The Most Silent Class

As lunch break ended, the teaching building gradually filled with students arriving one after another. The bald-headed homeroom teacher of Class 4, Grade 3, stepped onto the podium. His first class this afternoon was math, which would also be a good opportunity to introduce the new students.

No one knew the homeroom teacher's real name because teachers weren't required to wear identification badges. The students in the class all called him Johnny, and over time, no one cared what the homeroom teacher's original name was anymore. Even Director Gene liked to call him Johnny.

Johnny stood on the podium, his expression exuding authority. His eagle-like eyes quietly swept across the faces of everyone in the class, then he nodded with satisfaction.

Everyone was writing furiously, working on the math test papers that had been handed out the previous week. He had stipulated to the students that he didn't like them wasting time, so if they hadn't arrived by his time before his class, they should conscientiously complete the test questions he had given them.

One by one, the students hunched over, heads bowed, faces turned toward the paper, their hair covering their foreheads and eyes, their expressions unreadable, like imprisoned laborers.

Several students wearing red armbands were also like this, but they sat even straighter and appeared more proactive.

"Today is another day of serious study for everyone, "Johnny thought. "If only these days without any excitement or resistance could continue forever!"

"Before class begins, I'd like to introduce you to a few transfer students." He pointed to the slightly ajar door, where five ghostly figures stood. "Come in."

Yu Xing and his friends, who had been waiting outside, crossed the threshold of Class 4, Grade 3 and stood in a row on the platform. Yu Xing was at the very front and was the closest to the teacher. He smelled a strange burnt smell on the teacher, glanced at him, and then turned back to observe the students in the class with a normal expression.

He had peeked inside from outside the door, but apart from noticing that the students were writing like soulless puppets, Yu Xing didn't sense anything else from them.

"Transfer student, please introduce yourself." Mr. Johnny turned his head to look at Yu Xing. His tone was relatively gentle at this time, probably because Yu Xing's grades were better than most of his classmates. Class 4 of Grade 3 was the worst class in the third year, without exception. Every year, their class ranked last in every subject. The top student in the class would only be in the middle in other classes.

Rumors were circulating that Johnny had offended some people, forcing the school to assign him to teach the most difficult class. He actually did quite well with this class; although the grades didn't improve much, the class became much "better," transforming from the noisiest class in the entire grade into the quietest.

This is information that Zhao Mou obtained.

"Hello everyone, my name is Roy." Yu Xing began his brief self-introduction, ending after just seven words.

A hush fell over the room; not a single student looked up. It seemed that the homework was far more stimulating to them than the arrival of a new transfer student, which made Johnny, the homeroom teacher had already raised his hand to applaud, feel a little awkward.

Johnny glanced down and tapped the table with his finger. "The new students are introducing themselves. You should at least show some welcome. Don't ignore them; it's very impolite."

As soon as he spoke, the students who were writing furiously stopped writing at the same time, and strangely raised their heads, as if forty-odd bodies had the same operating system, all looking at Yu Xing's face.

Yu Xing spotted Rebecca, Parey, and the four girls she had seen before. They mingled in the crowd, putting on a convincing act, all equally numb and calm, seemingly uninterested in the transfer students and focused solely on their studies.

A person wearing a red armband raised her hands and began to clap. The sparse applause quickly grew into a warm and sincere clapping. The person in the red armband said happily, "Welcome, new student."

"Next." Johnny, the homeroom teacher, didn't care how long Yu Xing's self-introduction was. He waved his hand and continued with his procedure until all five people had given brief introductions, and each received what appeared to be enthusiastic applause from their classmates. Johnny clapped his hands in satisfaction and then handed each of them an ID tag. "Your ID tags are ready. From now on, you must wear them at all times. They are your other life, understand?"

"Yes, teacher." They hadn't forgotten the rules about questioning and answering that Director Gene and the school rules handbook had mentioned.

"Alright, everyone, find a seat anywhere. We're about to start class." The homeroom teacher looked around the empty seats and found them scattered. She didn't assign anyone a seat, since these transfer students who seemed to know each other wouldn't have a chance to sit together and talk anyway.

Yu Xing listened obediently and walked to the back seat, clearly not wanting to sit in the front. Johnny stared intently at his back, and then saw the only female transfer student consciously sit in the prime second-row seat, replacing a student who had been punished for making a mistake the previous week. Her calm eyes gazed at him absentmindedly, and she even had a similar feeling to the students in the class he had already taught.

Johnny couldn't help but take a liking to this female transfer student.

Soon, the five students sat down. The classroom seats were for two students each, and each desk was separate, with four vertical rows and eight horizontal rows. The angles of the desks and chairs were so neat that they resembled a matrix. Coincidentally, their positions were far apart, with no two students sitting within two rows above, below, to the left, or to the right of another transfer student.

Yu Xing chose a seat in the last row, which happened to be diagonally behind Rebecca. They were relatively close. Yu Xing only glanced at her before sitting down in his seat. He was carrying two books in his arms. One was a math book used for the first two consecutive classes, which he had brought from his dormitory. After the math class in the afternoon was physics, so the second book was a physics book.

After putting his books and stationery in the drawer, Yu Xing secretly observed the people closest to him. The classmate in front of him was a peculiar little white-haired girl who wasn't very tall. From behind, you could see the temples of her glasses perched on her ears. She was somewhat thin, with prominent shoulder blades.

Beyond the corridor on the right was a very tall male student. His hair was shaved very short, and his skin was slightly dark. He looked like a typical school bully. He wore a red armband on his sleeve. Judging from where he was sitting, he could easily see many people's little actions.

The boy on the left was his deskmate. He was quiet and had thick curly hair that had fallen over his shoulders, obscuring his face. Even when most people were clapping, he only clapped symbolically, giving off a sense of marginalization.

None of the three of them did anything special. On the podium, the homeroom teacher had already started the lesson, instructing everyone to turn to page X in their textbooks. Yu Xing followed suit, glanced at the page, and found that the knowledge points on that page were relatively simple. So, while listening, she continued to observe the others.

Knowing that Rebecca had served as a cautionary tale, he knew that these students, under prolonged oppression, had developed a remarkable ability to disguise themselves. He suspected that many in the class had never even reached the breaking point of oppression, and that all their coldness was an act, a facade put on for the red armbands and the teachers.

Overall, however, it was rather boring to have Yu Xing attend senior high school classes. He didn't like such rigid and formulaic texts. On the other hand, Zhao Mou and Qu Xuanqing listened very attentively. The latter was even taking notes, and judging from the frequency with which she wrote, her notebook was already quite full, which was completely out of character for her.

Yu Xing remained calm and secretly memorized all the observations. The class quickly passed its halfway point when the teacher suddenly chuckled and called on a student, "Yuriel, what are you doing? Why are you so talkative?"

The student whose name was called shuddered. The entire class turned to look at him instantly; the pressure of being stared at by countless eyes was immense. The student lowered his head and stood up shakily. "Teacher, I didn't quite understand the last question, so I asked my deskmate about it."

His deskmate was also terrified, and from Yu Xing's angle, he could see that his deskmate's arm was trembling slightly.

"Don't understand? A key point?" Mr. Johnny, clearly wanting to establish his authority, wasn't about to let the student off easily. "I've explained it in such detail, how can you not understand this point?"

Yuriel's students fell silent.

However, Johnny persisted. "It's one thing if you don't understand, but you're also disturbing your deskmate's studies during class?"

The whole class was quiet, as if they were holding their breath, afraid to make a sound.

"You used to talk so much, why are you so quiet now? Have you forgotten the school rules?" Johnny gave a smug smile, and when he mentioned the school rules, Uriel turned completely pale.

"Teacher, I was wrong. I'm reflecting on my actions. I was too stupid. Can you forgive me this once..." Yuriel was about to cry. Johnny's gaze swept over his deskmate, who sensed the threat in that look and his heart skipped a beat.

"Which question from what I just talked about did your deskmate ask you? Can you share it with the whole class?" Johnny smiled, his wrinkles deepening with the smile, making him look much older. "You're the physics class representative, and I believe you've always done a good job in terms of honesty."

Physics class representative.

Honest.

I trust you.

Yu Xing raised an eyebrow, understanding the implied meaning in those words. Sure enough, the physics class representative also stood up. He wasn't wearing a red armband, and his face was flushed red, with the muscles around his eyes twitching.

"I..."

The physics class representative swallowed hard, and when he looked up, he met Johnny's ambiguous gaze. He turned to look at his deskmate, who was trembling like a leaf, and a hint of despair appeared in his eyes.

"Yuriel... didn't... ask me any questions..." He uttered the sentence with great difficulty. Yuriel suddenly looked up, staring at him in shock. The physics class representative, avoiding his gaze, turned his head away. "He just... wanted to talk... I ignored him."

Yu Xing heard her curly-haired deskmate let out a faint, almost imperceptible, cold laugh.

If it were truly a problem in class, then even if one was scolded by the teacher for being foolish, or even if one didn't respond to the teacher in time while being scolded, there would still be room for redemption. However, when the physics class representative refuted Yuriel's words, the nature of the matter changed, which meant deception and playfulness.

"Yuriel, you're getting bolder and bolder. Now you've learned to lie in front of the whole class." Johnny smirked. All the students knew in their hearts who was lying, and who was instructing or coercing them. But no one dared to stand up and refute them, because refuting them was useless. The point of protesting was that someone with higher power could back them up, but such a person did not exist in St. Johnis Middle School.

They were fully aware of this matter as early as the first half of the year.

"Everyone knows what punishment to use for disobedient students, right?" Johnny finally got to the part he was most excited about. "Yuriel, since this is your first offense, I won't give you a particularly severe punishment. But to teach you that you shouldn't talk in class, let's use that method. After class, come with me to the infirmary, and I'll have the teacher there treat your mistake."

Fear rose in Yuriel's eyes, but a glimmer of hope also appeared. After learning that he would not die, Johnny allowed him to sit down. He glared at his deskmate with bloodshot eyes, the hatred in his eyes impossible to conceal.

His fingernails dug blood marks into his palms, and then, inexplicably, a sinister smile crept across his face.

The physics class representative shuddered, raised his hand, and asked timidly, "Teacher, Yuriel is disturbing my class. Can I ask to change seats?"

Johnny had secretly pressured the physics class representative to lie and harm Yuriel, but now Johnny turned on him, saying, "You're a better student than him, so stay in your seat and help him out. You see, even when he's making excuses, the first thing he thinks of is asking you questions. Angeli, remember to be more helpful after class."

Cases of students harming each other are not uncommon at this school.

The physics class representative slowly lowered his hand. He could feel the murderous intent rising in his deskmate's eyes, but he could only manage a bitter smile.

He knew that unless they wore red armbands, even if these teachers briefly showed them a recruiting look, it would only be a fooling. But if he had to do it again, he would still do it, because if he didn't say what Johnny implied, then the two of them would definitely be the ones punished.

He is physically weak and cannot tolerate any harsh punishment.

"Johnny always finds excuses; he's punished a large portion of the class." Just as Yu Xing was gaining a deeper understanding of the class, he suddenly heard his deskmate mutter softly.

Yu Xing perked up.

Because this statement doesn't sound like something someone would say to themselves; it sounds more like an explanation to someone who doesn't know the situation.

His new deskmate was trying to win him over.