Thinking about this, Xue Jiao took out her phone and sent—

“Thank you, the problem is solved. You’re so smart!”

The reply came quickly again, making her feel as if the other person was very free—

“A childish solution—an indirect approach.”

Xue Jiao: “…”

She quickly sent—

“Alright, alright, then as an adult, if you encountered something like this, how would you solve it?”

Her phone vibrated, and the other person replied—

“I would never encounter such a problem.”

Gu Xue Jiao: “…”

The other person followed with another message—

“Little girl, now that the problem is solved, you should focus on your studies.”

Xue Jiao looked out the window and let out a breath.

Right! She should study. This matter had already wasted quite a bit of her time. She needed to catch up over the next two days!

With a few minutes left before reaching school, Xue Jiao took out her vocabulary notebook with unfamiliar and confusing words from the recent monthly English test and began to memorize them again.

——

“Well, you’re here? Have you written your self-criticism?” Yi Tian Yu raised his eyebrows with a gloating smile.

But who knows how happy he was!

After Xue Jiao left yesterday, Yi Tian Yu sat listlessly in his seat, his eyes practically glued to her spot until evening.

This morning, he even miraculously got up half an hour early!

It scared his father, who thought he had taken the wrong medicine.

Since sitting here this morning, he had been wondering when Xue Jiao would arrive. Had she been beaten again? Would she even come today? All kinds of troubling questions.

But when she arrived, the first words out of his mouth were gloating!

Xue Jiao gave him a cold look but didn’t mind. “I didn’t write it.”

“You didn’t write it?!” Yi Tian Yu widened his eyes and hurriedly moved closer to her. “You didn’t write it?!”

“Why should I write it when I did nothing wrong?” Xue Jiao narrowed her eyes slightly and shifted her body away from Yi Tian Yu who was leaning in.

He immediately forgot about the self-criticism and raised his voice. “Why are you avoiding me? Do you find me repulsive?!”

“Men and women should maintain proper distance.”

Yi Tian Yu was stunned for a moment, then his lips curled into a strange smile. He placed one hand on her desk and the other on her chair, surrounding her as if she were in his embrace, then leaned closer… closer…

Xue Jiao tilted desperately to one side, almost falling over.

Yi Tian Yu continued to move closer, closer to her ear: “I’m just getting closer… what can you do about it?”

Xue Jiao glared at him angrily. In her current position, she didn’t dare move—one move and she would lose balance and fall. She could only grit her teeth: “Yi Tian Yu!”

“What are you two doing?” a voice suddenly appeared behind them.

Yi Tian Yu sat up straight almost instinctively, and Xue Jiao slowly returned to her original position.

“Nothing!” Yi Tian Yu spoke up.

Xi Jun Yang approached them and asked suspiciously, “If it’s nothing, why are your ears red?”

Yi Tian Yu was embarrassed and angry, like a bristling cat: “Whose ears are red! Who’s red!”

Xi Jun Yang looked even more suspicious: “Why are you so nervous?”

“Get lost already—”

Xi Jun Yang gave him a cold look, then turned to Xue Jiao: “Xue Jiao, how’s it going? Did you resolve it?”

“Yes, it’s resolved. Thank you for earlier in the office.”

Xi Jun Yang hurriedly waved his hand: “No, I didn’t do much. I’m glad it’s resolved!”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Yi Tian Yu widened his eyes in disbelief. “Who are you thanking?!”

Xue Jiao smiled: “Classmate Xi, class is about to start. You should get back to your seat.”

“Alright then. Remember to tell me if you need anything.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it!” Xi Jun Yang said as he gently reached out and ruffled her hair before leaving with a smile.

Yi Tian Yu’s eyes were wide open, his gaze turning into daggers, staring fixedly at Xi Jun Yang’s hand.

Xue Jiao put down her backpack and then took out the books she needed from the drawer. Yi Tian Yu was so angry he was scratching the wall.

This girl must be stupid!

Yesterday it was him who had been helping her all along! Yet she only thanked Xi Jun Yang, who did nothing at all?!

Yi Tian Yu wanted to say something, but it felt like he would be showing off his good deeds. He sat in his seat fidgeting, uncomfortable no matter how he positioned himself.

After a moment, a slender, fair hand reached out and placed something on Yi Tian Yu’s desk.

A round lollipop wrapped in white paper.

He was stunned, then foolishly opened the paper. There were only two words on it—”Thank you.”

Followed by a smiley face. Although this smile consisted of only three curved lines, it looked very sweet.

He looked at the smile, then at the girl sitting upright beside him, reciting her lessons.

Yi Tian Yu smiled.

See that? She gave him candy!

Just for him!

Xi Jun Yang got nothing!

It was unique!

Yi Tian Yu carefully wrapped the lollipop back in the paper and carefully placed it in his pocket, in the spot closest to his skin.

——

“Gu Xue Jiao! Come out!” Yin Fang called from the doorway.

Yi Tian Yu was stunned for a moment, then nudged her arm: “Hey, she must be asking for your self-criticism! What will you do? You haven’t written it!”

Xue Jiao frowned, shook her head at Yi Tian Yu, and walked out.

“Self-criticism letter?” Sure enough, those were the first three words out of Yin Fang’s mouth.

Having been a high school homeroom teacher for many years, she always maintained a stern face that was very intimidating.

Xue Jiao bit her lower lip and looked up: “I didn’t do anything wrong, so I won’t write a self-criticism.”

Yin Fang laughed angrily: “Hitting someone isn’t wrong?”

“I didn’t hit anyone,” Xue Jiao paused, “My classmates have already testified for me…”

“You did use your hands,” Yin Fang was stubborn. “Even if you were just covering her mouth, you still used your hands. Besides, all the classmates were watching you two at that time, not studying. You disrupted them. Don’t you need to write a self-criticism for that?”

Xue Jiao remained silent, but her eyes were equally stubborn.

For some reason, Yin Fang suddenly remembered yesterday’s slap…

And so, her expression softened.

“Let’s do this. I see your grades have improved a lot, and you’re attentive in class. If you can rank among the top thirty in the midterm exam, you won’t need to submit a self-criticism. If you can’t achieve that, you must submit it now!”

“Okay.” Xue Jiao replied almost without hesitation.

Yin Fang was taken aback and looked at her suspiciously. Xue Jiao simply allowed her to look.

“If you agree but fail to achieve it, you’ll have to write two self-criticism letters!” “Fine.”

Yin Fang: “…”

“Then keep your word,” she finally said.

Xue Jiao nodded. She still believed in her abilities.

“Where is Cheng Ming Jiao?” Yin Fang asked.

“I don’t know.”

Xue Jiao answered decisively. Yin Fang frowned. Cheng Ming Jiao was a top student in her class, and her status in Yin Fang’s heart was completely different from Xue Jiao’s.

“You two are not allowed to argue in the classroom anymore. If I catch you again, it won’t be this simple!”

Xue Jiao didn’t say anything.

She believed that she didn’t want to argue, but she couldn’t speak for Cheng Ming Jiao.

Yin Fang’s brow was deeply furrowed as she looked at Xue Jiao’s unyielding demeanor, her face showing a headache.

“Fine, fine, you can go back.”

“Okay.” Xue Jiao nodded and returned to the classroom.

Yin Fang shook her head and turned back to the office.

In Class 1, Grade 2:

“Hey, how did Teacher Yin punish you?” Yi Tian Yu leaned closer.

Xue Jiao took out her pen and continued with her previous exercises, casually saying: “She didn’t punish me.”

“Impossible!” Yi Tian Yu didn’t believe it. “Would Teacher Yin be that reasonable?”

Xue Jiao finally looked up: “Because I promised her I’d rank in the top thirty of our class for the midterm, so please don’t disturb me!”

Yi Tian Yu widened his eyes: “Top thirty in the class?! Are you crazy?!”

His voice was a bit loud, causing several classmates in front to turn around. Xue Jiao quickly pinched him: “Yi Yu, I beg you to lower your voice, okay?!”

Yi Tian Yu: “…” Yi Yu???

“What kind of weird nickname is that…”

Xue Jiao ignored him and continued reading.

Yi Tian Yu saw how serious she was and didn’t dare disturb her, only daring to steal glances at her.

This girl dared to promise to rank in the top thirty of the class. That’s equivalent to the top one hundred in the grade!

That’s really…

That’s really…

Good job!

What fighting spirit!

——

Meanwhile, in the teachers’ office:

“Teacher Yin? What are you thinking about?” A Chinese language teacher next to her called out to the distracted Yin Fang.

This Teacher Yin was strict with her students and equally strict with herself. Every day was spent preparing lessons, grading assignments, and supervising students… it was rare to see her lost in thought.

Today was like the sun rising from the west.

“Gu Xue Jiao…” Yin Fang came back to her senses and spoke instinctively.

“Huh?” This Chinese teacher taught Classes 1 and 2, so of course, she knew Gu Xue Jiao.

At this moment, a student approached the Class 2 homeroom teacher’s desk across from them, but the conversation between Yin Fang and the Chinese teacher continued.

“Yesterday Gu Xue Jiao and Cheng Ming Jiao got into a fight, right? I asked them to write self-criticism letters. Gu Xue Jiao refused, so I said if she didn’t write one, she would have to rank in the top thirty for the midterm exam. She agreed!” Yin Fang said in bewilderment.

“What? She agreed?!” The Chinese teacher was also shocked. Even the Class 2 homeroom teacher across from them looked up at them.

Although Gu Xue Jiao was in Class 1, the Class 2 homeroom teacher knew her too. The two homeroom teachers were highly competitive, and when the classes were first divided, Yin Fang often complained that Gu Xue Jiao only scored this much or that much in the previous semester’s final exam, saying how much she dragged down the class…

Naturally, the Class 2 homeroom teacher had a deep impression of her.

“She agreed. Today’s kids are…” Yin Fang sighed helplessly.

The Class 2 homeroom teacher smiled: “Yin Fang, maybe she has the confidence to say such things!”

Yin Fang could hear the mockery in his words and glared at him: “My class has too many underperformers. Not like your class, where even those who got in through connections have decent grades!”

“Hehe, well, we drew lots, and I just had good luck!”

There were nine students admitted through connections in total, and the school didn’t know how to distribute them fairly, so they drew lots. The Class 2 homeroom teacher drew five of them, but all five had quite good grades—at least they could be salvaged.

“I have a good impression of Gu Xue Jiao. This girl is attentive in class, her handwriting is neat, and she always prepares for my Chinese lessons in advance!” The Chinese teacher said with a smile. She recalled that girl who sat upright, holding her head high to look at the blackboard, and indeed had quite a good impression.

“Sigh, high school is like this. Some people are smart and can do well with minimal effort, while others work extremely hard but still only achieve average results.”

As Yin Fang spoke, her gaze shifted to the girl beside the Class 2 homeroom teacher. She paused for a moment, somewhat sourly: “Both are surnamed Gu, how is it that your Gu Shi Yun in Class 2 has such good grades!”

The Class 2 homeroom teacher smiled: “Hehe, Student Gu Shi Yun is indeed hardworking.”

Yin Fang continued sourly: “And she’s second in the grade again. Why isn’t she in my class… Gu Shi Yun, would you like to come to Class 1?”