Everyone who saw her expression or heard her words had one thought in their mind: It's over.
This is a terminal illness.
"Xiaotong, don't say that." Xiang Lan seemed touched as well: "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be where I am today."
Xu Jingtong's eyes were red, as if Xiang Lan's words made her willing to die.
"Ahem." Jiang Chunian coughed, interrupting the sad atmosphere between them and asked Xu Jingtong, "Do you remember the first time you failed an exam?"
Xu Jingtong nodded: "It's the second semester of senior year."
"Why did you fail the exam that time?" Jiang Chunian asked, "What did your teacher, parents, and Xiang Lan say to you after you failed the exam?"
Xu Jingtong was stunned and frowned at Xiang Lan: "These are all things in the past. There is no need to mention them again."
Xu Jingtong immediately said, "Yes, it's been so many years, there's no need to mention it again."
"Why not? Don't you want to know how the once excellent you became the ordinary you today? Don't you want to know what you have been through?" Jiang Chunian smiled: "Or do you already have the answer in your heart, but you just refuse to believe it? If that's the case, then today's conversation ends here, and you can leave."
Xu Jingtong pursed her lips: "I don't know what you are talking about."
"Okay, I'll ask you one last time, do you want to get back the excellent self you once were?" Jiang Chunian asked.
"Excellent? Am I excellent?" Xu Jingtong's tone was full of doubt about herself.
"Of course." Jiang Chunian looked at the director, and the director gave her an OK gesture.
Jiang Chunian said to Xu Jingtong, "If my opinion doesn't count, then let's ask your former homeroom teacher to tell us what kind of student he thought you were."
The program team quickly connected with Xu Jingtong's high school teacher by phone, who said, "In all my years of teaching, there was one student who really saddened me. She was very smart and had excellent grades from childhood to adulthood. She was admitted to the high school entrance exam in the top ten of her grade. I valued her very much at the time, but I also had concerns. Many female students are more precocious and self-disciplined than their male counterparts, so in elementary and middle school, they generally perform better than boys. But in high school, things are different, especially in science subjects, which require higher rational thinking skills. She might be okay at the beginning, but when the difficulty gets deeper, she won't be able to do well. So I began to observe her carefully."
"Then I discovered that this girl not only had excellent rational thinking skills, but also had her own effective study methods. She achieved top scores in every major exam in her freshman and sophomore years of high school, and her basic test scores were also very solid. I was very happy and very optimistic about her. I couldn't say for sure that she would be admitted to top universities like Peking University and Tsinghua University, but she would definitely have no problem getting into a 985 or 211 university."
The head teacher changed the subject, "But what really saddened me was that, in the second semester of her senior year, after she failed a test, she couldn't adjust to the situation. She became sensitive, suspicious, and lacked confidence. Questions that used to be easy for her now seemed like impassable mountains. I talked to her, analyzed the reasons, encouraged her, and tried to help her relax, but to little avail. In the end, she failed the college entrance exam and only got into a third-tier university. This incident really, really saddened me."
"I can't understand how such a smart and outstanding student of mine could become so sensitive, suspicious, humble and insecure? She used to be the brightest star in the night sky, my pride."
The head teacher sighed repeatedly at the end of his speech.
Xu Jingtong couldn't hold back her tears after hearing this: "I'm sorry, teacher, I'm sorry, I let you down."
"Xiaotong, tell the teacher, what happened to you back then? Why have you changed so much? I asked you to repeat the grade but you refused. Do you know how anxious and sad I was?" said the head teacher.
"I--" Xu Jingtong opened her mouth to speak, but didn't know where to start.
"Xu Jingtong, are you willing to tell us now what your head teacher, your parents, and Xiang Lan said to you when you failed your first exam?" Jiang Chunian asked again.
"Xiang Lan? What does this matter have to do with Xiang Lan?" the head teacher was surprised.
"They were in love back then." Jiang Chunian said.
"Ah, no wonder. I said your grades dropped so much suddenly. There must be a reason. I asked you if you were in a premature love relationship, and you said no. Xiaotong, you really disappoint the teacher." The head teacher said sadly.
Xu Jingtong looked gloomy and increasingly depressed.
Jiang Chunian told the head teacher, "There's a reason why Xiaotong has become like this."
Jiang Chunian looked at Xu Jingtong: "Are you still unwilling to tell me?"
Xu Jingtong hesitated and said to Xiang Lan, "Xiaotong, if this makes you feel painful, you can refuse."
"Bullshit!" the head teacher scolded, "Are you stopping her like this for her own good or because you're afraid of something? Xu Jingtong, I order you to speak quickly."
The homeroom teacher did have some influence on Xu Jingtong, and Xu Jingtong began to talk about it: "The teacher didn't say anything to me at the time. He just asked me why I failed the exam and asked if there was anything wrong at home or if I had encountered any problems. Then he told me to adjust my mentality. My parents didn't blame me either. They said that a bad test result is nothing, and told me not to take it to heart and just focus on it."
Jiang Chunian asked the head teacher: "Why did you only ask Xiaotong to adjust her mindset?"
The homeroom teacher said, "We all start classes ahead of time in high school. Basically, by the end of our second year, we've already covered all the content in the high school textbooks. The remaining year is basically spent filling in any gaps. Xiaotong had a very solid foundation in the previous two years, so her poor performance on the test wasn't due to incompetence, but rather a problem with her mindset. So I asked her to adjust her mindset."
Jiang Chunian looked at Xu Jingtong: "Did you hear that?"
Xu Jingtong was also stunned when she heard this.
Is that so?
Xiang Lan frowned. "What's the point of digging up these old stories? She can't go back to high school. You're only causing her more pain. You're just hurting others without even cutting yourselves, aren't you?"
Jiang Chunian sneered, "You keep trying to stop her because you're afraid she'll tell you what you said to her back then? Are you afraid the whole world will know that you're the one who ruined her life?"
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