Chapter 28
The next morning, Jian Sheng was awakened by the sound of someone banging on the door.
She squinted at the square clock on the table; it was exactly six o'clock.
Just then, the sky outside the window was beginning to lighten. A ray of light slipped in through the gap in the curtains and swept across the white wall beside the bed, forming an angle with the dimness inside the room. She stared at that light for a long time in the gloom until the sound of the iron gate outside was heard.
Jian Sheng let out a breath and prepared to get out of bed. As soon as she turned to the side, she saw several bills scattered on the floor, some in small change and some in large bills. Along with the bills, a piece of white paper also caught her eye.
She walked over and glanced at the contents of the paper.
If you fucking shove it into my mouth again, I'll kill you!
Jian Sheng stared at the paper for two minutes, then expressionlessly crumpled it into a ball and threw it in the trash can. She put the money in the drawer, tidied up, and prepared to go to school.
She closed the door quietly when she left.
She walked downstairs slowly and quietly.
The elevator doors opened, and a cool breeze blew in. The temperature in Jiangzhou had dropped considerably in the past two days, and everyone had started wearing long sleeves, so her heavy clothing wasn't unusual.
There weren't many people in the classroom yet. She pulled out a chair, took out a history book, and started memorizing the key points. A little while later, Zhong Mei came in carrying a stack of test papers and holding a teacup.
She stood on the podium, looked around a few times, then sat down in a chair and began grading papers.
Ten minutes before the bell rang, students entered the classroom one after another. Several noisy students who came in automatically shut up when they saw Zhong Mei sitting in her seat.
Just as Jian Sheng was reading the section on the rise of modern national industry, a voice came from the side.
She turned her head and greeted Qi Jing, who was panting.
"I'm exhausted," Qi Jing said, panting. "I overslept, and Lin You waited for me for almost ten minutes. In the end, we both ran over."
As she spoke, she sat down and said, "You left early last night, so you don't know. We were up until the wee hours of the morning and almost forgot we had class today."
Jian Sheng nodded, pulled a piece of paper from the top left corner of the table, and handed it to her: "Wipe this."
Qi Jing took the tissue and continued, "Oh my god, last night was so embarrassing..."
"Huh?" Jian Sheng watched as she took off and put back on her black-rimmed glasses, her loose hair casually tied back, revealing her ears.
Jian Sheng glanced at her and looked towards the third row in front, which seemed to be Gu Zhenyi's seat. It was still empty, and no one had come.
"Do you know Yu Chao who works downstairs?" Qi Jing asked.
"I don't know," Jian replied, "I have no recollection of it."
"He's considered a troublemaker by the teachers at our school. He almost got into a fight with Chen Zhoujing last night." Qi Jing fanned herself with the Chinese elective textbook on the table.
"Huh?" Jian Sheng exclaimed in surprise, "Didn't he go back?"
"Who are you talking about, Chen Zhoujing?" Qi Jing turned her head. "He dropped you off at home and then came back."
“The boys had plans last night,” she added.
Jian Sheng turned her head, her face slightly flushed; she had troubled him again.
"Wh...what plan?" Her mind had already wandered off.
But Qi Jing didn't notice her strangeness. Holding a tissue, she lowered her voice and said slowly, "Last night, after you left, Yu Chao brought the people from downstairs to look for Gu Zhenyi. Then they ran into Chen Zhoujing who was coming back. If Xu Xiu hadn't gone up to help, the two sides almost got into a fight in the elevator."
"Fortunately, the two of them didn't interact much after that, because..." Qi Jing had just finished speaking when the metal table on the podium was banged loudly. She looked up abruptly and saw Zhong Mei standing up. She immediately sat up straight and whispered to Jian Sheng, "Wait, wait..."
Zhong Mei stood on the podium, her face stern.
At that moment, a number of people entered through the back door of the classroom. As she adjusted her glasses, she said to them, "Xu Xiao, you can't stand not causing trouble every day, can you?"
Xu Xiao quickly withdrew his hand from He Shang's neck. Several boys standing behind him, their smiling expressions vanished, stood in a row as if being punished.
"What time is it? You boys are only just arriving!" She slammed her hand on the table again, startling everyone in the class and making them more alert.
"And you, Chen Zhoujing," Zhong Mei sighed. "I don't even want to talk about you. You carry that tattered basketball with you every day, and you even bring it home from school. Do you even sleep with it with you?"
Caught in the crossfire, Chen Zhou was completely bewildered: "Teacher, I bought this myself..." It was a newly purchased limited edition.
Zhong Mei glared at him: "Didn't I tell you to play less ball?"
Chen Zhou touched the back of his neck in surprise: "Teacher, why don't you talk about other people playing ball?"
Zhong Mei was silent for a while, then went down the steps, leaned against the table, and looked at him with a stern face: "You killed my pothos by overwatering it."
A moment of silence followed.
After a few seconds, someone in the back row started laughing, which triggered a burst of laughter from the entire class.
Chen Zhoujing awkwardly exclaimed, "I was thinking that no one would water it for you, so I was just being kind..."
"Then I should thank you."
“No need for that…” Chen Zhou chuckled in surprise.
"What are you all standing there for? Come in." Zhong Mei waved her hand. "I don't care what activities you have on the weekend, but don't go too far and affect your mood on Monday."
“So many people took leave after just one weekend, boys and girls.” Zhong Mei’s face darkened. “Some parents told me they studied until midnight and then fainted from low blood sugar in the morning and had to be taken to the hospital. Others told me they had to help take care of their younger siblings over the weekend and couldn’t come because they hadn’t slept all night, and had stomach aches, leg pains, or headaches.”
“The midterm exams are next Thursday and Friday. I have no idea what you guys are thinking!” Zhong Mei shook her head. “The atmosphere in the whole class has been really off lately… From now on, I’ll change the activity periods on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to class self-study sessions. Group leaders, please keep an eye on your members.”
As soon as she finished speaking, a protest erupted from the class, but it was quickly silenced by Zhong Mei's shouts.
Amidst the discontented voices, Jian Sheng overheard Chen Zhoujing's puzzled expression from the back row. He said, "I even went online to check. You can't water a pothos too much. Four or five times a week is fine, not too much. How did you kill it?"
Jian Sheng pursed her lips, and the image of the dead green ivy automatically popped into her mind.
It wasn't until Qi Jing poked herself that she turned her head and saw a bitter smile on her face.
Jian Sheng leaned closer and asked, "What's wrong?"
"No wonder Teacher Zhong didn't let me get leave. It turns out my excuse about having a stomachache was used by someone else. I don't know who used that excuse." She laughed awkwardly.
"How late do you guys stay out?" she asked casually.
"Around two or three o'clock, I guess," a voice chimed in from the back.
The two turned around and found Chen Zhoujing lying face down on the table with his eyes closed, a dark circle under his eyes.
Jian Sheng subtly moved forward, nodded, and said with some surprise, "That is indeed a bit late, you should ask for leave."
Chen Zhoujing, who was lying on the table, chuckled inexplicably. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at her. "Playing is playing, and studying is studying. Sixteen people went, and seven or eight were invited. It's understandable that Teacher Zhong is angry."
"She must have heard some rumors," Xu Yanghe interjected from the side.
"Were there any of Teacher Zhong's confidants among that group last night?" Qi Jing asked.
"I don't know, there was quite a commotion last night." Xu Yanghe looked over and said in a low voice, "After you left last night, you didn't know, but that thug downstairs also came and sat down right next to Gu Zhenyi. Goodness, we don't know when the two of them got together, it really confused us."
"I never thought Gu Zhenyi and he had a good relationship..." After all, the guy downstairs is a womanizer.
Jian Sheng was shocked. They were together at such a young age?
"What are you four talking about? Tell me!" a voice boomed from the podium.
Startled, she and Qi Jing turned around abruptly, and Xu Yanghe's gossip stopped. The four of them were scolded by Zhong Mei.
Since Zhong Mei instructed that activity class be changed to self-study, many people have disobeyed and secretly slipped out, but most of them still stayed in the classroom.
On Tuesday afternoon, Jian Sheng finished a problem and was about to turn around when there was a commotion at the door.
Soon, someone called out from inside: "Gu Zhenyi is being looked for."
Jian Sheng heard the familiar cheering in her ears. She looked out the window and saw a boy who wasn't wearing a school uniform leaning against the railing in the corridor. His short-sleeved shirt was loosely tied around his neck. He had a cold face, without a trace of a smile, and there was a faint glimmer of light on his earlobe.
Just as she was about to turn her head, her view was blocked by a figure.
Jian Sheng looked up and saw Chen Zhou smiling at her with a smirk.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"The test paper is finished." He handed her a new set of test papers, with dense explanations next to each question, neatly divided.
Jian Sheng reached out and took the paper: "Thank you."
"Don't mention it, it's my duty." Chen Zhoujing squinted and stood next to her seat without leaving.
After looking at a few questions, Jian Sheng noticed he hadn't left and looked up at him: "Is there anything else?"
"No, no." Chen Zhou glanced at the empty seat in front of her, slowly walked over, and straddled the chair. "Is there any question you can't answer?"
Jian Sheng stared at him for a while, until his gaze became unfocused, before she looked away: "There's one question I'm unsure about."
"Aren't you going to play ball?" She looked out the window. "They all went."
The figure outside the window had disappeared; only He Shang and Xu Xiao, along with a few others, were standing outside holding balls, seemingly chatting about something.
Chen Zhou looked at those people and said, "Let's stop fighting. No one from our group has left yet."
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin You walked over with the test paper and patted Chen Zhoujing on the shoulder: "Go to the back and give the group leader a seat."
Chen Zhou clicked his tongue in surprise: "So much to do."
He stood up to offer her his seat, then pulled Xu Xiao's seat next to Jian Sheng over: "Team leader, what are your orders?"
"There's one question I'm unsure about," Lin You said, pointing to the test paper.
Chen Zhoujing turned the test paper directly towards him, and Jian Sheng also looked over. It just so happened that this was the question she was unsure about.
"I said... Group Leader." Chen Zhou glanced at the question a few times, wrote down the steps on the draft paper, and said, "We covered this type of question a couple of days ago, just with a different title..."
He glanced at her answer again, hissed, and said, "If you ever bring me a question you got all right and then tell me you're not sure, I really don't want to talk to you anymore."
Chen Zhoujing put the test paper back: "It's not that difficult..."
"Oh." Lin You took back the test paper. "Then I don't have any questions. Which questions on this test paper did you guys not understand?"
Qi Jing shook her head. The other two, who were sitting in the fourth group, came over to take a look after hearing the sound and also indicated that there was no problem.
Jian Sheng looked up and met their gazes, paused for a few seconds, and then shook his head as well.
"You've got it?" Chen Zhou asked in surprise, crossing his arms and looking at her.
Jian Sheng gave a soft "hmm".
He glanced at the test paper on her desk and leaned forward: "Oh, this question is actually worth exploring in depth."
Jian Sheng watched as he circled the steps in her third-to-last line with a red pen: "There are several solutions, and you wrote the most difficult one. That's good, you've made such great progress."
Lin You across from him clicked his tongue, somewhat speechless: "You just said this question wasn't difficult."
Chen Zhoujing turned to the side, his face expressionless, and said, "When did I say that?"
"Let me explain it to you again." Chen Zhou turned his head and spoke to her while writing on the draft paper.
After finishing one draft, he asked her if she understood. She nodded briefly. He twirled the pen a couple of times and held her draft paper upright: "Shall I turn it over?"
"Do as you please," Jian replied.
Chen Zhou turned the page in surprise and began writing again on the clean side: "Let me tell you about another one, would you like to hear it?"
He asked Lin You.
Lin You raised an eyebrow and leaned closer. He explained the two solutions to the problem, taking about twenty minutes to explain each problem.
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