A world of gender equality
Back home, Jiang Jingshu lay on the table, preparing to do her evening homework. Just as she was about to take out the test paper, she caught a glimpse of the agave plant next to her.
The seeds appear to have sprouted tiny buds.
Jiang Jingshu was pleasantly surprised and quickly said, "Help! Help! The seed seems to have sprouted."
Sure enough, two tiny sprouts were just beginning to emerge from the potted plant. Looking at this masterpiece, Jiang Jingshu couldn't help but exclaim, "I haven't done anything these past few days, and in less than five days, the seeds have already sprouted."
"Your Highness did not do nothing."
The system's voice sounded at the right time, "Your Highness has taken great care in loosening the soil and fertilizing it. Without Your Highness, the agave would never have sprouted so quickly."
When Jiang Jingshu was reading ancient books, she was fascinated by the fact that agave only blooms once in its life and dies after blooming. She mentioned more than once in conversations with Zhou Mingyuan that it does not need to be taken care of, silently takes root, and musters all its strength just for the final splendor, living towards death and living for just a moment.
Unexpectedly, after all the twists and turns, I found myself to have a lot of connections with agave.
After arriving in the modern world, every class became an ordeal for Jiang Jingshu.
She was completely lost in math and English classes every day.
It can be described as not knowing anything at all.
Jiang Jingshu lay on the table, "Help, why is what we learn at school different from what we learned before?"
"Your Highness, please don't be impatient. There is still plenty of time. With your intelligence, you will be able to learn it."
Even so, Jiang Jingshu stared blankly at the math test paper in front of her. "It's so difficult. Why is it so complicated?"
The exam paper covered topics from the elective mathematics course 2 in high school: spatial vectors and solid geometry.
This was something completely foreign to Jiang Jingshu, who came from ancient times.
After all, there were no spatial vectors in ancient times.
Jiang Jingshu was in the humanities class. When she learned that there were three other subjects as difficult as mathematics—physics, chemistry, and biology—she was incredibly glad that she had chosen humanities.
Jiang Jingshu put down the math test paper and took out the history test paper instead.
These past few days, Jiang Jingshu has only listened intently in history class. The history questions are at most just giving a passage and asking about the background, motivation, and significance of the event.
This was not a difficult task for Jiang Jingshu.
However, sometimes she felt that the questions were being unreasonable. For example, in multiple-choice questions, "main reason" and "direct reason" were different. Jiang Jingshu would then say to the system, "Why are you playing word games?"
However, such cases are rare, so much so that Jiang Jingshu achieved the remarkable feat of ranking tenth from the bottom in her class during her first exam in modern times.
Jiang Jingshu was leaning forward looking for her own grade sheet, but after searching many times, she couldn't find it. Instead, she flipped to Xie Zhijin's grade sheet first. Jiang Jingshu's eyes lit up and she picked up Xie Zhijin's grade sheet.
Xie Zhijin: Chinese: 99, Mathematics: 121, English: 137, History: 74, Politics: 81, Geography: 71, Total Score: 583
Just as Jiang Jingshu was about to look at Xie Zhijin's ranking, a voice suddenly rang in her ears.
"Have you finished watching?"
Jiang Jingshu was startled and looked up to find the source of the sound. She found Xie Zhijin standing behind her, who said apologetically, "Were you startled? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."
Jiang Jingshu quickly handed the report card to Xie Zhijin, "No, I should apologize, you did very well."
"Thank you." Xie Zhijin finished speaking, put away his report card, and then looked at Jiang Jingshu, "Have you...did something happen to you recently?"
Before Jiang Jingshu could react to what Xie Zhijin meant, she was called to the teacher's office.
Xie Zhijin watched Jiang Jingshu leave, then turned around, took out his own grade sheet, sighed, crumpled it up, and threw it into the trash bag.
Jiang Jingshu was about to knock on the office door when it was opened first.
The person who came was Wang Shengli. Jiang Jingshu felt very uncomfortable looking at the strange smile he gave her.
She didn't linger and walked into the office, pretending not to notice.
Jiang Jingshu's homeroom teacher was a woman named Zhou Xiao, who was about forty years old. She wore black-rimmed glasses and appeared both gentle and strict.
Because Zhou Xiao was her math teacher, Jiang Jingshu was very afraid of her. She often daydreamed during Zhou Xiao's classes, to the point that she felt a deep sense of guilt when facing Zhou Xiao.
"Jing Shu, you're here." Zhou Xiao gestured for her to sit down, then asked, "Have you been unhappy about something lately?"
Jiang Jingshu looked up, somewhat puzzled as to why the teacher would ask such a question. Before she could say anything, she heard Zhou Xiao speak up again, "Does anyone in the class bully you?"
Jiang Jingshu instinctively shook her head.
"Wang Shengli just came to my office. Did you hit Wang Shengli a few days ago?" Zhou Xiao asked Jiang Jingshu patiently.
Jiang Jingshu seemed to understand Zhou Xiao's intention.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hit him, but he went too far." Jiang Jingshu thought that Wang Shengli must have been the one to accuse her first, and now she was in the wrong. As she spoke, she put her hands behind her back.
"Can you tell the teacher what happened?" Zhou Xiao pulled Jiang Jingshu's hand from behind her back and spoke gently.
“He insulted my friend,” Jiang Jingshu began, then, realizing she hadn’t explained herself clearly, added, “He initially said my paintings were ugly, and when Su Xiaoyue defended me, he used very offensive language to insult my friend. I couldn’t hold back and hit him; it was my fault for acting impulsively.”
At this moment, Jiang Jingshu was even prepared to be punished, but she didn't know if she would actually get a beating. If not, it would probably just be Wang Shengli slapping her.
That was Jiang Jingshu's understanding after all. So she didn't say anything more, only saying, "Teacher, I'm willing to accept punishment, but this matter has nothing to do with my friend. If you're going to hit someone, hit me alone."
Zhou Xiao seemed amused by Jiang Jingshu's words. Looking at Jiang Jingshu's righteous expression, he couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Nobody wants to hit you, Jingshu."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Jingshu looked at Zhou Xiao in shock, "Aren't you going to hit me? Then how will you punish me?"
Could this mistake be so serious that if we don't punish him, then...?
Just then, Zhou Xiao gently tapped Jiang Jingshu's forehead, "You child, why are you acting so strangely today?"
"In the end, I was the one who made the mistake." Jiang Jingshu frankly admitted her error. After all, resorting to violence is definitely wrong.
However, this mistake wasn't her fault; if Wang Shengli hadn't provoked her, this wouldn't have happened at all.
"Why do you think I would definitely be harsh on you?" Zhou Xiao was quite curious as to why Jiang Jingshu would react this way.
Jiang Jingshu thought that since Wang Shengli was a man, he should receive some preferential treatment. In the past, when princes and princesses made the same mistake in the palace, it was always the princess who was punished.
In adjudicating cases involving both men and women, the woman is always the one who receives the heaviest sentence.
Therefore, today, Jiang Jingshu even felt that she couldn't escape her fate. "Perhaps it's because I'm a woman."
Just because she is a woman, she is always inferior to others.
A warm touch came from above her head. Jiang Jingshu looked up and saw Zhou Xiao stroking her head.
She said, "I'm not a sexist teacher. You both made mistakes in this matter, but it's not a big deal, and I won't interfere."
Shocked by what she heard, Jiang Jingshu looked up into Zhou Xiao's eyes. Zhou Xiao continued, "Men and women don't affect the decision-making process. This isn't ancient times; men and women are equal. In court, the judge won't punish you indiscriminately just because you're a woman. As a teacher, if he insults you and you hit him, both of you are wrong. But from a woman's perspective, a teacher would prefer that you protect yourself from being bullied."
Jiang Jingshu was still processing Zhou Xiao's words when she silently nodded.
This was the first time someone had directly told her that men and women are equal.
Zhou Xiao continued, "I heard from other classmates that after you hit him, he wanted to hit you back, but Xie Zhijin stopped him?"
Jiang Jingshu nodded.
"The teacher just hopes that when you make a decision, you will think more about what will happen in the next second. If you hit him in public, he will definitely do something because he will lose face. If Xie Zhijin did not stop the slap in the next second, it will be transferred to your face."
As if touched on her heart, Jiang Jingshu's eyes couldn't help but well up with tears. "I'm sorry, I was wrong. Thank you, teacher."
"Alright, I understand the general situation. Here's your report card. Your grades fluctuate wildly. If you have any worries, come to my office. Your grades weren't like this before." Zhou Xiao gave Jiang Jingshu a few simple instructions.
Jiang Jingshu nodded sullenly, then glanced at her report card, which could only be described in four words—utterly disastrous.
Back in the classroom, seeing the tear stains still wet on Jiang Jingshu's eyes, Su Xiaoyue quickly came over and asked, "Jiang Jiang, why are you crying?"
Before Jiang Jingshu could respond, Wang Shengli's voice rang out again, laced with provocation, "You women, all you do is play the victim, acting all pitiful and convincing. Do you think anyone will pity you like that?"
Before Wang Shengli could finish speaking, he was suddenly hit on the head by something. He picked up the crumpled paper that hit him, unfolded it, and found it was his Chinese test paper with a score of 20.
He looked up, trying to find the culprit, when a mineral water bottle brushed past his ear and was thrown into the trash can behind Wang Shengli.
"Sorry, I'm taking out the trash." Xie Zhijin sat in his seat, leisurely watching Wang Shengli.
“You…” Wang Shengli didn’t dare to provoke Xie Zhijin. Xie Zhijin was nearly 185 cm tall, almost 15 cm taller than him. There were also rumors in the class that Xie Zhijin had practiced Sanda (Chinese kickboxing), which made him even more afraid.
Looking at Xie Zhijin's physique again, one could tell he was incredibly strong. Even if Wang Shengli had ten times the courage, he wouldn't dare to provoke him.
He could only sit dejectedly in his seat, ceasing his sarcastic remarks towards Jiang Jingshu.
Jiang Jingshu ignored Wang Shengli and only responded to Su Xiaoyue's words, telling her that it was okay, it was just that she did very poorly on the exam this time.
"It's just one exam, what does it mean?" Su Xiaoyue patted Jiang Jingshu's head sweetly. "Our Jiang Jiang is very quick-witted and smart. She will definitely do very well next time."
The girl's eyes practically curved into slits. Jiang Jingshu's mood also improved.
She couldn't help but feel grateful to Jiang Jingshu from before, as Su Xiaoyue was like a gift that came to her side.
—
Back home, Jiang Jingshu was pleasantly surprised to find that the agave buds seemed to have grown a little bigger.
"How come it has grown so much again? Didn't the ancient books say that agave has a very long growth cycle? It hasn't been that long. The vitality of agave is truly not to be underestimated."
"It's all thanks to Your Highness," the system's voice came again.
"Me?" Jiang Jingshu was already used to the system's daily praise, so she changed the subject. "Today, the teacher called me to the office and asked me about Wang Shengli. I thought I was going to get a beating."
"Your Highness, in this world, no one will punish you with a rod anymore."
"You know I've been punished before?" Seemingly curious about what the system said, she asked again, "Help, have you known me since ancient times?"
The system was silent for a moment, then said, "I have your memories from ancient times."
Jiang Jingshu thought to herself, "So that's how it is."
“I always thought that women were still inferior to men in this society…” Jiang Jingshu began slowly.
"Your Highness, this kind of thing also happens in this world, but it's much better than in ancient times. However, Your Highness doesn't need to worry, you won't encounter anything like what happened before."
"How can you be so sure?" Jiang Jingshu seemed surprised by the system's statement.
"Because I am the system, your cheat code." These words were like a reassuring pill, calming Jiang Jingshu's wavering heart.
Jiang Jingshu smiled, "Golden finger, I understand the term. Well then, Golden Finger, please guide me in the days to come."
After Jiang Jingshu finished speaking, she lowered her head and looked at her "unbearable" report card on the table, and sighed heavily.
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