73 Chapter 73
◎Special Campus Broadcast◎
During the break, Zhan Xinyue got up to find Lao Zhou. Lao Zhou was in a large office, with desks simply separated by partitions. Teachers and students were coming and going, some to pick up study materials, some to ask teachers questions, and all sorts of people were there.
Old Zhou was sitting in his seat, looking down at a stack of report cards, his brows furrowed. Zhan Xinyue stopped in front of him, but he didn't look up, saying "Sit down," while still keeping his head down.
His voice was unreadable, but Zhan Xinyue could tell he wasn't in a good mood, so she quietly sat down beside him. The rest of the office was quite lively, but this place had a heavy, somewhat oppressive atmosphere.
After a long while, Old Zhou finally raised his head, his gaze falling on her face. His voice was authoritative as he spoke: "Tell me yourself, how did you do on the exam this time?"
I took the exam very seriously... but who would believe me if I told them?
Zhan Xinyue knew that what she said at this time was not important; what mattered was her attitude in admitting her mistake, so she silently lowered her head.
Old Zhou flipped through the stack of papers in his hand: "Take a look at your class ranking. Let's not even mention the last monthly exam when you injured your hand and didn't do well. Let's compare it to the previous ones. Your class ranking has dropped by more than twenty places this time!"
"Tell me, how did you manage to fall so low in the class? Let's not even mention the last monthly exam when you injured your hand and didn't get any results. Now let's compare it to previous exams. This time, your class ranking has dropped by more than twenty places!"
Zhan Xinyue was unable to refute the argument and could only say, "It was a mistake."
"A mistake?" Old Zhou slammed the rolled-up report card on the table. "That's twentieth place! What kind of mistake could make you drop twenty places like that?" He then unfolded the report card and handed it to her. "Look at this yourself. How did you do on your combined science exam? And your math? You didn't even reach the grade average! Did you make a mistake, or did you just close your eyes during the exam? Do you know how much you single-handedly dragged down our class average?"
His voice was loud and ruthless, and many people in the office looked over curiously.
Perhaps people become more sensitive as they get older. Since graduating in her previous life, when had she ever been criticized so mercilessly? Even though Zhan Xinyue was mentally prepared, her cheeks gradually warmed up after being scolded by Old Zhou and being stared at by everyone.
She whispered, "I'm sorry."
"Apologize for what?" Old Zhou was still angry, but seeing that her attitude was relatively good, his tone softened a bit. "You don't need to apologize to me; you need to be true to yourself. I know you've always been quite diligent, and your grades have always been very stable, which is why this time you've surprised me so much. I'm not trying to criticize you; I'm just worried about you. You'll be a senior next semester, and you suddenly made such a big mistake. Do you think that's normal? This can't be explained away with just a mistake. What if this were the college entrance exam? Would you make the same mistake?"
Zhan Xinyue remained silent. She felt she had done her best this month, but the results were still unsatisfactory. The rustiness in these subjects, which she hadn't touched for years, couldn't be overcome so quickly. And all her efforts seemed to have been wiped out by Lao Zhou's comment that her mind wasn't on studying.
As she looked up, Xu Shen, who seemed to be looking for some teacher, was about to walk inside. Their eyes met, and Xu Shen, as if noticing the expression on her face, paused in his steps.
Zhan Xinyue turned slightly to the side, blocking his view.
Old Zhou was still nagging: "Alright, I don't want to say any more. You must understand the big principles. Whatever the reason, go down and figure out how to solve it yourself. Don't let me see you do like this on the next exam."
Back in the classroom, Zhan Xinyue silently walked to her seat and saw Dai Yun sitting there, looking at her with concern. Looking further back, she saw Shi Ziqian also staring at her.
Zhan Xinyue wasn't in the mood to talk right now. After hesitating for a moment, she simply turned around and walked towards the front of the classroom.
The report card was posted in its usual spot at the front of the classroom. Ironically, last time she only took two exams and ranked last in the class. This time she took all the exams seriously, improving her total score considerably, but she was still last. Fortunately, she moved up two places from last, ranking fourth from the bottom in the class.
She stared at it for a while. Someone came in from outside the classroom, saw her, and slowly approached, also looking at the report card. She didn't need to look to know it was Xu Shen; he had just returned from the office.
Zhan Xinyue didn't look at him, but looked at the ranking list again. Coincidentally, he was the fourth in the class in this exam.
"Congratulations! You did well on the exam," Zhan Xinyue said.
"It's alright, at least I don't have to worry about Lao Zhou kicking me back to Class 1."
"Yes, it's fine."
Xu Shen hesitated for a moment: "Don't be sad, it's just one exam..."
"I know," Zhan Xinyue nodded. "It'll be fine in a little while, it's alright."
Xu Shen looked down at her. She hadn't tied her hair up today; her waist-length hair hung down her back, and her figure looked somewhat thin from the side. Although she said she was fine, the expression on her face was clearly not relaxed.
He couldn't help but feel a little indignant on her behalf: "How can your old Zhou be like this? His temper is so bad. You study so hard, and he scolds you for just one mistake. Don't take it to heart. I saw that your grades have always been quite good. This was just a mistake..."
Zhan Xinyue looked up at him and smiled, "Thank you for comforting me. I'm fine. Which student hasn't been criticized? Which student has failed an exam? I'll be fine in a couple of days."
The girl's features were serene, like a landscape painting, and her smile was exceptionally bright, though the smile didn't reach her eyes, so she still didn't seem happy.
Xu Shen wanted to say something more, but Zhan Xinyue turned around and went back to her seat after thanking him.
Xu Shen watched her figure disappear into the distance and let out a soft sigh.
Before evening classes, Zhan Xinyue ate dinner and walked towards the classroom. English listening practice was already playing over the loudspeaker. This was a routine for the high school; every evening before classes, they would play various short passages for twenty minutes to help everyone get used to the language and develop a feel for it.
During this period, there was no requirement for everyone to stay in the classroom, so only a small number of diligent students would sit in their seats and practice their listening comprehension and dictation. Most people just treated it as a common background noise and went about their business as usual, and the corridors remained noisy.
Just as they were about to reach the classroom, Xie Wanzhi happened to be walking towards the door from the other side, and the two bumped into each other.
Xie Wanzhi has been getting along very well with her new deskmate lately. Whether it's to show that she doesn't lack Zhan Xinyue as a friend or to make her presence known, she always links arms with her new deskmate and talks and laughs loudly whenever she passes by Zhan Xinyue's desk. However, Zhan Xinyue hardly ever looks up at her.
When Zhan Xinyue saw her, she didn't say anything, but stepped aside to let her go first, her attitude even being considered polite.
Xie Wanzhi felt ignored from Xinyue's nonchalant attitude and was immediately annoyed, but when she spoke, her tone was exceptionally sincere, with a hint of earnestness: "Xinyue, you should focus more on your studies."
Zhan Xinyue was bewildered: "What do you mean?"
Xie Wanzhi smiled and said, "Look at you, always thinking about those things. Now your grades have dropped so much, and you even got called over by Lao Zhou to criticize you. It's not worth it."
Zhan Xinyue glanced at her twice, realizing that she was here to mock her. Her expression remained unchanged as she calmly asked, "What's your ranking? I didn't notice."
She hadn't paid attention. She glanced at her own ranking, Xu Shen's, and even Shi Ziqian's ranking, which was unsurprisingly his, but she paid no attention to Xie Wanzhi. In fact, she hadn't even thought of such a person at the time.
With just such a simple question, Xie Wanzhi's expression froze, and her sarcastic smile vanished. She said angrily, "What do you mean? I ranked higher than you this time, and at least I wasn't pulled aside for a private talk by Lao Zhou. How about it, being criticized by Lao Zhou isn't pleasant, is it?"
After hearing what she said, Zhan Xinyue had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Xie Wanzhi usually ranked in the bottom quartile of the class, which was within the bottom ten. This time, it seemed to be about the same, maybe only two or three places higher than her.
"Yes, it's really tough," Zhan Xinyue said. "After all, my grades are usually pretty good, so if I make even the slightest mistake, Lao Zhou notices it immediately. Today he called me over and criticized me for a long time, asking all sorts of questions, which put a lot of pressure on me."
Zhan Xinyue looked at her and slowly revealed the same smiling expression as before, "But you don't have this kind of trouble, right? After all, you're always in the back, so Lao Zhou probably wouldn't notice any small changes, right?"
Anyone can be sarcastic or sarcastic.
After saying that, she ignored Xie Wanzhi's expression and went straight into the classroom.
When I returned to my seat, Shi Ziqian wasn't there, but there was another notebook on her desk. Just like the one from this morning, it contained detailed solutions to problems, but this time it was about physics.
Zhan Xinyue glanced at his empty seat a few times. She had gone to the cafeteria quite late, and Ziqian was still sitting there writing when she arrived. She didn't know if he had gone to eat or hadn't come back yet.
Because he wasn't there, Zhan Xinyue finally opened the notebook without any hesitation and read it carefully.
Shi Ziqian's handwriting is undoubtedly beautiful, with vigorous strokes and a flowing style. His problem-solving approach is equally fluent, with detailed yet concise steps, and he adds numerous annotations, making it as clear and easy to understand as a teaching aid.
Many of the questions that resulted in deductions weren't questions she couldn't answer at all; she just often got stuck at crucial points. Now, as she quickly read through them, many parts felt like a revelation.
After reading the two questions, Zhan Xinyue stopped reading and glanced at the empty seat next to her, lost in thought.
Shi Ziqian's solution steps and annotations were very detailed, and many of the annotations were exactly where her thinking was not quite the same, which shows that he put a lot of effort into these notes.
But it was precisely this dedication that made her feel a strong sense of guilt. She tried her best to sort out her relationship with Shi Ziqian, but unknowingly, the two of them became a tangled mess, inextricably intertwined.
After a moment of blankness, she finally pulled herself together and prepared to redo the test paper using Shi Ziqian's notes. When she took a pen out of her pencil case, Xu Shen's black ballpoint pen was the one on the outside, the gold "Top Scholar" inscription on it slightly faded, but still conspicuous.
Zhan Xinyue took the pen out, played with it between her fingers for a while, then turned to the side and gently tossed it, which landed steadily in the trash can in the corner.
The English listening exercise on the speakers was coming to an end, and evening class was about to start.
After the last English sentence was played, the classroom gradually quieted down, and those who were not in their seats began to walk back to their seats.
After a brief silence, two soft coughs came from the speakers.
At first, no one paid much attention, thinking that the broadcast room had just finished playing the listening exercise and hadn't had time to turn off the microphone, thus picking up the background noise.
Zhan Xinyue didn't pay any attention and kept her head down, working on her problems. However, a clear male voice came from the speakers immediately afterward.
"Good evening, students. We just finished a monthly exam. I wonder how everyone is feeling now..."
Zhan Xinyue suddenly looked up.
Although the sound coming through the speakers was a bit distorted, everyone immediately recognized it as Xu Shen's voice. In an instant, everyone in the classroom craned their necks to look ahead, and sure enough, Xu Shen was not in his seat.
Xu Shen's voice continued to flow from the speakers, calm and clear: "I think that at times like this, it's always a mix of joy and sorrow. Those who did well are happy and elated, while those who didn't do well are sad, disappointed, and even doubting themselves..."
"But I think that temporary setbacks are nothing, and success will favor everyone who works hard."
Speakers were installed at the front of all the classrooms in the high school, and the sound emanating from each classroom drew everyone's attention.
The sounds of commotion from other classes could be heard outside the classroom. Although they didn't know what was going on, everyone was clearly more interested in the voices on the loudspeaker than in the evening class that was about to begin.
In Class 10, the reaction was even more enthusiastic.
"Hey, what's going on, Brother Shen?"
"Did he suddenly become a guest radio host? Or some kind of caring older brother figure?"
Xu Shen continued, "Here, I would like to dedicate a song to all the students who are working hard for the college entrance examination. I hope that you can always have courage and confidence."
Two teachers outside the classroom asked in puzzled voices, "What's this new program? Is it a stress-relieving activity arranged by the school?"
Nobody knows.
Accompanied by music, a clear male voice rang out, carrying a hint of youthful energy, flowing quietly through the classroom.
Searching for where the blue sky is.
Drifting gently in the breeze,
I don't feel pain from the injuries I've endured.
I will climb up step by step.
Waiting for the sunlight to quietly gaze upon its face.
A small sky holds a big dream.
A heavy shell envelops a gentle gaze upwards.
...
It's Jay Chou's "Snail".
The discussions in the classroom gradually quieted down as the melody played, and everyone began to listen to the song quietly.
During this special time in high school, especially after an exam, each student may be reminded of different feelings in this situation.
When the music ended, the classroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and everyone was completely still.
After a long pause, someone whispered, "When did the school suddenly become so concerned about humanistic care?"
"It seems that the school has recently started to pay attention to students' mental state in addition to their grades."
Xu Shen was a member of the student council, so everyone assumed it was arranged by the school.
No sooner had he finished speaking than Xu Shen's voice came through the speakers again.
"Finally—" Xu Shen paused, a hint of a smile in his voice, "This song is also a special gift for a classmate, hoping that this classmate who is not very happy today can cheer up."
Holy crap!
"What the heck? What does this mean?"
...
In an instant, the silence was shattered. Not just in this classroom, but exclamations of surprise came from all directions.
The school had never been so lively; the clamor of voices almost lifted the teaching building off the ground.
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