Chapter 41: Confronting Chen Song
On Monday morning, Li Qiuhong’s class was the first period. She glanced at the listless students below and tapped the desk. “Wake up! The Chinese test scores aren’t out yet. Let’s check the answers.” She projected the answers on the computer screen. “Compare them.”
“Holy crap!” Li Qiuhong glanced at Zeng Qi, “What are you shouting about? It’s not like you got everything right.”
Zeng Qi replied, “Actually, you’d be surprised – I did get everything right.”
Li Qiuhong skeptically picked up his test paper and looked at it. Seeing all the red check marks, she smiled, “You did well this time. Keep it up.”
Zeng Qi nodded, “Will do.” He shot a grateful look at Jiang Rong behind him.
Li Qiuhong hadn’t finished going through half the test papers when class ended.
“Teacher, are the Chinese scores out?” a student near the podium asked.
“You’re all quite eager this time. Let me check.” As soon as Li Qiuhong opened her phone, several heads leaned in.
“They’re out!” As soon as she said this, many students rushed to the podium. Li Qiuhong waved them away, “Alright, alright, step back. I’ll read them out.”
“Teacher, please check Jiang Rong’s score first!” “Yes, check Jiang Rong’s first!”
Li Qiuhong frowned at them, “How strange that you want to see someone else’s score before your own.”
A student with the best position near the podium was so eager he almost grabbed the phone. He urgently prompted Li Qiuhong, “Scroll down more, it should be further down.”
Li Qiuhong glared at him, then found Jiang Rong’s name: “Jiang Rong, Chinese 140.”
“140? In Chinese?” “Damn, first time I’ve seen someone score 140 in Chinese.” “This has to be in the top 10 of the grade, right?”
Yang Shikun said, “Forget top 10, this could be top 3!”
Li Qiuhong opened Jiang Rong’s answer sheet: “Next class I’ll show you all Jiang’s answer sheet. Perfect score on multiple choice, only lost 9 points on the essay, and just 1 point on the other sections.”
“Only 1 point on the other sections?” “Incredible!”
Li Qiuhong read out a few more names before the bell rang. A male student near the podium said, “Teacher, don’t leave! No one’s teaching next period.”
Li Qiuhong looked at him, “I have another class second period.”
Seeing Fang Zixin enter, Li Qiuhong smiled at him before gathering her things and leaving.
Fang Zixin, who had been receiving congratulations all morning, couldn’t stop smiling. He stood at the podium: “This is the first time our class has had someone in the grade’s top 10. Let’s applaud Jiang Rong for ranking third in the grade!”
Yang Shikun clapped so hard his hands might have broken.
Fang Zixin gestured for quiet: “The class score sheets are still being organized. Everyone will get a printed copy soon.”
“Teacher Fang, this totally proves Chen Song wrong, right? He said our class couldn’t produce anyone in the top 10, and said he’d apologize if we did. Not only did we get someone in the top 10, but they got a perfect score in English!”
“That’s right!” “Jiang got first place in English for the whole school!” “Chen Song must apologize!” “He has to apologize!”
Fang Zixin was quiet for a moment before realizing, “So this is why you’ve all been so focused on the scores since last night?”
“Even though we couldn’t score that well, Jiang did, and that represents all of Class 17.” “It doesn’t matter if he looks down on us, but looking down on you is not okay.” “He must apologize.”
Listening to these comments, Fang Zixin’s eyes grew moist: “I didn’t really care about what he said. I was just angry he insulted our class.”
“Whether he insults our class or you, it’s not acceptable.” “We have to thank Jiang for helping us get this satisfaction.” “Otherwise we might have had to take some less pleasant measures.”
Looking at his students, Fang Zixin, a grown man, couldn’t hold back his tears. He turned away to wipe them, then faced them again: “Thank you all.”
When he had argued with Chen Song, he had been angry but soon forgot about it. He hadn’t expected these kids to keep it in their hearts all this time.
When Chen Song heard Class 17 had produced a third-place student, he was preparing lessons and snapped his pen in anger. He thought if he didn’t acknowledge what he’d said before, he wouldn’t have to apologize.
But he underestimated Class 17.
During the long break, two boys from Class 17 knocked on Chen Song’s current office door. Yang Shikun politely handed him Class 17’s score sheet: “Teacher Chen, these are our class scores. Please take a look.”
Chen Song glanced at it: “I’ve already seen them. Anything else?”
“You haven’t forgotten what you said before, have you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Yang Shikun mimicked his tone and repeated his earlier words: “If your class can get even one person into the top 10, I’ll apologize in front of the whole class. I, Chen Song, admit I was wrong.”
Everyone in the office who knew about this tried to hold back their laughter. Chen Song was proud and outspoken, and had offended many people before.
Chen Song wanted to tear Yang Shikun’s mouth apart. He snatched the score sheet: “I know, you don’t need to remind me.”
Yang Shikun smiled brightly: “Good that you remember, Teacher Chen. Don’t forget to keep your promise.”
Chen Song took the score sheet to his old office, looking like he’d been constipated for ten days. He wordlessly went to Fang Zixin: “I was wrong before. I apologize.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me. You should apologize to the students of Class 17.”
Chen Song looked at Fang Zixin: “Don’t push your luck. Me apologizing to you is already giving you face.”
“Oh my, did I accidentally bring that up? I hope Teacher Chen isn’t angry?” The female teacher across from Fang Zixin pretended to be surprised, covering her mouth. Then she smiled, “I know Teacher Chen is very magnanimous and will surely forgive me, right?”
Chen Song finally went to Class 17 with a sour face and said sorry.
Yang Shikun imitated Chen Song’s office behavior, then mimicked the female teacher: “Teacher Chen, you’re not angry, are you~? Hahahahaha! I’m dying of laughter! I declare she’s my goddess from now on!”
Class 17 was filled with laughter.
Jiang Rong laughed too.
Xu Si looked at her: “We really owe you for this one. You’re our hero.”
Jiang Rong gave him a bright smile. The girl’s eyes were clear, and when she smiled, she was incredibly beautiful.
Leave a Reply