Sarcasm and Affectation
The classroom was empty, so Qin Shi asked Gu Qinghai what exactly had happened.
Gu Qinghai picked up the broom and explained while sweeping.
Recently, there had been rumours outside about Qin Shi. Some students overheard their parents gossiping at home and copied them at school. Zhao Haoran was one of them.
He had never gotten along with Gu Qinghai. Gu Qinghai was good at studying, good at sports, and many people at school liked him. He had quite a few friends.
Zhao Haoran was unconvinced. He was competitive and always disliked Gu Qinghai’s cold, indifferent manner, thinking he was pretending to be superior. He wanted to beat him at everything.
Unfortunately, he was poor at studying and couldn’t beat Gu Qinghai in a fight either. More people played with Gu Qinghai than with Zhao Haoran, which made him resentful.
Both their fathers were regiment commanders, so Zhao Haoran wasn’t afraid of him. He often provoked Gu Qinghai for no reason, but Gu Qinghai ignored him.
Recently, however, Zhao Haoran had heard some rumours from somewhere and came over to run his mouth again, saying Gu Qinghai was an orphan.
At first, Gu Qinghai endured it. But then Zhao Haoran called Qin Shi a vixen, saying she dressed beautifully every day because she might be trying to seduce men outside. He even asked how Qin Shi had hooked up with Lu Zetian.
The moment Gu Qinghai heard him mention Qin Shi and Lu Zetian, he couldn’t bear it anymore. He shoved Zhao Haoran and told him to watch his mouth.
But seeing Gu Qinghai angry only made Zhao Haoran more excited, and he kept mouthing off.
Gu Qinghai couldn’t hold back and hit him. In the end, their homeroom teacher, Wang Lingling, was called over by their classmates and separated them. She asked why they had fought, but neither of them said anything.
So Wang Lingling didn’t ask further. She scolded them both, punished them by making them stand in the corridor, then banned them from PE and made them clean the classroom.
They hadn’t been cleaning for long when Zhao Haoran started running his mouth again and even threatened Gu Qinghai. So Gu Qinghai fought him again.
Then Qin Shi appeared.
After hearing everything, Qin Shi touched Gu Qinghai’s head and said, “Hitting people is wrong, but I think you did well this time.”
Gu Qinghai’s eyes widened slightly. He looked at Qin Shi in confusion. This was the first time he had heard anyone say fighting could be a good thing.
“I know you didn’t mean to hit him. It was because he slandered us, and you couldn’t help wanting to protect your family. That part was right,” Qin Shi continued. “What he did was awful. It counts as school bullying. If you had endured it, he might have gone even further next time, maybe even bringing others to bully you with him.”
Gu Qinghai had many thoughts in his heart, but he didn’t say a word. He simply listened.
“Solving it through fighting may leave room for criticism, but it is indeed the most effective method,” Qin Shi said with a smile. “As a teacher, I would tell you this is wrong. You could solve it another way, such as finding a reliable teacher or asking your family to handle it.
“But as your family, I’ll tell you—you did well!”
“You beat him hard enough to scare him, so he won’t dare provoke you again. If you use gentle methods, the other person may think you’re afraid. Sometimes, using force against force works surprisingly well.”
Then Qin Shi changed tone and began teaching him seriously. “If others don’t offend me, I won’t offend them. But if others offend me, I will repay them. You weren’t wrong in this matter, but the way you handled it wasn’t quite right.”
“You could have endured it, waited until class ended, called him to the little grove, and had a man-to-man duel. You could have solved it privately. There was no need to make it known to everyone. That way, you wouldn’t have been punished by the homeroom teacher, right?”
Gu Qinghai blinked and nodded. “I didn’t think of that. I was impulsive.”
Qin Shi coughed, deliberately leaned close to him, and whispered in his ear, “Of course, I’m only telling you this quietly. Don’t let your dad know, or he’ll say I’m teaching you bad things again.”
Gu Qinghai pressed his lips together and smiled faintly. He nodded, his eyes shining as he looked at Qin Shi.
Qin Shi rubbed his head again. “We won’t start trouble, but we won’t fear it either. From now on, no matter what happens, don’t take risks alone. Come home and tell us. We’ll solve it together, alright?”
Gu Qinghai nodded. His heart felt sweet, like he had eaten a small cake made with milk and honey.
“Look at all these injuries. Your handsome face doesn’t look so handsome now,” Qin Shi teased.
Gu Qinghai became a little embarrassed, but then said, “I’m fine. I deliberately took that punch. I hit him much harder!”
After saying that, he glanced at Qin Shi, afraid she would be angry that he had hit too hard.
Qin Shi chuckled. “I saw it all. Besides, your dad taught you those things, which means he agrees too. Don’t be afraid.”
After all, the other person started it. He deserved to be beaten!
Gu Qinghai immediately smiled, but the movement pulled at the injury on his face, making him hiss.
Qin Shi checked his body and confirmed it was only surface injuries. Seeing there was no serious problem, she took him to the office.
“Come on. Let’s go meet your homeroom teacher.”
Students fighting, yet the teacher punished both without asking anything, treating both sides as equally wrong just to settle the matter. It was because there were too many irresponsible homeroom teachers like this that school bullying happened so often.
Qin Shi thought of all the data she had seen online in her previous life—students who committed suicide, developed mental illnesses, or changed drastically because of school bullying—and couldn’t help getting angry.
If Gu Qinghai had been a little weaker, he might have become one of them.
Later, she would write a suggestion letter to the headteacher, asking teachers to pay more attention to students’ mental health. They shouldn’t resort to physical punishment all the time. Even punishment should be done properly. Making students clean was fine, but making them stand in the corridor and miss class—what was that?
Thinking of Li Qianqian saying it was hard to undermine the homeroom teacher’s authority, Qin Shi silently snorted. She wasn’t a primary school teacher anyway and had nothing to do with Wang Lingling. Even if Wang Lingling was the emperor himself, she was definitely filing a complaint!
When they arrived at the office, Qin Shi found quite a few people inside. Perfect.
She changed her expression and knocked on the door.
“Excuse me, is Gu Qinghai’s homeroom teacher here? There’s something I’d like to report.”
Hearing this, Wang Lingling looked up toward the door. When she saw Gu Qinghai and a woman dressed in a very “eye-catching” way, she frowned.
The other teachers also looked up curiously.
Wang Lingling asked, “And you are?”
“I’m Gu Qinghai’s mother. I heard from Li Qianqian that my child fought with someone this afternoon, so I came to check on him. But who would have thought…” Qin Shi looked aggrieved. “Who would have thought I’d hear the other child call me a vixen and say I would cuckold our Regiment Commander Lu, telling Gu Qinghai to keep an eye on me.”
“What?” Wang Lingling was shocked. She had not expected Zhao Haoran to say such a thing, nor had she expected Qin Shi to say it aloud so bluntly without embarrassment.
The other teachers were also shocked and curious, exchanging glances.
Qin Shi sighed deeply. “I don’t know where that child heard it from. He’s so young, yet he’s already learning to gossip like those loose-tongued women. If his family knew, they would be so upset.”
“Actually, it doesn’t matter much if he only talked about me. After all, I only recently joined the army family compound, and people don’t know me yet. Once everyone gets familiar with me, they’ll understand.”
“But that child actually attacked Gu Qinghai’s identity.” Qin Shi looked at Gu Qinghai with heartache.
Gu Qinghai cooperated perfectly, his eyes turning red, his expression full of hurt.
“He said what?” Zhou Qian walked in from outside, her expression not looking good.
“He said Gu Qinghai is an orphan, that no one wanted him, and that he’s pitiful. He also said he would spread the fact that Gu Qinghai was an orphan and adopted, so everyone would… everyone would…”
Qin Shi paused before continuing. “Everyone in the army knows Gu Qinghai’s background. Even he himself knows it.”
“But his father clearly sacrificed himself for the country, and he was adopted by our Regiment Commander Lu when he was young. How is he an orphan? How can someone use that identity to maliciously attack him, bully him, and even try to make everyone isolate him?”
Gu Qinghai had originally only been pretending to look wronged. But now, hearing Qin Shi defend him and stand up for him, his nose stung and tears fell before he could hold them back.
The teachers in the office looked at Gu Qinghai, who had lowered his head and was silently crying, and couldn’t help feeling heartbroken.
“Really? That’s too much! Whose child is he?”
“Who’s been gossiping behind people’s backs and letting the child hear it?”
“Oh dear, this has gone too far.”
Wang Lingling thought about Gu Qinghai fighting Zhao Haoran that afternoon and immediately knew the gossiping child must have been Zhao Haoran. Her head began to ache.
“Teacher, I heard that child is also the class monitor. Is that true?” Qin Shi looked at Wang Lingling.
Wang Lingling could only say, “If this is true, after I investigate clearly, I will remove him from the position of class monitor.”
“Then I feel relieved. After all, the class monitor represents the class,” Qin Shi said, not lingering on the matter before moving to the next topic.
“I heard from Teacher Li Qianqian that after they fought this afternoon, you punished them by making them stand in the corridor,” Qin Shi looked at Wang Lingling. “Teacher Li even reminded me to tutor my child when I got home, since they couldn’t hear the lesson from the corridor.”
“Teacher Wang, I suggest that next time you punish students by making them stand, you let them stand inside the classroom. Standing outside makes it hard to listen and affects their studies.”
“I can still tutor my child in English, but other students might not have that help. It could delay their learning…”
Wang Lingling looked at Qin Shi’s sincere expression, her face turning ugly. She glanced around the office and saw everyone staring at her, making her feel both ashamed and angry.
Watching Qin Shi continue offering “suggestions,” Wang Lingling thought this woman was deliberately mocking her, blaming her for punishing Gu Qinghai.
The other teachers looked at Qin Shi’s sincere face, then at Wang Lingling’s dark expression, and held back their laughter.
This Wang Lingling relied on being related to a division commander and always acted superior in the office. It was bad enough that she looked down on them, but she was also impatient with the students, bad-tempered and arrogant. No one knew what she was so proud of.
They couldn’t afford to offend her and had endured it for years. They hadn’t expected Qin Shi to seize the chance today and embarrass her so thoroughly.
It felt amazing!
Zhou Qian guessed Qin Shi didn’t know Wang Lingling’s background and was about to remind her, afraid she would go too far and offend Wang Lingling badly.
But before she could speak, Qin Shi stopped. She knew her limits and hadn’t said a single unpleasant sentence or directly blamed Wang Lingling.
Qin Shi said students fighting was wrong and teachers were right to educate them, but she was actually implying Wang Lingling had punished them without asking anything—irresponsible.
Then she said she could tutor her own child in English, but other students might not have that option, suggesting that if Wang Lingling punished students by making them stand, they should still stand inside the classroom. This was also hinting that corporal punishment was inappropriate.
In just a few words, Qin Shi had made Wang Lingling feel ashamed and angry, yet unable to refute her. The other teachers found it satisfying, while also realizing Qin Shi was not simple.
She was smart, knew boundaries, wasn’t afraid of trouble, and didn’t swallow her anger. She was polished and formidable in both speech and action.
The female teachers watched the show while also glancing at Qin Shi’s clothes and hairstyle, distractedly thinking: No wonder there had been so many rumours lately. With someone so beautiful and stylish, who wouldn’t feel jealous?
They were also a little sour about her youth and beauty, but they admired her courage too.
Qin Shi didn’t care what everyone thought of her. Seeing Wang Lingling’s expression darken further, she ended the topic. Smiling, she asked Wang Lingling to handle the rumours properly, then left calmly with Gu Qinghai.
Seeing the other teachers gather in twos and threes, whispering, Wang Lingling felt as if everyone was looking at her. She could no longer sit still.
She suddenly stood and walked out, intending to find Zhao Haoran and confirm whether the matter was true.
Once she left, the teachers in the office exchanged glances, then continued gathering together to discuss Qin Shi’s skirt—and who exactly had such a loose mouth, spreading nonsense.
“I bet it’s Regiment Commander Zhao’s wife. She’s always been a gossip. Whenever she’s idle, she loves talking about other people. If anything reaches her ears, the whole army knows by the next day.”
“She probably talked about Qin Shi at home, Zhao Haoran heard it, copied it, and that’s why Gu Qinghai fought him.”
“As for saying Gu Qinghai is an orphan, Zhao Haoran probably only heard part of it and misunderstood.”
“I think so too. Family environment really is important. Parents are the best example for children. Acting like that affects the child too much.”
“Exactly. What a sin.”
“Even if it was a misunderstanding, you can’t use that to attack and bully someone. Qin Shi was right—that’s bullying. It can affect a child’s mental health.”
“We should pay more attention too. Every child is precious to their family. If something really happens, it’ll be too late.”
“Now that you mention it, there’s a child in my class who always gets into fights. Whenever I ask why, he refuses to say. Could that also be bullying?”
“Oh dear! Then you should properly look into it. Whether he’s bullying others or being bullied, it needs to be handled.”
Several younger teachers gathered together to chat, though a few others were disdainful and felt they were making a fuss over nothing.
Wasn’t it just a fight? Mental illness? They already couldn’t manage everything they were supposed to. Now they had to care about students’ psychology too?
How delicate.
—
**Author’s Note:**
A reader pointed out the issue with the name Meng Haoran, and only then did I realize something was wrong… I’ve replaced it. From now on, he’ll be called Zhao Haoran!
Even nowadays, many people still think school bullying and mental illness are just people being delicate, let alone in that era… But people back then were also tougher. Not really.
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