Very Bad

The lunch break passed in a flash.

At two-thirty the afternoon classes started, with three classes and evening self-study was not compulsory for boarding students. Xu Yan put the books into her backpack, changed into a short-sleeved shirt and put on her school uniform coat and headed for the classroom.

It was especially hot in September after lunch. On her way to the classroom, her forehead was sweating.

It was already two fifteen, but only a few people were scattered in the classroom.

Xu Yan sat in her seat, looked around and took out the book, shaking her head.

She almost doubted if everyone had gone to the playground to gather when she knew that they had just finished their physical education class in the morning.

After quietly doing some math problems for a while, people started coming into the classroom. Xu Yan was holding a pen and flipping through books with her head down when a cup of ice suddenly placed on the desk.

She raised her head, and saw Fu Xueli smiling with a Hello Kitty bag on her shoulder, saying, "I brought it for you, little one."

"Ah?" Xu Yan stood up in a hurry and let Fu Xueli come in, stammering, "This is... I can't..."

"What do you mean by can't?"

Fu Xueli shook her head, raised her eyebrows and said, "I'll throw it away if you don't drink it."

After a few seconds, Xu Yan lowered her head and said softly, "Thank you."

She thought for a moment. It seemed that the new classmate in her class was not as bad as the rumors said.

At least her deskmate, Fu Xueli, was a warm and beautiful girl.

Xu Yan bit the straw and secretly glanced at the person next to her playing phone.

She accidentally took a big sip and the crushed ice was too cold, which shocked her.

Unable to help to cough, yet afraid of disturbing other students in the classroom, Xu Yan could only cover her mouth.

Xu Yan seldom drank such beverages, only drinking her grandmother's homemade boiled water and mung bean water at home. She never touched those weird drinks and cold drinks.

Seeing her, Fu Xueli couldn't help but laugh and suddenly asked, "Hey kid, do you have a boyfriend?"

"Ah?" Xu Yan was dazed and shook her head, "No."

"You're so adorable, nobody is chasing after you?"

Xu Yan felt embarrassed and said, "I'm not adorable, you're the first one to comment that."

"Really?" Fu Xueli smiled again, "It means I have a good eye."

The two of them stayed put and started chatting.

In fact, Xu Yan was not a traditionally introverted girl, she was just slightly slow to warm up. Once she got to know someone, she realized she had a lot to say.

Gradually, the classroom was full and it was noisy. The teacher walked up to the podium with the notes in hand.

Xu Yan quickly finished the drink in her cup, tidied up the table, and took out her Chinese textbook.

"Hey, why are there two empty seats in the back of Group 4? Who is sitting there?" The Chinese teacher pointed and asked the monitor.

"Xie Ci and Song Yifan."

The class monitor stood up, her voice calmly answering as if she had been dealing with this kind of question many times.

The Chinese teacher rolled her eyes and didn't continue asking.

These two people were either punctual when they entered the classroom or late.

The teachers of all subjects were annoyed but couldn't do much about them.

After she finished drinking a glass of water, she picked up a chalk and wrote "Jing Ke Assassinated the King of Qin" on the blackboard.

Halfway through writing on the blackboard, the back door of the classroom was suddenly flung open with a loud bang.

All eyes in the class turned to look, and the Chinese teacher hesitated before turning around.

Xie Ci and Song Yifan, seeming oblivious to the stares from the whole class, strolled in one after the other.

The Chinese teacher seemed to have held back her temper, and simply turned back to finish writing the characters on the blackboard.

Xu Yan was terrified, listening to the noise behind her.

--Bang, thud.

The two pulled out chairs with a loud noise and finally sat down.

"What did you guys do? Is the problem about Fu Yishun solved?"

Fu Xueli leaned back against the table and lowered her voice, turning to look at them.

Xie Ci was too lazy to talk, and he flipped a book randomly from the drawer and threw it on the table with a bang.

Song Yifan shook his legs casually and said, "He's nothing. I and Xie Ci found someone to beat him up and then went to the internet cafe to play games."

"Hey, is it true? Xie Ci, you really arranged a date with Qiu Qingqing?" Fu Xueli glanced at him, "That girl, so pretentious, I don't like it."

"You are just jealous that others are better-looking than you." Song Yifan paid no attention.

"Don't you think so, Song Yifan?" Fu Xueli said earnestly, "Ci took her out to play several times, it seems that she looks down on us who have poor grades."

Song Yifan was still indifferent, and said, "People who come out of the mud don't get stained."

Xie Ci didn't say a word from beginning to end, a little impatient, and he leaned on the desk to prepare to sleep.

"OK, let's learn a new lesson today."

The Chinese teacher stood on the podium and cleared her throat, "Quiet down, let me find someone to read the text."

...

The whole classroom was silent in an instant.

What's wrong with this long classical Chinese text, do we have to ask someone to read it?

Most of the classmates quickly lowered their heads to avoid the teacher's gaze.

The Chinese teacher glanced around the classroom, her eyes lit up and she pointed to the sitting and upright Xu Yan and asked, "That girl over there, are you the transfer student from this morning?"

Xu Yan was stunned for a moment. When she realized the teacher was asking her, she blushed and stood up silently, nodding her head.

"What's your name?"

"Xu Yan."

"Where are you from?"

"Xizhou."

"Ahh, that place," the Chinese teacher said, nodding thoughtfully. "Southern girl, no wonder you're so fair."

As soon as she finished speaking, the whole class erupted in laughter.

Xu Yan stood there, head slightly bowed.

Although she had excellent grades from childhood to adulthood, she was the teacher's pet. But for some reason, she was afraid of being called on to answer questions, and her ears would be red every time she stood up.

This well-behaved and quiet female student was very popular with her Chinese teacher. She nodded her head and said, "Then you come and read this lesson with us."

The summer sun shone through the glass, and fine particles suspended in the air.

Xu Yan's school uniform sleeve was rolled up to her elbow, revealing a thin white arm. She picked up the Chinese book and started reading from the first line.

One word, one sentence.

The voice had a softness particular to the south of the Yangtze River, with a slow and gentle intonation, particularly soothing and soft.

"Qin General Wang Jian defeated Zhao, captured Zhao's king, and brought all of its lands under his control, sending troops to the northern part of the land to Yannan."

The Chinese teacher nodded her head while listening, her wrinkles smiling, showing that she was very satisfied.

Xu Yan not only read fluently, but also pronounced many of the difficult words accurately.

It was the result of pre-study.

When she read "the wind sighs and the river is cold," she was interrupted by the teacher.

"Stop." The Chinese teacher made a gesture and said gently, "Say it again."

Xu Yan hesitated, "Fen Xiao Xiao Xiu..."

"It's 'Feng.' Feng, with the back nasal sound," the Chinese teacher interrupted her kindly, "Not 'fen', you read it as 'fen' Xiao Xiao."

"Feng, feng..."

After a while, Xu Yan was still not confident.

Indeed, people in the south often cannot differentiate between the back nasal sound and the front nasal sound, and their Mandarin is not as good as people in the north.

Song Yifan was sitting behind Xu Yan, listening attentively. He couldn't help but burst into laughter, shaking his body.

Xie Ci was supporting his head with one hand, lowering his eyes to read the sentence "The wind is blowing, the waters are cold" in the book, and smiling with his mouth open.

The two laughed, and the others also burst out laughing.

The classroom discipline was instantly disrupted.

The Chinese teacher was talking, and found the noise coming from behind. Unable to bear it, she slammed the blackboard, and seeing the group of boys' hooligan-like appearance, she was furious, "Song Yifan! What are you laughing at, come and read it out!"

Song Yifan caught his smile in an instant, and said helplessly, "It's not just me laughing, my classmate is also laughing."

"Then you guys can read together!"

The Chinese teacher said, "Xu Yan, sit down first. Some people behind don't want to listen to the class, just go to sleep and don't disrupt the classroom discipline!"

Although Xu Yan was embarrassed by laughing, she still breathed a sigh of relief and sat down quietly.

Fu Xueli came over to comfort her, "It's okay, little one, Song Yifan is just used to being naughty, don't worry."

Xu Yan nodded, not getting angry, and whispered, "I don't mind."

Actually, it wasn't a big deal since she had a good temper.

After a while, the two people behind dragged their feet to stand up.

"Teacher, I and Xie Ci are illiterates, can you let us off?"

Song Yifan acted arrogantly, still talking nonsense.

The Chinese teacher gave them a stare, "Read if you have to, why all these useless words? Xie Ci, start first."

Xu Yan leaned on the wall with his shoulders slumped, brought the book in front of his eyes and scanned it lazily before continuing to read: "Fen Xiao Xiao Xi..."

At these words, the entire class burst into laughter.

The Chinese teacher glared angrily: "Are you done? Read it properly!"

Xu Yan lowered her head and looked at the Chinese textbook, not laughing. She felt embarrassed by the person behind her purposely reading it this way.

Sigh.

She felt a little tired.

After a pause, Song Yifan's weird tone made Xu Yan wake up and continue to hold the pen and listen attentively.

Finally, after two Chinese language classes, the last class was a self-study class.

Ten minutes after class, all kinds of ghosts and monsters were making noise, and the desks and benches were moved and noisy by a group of boys.

Xu Yan opened a courseware material with annotations in Classical Chinese and prepared to copy the interpretations of some key sentences in the new course.

After writing for a while, the bell for class rang. Everyone returned to their original positions and those who went to the bathroom ran back to the classroom from the corridor.

Fu Xueli had been sleeping since the second class.

Xu Yan took the book she had put on the table and helped her move a copy of the notes up.

The self-study class was generally quiet, with occasional noises.

"Hey, switch positions." Xie Ci suddenly spoke.

Song Yifan was puzzled and said, "What for?"

Xie Ci kicked him and said, "Hurry up, don't talk so much nonsense."

Then there was a stir as the two of them moved around.

Xu Yan paused for a moment and relaxed her mind after making sure nothing happened.

She quietly worked on her homework for over ten minutes.

Suddenly, her bench was kicked and a voice came from behind saying, "Hey, do you have my physics homework?"

Xu Yan's heart sank.

Not knowing how to answer and not wanting to bother others by explaining, she pretended not to hear and continued taking notes.

After a while.

She was kicked twice on her bench.

Xu Yan straightened her back and continued writing her homework after he was finished kicking.

Song Yifan cast meaningful glances at her repeatedly.

Xu Yan's expression remained rigid and she ignored them.

Until suddenly, her bench was hooked by someone's foot and was dragged backward harshly.

A series of grating noises startled her and she hurriedly grabbed onto the table edge.

Everyone around them cast an astonished glance, waking up Fu Xueli in the process.

Xu Yan finally couldn't help but turn around, not daring to look at him, she lowered her head and muttered quietly.

"Classmate, your physics homework, I..."

"You what?"

"I don't know what to do."

"Get your book here."

Xie Ci looked down at her from above.

"What?" Xu Yan stunned.

"Physics book."

"Ah?"

Xie Ci leaned back on the chair, raised his chin slightly and raised his eyebrows: "I told you what questions to do."