Volume 1 - CH 18

The simple necessities of a story are time, setting, and character; however, plot attributes require an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Our previous story satisfied these requirements. It's a full, well-rounded story.

But, after every ending and finale, there are new beginnings, no?

I couldn't envision my fate.

My peaceful revisit to my normal life was short-lived. Our story is far, far from ending.

Unprepared, I was flung to her insanity again.

……

When I thought that everything was perfectly solved, I placed my priority on my upcoming finals.

The first years' finals served as the final dividend of classes. It determined the distribution between science and liberal arts.

Through this test, the original ABCDEF classes would be rearranged into science classes ABCD, and humanities classes AB.

Knowing my own strengths and structures, I decided to strive for sciences.

I hoped that through this test, I would be able to at least reach Class B. It's already designated as accelerated, and the schedule would be the same as the elite Class A. I've been working hard to reach this goal in the past year.

Usually, humanities classes are rather similar, relying on simple memorization and gathered knowledge over time. Cramming before tests don’t always prove to be effective.

Sciences, however, rely heavily on performance in a relatively short time. Besides understanding the concepts, I also have to practice and nurture numerous topics and problems.

In the recent weeks, I've laboriously studied my sciences, picking up everything that I've dropped this year. I haven't touched my humanities classes in a while.

The other students weren't dumb, either. Many had the same idea. There were instances where people were studying sciences in humanities' class, and had their textbooks confiscated.

The literature teacher sensed this shift in interests, and was extremely upset. Today during lunch, the whole class was to be quizzed on their knowledge of this year's past lessons on ancient literature, or guwen.

But all and all, it's probably just going to be the class president picking out a few of the misbehaving students and have them memorize it aloud in front of the class.

……

Our class representative — Mo Shiyu, stood on the podium, sweeping her eyes over the class.

She was the same as every other high school girl, wearing the school uniform, a white collared short-sleeve and a black uniform skirt. However, what set her apart from others was the never changing ponytail and a permanent nasty expression with furrowed eyebrows.

Yep, she's been nasty ever since school started. She was always frustrated with the numerous school events, class funding, and managing students' school lives. Even the daily homework collection fell on her shoulders.

She dominated the classroom with strong leadership, power, and control. Today, she once again replaced the humanities representative*, and started quizzing people on memorization.

*Schools in China have "subject representatives", where a person who's the strongest in one subject in the whole class is selected, to manage odd jobs specific to their subject. Collecting homework, tutoring, grading tests/quizzes for the subject teacher, etc. It's like a teacher assistant. In China elementary school, I was the English class representative

"Lu Fan, please come up to the podium and recite verse one of 'Guo Qin Lun'."

Strange. Guotong was always the runner-up, why is she coming for me, this time?

"Lu Fan, did you not hear what I just said?"

She repeated forcefully.

"When Qin Shihuang discovered the six Ancestors' buried treasures, he controlled the world like a giant whip, absorbing the West and East Continents…."

I hurriedly recited. Even though I didn't study Chinese much lately, I had a solid foundation on the literature, and remembered enough to pass. When I finished, I smiled to her, and prepared to sit down.

She directly ignored my indication and flipped through the book, frustrated, She gave me the next prompt.

"Recite the second verse of 'Quan Xue'.

Why are those ones so hard?!

"The sky is never reached without climbing a mountain; the ground's depth is never known without nearing a canyon…"

There was still no pressure.

Seeing that I fluently and successfully recited a passage we learnt so long ago, my classmates broke into applause.

"And the final verse of 'The Nation's Widow'."

Do I have a grudge with the class representative?

"Dogs eat people's food, and live in ignorance. Humans die of hunger…. But do not know welfare…."

I even pulled off the hardest verse.

"Again…"

It's already past the limit of three verses per person, Mo Shiyu wasn't letting me go.

Guo Tong looked at me strangely, then looked at the class representative, lost. Conversations from other students slowly started.

I'm usually really low key in class, did I piss off the Class Rep somehow?

I looked at Guo Tong. He looked like a lamb who was spared the knife.

He looked happy, but uncertain at the same time.

I was the scapegoat, brought to the guillotine for slaughter.

Not only will I die, my death will be painful and gruesome.

The girl realized that she was too obvious aiming at me in particular, and pointed her musket at another person.

What's fated will always come.

"Guo Tong, recite Liu Yong's "Yu Lin Ling"."

But today, Guotong's assigned verse was surprisingly easy.

However, judging from the look on his face, he must've not studied to that part yet through his all-nighters.

His small round eyes turned towards me desperately for help.

I quickly opened my textbook, and placed it sideways so he could see it.

"Lu Fan, close your textbook!"

Immediately, it was seen by Mo Shiyu.

I closed my book obediently.

I opened my mouth to hint.

"Lu Fan, don't even bother trying to mouth it!"

I closed my mouth, sighing.

I started to draw the words in the air.

"Lu Fan, put your hands down!"

I dropped my hands in defeat.

……

Unless she's staring directly at me, these small movements shouldn't be recognized. I looked at the girl on the podium in shock.

Losing his only chance of survival, Guotong couldn't recite out a single word.

Without any more ways to help him with, I looked apologetically at him.

"Okay."

Mo Shiyu looked down at her watch, which indicated the start of class. With Guotong unable to recite a single work, her patience disappeared.

"Guotong and Lu Fan, copy "Yu Lin Ling" ten times, turn it in before school ends. The rest of you should prepare for class."

She looked at me and Guo Tong contently, happy with the outcome.

"This is ridiculous, I recited it perfectly! Why do I have to copy it ten times with him?! "

I didn't back down one bit. I wouldn't have cared if it was anytime during the semester, finals are coming up! My precious afternoon is not to be wasted by copying down the easiest "Yu Yin Ling"!

The arrogant class representative ignored my protests. She picked up her books, and walked to her seat.

She looked a triumphant lioness, pridefully strutting down the podium.

……

When I thought that I could only lower my head and accept reality, she walked to my seat.

Mo Shiyu bent from her egotistic air, and replied in a challenging tone,

"Lu Fan, it's because you've been a sore in my eyes recently."