Rebirth 08: A Happy Life Begins in Elementary School

The tense atmosphere in the office only gradually eased after Li Zhao left.

"Ke Yun!" He Lin immediately exclaimed anxiously, "Li Zhao was right next to you, why didn't you say anything!"

"...I don't really have a chance to say it, and I'm afraid of waking him up." Huang Keyun quickly accepted the character portrayed by Li Zhao.

But this kid is quick-witted, and his acting is so good too?

With those sleepy eyes and that obvious yet natural yawn, Huang Keyun almost thought it was real.

In reality, Li Zhao honed these skills at drinking parties.

Just knowing how to make others feel that you've given them face and done your best without getting drunk is the kind of acting that's textbook-worthy for the Beijing Film Academy.

Just pretending to be asleep, nothing more.

"So, you're saying he didn't hear us praising him earlier?" He Lin asked.

"No." Huang Keyun blinked obediently.

"That's alright then..."

"What do you mean 'it's alright,' Teacher He?" Teacher Wu said. "So what if you praised him? I think you could have taken the initiative to say those things to him."

"That won't do," He Lin waved her hand, "I've already praised her so much, you can't praise a child like that..."

"You just didn't understand the toxic positivity from Four Knives's post. Why can't you praise a kid? Go back and learn properly."

"No, I'm his homeroom teacher. If I praise him like this, how am I supposed to discipline him in the future?"

Liu Zu laughed heartily, "He Lin, do you think you can control him now?"

"..." He Lin was speechless.

"We should let geniuses roam free," Liu Zu said, raising his head mysteriously. "Let me tell you, I've seen plenty of geniuses..."

In fact, He Lin's feelings for Li Zhao are very complicated right now.

She is a person who loves to show off, and as the homeroom teacher, it is certainly a good thing that a genius prodigy has emerged in her class.

But this child prodigy was not very easy for her to control, and even contradicted her mistakes to her face in class.

This put a lot of pressure on her when facing Li Zhao.

Therefore, He Lin was somewhat unsure about how to handle Li Zhao's many matters and could only rely on Team Leader Liu's "experience from seeing many things."

Group Leader Liu strongly supports completely differentiating Li Zhao from other students and placing him in a superior position. This will not only inspire the power of role models but also make the children completely convinced and dispel their idea of ​​"learning by imitation".

The biggest benefit is that it allows Li Zhaoshuang to...

After all, in Team Leader Liu's eyes, Li Zhao was a kid who pretended to be weak while actually being strong.

We absolutely cannot let this go unaddressed. Who knows what a child's temperament is? What if Li Zhao feels neglected and gets angry, demanding to transfer schools...?

As a long-established elementary school in the city center, New Taipei No. 6 Elementary School has always had a good overall strength, but it has been at the bottom of the rankings for so many years because it has never produced any genius students.

In the "top-tier" category, there is a severe lack of competitiveness.

What if, because the praise wasn't quite right, Li Zhao said something like, "New Taipei No. 6 Elementary School is pure garbage"?

Tuesday morning, Chinese class.

When the Chinese exam papers were passed down, Li Zhao didn't get his. He assumed He Shuyao had intercepted them, but he didn't really care.

Chen Nian was so nervous that he was trembling.

He desperately wanted to break the curse of being ranked ninth.

Even the scores were immediately covered up with their hands before the deductions were calculated.

No points were deducted on the first page, but three points were deducted from the essay—"97 points, that's an improvement," Li Zhao said.

It's so easy to calculate the scores on elementary school students' test papers.

Chen Nian simply breathed a sigh of relief.

Why do you look a little excited?

"I usually get 95 points, okay? There's not much difference between these two points," Chen Nian said. "The key is still math and English; this exam was too difficult."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Nian saw a puzzled look on Li Zhao's face.

So he immediately reached out and blocked Li Zhao's way, "No, Zhao, I know what you're going to say, don't say it."

Li Zhao laughed. This kid can even predict things.

He really couldn't judge the difficulty of the elementary school exam right now. For him, the most difficult part of the exam was the Chinese composition, followed by reading comprehension.

The selected articles are all famous works. Simply looking at the text and trying to understand it is the answer of an elementary school student. Understanding the metaphors in the context of history is the correct answer. Li Zhao had to force himself to leave the knowledge base and take a detour.

Not easy.

"Everyone has received their test papers, so let's begin the explanation. Today, I'll start with the essay."

Hmm? Li Zhao frowned, looking at He Lin on the podium. The test paper in her hand looked familiar no matter how he looked at it.

"Let me read the essay to you first, and everyone should listen carefully."

Chen Nian put down his pen and sat up straight.

"Me twenty years from now." He Lin cleared her throat, held up the exam paper, and paced back and forth on the podium as she read, "Thirty-two years old."

What the hell!

Li Zhao felt goosebumps rise from the back of his hand to the back of his head.

This opening is clearly from his article.

Good heavens, Chinese language teaching department! You've skipped the stage of having students read model essays aloud and are now having the teachers do it themselves, huh?

Hearing the familiar words read aloud by He Lin with such expression, Li Zhao felt like he was digging his toes out of his head.

However, Chen Nian listened very attentively, and not only him, but most of the students were listening quite attentively as well.

So serious... that he was a little stunned?

To be honest, He Lin's reading seemed a bit too emotional, lacking the affected quality she usually has when reading from textbooks.

"I've forgotten what I wanted to be like twenty years ago. All I know is to run, until I lose myself in the process."

Clearly, He Lin was deeply moved when she read this sentence, while Chen Nian had the deepest doubts about it.

After reading the article, He Lin took a few seconds to compose herself, while her classmates were stunned for a few seconds.

Li Zhao glanced at He Shuyao and noticed that she had her head down and seemed somewhat moved.

Then, led by class monitor Ma Yingying, the whole class applauded one after another.

Seeing Li Zhao looking bewildered, Chen Nian nudged him with his elbow, "What do you think?"

"How is it?"

"This essay written by Teacher He!"

"Teacher He? Essays?"

Chen Nian was puzzled. "Huh? Isn't it? It sounds similar to the essays the teacher talked about. I don't quite understand them, but they're really impressive. It must be one of Teacher He's model essays, right?"

Li Zhao touched his nose.

"Class, what do you think of this article?"

"Okay!" Ma Yingying took the lead again.

"Come on, class monitor, tell me what's good about it."

Ma Yingying stood up proudly. "I think this article has a profound theme. It contrasts my expectations for twenty years from now with my reflections on happiness twenty years from now, making it thought-provoking. The emotions are sincere and moving, and the writing is beautiful. It's an excellent essay. No wonder it's by Teacher He!"

No wonder He Lin was writing something while she was reading her prepared speech; she had already prepared for it.

If this girl can correct her behavior in her studies, she'll be a monster in the workplace.

He Lin then called on several other students, including He Shuyao, Jiang Qi, and Liu Mingyu, who all had good grades, and praised the article from different perspectives.

But when He Shuyao sat down, she inexplicably turned around and glanced at Li Zhao.

Just as everyone was wondering why Li Zhao wasn't allowed to speak, He Lin smiled and put down the exam paper, saying, "Does everyone think this is a sample essay I wrote?"

Everyone, including Chen Nian, nodded.

"Actually, it's Li Zhao's exam essay."

Li Zhao had anticipated this, but he still couldn't stop the goosebumps that suddenly appeared on his skin.

The entire class fell silent for almost a second; in that second, only Li Zhao's system responded—

[Great. Happiness +1, total 24]