Zhao Hongxia was startled. A child had gotten hurt right under her nose, and as the supervising adult, she was undeniably responsible.The hand holding her phone began to tremble uncontrollably. Why did it have to be Yuanyuan? Anyone else getting hurt would've been better. Yuanyuan's older sister was a notoriously fearsome girl—so infamous that even the street punks on Wolong Road would take a detour when they saw her.
Seeing Zhao Hongxia's hand shaking as she held her phone, little Yuanyuan walked up, tugged at the hem of Zhao Hongxia's skirt, and looked up to comfort her.
"Teacher, don't panic. It's nothing big. Just put some ice on it first, then dab some medicated powder. Last time I got a bump on my head, that's exactly how my sister handled it…"
"…In this life-and-death struggle, Country Z was defeated—and defeated miserably. Why was that? Of course, because it was backward! So what exactly was backward—Zhou Yang, your answer?"In Class 1 of Grade 11, Mr. Nian Wenten was in the middle of reviewing the history exam.
Zhou Yang stood and replied, "It was the backward military equipment. Our warships had short firing range, poor accuracy, and insufficient firepower. Wars are fought with weapons—"
"Any other viewpoints?" Mr. Nian asked.
Liu Xudong stood up. "Mainly backward ideas. Ideas guide actions. Backward ideas lead to inadequate preparations, ineffective troop deployment, and outdated strategies and tactics."
Mr. Nian turned to look at Leng Siyu, who was buried in her math homework."Leng Siyu, what do you think?"
Leng Siyu rose lazily and answered, "Uh… weapons and ideas are superficial factors. The deeper cause is the backward mode of production, the backward economy. The economy is an invisible hand—it determines military capability, shapes decision-makers and the common people's worldview. Essentially, it was an agricultural civilization losing to an industrial one."
Her words made Xia Pengfei pause in surprise. Who would've thought this violent girl actually had some real knowledge? Truly, a strong general makes strong soldiers—looks like he really came to the right class.
Mr. Nian nodded. "Very well said. The economy is the decisive force. For example, women once ruled the world, but men eventually seized power. Why? Because of the rise of agriculture.
"The character for 'man' contains the symbols for 'field' and 'strength'. What does this mean? It means men were the primary labor force in agricultural production. The creation of national wealth and household income relied mainly on men. Therefore, the agricultural era was inevitably a patriarchal era…"
Mr. Nian lectured passionately on the podium, but Ye Zhiqiu wasn't taking in much of it. Her attention was entirely on Xia Pengfei beside her, who was writing furiously. Even when the bell rang, she still hadn't recovered.
"Mr. Nian, please wait a moment."Just as the teacher was about to leave, Xia Pengfei called out to him.
He brought his history exam paper over. "Teacher, could you help me take a look? What should I work on first?"
Mr. Nian glanced at Xia Pengfei's paper and smiled. Then he looked toward Leng Siyu."Siyu, let me borrow your test paper."
He knew that if Xia Pengfei asked for her paper, she would refuse immediately. But if the teacher asked, she would have no choice.Leng Siyu respectfully handed her test paper over. She cast a cold glance at Xia Pengfei's paper, and her eyes lit up despite herself—his handwriting was so beautiful it could be used as a calligraphy copybook.
"Pengfei, compare your answers with Siyu's—especially the structure, content, and thought process of the long-answer questions. I have a class in Class 3 now. I'll find time later to talk to you in detail."
"Yes, Teacher."
Holding both papers, Xia Pengfei glanced at Leng Siyu—who had already returned to her seat and resumed her homework—and then returned to his.
Just then, the politics class representative, Li Xiaoli, shouted,"Hand in your politics homework!"
"Hand in your composition notebooks!" the Chinese class rep, Shu Daiyun, chimed in sweetly.
"Hand in your English Weekly!" cried English rep Yuan Min.
"Hand in your geography workbooks!" came the voice of geography rep Kang Zhiquan.
"Hand in your math correction books," math rep Chen Mingli mumbled lazily.
Then the Ice Beauty herself, Leng Siyu, put down her pen, stood up unhurriedly, and announced:"History homework. Hand it in now. If you're late, I won't take it!"
Monday's first recess was always like this—one rep shouting would trigger a chain reaction, and every subject rep began launching bombardments.
As the new student, Xia Pengfei didn't need to turn anything in. He sat and admired Leng Siyu's test paper.
Who would've thought someone who abused sandbags daily could write so elegantly?She was utterly unreasonable as a person, yet her history arguments were complete, logical, and convincing.In every respect—structure, content, rigor—her answers were a model.
Leng Siyu seemed full of contradictions: strength vs. grace, beauty vs. personality, brutal actions vs. refined historical thinking…
"Pengfei, give me your paper. I'll help analyze it for you."Ye Zhiqiu's voice was warm like spring sunshine—but Xia Pengfei didn't hear a thing.
"Peng—"She had barely said one syllable before stopping. The politics teacher, Chen Keyan, had already entered the classroom…
At the kindergarten, the bump on Yuanyuan's head had mostly subsided. Zhao Hongxia felt relieved and only then thought about calling Cao Batian over for a scolding.
Yuanyuan pulled Xia Chongchong aside and said solemnly,"Don't tell my sister about what happened today."
Chongchong was confused. "You don't want her to stand up for you?"
"She can't know. With her temper, she'd smash Xiaotian-tian into a meat patty. Killing people means going to jail. She's my sister—if the police took her away, my parents would be sad. And more importantly… she always cooks my favorite dishes."
"You amaze me, Yuanyuan. She's so harsh on you, but you still protect her!"
"She has it hard too! She has to go to school, do housework, work part-time, and take care of naughty me every day!"Yuanyuan sighed deeply. "Forget it, you won't understand. A greenhouse sapling like you can't feel the pain of wind and rain."
At dismissal time, Yuanyuan tugged at Zhao Hongxia's clothes again and reminded her to keep today's incident secret. Zhao Hongxia agreed immediately—she couldn't be happier to avoid trouble.
Lanlan was already waiting at the kindergarten gate.
"Yuanyuan, come home with me, okay?" Lanlan asked.
"Let's go, Yuanyuan. The high school won't be out for another half hour," Chongchong said.
But Yuanyuan stood firmly at the door."My sister said I shouldn't cause trouble for others. You guys go ahead. She'll come pick me up."
"But Rain-sis often picks me up too," Chongchong said.
"That's helping you. This is burdening others. Totally different. Stop arguing—I'm not leaving."
Now it was Chongchong who refused to go.He pleaded with Lanlan, "Let's just wait for Rain-sis so we can all go home together."
"…Fine."Lanlan sighed helplessly. If they had to wait until high school dismissal, why had she bothered coming early?