Chapter 36: I didn’t mean to either
“Just look at Xu Di’s act!” Shan Jie Jie said, gnawing on ribs while staring viciously at Xu Di who was currently surrounded by a group of people.
In the “Hua Luo Geng Cup” – the National Maths Olympiad competition, Class 1’s Lin Yang and Class 7’s Xu Di both received a gold medal.
Yu Zhou Zhou watched as Xu Di gloated to the group of people and suddenly thought that if Xu Di had a tail, then the tail must be swaying even faster than a plane’s propeller.
She wasn’t able to recall anymore, what she was doing when they were studying for the Maths Olympiad.
The Maths Olympiad seemed to be a long term investment. When Yu Zhou Zhou and Zhan Yan Fei received brief happiness in front of the stage, there were still a lot of people hidden behind their desks fighting with numbers. Finally, one day, the ones who will truly stand on the stage will be them.
The Red Scarf Broadcasting Station that Yu Zhou Zhou was in charge of, broadcasted the announcements of Lin Yang and Xu Di for three consecutive days in a row, right until one morning, she really wanted to vomit reading the names of the two people. She didn’t know what feeling it was, it seemed as if the flames of fanaticism for the Maths Olympiad had grown into a large fire and will burn them all.
A female’s intuition is always ridiculously accurate.
The school started to hold Maths Olympiad cram classes with lessons every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. They used a half compulsory method to make all the students that the teachers deemed had potential to attend.
“Zhou Zhou, are you going?” Shan Jie Jie spat out the rib bone on the table.
Yu Zhou Zhou was no longer that ignorant, muddle-headed little girl from grade one. For cram classes like these, how much of it was to following with the herd and how much was to generate profit…she was clear on it all.
However, when Teacher Yu found out that neither Yu Zhou Zhou nor Zhan Yan Fei were on the registration list that the study monitor reported, she still called the two previous class monitors into the office.
Yu Zhou Zhou stood quietly by the wall, staring at the tea leaves that were floating up and down in Teacher Yu’s glass bottle.
“Do you still think it’s like the past? How many parents have come to beg me to let their children join the Maths Olympiad class but I didn’t even give them a spot. I’m giving it to you two but you don’t even appreciate it, do you think that I’m bored with nothing better to do?”
Zhan Yan Fei lowered her head and said in a small voice, “Teacher Yu, there’s always things on at the National Student Federation, I’m afraid…”
“That Student Federation of yours, I’ve long wanted to say that it’s all a scam. You are famous so they let you put your name down, do you really think you can depend on it for a lifetime? Wake up, you’re going to middle school soon, what’s past has past. No matter how brilliant it was, it’s past. Your current grades are barely passable so what’ll happen when you go to middle school, will you still be able to keep up? Hm? Your parents are short-sighted and can’t think ahead for you but that doesn’t mean your teacher is going to allow you to mess around. “
Yu Zhou Zhou still had her head lowered in silence but from the corner of her eye, she noticed that Little Sparrow’s eyes were already glistening with tears.
“The school started these classes for your good, how come none of you know how to appreciate it? Don’t think that my words sound bad, middle school isn’t like primary. No one cares if you can sing, dance or do recitals. Let me tell you, girls are naturally born dumb, the higher up you go in grades, the harder it is to keep up. Girls naturally aren’t as intelligent as boys, if you don’t hurry up, are you waiting to drop to the bottom? The high school entrance exam doesn’t test your announcer or cello skills, aren’t you two being silly? Hm?”
Yu Zhou Zhou’s heart thumped but on the outside, she still maintained her Chen An-like expression – she personally thought that it was a calm and composed expression but in the eyes of the teacher, it was the classic being stubborn and water-tight.
“Also, Yu Zhou Zhou, there’s something that I had wanted to talk to your mum about for a long time now. Since we’ve already talked to this point, I’ll first tell you, the system for transitioning from elementary school to middle school has changed. Only half of the students from our elementary have the opportunity to transition to Normal University Affiliated Middle School. The other half will be going to No.8 Middle School. However, you had originally selected this school to attend but your household registration is still tied to the district you were in before relocation so you’ll have to go back that district to attend middle school. The only alternative option is to attend the entrance exam of good schools like Normal University Affiliated Middle School and No. 8 Middle School. If you pass then you may be able to get in. The exam naturally is on Maths Olympiad and English. Only the exceptionally talented children have the chance of getting in but I’m just putting it out there, they don’t care what grade you are in cello or if you can recite poetry. They simply look down on these so weigh it up yourself.
Teacher Yu’s tone was 100 times cooler than before. The so called ‘talent’ that Teacher Yu had previously praised while patting her head had instantly become worthless and without substance whereas Xu Di who had previously been fiercely scolded by her every two or three days had instantly turned into a star in the class. After school, Xu Zhou Zhou swept the floor as she looked as Teacher Yu stroke the back of Xu Di’s head while beaming at Xu Di’s father, “I like boys, their brains are smart and quick. In the future, you’ll have to let Xu Di help my son more. My son is also unruly. He’s very, very unruly but unruly kids are all smart. Look at your Xu Di, although he loves to do mischief, he’s so clever too.”
Yu Zhou Zhou swept the same place three times and impatiently pushed away the little boy who kept yanking her skirt – their form teacher’s treasured son was six years old this year. Whether or not he was smart was yet to be verified but he was shockingly unruly.
“If you dare push me, I’ll tell my mum and get her to scold you!” The little boy stepped hard onto Yu Zhou Zhou’s white canvas shoes.
Yu Zhou Zhou suppressed the anger in hear heart and smiled brightly. She pointed to the vice-president who was talking to the monitor in charge by the back door and softly said, “What’s the point of kicking me, if you really have the ability, go and kick him.”
The little boy raised his head and with his nose pointed to the sky, he ran out and from the back, kicked straight at the bend of the vice-president’s leg. The vice-president’s leg gave in and he directly kneeled down.
A scream came from outside the classroom. Yu Zhou Zhou put her hands behind her back while twirling the broom in her hand, just like the tail of a little sparrow. She smiled as she watched the form teacher hurriedly apologize to the vice-principal and slapped her son hard on the back of his head.
Yu Zhou Zhou raised her face to look at the lush greenery outside the window. She didn’t know when the early summer had already covered the little Northern city. The little happiness that Yu Zhou Zhou had gained from the crying outside the classroom was mixed with her chaotic and sour thoughts. That type of dark, vengeful thoughts were just like a climbing creeper, filling her heart off guard.
However, she still went. On Wednesday evening, with her head lowered, she entered the school’s Maths Olympiad class.
Teachers who were good at grade five and six maths classes took turns teaching the class. Yu Zhou Zhou had her head lowered in the corner of the class, busy taking notes.
She could only take notes. Because she didn’t understand anything.
Later on, Yu Zhou Zhou completely gave up – as soon as the teacher started writing on the blackboard, it didn’t even take two lines before the students below started shouting out the answer with the sentence, “I’ve done this question a few hundred times already. It’s such an old question, so boring.”
Yeah, since there’s nothing new in life, why don’t you go and die. Yu Zhou Zhou spun her pen around while criticising them inside. Their frequent interruptions caused the teacher’s questions to become harder and harder. Plus, every time, before she had even finished copying the question down, the answer would already come out and the teacher would immediately stop copying the question with a joyful ‘worthy of being taught’ expression. The teacher would stand there, playing with the chalk head and listen to the talented youths enthusiastically give various ways of solving it.
Half an hour later, Yu Zhou Zhou’s notebook was filled with the first half of Math Olympiad questions.
She could guess the beginning but couldn’t guess the back half of the answer.
“Teacher, let’s talk about something more interesting. Something harder or a newer type of question. These types have been discussed at least a few hundred times in Teacher Gu’s class.”
Yu Zhou Zhou raised her ears – the one talking was Lin yang.
Shan Jie Jie had previously mentioned Teacher Gu’s Maths Olympiad class. The large classroom that could accommodate over 300 people had the seating arrangement based completed off of each month’s exam scores. Despite this, the number of people who tried all kinds of ways to get their children in was too many to be counted.
The teacher smiled a little awkwardly, “The few of you know these questions but it doesn’t mean that the other students also know it. Teacher can’t just teach you few, I need to take care of the majority of the students too.”
Lin Yang’s voice contained laughter, “No way, such a simple question, who can’t do it?”
Whoever can’t do it is an idiot. Yu Zhou Zhou understood the meaning behind his words. She lowered her head and drew a little person on the piece of paper. Next to it, she wrote the two words, Lin Yang then viciously stabbed his head twice with her mechanical pencil.
“You don’t believe me? Okay, let’s see.” Yu Zhou Zhou’s heart was chilled by the teacher’s words. Before she even had the time to put away her mechanical pencil, she saw the teacher look at the name list in their hands with a surprised tone, “Oh, the famous Yu Zhou Zhou has come to attend this class too? Come, come, do this question on the board!”
Yu Zhou Zhou felt the time stop. When she stood up, the sound of the chair legs grating against the concrete floor was long and piercing to the ear, as if it would never stop.
Under everyone’s gaze, she walked up the podium. She couldn’t remember how many times she had stood in front of the stage, she had never been nervous even in front of an audience of a few thousand. However, at that moment, facing a class of a few dozen classmates, she felt that their bright eyes were scary. That type of expression was like watching the monkeys at the zoo and make her want to escape for the first time.
The teacher wrote two questions on the board – Yu Zhou Zhou was finally able to see two complete questions, not a half-completed one but at that moment, she would rather sit in the corner and watch all the questions be cut in half.
The first question: In a cage of hens and rabbits, there were 100 heads and 316 feet in total. How many hens and how many rabbits are there?
Yu Zhou Zhou was at a loss. Couldn’t they just directly check, wasn’t it purely sick to calculate it like this?
Question 2: The swimming pool had three water pipes: A, B and C. It takes 20 hours for pipe A to fill the pool, 8 hours for pipes A and B to fill the tub and 6 hours for B and C to fill the pool, how many hours does pipe C need to fill the pool?
Yu Zhou Zhou was aghast, this was definitely sick. Wasting water was shameful.
She stared at the blackboard for two minutes and in that unbearable silence, she suddenly understood what it meant to resign to one’s fate.
It was the type of resignation where had Zhan Yan Fei had smiled bitterly and said, “If I am born stupid, then I can’t help it either.”
Yu Zhou Zhou shook her head, “Sorry, I don’t know how to do it.”
The teacher put on a, ‘See, I was right’ expression while the students below laughed. Xu Di’s laugh was exceptionally loud and he exaggeratedly rocked back and forth.
Yu Zhou Zhou though, smiled. She turned her head in Lin Yang’s direction. He was looking at her with a bright red face and his eyes were filled with panic as if trying his best to tell her, I didn’t mean to.
Yu Zhou Zhou lowered her head with a smile, but as she smiled, she wanted to cry a little too.
What Teacher Yu said perhaps wasn’t just to scare them. She had long known that that era had passed and she had long known that the unknown future was waiting for her. However, when she realized this, she found out that those around her had already gotten into a running pose. Only she was stupidly standing there saying, “Sorry, I don’t know how to do it.”
Lin Yang, I know you didn’t mean it.
Just like how I don’t mean to be so stupid either.
Tofubyu 