Uneasy daily life

With a serious expression, Bai Ying handed over the little red flower and began to sing in a clear voice.

"The spider silently weaves its web, quietly hanging in the path of the flying insects. Its passive waiting is a longing to take the initiative. The soft silk binds its prey tightly, whispering its name on the poem—a gentle yet calm hunter, whose bullets carry the fragrance of flowers, aiming to make its prey stagger and drift into a dreamland..."

Step on my foot!

Like stepping on a cat's tail, the other party couldn't break free and escape. Sakurajima Mai coldly snatched the little red flower, and casually gave the other party a disdainful look.

Who is this girl who appears tolerant and gentle on the surface but is actually controlling, uses passivity to gain initiative, and is full of scheming?

Okay... what if I am?

Sakurajima Mai walked into the school, raised the little red flower in her hand and looked at it. When she turned around, she could still see the white figure fighting Hiratsuka Shizuka one-on-one at the school gate. She could also faintly hear Hiratsuka Shizuka saying something like, "Explode, scumbag, iron fist will punish you."

As expected of a hater, deliberately saying things that hurt people.

In other words, isn't it a girl who is calm and gentle, won't cause trouble suddenly, often expresses concern, communicates seriously, and is thoughtful about relationships?

Does the ability to understand others depend on the perspective from which you look at them? Or does understanding others inevitably involve touching upon their less pleasant, dark, and melancholic thoughts?

If you can even like those things, aren't you a gentle person?

Mai Sakurajima put away the little red flower, looking rather troubled.

The person I like is really fickle, but I haven't found that one flower that belongs only to Mai Sakurajima among them yet.

However, the appearance of the hater has become clearer.

Tsk tsk, what a jerk.

……

……

In the office, the teachers casually discussed the farce at the school gate, remaining remarkably calm about the outrageous behavior of a certain troublesome student.

"Confessing your feelings is one thing, but who confesses their feelings by pointing out the other person's flaws?"

"Tsk tsk, this kid is probably destined to be single forever."

"Haha, didn't you also complain about your wife's faults when you were drinking?"

"If I had confessed my feelings like that back then, I wouldn't have a wife now."

"That's true..."

A moment later, the bell rang, and several students brought their test papers to the office. The Chinese language teacher put down her thermos, took the stack of test papers handed to her by the others, and chatted leisurely, "Oh, I can finally grade the second-year test papers this time. That Bai Ying's test paper was really a headache."

"Isn't his Mandarin consistently in the top two?"

"It's good, but not in the conventional sense... How should I put it? It's like when I'm grading a test, he's jumping around in front of me, and I have to watch him carefully as he jumps around, unlike other students' tests which I can just glance at," the Chinese language teacher sighed. "If I were to grade it so casually, it would make me look like I have a problem with my own level. I have to carefully examine the answers and think about them several times..."

"Uh... this sounds like a teacher giving a test?"

The new teacher couldn't help but complain that he was the one who graded the Chinese language exam this time.

"This is the teacher giving a test. There's nothing we can do about it; it's a Chinese language test with a lot of freedom, and that kid is a free spirit."

The Chinese language teacher said earnestly, "Mr. Yamamoto, you'll understand when you grade his test paper."

"You're exaggerating. How outrageous can the students be? If you let them answer freely, nine out of ten answers will be off-topic, and the remaining one won't even be on the question. Just grade them according to the standard answer."

Mr. Yamamoto found the senior's attitude rather strange. He casually looked through the exam papers and directly found Bai Ying's exam paper.

First, grade a reading comprehension question to see if the student follows the standard answer approach or answers off-topic...

Based on the analysis above and below, why did the Grand Duke burn Yoshihide's daughter to death in order to solve Yoshihide's problem of not being able to paint "Hell Screen"?

[Answer: Is punishing evil truly good? The character for "person" is divided into upper and lower parts. My attachment to self is delusion or truth; others' eyes reveal the root of right and wrong.]

Mr. Yamamoto subconsciously pondered for a moment, looking at the question and the answer...

Ok?

He came to his senses, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

He is a master.

Do teachers who come to top-tier middle schools still need to face challenges from their students?

interesting.

Chapter 118 I Have a Sword...

"Hell Screen," one of Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short stories, has a very simple plot: told from the perspective of a guard, it recounts the story of a nobleman, a painter, and a maid. A nobleman with a good reputation commissions an eccentric painter to create a scene depicting hell, titled "Hell Screen." After six months of arduous work, the painter is left with only one blank space, unable to depict the woman locked in a carriage being burned to death. In response, the nobleman, in front of the painter, burns the painter's daughter, who is also his maid, to death. After completing "Hell Screen," the painter, Yoshihide, hangs himself.

Novels don't follow logic; the truth lies both within and outside the story.

After a brief recollection, Professor Yamamoto said, "From the perspective of answering the question..."

There are three reasons why the nobleman burned his maidservant, which allowed the painter to create "Hell Screen".

The first reason was what 'I' learned from the nobleman—to punish the evil painter. Because the painter was a paranoid person, seen by others as strange and crazy, immoral, not like a human being, but like a vengeful ghost that people would avoid.

The second layer is the reason that the author did not write directly, but subtly buried in the story—the nobleman, unable to force the maid, harbored resentment and therefore burned the maid to death in front of her painter father.

The third layer is that the nobility wanted to deprive painters of their freedom to pursue art, and to demonstrate their own power.

Throughout the novel, the nobles are portrayed as good people, with good reputations and prestige, and are considered good by others. The painters, on the other hand, are portrayed as terrible, neurotic, paranoid, and insane. For example, in order to paint people struggling in pain, they would chain their disciples to observe their suffering, and they would paint on corpses, carefully observing the corpses' death. They are considered strange and evil by others.

Furthermore, the story unfolds from the perspective of a nobleman's guards...

If nobles maintain a facade of civility, who will criticize their private sordidness? They might even help exonerate them. Since no one says they're dirty, they naturally appear clean.

Liangxiu pursues art and better paintings, but his humble status and unconventional nature naturally lead people to regard him as evil.

Punishing evil is actually good? The character for "person" is divided into two parts.

Does punishing evil deeds equate to kindness? Humans have hierarchical social structures, and morality seems to follow suit.

The kind nobleman burned the daughter of the evil painter to death.

Teacher Yamamoto nodded slightly. This second sentence... Is my attachment to illusion or truth? His eyes see nothing but the root of falsehood.

This should be the third, deeper reason.

Witnessing his daughter being burned to death, the painter, who deeply loved her, went from agonizing madness to a state of calm and joy. He was called a beast for disregarding his paternal bond for the sake of his painting. After completing "Hell Screen," even those who had previously disliked Ryoshu were deeply moved and shocked after seeing the painting, and never spoke ill of him again.

Of course, this may be related to the fact that the painter hanged himself after finishing "Hell Screen", and could no longer show his paranoia and madness to others. Others could only glimpse the painter's image through this painting, so naturally they could not say anything bad about him.

Professor Yamamoto pondered, this already touches on a deeper interpretation of "Hell Screen" - an artist's dedication to creation will always be constantly evaluated by others, whether it is true or false, good or evil. If it deviates from the norm in the eyes of others, it will inevitably be disliked.

Does it matter whether what I'm fixated on is true or false? It's just a source of right and wrong in other people's eyes.

This is how the nobles viewed the painter—arrogant, eccentric, and disobedient; clearly a lowly person, yet showing no signs of humility.

You pursue art, don't you? You believe art is above all else? Since you love art so much, then I'll burn your daughter alive in front of you and see if you can still put on that face that I dislike!

When ordinary people criticize a painter, if they dislike him, they can only say a few bad things and can't vent their malice. But nobles can burn a painter's daughter in front of him because they dislike him, to see if the painter, who has suffered so much, can still shout about pursuing art.

The painter won. From agonizing wails to a solemn and sacred expression, he satisfiedly painted the scene of his daughter being burned to death into his greatest work, then hanged himself to atone for his guilt and pain. On the contrary, the nobleman, from his calm and rampant demeanor when the fire started, became ferocious when his lust for power was not satisfied, like a hungry beast that had not yet eaten something...

This is the deepest truth that Ryunosuke Akutagawa wanted to express: nobles and outsiders are all seen through the eyes of others, while those who pursue art inevitably have fierce conflicts with reality, and in severe cases, they can only weigh the two and make a choice.

Harsh reality burns away beauty in the face of ideals.

He sees right and wrong as the root of all things... What others see as the source of right and wrong, others' opinions also become the source of right and wrong.

That's a perfect answer.

Mr. Yamamoto couldn't help but sigh and casually marked the question with a perfect score.

Wait a minute—!

He snapped out of his daze, his expression changed, and he frowned as he looked at the question.

"Doesn't it feel like you're answering a question?" the senior asked casually from the side.

“…Indeed.” Mr. Yamamoto said strangely, “This student has a good foundation and ability, but this kind of answer in the exam room… It’s okay for regular school exams, but in the future, when facing large-scale formal exams, this kind of answer will not get points, nor will it set a precedent. He should learn some test-taking skills. Even if he just lists the answers a little bit instead of making up a nonsensical poem, his score will not be low.”

The senior colleague reached out and tapped the exam paper, laughing, "He's got a knack for finding fault."

Mr. Yamamoto was taken aback, then chuckled and said, "If I were a nobleman, that would be so awesome."

"I once discussed this with this student. Well... when he's in a bad mood and just wants to finish his work and get paid, he can just give him any grade according to the standard. If he's in the mood and has the time, he might as well put aside his teacher's airs and treat it as talking to an interesting person. He can give him any grade he wants." The senior shared his experience. "You don't need to talk to Bai Ying about these things. He can talk you until you have a headache. Of course, this is just an exception. Other students are quite normal."

"I have a headache now."

Mr. Yamamoto suddenly thought of a question and asked, "What about the other subjects this white shadow is in?"

The senior said quietly, "A perfectly ordinary full score, at most you'll lose some points for the ugly handwriting."

"..."

Mr. Yamamoto was taken aback. So here's the question: if a student who can get almost full marks in all subjects loses too many points on the Japanese language exam, is it a problem with the student's level or the teacher's level?

Good grief, what kind of student is putting pressure on the teacher?

"Keep it up, young man, you need to work hard. If you can get him to answer the questions obediently according to the procedure, you'll be a great teacher who has trained a college student from a prestigious university. Promotion and salary increase will be no problem."

The senior patted his shoulder on the back and smiled kindly.

It feels like being offered a pie in the sky.

Mr. Yamamoto sighed and continued grading the papers.

It seems that this Bai Ying is neither a proponent of standard answers nor a proponent of off-topic or distorted ideas, but rather a proponent of abstract concepts.

Let's look at this question again.

Let's skip the reading comprehension for now and look at the essay instead.

Mr. Yamamoto turned the test paper over. The essay topic for this midterm exam was quite difficult—choose your own topic, any genre, and write no less than 800 words.

For students, having a given topic for an essay is convenient, but not having a given topic or even a restriction on genre makes it much more difficult.

Either they don't know what to write, or they don't know what they've written.

I'd like to see what kind of writing you, my student, can produce...

Essay Topic: Choose a Theme.

Yamamoto-sensei: "?"

……

"The instructions from above have been given. Now let's discuss what to do," Number One said enthusiastically. "I think we should use 'dreams' as the theme! Dreams wait in distant places, inspiring longing in people's eyes. They are the white moonlight in everyone's heart, immortal and dazzling! This is a very suitable topic for students!"

"No, no! In my opinion, the theme should be 'mono no aware'!" Number Two corrected. "Being wounded by the world, burdened by things, and saddened by emotions. The vicissitudes of the times and fate, the separation between reality and the individual, and the sober and painful pessimist—this theme is more in line with local customs!"

"dream!"

"Mono no aware!"

"You two! Calm down!" Number Three raised his hand to mediate. "It's the 21st century now. Feudalism is a thing of the past. The conservative atmosphere that was once formed for the sake of stability has been swept away—shouldn't we be using sex as our theme? Whether it's middle-aged and elderly people in their fifties and sixties or children as young as eleven or twelve, sex is a theme that will never change!"

"You're talking nonsense!" ×2!

Number One and Number Two reprimanded each other simultaneously.

"Looks like it's time to show our true skills! Let's unleash our swords!"

Number Two drew a sword and flicked his finger, saying, "This sword is named Natsume Soseki! Its words are humorous and witty, mocking the world, and its calm and composed language dissects joy and anger. It is like snow melting into water, washing over the blue stones in a stream, smooth yet stubborn, ranking among the top weapons!"

"A fine sword! But my sword is no less formidable!"

Number One kicked over the conference table and drew a sword: "This sword is named Lu Xun! He studied in Japan and his writing style is humorous and witty, calmly satirizing and mocking society. But this sword, when it does speak, it is astonishing! It has a deafening and fierce spirit, a resounding cry like the morning bell! Its anger thunders, scattering the storms of the world!"

The two engaged in a sword duel, drawing upon figures from the past: Ryunosuke Akutagawa's cold depiction of human suffering, and Hemingway's struggle with fish in the storm. For a time, they were evenly matched, neither gaining the upper hand. Suddenly, Number Three burst in, brandishing a modern sketchbook: "I also have a sword! This sword is called 'Minotaur,' a classic trinity of victim, heroine, and blond-haired man, a masterpiece of love and hate, deeply exploring the depravity that desire brings to humanity, making it truly captivating..."

Number One and Number Two glanced at it and said disdainfully, "This sword is nameless and not worthy of serious consideration. You may step back!"

"No, no." Number Three drew a sword from his sketchbook. "In my early days, I rejoiced with my dreams, unaware of reality, full of ambition and oblivious to sorrow. After entering the world, reality robbed me of my dreams, leaving me heartbroken and powerless. As I delved deeper into the world, I wandered and sank into life, desperately trying to curry favor in pursuit of fame and fortune. Suddenly, looking back, I saw my dreams sadly gazing at my own wretched state, and I suddenly realized! The blond guy represents reality, the dream is the victim, and the female protagonist is actually myself... Therefore, the Cowboy is the best theme!"

WTF?

Professor Yamamoto leaned back, squinting with an expression of unbearable disbelief. "Have young people these days become so progressive and open-minded?!"

However, I'm unexpectedly curious about what will happen next...

Mr. Yamamoto calmed himself down and continued watching.

Contestant number three, wearing a minotaur mask, combines the power of reality and idealism, and is engaged in a fierce battle with contestants number one and two.

"When it comes to attraction, sex is unbeatable!"

"When it comes to novelty, sex is unbeatable!"