Chapter 036: The Handwriting Is Beautiful

Although Director Huang was known for her fiery temper, she was deeply loved by her students and often received small gifts from them on Teacher’s Day. She thought the little candies she had received were from Bai Chuwei. The scent was so enticing that it made her mouth water, but remembering her aching tooth, she forced herself to resist and tucked the candies away in her office.

When she saw the pants that had been changed out of, still carrying a faintly unpleasant smell, Director Huang’s face darkened at once, and she immediately threw them into the trash bin.

*

Bai Chuwei left Class Eleven and entered Class Nine through the back door. She had barely stepped inside when Duan Xingye began signaling to her with his eyes. From the podium came a mocking, sarcastic laugh.

“Poor grades dragging everyone down, and now skipping class too—how impressive!”

Bai Chuwei turned to look at the Chinese teacher, Mr. Li, and smiled as she corrected him, “Mr. Li, I believe my grades are quite good. Also, if I were skipping class, you wouldn’t see me standing here in the classroom right now.”

Duan Xingye exchanged glances with Xu Xingchen and hurried to add, “Exactly! At most, she’s just late. Chuwei just transferred to Henghua High, maybe she got lost and that’s why she’s late.”

Xu Xingchen also smiled and spoke up, “Mr. Li, Bai Chuwei is a transfer student. Please give her some time to adjust.”

All the girls in the class cursed silently: “Vixen!”

Both Duan Xingye and Xu Xingchen spoke up for her!

Duan Xingye was from the prestigious Duan family, and Xu Xingchen was Mr. Li’s favorite student. Mr. Li couldn’t afford to offend them, so he only said to Bai Chuwei in a sardonic tone, “Go back and take a good look at your Chinese test paper. If you get this score again next time, please leave Class Nine. Class Nine only accepts top students!”

Bai Chuwei raised her eyebrows slightly, curiously returning to her seat, where she found a Chinese test paper on the desk.

The paper was marked with several glaring red crosses.

Because it was a routine mock test, they hadn’t required a full sixty-point essay, so the highest score was ninety. She had scored fifty-two.

It wasn’t a terrible score, but in Henghua High’s Class Nine, which was full of academic stars, it meant she was at the very bottom.

Duan Xingye leaned over to look at Bai Chuwei’s answers, struggled for a while, and finally managed to find something to praise. He said awkwardly, “Actually… your handwriting is very nice.”

Bai Chuwei’s smile deepened at his words.

So, Duan Xingye, you’re saying the only thing worth seeing on the whole test paper is the handwriting?

Bai Chuwei stared at the test paper. Several questions had been marked wrong.

“Based on the scenery depicted in the final stanza of this poem, analyze what the poet was thinking at the time.”

Her answer: “There’s no deeper meaning. Old Li was drunk and just showing off.”

“In Chapter Fifteen of ‘Moon Chronicle,’ ‘A Midnight Feast in the Mountains and Seas,’ the Moon Princess attends the banquet wearing a long gauze dress with white embroidery and a simple hem. Please analyze why the author chose this particular attire for the Moon Princess. What is the significance?”

Her answer: “There’s no special meaning. It was just written on a whim.”

Duan Xingye could barely keep himself from covering his face. What kind of answers were these? How could she possibly get any points?

Bai Chuwei’s expression was complicated. The truth was, that poem really had been written by Old Li while he was drunk, purely to show off, with no hidden meaning at all.

As for the question about “Moon Chronicle,” the “Midnight Feast in the Mountains and Seas” was a climactic scene in the book. The Moon Princess was the heroine, but her outfit had been chosen simply to pad the word count for more manuscript fees—there was no deeper significance whatsoever!

Looking at the glaring red crosses on her paper, Bai Chuwei fell into deep self-doubt.

Could it be that, as the original author, she understood her own work less than these so-called experts of later generations?