Li Fugui: "Teacher Wang, there’s no use getting so worked up. You used to be the homeroom teacher for the Physics and Chemistry track. Tan You wants to major in biomedical engineering, so she’s bound to choose Physics and Biology. She’ll end up my student regardless. It’s pointless to argue about it now."
Teacher Wang wasn’t taking the bait. "Her chemistry grades are that good. Why can’t she pick a different major?"
Seeing the two were about to start bickering again, Principal Hu rubbed his forehead. "Alright, let’s call the student, Tan You, in here and ask her what she thinks. There’s no use in you two fighting. We have to respect the student’s own wishes."
Li Fugui said, "I’ll go get her."
Principal Hu stopped him. "Let Dean Yin go. He’s a teacher from Class 4, so he’s impartial."
Li Fugui pursed his lips. "Fine. Dean Yin, Tan You is the girl to the right of the podium. You’ll spot her the second you walk in. She’s the one who’s exceptionally fair-skinned and pretty."
Teacher Wang tried to stir up trouble. "You put her in that seat? That’s the spot reserved for problem students."
Li Fugui calmly replied, "Her eyesight isn’t great, so she asked to sit there herself. It’s not like I’m playing favorites."
’Alright, he had to admit he was biased. But who could blame him? Tan You had great grades and knew how to carry herself. It was only natural for a teacher to show a little favoritism.’
As Dean Yin arrived at Class 3, he was still wondering, ’Exceptionally fair-skinned, exceptionally pretty... what exactly qualifies as exceptionally pretty?’ But the moment he glanced into the classroom, his eyes were instinctively drawn to the girl sitting to the right of the podium.
She was so fair she was practically glowing. No matter who looked, she was the first person they saw.
Upon seeing Dean Yin, the students, who had been busy with their morning reading, all fell silent. Dean Yin knocked on the classroom door. "Tan You, could you come here for a moment?"
Tan You looked up at him, then put down her pen and walked out without a word.
The moment she left, the students lost all interest in their morning reading.
"I heard the class president got first in the grade, and Class 1 is fighting to get her."
"For real? First in the grade? What was her score?"
"I think she only lost 9 points in total. The person in second place was over two hundred points behind her!"
"They were already arguing about it in the teachers’ office last night."
"No wonder Teacher Lin called the class president away so early yesterday."
"The class president scored that high?"
"I heard the class president used to have really good grades but got sidetracked by reading novels."
"Our class president is just too amazing, isn’t she?"
"..."
"..."
Following the dean to the principal’s office, Tan You was perfectly calm. ’She didn’t need to be a genius to figure out what this was about. What else could it be but the matter of which class she’d be in?’
Therefore, once they were in the office and the principal asked for her opinion, Tan You answered without a single stutter, "I plan to study biomedical engineering, so I’ll definitely choose physics and biology. It seems Teacher Wang and I just aren’t fated to be teacher and student."
The smile on Li Fugui’s face instantly bloomed. Teacher Wang tried to make one last push. "Is there no room for negotiation? Many other majors have very promising futures."
"I’m sorry," Tan You said diplomatically. "I have great respect for all the teachers, and I’m grateful that Teacher Wang thinks so highly of me. However, my ambition is to become a biological researcher, so I’m afraid I have to decline his kind offer."
"Sigh, I don’t blame you." With Tan You having put it so clearly, what could Teacher Wang do? He was a magnanimous person by nature. "Just letting Old Li snatch up such a prize for free."
Li Fugui, for his part, dropped his earlier combative stance and took the olive branch. "I said it before. This is fate. Tan You was destined to be my student."
Old Wang shrugged. "Old Ding, I’ve tragically lost such an outstanding student. You have to buy me a drink tonight."
Old Ding was the PE teacher who had originally recorded Tan You’s scores. Hearing this, he could only nod. "Fine, I’ll buy you a drink tonight."
Li Fugui chuckled happily. "It’s fine. Old Ding, you have plans for tonight. I’ll treat you to dinner tomorrow night, and we can all have a good time."
Teacher Ding was a bit flustered. ’Did I just offend Teacher Wang, only to get roped in with Teacher Li a moment later? Ah, life is just so unpredictable.’
As they left the office, Tan You deliberately lagged a few steps behind. Li Fugui glanced at her. "Something you want to tell me?"
"Yes, there is. I’d like to ask for permission to visit the ninth-grade section during the lunch break." Tan You thought of her old homeroom teacher from junior high, Old Tang. "My ninth-grade homeroom teacher, Teacher Tang, was really good to me. He was very disappointed when I did poorly on my high school entrance exam, and I want to go see him."
Her words softened him. "Alright. I’ll give you a copy of the results sheet later for you to take to him. Turning shame into courage—that’s a good thing."
Tan You smiled. "Thank you, Teacher Li. I’ll treat you to a meal sometime."
With that, she walked past Li Fugui and was inside the classroom in a couple of long strides. Li Fugui glanced at her long legs and muttered, "’What’s so great about having long legs?’"
Old Wang snorted with laughter and slung an arm around Li Fugui’s shoulder. "Stop acting all put-upon after getting such a great deal. That poor girl... she should have been my student..."
Li Fugui shook his arm off. "Don’t be so handsy. It sets a bad example."
"What bad example? Wait for me!"
The moment Tan You stepped into the classroom, she was baptized by everyone’s stares. Her English teacher waved at her. "Hurry back to your seat. You did very well on the exam. Keep it up."
"If our class president keeps it up, she’ll be walking on air!"
"Those scores are enough to make anyone despair!"
A boy in the back row yelled out, followed by a wave of laughter in the classroom. Clearly, in that short amount of time, word of Tan You’s scores had spread to everyone.
The English teacher just smiled, unbothered. "Alright, let’s start the morning reading. We’ll have a vocabulary quiz for the last twenty minutes of the period."
It seemed like all high school English teachers were incredibly stylish. Take Tan You’s teacher, for example: she had a very fashionable perm with large curls, and her style of dress was full of personality.
While she didn’t wear heavy makeup, her look was filled with meticulous details and thoughtful little touches.
The moment the morning reading period ended, the score sheet for the first-year placement exam was posted in the display case outside. Tan You already knew her results, so she didn’t bother looking. The other students, however, all rushed over excitedly. When they returned, they stared at Tan You as if she were some kind of deity.
The athletics representative wiped his face. "I thought our class president was just pretty. I never expected her grades to be this good. Suddenly, she feels totally out of my league."
"I looked at the individual subject scores. The class president seems to be first in the grade for every single subject."
"Math was so hard, how did the class president get a perfect score? I don’t get it!"
During the ten-minute break between classes, it wasn’t just her classmates who were talking. Students were constantly passing by in the hallway outside. The more outgoing ones would directly ask which one was Tan You, while the shyer ones would just steal a quick glance from the doorway.
Tan You felt like a monkey in a zoo exhibit. This was especially true when it was time for the school-wide morning exercises. The moment she followed the other students onto the athletic field, practically every single head turned to look at her in unison.
If she were a sweet potato, she would have been roasted by now.