Hearing her so, Teacher Ke, who had wanted to chide Ye Jian, jerked her head all of a sudden⦠Principal Chen stood by the classroom door with a stern expression which made Teacher Keâs heart nervous. Her knees turned soft, but she quickly forced a smile. âYouâre here, is thereâ¦â
âIt mustâve been a little unfortunate of me to disturb Teacher Ke during your scolding session.â Principal Chen spoke plainly before walking into the classroom. His menacing gaze swept across the faces of the students in Class 2, and he paused for a few moments when it landed on Ye Ying, Xie Sifeng, and He Jiamin.
âUnity, friendship, harmony, and kindness. These characters can be seen up on your classroomâs wall. And yet, what disappoints me is that there are some students here who do not display these gold qualities.â
As a principal, he naturally would not point out who they were, but those students themselves whom his gaze paused at understood.
Ye Yingâs faced turned somewhat red. The sensitive her knew for a fact that she was one of those whom Principal Chen mentioned.
âAs Teacher Ke scolded you for so long, some of you students are actually feeling quite happy deep down. But to a certain student, you are all hurting her without even realizing it.â After speaking with the class, Principal Chen left not a single face for Teacher Ke. âSince youâre so unwilling to announce the results for Class 2, then I shall do it instead.â
âIâll begin from the tenth place. Being lectured at for so long, Iâm sure all of you need a breather.â
Those words made the nervous students in the classroom laugh. No one liked to be scolded, but no one dared to be like Ye Jian to stand up and interrupt an angry Teacher Ke.
Starting from the tenth place, those students who heard their names let out a long sigh of relief. At the very least, they were still in the rankings.
Now for the top three⦠Ye Jianâs name had not been called out, and He Jiamin, who held the ninth place, could not help but giggle to herself. When Ye Yingâs name was mentioned as the third, her applause was louder than everyone elseâs, to the point where those palms of hers had turned red from her clapping!
But what she did not know was that Ye Ying, who had always been in the first or second place, was gazing at her murderously with dagger-like eyes!
The second place was Zhou Liao⦠and the applause came out even louder.
Principal Chen no longer continued. Instead, he spoke to Teacher Ke, âFor the first place, itâll be best to have Teacher Ke announce it.â Wasnât she unwilling to say it? Then, heâll just have to force her to do so!
Under his cold glare, Teacher Ke, whose knees had weakened, finally announced the name which she never wished to say.
âThe first place goes to Ye Jian. Other than her essay that had 5 points deductedâ¦, all other subjects are full marks.â
â¦
The entire noisy classroom became quiet. The sound of ridicule was replaced with gasps of astonishment, for many found that unbelievableâ¦
Each and every one of the studentâs face was filled with shock⦠Scoring a perfect score for all other subjects, Ye Jianâs name was like a thunder roaring within their heart.
Perfect score! Perfect score!!
An Jiaxin was so happy for Ye Jian that she shrieked in excitement. She cast aside her self-control and went up to hug Ye Jian before shouting, âMy goodness! Iâm so proud of you, so proud of you!â
A huge wave of applause sounded in front of Ye Yingâs pale face. She and He Jiamin were so horrified to hear the results that their eyes were opened extremely wide. On the other hand, Xie Sifeng could not accept the results and stood stiffly among all the applause.
When the respective homeroom teachers of the eighth-graders reported their top student for the said examination, all the curiosity disappeared and were replaced with shock. Ye Jianâs results were like a slap on many of their faces which left a deep print on their facesâ¦
Those students who had mocked Ye Jian and were waiting for her to embarrass herself were ashamed as they hung their heads low.