Li Qiuchen had no idea what Boss Tang and Zhang Shaoyao were scheming behind his back and even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.
It wasn't as though they ant him any harm.
Whatever was said and whatever gas were played, he had not the slightest romantic feeling for Miss Tang Xiaoxue.
She was genuinely adorable, that much was true, but adorable was all she was.
What kind of degenerate would develop feelings for a perfectly straight little stick of kindling?
To be entirely honest, Li Qiuchen had a type. He liked them... larger.
Not enormously so, but just enough to suggest a healthy and well-developed figure, the kind of older sister whose presence filled a room in a very natural way.
People's tastes all differed. So perpetually single souls had suppressed themselves to the point where anything would do.
Li Qiuchen, on the other hand, was quite particular. His affections were focused and specific. He liked a loose-fitting T-shirt with sothing to show up front, worn without anything underneath.
Or perhaps a round-neck sweater that had sothing happening in front but not in back. An apron would also work.
The key was that it had to be loose and unrestrained but he was getting far off topic. On such an important day as this, he really shouldn't be thinking about such nonsense.
The main thing was that after so many years, well, after an entire lifeti, he was sitting once again in a bright and spacious classroom. Li Qiuchen felt genuinely a little stirred inside, and his mind inevitably wandered.
Outside the snow and ice had not yet thawed. Inside the classroom, a coal brazier was burning. It wasn't particularly cold, but it wasn't particularly warm either.
The teacher responsible for the class was standing at the front, unhurriedly going through various rules and points of notice.
This included an explanation of why the county school had underfloor heating channels available but chose not to use them, which was simply to keep students from falling asleep in class.
If you were cold, you could wear more layers underneath, but nothing could be worn over the standard uniform. Only the regulation style of school robe was permitted inside the county school.
Though the inner hall did accept female students, n and won were required to sit separately, with no communication between them except where strictly necessary.
After going through several dozen rules and regulations, the teacher began calling nas one by one.
"Chen Nansheng!"
He started directly from the top of the First List.
"Present!"
"Good. The opportunity that brought you to the inner hall was hard-won. Work hard and make progress. Do not disappoint what your teachers expect of you."
"Understood!"
"Liu Huai'an!"
"Present!"
"Sa for you. Treasure this opportunity. Unlike Chen Nansheng, you are fond of showing off your cleverness. You pick up good habits quickly, and bad ones just as fast. Keep yourself in check."
"Understood."
It appeared that the top two nas on the First List had both risen from the outer hall entirely on their own rits.
"Li Qiuchen!"
Hearing his na, Li Qiuchen quickly rose and bowed.
The teacher frowned and looked at him with so puzzlent, "Why are you sitting so far back? Co to the front."
The seating in the classroom had been chosen freely when everyone filed in. The female students had naturally clustered together toward the back. Li Qiuchen himself had no strong preference for front or back, but had sat just ahead of Miss Tang Xiaoxue and Hu Caiyi in order to look after them, so that if his young miss happened to doze off, he could provide so cover.
"To answer the teacher, it makes no difference to
where I sit."
The teacher responsible for this year's new students was surnad Qin, a white-haired scholar in his fifties who appeared to be anything but rigid in temperant. He was in fact remarkably careful and thorough, and had already familiarized himself with the background of every student before the roll call even began.
Upon hearing Li Qiuchen's reply, Master Qin raised his head and gave him a look, then let his gaze fall on the two little girls behind him who were craning their necks with curiosity. After a brief mont of thought, he asked bluntly, "Have you co here to study, or to serve as soone's manservant?"
Li Qiuchen answered with his head bowed, "This student cos from a poor family and was only able to enroll through another's sponsorship."
Master Qin said, "You placed in the top three of the First List with excellent scores. Your tuition can be waived. Do not let the stench of money corrupt the integrity of a scholar."
Li Qiuchen shook his head, "If I were to forget the kindness done to
over a few taels of silver, that would be the true corruption of integrity."
Master Qin gave a noncommittal nod, said "Conduct yourself well," and paid him no further attention.
At this point Li Qiuchen still thought Master Qin was putting on sothing of a performance.
I placed in the top three and you're telling
I'm corrupting my integrity. What would you have said if I hadn't placed in the top three?
He would have the answer to that question very shortly.
When addressing the top three students just now, Master Qin had kept his tone asured and calm. From the fourth na onward, his tone gradually intensified, escalating from pointed sarcasm to outright verbal attack.
And he targeted specifically the aspects of each student that they would be most ashad to have exposed, tearing into them without the slightest rcy.
When it ca to Miss Tang Xiaoxue's na, what he said was, "A savage barbarian from beyond the pale, covered in scales and horns, you think a vile and grotesque thing like you dares enter the gates of my school?"
What was that?
Miss Tang Xiaoxue looked completely baffled, not having understood a single word of it.
Master Qin looked at those clear and guileless eyes and couldn't even be bothered to say a second sentence. He simply waved his hand and told her to sit down.
Sixty-fourth on the First List was, in practical terms, the very bottom of the barrel, with the Second List starting directly below.
The Second List students could only eat the exhaust fus from the very rear of the vehicle.
Facing the underachievers of the Second List, Master Qin dispensed with even the most basic pretense of decorum, opening his mouth to go back eighteen generations of ancestry as a starting point.
When it ca to Hu Caiyi's turn, her face had already gone pale. She hadn't even risen from her seat before Master Qin's voice landed, "Brazen little demon creature! A mangy half-ford beast who can't even complete her own transformation, what right do you have to sit here and receive instruction? Get out! Go ho and have your father skin you and make
a pair of insoles!"
Hu Caiyi let out a wail and burst into tears.
The shock startled a fluffy tail straight out of her, standing as rigid as a rod.
Master Qin's eyes went wide and fierce, and he raised his hand and flung the disciplinary ruler at her.
The ruler was flying straight toward Hu Caiyi's forehead when Li Qiuchen reached out and caught it, "Please calm yourself, Teacher!"
Master Qin glanced at him, said nothing, and continued calling the next na.
Top students truly did receive preferential treatnt.
The Second List students all sat with their necks drawn in, trembling with dread, wishing they could cover their ears entirely. Even so, none of them could escape Master Qin's rciless verbal assault.
Until a chubby little boy by the na of Zeng Mingming was reached. Li Qiuchen rembered this child. He was the one who had pointed at Hu Caiyi on the day of the examination and shouted at his mother to buy him one.
This child was a troublemaker.
Master Qin had barely gotten two sentences out before Zeng Mingming kicked his desk over with one foot, pointed straight at Master Qin's nose, and shouted back, "Who do you think you're talking to? What gives you the right to throw your weight around at ? Would you dare talk like this if my dad were here? Watch him smash you flat, you old fool..."
Before he could finish, Master Qin crossed three zhang of distance in a single stride, snatched the disciplinary ruler back from Li Qiuchen's hand, stepped in front of Zeng Mingming, and brought it down on his head with a sharp crack.
The ruler did not break. Zeng Mingming was sent flying on the spot.
"Aaah! Aaah! Aaahh!"
Zeng Mingming had not anticipated for even a mont that Master Qin, looking every bit his age, would suddenly unleash violence. Cornered against the wall, he took a thorough beating, his cries of pain rising without pause.
The shock was enough to scare Hu Caiyi's tears and tail both back into hiding.
The beating went on for more than thirty strokes. Only when Zeng Mingming had curled into a ball and could no longer produce a sound did Master Qin return to the front of the room and call the next student's na.
Below the platform, not a single sound could be heard. Every student sat frozen in silence.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
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