Chapter 3
The woman's tone carried a familiar accusation and dissatisfaction.
Guan Nan lowered her eyes and habitually apologized, "I'm sorry, Aunt Zhang, I've caused you trouble."
"Alright, come in quickly." Stepmother Zhang Guilian looked impatient and turned around, still muttering, "You're always causing trouble. This morning too, you knew my sister was starting school today, but you kept quiet, making the whole family fall into chaos because of you."
Guan Nan stood at the door, listening quietly to her words.
The light in the entryway remained on until Zhang Guilian went inside.
Inside and outside the door, Guan Nan and the others seemed to belong to two separate worlds, clearly divided. The girl was slender and helpless, shrouded in a cold shadow.
"Aren't you coming in? Do I have to go and invite you?" A moment later, before she entered the house, Guan Weimin's deep male voice came from inside, his attitude no better than Zhang Guilian's.
Guan Nan had just changed her shoes and heard this, but she didn't say anything and closed the door behind her.
Hearing the noise, Guan Weimin turned his head and looked over. His features immediately revealed a father-daughter resemblance to Guan Nan. He was lounging on the sofa with his legs propped up on the coffee table, and without asking any questions, he began to berate Guan Nan: "What's wrong with you? Can't you be a little more sensible? Your aunt has been waiting for you until so late, and you haven't even said thank you."
Guan Nan looked at him, her eyes clear and calm, devoid of emotion: "Thank you, Aunt Zhang."
After she finished speaking, she quickly lowered her head again.
Having lived under someone else's roof for so many years, Guan Nan had long since learned to be even-tempered and emotionless, and to never talk back or be stubborn.
Always bow your head, always yield, always admit your mistakes.
Zhang Guilian playfully patted Guan Weimin, her gaze carrying a hint of disapproval, and said with remarkable magnanimity, "Oh, he's just a child, he doesn't know any better. It's alright, it's alright."
"If I don't teach her now," Guan Weimin said with satisfaction, his male chauvinism unusually strong, "people will blame me for not teaching her when she enters society!"
Guan Nan twitched her lips.
At night, Lin Zhaozhao was in her bedroom talking on the phone with her classmate. Zhang Guilian called her several times, but she just gave perfunctory replies of "wait a minute, wait a minute."
Wait, it's already midnight.
The whole family was asleep, with only a faint light still shining on the balcony.
There's no need to tutor Lin Zhaozhao tonight; she can focus entirely on her studies. Lin Zhaozhao has never been a studious person, and with her high aspirations, she looks down on Guan Nan's tutoring.
Lin Zhaozhao didn't want to study, and Guan Nan wasn't interested in tutoring someone who looked down on her studies.
But when you're under someone's roof, you have no choice but to fix things.
This caused both of them to suffer, and instead of confiding in Zhang Guilian, Lin Zhaozhao chose to make Guan Nan uncomfortable and unhappy in various ways.
Guan Nan turned off the light, lay down on the bed with the blankets on, and the scene from that morning floated into her mind.
In Fuling, exams are mandatory at the start of the school year—this is an ironclad rule. Fuling Middle School is an exception, postponing the exams to the second day of school.
However, Lin Zhaozhao was unaware of this.
The night before, Lin Zhaozhao, who had spent the entire summer vacation playing, was forced by Zhang Guilian to hang herself by her hair and prick her thigh with an awl under the guidance of Guan Nan.
The whole family stayed with her through the ordeal, but Lin Zhaozhao would occasionally drink water, jump around, or play with her toys.
At 6:46 a.m., Guan Nan, who had already left home, turned back and was spotted by the sharp-eyed Lin Zhaozhao.
In the living room, Guan Nan was already used to Lin Zhaozhao's coquettishness and whining. She leaned against the balcony wall, searching for the test paper book that she had left behind last night.
"Hello."
That "hello" lacks respect and manners.
Without a doubt, it was her who called.
Guan Nan was in a hurry to find the test paper booklet and ignored it.
"Guan Nan," Lin Zhaozhao said in a slightly fierce tone, "Are you deaf? Can't you hear me?"
After searching through the pages several times, Guan Nan couldn't find it. She had no choice but to leave with great patience, wondering what had displeased the little princess.
Guan Nan asked calmly, "What's wrong?"
Lin Zhaozhao held up the test paper book behind her, smiling slyly and triumphantly, "Are you looking for this?"
Guan Nan was about to go over when she saw the test paper in her hand.
"Don't come any closer. If you dare come any closer, I'll tear it apart."
Lin Zhaozhao is really capable of doing this. Guan Nan didn't move forward, but stretched out her hand: "Give it to me."
Lin Zhaozhao raised her eyebrows, tilted her chin up, and smiled provocatively: "Try it if you don't believe me."
"Lin Zhaozhao," Guan Nan called her by her full name for the first time, looking at her calmly and seriously, "Stop messing around and give me back my test paper."
Lin Zhaozhao turned a deaf ear to this.
She glanced at her watch, then forcefully tossed the test paper to the back, as if certain that Guan Nan would retrieve it. She even managed to play a prank by saying, "6:52, have a safe trip, and I wish you good results."
Before she could even pick up the exam booklet, Guan Nan's eyelids twitched, and she had a bad feeling.
When she realized something was wrong, she stopped picking up the test paper and rushed to the locked door.
However, Lin Zhaozhao was still one step ahead of her.
The security door was closed, and the lock was engaged from the outside, round and round.
Guan Nan stood at the door and said in a gentle voice, "Zhao Zhao, stop making a scene."
"I still have class."
No one responded.
“Zhaozhao, Lin Zhaozhao.”
"Could you please open the door first, Zhaozhao?"
"·····"
Guan Weimin and Zhang Guilian were tricked downstairs by Lin Zhaozhao early on, leaving only Guan Nan in the large house.
The only response she received was a series of dull knocks on the door.
After knocking for a while, no one answered or came to open the door.
Guan Nan was so anxious she was about to cry. With class time fast approaching, she picked up the landline to call Guan Weimin, but he didn't answer for a long time.
My current situation is like that of a headless fly.
Suddenly, she remembered the phone number of her first-year high school homeroom teacher, which she had noted down in her political science textbook.
Guan Nan found the book, turned to the phone number she had written down, and called the class teacher, making an excuse that she had eaten something bad and had diarrhea, so she needed to ask for half a day off.
Fortunately, the teacher was understanding and didn't ask too many questions, only instructing her to take her medicine and see a doctor.
Around noon, Guan Weimin called back and, upon learning that she hadn't gone to school yet, gave her another stern lecture. From the brief conversation, Guan Nan learned that they had accompanied Lin Zhaozhao, who felt dizzy, nauseous, and wanted to vomit at the school gate that morning, to the hospital for a checkup, where she received an IV drip and was under observation. They had just finished eating.
At 1:20, the family returned, and Lin Zhaozhao took the afternoon off to rest.
At 1:25, Guan Nan went out to catch the bus.
······
Just thinking about Lin Zhaozhao's smug expression of "successfully framing" him...
Guan Nan still feels a little amused.
She felt that Lin Zhaozhao was not suited for studying, but rather for acting.
Having learned from her experience in the first year of high school, Guan Nan adapted to the exam format at Fuling High School, completing all subjects in one day. Each subject was graded as it was taken; students took the exams below, while teachers graded them from above. It was efficient and decisive.
In the morning, we have Chinese and Math; in the afternoon, History, Geography, and Politics; and in the evening, we have an English test.
As soon as Guan Nan walked into the corridor, she saw a classmate rushing towards Class 1, and then suddenly sliding to a stop in front of Yu Shu and the others.
"Our proctor this morning was Mr. Xu." The student had just come out of the office, his tense expression still showing some lingering fear.
Yu Shu's eyes widened: "Old Xu?"
"Why is he in our class if he's not in the science stream?"
The student who relayed the message was also puzzled: "How the hell am I supposed to know?"
Yu Shu, head down, tapped on his phone and said, "That's it, Jiang Li, that bastard, hasn't replied to my message. I'm probably going to be late again."
Are we going to be late again?
Guan Nan was a little puzzled and curious when she heard what the two were saying.
Didn't he promise his English teacher yesterday in front of all his classmates that he would never be late again?
"I'm going to take out the trash. When the teacher comes, you can scold me..." Yu Shu put away her phone, picked up the trash can, and prepared to meet Jiang Li, who was late.
There is a medium-sized landfill on campus and a garbage recycling station off campus.
Many boarding students at Fuzhong High School are unwilling to eat the school's meals, but because the gatekeepers check school badges very carefully, they usually use this little trick to openly enter and exit the school gate.
Yu Shu had only given half of his statement and hadn't even had time to leave when the proctor arrived.
The proctor, Teacher Xu, patted him on the back with a sealed brown bag: "The exam's starting, where are you going again?"
Yu Shu: "President Xu..."
"Sit down." Teacher Xu ignored him.
Guan Nan didn't listen anymore and turned to go into the classroom. The large double seats had all been separated, creating narrow aisles, and even the corridor had been divided into two rows on the left and right.
Since there were no prior grades, Guan Nan remained in her usual seat during the exam.
Guan Nan, pen in hand, looked out the window listlessly as the proctor displayed the leather cover on the podium.
She discovered that the person who had vowed to be a good student yesterday was indeed not late; he had simply sat down in a seat in the corridor right when the teacher was handing out the test papers.
That's right, he was rummaging through drawers and cabinets with his head down, but he couldn't even find a single pen.
Guan Nan saw him pat the shoulder of the student in front of him and whisper to Yu Shu, but Yu Shu couldn't find a second pen.
She looked down at the pencil case on her desk, which contained new pen refills for the start of the new school year.
if······
The next second, the glass window was pushed open from the outside, under the watchful eyes of the monitoring teacher.
Yu Shu called out, "Chen Mengjie, give me a pen."
After he finished speaking, he smiled at the proctor, his smile carrying a hint of ingratiation.
The girl sitting next to the podium, who was passing the exam papers around, turned around and said, puzzled, "Didn't I just give you one?"
"Jiang Li doesn't have a pen."
After listening, Chen Mengjie didn't say anything more.
The pen went through a long and winding journey, passed from one person to another, and finally reached Yu Shu's hands.
Seeing this, Guan Nan silently took out the pen refills that had already been put into the pen holder and put them separately into the pencil case.
It was as if nothing had happened.
Guan Nan didn't know why she felt the urge to lend him her pen.
Moreover, this was only because the other party hadn't asked her directly.
While receiving the test papers, Guan Nan looked up at the window and casually wrote her name and class on them.
The classroom was very quiet, so quiet that the only sound was the soft rustling of pens touching paper.
Midway through, Guan Nan went to the restroom.
Just as I was washing my hands, I heard Jiang Li's voice coming from the stairwell. He sounded somewhat unhappy with Shu Fang's presumptuous actions.
Because the women's restroom was on the second floor and the boys had to go to the third floor, Guan Nan heard their conversation very clearly.
Jiang Li was somewhat irritated.
"Don't associate me with Chen Mengjie anymore."
Upon hearing this, Guan Nan immediately realized that this stemmed from an instinctive desire to distance herself from others. She couldn't help but wonder what could possibly cause such a free-spirited person to exhibit such a clear sense of boundaries.
Yu Shu was indignant on Chen Mengjie's behalf: "Are you kidding me? She was your deskmate for a while, after all. Is this really necessary?"
"I don't like her." This statement was blunt and ruthless.
"Then she likes you."
Jiang Li had no feelings for her and became impatient: "Who she likes is her own business."
The implication is that her liking for me is a one-sided affair.
As long as I don't say it out loud, it's none of my business.
No wonder he frowned when Yu Shu spoke up on his own initiative.
It was as if they had overheard some secret.
Guan Nan was on tenterhooks, carefully trying to turn off the tap, but accidentally turned it on the wrong way.
In an instant, the water surged and splashed across the sea, soaking the school uniforms, clothes, and shoes.
······
During my lunch break, I was unsurprisingly called to the office.
Guan Nan sat in the office with several other students from other classes. Each of them held a red pen and had a pre-corrected test paper template in front of them.
She was in charge of the exam papers for classes 1401 and 1402.
In other classes, exam papers were graded by handing them over to each other, but Guan Nan was an exception; she was fair and impartial.
Grading exam papers is a very tiring task. While others were on their first paper, Guan Nan had already graded several. She was very fast, which was probably largely due to the fact that she was asked to help teachers grade exam papers when she was in elementary school. Once she got used to it, it became as easy as reading, and she could read ten lines at a glance without any pressure.
Before long, she changed it to Jiang Li's head.
Guan Nan carefully reviewed the questions. The multiple-choice questions were relatively normal, but the calculation questions at the end were difficult. The drafts were on a roll of paper, with diagrams drawn on them, making it almost impossible to distinguish between the answers and the formulas.
And his handwriting—the one on the exam paper and the one on the blackboard yesterday—was exactly the same.
It's incredibly difficult to watch!
In short, Guan Nan found it extremely difficult to read.
She didn't hold back and deducted points from his neatness.
As Guan Nan flipped through the exam paper, she hesitated for a moment, then pulled it out of the completed section and left a sentence with a red pen.
Your problem-solving approach is very clear. Next time, write your draft on scratch paper.
Write your characters more neatly!
Keep it up! ^_^
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