Chapter 31

“Are you going or not?”

He Chen gave no heed to Li Tie’s ashen face and choked silence, pressing further.

The parents won’t really punish Li Tie—“voluntary” and “understanding” are just words, but Li Tie must go through this, so she stops acting superior, pretending she’s so noble and always thinking of students and parents.

With such a gap between ambition and ability, how can she dare scold others every day?

“I’ll go!” At the critical moment, the brown-noser came through—Pan Shuai’s voice rang out from afar, then he rushed over.

“I’ll explain to the parents on Teacher Li’s behalf; after all, this isn’t just her mistake—it’s the entire Grade 12 team’s mistake.”

“...” The other Grade 12 teachers watching nearly spat out their tea.

How is this the entire Grade 12 team’s fault?

So you two teachers at the ends of the spectrum get to speak for all of us?

And your goddess didn’t even give us a chance to speak or discuss!

Never mind whether we dared to speak up.

Even if we did, your goddess just played dumb and put on a high-minded act.

Besides, your goddess has the guts to openly defy the principal again and again—we only dare hint at things, never say more.

These unspoken thoughts weighed heavily on them, so they looked hopefully at He Chen—once seeing him as just an unusual troublemaker, now hoping he’d keep talking, saying exactly what they all wanted to hear.

He Chen didn’t disappoint them, mocking directly: “Teacher Pan, how can you, a homeroom teacher of a basic class, represent everyone?”

Why not save your energy and think about how to comfort the parents of those ‘voluntary’ and ‘understanding’ basic class students after the class reassignment?”

Isn’t it inappropriate that the Grade 12 team leader isn’t showing up?”

So you all scramble for rewards and honors, but when trouble comes and responsibility is needed, you instantly hide your heads?”

In that case, the birthday gift Fang Yifan and his father gave really was well-considered!”

At this point, Li Tie’s face turned white with rage; she gritted her teeth: “I’ll go! This is truly my fault, and I never shirk responsibility!”

Saying this, she strode out.

Facing the parents and apologizing? She wasn’t afraid—even if it was humiliating, it was better than staying here, being mocked and berated by a student in front of so many others.

“He Chen, you!” Pan Shuai, the brown-noser, was heartbroken; his gaze toward He Chen turned hostile.

How could anyone dare berate his goddess like this!

“Teacher Pan, what did I do?” He Chen didn’t coddle him, firing back: “Which point was wrong?”

“No matter what, Teacher Li is your teacher—you must at least follow the basic tradition of respecting teachers!” Pan Shuai, unable to address specifics, escalated the issue.

“It depends on how you see it!” He Chen countered: “For today’s teachers, being a teacher is mostly just a job—it’s already severed from tradition.

In ancient times, it was ‘Heaven, Earth, Ruler, Parent, Teacher’—teacher and parent were on equal footing, so respecting teachers made sense, but that was for ‘Master,’ not just ‘teacher’—students, like children, had inheritance rights.

Do we have that now?”

Even setting aside the historical shift in the teacher’s role, consider the basic respect due to someone who teaches and nurtures.

‘Use people as mirrors, and you can adjust your attire.’

A teacher should be a role model, a mirror for students to straighten their clothes—but what if that mirror is a funhouse mirror?”

Doesn’t that just warp the students?”

How can they straighten their clothes then?”

‘Among any three people, there is always something I can learn from them; a disciple need not be inferior to his teacher; a teacher need not be wiser than his disciple!’

Even your cherished tradition supports this mutual reflection, this mutual straightening of attire.

Now the teacher has become a funhouse mirror—so I have no objection to being her mirror, making her look closely at her own actions; if she does anything wrong, she should be reminded and corrected immediately, lest she truly believes herself a sage, lost in self-pity and self-satisfaction, harming both herself and others!”

You don’t seriously believe your goddess is flawless, never makes mistakes, and never needs a mirror to straighten her attire, do you?”

Or do you believe teachers must always be right—even when wrong, they refuse to correct themselves and won’t even allow others to speak?”

“... I didn’t mean that.” Pan Shuai was speechless, baffled by He Chen’s endless rhetoric; thinking of his strong-willed goddess being relentlessly berated by this person, he felt even more heartbroken.

“He Chen!” Huang Zhitao finally couldn’t hold back and called out.

He Chen glanced at her, caught Fang Yifan’s face twitching uncontrollably out of the corner of his eye, smiled and nodded at her, and stopped pressing her—her cousin.

That’s right!

Pan Shuai is Huang Zhitao’s cousin—that’s one major reason her parents have always left her to fend for herself.

Huang Zhitao was secretly pleased that He Chen stopped immediately after her call; when her best friend Qiao Yingzi shot her a suspicious look, she blushed and lowered her head, hiding her expression.

But this behavior tore Fang Yifan’s heart apart.

First, He Chen had mocked Li Tie—and in passing, brought up Fang Yifan’s humiliating “filial son” incident again, already making him feel humiliated and miserable.

Now, the interaction between his goddess and He Chen made him want to beat his chest and stamp his feet, yet he dared not say a word, lest he accidentally push her closer to He Chen.

How many boys and girls have grown closer simply because gossip linked them together?

Fang Yifan wouldn’t do such a stupid thing!

But!

So angry!!!

Fang Yifan felt this way, and outside, Ji Yangyang—who had originally planned to leave immediately but stayed because of the drama—also looked grim.

Huang Zhitao had always been ambiguous with him, using her status as a top student to favor this underachiever, always checking in on him—just now, she had only asked how he did on the exam.

To appear cool, he’d kept walking as always, brushing her off with a casual “I don’t care,” playing the aloof, cool guy.

He’d always thought Huang Zhitao liked this act.

But now he suddenly sensed danger.

With He Chen—slightly more handsome, better at acting cool, always hovering around Huang Zhitao—his position in her heart was in serious jeopardy.

He Chen isn’t some brown-nosing loser like Fang Yifan!

And though he hated to admit it, he knew Huang Zhitao favored him because his situation was similar to hers.

Both had parents away, left alone at home—they had shared experiences.

Now his parents had returned, but hers hadn’t—and He Chen had just appeared, orphaned on both sides. If this were the “who’s sadder” contest from Tang Bohu Points at Qiuxiang, he’d already lost completely.