Chapter 8

What exactly did he do?

For several days until next week, Jian Sheng was no longer in pain from Chen Zhoujing, and his ears were finally at peace.

But the results were disheartening; she failed every subject except Chinese and English...

"How are you?" Qi Jing asked hesitantly after receiving the test paper and turning to see that her face looked pale.

Jian Sheng shook her head. Her score was really not worth referring to. She said dejectedly, "It's terrible."

The atmosphere fell silent, and following the silence of the entire class, the two of them stopped talking.

After a long while, a gentle voice sounded in Jian Sheng's ear: "It's okay, you're just not used to the environment yet..."

Jian Sheng was taken aback, turned his head to look at the quiet girl with black-rimmed glasses: "Thank you."

She wanted to say more, but the words got stuck in her throat, turning into silent mute speech.

"Everyone knows the results now." Zhong Mei walked slowly in from outside, her hands behind her back, her tone heavy. "You were thinking of giving me a surprise, but it turned out to be a shock."

"I won't talk about the other newly assigned students for now, but most of them were taught by me last semester. After a summer vacation, they've forgotten everything. In the first problem-solving question, they had to prove that BF is perpendicular to plane ACFD. Some of them either left their brains at home and forgot to bring them with them, or something else, they just copied the problem and concluded that BF is perpendicular to plane ACFD. Do you think the examiners are blind?"

“I went over this problem again at the end of the semester, and only the class monitor and Chen Zhoujing got it right. You guys... made me lose face in the grade's math group..." As she spoke, Zhong Mei walked around the podium with her hands behind her back. “That's not enough. Our class is ranked last in math, breaking our historical record.”

"The fourth fill-in-the-blank question and the sixth multiple-choice question on the eighth summer homework paper are exactly the same, only Chen Zhoujing got them right." This stern voice contrasted sharply with the gentle tone of the previous two days, and the smile on his face turned into a serious teaching expression.

The audience was quiet, with almost all the students' heads bowed to their desks. Zhong Mei lowered her voice and continued, "Some people even got the third multiple-choice question wrong. I showed them the quadrant questions, and the diagrams were clearly drawn for them, and they still got it wrong..."

She walked around behind Jian Sheng and stopped.

Jian Sheng felt the gaze from the upper right, her whole body stiffened, and her scalp tingled as she looked at the multiple-choice questions on her test paper that she had gotten wrong starting from the third one. Her heart pounded, and the tips of her ears, hidden under her black hair, gradually turned red.

“You got this question wrong,” Zhong Mei said.

Jian Sheng had a sense of resignation. She spread out the test paper and placed it on the corner of the table. Zhong Mei took a step forward, picked up the test paper and flipped through it. She didn't get many right. Suddenly, she remembered the bottom twenty-seven points in the math class. She pointed to the blank space on the test paper: "Study hard, you can still catch up in the first semester of the second year of high school."

After saying that, he turned to the rest of the class and said, "Everyone else, correct all the wrong answers on your tests and write them in your error correction notebooks. I want to see everyone's solution steps tomorrow."

"Find a clean notebook and organize your thought process for each question, as well as any content you haven't learned or don't understand. Come to my office tomorrow, and I'll explain the distribution of the Jiangzhou exam paper and the key points to you from the beginning." Zhong Mei left these words and went up to the podium, telling them to prepare the exam paper and beginning to explain the questions.

"Holy crap, when our teacher is serious, he's absolutely terrifying. His face looks like the King of Hell when he's not smiling," Xu Xiao whispered. "Hey, Chen Zhoujing, let me see your test paper, you're a genius!!!"

Chen Zhoujing finally shifted his gaze from Jian Sheng. He glanced at the test paper on the table, somewhat annoyed: "I'll give it to you after class, once the teacher finishes explaining."

"You're so sure about everything, why are you still attending class?" Xu Xiao was shocked. "Quick, quick, the class representative over there needs to go too."

He pointed to the boy who had mentioned the simple backpack at the back door that day.

Chen Zhoujing handed him the exam paper.

"Do you know what I just heard in the office?" He crouched down, turning his head to pick up a test paper as he spoke. "One student in our class got 27 on the math test. I don't know if it was one of those students from other classes, but they really dragged down the class average. Even though our class isn't good overall, we're still considered top among the regular classes, but this time we're last in math..."

"Hey, what are you doing? Give me the test paper."

Chen Zhoujing snatched the test paper back and ignored him.

He looked at the hunched back in front of him and drew on the draft paper. Suddenly, a piercing sound rang in his ears. The chair in front of him, which had been leaning against his desk, moved slightly and was now half a meter away from him.

"Are Chen Zhoujing still our buddy?" Xu Xiao persisted.

"Xu Xiao, are you itching for a beating or something?" A piece of chalk was thrown from the podium and landed in the aisle between Jian Sheng and Xu Xiao's desks.

Xu Xiao suddenly stood up: "Teacher, I was wrong."

"Put your test paper down and stand at the back." Zhong Mei slammed her hand on the table. "You got a score of forty-six and you still have the nerve to talk?"

Xu Xiao slowly walked to the back of the line with his test paper in hand.

"Let's not let him affect us. Focus on ourselves and the test. Okay, next question."

After class, Jian Sheng took out a new notebook and started copying from the first question.

"Jian Sheng, let's go to the convenience store. We finally managed to get through the long break." Xu Xiaxia hugged Lin You's arm and slowly walked towards them.

Jian Sheng put down his pen and looked at them: "No, you guys go ahead."

Xu Xiaxia was taken aback, then nodded. She then changed the subject and asked, "Qi Jing."

"Let's go." Qi Jing put down her homework and slowly followed the two out the back door.

After everyone left, Jian Sheng picked up his pen and continued copying the questions.

After I had only done a few questions, a figure stood next to the table and completely blocked it out.

Jian Sheng looked up and met Chen Zhoujing's surprised face. She put down her pen and asked, "What is it?"

Chen Zhou smiled and took a bottle of water and a bag of candy from his back, placing them on her desk with a complicated expression: "I'm sorry, I mistook you for a boy before. This is my apology gift."

Afraid she wouldn't accept it, he took out another piece of paper from his pocket and placed it on her desk. Jian Sheng frowned slightly, picked up the paper, and saw two large, powerful characters on it: "Please!"

Jian Sheng crumpled the note into a ball, placed the drink and candy he had given her on his desk, turned around and continued writing, as if nothing had happened, as if she had never been there.

"Hey, don't be angry." Chen Zhoujing didn't give up, bending down and squatting next to her table, clasping his hands together, "Just accept it."

He had hardly ever been in contact with girls and didn't know what it was like when a girl was angry, but He Shang said that when a girl was angry, you had to buy her things to appease her and that she was quite difficult to appease, which made perfect sense to him.

He scratched his head, unsure what to do, when he heard Jian Sheng, who was quietly doing her homework, say coldly, "Go back."

Chen Zhoujing ignored her and continued to squat next to her desk. His large size completely blocked the aisle, forcing other students to use the other two aisles. Passing students kept looking at the two of them, making Jian Sheng almost bury her head in her arms.

Chen Zhoujing seemed unaware of the problem with his actions. He rubbed the back of his neck and said, "You can take it now. I'll go back after you take it."

After finding out she was a girl last Thursday, he was shocked and spent two days taking exams. When he went back to ask He Shang, He Shang scolded him, saying that all the relationships he thought they were about turned out to be wrong, starting from when Lin You took her to get her school uniform.

No wonder he always felt awkward listening to her speak; she spoke slowly and softly, just like a girl.

She has an androgynous appearance, and her voice is so soft that it sounds androgynous as well, which makes him automatically categorize her as male.

He even talked to her about private things like constipation, asked her what kind of shower gel she used, and did other things for no apparent reason...

Chen Zhoujing had spent the entire weekend analyzing every frame of the footage he had encountered in his mind before finally deciding to apologize to her.

"If you don't accept it, I'll feel bad..." Before he could finish speaking, he was suddenly slapped on the back. He turned around and saw Lin You standing behind him with a blank face, holding a brand new, unopened notebook. "What's up, class monitor?"

"What are you doing?" Lin You glanced at Jian Sheng, who was writing with his head down, and then at Chen Zhoujing, who was squatting on the ground like a dog, and couldn't help but frown.

"It's nothing, I'm just looking for trouble." Chen Zhoujing stood up and put the drinks and candies back on her table. "I refuse to accept them, I refuse to accept them."

Lin You watched him return to his seat before pulling Xu Xiaxia towards the third row in front.

Jian Sheng looked up, the drinks and candies in front of her making her a little worried. Then she heard a commotion behind her. Chen Zhou poked her and said, "Hey, you can ask me any questions you don't understand next time. My grades aren't very good, but they're not bad. It's normal that you're not familiar with the format of Jiangzhou's questions and some key points since you just transferred here."

"Don't take what Xu Xiao said to heart. He's very carefree, and some of his words are unintentional and spoken without thinking." Chen Zhoujing leaned forward, slumped over the table.

Jian Sheng, with his back pressed against the chair, heard it clearly, and his eyes inexplicably felt a little sore.

During the long break, a number of students from other classes were standing outside the window of Class 23, chatting quietly.

A girl appeared at the back door, carrying two bags, and was peeking inside on tiptoe: "Hey, classmate."

She poked her head in and tapped Zhao Chengyang, who was fumbling for his phone under the table. Startled, he jumped up, about to yell at her, when he turned to meet a stunned face. She stared at him with her large, almond-shaped eyes, her clean and pretty face showing shock.

Zhao Chengyang swallowed hard, then patted his chest, suppressing his fear and trying to keep his voice calm and steady: "What is it?"

He Man smiled at him: "Um, call him Chen Zhoujing."

After saying that, she obediently stood to the side. Zhao Chengyang looked at the snacks in her hand and suddenly realized what was going on.

"Someone is looking for Chen Zhoujing." He called out from the back door.

Jiansheng heard the noise from the back door.

Someone at the door said "Oh," and the whole class turned to look back. Then she heard a commotion, one after another. She didn't turn around, but the noise lingered until she saw Chen Zhoujing carrying a small bag of snacks and walking towards Lin You in the third row.

Jian Sheng looked away, put the drinks and candy on the table into the table tray, and continued writing his homework.

Around noon, it was the second batch of students in the second year of high school to eat lunch, so everyone had to wait in the classroom for about fifteen minutes.

The time was just right, not too long or too short, enough to finish the history homework. While doing the questions, Jian Sheng thought of something, wrote a note, and then handed it to his deskmate Qi Jing.

The note read: I'm not hungry, you guys go eat.

Qi Jing nodded, holding the note, and pressed it gently.

"Let's go eat, stop writing the short message." Xu Xiaxia pulled Lin You over.

“She’s not eating, let’s go.” Qi Jing pushed the stool under the table and shifted her gaze from Jian Sheng to the two of them.

Jian Sheng nodded to the two of them.

They didn't insist, and the group walked towards the back door. Xu Xiaxia exclaimed, "He Man said we should have lunch together. Her class is on the second floor, so she should be waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs."