To Laugh or Not to Laugh

Under everyone's gaze, Hesta stepped onto the podium while Zuo Wentao moved to one side. He put on his glasses with great solemnity and assumed the cautious smile of a scholar.

"By the way," Zuo Wentao suddenly said, "you're not on your period today, are you?"

Another burst of laughter rose from below.

Hesta looked up. Though she still could not understand why everyone was laughing, she had grown somewhat used to these sudden collective reactions.

"No, Teacher Zuo." Hesta adjusted the microphone upward. Turning her head toward Zuo Wentao, she spoke as her voice came from all four corners of the classroom through the speakers. "But it'll be soon, because my last period was three weeks ago."

The laughter below grew even louder.

The students who understood Common Tongue were the first to laugh, while those who did not anxiously asked their companions what Hesta had said afterward.

Standing in the center of the podium, Hesta looked over the entire classroom before her. She realized that the unobstructed view she had enjoyed from above was equally clear from the podium at the very bottom of the room.

In her field of vision, Hesta saw that even a girl in the front row who had kept a straight face all along could not help laughing. Her male companion noticed and leaned over to say something to her. The girl punched him, trying to suppress her smile, but that attempt somehow seemed to make everything even funnier.

Amid the laughter, the girl happened to look up and discovered Hesta watching her. Her expression froze for a moment. Then her flushed, smiling face turned into a slightly apologetic wry smile, and finally she lowered her head.

Hesta suddenly understood why Lin Jiao had thought her little speech was meaningless—the audience members who