“Ah, the Zhang Chen from your class really surprised me today.”
Back in the office, Jia Wei immediately started telling Deng Xianbing about Zhang Chen’s performance in class today.
For a student like Zhang Chen, if he zoned out in class, the subject teacher would usually go complain to the homeroom teacher. But if he performed well, they would also joke about it with the homeroom teacher.
As soon as Deng Xianbing heard this, his body almost reacted on instinct, and he shot straight up from his half-reclined position in the chair. “What did he do this time?”
“Nothing. He said in class today that the homework I assigned was too simple,” Jia Wei repeated.
“Was he disrupting class again? That brat, I knew that wager agreement he wrote with me was worthless.” Deng Xianbing sighed and shook his head helplessly.
“No, that’s not it. He finished his homework very well today. I had him come up to the board, and he was even able to work out a second solution on the spot. He did quite well.” Jia Wei nodded in praise.
“Oh? Really?” Deng Xianbing frowned. It was rare to hear praise for Zhang Chen in front of a subject teacher.
That rarity was almost as unbelievable as the sun rising in the west.
Just as he was wondering about it, Teacher Liu, who was in charge of teaching English, suddenly turned around and said, “Hey, Zhang Chen did his English homework very well today too. Everything was right.”
“I was even wondering why he decided to hand in homework today. I never used to even see him when I was grading homework.”
Hearing this, Deng Xianbing said, “Really?”
He still hadn’t graded the physics homework he had collected today, so he didn’t know whether Zhang Chen had turned it in. But in the past, he also never saw Zhang Chen around.
Chemistry Teacher Sun happened to be grading homework at this moment. Hearing Zhang Chen’s name, this regular office fixture immediately laughed.
“Zhang Chen? He handed in homework? Let me see if he handed in his chemistry homework today.”
Seeing this, Deng Xianbing also stood up curiously and walked over beside Teacher Sun.
Before long, Teacher Sun found one workbook among the remaining stack.
“Hey, he really did hand it in.”
“What is going on? Did the sun rise in the west today?” Teacher Liu laughed.
“He didn’t copy it from some classmate, did he?” Teacher Sun hadn’t even looked yet and immediately opened Zhang Chen’s workbook on the spot.
The front pages were still completely blank, but the latest unit’s homework was filled in completely, with many answers annotated with related knowledge points.
Deng Xianbing reached out and pressed a hand on the workbook. Looking at some of the annotations, there were no mistakes. It really did look like he had done it carefully.
“It does look like he did it himself seriously.” Teacher Sun turned his head to glance at Old Deng and laughed. “You go check yours. Why are you looking at mine?”
Still somewhat surprised, Deng Xianbing was called out by Old Sun, patted Teacher Sun on the shoulder, and returned to his seat to rummage through the physics homework he had collected today.
Teacher Jia, sitting nearby, was still sipping tea and said lightly, “It should have been written seriously. I had him go up to the board, and he could work it out on the spot.”
“Didn’t he write some wager agreement with Teacher Deng? So he’s actually going to study seriously now?” Teacher Liu teased with a smile.
Before long, Deng Xianbing indeed found the workbook Zhang Chen had submitted among the pile of physics homework.
The front pages were still blank. He went straight to the latest unit.
The two homework pages that had just been assigned were also fully completed, along with various little annotations…
“This kid…”
Deng Xianbing sat down at once, took out the answer key, and began grading against it.
“All correct.” Just then, Chemistry Teacher Sun had already finished grading and exclaimed in surprise.
“I told you he completed it very well.”
Deng Xianbing finished grading in just a few seconds as well. “Mine are all correct too.”
The teachers exchanged looks, then burst out laughing together.
“I still don’t really believe it. What did he score on his last chemistry exam?” Teacher Sun laughed, even though Jia Wei, who had just finished his math class, was already vouching for Zhang Chen.
“They were all in the 30s. Physics was a bit higher, still in the 50s, and that was with me being the homeroom teacher. Biology was the lowest, only in the 20s.” Deng Xianbing laughed, not entirely believing it either, just like Teacher Sun.
“Wasn’t English only in the 40s too?” Teacher Liu raised an eyebrow.
Seeing this, Jia Wei said, “If you don’t believe it, then call on him in your classes too. See whether that kid knows it or whether he copied it.”
“Anyway, my math one shouldn’t be copied~”
With Jia Wei saying that, Deng Xianbing and the other two teachers exchanged a glance. Going by that line, did it mean that among them, everything else was copied, and only the math homework was written seriously?
“Fine. The next class is mine anyway. I’ll check first whether his English homework was copied.”
Seeing that class was about to start, Teacher Liu stood up and smiled at Deng Xianbing and Teacher Sun.
That left only Teacher Sun and Deng Xianbing looking at each other.
Seeing this, Deng Xianbing calmly took a sip of tea and chuckled. “Old Sun, don’t look at me. I’m the homeroom teacher. How would he dare hand in copied homework to me?”
Teacher Sun sucked in a breath. “Let me see when your class is scheduled today. This kid surely wouldn’t slack off on me too…”
Hearing this, Jia Wei burst out laughing. “It might happen. If, out of all the homework Zhang Chen handed in today, only Old Sun’s was copied, then you owe us a meal.”
“Why?”
“Because Zhang Chen doesn’t even do the homework you assign, get it?”
Deng Xianbing added, “Chemistry homework? Not even a dog would do it.”
“You really should look for the reason in yourself.”
Teacher Sun heard this and savored it in his mind…
Hey, that did seem to be what it meant?
All the other subjects were written seriously, and only his was copied? Did Zhang Chen have a problem with him??
This was bad! In terms of grades, Zhang Chen could already make him unable to hold his head up in front of the other teachers.
And now, in front of his colleagues in the office, who were all suffering from Zhang Chen as well, he couldn’t even hold his head up there either?!
…
Over the course of the day, Zhang Chen’s peaceful life was completely thrown into disarray by several subject teachers!
In almost every class, a different subject teacher made him stand up and answer questions!!
So much so that the moment a subject teacher walked into the classroom, he would notice the teacher glancing in his direction, and a familiar voice would immediately ring in his mind:
Danger!
By the end of the day, the classmates in class seemed to have caught on to the interesting pattern too. They didn’t know why Zhang Chen was being called on by every teacher today.
But whenever a subject teacher said they were going to pick someone to answer a question, almost the entire class would deliberately look toward Zhang Chen, even if Zhang Chen had already blocked himself with a book!
He just wanted to sneak in a little nap…
“Then Zhang Chen, you answer.”
“Wait, what???”
However, because of the whole day, the classmates also discovered a very important thing: Zhang Chen was able to answer every question every teacher asked!
That completely overturned the class’s stereotyped impression of him!
Quite a few classmates even joked that Brother Chen must have been pretending to be bad before. Was he actually a master at controlling his score?
Look at him, he could almost always keep his score above 200, rock-solid?
When evening self-study ended, it was time to head home after school.
Zhang Chen had not signed up for the third period of evening self-study.
Generally, only grinders like Bai Xiruo and Duan Chenxu, or boarding students like Su Yu, would attend the third period of evening self-study, which lasted until 10:30 p.m.
Even Nan Xingwan didn’t attend the third period of evening self-study. If they weren’t grinders, then what were they?
After packing up his school bag, his desk-mate Duan Chenxu stared at Zhang Chen with wide, eager eyes from the side and leaned over in an affected manner:
“Brother Chen~ You’re leaving again~”
Smack…
“Do you want to die?”
Zhang Chen slapped him across the face with the back of his hand, then disgustedly brushed off the shoulder he had leaned on.
Covering his cheek, Duan Chenxu finally revealed his real purpose: “Let me copy your homework?”
“You want to copy mine?!” Zhang Chen suspected he had heard wrong.
Although Duan Chenxu hung around with him, the class’s lowest-ranked student, his grades were actually not bad. He had always been near the top of the class!
Before class divisions were made in freshman year, it was basically Zhang Chen who copied Duan Chenxu’s homework.
“Yeah, math is way too hard. I can’t write a single bit of it~” Duan Chenxu patted the Golden Sun workbook Jia Wei had assigned today, wearing an expression of utter exhaustion.
“I’ve been writing for two periods already, and I still can’t write a single bit~”
“I didn’t write mine either.” Zhang Chen had no time to bicker with him and was already about to leave. He still had to go pick up Nan Xingwan.
But just as he stepped out of the classroom, Duan Chenxu grabbed him.
“So you’re going back to write it?”
“Yep.” Zhang Chen answered. Of course he was going back to write it. What would it be if he finished it now? Nan Xingwan was going to check it.
“Oh~ Then good luck, Brother Chen. I’ll come copy it tomorrow.” Duan Chenxu clenched his fist to encourage him.
“…You psycho.” Zhang Chen rolled his eyes at him and turned to walk out of the classroom.
Only this time, just after he had gone a short distance from the back door, he heard a loud crash from inside the class behind him, followed by the noise of many classmates cheering…
Zhang Chen turned around and looked in through the back door, just in time to see Bai Xiruo fall to the ground. Her desk had been completely knocked over, and all her books had spilled onto the floor.
Yet none of the classmates in the class stepped forward to help her up. They all stood around watching as if it were a show.
Duan Chenxu also stretched his neck out with a confused look.
Zhang Chen walked back beside him. “What happened?”
“Just now, it looked like someone ran past and accidentally bumped into Bai Xiruo, and she got knocked over.” Duan Chenxu hadn’t seen it very clearly and could only tell the truth.
Putting down his school bag, Zhang Chen walked straight toward Bai Xiruo.
By then, Bai Xiruo had already squatted down and was silently picking up the books from the floor.
She wasn’t crying or making a fuss, but being watched by so many people, the face and ears beneath her hair were already red as fire.
This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to her. She knew she was being bullied again.
But she didn’t even know why. What exactly had she done to offend the boy just now…
The classmates in class were still cheering. Books were scattered all over the floor, and a desk being knocked over was not something they saw often. They found it novel, and not a single person helped Bai Xiruo pick them up.
But just then Zhang Chen suddenly appeared, and the crowd that had been focusing only on cheering immediately went silent.
Zhang Chen walked up in front of Bai Xiruo and said nothing. He just frowned, silently lifted the overturned desk back up, then crouched down to help Bai Xiruo pick up the books.
The two of them crouched on the floor and picked up books under the gaze of the surrounding people…
Before long, some people who felt guilty also crouched down, picked up the books that had fallen near their feet, and handed them to Zhang Chen.
After Zhang Chen took them, he looked at the person who had picked them up, then lowered his head and kept gathering the books.
They probably weren’t unaware of what kind of behavior was right.
Bai Xiruo had never seen anyone help her before. Just as she was about to look up and thank him, she found that the person helping her was Zhang Chen.
Her heart was suddenly touched…
The grievance she had been suppressing rushed to the tip of her nose. She lowered her head and softly said to Zhang Chen:
“Thank you.”
But Zhang Chen kept a stern face and asked with concern, “Did you get hit anywhere?”
Bai Xiruo shook her head and said nothing more.
When a person is feeling wronged, they are least able to bear other people’s concern.
At that moment, faced with Zhang Chen’s concern, if she spoke again, she might not be able to stop herself from crying.
Seeing her shake her head, Zhang Chen kept his head down and helped her pick up the books, saying nothing more.
After quite a while, he had finally gathered all the books from the floor and put them back on the desk. Bai Xiruo sat back down and started sorting them out.
Zhang Chen also brushed off the dust, as if the action were over.
Everyone thought this farce had ended there.
But Zhang Chen then rolled up the sleeves of his school uniform and loudly said:
“Who was it just now? Who bumped into Bai Xiruo? And then ran off after bumping into her?”