zhi calculated the distance between her last semester’s final score and a passing grade, feeling it was quite challenging.

She said honestly: “Teacher, I got twenty points on last semester’s final.”

Wang Er paused, sighed and waved his hand: “Fine, then try to get forty this time.”

Tao Zhi thought Wang Er was still expecting too much.

A full forty points! That’s not something you can just get whenever you want!

She rubbed her nose. Fu Xi Ling sat beside her, secretly watching and biting her lip without speaking.

Tao Zhi didn’t notice. Up on the platform, Wang Er had finished criticizing everyone in turn and finally started going over the test paper. Tao Zhi picked up her pen and began drawing little figures in the blank spaces of her test paper.

By the end of class, she had drawn a row of Doraemon figures on her paper. The last one wasn’t finished yet — she was using a blue pen to color its head.

A small note was carefully pushed over to her hand.

Tao Zhi stopped writing and looked. The girl’s handwriting was elegant, neatly writing a line — My math isn’t very good, but I can teach you the basics. I can help you with other subjects too.

Tao Zhi turned to look. Fu Xi Ling kept her head down without looking at her, her bob cut completely hiding her profile.

“Why aren’t you speaking? Class is over.” Tao Zhi looked at her curiously.

Fu Xi Ling turned to face her, looking at her helplessly before her eyes reddened.

“I… feel too ashamed to talk to you,” her voice was tiny, with a hint of choking up. “I’m sorry, I got you into trouble.”

Tao Zhi waved her hand: “If you mean being punished to read self-criticism, I actually had quite a bit of fun this morning. I’m even a bit disappointed Old Wang didn’t suspend me — missed out on a week of fun.”

“But you got scolded by Teacher Wang, and he called your parents,” Fu Xi Ling’s eyes were wet, looking increasingly distressed as she spoke. “And you got hurt.”

Li Shuang Jiang was handing out papers when he heard and turned around: “Who got hurt?”

He saw Fu Xi Ling crying and froze: “Hey, hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Teacher Fu says she wants to tutor me, trying to help me get forty in math,” Tao Zhi waved the note. “Then she got moved to tears by her own kindness.”

Fu Xi Ling didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at her words.

“I can teach you too,” Li Shuang Jiang was always enthusiastic about helping classmates. He stuck his bottom out as he leaned over. “Isn’t Fu Xi Ling good at English? I can teach you math, study two subjects at the same time, and you’ll hit 600 points in no time. I’ll tell Illuminating Device I won’t go play ball after school.”

Tao Zhi’s vision went dark, wanting to refuse.

“Come on, let’s make a study interest group. Perfect timing for Teacher Fu to teach me some English too. My English is always scraping below the passing line,” Li Shuang Jiang said excitedly. He took out his phone and opened the class WeChat group, adding both Fu Xi Ling and Tao Zhi. The monitor’s WeChat was at the top of the group, with Jiang Qi Huai right next to Tao Zhi.

Li Shuang Jiang turned around: “Brother Huai, want to join?”

Jiang Qi Huai was drinking water: “What?”

“The study group.” Li Shuang Jiang said. “You’d be a powerful fighting force, our ace striker.”

Jiang Qi Huai stuffed his water bottle back in his desk, showing no interest: “No.”

Li Shuang Jiang fiddled with his phone: “Alright then.”

Tao Zhi watched as he pulled Jiang Qi Huai into the group anyway.

And the other party, not checking his phone, had no idea.

Tao Zhi suddenly admired Li Shuang Jiang’s exceptional courage.

Li Shuang Jiang had planned it well originally — he would teach math to Tao Zhi and Fu Xi Ling for the first half of evening self-study, then Fu Xi Ling would teach them English grammar for the second half.

But as soon as the evening self-study bell rang, Wang Er floated in like an persistent ghost with test papers in hand.

He had a five-minute battle with Wang Zhezi over evening self-study, eventually each winning half the time, filling up the entire evening study session.

Li Shuang Jiang typed quickly in the group: [Big trouble brothers, evening study is gone, we’ll have to do it another day.]

Tao Zhi, who was always on her phone, saw the message immediately and felt relieved.

Zhizhi Grape: [Let’s do it another day! What a shame!]

Li Shuang Jiang was surprised — he hadn’t expected Tao Zhi would ever feel such regret about not being able to study. What a rare moment.

Li Shuang Jiang felt he couldn’t let this enthusiasm die.

Sometimes falling in love with studying just needs moments like these.

Li Shuang Jiang quickly changed his tune: [How about my place? I’ll tell Illuminating Device I won’t go play ball tonight. Do you guys have cram school tonight?]

Tao Zhi: “…”

Zhizhi Grape: [?]

Fu Xi Ling was also hesitant. She actually really wanted to have some contact with Tao Zhi outside of school. She wanted to repay her, and also wanted their relationship to slowly improve. She wanted to be friends with her.

But going to a male classmate’s home was something she wasn’t very comfortable with.

Tao Zhi glanced at her and sighed.

Zhizhi Grape: [Let’s go to my place. My dad’s on a business trip so no one’s home. We can have dinner together too.]

Li Shuang Jiang immediately jumped up, turning around excitedly: “What! Going to Big Brother’s mansion?”

The class fell silent as everyone turned to look.

Tao Zhi and Fu Xi Ling stared at him expressionlessly.

Wang Zhezi, interrupted halfway through his lesson, broke his chalk in half and expertly threw it at the back of his head: “Li Shuang Jiang, if you don’t want to listen to class, go stand outside. Don’t disturb other students.”

Li Shuang Jiang sat down, covering the back of his head.

After evening self-study, Tao Zhi led her two followers to the car.

Fu Xi Ling sat somewhat stiffly in the back seat, hearing Tao Zhi call out “Uncle Gu” from the front.

The driver responded with a smile, looking back through the rearview mirror: “Made friends in your new class, Zhizhi?”

“Mm,” Tao Zhi responded. “We’re going home to study.”

“What?” Uncle Gu thought he had misheard.

“Study.” Tao Zhi repeated seriously, dissatisfied with his reaction.

“Alright,” Uncle Gu held back his laughter and nodded, thinking he should report this to Tao Xiu Ping tonight. “Studying is good, study well.”

Tao Zhi’s house wasn’t far from school, about a ten-minute drive without traffic. Arriving home, Tao Zhi opened the gate and led them inside. Li Shuang Jiang hopped along behind: “A villa! It’s a villa!!”

Fu Xi Ling looked at him with some disdain: “Lower your voice.”

Li Shuang Jiang didn’t hear her. He stopped in his tracks, pointing to the other end of the yard and taking out his phone to take a picture: “A slide! There’s a slide!!”

Fu Xi Ling ignored him, following behind Tao Zhi.

Tao Zhi unlocked the fingerprint lock and went in first, stepping aside: “Come in. There’s no one home except me, make yourselves comfortable.”

Just as she finished speaking, a voice came from the living room—

“Why are you so slow?”

Tao Zhi: “…”

Ji Fan was lounging on the sofa with his legs crossed, playing games on a tablet. Hearing the door open, he craned his neck to look, dragging out his words: “I’ve been waiting for you all afternoon, I’m starving to death.”

Tao Zhi froze, blinking: “You’re quick. All the paperwork done?”

“Not yet, still missing some,” Ji Fan tossed the tablet on the sofa and got up with a stretch, walking over to ruffle Tao Zhi’s hair while saying cheerfully, “I just missed you, so I took the earliest high-speed train back.”

Tao Zhi: “Let go.”

Ji Fan: “No, didn’t you miss me?”

Li Shuang Jiang and Fu Xi Ling stood at the door like they’d been hit with a pause button, not daring to make a sound.

I just missed you…

Just missed you…

Missed you…

Li Shuang Jiang’s expression resembled a screaming chicken.

He exchanged looks with Fu Xi Ling while quickly opening the WeChat group on his phone.

Li Shuang Jiang: [What is this what is this what is this!]

Li Shuang Jiang: [Our Big Brother has a boyfriend??]

Fu Xi Ling: [shocked_cat.jpg]

Li Shuang Jiang: [He even said he missed Big Brother! And ruffled Big Brother’s hair!]

Fu Xi Ling: [shocked_cat_2.0.jpg]

Li Shuang Jiang: [Lives in a villa with a slide! And has a boyfriend!]

Fu Xi Ling: [nodding_cat.jpg]

Jiang Qi Huai was on his way to tutor when he finally took out his phone.

The evening rush hour traffic was a bit heavy. He pulled his phone from his bag’s side pocket, planning to send his student’s parents a WeChat message that he might be a few minutes late.

But as soon as he turned off Do Not Disturb mode, before he could even tap the green icon, his WeChat started frantically pushing notifications.

Jiang Qi Huai tapped it casually, finding it was a group chat. WeChat friend group invites didn’t need approval — he didn’t know when he’d been added. It was very lively, with messages constantly popping up.

There were four people in the group, and it was named [Beautiful Girl Justice League].

Jiang Qi Huai’s movements paused, his expression blank for two seconds.

Beautiful Girl Justice League?

What the hell is this?

Author’s Note: Beautiful Girl Justice League member — Jiang Qi Huai (serious)