Time quietly slipped past ten o’clock, and Lin Hua’s most anticipated Yuwen class was about to begin.
Even ten minutes ago, while he was still doing broadcast calisthenics down on the playground, he could no longer contain his excitement.
This was the routine at Haizhou No. 3 Middle School. On the day exam results were announced, all the subject teachers would unilaterally pause their teaching progress to prioritize going over the exam papers with the students.
Just like today’s first and second periods— although there was homework left over from Golden Week, Teacher Yanli had taken out the exam papers to spend both lessons explaining them.
Lin Hua figured the Yuwen class would also start by going over the exam papers.
In this exam, Lin Hua ranked ninety-ninth in Haizhou No. 3 Middle School. His Yuwen score of 117 out of 120 had pulled his overall ranking up.
Thinking about his own essay, it would probably be printed out by the Yuwen Group in hundreds of copies again as an exemplary essay for the whole grade to study.
How could Lin Hua not be excited?
Moreover, this time, he had quietly left a little secret in his essay.
The Yuwen teacher of Grade Three Class 3-6 was a young woman, short and plump with a baby face, just over thirty years old, and it was said her child was still in elementary school.
When the class bell rang, the noisy classroom immediately fell silent. The Yuwen teacher, waiting at the door, smiled as she carried a thick stack of printed papers into the room, under Lin Hua’s “just as expected” gaze.
Surely, this thick stack of printed papers must be Lin Hua’s outstanding essay.
The Yuwen teacher said, “Group leaders, come up and distribute the exemplary essays.”
Zi Yan, sitting on the right side of the podium, was directly handed a sheet by the Yuwen teacher.
Zi Yan took the paper, glanced at it, and saw black characters printed on the gray-black sheet—
“On Thrift,” Lin Hua.
The score was fifty points. The densely packed small characters following the main text made Zi Yan dizzy.
Zi Yan put down the essay, raised his hand to rub his eyes, then collapsed onto the desk in exhaustion.
The Yuwen teacher’s eyes curved into a smile as she reached out to pat Zi Yan’s head and asked, “Feeling discouraged?”
“It’s just that Yuwen is really hard…” Zi Yan squinted, propping himself up weakly.
Patting Zi Yan’s shoulder, the Yuwen teacher said, “I heard from Teacher Yanli that you grew up abroad, right?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s normal that you can’t adapt right away. If there’s anything you don’t understand, come ask me. Everything will get better.”
“Okay…”
Seeing the group leaders had distributed the exemplary essays to every student, the Yuwen teacher clapped her hands and said, “First, let’s congratulate Lin Hua for once again achieving the highest Yuwen score in our grade!”
Applause broke out in the classroom, and Lin Hua’s face flushed red.
“And this time, Lin Hua’s essay received a perfect score. Even all the teachers in our Yuwen Group couldn’t find any faults.”
“Now, let’s invite Lin Hua up to the podium to read his essay!”
This was one of the routine practices in Grade Three Class 3-6 ever since they entered middle school.
Lin Hua’s father was the chief editor of Haizhou Daily, famous for his sharp and incisive commentary articles.
Lin Hua had grown up immersed in this environment, so it was only natural that his writing skills, especially in argumentative essays, surpassed many of his peers.
That’s why nearly every Yuwen exam essay of his was treated as an exemplary essay for students to study. Lin Hua going up to read his essay had become routine.
Lin Hua straightened his chest and raised his head proudly. Shaking the original exam paper in his hand, he strode onto the podium.
Clearing his throat, he said, “This time, I chose an argumentative essay. The topic is ‘On Thrift.’”
“Thrift and waste are opposing attitudes toward life. Thrift, I believe, means to save where possible and use what is necessary, but never stingy. Waste, on the other hand, is spending money like water and using resources on meaningless things…”
“Wuhou of Zhuge once said: ‘A gentleman cultivates himself with tranquility and nourishes his virtue with thrift; without detachment, one cannot clarify one’s ambition, and without calmness, one cannot achieve far-reaching goals.’ Mr. Disheng also mentioned in a letter home: ‘Only diligence and thrift can last.’ These are experiences our sages devoted their entire lives to realizing…”
“Throughout history, countless people have succeeded because of thrift, while many have failed because of waste. For example…”
Honestly, Zi Yan had no interest in Lin Hua’s perfect score essay.
Even though Lin Hua’s essay was indeed excellent—accurate arguments, sharp phrasing, and impartial analysis of opposing viewpoints— it would probably receive a high score even by high school standards.
Alas, forgive Zi Yan; he was unfamiliar with the history of the “Flower Kingdom,” didn’t know those classical figures, and couldn’t possibly recognize their famous quotes.
So, as Lin Hua spoke eloquently and passionately, citing one argument after another with solid evidence and incisive criticism, to Zi Yan’s ears it was nothing but incomprehensible noise.
What was this person even talking about?
He didn’t understand, couldn’t follow, couldn’t grasp a thing.
Nor did he understand how Lin Hua managed to speak confidently in front of so many people without a hint of stage fright, Zi Yan quietly mused.
Tired of listening, Zi Yan wanted to rest his head on the desk.
But Lin Hua was standing right in front of him reading, and his gaze occasionally flickered toward Zi Yan, so it was awkward for Zi Yan not to show some respect.
It was like earlier when Zi Yan went up to explain a math problem and saw a student sneakily reading a manga. That student might genuinely be uninterested in math and unwilling to listen, but secretly reading a comic and even smirking? That was truly rude.
So disrespectful!
Zi Yan pursed his lips and furrowed his brows, enduring Lin Hua’s rambling. Even if he didn’t understand, he’d nod occasionally and pretend to be attentively absorbing the speech.
This guy was really annoying— writing an essay of more than a thousand words wasn’t tiring?
Zi Yan: “…”
A spit bubble suddenly landed on Zi Yan’s face from Lin Hua.
“…Sigh.” Zi Yan silently took out a handkerchief to wipe it off.
After a while, Lin Hua finally finished his passionate speech, and before stepping down from the podium, he didn’t forget to bow.
“Clap clap,” Zi Yan weakly followed the class in applauding.
The Yuwen teacher said, “Lin Hua’s sharp language isn’t easy to learn. But his examples are very appropriate and well integrated. These are things you all can try to learn.”
“I also recommend that everyone read more books so you can accumulate more material for writing. Someone like Lin Hua, who seems to have evidence at his fingertips, is definitely worth learning from.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All the students in Grade Three Class 3-6 silently groaned inside.
You’ve been praising our Lin Hua the great talent for over two years now; when exactly will you stop?
“Oh, by the way, the PE teacher has something to attend to during the first period this afternoon, so he asked me to substitute. That means I won’t be going over the exam papers in this class,” the Yuwen teacher suddenly smiled.
“Coincidentally, Lin Hua mentioned Wuhou of Zhuge in his arguments. I wonder how everyone did on the holiday assignment to memorize Chu Shi Biao? I’ll take one class period to test you all, how about that?”
What?!