SWNOVELXO Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Tuesday morning, on the first-floor open corridor of the Yuanyue Academy's first-year teaching building. At this moment, quite a few students had already gathered outside in the courtyard, nervously watching the corridor above.
On the wall, there was a huge blackboard whose color stood out starkly from the surrounding tiles.
At this moment, the top of it was completely empty.
"It should be almost time, right?"
"Seriously, I'm so nervous."
"How come ever since the academic affairs office got a new director from Longguo, things have gotten way more efficient? Before, at least we got a week's reprieve like a death sentence with a stay of execution, now it's just one weekend!"
On the open corridor, a pink-haired girl in a JK uniform strode forward with her head held high, cutting through the chatter of the students.
She was carrying a huge roll of paper in her arms, followed closely by two student council members.
"She's here! The Secretary is bringing the 'Imperial List'!"
"Yuan Lina-sama, I'm begging you, please don't send an email to my parents this time!"
"Supplements, please, sending grades to parents is just too much."
Wails erupted all around, but Yuan Lina, surrounded by those voices, walked straight up to the big blackboard.
The scene was rather like an ancient official sent by the imperial court to distribute famine relief, surrounded by starving people crying out their misery.
Hearing this, Yuan Lina gave a bright, sunny smile, gave everyone a thumbs up, and said,
"Everyone! It's okay!! Even if you didn't do well! With your parents' gentle encouragement, you'll definitely improve next time!!"
"Yame-ro!!"
"No!!"
This was basically pronouncing a death sentence on everyone.
When enrolling at Yuanyue Academy, students are required to provide a guardian's email, and whenever there's a major school event, the school will send invitations to them.
Of course, they'll also conveniently send along the child's grades, end-of-term class ratings, and things like that.
This is all coordinated by the student council and academic affairs office.
Down below, Yuan Lina didn't spare a thought for the students' suffering, but simply turned her head and began posting the grade list.
The two student council members immediately stepped forward to help, unrolling the huge list of all the first-year students and hanging it up on the blackboard.
Meanwhile, on the second floor in the distance, Yan Huan held a cup of black tea, watching the scene below with Sakuramiya Hitomi.
He stifled a yawn, trying to chase away his drowsiness with the tea, but obviously to no avail.
As he watched, Yan Huan suddenly chuckled and said,
"As expected, Yuan Lina is the perfect person for this job."
Sakuramiya Hitomi withdrew her gaze, agreeing just as deeply,
"Yeah, after all, this is the kind of thing that makes everyone dislike you. Luckily Yuan Lina is so well-liked-everyone likes her."
Down below, the results list was slowly unveiled, covering the entire massive blackboard.
As the list was revealed, everyone instinctively held their breath and fell silent, looking up at the names.
Yan Huan 499, Rank 1
Sakuramiya Hitomi 491, Rank 2
Yaqiao Mu 474, Rank 19
An Le 457, Rank 41
Ashley Garcia 441, Rank 56
Yuan Lina Shiwaiya 398, Rank 107
Bai Yi 292, Rank 152
Aria Spencer 66, Rank 178
The five main subjects are reading, writing, math, social studies, and science.
Including the transfer students this semester, there are 178 students in the entire grade, with a total possible score of 500.
"Ah, Lao Gao, what's wrong?! Don't, don't pass out!"
"Hahaha, I made it! I made it!"
"You beast, what did you make?!"
Every time the grades are posted, the students always find endless ways to joke around.
These antics help cover up the emotions they feel seeing their grades-who knows how many are happy and how many are sad.
At Linmen, exam results don't really determine your future, but at least Yuanyue Academy still cares about them.
Even though the school systems are the same, there are still huge differences between the various Linmen schools.
They have completely different educational goals and philosophies.
For example, the high schoolers in the southern district are pretty happy every day, carefree with nothing to worry about, maybe just occasionally going to the community hospital to check for things like gonorrhea or syphilis.
But in Jinghe District, the two schools-Yuanyue and Xiuzhi Academy-are clearly designed to cultivate the next generation of a social class, so the requirements are much stricter.
"President, you're first again, congratulations."
Beside him, Sakuramiya Hitomi silently clapped for Yan Huan and offered her congratulations.
Yan Huan only smiled; in fact, he didn't even glance at his own name, instead scanning down the list.
He was looking for the two other known modifier users in his grade.
Bai Yi, Aria Spencer...
After searching the top of the list for ages and finding nothing, he finally discovered both of them clustered together at the bottom like a little party.
Bai Yi's poor grades are actually understandable.
Because of her idol work, she only comes to school occasionally-maybe she'll have perfect attendance when she's free, but the rest of the time she's always on leave.
That's also why, when Yan Huan saw her using the modifier last week, he didn't recognize her at first.
What's more, she left halfway through the math test to doodle all over Zhou Bin's paper, so looking at her score, it's not like she finished the exam early.
It's normal to lose a ton of points in math.
But what about you, Aria Spencer-the blonde one.
Total score: 66.
That's about 13 points per subject on average; all Yan Huan could say was-
A true poet's grip.
If you picked the same answer for every multiple-choice question, you'd get more than that. She's nearly a hundred points lower than the second-to-last, who knows what's on her mind.
Maybe it's just a lucky 666.
"Alright, everyone! The list will be taken down by the end of the day, and afterward you'll all get an email-boohoohoo."
At that moment, Yuan Lina, standing with her hands on her hips beneath the blackboard, announced loudly.
But the tears at the corners of her eyes, her forced smile, and her trembling body made for quite a comical sight.
One look and you could tell: she bombed the test too.
"Hahahahaha!"
"Secretary Yuan Lina, even you have a day like this?!"
"You're the worst in the whole student council!"
"It's okay, Secretary is so cute, we'll still vote for you next year!"
Hearing this, Yuan Lina didn't cheer up at all. Instead, she pouted and started to cry,
"Waaah, being chosen just because I'm cute-why can't I feel happy at all?! It's like-I'm just the student council's mascot."
The students in the courtyard immediately burst out laughing, while Yan Huan and Sakuramiya Hitomi shook their heads on the second floor.
Just then, a female teacher wearing glasses walked up behind them, smiling as she said,
"Yan, Sakuramiya, please come this way-the principal wants to see you."
"."
Yan Huan and Sakuramiya Hitomi exchanged a glance, pulling their attention away from the chaos below, both wondering what that old monster was up to this time.
"President Yan, Vice President Sakuramiya, I'm very pleased to see that under your leadership, the student council has turned in an almost perfect report card last semester."
Principal Hermes sat on the sofa, beaming at Yan Huan and Sakuramiya Hitomi, his face blooming like a chrysanthemum.
"This guy must have been bribed with money again."
Yan Huan and Sakuramiya Hitomi exchanged a glance in secret, the same thought popping into their heads.
"It's all thanks to everyone's support and willingness to cooperate with us."
Yan Huan gave a slight smile, skipping over Hermes' empty praise.
"More importantly, Principal, is there a specific reason you called us in so early?"
"Here's the situation-"
Hermes beckoned to his assistant, who handed over several documents, and said to Yan Huan and the others,
"Recently, well-known companies like Ye International and Golden Lion Group have been paying close attention to the development of our students. They've provided the school with a batch of summer internship spots, covering many departments and fields. You can take a look at the details later."
The documents included information about the companies and the quotas for each grade.
Yan Huan glanced at them and immediately understood what these documents were for.
There are many students at the school without any connections, and these are resources that will give them an advantage in future school applications.
After all, Yan Huan came to Yuanyue to study while working part-time for exactly these kinds of opportunities.
With that in mind, Yan Huan asked Hermes,
"So, how will the specific spots be allocated-"
"First, submit an application to the student council. Before the end of the term, the student council will submit a list to the principal's office, and we'll review it."
The review generally covers three areas: GPA, participation in student public affairs, and disciplinary records.
These three records are simultaneously supervised and managed by the academic affairs office, the student affairs office, and the discipline department-three school administrative departments-not something the student council can manipulate at will.
"I understand. We'll inform the students about this later."
Hermes smiled and nodded, then turned to pick up another sheet of paper.
For some reason, watching him take out that paper, Yan Huan couldn't help but feel like he was witnessing "Jing Ke presenting the map."
"There's one more thing, Yan. In previous years, the student council has always organized academic support for students, but since participation was voluntary, the results weren't great."
Academic peer support, at its core, is encouraging high-achieving students, under the guidance of the student council, to help those with lower GPAs.
But if you think about it, both sides are volunteering-how could this possibly succeed?
Why would top students go out of their way, and why would struggling students want to embarrass themselves in front of their peers?
So.
"So this year, the academic affairs office hopes the student council will take the lead and run a pilot support program to promote the relaunch of this initiative."
Hermes pushed the paper in front of Yan Huan; on it was a list of students' names.
"In other words, a small number of extremely underperforming students will be forced into study groups as a demonstration, encouraging top students to lend a hand, and giving them priority when applying for scholarships or resource review slots."
The map is revealed, and the dagger appears.
No wonder he handed over that list first-so this is what he was waiting for?
Off to the side, Sakuramiya Hitomi frowned slightly; she glanced at the list and noticed a few surnames that were quite well-known in Linmen.
She more or less understood what the school board was up to, but didn't respond, waiting for Yan Huan to speak.
Yan Huan had only planned to go through the motions, not wanting to embarrass the principal.
Announce what needs to be announced, say what needs to be said, and as for how it's ultimately carried out, that's another matter.
But as his eyes swept over the list, he quickly spotted two familiar names.
"Bai Yi"-recommended for inclusion; "Aria Spencer"-forced inclusion.
Spencer's name was even highlighted in red.
Oh?
Earlier, they'd talked about making a fuss over that promise to Spencer.
Well, isn't this the perfect opportunity?
Good, good, it's all fallen into my hands.
Yan Huan's gaze lingered on those two names for a moment.
Sakuramiya Hitomi had a pretty good idea of what Yan Huan was going to say, but after waiting a while, he still hadn't spoken.
So, she couldn't help but look over.
She saw Yan Huan staring at the name "Aria Spencer" on the list, a bit dazed, as if he were hesitating.
That name-
Last night, she still couldn't get over that golden-haired girl who could kick through her barrier, so she looked into it.
Aria Spencer was the name of that golden-haired girl.
Why did the president show such a strange expression when he saw her name?
What on earth is going on?!
What exactly happened between them yesterday afternoon?
"President?"
At this thought, Sakuramiya Hitomi grew anxious and quickly called out to Yan Huan.
".Understood. I'll go notify the relevant students in a bit-let me handle this."
Taking the initiative?
Hermes blinked, looking at the smiling Yan Huan in front of him, and his own smile grew even wider.
"That's wonderful, Yan. I'll leave this to you. If you run into any problems, just let me know."
"."
Sakuramiya Hitomi's rosy lips parted slightly, and she couldn't help but clutch her skirt.
First it was that "Ye Shiyu" sister, now it's this Spencer.
If the president's special gentleness is because he sees Ye Shiyu as family...
Then what about this blonde woman?
Her personality is so unlikeable-she doesn't seem like someone who'd get along with the president. So why did he hesitate when he saw her name?
No, Sakuramiya Hitomi, don't overthink it.
Maybe the kind and gentle president just wants to help students who are struggling academically.
Besides, even if the president personally tutors her, what's the harm?
It's all normal...
Really.
Sakuramiya Hitomi was just about to breathe a sigh of relief, but her pupils suddenly shrank, and a surge of anger flared up inside her.
Normal, my foot!!
How could I suddenly think like that?!
Where did this idea even come from?!
"Alright, that's all for this morning. You two can head back to class."
"Okay, Principal."
Yan Huan stood up with the documents, but Sakuramiya Hitomi was still sitting there, causing him to raise an eyebrow.
"Sakuramiya?"
"Ah?"
Sakuramiya Hitomi snapped back to her senses and belatedly stood up.
"Sorry, President."
Deep down, a gut feeling made Sakuramiya Hitomi even more certain.
That Spencer girl definitely did something sneaky to the president.
Following behind Yan Huan, Sakuramiya Hitomi's face instantly turned cold, as if she were ready to kill.
Calm down.
Calm down, Sakuramiya Hitomi.
She tried to comfort herself in her heart.
When things are kept secret, they succeed; when words leak out, they fail...
Hide it away, don't lose your composure.
Who cares about Ye Shiyu or Spencer-as long as I keep it hidden and plot in secret, without exposing any weaknesses...
One day, the president will become someone only I can see, someone no one else can steal away.
Exclusive!
"Achoo!"
Class 1-C, classroom.
Spencer sneezed, accidentally blowing down the house of cards she'd painstakingly built on her desk.
"...Who's cursing me? Could it be Santa Claus found out I badmouthed him last year?"
Spencer rubbed her chin, coming up with what she thought was the most likely conclusion.
But soon, she gave up thinking about it.
She pouted, looking a little unhappy.
Since yesterday, Spencer had had a problem.
For some reason, her classmates-or rather, everyone around her-seemed to dislike her.
She'd only transferred here a day ago and hadn't done anything.
When she tried to chat with people, they responded awkwardly and made small talk.
When she asked for help, they pretended not to hear and quickly found excuses to leave.
Yesterday, during free time in basketball class, she wanted to form a team, but as soon as her classmates saw her, they all avoided her, leaving her to play alone.
When class ended, everyone was supposed to gather in the gym to return the basketballs to the equipment room, but since she was new, she had no idea.
Everyone else left one after another, and no one told her what to do.
So she went back to the teaching building, found no one there, and slunk back to return the ball-only to find the door already locked.
That's why she got so mad she kicked the door to get into the equipment room, and just happened to catch Yan Huan and that pair doing something bad inside...
Even though she had something to hold over him, Spencer was still annoyed.
"Ding ding ding~"
As the bell rang, their math teacher, Zhou Bin, walked into Class C.
Zhou Bin, known as the "model worker of the math group," was famous for his strictness.
But math is a rigorous subject by nature, and he taught it very well-at least, Yan Huan thought so.
This semester, he was responsible for teaching first-year classes B, C, and D, as well as an afternoon elective math class.
People from Longguo are competitive wherever they go, and for some reason, Linmen parents really trust Longguo teachers to teach math.
At this moment, Zhou Bin was wearing a loose dark blue T-shirt, his slightly bulging belly pushing it out.
Hanging from his chest was a cross, his left wrist wrapped with a red talisman, and on his right hand he wore a string of prayer beads.
With the blessing of these items, even his bald head, which would reflect sunlight, seemed to be glowing with a Buddhist halo.
Amen, blessings from the Celestial Worthy, Amitabha.
Please protect me from the ghost that attacked me last Friday.
Zhou Bin rubbed the talisman strap on his wrist with his fingers, then, abandoning his usual sternness, forced out an extremely awkward smile and said to the students below,
"Dear students, good morning. Let's take out our textbooks and turn to page fifteen..."
"......"
Everyone stared wide-eyed, blankly watching Zhou Bin on the podium.
As if they were seeing a monster disguised as Zhou Bin.
Zhou Bin lifted his glasses with a forced, insincere smile, and repeated,
"Dear students?"
"Oh, oh, oh..."
Zhou Bin seemed to think that last Friday's supernatural incident was caused by his usual strictness, which had built up so much resentment among the students that it turned into a vengeful spirit.
Everyone took out their books, except Spencer, who was still frozen in place, at a loss.
She glanced at the textbooks everyone else was looking at, then rummaged through her own backpack.
A quick look inside: comics, computer, snacks, power bank...
She smacked her forehead.
Looks like she forgot to bring her book!
Folding her arms, she looked around and found that the seat next to her was still empty.
The owner of that seat still hadn't returned to class.
If she remembered right, it was someone named... An Le?
A girl with quite a chest.
Spencer instantly spotted the textbook on the other person's desk, and after a second's thought, she naturally reached over and took it.
Following Zhou Bin's instructions, she turned to page fifteen. Staring at the content, which looked like an alien script, she tilted her head.
Then she bent down, bringing her face closer to carefully read the words on the page.
After a few seconds, Spencer's tightly scrunched little face was almost overloaded.
Then, she let out a huge yawn and suddenly became listless.
Sleepy.
And so bored.
She spread An Le's book out on the desk in boredom.
She didn't expect that such a simple action would cause a bookmark tucked between the pages to slip out.
"Huh, what's this?"
Spencer tilted her head, curiosity sparkling in her eyes.
She reached out and picked up the wrinkled, stiff paper bookmark, only to see that it was covered with crooked, childlike handwriting that read,
"Yan Huan and An Le, together forever."
The handwriting at the beginning and end was different, as if it had been written by two people together.
Staring at the words on the bookmark, Spencer's extremely bored expression suddenly froze.
Then, as her eyes slowly widened, that look faded away.
(End of this chapter)