Chapter 27
◎Old Fang's Surprise Inspection◎
Xu Shen indeed did not come again after that day. Zhan Xinyue's emotions were much more stable, but she was still puzzled by Shi Ziqian's matter. She was very careful when sitting next to him every day, afraid that he would ask her something again. Fortunately, everything remained calm.
It wasn't until Friday afternoon, during break time, that a boy ran back into the classroom and shouted, "Holy crap, Mr. Fang has gone mad!"
"What's wrong again?" Everyone assumed that Lao Fang's outbursts were normal, so their reaction wasn't very enthusiastic.
"Old Fang... he's going to bring some men to tear down all the doors of the men's restroom stalls on this floor, and he's calling for help right now!"
...
It was so bizarre that the entire classroom looked up at once, fell silent for a few seconds, and clearly doubted their own ears.
"No, why is he messing with the door panel?" After a long while, someone finally asked.
"Really? You must have misheard. Old Fang wouldn't be this crazy, would he?"
The boy who delivered the message said, "Fine, don't believe me then. I heard that Lao Fang smelled smoke in the men's restroom on our floor and insisted that someone was smoking in the stall. I just came from that side and heard him roaring in the hallway, saying, 'Let's see where people will hide when the restrooms don't have doors anymore.'"
After a few more seconds of silence, a furious roar suddenly erupted from the middle of the classroom: "Seriously? Men need privacy too!"
"I'm starting a rebellion!" someone shouted. "From now on, I'll be using the restrooms in the administration building, and nobody's going to stop me!"
Although it sounds terrible, Zhan Xinyue really wanted to laugh in this situation.
For a moment, the boys were busy denouncing Lao Fang, while the girls were busy watching the fun and chuckling to themselves. Zhan Xinyue put down her pen and laughed along, but as she laughed, she suddenly remembered something and shifted her gaze to the side.
Shi Ziqian ignored the commotion in the classroom and kept his head down doing his problems until he felt someone looking him up and down. He looked up and met Zhan Xinyue's gaze.
The meaning in her eyes was self-evident, and Shi Ziqian quickly understood it, shaking his head.
"What are you all arguing about? Your class is the noisiest on the whole floor!" With a sudden angry shout, Lao Fang appeared at the classroom door with a tense face.
The classroom, which had just been filled with indignation, immediately fell silent. Everyone shrank back to their seats, and Zhan Xinyue also turned her head.
"You're all getting so worked up over taking apart a door panel, why doesn't anyone in the other classes have any complaints!" Old Fang's stern gaze swept across the classroom. "I think someone in your class has something to hide!"
Several students had just returned from outside. Seeing the scene in the classroom, they were unsure whether to go in or not, so they simply left quietly.
"Now, all the boys in the class, stand up! I'm going to search them one by one! I'm going to see who's got the guts to smoke in school. If I find them—"
Zhan Xinyue couldn't help but glance at Shi Ziqian again.
Shi Ziqian had already stood up with the others, his expression unchanged.
Noticing her gaze, he pursed his lips, gently raised his hand to tug at his school uniform pocket, indicating that everything was alright, but his fingers paused slightly as they brushed against the pocket.
Zhan Xinyue noticed his slight pause, thought for a moment, and then looked away.
"Put your hands on the table, all of you. You can't do anything underhanded now." Old Fang stood at the front of the classroom, keeping an eye on the entire room while making a phone call. Soon after, several teachers followed him in.
Several teachers took turns checking each student in groups, conducting extremely thorough checks. They not only searched through the bottom drawers of each student but also searched their bodies.
Xin Wenhua muttered "No human rights, no human rights" from the front, but didn't dare to raise his voice.
Before long, the school bell rang, but Mr. Fang showed no intention of telling everyone to stop. The physics teacher came in with his textbook and worksheets, and seeing this, silently walked to the podium and began flipping through the textbook.
There were still two more columns to go before this row was reached. Shi Ziqian stood calmly with his hands in his school uniform pockets.
"You, raise your arm." The teacher stood two steps in front of him and instructed Lu Meng.
Before the teacher walked towards this row, Zhan Xinyue quietly tugged at Shi Ziqian's sleeve.
She lowered her head, pretending to be engrossed in a book, but her left hand was secretly raised under the table, palm outstretched towards him.
Shi Ziqian glanced down at her but didn't move.
Zhan Xinyue turned her head slightly and glanced at him urgingly.
Shi Ziqian then slowly pulled her right hand out of her pocket, and a small metal object silently fell into her palm—a lighter.
With a deft flick of her wrist, Zhan Xinyue slipped the lighter into the wide sleeve of her school uniform. She sat up straight again without a trace, her eyes focused intently on the textbook on the table; no one could tell what had just happened.
After searching Lu Meng, the teacher in front took a step towards them.
Shi Ziqian and Zhan Xinyue were both looking straight ahead.
A perfectly executed crime.
The teacher stopped in front of Shi Ziqian, glanced at him, and asked, "And you, did you bring anything prohibited?"
"No," Shi Ziqian said.
The teacher nodded, walked around behind him, and then stood in front of Xin Wenhua: "You, raise your arm."
Zhan Xinyue fell silent.
She was just about to help him when she forgot that the man beside her was the school board chairman's son. Which teacher would dare to make things difficult for him, let alone search him?
The classroom was finally thoroughly checked, but nothing was found. Old Fang was clearly dissatisfied; with a stern face, he told the teachers to leave, waving at the physics teacher before leaving: "Discipline in this class needs to be strengthened, you hear me!"
The physics teacher nodded quickly.
Soon, Lao Fang's voice rang out again from the next class: "All boys, stand up!"
Everyone finally dared to sit down. Zhan Xinyue lowered her hand, and a lighter slid out of her sleeve. She held it and placed it on the edge of Shi Ziqian's cabinet: "Here you go."
Shi Ziqian looked down at it for a while before reaching out and taking it back into his palm.
"Thanks."
Zhan Xinyue shook her head. "It's nothing."
Many days have passed, but she still can't help but recall that day, the sad look in his eyes when he looked at her.
Although she still didn't understand what had happened between them, the thought of his gaze at that time always brought a subtle pain to her heart, and she subconsciously felt guilty.
She thought about it for a long time. Her personality was even gentler when she was younger, so it was unlikely she would do anything to hurt others. She guessed that perhaps after her rebirth, her mind was still preoccupied with the past, and she unintentionally did something that led to misunderstanding, or perhaps there was some small misunderstanding between her and him in her previous life. But regardless of the cause and effect, ultimately she must have done something wrong to make him so sad.
Feeling apologetic, she had just taken the initiative to cover for him, intending to convey her friendly attitude.
Although her help didn't really make any difference, at least he didn't refuse her offer of assistance, which Zhan Xinyue felt was a good sign, indicating that the problem was still within a solvable range.
Zhan Xinyue held the pen in her left hand, deep in thought. After poking the pen cap between her eyebrows for a long time, she finally relaxed her brow.
She twirled the pen in her hand, tore off a sticky note, and began to write crookedly.
Old Fang's surprise inspection lasted for a whole afternoon, affecting not only this floor but the entire high school section.
Class 10 didn't get anything discovered, but the other classes weren't so lucky. Old Fang originally came to check for smoking, but this time he not only caught a few people carrying cigarettes, but also had some unexpected gains.
"Old Fang's desk is piled high with all the cell phones he's collected," someone gloated in the classroom during break. "He just announced that everyone, regardless of grade, can only pick them up from him after the college entrance exam!"
"The cell phones are all pretty normal, but I heard that someone in a first-year high school class secretly kept a hamster in the bottom drawer and even kept insects specifically for feeding the hamster..."
"I heard that Lao Fang also found love letters and similar items in several classes, and by following the clues, he caught several young couples who were dating too early."
Of course, there were also some funny ones.
"You know what? Old Fang received a note in one of his classes. The note was actually criticizing him, but the two students didn't mention his name. They just drew a cube to represent him. Old Fang looked at it for a long time and felt something was off, but he couldn't find any evidence. So he stood on the podium and read the note aloud several times. His classmates were laughing so hard they almost died." Xie Wanzhi said, leaning on Zhan Xinyue's desk, laughing so hard she almost passed out.
Zhan Xinyue put down her pen and thought about the scene carefully; it did seem quite funny.
Unfortunately, she wasn't in the mood to laugh; she was struggling with the test paper she had missed that day.
The school's grading efficiency is always very fast. The test papers for several subjects were handed out the day after the exam. She got pretty good scores on the two subjects she took. For the remaining subjects, Lao Zhou specially gave her blank test papers so she could do them on her own.
After receiving the test paper, she flipped through it and realized that she had oversimplified things. Even after reviewing many questions, she still couldn't find a solution for many of the blank questions.
If she hadn't missed the exam that day, her scores in those subjects would have been dismal. So in a sense, that unexpected event actually did her a huge favor.
However, although she managed to avoid it this time, there is a midterm exam in a month, and such an accident will not happen again. She needs to be on her guard.
After laughing enough, Xie Wanzhi noticed that Zhan Xinyue seemed uninterested, her attention fixed on the few papers in front of her. She then started chatting casually with Xin Wenhua in front of her. Perhaps noticing that Shi Ziqian wasn't there, she simply walked around to his seat and sat down, letting out a long sigh as she leaned on his desk: "I really want to sit here with you guys. My side is so boring; there's no one to talk to during evening self-study."
Xin Wenhua said, "Does it make a difference whether you sit here or not? You've always come over during breaks."
Xie Wanzhi glared at him: "What do you mean? You don't welcome me?"
Xin Wenhua smiled and changed her words: "How could I dare? I would be more than happy to accept it."
"That's more like it," Xie Wanzhi snorted.
Xin Wenhua added, "If you really want to sit here, you can go and talk to that guy and ask to switch seats with him so you can sit next to Xinyue."
Ever since he last discussed how Shi Ziqian was suspected of being seen by someone, he has been very cautious about mentioning Shi Ziqian lately, not even mentioning his name, but only gesturing with his chin towards Zhan Xinyue when he speaks.
"What good is it if he agrees to change seats? Old Zhou won't agree anyway, so stop talking nonsense." Xie Wanzhi rolled her eyes. "I think you've been feeling guilty ever since that day. You feel uncomfortable sitting in front of him and wish he could move to another place."
Xin Wenhua scoffed, "I don't know what you're talking about. I've long forgotten about that."
He turned back, then turned back again a moment later: "He didn't hear a thing that day, so why would I have anything to hide?"
Xie Wanzhi ignored him and grinned, mocking him.
After laughing for a while, her gaze suddenly fell on the English test paper she had spread out like a crescent moon. Only a corner of the paper showed the bright red score. After seeing it clearly, she exclaimed in surprise:
"146? How did you learn English? To score so high is inhuman!"
Hearing her call out, Zhan Xinyue glanced at her English test paper. She had indeed done quite well in English, but that was a benefit of her rebirth, so there was nothing to be proud of.
That day, she stood in front of the ranking list and looked closely at her report card, only to find that she wasn't even the highest scorer in English in the class. Shi Ziqian not only maintained his overall first place, but also scored 2 points higher in English than her.
At that time, she really wanted to ask: How did this person study? They got such high scores in every subject, they're practically inhuman.
Even more surprisingly, on the ranking list, she wasn't ranked last in either of the two exams. Another classmate had also been sick with gastroenteritis that morning and hadn't taken any exams.
Zhan Xinyue's English has always been her best subject, but it had previously hovered around 135. This score truly amazed Xie Wanzhi: "Stop studying! Your English is already like this. If you keep studying, you'll get a perfect score. It's time for the rich to help the poor. Can you tutor me?"
"How can I help you with your English? You should do more exercises and memorize more vocabulary."
"Of course I know I need to do practice questions and memorize vocabulary. Your grades have improved so quickly all of a sudden, there must be a trick to it, right? Share it with me."
Zhan Xinyue glanced at the table, then casually picked up a supplementary textbook and handed it over: "I don't have any good methods either, but this supplementary textbook has the knowledge points organized quite clearly, you can take a look."
"Sigh, our feelings have really faded. Do you know how perfunctory you've been towards me lately?" Xie Wanzhi took it and flipped through it hastily. Although she wasn't very interested, she still accepted it because she saw that it contained a lot of notes and annotations. "Alright, I'll keep it for now and take a look when I have time."
She slowly returned to her seat and casually stuffed the textbook into the bottom cabinet.
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