After he finished speaking, Xu Jianian, who was standing next to him, twitched his fingers slightly. His face remained expressionless, but he smiled coldly to himself.
Before we've even started watching, they're already subtly and overtly belittling Liu Xiaoli in their words.
It seems Jiang Sheng was right; some things can't withstand close scrutiny.
I hadn't thought about it carefully before, and I always thought Zhou Changgui was a good person.
But looking at it more closely now, it becomes clear that Zhou Changgui's usual behavior wasn't entirely without flaws.
But she remained calm and composed, handing over the papers to Liu Xiaoli as she looked humble.
After Zhou Changgui took the paper, many classmates also gathered around, very curious.
"Xiaoli is one of the top students in our class, and her Chinese language score is also exceptional. She can get full marks on her essays, so her poetry must be no problem either!"
"Yes, yes, let's all take a look and learn from them!"
"Xiaoli, don't be modest. If you think your writing is bad, then we're all probably just barely passing."
Everyone curiously crowded around, and Zhou Changhui, holding the paper in his hand, couldn't help but be amazed when he saw what was written on it, raising his eyebrows slightly in surprise.
I must say, this poem is really well written.
The most difficult part of rhyming poetry is to achieve both rhyme and coherence.
You can't be describing love one second and then suddenly switch to other topics the next.
Rhyming is something any student who understands Chinese can do, but the difficulty lies in the fact that most of them will sound a bit pretentious or affectedly profound while rhyming.
This not only fails to create the beauty of rhymed poetry, but also results in something rather incongruous.
But this poem before me...
Not only does it rhyme, but both the words in the poem are also very beautiful and moving, making people unable to help but associate it with beautiful emotions and filled with longing for love.
It's really well written!
Although Zhou Changgui was reluctant to admit it, he had to say that this poem was truly a very mature work, and one that was hard to fault.
It's hard to imagine that it was created by a high school student.
Seeing Zhou Changgui standing there for a long time without saying a word, and instead staring at the poem, Xu Jianian had already guessed what he was thinking, but she was still curious about what Zhou Changgui would say.
“Teacher Zhou,” Xu Jianian said, breaking the silence as no one interrupted Zhou Changgui’s thoughts, “Could you take a look at this poem? Look how nervous Xiaoli is, afraid you won’t say it’s good.”
Zhou Changgui snapped out of his thoughts, feeling that the handwriting on the paper in front of him seemed somewhat familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.
However, he didn't think too much about it. He glanced at Xu Jianian and Liu Xiaoli, who looked nervous, before smiling slightly and speaking.
"Liu, don't be too nervous. I think your poem is quite good."
Xu Jianian was somewhat surprised as soon as he said those words.
After all, she thought Zhou Changgui would definitely say something derogatory.
But to everyone's surprise, the other party not only didn't say anything derogatory, but also praised Liu Xiaoli, which was quite unexpected.
Upon hearing Zhou Changgui's words, Liu Xiaoli seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. As she relaxed, she couldn't help but ask, "Since it's alright, Teacher Zhou, could you point out to me where there are any shortcomings?"
“There are no other shortcomings,” Zhou Changgui smiled slightly and said, “Although the word choice and sentence structure are slightly lacking and the sentences are a little deliberately ornate, these are not major flaws.”
"For someone your age to write such poetry is already quite remarkable."
Zhou Changgui first pointed out some of Liu Xiaoli's shortcomings, and then affirmed her strengths.
After all, there were so many classmates present. If he kept belittling her, it would only lower Liu Xiaoli's self-esteem.
Zhou Changgui knew exactly how to make a young girl admire him, so he naturally wouldn't do what he did before when he belittled Jiang Sheng: deliberately pointing out a bunch of Liu Xiaoli's flaws in front of so many people.
As for Xu Jianian and Liu Xiaoli, they listened from the side while internally complaining.
There's nothing wrong with this poem, but Zhou Changgui insists on finding so many flaws.
Although it was later acknowledged that the poem was quite good, those words sounded rather deliberate no matter how you listened to them.
Liu Xiaoli, in particular, listened humbly on the surface, but inwardly she was very disdainful.
They only said that because they thought they were high school students and not easy to fool.
If Xiao Nian hadn't told her Zhou Changgui's true colors beforehand, she would have really thought that the gentle-looking man in front of her was a truly kind person.
Although that's what she was thinking, Liu Xiaoli still appeared very sincere on the surface.
"Teacher Zhou, could you please give me some guidance and corrections? I'd like to see what my shortcomings are and how I can improve. Since you are so skilled in poetry, I believe you can definitely polish this poem I wrote to make it even better."
These words practically lauded Zhou Changgui to the skies, but while he felt elated, he also knew that if he revealed the details of his advice in front of everyone, he would likely be exposed.
After all, my knowledge of poetry is limited to theoretical discussions; my actual practice or writing of a real poem might not even be as good as the one Liu Xiaoli wrote.
Just like with Jiang Sheng's poem before, when we wanted his guidance, he also postponed the time, which is the same principle.
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Changgui smiled and said, "To be responsible to Liu and to this poem, I think I should take it back and work on it carefully. Once it's polished enough, I'll bring it back to discuss with Liu. What do you think, Liu?"
Liu Xiaoli was probably surprised by Zhou Changgui's words. She was slightly taken aback at first, but quickly realized what he meant and nodded hurriedly.
“It’s okay. I know Teacher Zhou is quite busy. I’d love to listen to Teacher Zhou’s teachings when he’s less busy.”
The matter was settled. As for Xu Jianian, he seemed to have expected it all along. After hearing Zhou Changgui's words, he already had a good idea of what was going on.
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