Hua Xu nudged Zhou Xiu with her elbow.
“Hey, did you provoke Old Huang? He’s as sharp-tongued as they come.”
Zhou Xiu nodded, putting down her textbook and preparing her scratch paper and pen as she made her way to the platform.
Class 24 cast sympathetic glances at this transfer student.
Old Huang, being a relative of the principal, always carried an air of authority. He was not afraid to offend students with influential backgrounds.
Zhou Xiu glanced at the problem on the platform. It was a question about harmonic quadrilaterals, a topic she hadn’t encountered before. But after a night of review and digestion, she had grasped it.
Knowledge about harmonic quadrilaterals often appeared in various competitions.
Assigning a competition-level question to an ordinary student to solve—wasn’t that a bit too much?
Old Huang threw the chalk box in front of Zhou Xiu. “I see you don’t even pay attention in math class. You must understand it very well then. Write it down. This is the content I taught just a few days ago. If you can’t solve it, go stand outside for punishment.”
Hua Xu hugged herself and reminded him with a smirk, “Old Huang, she’s a transfer student.”
“She just joined our class yesterday, so she hasn’t heard your teachings yet.”
Old Huang’s face fell as he was rebutted.
He looked at Hua Xu, recognizing her as the girl who often wore makeup in his math class, and exploded, “You, go up and solve it too! She’s a transfer student who hasn’t heard the lesson, but you must have, right?”
After Hua Xu spoke, several boys chimed in, “Why not let the math class representative solve it too?”
“The math class representative is really good, always being praised by Old Huang. This question surely won’t stump him.”
The math class representative, seeing himself become the target of everyone’s criticism, felt helpless. He lowered his head and began to work on the problem on the blackboard.
Zhou Xiu quickly calculated on her scratch paper on the platform and started solving the problem with chalk.
Hua Xu shrugged and followed suit.
As Zhou Xiu checked her steps and prepared to write, she whispered to Hua Xu, who was standing motionless with her hands in her pockets, “Hurry up and write.”
Seeing Hua Xu still not moving, she whispered again, “While the teacher’s not paying attention, copy a bit.”
She passed a small note to Hua Xu.
Old Huang continued to patrol the classroom with his hands behind his back, knocking on the desks of students who were sleeping. He disdainfully said, “Look at what you all look like now. So what if your family has a little money? Look at the students in the advanced class next door. With your trashy appearance, in ten years, you’ll be working for them.”
“They’re called ‘advanced,’ what are you called, trash, losers?”
“If I were your parents, I’d want to stuff you back into my stomach and start over. What’s the difference between giving birth to you and roasting a piece of barbecue pork?”
The students below the platform had various expressions. Some showed indignation, feeling insulted. But the majority were mocking or indifferent, as if they were already accustomed to such scenes.
Three minutes passed, and as expected, Old Huang saw the blank paper in front of Hua Xu.
“You don’t need to listen to the class anymore. Go stand outside the classroom.”
Zhou Xiu was stunned to hear these words.
She gripped the chalk but suddenly couldn’t write anymore. She spoke up, “Teacher, this question seems beyond the scope of the curriculum.”
Old Huang asked, “You can’t solve it either?”
Zhou Xiu shook her head and spoke clearly, “No, I can solve it. But I find your class boring. Compared to the teacher in the advanced class next door, you’re far worse. I’ll continue listening to your class and end up working for them in ten years. I’d rather go stand outside.”
As Zhou Xiu’s words fell, the students who were dozing off suddenly opened their eyes, those who were solving problems paused their pens, and those who were daydreaming stopped their fantasies.
They all raised their heads, shocked, and looked at the new transfer student.
At that moment, the classroom seemed to quiet down.
Did… did she just say that?
Zhou Xiu picked up the pace and quickly finished solving the problem.
After finishing, she walked out of the classroom with her desk mate to serve her punishment.
The students in the classroom looked at Old Huang’s furious face, wanting to laugh but not daring to. It wasn’t until a “pfft” of laughter broke the silence in the classroom that the quiet atmosphere was shattered.
“Quick, quick, quick! Calculate and see if Zhou Xiu’s answer is correct!” The boys and girls urged the math class representative.
Li Qing, the class representative, glanced at Zhou Xiu’s answer process. The chalk handwriting was elegant and clear, and the solution steps couldn’t be better.
He adjusted his glasses and said, “It’s correct. The train of thought is very smooth.”
These people urged again, “Old Huang, hurry up and check Zhou Xiu’s answer. See if she got it right?”
“If Zhou Xiu got it right, let her in. What if she catches a cold in this cold weather?”
…
It wasn’t the first time Hua Xu had been punished to stand outside.
She glanced at her obedient desk mate who was standing with her and retracted her initial impression of her.
At this moment, the desk mate took out English vocabulary to memorize seriously, looking like a diligent student.
Her skin was a little dark, and there were small hairs falling down on her forehead. The clear eyes under the scattered hair told others that she knew what she was doing.
Hua Xu said, “I can understand why I’m being punished, but why are you being punished too?”
“You’re such a good student, you’ll offend the teacher like this. And what… working for the advanced class in ten years?”
Is this person deliberately trying to make others laugh?
Hua Xu couldn’t stop laughing, leaning on her desk mate’s shoulder to stabilize herself.
Zhou Xiu thought for a moment and corrected, “Being like this, I might not even qualify to work for them in ten years.”
Zhou Xiu was never obedient at heart. If she were obedient, she wouldn’t have persisted in flipping through her old textbooks after being expelled from school. She wouldn’t have refused to be brainwashed by Zhou’s grandmother. She wouldn’t have run away from home, nor would she have deliberately asked Aunt Hao to take her away.
She would have obediently dropped out of school and married an old man from the mountain village, becoming another ignorant woman.
Hua Xu said, “Alright, I’ll cover for you in the future.”
She patted the diligent student’s shoulder. “Don’t work for the advanced class people. They don’t have money like my family does.”
Zhou Xiu ignored her and continued to memorize vocabulary with her head down.
After school, Zhou Xiu was called to the office by Mr. Huang.
Mr. Huang criticized her for half an hour straight. Seeing that she remained indifferent to the criticism, his face gradually turned purple with anger.
“Openly insulting the teacher, do you think you’re great? You may not have much ability, but your temper is quite big!”
“At the flag-raising ceremony on Monday, you’ll go up and reflect on yourself.”
“Bring me a ten-thousand-word self-reflection tomorrow. If you don’t, don’t bother coming to my class.”
Zhou Xiu nodded without rebuttal.
Even if she managed to write the ten-thousand-word self-reflection, it might be too late by tomorrow.
When Zhou Xiu came out of the office and went to the cafeteria, the food had already gone cold. Fortunately, she had brought her own lunch to school and could heat it up to eat.
As the boys from Class 24 passed by Zhou Xiu, who was eating alone, one of them whistled.
“New classmate, impressive today, huh?”
Several tall and handsome boys, all around six feet tall, looked very eye-catching.
Although there were many underachievers in Class 24, they couldn’t compete academically with other classes, but there were also many good-looking students. They were diverse and attractive, making students from other classes envy them greatly.
These tall and handsome boys, each with their own unique charm, whistling at a girl together in the cafeteria, caused a small sensation in the vicinity.
Li Qing adjusted his glasses and walked up to Zhou Xiu. “I heard you have to reflect during the flag-raising ceremony on Monday?”
Zhou Xiu finished her meal quickly and wiped her mouth. “Yeah.”
The boys walked away, and after a while, they murmured, “Hey, aren’t you too indifferent, Li Qing? You should represent us and plead with the teacher.”
“We big guys are fine, but she’s a girl, and girls are more sensitive to these things.”
“Exactly! Zhou Xiu was clearly representing us when she said those words. It felt like it came from the depths of our hearts. Almost thought it was us who couldn’t hold back.”
“He’s shameless. He started it, didn’t he? He can insult us, but we can’t say anything back? Isn’t that unfair?”
“And he even insulted our roast pork. Has he ever seen roast pork as handsome as us?”
….
At noon, Zhou Xiu spent an hour in the school library.
The library at Yude was very large, with five floors and a vast collection of books, almost comparable to a university library. Zhou Xiu was overwhelmed by the selection and ended up borrowing several books on mathematics.
A notification popped up in Zhou Xiu’s mind.
【Read for 2 hours per day to receive a 5 RMB reward.】
Zhou Xiu found some stationery and started writing her self-reflection.
After finishing one class in the afternoon, the remaining two were self-study sessions. Zhou Xiu used this time to write her self-reflection. The two periods passed quickly, and after school, as her classmates gradually left, Zhou Xiu continued writing her reflection.
When she finally looked up again, it was almost dark outside, and she had completed four thousand words of her self-reflection.
Zhou Xiu rubbed her sore shoulders and neck, her hands too sore to lift. She began to pack up her bag, but accidentally knocked over her ink bottle.
The four thousand words of self-reflection turned into nothing.
Zhou Xiu bent down to pick up the ink bottle, crumpling the self-reflection into a ball and throwing it into the trash.
In the evening, the city lights came on.
Zhou Xiu remembered that Xi Shaoyuan’s birthday was approaching, and she needed to buy him a gift. So, when passing by the mall, she went in to take a look.
It was the first time the country girl had stepped into such a bustling mall, and Zhou Xiu was overwhelmed. The dazzling mall was dizzying, and she didn’t feel like getting lost in it.
She had initially thought of buying a watch for Xi Shaoyuan, but when she saw the luxury watch he often wore in the watch store, priced at 100,000 RMB, she gave up on that idea. In the end, she saw an Armani scarf, priced at exactly 4,500 RMB.
…
The Xie family.
During dinner, Xi Shaoyuan tasted the plum-flavoured ribs and frowned.
His chopsticks paused, “The taste… it’s different?”
He remembered that taste.
The butler explained, “Last night, it was made by Xiuxiu. She’s coming back late today.”
“Why is Xiuxiu still not back? It’s been a long time since school ended. Is it safe for her to be out so late as a girl? If she had a phone, it would be better. Otherwise, we could at least call and check.”
Xi Shaoyuan didn’t know where Zhou Xiu was, and his brows furrowed deeply.
Ever since Zhou Xiu joined the family, it seemed like trouble was everywhere.
**Nomad: I’ve been pretty swamped these past few weeks, so I spent the little free time I had working on translating and updating Remarriage to a Mortal Enemy in the 70s (RTAMEIN70s). 😅 I went back through the previous chapters and, honestly, I’m not sure what I was thinking—I must have been half asleep. My bad for the less-than-stellar translation! 🙈 I’ve since gone back, edited, and updated everything. Hope you enjoy the improvements!
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