“I heard your voice on the stairs. The entire grade is the noisiest in the whole year!”
Xiao Changming (Teacher) stood there with his hands behind his back. He had to say these same words every year at the beginning of school. At the start of the new session, not only him, the other teachers also had this habit. In the teachers’ opinion, it was also a way to motivate the students.
Jiang Liu had been away from school for a long time, and was not used to this habit of the teacher.
He pondered over the atmosphere in the classroom just now. Was someone talking?
Or had he just been so enthralled with the pile of alien language Math problems that he hadn’t heard the conversation of the classmates next to him?
“What are you looking at? I’m talking to you, Jiang Liu!”
Xiao Changming saw that all the students were listening attentively except Jiang Liu. He was not honest and was looking at his left and right, so he immediately planned to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys as a warning to the whole class.
“How much did you score in the final exam last semester? I’m even too lazy to talk about you. You think you’re reading for your teacher? No, I don’t care if you’re good or bad at it. Listen, it’s high school now, it’s not your 9 years of compulsory education. I can focus on the serious, good students and just neglect the bad ones. But why didn’t I do it? Because I didn’t want to give up on you. However, now I didn’t give up on you. Instead, it’s you who gave up on himself.”
Xiao Changming’s speech was spiteful, and when Jiang Liu thought about the original’s score, he was also guilty so he dared not to talk back.
“Jiang Liu, stand up. I’m asking you what Math is?”
Xiao Changming pointed at Jiang Liu and asked him to stand up and answer the question.
“Is it a compulsory subject for the college entrance exam? Add, subtract, multiply and divide?”
Jiang Liu was not sure of it, so he said with less certainty.
“Wrong, as far as I’m concerned, what you can’t learn is Math!”
As soon as Xiao Changming’s voice fell, many students in the class couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
Jiang Liu could guarantee that Gao Jin, who was sitting behind him and regarded himself as his good buddy, was the one who laughed the loudest.
Fortunately Jiang Liu also got comfort, as his soft and cute little tablemate quietly poked his thigh with the tip of the ballpoint pen before giving him a cheering look.
“What are you laughing at?”
Xiao Changming glared at the students who were laughing at Jiang Liu, then painstakingly tried to persuade Jiang Liu.
“How many marks did you get in the last semester? As far as I remember, your score was 54. I can’t even believe that this is the result the students I teach would get. Believe it or not, my twelve year old granddaughter while scribbling and writing randomly in the test can still score better than you?”
Xiao Changming stated such a big statement, it was not for the purpose of satirizing Jiang Liu. He hoped that the other party could be a little bit more careful to grasp the last year of the third year of high school, and strive to improve his grades.
“I know your brain is smart, as I’ve found out about your grades in other subjects with your class teacher. I learned that your English and Chinese are very good, especially English. During your last semester’s final exam you got 117 and 104 out of 120 in the English and Chinese exams respectively. If we could bring up your Math scores as well, it’s entirely possible to get into an undergraduate college.”
“I’m not just saying this to Jiang Liu alone. I know that many students in our class have good family conditions and can afford to go abroad. But have you ever heard of the saying, if you learn Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry well, you can travel the whole world without fear. You think you don’t need to learn Math when you go abroad? Wrong! Not only do you guys have to learn Math, you also have to learn Math in English.”
Xiao Changming was a good teacher. Otherwise he wouldn’t have remembered Jiang Liu’s final exam results of the last semester so clearly. And he hadn’t just memorized the result of Math that was taught by him, he could even recall his results in the other subjects such as English and Chinese.
Facing such a serious and responsible teacher, even if he was picked up as a target, Jiang Liu was not so angry.
The teacher in front of him reminded him of his real life. He had a similarly responsible class teacher before he dropped out of school and went to work.
The old man whom he respected so much in his heart, once offered to take care of him and his daily expenses. As the teacher felt that Jiang Liu was able to study well so in his view, it was a very immature and irresponsible decision to give up studying at such a young age because of making a living.
However, Jiang Liu still refused in the end. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t appreciate the good intentions of his teacher.
The chattering little old man in front of him was very similar to the class teacher he remembered. Both of them were good teachers who genuinely cared about their students.
“Teacher Xiao, I already know that I was wrong before. This semester, I will try to make up for the subjects that I scored badly on before. I won’t let you down.”
Compared to the impulse of just digging a hole and burying himself, this time Jiang Liu was a little more sincere. He felt that there was nothing wrong with coming to this world to study hard. It might be a good idea to get into a good university to make up for the regrets he once had.
“Mhm.”
Xiao Changming still knew his student quite well. He knew that Jiang Liu had no determination to study hard. In particular, this student’s family conditions seemed to be pretty good and the parents at home were busy with work so they only compensated him with pocket money. Even facing the teachers, Jiang Liu couldn’t hide his arrogance.
It’s just that as a teacher, he really didn’t want to give up on any of his students. Although it was more prevalent in this society to live on their parents nowadays. However to put it bluntly, what if Mom and Dad couldn’t make any more money one day? What if the parents died early, and these children had no skills to handle the family property left by the parents? It’s all possible.
They were still young and might not understand this. But as a teacher, he had to make them understand it.
Xiao Changming saw that Jiang liu’s attitude was quite sincere. For a moment he couldn’t figure out whether Jiang Liu was just stalling him or he really wanted to study.
Afraid of the students having a rebellious mentality at this age, he didn’t ask Jiang Liu to stand like a military order or something like that. He responded and let him sit down.
“Shit, Jiang ge, are you fooling Old Xiao or playing for real?”
Sitting in the back row of Jiang Liu, Gao Jin poked his back and the whole person leaned forward on the table, and whispered in his ear.
Gao Jin felt like his buddy had been out of sorts all day today.
First of all, it was the way he acted when he was in the cafeteria. Who among them wasn’t used to ordering a table of food and then just picking a few to taste. But today Jiang Liu ordered so few dishes and even ate all the food.
As he dumped the uneaten food, Gao Jin even felt the distressed emotions revealed by Jiang Liu, as if he was very reluctant to throw it away.
Jiang Liu was the most wasteful of all of them. Not to mention the cheap three or four meat dishes and one or two vegetarian ones in the canteen, even the kind of dishes that cost hundreds of dollars a plate in restaurants were usually just taken a bite to taste and then left there by him.
Gao Jin didn’t know exactly what business Jiang Liu’s parents were in, but he knew that Jiang Liu’s family was definitely richer than his family. During the summer vacation, he also watched Jiang Liu’s trip to Xiangjiang, and he even issued first class tickets to his friend circle. It was impossible that the family had suffered some setbacks and suddenly had no money ah.
In addition to all of a sudden becoming buckled up, his good buddy’s attitude towards learning had also become different.
In the past, where did their brothers care about learning this stuff ah. The family had made arrangements for them by looking for relationships to study abroad. Capitalists are the boss. As long as there is money, the famous Ivy League is also open to them, and if not, you will always have an option of a diploma from a second-rate school abroad.
Take a degree in business administration or finance, then take over your own company after graduation, and life goes on like that.
Was it fair? Very unfair indeed.
When other students are racing against time to fight for the college entrance examination, and are trying to improve themselves just to get a good job, the rich children’s starting line is already the end point for many of them, and even some of these students’ endpoints were still a long distance away from the rich’s starting point.
But who made them children of the rich? Sometimes praying for a good family is indeed more important than other things.
Therefore, Gao Jin couldn’t understand his buddy’s attitude. Even if he had coaxed the elementary school god before, now he was still vouching to study in front of Old Xiao. Was he really intended to study hard?
“My dad was angry and suspended my card. Unless my grades were raised, he will stop my allowance permanently.”
Jiang Liu tilted his head slightly, to give a reasonable explanation to Gao Jin.
He also realized that his sudden change could easily attract the sideways glances of those who knew him well. Therefore he must find a reasonable excuse for this change.
No one at school knew his dad is the richest man. Usually it was the housekeeper who came to the parent-teacher conferences on weekdays. The richest man has every reason to do so. Except for occasionally taking the time to scold his willful son for a meal, there wasn’t much energy that could be diverted to care about his life at school. Therefore, Jiang Liu didn’t have to worry about his lie.
“Uncle’s a bit tough.”
Gao Jin’s doubts were all gone at once, and the suspension of the card perfectly explained the act of Jiang Liu in the cafeteria and also rationalized Jiang Liu’s seriousness towards study afterwards.
“You didn’t tell me about such a big thing. What relationship do we have, if you are short of money then find me to borrow ah.”
The pocket money that Gao Jin’s parents gave him was certainly incomparable to Jiang liu’s. But compared to an ordinary student, it was definitely more than a huge amount. However, Gao Jin had a wide range of hobbies and liked to collect car models and sneakers. Sometimes when he was short of money, he would borrow from the original.
Not long ago, in order to buy a luxurious car model, he borrowed eight thousand yuan from Jiang Liu and didn’t return it yet.
After thinking about his own financial situation, Gao Jin smiled with embarrassment. His little pocket money seemed to be unable to afford the expenses of Jiang Liu.
“Forget it, you’d better study hard. I think uncle is just a little angry. Maybe after a while, he’ll soften enough to remove your card suspension.”
Gao Jin patted his best friend’s shoulder, expressing he couldn’t help him.
“Alright, that’s all I have to say. It’s up to you whether you guys can follow up to it or not.”
Xiao Changming was also tired of talking. He reached for the cup of water on the podium intending to drink a mouthful of water to moisten his throat. However he found that the water in the cup had unknowingly finished.
He smacked his lips before saying, “I guess you guys have been playing crazy for over a month of summer vacation. I don’t know how much you have remembered from last semester. So let’s relax.”
Listening to the word ‘relax’, many of the students had a smile on their lips thinking that finally they wouldn’t have to listen to Old Xiao’s naggings.
“Let’s do a set of papers. By this, let me know how much you still remember from what I’ve taught you guys in the last semester.”
The smile didn’t even have time to rise to the most brilliant arc, before it was stopped mid-air. This smile was uglier than crying.