Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Is there a problem?” Qiao Nan blinked her eyes. “Sister, why are you suddenly so concerned about my studies?”
“I am your sister, is it wrong to be concerned about you?” Qiao Zijin smiled embarrassedly. “Tell me honestly, what did you write for today’s essay?”
“I didn’t write much. If you really care about me, I can tell you. I feel that I did quite well, you don’t need to worry about me. Sister, you need to work hard too.” Qiao Nan smiled. The more Qiao Zijin asked, the more Qiao Nan refused to answer.
“I don’t need you to worry about it.” Qiao Zijin said unappreciatively. “I just wanted to know what you wrote. You can just tell me directly. Won’t that do?”
“Then, Sister, why don’t you tell me what you wrote today? We were given the same question. Shall we discuss?”
Qiao Zijin said a sentence, and Qiao Nan said another. After haggling for a long time, Qiao Zijin did not gather anything useful. Instead, she nearly let the cat out of the bag.
Qiao Zijin did not know what to say. “You are really too much. Just be straight to the point and answer me. Why are you talking crap?”
“When I asked you, you didn’t reply either.”
“Qiao Nan, did you do this on purpose?” Qiao Zijin’s heart was in a flurry.
“Do what on purpose?” Qiao Nan raised her eyebrows and asked Qiao Zijin to make herself clear.
“No, nothing. Forget it if you don’t want to say.” Qiao Zijin could not continue with the conversation any longer. She could not possibly tell Qiao Nan that she had stolen one of her essays and plagiarized it for today’s competition, then asked Qiao Nan if she had written something else or regurgitated that old piece of work.
With nothing in return after trying for a long time, Qiao Zijin was burning with anger inside, yet she could not vent it at Qiao Nan. She could only stamp her feet and left with a pale face.
Qiao Zijin had just left Qiao Nan’s bedroom when Ding Jiayi came looking for Qiao Nan in a fearsome manner. “Did you bully your sister just now?”
“How could I bully Sister? During today’s essay competition, I bumped into her. Coincidentally, we were at the same place. Furthermore, the test question for both junior and senior high school were the same, so Sister came and asked me how I fared. It’s that simple.” Qiao Nan was happy. She bullied Qiao Zijin?
She would be lucky if Qiao Zijin bullied her less.
“It’s really so simple?” She clearly saw Qiao Zijin looking unhappy when she came out of Qiao Nan’s room.
“Yes, it’s that simple. Mom, you can ask Sister if you do not believe what I said. You will surely believe whatever Sister said? If I bullied her, would she not let you know?” It would not be Qiao Zijin if she did not complain.
“That better be. If not, I’ll not let you off.” Ding Jiayi was so protective of Qiao Zijin, like a cow shielding her calf, she scolded Qiao Nan even before anything happened.
Although Ding Jiayi got a reply from Qiao Nan, she still felt uncomfortable. As such, she specially looked for Qiao Zijin to find out more.
Qiao Zijin did not look good when she glanced at Ding Jiayi. “That’s what it is, Mom. I just finished the competition and feel really tired, I would like to take a break.”
“Sure, Mom will not disturb you. Rest well. I’ll call you after preparing the meal.” Seeing that the elder daughter seemed troubled, Ding Jiayi dared not disturb, so she quietly left Qiao Zijin’s room, closing the bedroom door along the way.
Alone in the room, Qiao Nan took out her essay book and opened it.
Qiao Nan touched the page that was missing, her eyes revealing that she was deep in thought.
Yesterday, she suddenly found that she was missing a page in this essay book, as if the page had been torn off.
To prevent from being discovered, the person had torn away the other side of that page as well.
Qiao Nan was not sure who had torn the page. Until today, all her pens were broken, Qiao Nan could not help suspecting that this was the doing of one of her classmates.
After all, during the times when she was in school, her schoolbag was not by her side at all times. There would be opportunity for someone to tear the book.
However, a while ago, Qiao Nan had finally confirmed the person who tore the page of her essay book.
It was not someone else, it was Qiao Zijin.
During today’s competition, Qiao Nan had a great shock when she saw the question. For a while, she hesitated and wondered if the person who tore her book would simply copy her work.
This idea flashed briefly in Qiao Nan’s head, but she decided to use it eventually as she did not see any reason not to, and it was her own essay.
As for the person who would copy her essay, she was too daring!
After putting the essay book away, Qiao Nan sneered. Qiao Zijin always thought that she could continue to bully Qiao Nan. Now, starting from this essay book, Qiao Nan would show Qiao Zijin that this was not so.
During mealtime, Ding Jiayi dared not ask a word. On the contrary, Qiao Dongliang asked his two daughters how they fared in today’s essay writing.
Qiao Nan laughed nonchalantly, “As usual.”
“How about Zijin?”
“Not, not sure.” Qiao Zijin nearly choked on her rice.
Initially, in such a situation, Qiao Zijin wanted to proudly proclaim that she had done very well. However, Qiao Zijin was no longer in the mood now. “Not very sure, it will depend on the Teacher’s views.”
“No anxiety, it is extremely good that you can join the competition this time. It will be great if you receive a prize. If you did not, take it as a learning experience.” Qiao Zijin did not sound confident. Hence, Qiao Dongliang dared not harbor high hopes.
In comparison to the past where the elder daughter did not have any involvement with such activities, he had obviously seen significant improvements.
“Both of you have worked hard, eat more.” Qiao Dongliang lovingly filled the two daughters’ bowls with lots of protein dishes.
Ding Jiayi opened her mouth but did not say a word. She then quickly filled Zijin’s bowls with a few more servings of vegetables with her chopsticks.
While Qiao Zijin felt extremely uneasy, the teacher reading the test essays was in a good mood. The teacher of the high school’s language team held an essay in his hand: “This essay is really good, you all have a look too.”
“Oh, let me take a look. Yes, it’s really quite good.”
“So good?” After reading it once, all the teachers in the Chinese Language team gave a score to the essay based on their criteria. As expected, the final score was good.
“Why don’t we do this?” Set one for the first place, two for the second place, and three for the third place. After picking out six essays, the teacher submitted the list of winners and the respective essays.
After the high school department had finalized this, the junior high school team had almost done so too.
During the last review, something was wrong.
“Why, you see, this essay is for the first place in junior high school, and this is for the second place in senior high school. The similarity of the two is more than 90 percent, but…” When the two essays were placed together to compare, someone immediately saw the problem.
