Monday after the holiday break.
The entire senior high school building was shrouded in anxiety over the monthly exam results.
Homeroom teacher Cheng Siyi walked in carrying her lesson plans and test papers, her face always wearing a gentle smile, her temperament remarkably good-natured.
“The monthly exam results are out.” Cheng Siyi placed the test papers gently on the lectern, her voice soft: “First, the overall situation—our class performed steadily, with six students making it into the top fifty of the grade. Special praise goes to—”
Cheng Siyi’s gaze swept across the class, finally settling on Pu Yu in the back row.
“Pu Yu, in her first major exam since transferring, achieved first place in both Chinese and English for the entire grade, especially her Chinese essay.”
“The grade-level teachers unanimously agreed that whether in terms of theme, writing style, or structure, it can be considered a model essay. Copies will be distributed to the entire grade for reference during evening self-study.”
Her eyes were warm and encouraging: “There’s still room for improvement in the science subjects. This time, your total score ranked third in the class and twentieth in the grade. If you can improve your physics a bit more, a spot in the top five of the grade is absolutely within reach.”
A low murmur of astonishment rippled through the classroom.
Xu Suiran turned around excitedly and gave Pu Yu an emphatic silent cheer.
“Amazing!”
Pu Yu herself was stunned.
Her best ranking at City No. 1 High School had been outside the top few hundred. The number “twenty” felt utterly unfamiliar to her.
Rapid improvement in such a short time was impossible.
It was probably because the overall academic level at Zhen High School was far less “competitive” than at City No. 1 High School.
Though inwardly surprised and doubtful, she still nodded obediently: “Thank you, teacher.”
Cheng Siyi praised a few more students.
Finally, her gaze fell on the figure slumped over in the last row.
“Yuan Su.”
The boy whose name was called ruffled his hair and sat up a bit more lazily.
Cheng Siyi sighed, her expression somewhat complicated: “Full marks in physics, 148 in math. According to your math teacher, if you hadn’t missed two key steps in the last big question, you would have gotten full marks there too.”
The class erupted in an uproar.
Full marks in physics and math?
Those were two notoriously difficult exams!
“As for the other subjects, you don’t have to answer the questions you don’t know, but at least make an effort on the multiple-choice ones, right? Even if you just fill in all Cs?”
Cheng Siyi knew about Yuan Su’s family situation and understood his current state.
But with near-perfect scores in physics and math, it was clear that the foundation for being the top student in the grade was there. No matter how carelessly he answered the other subjects, they shouldn’t have ended up with zero marks.
Yuan Su’s face showed no expression.
Only a faint “mm” escaped his throat, casual and indifferent.
“And,” Cheng Siyi’s brow furrowed slightly, her voice growing stricter: “Come to my office after class. A classmate reported that you tore up someone’s test paper during the exam and ‘threatened and intimidated’ them.”
Tore up a test paper?
The whispers in the classroom grew louder.
Such an incident seemed entirely fitting for Yuan Su.
Always getting into fights, hanging out with all sorts of shady people on the streets, and perhaps even inheriting traits from his gambling-addict father—capable of doing any kind of outrageous thing.
Pu Yu recalled the scene in the exam hall.
It was clearly that boy who had thrown a paper ball to harass her first.
The invigilator had ignored it, and only then did Yuan Su stand up to confront him.
She clenched her pen, carefully choosing her words: “About what happened that day, I—”
“No need.”
Yuan Su cut her off, his voice cold.
“It was that boy who harassed me first, it has nothing to do with—”
“I said no need.”
Yuan Su’s voice carried a hint of weariness as he slumped back onto the desk, his words drifting faintly from the crook of his arm, distant and cold: “My business is none of your concern.”
Pu Yu was taken aback, all her prepared words stuck in her throat.
The bell marking the end of class had just rung.
Yuan Su stood up expressionlessly and walked out of the classroom.
Watching his figure disappear at the end of the corridor, Pu Yu hesitated for almost no time at all before immediately getting up and following him.
This matter couldn’t be left for Yuan Su to bear alone.
Whether he was willing or not.
…
In the office.
Cheng Siyi looked at the boy standing before her, her tone utterly helpless: “Yuan Su, I know you definitely understand those questions. Your foundation from your middle school entrance exam results is still there. You can’t keep handing in blank papers like this every time. Your future records will—”
“Teacher.” Yuan Su’s voice cut her off. “Is that why you called me here?”
Cheng Siyi paused, returning to the main topic: “And there’s the matter of tearing up a classmate’s exam paper. They complained to the grade director, saying they want you to receive a formal warning. What exactly happened?”
Yuan Su lowered his gaze, his expression indifferent. “I didn’t like the look of him.”
“You—”
Cheng Siyi was so angry she almost laughed. “You tear up someone’s paper just because you don’t like the look of them? If you didn’t like the look of me, would you tear down the blackboard?”
“Report.”
A knock sounded from outside the door.
Cheng Siyi and Yuan Su both turned their heads simultaneously.
Pu Yu stood at the doorway, breathing heavily, clearly having run all the way there.
Cheng Siyi looked up, surprised to see her. “Pu Yu? Is something the matter?”
Pu Yu’s face was slightly flushed, her breathing not yet fully settled.
She walked over to stand beside Yuan Su, shoulder to shoulder with him, her voice firm and clear: “Teacher, tearing up the exam paper wasn’t Yuan Su’s fault.”
The hand Yuan Su had tucked in his pocket twitched slightly.
He turned his head, his gaze falling on the small hair whorl atop the girl’s head.
“It was the boy sitting behind me who started it,” Pu Yu spoke quickly, as if afraid of being interrupted. “During the exam, he kept throwing paper balls at me and demanded I write down the multiple-choice answers to help him cheat.”
“Yuan Su was… he was trying to stop him from harassing other students.”
Cheng Siyi frowned, turning to look at Yuan Su. “Is that true?”
The boy still wore an indifferent expression.
His thin lips were pressed into a tight line. He neither refuted nor confirmed it.
Pu Yu lifted her head and added, “Yes, many students in the back rows saw it. We can also request to check the surveillance footage or ask the proctoring teacher from that time.”
“Speaking of the proctoring teacher,” Cheng Siyi said, puzzled, “why didn’t you report this to the proctor when it happened?”
Pu Yu had called out to the teacher twice that day but received no response.
Just as she was about to explain truthfully, the person beside her suddenly spoke up, cutting her off:
“Unnecessary.”
“Handle it however you want. I have no objections.”
Pu Yu couldn’t quite understand, her tone tinged with stubbornness: “How can it be unnecessary? It’s unfair to you. Clearly, he was also at fault.”
Yuan Su’s expression remained cold. “Does it make any difference who’s right and who’s wrong?”
“It does,” Pu Yu insisted, something she rarely did. Her voice wasn’t loud, but each word was clear. “Right is right, and wrong is wrong. It has nothing to do with which exam hall you’re in or what score you get.”
Cheng Siyi’s gaze lingered on Yuan Su for a moment.
Having taught him for three years, she knew exactly what kind of student he was.
But “evidence” always carries more weight than “understanding.”
Pu Yu’s persistence gave her just the reason she needed to pry open this crack.
“Teacher Liu?” Cheng Siyi turned to an older history teacher at a corner desk. “You were proctoring the last exam hall that day, right?”
Teacher Liu was sipping tea from a thermos and replied absentmindedly:
“Ah, I might have been too tired and dozed off for a bit…”
“Teacher Liu, exam discipline is a serious matter. Both of these are good students from my class. If their performance was affected by interference, who would take responsibility?”
Teacher Liu nodded perfunctorily and said with a smile, “Yes, yes, Teacher Cheng is right. Next time, they’ll assign you to proctor. Your good students will surely come in first.”
Seeing that reasoning was futile, Cheng Siyi ignored the older teacher’s sarcastic tone.
She turned to the boy and spoke sternly: “Yuan Su, your way of handling the situation was excessive. Write a self-criticism of no less than a thousand words and hand it to me tomorrow.”
“I will report this matter truthfully. Responsibility will fall where it belongs. If it really happened as Pu Yu said—that the other party harassed him first—the school will deal with him separately. Can you both accept this outcome?”
Pu Yu nodded. “Yes, thank you, teacher.”
The office fell silent for a moment.
Yuan Su remained quiet, not answering immediately.
He had long stopped caring about right or wrong—the outcome was always the same anyway.
But today, someone stubbornly stood by his side, fighting for fairness on his behalf.
At the edge of his quiet vision, a girl’s upturned face suddenly appeared, her clear, questioning eyes fixed on him—
His heart tingled faintly.
He averted his gaze, his voice almost inaudible.
“…Mm.”