Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

[10:45 AM · Classroom of Senior 3 (1)]

The two had been in class for a while after the interview.

Teacher Zheng, the Chinese teacher, was standing on the podium, holding a textbook in his hand, writing lines of vigorous and powerful characters on the blackboard with a stern face.

Xie Wang and Su Qinghe shouted "Report!" and slipped in through the back door.

Before they could even settle in, Shen Hao, taking advantage of the moment when Teacher Zheng turned to write, suddenly turned his head, winked at the two of them, gave them a thumbs up, and whispered excitedly:

"Wow, that was awesome, Wang Ge! Su Shen! That scene just now was so impressive..."

"Shen Hao!"

A stern voice, accompanied by the crisp sound of a chalk breaking, struck Shen Hao squarely on the forehead.

Teacher Zheng turned around, her eyes piercing:

"Are you proud of getting 120 on your Chinese test this time? Should I have you come up to the class and explain how you wrote 'The sunset glows and the lone wild goose flies together' as 'The sunset glows and the orphan flies together'?"

The whole class burst into suppressed laughter.

Shen Hao's face instantly turned a deep purplish-red. He shrank back and buried his head in the pile of books.

Xie Wang leaned back in his chair, watching Shen Hao's discomfiture, a smug smile playing on his lips.

As he turned his head, his gaze fell on the report card that Shen Hao hadn't yet fully studied, which was lying on the corner of his desk.

This kind of thing has a magical power in high school classrooms.

It can control everyone for an entire class period.

Xie Wang reached out and, taking advantage of the moment when Teacher Zheng looked down at the lesson plan, swiftly and decisively snatched the report card from under Shen Hao's arm.

Shen Hao was about to protest, but when he saw Teacher Zheng raise her head, he immediately backed down and only dared to signal with his eyes: Remember to return it to me after you're done reading!

The first line is a foregone conclusion.

Name: Su Qinghe.

语文：135。数学：150。英语：145。理综：298（物理110，化学100，生物88）。总分：728。

Xie Wang looked down and found his own name.

Name: Xie Wang

语文：110。数学：150。英语：117。理综：300。总分：677。

Extremely unbalanced in academic performance.

Although I have made progress with Teacher Su's help, it is still far from enough.

"Looks like I still have to keep memorizing vocabulary." Xie Wang rubbed his temples, looking a bit annoyed.

He continued reading.

Shen Hao scored 595 points, ranking 35th in his class, a full twenty places higher than last semester.

Xu You scored 646 points, consistently ranking among the top ten in her class.

The two people's names are quite close together, so it seems that "the power of love" can indeed make people improve.

Further down...

Road 1.

This is a bizarre existence.

Chinese: 145. English: 140. Mathematics: 75. Science: 190.

A typical humanities genius, but a science idiot.

Looking at the 75 points in math, Xie Wang could imagine the math teacher having a heart attack while grading the paper.

Finally, Xie Wang's gaze settled on the column for Lin Lu.

Lin Lu, total score 610, ranked 15th in class.

You should know that Lin Lu used to be consistently in the top ten of her class.

This time, I dropped to the middle of the pack, and my math score was a dismal 110.

"Tsk tsk tsk."

Xie Wang shook his head, tapped his finger on Lin Lu's name, and whispered to Su Qinghe:

"Looks like I'll have to give Lu Wen a talking-to when I get back tonight. That kid spends all his time taking Lin Lu to play games and go shopping. If this keeps up, Lin Lu'll end up having to go to Lanxiang Technical School to learn how to operate an excavator with him."

Su Qinghe glanced at Lin Lu's dismal score and sighed helplessly.

Just as the two were huddled together, pointing out each other's achievements in front of the report card.

"call out--"

A white parabola sliced ​​through the air.

"Snapped!"

The broken piece of chalk hit Xie Wang's hand precisely on the back of his hand as he was twirling the chalk.

Xie Wang's hand trembled, the pen fell, and the report card was revealed.

On the podium, Teacher Zheng stood with a dark expression, clutching the remaining half of a piece of chalk in her hand, her gaze sharp as lightning.

"Xie Wang! Do you think you can do whatever you want just because you got a perfect score in the combined science exam? You dare to slack off in my class? What are you looking at? Can you even see anything interesting in your report card?"

The entire class turned around instantly, dozens of eyes staring at the last row.

Teacher Zheng snorted coldly and pointed at Xie Wang:

"Look at your Chinese score! 110! You have the nerve to say that? I just don't understand, you're so good at science, how come your brain seems to be full of water when it comes to Chinese?"

"Stand up!"

Xie Wang touched his nose and stood up somewhat awkwardly.

Even the school bully would have to stand obediently in front of this highly respected Chinese language teacher.

"Since you're so free, let me test you."

Teacher Zheng picked up the textbook, her eyes sharp:

Teacher Zheng tapped the blackboard, his eyes sharp:

"The line 'Green are your robes, long is my longing' from the Zheng Feng section of the Book of Songs is followed by 'For your sake, I have been pondering until now.'"

"Now I ask you, what did '青青子衿' originally refer to? And what does it mean in the current context?"

The classroom was deathly silent.

Xie Wang stood there, his mind blank.

Green are the collars of young men?

A blue collar? What's so special about that?

Shen Hao, standing nearby, grew anxious and covered his mouth to whisper something to Xie Wang, while simultaneously gesturing towards the collar of the shirt:

"The clothes! The collar! The green collar!"

Xie Wang looked at him speechlessly.

Without looking back, he adjusted his glasses and prompted in a low, hushed voice:

"That's a yearning for talent... vulgar."

Xie Wang was completely confused.

Just then.

Su Qinghe, who had been sitting upright, shook his head helplessly.

She tore a small corner off the draft paper, quickly wrote two words, and then, taking advantage of the moment when Teacher Zheng turned around to drink water, she shoved the note right under Xie Wang's nose.

Xie Wang looked down.

The note bore three neatly written characters:

My Beloved

(Note: Originally referring to the collar of one's beloved, it is used as a metaphor for one's beloved.)

Xie Wang looked at those two words and his eyebrows shot up.

He couldn't even help it; a very faint smile crept across his lips.

He then raised his head and met Teacher Zheng's stern gaze.

He didn't look at the blackboard, but stared intently at Su Qinghe.

Then, in front of the whole class, he answered in a clear and confident voice:

"Teacher, it refers to—my sweetheart."

"puff--"

The whole class paused for a second, then burst into a meaningful "Oh~~~~~".

Teacher Zheng almost broke the chalk in her hand:

"...I didn't tell you to use this as an excuse to make a fuss!"

This is clearly an attempt to make a fuss over nothing and to harass someone in public.

The whole class burst into laughter, and Shen Hao laughed so hard he kept slapping the table.

Faced with the teacher's anger, Xie Wang innocently shrugged, pointed to Su Qinghe sitting in front of him, and said in an extremely serious tone:

"Teacher, I'm innocent! This is the standard answer that Class Monitor Su told me. Why don't you ask her?"

Su Qinghe: "..."

Her back stiffened, her ears turned bright red instantly, and she lowered her head even further, wishing she could press her face against the book.

This person... why are they even trying to shift the blame?!

The old man was caught between anger and amusement. Seeing Xie Wang's gaze fixed on his classmate, he could only snort and wave his hand dismissively.

"...Alright, sit down! Although your answer wasn't wrong, don't waste your time on these crooked ways! Go back and copy 'Short Song Ballad' ten times! Su Qinghe, you're in charge of supervising him!"

Xie Wang sat down, in a great mood.

He quietly slipped the report card back to Shen Hao, then gently took Su Qinghe's hand under the table.

Su Qinghe did not break free, her ears turning slightly red.

She wrote a line of small characters on the draft paper and pushed it in front of him:

Copy it ten times; not even one less time is acceptable.

Xie Wang looked at the neat handwriting and wrote a reply below:

Yes, Teacher Su.