Zhang Chen’s voice broke the silence in the office:
“Teacher, I can study properly.”
The reason behind those words wasn’t for himself. It was because he saw Nan Xingwan pleading for him like that, and he didn’t want to see her efforts end up in vain.
A proud girl like her should be standing under the sunlight with her chin raised, smiling happily. How could she feel disappointed because of him?
Not to mention that he himself was already a top-tier exam ringer. Even if he weren’t, at a time like this, any boy with dignity would stand up, right!?
A girl had already gone this far to plead for him. As a boy, how could he keep hiding behind a girl and calmly accept all of this?
Hearing Zhang Chen suddenly speak up, both of them turned to look at him at the same time, their eyes filled with disbelief and shock.
Deng Xianbing spoke first, clearing his throat, his gaze serious. “You can study properly?”
Zhang Chen’s reaction today was indeed a little different, which made him feel something was off. He hadn’t expected him to say something so unexpected.
Was this giving in? This kid was actually giving in?
As for Zhang Chen saying he’d study properly, Deng Xianbing just treated it like a passing breeze and didn’t take it to heart.
Although as a teacher, of course he hoped that a bad student could suddenly see the light, turn over a new leaf, and return to the right path. After all, correcting a bad student and bringing him back onto the right track was also a tremendous achievement for a teacher!
But such cases were far too rare. Not to mention that Zhang Chen was already giving him a headache. If it weren’t for his duty as a teacher and his unwillingness to see a student like this go down the wrong path, he would have long since stopped caring about Zhang Chen and let the school expel him.
Zhang Chen nodded and, meeting Nan Xingwan’s expectant and worried gaze, said with great sincerity, “Yes, Teacher. Can you give me one chance?”
“I promise I will never do anything like this again!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Nan Xingwan’s nose stung, and with red-rimmed eyes she looked at Deng Xianbing and said in a trembling voice, “Teacher, look, this time he… he will change.”
She didn’t know how long she had waited to hear those words. This time, he was finally not telling her to stop meddling.
Whether it was true or false, she was willing to believe it.
Zhang Chen immediately followed up on Nan Xingwan’s words and repeated, “I will change!”
The sight was a little ridiculous. Seeing this, Deng Xianbing frowned tightly, but he was indeed shocked by Zhang Chen’s words.
When had Zhang Chen become so easy to talk to? He didn’t seem aggressive at all.
That made him feel a little unaccustomed for a moment.
Wasn’t every previous occasion one where he had been so angry he kept pinching the bridge of his nose?
He picked up his cup, took a sip of tea, and stared straight at Zhang Chen with an expression of difficult deliberation…
If it had been another student acting so sincerely, he might have taken a step back. But Zhang Chen…
This kid… wasn’t planning something big, was he…
There hadn’t been any major incidents lately. Could it be that he wanted to bully Bai Xiruo one more time before being expelled?
Thinking along those lines, Deng Xianbing suddenly felt it was very possible.
He knew Zhang Chen’s vindictive personality very well.
For him to suddenly become so easygoing was truly suspicious.
Besides, how could a few words simply erase everything he had done before? Had he not considered the consequences before committing those bad deeds?
“You say you’ll change, so you’ll change? Then why didn’t you change before?” Deng Xianbing spat out the tea residue, set down his cup, and refused sternly. “When you were bullying someone today, why didn’t you think about that now?”
“All talk and no action. Go back. No need to say more.”
“Teacher…” Seeing this, Nan Xingwan still didn’t want to give up and begged miserably, but she only received Deng Xianbing’s closed-eyed order to leave.
Zhang Chen had finally given in once, and she didn’t want to waste it like this.
She suddenly felt a little regretful, regretting not attending the same high school as him. If she had, maybe she could have used her identity as a good student to vouch for him…
Zhang Chen also understood that changing the stereotyped impression in the teacher’s eyes with just one sentence was, of course, impossible.
It was just that seeing Nan Xingwan pleading so earnestly… he really didn’t feel too good inside…
She really was exactly as good as in the original novel…
After coaxing him for a long time, Deng Xianbing still showed no sign of relenting.
Unable to bear it, Zhang Chen had no choice but to step forward and push Nan Xingwan out of the office. But when they were leaving, he still chose to fight for a little more. “Teacher, what would it take for you to believe me once?”
Going home to rest for two days wasn’t literally just about resting for two days and then coming back to school whenever he wanted.
The next time he returned to school, he would need the homeroom teacher’s approval before he could go back to class.
And exactly how many days that would take depended on the specific situation.
Generally speaking, being ordered home in high school would greatly affect one’s learning progress, especially in junior year!
Although Zhang Chen was currently only a sophomore, that didn’t mean a suspension wouldn’t have a big impact on his studies.
Of course, for the Zhang Chen who had transmigrated here, a few days of suspension had no real effect on him.
But the key was that in Nan Xingwan’s eyes, a suspension was a very serious punishment for him…
“How many chances have I given you already?”
Deng Xianbing opened his eyes, instantly annoyed by Zhang Chen’s words.
It was precisely because he had given too many chances that Zhang Chen had no idea how to cherish them at all!
Deng Xianbing moved the cup aside and took out a stack of exercise books from the front of his desk, getting ready to grade them.
Seeing this, Zhang Chen quickly weighed his options.
Suddenly, under the exercise books Deng Xianbing had moved aside, he saw an exam schedule.
Next week’s citywide joint exam.
Zhang Chen’s eyes lit up, and an idea immediately came to him.
“Teacher, it’s mainly because the joint exam is next week, and I don’t want to miss this exam.”
“How about this? Let me finish the exam first and then…”
“Heh…” Hearing Zhang Chen mention the joint exam, Deng Xianbing leaned back in his chair and glanced at the joint exam schedule on his desk.
“You, a student failing every subject, want to take an exam?” Deng Xianbing found it absurd, his tone full of quite realistic sarcasm.
It was like a three-year-old child who had done something wrong telling you not to hit him yet, that he would finish the work at hand first before you hit him.
Extremely funny…
If those words had come from a student with excellent grades who didn’t want to delay the citywide joint exam, he might have barely believed it. But the one saying this now was Zhang Chen, the person least likely to say such a thing.
“This time I can definitely pass.” Zhang Chen wasn’t angry at the mockery in Deng Xianbing’s words. Instead, he deliberately followed his words and used reverse psychology.
“Pass?” Deng Xianbing shook his head, clicked his tongue inwardly, and dismissed Zhang Chen’s childish argument with contempt.
In his eyes, Zhang Chen’s impulsive personality and all his easily provoked behavior already made him seem childish. Now that he had suddenly blurted out such a completely illogical statement with no connection before or after, it only confirmed Deng Xianbing’s view of Zhang Chen’s childish behavior.
But that was exactly what Zhang Chen wanted him to think.
“If I can pass, can you change the punishment and not make me suspend school?” Zhang Chen continued along that topic, silently building the whole issue on the premise that Deng Xianbing would agree to let him finish the exam first before punishing him.
And Deng Xianbing, still stuck in his impression of Zhang Chen as childish, didn’t notice this at all. Just like an adult teasing a child, he deliberately made his own speech childish too, without thinking carefully.
“What if you can’t pass?” Deng Xianbing asked with a cold sneer.
“If I don’t pass, punish me however you like. Suspension, calling my parents, expulsion, whatever…” Zhang Chen said seriously, looking Deng Xianbing straight in the eyes.
Hearing this, Nan Xingwan in front of him hurriedly tugged at Zhang Chen’s sleeve, looking at him with a face full of panic.
It had only been a suspension for a period of time. Why jump straight to expulsion!
She worried about Zhang Chen all the time, and now he actually dared to make a bet with a teacher, even wagering his own academic future!
Seeing this, Deng Xianbing couldn’t help but become somewhat interested.
Zhang Chen’s behavior today was already strange. When talking to him, he hadn’t shown his usual disrespect for authority. Instead, he kept calling him “Teacher,” and now he was suddenly making a bet with him?
And he seemed to have quite a bit of confidence, too?
He had originally left no room for the two to stay, but at this point, he was drawn in by Zhang Chen’s bizarre behavior…
Of course he didn’t believe that a student who failed every subject and had ranked at the very bottom of the entire school for years could suddenly pass every subject, especially on the notoriously difficult citywide joint exam.
At this level of exam, a student who usually scored more than 500 could only barely manage around 450, just enough to pass, on the joint exam!
Passing every subject already meant 450!
That meant Zhang Chen would have to jump from his current 200-something points to double that!!
That was impossible for any student!
But Zhang Chen’s image in his mind was simply too poor. With such a sudden change in attitude, he inexplicably wanted to see what kind of trouble he was going to make.
Fine, let him take the exam!
Anyway, after the exam, he could still punish him.
Besides, he had already spoken so boldly that even expulsion was acceptable.
As a teacher, he had no reason not to accept a student’s challenge.
“Heh! I don’t know what you’re planning, kid, but since you’ve said that much, fine!”
“If you can pass every subject on the joint exam, forget changing the punishment or not… I can give you another chance! I can even pretend everything before never happened!” Deng Xianbing said seriously.
“But I have one condition too, and that is from now on, you really have to study hard. No more causing trouble!”
“Do you dare?”
“I dare!” Zhang Chen quickly agreed, afraid that Deng Xianbing would go back on his word!
Beside him, Nan Xingwan’s palms were already sweating as she looked at Zhang Chen with full eyes of worry. How could he dare to do this!?
“Think carefully. What I want is for you to pass every subject! If you don’t pass…”
“If I don’t pass, I’ll get out myself!” Zhang Chen said with undiminished momentum!
“Heh! Good!” Deng Xianbing pointed at Zhang Chen with his index finger and then took out pen and paper.
“Write an agreement! So you won’t try to deny it later.”
“Okay!” Zhang Chen stepped forward, and Nan Xingwan, who was behind him, hurriedly pulled him back, afraid that he would act on impulse.
Seeing this, Zhang Chen’s expression softened as he said quietly, “Don’t worry.”
He, Zhang Chen, wasn’t very confident about other things, but when it came to exams, that was basically his specialty.
He had been deliberately waiting for Old Deng to say this!
He stepped forward, wrote the wager agreement, signed his name, and stamped his fingerprint on it!
All in one go!
Deng Xianbing took the agreement and looked it over.
If I fail the exam, I am willing to accept any punishment!
This kid is really serious about it?