“Why not? If you don’t call me master, my guidance won’t have legitimacy!” he insisted.
“Am I supposed to call your dad master, and you too? Are you trying to take advantage of your father, or of me?” she challenged him.
If it was taking advantage of his father, both of them would be her masters, which would make them equals.
If it was taking advantage of her, with a master of her father’s generation, master as in a father, wouldn’t that make him like a father figure to her?
No way!
Neither option worked!
Shen Mo couldn’t help but suppress a chuckle.
As the bell for class rang, the teacher greeted another teacher at the door before closing it and entering the classroom.
Taking advantage of the moment before the teacher reached the podium, Shen Mo suddenly bumped Hua Jie’s arm:
“Don’t worry, I had the class monitor copy down your scores earlier. You passed everything, and you even scored the highest in the grade in English, now only history and biology are left. It’s better than I expected, pretty impressive.”
“?!” Hua Jie turned her head in surprise.
Shen Mo handed her a piece of paper.
“!” Hua Jie had been afraid to ask about her grades, worried they might be bad.
English was the highest score in the grade?
Oh my!
Her fingers trembled slightly with nerves as she inserted the paper between the pages of her textbook, checking her scores one subject at a time.
The more she looked, the more excited she became, her hands alternately feeling hot and cold.
Were these really her grades?
Was it because the exam questions were unusually easy this time, making the scores generally higher?
She could hardly believe it.
“Thank you, Shen Mo.” She whispered when the teacher wasn’t looking.
“It was nothing.” He shrugged.
Hua Jie then turned to look at the class monitor, who just happened to look back at her. Their eyes met.
She shook the paper in her hand and smiled at the monitor, signaling her gratitude.
The class monitor briefly glanced at Shen Mo, then instinctively shrank his shoulders and averted his gaze. After realizing his reaction, he returned her a somewhat bitter smile, quickly focusing back on the podium, eyes on his nose, nose on his heart, not daring to look around anymore.
“…” Hua Jie.
Why did she feel like there was a story there?
Could it be that Shen Mo had physically intimidated the class monitor into helping her obtain the grades from the teacher?
Turning to look at Shen Mo again, the boy was leaning back in his chair, his face coldly fixed on the blackboard.
His expressionless face looked menacing, his eyes seemingly filled with a murderous intent.
Even the teacher avoided making eye contact with Shen Mo during lectures, disliking how he unnerved people.
Such a person…
She started to feel that her suspicion of him threatening the class monitor was quite plausible.
Taking a deep breath, Hua Jie calmed her emotions, folded the grade sheet neatly into her book, and turned her attention to the blackboard to listen to the lecture intently.
In the first period of the afternoon self-study, she asked for leave from the teacher and went to the art studio as planned to build a good relationship with Lu Yunfei.
Although he was not very talkative, when immersed in discussing painting, he would unwittingly share his own insights.
Hua Jie discovered that he was actually a very delicate person internally. In his use of colors and brushstrokes, he had his unique ideas.
Such a person, once they excel in their art, is likely to develop a subdued yet solid painting style in the future, becoming a slow-warming artist whose gradual improvements will surely lead to significant transformations.
Throughout the entire self-study class, the two sat side by side, studying color mixing and discussing techniques for expressing motion in quick sketches.
During this process, Hua Jie also enjoyed the joy of progressing with a fellow enthusiast, both deeply immersed in the world of painting.
When the bell rang for the end of class, both of them had a moment of stupefaction.
It was like being suddenly awakened from a dreamlike state of deep immersion.
Lu Yunfei looked somewhat embarrassedly at her, then began to pack up his sketchboard. After standing up, he hesitated as if he had something to say but ultimately just looked at Hua Jie, nodded, and left at a leisurely pace.
The words ‘I really enjoyed painting’, ‘See you next time’, ‘See you at the studio this weekend’, ‘Thank you’, none of these made it past his lips.
However, Hua Jie could read the friendliness and pleasure from his expression. She smiled as she packed away her sketchboard and brushes and locked her little cabinet, then left the studio and walked through the corridor back to her class.
When she returned to the first-year building, she was blocked at the stairwell by a crowd of students gathered around the office door, checking the posted rankings, making it hard to move.
During the last period of self-study, the first-year group’s scores had all been released.
The rankings were sorted and a large list was posted.
The print on the list was too small, and too far from her to make out clearly.
After a lot of squeezing, she finally got to a spot where she could see clearly.
She found that not all students’ rankings and scores were on the list; only the top 200 of the grade were entered, and her heart rate instantly sped up.
With 15 classes in the grade, each class having more than fifty students, there were nearly 800 students in total.
Even if she was in the top 10 of class one, year seven, she might not make it into the top 200.
After all, the level of each class was not even; certainly, some classes had a lot more students in the top 200, while others had very few.
With bated breath, she started looking from the 200th rank upward, scanning each name one by one, feeling colder as she went.
Not there, not there.
It wasn’t her, it wasn’t her.
By the time she got to 158 and still hadn’t found her name, Hua Jie’s hands and feet were already cold, her heart sinking.
All that effort, was it still not enough?
Suddenly, she overheard a girl’s gossiping voice:
“Hey, isn’t that Hua Jie, the one who leads the exercises?”
“Where?” Hua Jie instinctively asked in surprise.
“137th place,” the voice of the girl replied just then.
“Ah!” Hua Jie’s gaze followed the ranking swiftly forward until it settled on number 137.
The name following the number was unmistakably Hua Jie.
With such a unique surname and name, it was impossible for there to be another person with the same name.
It was her!
137?
Oh my!
She felt like screaming, felt like jumping around!
“Didn’t you say last time that her grades were poor? Making it into the top 200, and at 137, that’s quite good,” the gossiping girl spoke again.
This voice was right behind Hua Jie on her right. After a few seconds without a response, Hua Jie chimed in:
“She’s the early bird that flies first, working hard.”
“Really? People say she’s the girlfriend of some big shot in society, right? The type who gets chauffeured around, why would she need to study hard? Couldn’t she just cling to the wealthy?” There was even a hint of envy in the girl’s tone.
“It’s all fake, just rumors. She rides her bike to school every day and definitely doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Hua Jie frowned, wondering when these rumors had started about her having a rich boyfriend. Who?
“Eh? Really? I heard her family is very poor, she painted a wall for the school for 10 yuan, and she goes to school in worn-out uniforms and old cotton clothes. She’s not clinging to a rich man? That must be tough,” the girl continued.
“…” Gossip sure was elaborate, Hua Jie was embarrassed. She liked wearing the school uniform because it symbolized youth, how did it turn into her being so poor she needed to find a rich man?
A few seconds of silence passed, and no one responded to the girl, so Hua Jie spoke again:
“The school asked her to paint the wall, they gave her a few hundred yuan budget and even awarded her with a bonus and free art supplies. Hua Jie’s family might not be wealthy, but they are not in dire straits either. She has loving parents who provide for her needs and good friends who gifted her a super nice down jacket!”
“Ah?” the girl murmured, then asked, “What about her having a dozen cousins at our school who beat up some gangsters trying to rob her after school and sent them to the hospital?”
“That’s also false! Who has that many cousins?” And they’re not pigs, mass-producing like that?
Hua Jie turned to look at the girl, and after their eyes met, she patted her shoulder and sighed:
“Eat fewer melons, study more!”
She then turned and squeezed her way out of the crowd, not taking any clouds with her.
The girl whose shoulder was tapped stood there, stunned.
Ah… was that Hua Jie?
Was it Hua Jie she had been talking to all this time?
The one standing in front of her to the left was supposedly her best friend, how did it turn into Hua Jie?
The female classmate was digesting the awkwardness and despair of a sociological death when suddenly a short-haired girl squeezed out from the crowd, grabbed her hand, and exclaimed:
“Xiaoxue, I made it into the top 200! Hahaha!”
“Ah…” Xiaoxue, the girl being addressed, looked stunned.
“Have you gone mad?” her short-haired friend asked, puzzled.
“You can’t imagine!” Xiaoxue came back to her senses, her eyes flickering uncertainly.
“What happened?” the short-haired friend asked.
“Just now, I was gossiping about Hua Jie with Hua Jie.”
…
…
Hua Jie hurried out of the crowd, her pace quickening as she headed back to class.
It felt like a volcano was living inside her chest, ready to erupt, uncontrollable.
She wanted to talk to her friends, to share the joy of ranking 137th in the whole grade.
She wanted to say that her sweat had paid off.
She wanted to boast to Shen Mo that his tutoring and problem-solving help weren’t in vain, that she had gone from being one of the last in her class at the entrance exams to being in the top 200 of the grade!
She wouldn’t let Teacher Shen down, her efforts truly paid off, she wasn’t dumb, she could learn!
Gradually, her quick walk turned into a jog, her eyes nearly brimming with tears as she looked at the sign for class one, year seven.
Only those who have pushed themselves to their limits can understand the bittersweet feeling of achievement when they finally reap the rewards.
Bursting into the classroom, she was greeted by Yao Nan’s loud exclamations:
“Hua Jie, you ranked 137th in the grade! Eighth in our class!!!”
“Ah! You were failing just like me during the entrance exams! Wuu wuu wuu…”
She ignored his wails and lunged towards her seat, excitedly grabbing Shen Mo’s arm.
But the moment she looked into his eyes, she felt at a loss for words.
Then, the boy suddenly smiled at her, his eyes and eyebrows slanting up in triumph, as if he were proud and satisfied, as if he himself had scored well.
“Congratulations, an amazing eighth in the class!” Shen Mo said.
Tears suddenly streamed down her face.
In the presence of his understanding and gentle strength, could she really become so tearful?
Seeing her tears, the boy was instantly flustered.
Unsure what to do, he instinctively reached out to wipe her tears, then suddenly felt the piercing gaze of countless prying eyes around them.
He fetched some paper and patted her on the forehead and shoulder, his heart soft with worry as he blurted out nonsense:
“Why are you crying? Anyone would think I’d bullied you.”
Hua Jie broke into laughter through her tears.
Having such a deskmate was truly wonderful, someone who was happy for her progress.
When she momentarily couldn’t control her emotions and showed her vulnerable side, he didn’t find her troublesome but instead clumsily tried to cheer her up.
Under Shen Mo’s awkward consolations, Hua Jie gradually regained her composure.
With her tears dried, she smiled a bit sheepishly.
“Sorry for that.” she said.
“I’m used to it.” he replied.
“…”
“…”
The second period of self-study began, and the teacher announced that there would be a parent-teacher meeting on Saturday morning.
Hua Jie sat at her desk, quietly drawing.
Drawing lines was not only a way to decompress but also to find calm.
After about ten minutes, she felt completely serene and finally looked up, exhaling deeply.
After the recent exams, she had hesitated—
The intense study and drawing sessions, the gritted determination, she could manage in the short term.
But to keep it up for three years, could she really endure it?
Now, with her results out, they acted like a strong tonic.
Hua Jie stared at the score ranking on the blackboard.
She felt that she could do it!
She was still in the fight!!
…
Throughout the self-study period, Hua Jie worked especially hard on her homework.
Her thoughts flowed smoothly, and her pen flew across the paper.
When school was dismissed, she was reluctant to put down her pen.
Don’t stop me, I could write a hundred more papers, a thousand more assignments!
Shen Mo nudged her, “Stop dawdling, can’t you be a bit more enthusiastic about leaving school?”
She reluctantly packed up her books and organized her backpack, sadly preparing to go home.
“By the way, what rank did you get in the grade?” Hua Jie suddenly remembered to ask.
“Asking that kind of question, are you looking down on me?” Shen Mo tugged at her ponytail playfully.
“?”
“Of course, I’m first.”