CH 2

The teenager’s worries were hidden in his laughter, sincerely maintaining the dignity of his good friend in his own way.

As soon as he walked out of the corridor, Jiang Chen saw a boy squatting beside the flower bed.

The boy had a baby face, and was pulling his hair with a conflicted face and was also muttering something under his breath. He raised his head abruptly when he heard the sound of footsteps. After seeing Jiang Chen, he was obviously relieved. He got up and walked up to him, smacked his chest and said, “I thought you aren’t going to go to school today again, and I even thought about where to take you to relax.”

Jiang Chen looked at the boy who was half a head shorter than him, with round eyes that were round, looking quite like a junior high school student, and hesitated for a moment.

However, the long-standing and familiar tone made him quickly connect the little shorty who was about 1.6 meters in front of him with the tall, handsome and smiling man in his memory. One of his good friends, Shen Xu.

“Weren’t you just thinking about how to persuade me to go to school?” Jiang Chen smiled almost subconsciously without any feeling of unfamiliarity, “Relax on the playground?”

After he finished speaking, Jiang Chen was even stunned for a moment, and then he remembered that no matter how old he was, it was still always him, so he didn’t feel strange anymore.

Shen Xu wasn’t annoyed at all at being seen through, he said with a grin, “That’s also fine, us brothers can call the basketball team over to play a few games, after sweating it off you’ll definitely be relaxed.”

“Let’s go.” Jiang Chen glanced at his watch, then turned around and said, “I was in a bad mood some time ago, but now that I have recovered, I still feel that studying is more suitable for me.”

Shen Xu was stunned for a moment, and after a while he smiled happily: “As expected of my brother Jiang, able to recover quickly, seriously, with your grades, if you don’t study well it will definitely be a loss to the school and the country. When we wrote essays in elementary school, didn’t you say that you l want to be a scientist? Of us brothers, you are the best at studying. Back then, old Peng said that you would definitely be promising in the future. You are a potential seedling of Hua/Yan (TN: top two universities in China), and you are suitable for scientific research in the future. If you give up, how will we be able to brag about having a scientist for a brother.” He elbowed Jiang Chen’s arm and said with a grin, “In order for us brothers to be able to brag in the future, you have to pass the Yan Uni/Hua Uni entrance exam, right?”

The teenager’s worries were hidden in his laughter, sincerely maintaining the dignity of his good friend in his own way.

Jiang Chen smiled, hooked an arm around his neck and said, “That’s right.”

Seeing that he had swept away the gloomy expression from before, Shen Xu completely relaxed, slapped his hand away, and said, “Don’t use your Papa as a crutch. Zhang Three Hairs will definitely make trouble for you later, at that time just pretend he farted and ignore him, just wait for the next month’s test results to come out, and shut his mouth with the report card.”

Zhang Jian, a chemistry teacher of year 2 class 1 of Nan City No. 1 Middle School, was also their classroom teacher. Because he always liked to pull the hair on both sides to the middle after balding, leaving three distinct strands of hair, he was given a nickname by his classmates. Zhang Three Hair.

The most notable feature of Teacher Zhang was that those who obey him will prosper and those who disobey him will perish. In his classroom, all students could only obey his instructions, and any student who violated his instructions would be pricked on and punished by him.

In fact, when he was just divided into classes in the second year of high school, Zhang Three Hairs quite liked Jiang Chen very much. Jiang Chen was good-looking, had good grades and while he did not speak much he was quite sensible. He had always been the model student in his teachers’ eyes. Most importantly, his grades in the sciences were excellent, and particularly in the subjects of mathematics, physics and chemistry he was firmly ranked first since entering high school, and there had never been a defeat.

However, Jiang Chen had a friend from class 11 who had extremely poor grades and poor family conditions, Huo Bo.

As the high school tyrant, Huo Bo had always been a headache for teachers. Among them, Teacher Zhang, who was Huo Bo’s chemistry teacher, disliked him the most. When the first year of high school just began, he actually scolded him as the dregs of society and that he would definitely go to prison in the future.

He was then beaten with a sack covering his head a few days after he said that. Zhang Three Hairs felt that it was Huo Bo taking an opportunity to retaliate, but because he had no evidence, he could only swallow his loss and regard Huo Bo as a thorn in the flesh.

Therefore, when he knew that Jiang Chen, a good student in his mind, was friends with Huo Bo, he directly called Jiang Chen to the office, counted Huo Bo’s bad deeds in front of him, and then from his own perspective criticized Huo Bo as completely worthless, and was nearly even unable to hold back countless swear words, but even so it was still really not much better than swearing. Finally, he bluntly said that if Jiang Chen didn’t end his friendship with Huo Bo immediately, he would definitely not have a good ending in the future.

After Teacher Zhang finished speaking, he thought that the good student in his mind would be completely awakened by his words, and then he would draw a clear line with Huo Bo from now on.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Chen was not moved at all after hearing this, but instead said: “Teacher Zhang, Huo Bo is my friend, I think he is loyal and faithful as a friend, and worthy of association, so I can’t agree to your request, and, as a teacher, to criticize a student with such intense personal emotions is really not what a gentleman does.”

Since then, Jiang Chen had become Zhang Three Hairs’ second thorn in the side after Huo Bo.

It was just that Jiang Chen’s grades have always been excellent. He was firmly in the top three in the grade, which was a treasure in the hearts of other classroom teachers. Even if Zhang Three Hairs tried to make things difficult for him, he couldn’t find any excuses, so he could only change seats and put him next to the trash can, small things like that to find an outlet.

It wasn’t until something happened with Jiang Chen’s family, and he often became absent-minded in class, and even his grades plummeting, that Zhang Three Hairs finally found his sore foot, and stepped on it so hard that it was as if he was dealing with the enemy who killed his father, for fear of not stepping him to death and giving him chance to rise again.

This time’s monthly exam, Zhang Three Hairs had been mocking tly and indirectly for nearly a week. Not only did he talk about it in class, he also called him to the office to talk about it, and even once when Jiang Chen was late because he was taking care of his father, he actually stood at the school gate and in front of all teachers and students, even used his injured and disabled father to mock him.

Jiang Chen was originally in a low mood because of things back at home, and was particularly vulnerable. So in addition to this incident, it made him develop a dislike for school. He had skipped chemistry class for two days, and even stayed in the Internet cafe yesterday all day.

On the way to the school, Jiang Chen pulled out all the memories about this Teacher Zhang from Shen Xu’s words and from his own memories. By the time he got to the school gate, he already had a final settlement in his heart and was very calm.

A person like Zhang Three Hairs, to put it bluntly, was just a villain who bullied the weak and feared the strong. He had no sense of existence in society outside the school, so he needed to find a sense of achievement and the pleasure of controlling everything from the students. It happened that he had the naturally privileged status of a teacher, so even if he went overboard, he could always use the excuse of respecting teachers and educating students, which was disgusting but not something students could do anything about.

However, Jiang Chen’s core was no longer that of the seventeen-year-old boy of the first life. He would no longer impulsively use the way of hurting himself to avoid or get revenge on others, and he would not be like a real high school student, being truly in awe of all teachers and afraid of the influence and pressure of teachers.

There were all kinds of people in the world. In every industry, there were people with good or bad morals. So just strip away the halo brought by the profession itself, and face them with a calm and just attitude. One does not attack unless one is attacked, after living two lifetimes Jiang Chen really had nothing to fear.

When Jiang Chen and Shen Xu arrived in the classroom, it was already halfway through morning self-study.

Today’s morning was English self-study. The English teacher was sitting by the podium and dictating the vocabulary. The students below were silently writing.

“You guys are late.” Seeing them, the English teacher stopped, but there was no reproach on her young face. She took a closer look at Jiang Chen’s state and saw that he seemed to be in a lot more energy, so she smiled and said: “Go in quickly. Sit down and go to the class representative after class to listen to a re-dictation of the vocabulary.”

Jiang Chen pursed his lips and smiled before walking into the classroom.

Shen Xu saluted with a smile: “Yes! Madam!”

“Get inside!” Teacher Yang mock glared at him.

After Jiang Chen and Shen Xu were seated, Teacher Yang continued to dictate the words, but before even two words were finished being dictated, the door was knocked on, and Zhang Jian with neatly combed hair on the top of his head appeared.

He first looked around the classroom, and when he saw Jiang Chen and Shen Xu in the classroom, his expression darkened, he pointed to the last row by the window and said, “Jiang Chen and Shen Xu, stand up!”

Jiang Chen put down his pen and stood up, Shen Xu snorted and stood up sloppily.

Zhang Jian said sinisterly: “You still know that you are students, is this school a place where you can come if you want to and skip class if you don’t want to? Get out here! If you don’t want to go to class, then don’t!”

Teacher Yang frowned on the side and said, “Teacher Zhang, it’s still early self-study, whatever you want to say, wait until after class.”

“They don’t want to go to class, so what waiting for after class!” Zhang Jian snorted coldly: “Them sitting here are like two mouse droppings ruining a pot of porridge, so why not come out early so that other students won’t be influenced badly.”

“But…..”

“Teacher Yang, I know that you are a soft-hearted female teacher, but being soft-hearted also depends on who it should be directed to. For people like Jiang Chen and Shen Xu, even if they are taught they are still unable to learn well, they are already rotten at the root. You being so blindly kind will hurt other classmates.” Zhang Jian shook his head as he spoke, his tone very serious.

Teacher Yang’s face was a little displeased, but Zhang Jian was a senior teacher, amd was usually a difficult person, and she also heard that there were some connections behind him as well. She was a new teacher who had not worked in the school for a full two years, so she really had no confidence to stand up against him.

“What were you doing standing still!” Zhang Jian saw that Teacher Yang didn’t speak, and scolded: “Come out!”

Jiang Chen and Shen Xu looked at each other, pushed aside the stool and walked out the back door.

Zhang Jian stood in the corridor, looking at the two people who came out obediently, the gloating in his eyes barely suppressed, and he raised his voice and scolded: “Look at yourselves, are you still even like students! How are you like students! Arriving late and leaving early, skipping class, what else have you guys not done before? One placing below the 100th spot in the monthly exam, one directly below the 500th spot, aren’t you ashamed! If I were you, I would be too ashamed to see anyone!”

Shen Xu rolled his eyes and said nothing.

Jiang Chen said indifferently: “Teacher Zhang, it’s early self-study now. Your loud voice will affect other students’ learning.”

Zhang Jian, who had already raised his hand to point at Shen Xu, but after hearing Jiang Chen’s words, he directly raised his hand to point at the tip of Jiang Chen’s nose, and said with a blue face, “You also know that its bad to affect other students’ learning, it’s because our experimental class has you two mouse droppings that other students are affected! Placing below 100 in the grade yet you dare to talk like this! So arrogant that you don’t look like a student! If you ask me, at most you are at this level, and your previous grades were all probably a result of cheating!”

As soon as Zhang Jian’s words fell, not only Shen Xu next to him couldn’t listen anymore, but Teacher Yang and the other students in class 1 couldn’t listen anymore as well.

Jiang Chen had always been at the top of his grade. Occasionally he slipped to the third place because he missed two big questions at the end. But at other times, he was able to exceed the second place in the grade by a large margin. No one was qualified to let him cheat in order to get grades like his. In fact, if put unpleasantly, if an open book was put in front of some students to take an open-book test, they might not even get better grades than Jiang Chen.

When Zhang Jian said that Jiang Chen cheated, not only was he slandering Jiang Chen, but also insulting other classmates.

Jiang Chen who left them all in the dust was a cheater, then what were the other students who took open book tests yet didn’t dare to expect to compete with Jiang Chen for the first place?

Just as the classmates were thinking so, an old man with half-graying hair in a gray padded jacket and carrying a thermos cup came over from the other end of the corridor and asked with a smile, “What is all this?”