Shanhai High School 16
Little Teacher Lin’s cram school was a class with quality and conscience.
Young Master Ji was already famous in ShanHai, coupled with Lin Jing’s exaggeration that seemed to be quite an excessively force blow, by the time the school was over in the afternoon, Ji XingLing’s mighty deeds of “study for ten minutes before the exam, and the result suddenly soaring by a hundred points after the exam” was spreading like wildfire throughout the grade, and, what’s more, the rumor tended to become more and more uproarious.
“Ji XingLing can get the result of four hundred in the exam just by a slight bit of studying!”
“Ji XingLing can achieve four hundred points in the exam without studying!”
“Ji XingLing can get any hundred scores as long as he wants it!”
“…”
It was so develop, till later on, even Yu YiZhou was a bit baffled, and made a special trip to run over to ask Ji XingLing about it, “Are you making a brand new public image?”
“This public image, I give it to you if you want it?” Ji XingLing propped his head with one hand, not wanting to explain even a word, “Forget it, just shut up ba.”
The next day, Ge Hao reported, “Brother Xing, now everyone is saying that it’s useless to learn from Li MoYuan before the exam. They should learn from you.”
Ji XingLing, “?”
Ge Hao continued to explain, “Because if you want to get President Li’s results, it requires a cumulative process over time, but you are different. You are an overnight instant result.”
The upstart often sounded like they needed to be more time-saving and labor-saving, also a little sudden windfall that descended from the sky, which was in line with the reasonable expectations of the broad masses of people who wanted to gain benefit from it without putting the effort in.
Yu YiZhou, “Hahahahahahahaha…”
Ji XingLing was listless; what the fuck were you laughing at.
Thus it proved that Little Teacher Lin’s after-sales service was too satisfactory, which was also a problem.
After school on Friday, there were 17 or 18 people left in the classroom, half boys and half girls, just as Liu Xu said, they were all active members in the class. They already start chattering while on the way to the barbecue restaurant.
“Hey, have you heard that? Our school is going to change to a new vice-chancellor.”
“Change then change ba. The vice-chancellor doesn’t teach the class himself.”
“But he is from the No.9 High School. The Academic Affairs office of the No.9 High School is super abnormal ba. If nothing else, I think we will have to say goodbye to our smartphones soon.”
There was wailing at the scene, but Lin Jing did not understand, “What happened to the No.9 High School?”
“The No.9 High School and ShanHai are the two best high schools in Jincheng, but the styles on both sides are not the same.” Li MoYuan explained, “The No.9 High School is extremely strict, and in the first year of high school, the students are required to live in the school and, while also have evening self-study classes1, almost semi-militarized, while on the other side, we are a bit more relaxed. But to be honest, ShanHai’s college entrance examination scores in the past two years are not as good as those of the opposite. So maybe the principal from No.9 High School has to transfer to our school to improve the scores.”
“I see ah.” Lin Jing didn’t have much reaction to this. Anyway, whether there was a smartphone or not, it was the same for learning. Even if the management was strict, someone still could also skip a few lessons —although sitting in the classroom didn’t mean that you truly listened. But it could be considered as having received a bit of knowledge, which was beneficial and harmless.
So he asked, “When will the new principal come?”
“After the sports meeting ba.” Luo LinSi butting in, “My dad isn’t quite sure right now, but it should be
pretty much around that time.”
Ji XingLing was still chatting with Yu YiZhou, and didn’t realize that Little Teacher Lin was already planning a new round of tutoring plans with great pride. The newly-opened barbecue restaurant in the back alley was huge. The boss had difficulty walking, as he limped a little while walking. His appearance resembled that upright mafia big brother, as his personality was also very much similar to that respectable mafia big brother attitude. He himself had personally grilled the skewers while shirtless. Furthermore, he also took advantage to clinked a few glasses with the little brothers, when he came to serve the dishes.
“You are all minors ba, so I can’t sell beers to you all, since you are all underage.” With his tongue out, the Boss gulped the beer straight to the bottom at one glance. “It would be best if you obeyed human… No, obey the law, obey the law, and protect the minors. Come on. I’ll give you some squeezed watermelon juice instead.”
Ge Hao shifted closer, and stealthily secretly lowered his voice, “Brother Xing, was he just about to say that he should abide by the laws of mankind?”
Ji XingLing made an “uh-huh” sound, then said, “It’s a one-legged bird.”
Ge Hao asked in surprise, “How do you know it?”
“Guessing.” Ji XingLing said, “There always have one-legged birds nearby school. Before, one just had moved away.”
TuoFei2could help the underage monsters to keep them away from the fight. So the school authorities were also willing to give them preferential policies, which the surrounding good shops were all handed over to this group to operate. It was regarded as mutually beneficial.
There were rather a lot of customers in the restaurant on Friday, and several waiters were extremely busy. Lin Jing, who had kept in mind Liu Xu’s advice that he needed to “make a good relationship with his classmates”, so he voluntarily took on the task of going to the kitchen to rush them up to make and serve the dishes. As soon as Lin Jing lifted the curtain, he was stunned, when he saw a giant downy bird was squatting in the backyard.
“Student, how did you get in here… No, why did you come to the back kitchen?” The boss’ madam appeared quickly, as she affectionately held him on the shoulder and brought him back to the restaurant. “That’s a fresh ostrich which has just been delivered. Do you eat it? If you eat it, I will sharpen the knife right about now.”
The Boss, Tuofei, was drunk, “…”
Lin Jing hastily refused. He thought it was alive and well now, so it was better to raise it for two more days.
Luo LinSi asked curiously, “What are you two talking about?”
“Oh, I just saw an ostrich in the backyard. It’s rather big.” Lin Jing gestured, “It’s bigger than the one in the zoo.”
“Wow!” The girls stood up one after another, “Let’s go see it too.”
The boss’ madam, “?”
She hurriedly blocked the door, “Better not ba, Xiao Sun, Xiao Sun, hurry up and secure the damn bird which is your dad… bought, and don’t let it bite the students!”
Xiao Sun, who seemed to be only seven or eight years old, was leaning on the back of the cash register while doing his homework. He was foolish-lookingly and was slow to act. Before he walked to the backyard with his short legs, a few boys in the class who liked Luo LinSi had already helped and swarmed the girls to burst through towards the madam’s blockade. It was to show that everyone just needed to watch and leave everything to the boys, who could undertake all the things, with our (the boys) protection, there was no problem even if ten ostriches had rushed over.
When Ji XingLing came back from the bathroom, and found the seat was half empty, he inexplicably asked, “Where have the people gone?”
“They went to see an ostrich in the backyard.” Lin Jing pointed at the back, “It’s a big one, but it looks a little strange. Do you want to see it too ma?”
Ji XingLing, “…”
Wocao!
He ran off at once to the backyard, only to bump right into Yu YiZhou, who was just walking back from the backyard. The other party gave a piteous cried, while squatting on the ground, and clutching his nose, with tears that were about to burst out, “Why the fuck are you going looking at an ostrich so enthusiastically?”
Young Master Ji couldn’t care less about comforting Hupeng-gouyou3for the time being, so he continued to run outside the door to see, when he stepped into the yard and found it that it was really an ostrich, which was standing motionless, and its eyes both blurred with sleep, also had two muscular, strong solid legs.
…
Fortunately, it was merely a false alarm.
When he returned to the restaurant’s private room, Yu YiZhou was covered with the ice pack. His voice was trembling, with an expression that was complicated and not easy to express succinctly, “You really don’t care about me. Did you run to see the ostrich yourself?”
The fragile friendship was once again cruelly tested. The Young Master Ji coughed twice and clapped his two palms together as a symbolic way to apologize. Then he took the time to drag Ge Hao aside, “What’s going on?”
“It’s an ostrich, not a Tuofei.” Ge Hao whispered, “I thought it was the barbecue restaurant owner who drank too much, so I was shocked.”
In the backyard, the boss’ madam looked at the ostrich in front of her, and asked in horror, “Old Sun, you, you, why have you become like this?”
Tuofei Boss was tipsy, “Huh?”
“Did you know that you had turned into an ostrich?”
The boss looked down at himself, feeling perplexed, “What ostrich, am I not still me?”
“But what I see here, you are an ostrich ah!”
“Are you sure you aren’t already reaching an old age that you are dim-sighted?”
“Sun ZhiFu, do you want a divorce!”
A few minutes later, the barrier floating in the air was erratic, then fluttered and was blown away by the wind.
Revealed that boss Tuofei was still that cool single-footed boss, and had not become an edible ostrich.
The boss’ madam breathed a sigh of relief, “…You haven’t changed, but who created the illusion just now?”
“I don’t know ah.” The boss wasn’t fully somber yet, “Which life coach happens to be nearby? You know, the one that has an obligation to protect the physical and mental health of the underage human monster.”
“What human monster, it’s an underage human and an underage monster, so Old Sun, if you ever drink during working hours, our business license will be confiscated, don’t you know it!”
“Yes, yes, yes, I know, I know, I won’t drink, I won’t drink anymore.”
In order to successfully cover this incident, the boss’s madam also specially purchased a batch of expensive ostrich meat online to add to the new menu, to show that they really had this stuff, and the squatting scumbag was not my husband. However, a few days later, Old Sun’s barbecue shop still received a rectification notice from the Office of Industry and Commerce of the Monster Management Committee, which began with the words “According to the public’s anonymous report” and so on and so forth, with the fine needed to be paid up within a three days deadline.
Boss Toufei was furious, “It wasn’t even brought to light. Why should we get fined? Which people who are so bored that need to snitch, I want to complain!”
“Sun ZhiFu, do you have any face that you have the right to complain about? All the fine this time will be deducted from your pocket money!”
“…”
However, fortunately, Old Sun’s barbecue restaurant was good and inexpensive, and the business was booming. The place was booked out early for the November holiday, and it shouldn’t take long to earn back the loss.
The holiday schedule of ShanHai High School has also been posted. Except for the third year of high school, all other grades have eight full vacation days. Ji XingLing was going back to his hometown to celebrate his elders’ birthday, while Lin Jing, who had no plans, intended to seize the time to study, just to make up for the mathematics that had fallen behind.
Ji XingLing couldn’t understand, “You won’t go anywhere? And you will stay at home only, and look at mathematics for eight days?”
Lin Jing, “Is there a problem ma?”
“No problem.” Little Teacher Lin was great, and Little Teacher Lin was fucking awesome.
“Then I’m going home.” Lin Jing packed up the papers, “You go to bed early.”
“Hey, wait a minute.” Ji XingLing stopped him, then rummaged through the drawer for a long time, and finally fished out a ticket, “Didn’t you want to go to Jincheng University to listen to the lecture before ma? I have a ticket for the musical, which is also in the auditorium. I give this to you.”
The musical’s title was “Fairy Mountain Village”, which was said to have fantastic vivid visual effects, and it had recently been so hyped up that it had become so hard to get the ticket. Lin Jing asked, “Why don’t you go?”
“I’m going back to my hometown.” Ji XingLing said, “stay with (maternal) grandpa for a few days.”
“Alright, I won’t insist and take it then, thank you.” Lin Jing used WeChat to transfer the par price to him, “Accept it.”
“This was given to my dad by someone else, and I am not an inter-dealer broker.” Ji XingLing leaned on the table, “Well, you don’t need to pay for it. Count it as you owe me a meal.”
“…Okay then.” Lin Jing held the book, “See you after the National Day holiday.”
Before leaving the house, he added, “Oh, yes, I will send you the homework later. Remember to download and print it out.”
Brother Xing was not only confused, but also said aloud, “What homework?”
“Mathematics and English. The papers that the teacher issued are a bit difficult for you, so I searched for a few suitable sets for you.”
“…It’s too much for me to finish!”
“You only need to finish the one that I assigned to you.”
“What about the homework that Mr. Li and Teacher Ning assigned?”
“I’ll do it. You can come back on the 7th ba, and finish copying them in one night.”
“You honor student, how can you instigate others to copy homework!”
“Ji XingLing, which of your previous homework that you did not make a last-minute copying!”
“…”
“Don’t even think of being lazy!”
Little Teacher Lin’s cram school was a quality class, also a responsible class.
It’s a promise that under Little Teacher Lin’s instruction, he will ensure Ji XingLing would have achieved a result of four hundred. It’s safe, reliable, and trustworthy.
Hu MeiMei, who had used it, had found it to be good and praised it.
Translator's Notes
- In China, some Middle and High schools have this kind of classes at night. Usually, it will last more than 1 hour(from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.). Students are required to stay at school to study. Sometimes they will study by themselves, and sometimes the teachers will have classes or exams. It is called ‘晚自习’ in chinese.
- 橐蜚. tuó fěi. A bird that looks like an owl, which appears in the winter and hides in the summer. It has a human face but only one foot. Wearing its feathers allays one’s fear of thunder and disasters.
- Hupeng-gouyou (狐朋狗友 húpéng-gǒuyǒu) – lit. Fox friend dog companion, it’s an idiom of a pack of rogues or a gang of scoundrels, which means evil associates, depraved company, disreputable friend.
