The moment she stepped onto the podium, the temperature throughout the classroom seemed to drop several degrees.
"What are you all doing? If you don't want to attend class, you can drop out!"
Her very first words landed like an explosion.
Everyone fell as silent as cicadas in winter and hurried to find seats. Huo Yuhao lowered his head too and was about to head toward a corner, but Wang Dong caught his wrist and pulled him straight to a desk by the window.
"Sit here."
Huo Yuhao froze. Before he could react, Wang Dong had already sat down beside him. Wang Dong casually took an oil-paper package from inside his clothes and pressed it into Huo Yuhao's hands. "Bought these this morning. Eat them while they're hot."
Huo Yuhao looked down and saw two meat buns still steaming. His nose stung, and he murmured:
"Thank you..."
At the podium, the elderly woman swept an expressionless gaze around the classroom and began to speak.
"My name is Zhou Yi, and I'm the homeroom teacher for Freshman Class One. I don't care what status or background you had before. Now that you're at Shrek Academy, you will follow Shrek Academy's rules. In my class, there is only one rule... either get stronger or get out. Understood?"
"Understood!" came the scattered replies.
Zhou Yi's gaze swept over them. Suddenly, she spoke again. "Right, did anyone get into a fight on the first day?"
The classroom instantly went quiet.
Everyone's eyes landed, as one, on Dai Huabin's bruised and swollen face.
Dai Huabin's expression turned utterly thunderous.
Without the slightest hesitation, Wang Dong stood up.
"I did. I'm the one who gave him those injuries." His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly throughout the classroom.
"Because he was asking for it. If I had another chance, I'd hit him again."
The classroom instantly became so quiet that a falling pin could have been heard. Everyone stared at Wang Dong, dumbfounded. Even Zhou Yi was taken aback.
In all her years of teaching, she had seen troublemakers and students who refused to obey, but she had never seen one like this. Admitting to fighting was one thing, but how could he sound so righteous, so proud?
His tone and expression made it seem as though he had performed some glorious deed worthy of a commendation.
Zhou Yi laughed in anger. Narrowing her eyes, she looked Wang Dong up and down and sneered.
"Fine. You've got guts. Since you have so much energy to fight, there's no need to attend class. You're all one group. The entire class will go outside and run one hundred laps, with a two-hour time limit. Whoever finishes last will be expelled on the spot."
Her words immediately set off a chorus of wails.
"One hundred laps?! That's way too many!"
"One hundred laps in two hours? How could anyone finish that?"
"Isn't this just forcing people to drop out...?"
Their faces turned deathly pale. For most of the freshmen, one hundred laps was simply an impossible task.
One lap around Shrek Academy's sports field was a full four hundred meters. One hundred laps meant forty thousand meters. To finish in two hours, they would have to maintain an average pace of under three minutes per kilometer. How could students possibly do that?
Even Soul Masters couldn't withstand that kind of soul power expenditure.
Huo Yuhao's face paled even further. His soul power was only rank eleven, and his physique was almost the weakest among them all.
Forget one hundred laps-he would probably collapse halfway through. He bit his lip as a wave of helplessness rose within him.
Dai Huabin, on the other hand, looked indifferent, with the faintest hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. He was a three-ring Soul Elder, with a physique far beyond that of an ordinary person. One hundred laps would be strenuous, but he could still grit his teeth and finish.
He glanced at Wang Dong and thought to himself, Serves you right for being so arrogant. Let's see how you get out of this now.
Standing in the classroom, Wang Dong was inwardly ranting like mad. He had already disliked Zhou Yi in the original story.
All that talk about high graduation rates, high rates of admission to the inner court, high rates of success... it was complete bullshit.
She could casually expel a student and ruin their entire life. Of course the percentages would be higher with fewer people left. But what kind of good students could such a teaching method produce?
A truly good teacher could turn struggling students into excellent ones, rather than simply kicking the struggling students out.
But none of that was the most important point. What mattered most was that Huo Yuhao was too weak right now to manage the run. He absolutely couldn't let Huo Yuhao do it.
"Shrek Academy doesn't give a teacher the authority to expel students at will."
Wang Dong spoke without haste, yet every word rang clear.
"If you think you can expel students whenever you please, teacher, why don't we go ask the dean to settle this? Before school even started, I heard that Teacher Zhou Yi liked expelling students, dressing it up as selecting talent for the academy.
"But what's really happening? Students get expelled because they can't keep up in a run. They haven't learned anything yet, and they're already labeled useless... is that the students' problem, or the school's?"
"We didn't come here to train as runners... you can destroy someone's life so easily. Is that really right?"
When he finished, the classroom fell silent. Huo Yuhao instinctively began clapping, the crisp sound of his applause especially loud in the quiet classroom.
Once he realized what he was doing, he blushed and quickly lowered his hands, but his eyes shone as he stared at Wang Dong's back.
The others gradually came to their senses as well. What young person didn't have a little fire in their blood? Stirred by his words, quite a few of them began to stare with blazing eyes.
"Exactly! What gives you the right to expel people whenever you want?"
"It wasn't easy for us to get into Shrek either. Why should we be expelled just because we can't keep up in a run?"
"If we have to, we'll all sign a complaint together!"
For a moment, indignation swept through the classroom. The way many of the girls looked at Wang Dong had changed. They thought he was handsome and willing to take responsibility, as though his whole body were shining.
Zhou Yi's face alternated between livid and pale. She had intended to make a show of authority on the first day, only for this troublemaker to defy her publicly and incite the entire class to oppose her.
In all her years of teaching, this was the first time she had encountered anything like it. Looking at the boys and girls before her, united as one with their eyes blazing, she suddenly felt something unfamiliar stir inside her.
She began to question her teaching philosophy. Could... could I really have been wrong? She had always believed that harshness produced talent, that elimination left only the elite.
Yet the look in these children's eyes made her waver for the first time.
She remained silent for a long time. Finally, she took a deep breath and conceded a step.
"...Fine. I'll let it go this time. But the fighting can't simply be overlooked. Wang Dong, Dai Huabin, the two of you must be punished."
Knowing when to quit while he was ahead, Wang Dong immediately put on a sincere expression. "You're right, teacher. Fighting is wrong, and Dai Huabin and I are willing to admit our mistakes. How about this? The two of us will run double-two hundred laps-to set an example for our classmates!"
Zhou Yi froze for a moment. Looking at Wang Dong's sincere face, she found herself at a loss for words. This boy... he had just defied her in front of everyone, and now he was volunteering to admit his mistake and accept extra punishment. His attitude was so earnest that she couldn't find fault with it.
Suddenly, she felt that although he was a troublemaker, at least he dared to own his actions. That was far better than those who played sly little tricks behind her back.
She nodded, her tone softening a little. "Fine, two hundred laps, then. Until you finish, don't bother attending today's classes."
Dai Huabin stood beside him, completely bewildered. What the hell? When had I said I would admit my mistake? When had I said I would run two hundred laps?
Before you continue