Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Tuesday, August 15th.
It was officially the second day of the summer break.
Which of the summer breaks in the three years of high school was the most relaxing? It was naturally the first year, which didn’t have the pressure of choosing courses and cram school in the second year, nor the tension of the last spurt before the college entrance exam in the third year.
The first year was the year of the salted fish 1 , and it was never like that again in the second and third years. But Wang Ling’s summer break was even more idle and relaxing compared with other people’s. The most common thing for students during the summer break was to attend cram school. For kids in the elite class in particular, if they wanted to put up a front as top students, they had to work hard behind the scenes.
Before the start of the summer break, everything had already been fully arranged for Super Chen, Dopey Guo and Little Peanut by their parents.
But in the first week of the summer break, Teacher Pan sent a message in the parents’ group chat requesting that parents of elite students not arrange any extracurricular lessons for their kids in the first week…
“Conspiracy! It has to be a conspiracy!”
In a chat group called “Ocean of Salted Fish,” Super Chen posted a screencap of Teacher Pan’s message in the parents’ chat, which his mother had sent to him.
“This Old Pan has to be a fake…” Little Peanut quickly replied.
After a semester of familiarizing themselves with the character of teacher-in-charge Pan Shengcong, everyone was more or less aware of what her personality was like. Old Pan wasn’t one to be moved by force or persuasion, and was especially strict when it came to the students’ learning. The one basic condition for negotiating with Old Pan was that as long as the students didn’t neglect their studies, everything else was open to discussion.
However, this type of strict teacher-in-charge was now asking parents not to arrange any lessons for their kids in the first week of the summer break – there was no way they believed that!
“When the dogs lick up all the flour, the pigeons finish pecking the rice, and the fire melts all the locks… only then Old Pan will assign us less than ten sets of exercises.” Super Chen said, “Don’t you think there’s something fishy about this?”
“I think I might know why.”
At that time, Dopey Guo said, “Do you know that this year, No. 60 High is conducting the assessment for transfer students during the summer break? I heard that the number of transfer applications this year is thirty times more than in previous years.”
Super Chen and Little Peanut were startled. “Thirty times more??”
Dopey Guo nodded his head. “That’s right. Some say it’s because of Senior Odd Zhuo, some say it’s for Lotus Sun.”
Super Chen: “Of course! They are the face of our school! It’s not like they’d come for you or Wang Ling, right?”
Wang Ling: “…”
Not long after this discussion in the group chat, a new message notification suddenly sounded in Grade One, Class Three’s class chat.
Super Chen: “Damn! Old Pan @’ed everyone!”
When Super Chen sent this, Wang Ling already saw several messages pop up in the class group chat.
Tapping open the class chat, the first sentence he saw was an extremely unusual greeting from Old Pan: “Dear students…”
Super Chen: “Old Pan, don’t scare us!”
Dopey Guo: “Old Pan… if you want to assign exercises, just do it. Don’t be like this, I’m scared.”
Little Peanut: “Old Pan, I just finished the exercises at home yesterday… If you give us any more, my liver won’t be able to take it; I’m used to finishing all my summer homework before taking a break.”
When Little Peanut said that, Wang Ling took a glance at the monster pen and goblin eraser working at the table.
A thick stack of Dao talisman exercises were piled up on his table, and these were just the ones assigned by Old Pan; when they were completed and stacked up on the table, they could bury a person inside them.
Pen: “Lord Master, rest assured, we’ve already completed 78% of your summer homework.”
Eraser: “Estimated time of completion is two hours!”
Teacher Pan would be very gratified to know that some of the kids had already finished the homework.
As a gold-class teacher at No. 60 High and a legendary teaching pioneer, Teacher Pan was worthy of her reputation. She smiled faintly, then swiftly replied, “Look at Student Little Peanut. All of you are my students, but why is he the only one to finish all the homework in one night? This shows that you’re not as hard-working as he is! And ask yourself honestly, did I really give you a lot of homework? My exercises are only enough to fill a storage bag! A storage bag! Twenty grams! Lighter than an egg! Don’t talk nonsense in the class chat! I’ve always followed the policy of lightening your burden, as requested by our leaders!”
Everyone: “…”
Teacher Pan: “Dear students, I’m already very good to you! The batch of seniors before you had brocade pouches that weighed a hundred grams! Oh, by the way, this is a reminder to all of you not to try and copy someone else’s homework. The homework I assigned has an automatic recollection array in them which records down completed homework answers. If there is any sign of copying, I’ll be able to detect it. The list of home visits for the summer break this year hasn’t been fixed yet – anyone who copies homework will go on the list!”
Everyone: “…”
Teacher Pan cleared her throat and then sent a voice message to the group. “Back to the main point: what I’m going to talk about is also part of your summer homework, and is a practicum.”
“A practicum?”
“All of you have already been at No. 60 High School for a whole semester. There are five more semesters to graduation, which is also another 4000 chapters to go.”
“…”
“I believe all of you should have already heard that there are some transfer students joining our No. 60 High in the second semester. This time, we’re using a merit-based enrolment approach: regardless of family background, we’ll only select students who perform outstandingly during the assessment. Apart from their performance in the test paper, the battle interview is also an important assessment criterion.”
“…”
Hearing that, the sixteen people in the class group chat were deathly quiet, and Wang Ling instinctively had a bad feeling.
“You know, I’ll still be busy marking your final exam papers. When I’m done with that, I still have to contact the parents of those who didn’t do well and pay them a visit, I’m so busy…”
“…”
“And so, everyone will stand in as examiners for the battle interview this time!”
“…”
“Of course, as your affable teacher-in-charge, I’ll personally arrange the venue for you! Aren’t you touched?!”
“…”
“The battle interview this time will be in 2v2 mode, and during the battle, you will need to demonstrate the ultimate killing move which you researched at the summer camp.”
Hearing this, some of them already understood; while on the surface, this looked like an exam interview to test the strength of transfer students, it was in fact testing the No. 60 High students…
“The exam interview will begin the day after tomorrow. As students of the elite class, please be at school on time at eight in the morning to draw lots. Latecomers will get five marks deducted from their final exam. For those who don’t show up, it’s sixty-one marks off.”
“…”
Speaking up to this point, Teacher Pan felt that she might be too harsh, and sent a red packet to the group. “This is a red packet to comfort you all! Actually, this teacher loves you all very dearly!”
“…”
Wang Ling tapped it open.
Hm…
It was a 1 HNY red packet…
Divided into ninety-nine parts…
