pull the rack

On Monday, Ou Liyao came to class humming a song. The reason was simple: Zhang, the top student, had tutored the three of them for a few weeks. She felt like she could understand the lessons now, and she was doing well on her assignments. As a result, she was in a much better mood these past two days.

An idea she had been pondering for a long time gradually surfaced.

After two consecutive classes, the break finally arrived. As their homeroom teacher disappeared from the classroom door, Zhang Yuning fell asleep on her desk. She felt Xu Changjia and Zheng Ruoqian's little heads leaning over.

"He's been tutoring the three of us for so long, shouldn't we treat him to a late-night snack as a way of repaying him?"

Following the direction she pointed, Zheng Ruoqian knew she was referring to his deskmate, the academic star Zhang Yuning, and gave her a thumbs up in agreement.

Yes, "The Master patiently and skillfully guides people, enriching me with literature and restraining me with propriety." Naturally, there should be some reward. A late-night snack is not expensive. Xu Changjia wondered why she hadn't thought of this before.

When Mingming first went to tutoring, her mother reminded her to bring some cookies and snacks to share with them, although she didn't have time...

He immediately agreed and said he would go eat there after evening self-study!

While the three were still excited, the bell rang for class. They immediately dispersed and returned to their seats. This class was taught by their homeroom teacher, Mr. Wang Zhendong, so they dared not slack off.

Zheng Ruoqian skillfully poked Zhang Yuning's thigh with a pen to wake him up, and said succinctly, "Math class."

He rubbed his stinging thigh with one hand, while sleepily rummaging through his drawer with the other, searching for his math book. He shook his head, trying to wake himself up, and looked straight ahead, appearing as if he were attentively listening to a lecture.

Ou Liyao, who sat in front of me, flipped her textbook to the topic of functions for this lesson. She turned her pencil case around and counted from top to bottom. It was the first class of the afternoon. With the four afternoon classes and two evening self-study sessions, that meant she could have her late-night snack after six classes.

Xu Changjia, who was next to her, only glanced at her and saw her staring at the small timetable in her pencil case. He chuckled and knew that she was already looking forward to the end of the class. While listening attentively, he leaned close and whispered in her ear, "Turn the page."

Their joy lasted from the afternoon until the end of evening self-study, and the group tacitly refrained from telling Zhang Yuning about the later time.

As the four of them walked together along Mingde Road for a while, Zhang Yuning didn't pay much attention, as they often did.

When the other three led him in unison onto Zhiguo Road, Zhang, the academic genius, smiled helplessly and then realized something was wrong. "No, did the sun rise in the west today? Are you all conspiring to fool me?"

Zheng Ruoqian pulled him into the cafeteria, comforted him, and sat him down, saying with a smile, "You've worked hard these past few days, so your student is giving back to you. Just sit back and wait for your meal."

Having spent so much time together, the three of them already knew each other's tastes, and they tacitly headed towards the drinks, barbecue, and other miscellaneous food.

Zhang Yuning was happy to be free and took out "Gua Le's Infinite Impact," which he hadn't finished reading during evening self-study, and continued flipping through it. The latest issue had already entered a new level, while he was still reading the previous one.

Ou Liyao skillfully ran towards the milk tea and fruit shop. In addition to four cups of milk tea and coffee that suited her taste, she also ordered a super-sized portion of fruit slices without strawberries, since her good classmate was allergic to strawberries.

Xu Changjia, who doesn't eat strawberries, glanced at the fried rice a couple of times as they passed by. They were already quite full from dinner, so they decided against it. Noodles and dumplings would take too long to cook, so they wouldn't eat those either. Then they looked at steamed buns, mantou, and porridge, which they could have for breakfast every day, so they decided against those too. Finally, they walked a little further and hesitated for a while between hamburgers and oden. They had already stepped towards the hamburger shop, but then they turned back and got a lot of oden. Then they carried two large boxes of skewers back home.

There was a queue at the barbecue area. Even though they came right after evening self-study, someone else ran faster than them. He stepped forward and skillfully ordered a bunch of meat skewers and the grilled vegetables he wanted. The people behind him were a little annoyed. He ordered so much by himself. How long would it take the chef at the window to grill them? Wouldn't the people behind him get to eat?

Zheng Ruoqian didn't notice the resentful gazes behind him. After taking out his meal card and swiping it for forty or fifty yuan, the hateful gazes behind him reached their peak.

The eyes following him were fixed on him. He wanted to go up and "gently" lecture him not to order so much food and disturb the people behind him while they were having their late-night snacks, but he was unexpectedly bumped into by someone. His meal card flew far away, forcing them to leave the line to pick it up and then come back to queue up again.

The two people who were hit didn't think much of it. After picking up their cards, they went back to queue up again, wanting to continue queuing behind Zheng Ruoqian, but were stopped.

No matter how much they pleaded, they refused to admit that the two of them had just been in line there and insisted that they go back to the very end of the line. They tried to pull Zheng Ruoqian aside to ask him to put in a good word for them, but were stopped by a dozen or so people who surrounded them.

How can two mouths possibly out-argue a dozen mouths behind them?

As they were talking, the people behind them stepped forward and shoved them, knocking them to the ground. Then, the two of them, still not satisfied, threw a couple of punches.

What started as a dispute over buying kebabs gradually escalated into a brawl. By the time Zheng Ruoqian turned back with the grilled kebabs...

My God, what's going on? Behind me, a dozen or so young men were in a chaotic mess, and upon closer inspection, several of them were lying on the ground, each clutching a tuft of hair from their heads.

The dozen or so people who were ganging up on the two of them accidentally injured him a couple of times. Zheng Ruoqian carefully placed the skewers at the window owner's stall and was about to go over to break up the fight when three people came running from behind. The two girls glanced at him, then cleverly slipped away hand in hand, leaving the fight to them.

The head of the teaching department arrived more than ten minutes later, led by them. None of the group had a clean face.

Even Zheng Ruoqian and Zhang Yuning, who went to break up the fight, had bruises on their faces. One had several obvious bloodstains on her face, and the other had a large swollen area on her face. If you didn't know they were there to break up the fight, you would have thought they were there to help beat people up.

A group of about twenty people were taken to the Political Education Office in a grand procession just before the dormitory lights went out. Even passing dogs would stop and take a second look at the scene.

The Political Education Department hadn't seen so many people standing there in a long time. The last time such a serious fight broke out was several years ago. He was furious and felt like punching each of them, seeing how useless they were.

Speaking of which, the dean of students was none other than Xu Kun, the physics teacher of Xu Changjia and his three classmates.

He slowly took a sip of water, calmed himself down for a while, and then slammed the teacup down on the table. "Tell me, what caused the fight in the cafeteria tonight?"

A line of people stood in a row, some with their heads down, some looking around, and others familiar with the process and unafraid. The four who had been caught up in the incident were actually looking to go back for a late-night snack.

Raising their hands, they told the head of student affairs what they had witnessed. The "truth" pieced together from the four of them was that the two people had been sent away to pick up something, and when they returned, they got into an argument with a group of students who were buying barbecue. Then a fight broke out, so the four of them split up: two went to find the head of student affairs, and two went to break up the fight.

The head of the teaching department simply grunted an "Mmm," noted down their names and classes, and thought, "Oh, they're his own students." He then chuckled and scolded them, "Get lost," before letting them go.

He also instructed them to write a self-criticism about the cause and effect of the incident and submit it to the political education office the next day. When he didn't see them hand it in before evening self-study, he went to the class himself to write it for them.

The four of them naturally knew the value of this "helping them write" request, so they nodded repeatedly and agreed. Then, they thanked the political education office profusely and left as if they were running away.

The group of students still standing as punishment stared intently at their departing backs, their hearts filled with resentment, but they dared not utter a word, for what was about to become their own storm.

The next day, the four of them, sporting panda eyes, went to the Political Education Office to submit their self-criticisms. Then, they followed Teacher Xu into the classroom for class. When the teacher was talking about the effects of force, he suddenly called on Xu Changjia to recite a formula.

Then things took an unpredictable turn. After speaking for three to five minutes, they called on Ou Liyao's name, and ten minutes later, they called on Zheng Ruoqian's name. Just before class ended, they asked Zhang Yuning to answer a question.

Not only today, but for the rest of the week, every time there's a physics class, he calls on a few of their names, leaving them somewhat confused. The other students in the class also feel like they've been targeted by Mr. Xu, as if he's thinking about them every day.

Ou Liyao has complained about the physics teacher's behavior more than once in private. Couldn't he at least write down other people's names?

For example, the class monitor, Su Wenting, and Zhuo Hui ran errands for him so many times, yet he still couldn't remember their names. On the contrary, they only showed their faces once, but not only were they remembered by the physics teacher, but their names also spread throughout the whole school.

She shook her head and sighed repeatedly. She really didn't want such good fortune. She slumped listlessly on the table.

Then class monitor Su Wenting came over with the physics quiz papers she had just finished grading. The two quiz papers handed to her made her excitedly slap the table and stand up, as if she wasn't the lifeless person she had been just moments before.

Xu Changjia, who was standing next to her, stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. "What's wrong, Yao Yao?"