"Riiing..." The class bell rang, and the Chinese teacher, Mediterranean, walked into the classroom with a roll book in his hand. His eyes swept over the empty seats, and he gave a sinister smile.
He slowly opened the roll book. "Roll call begins now..."
"Zhang Jinlian."
"Here!"
"Auntie Su."
"Here," Su Fengzi answered. Well, all right then, my dear husband.
"Dad, Dad, Dad..."
Su Fengzi looked at the empty seat beside him and shook his head helplessly. Overslept, didn't you, Pei Xiaohu?
There weren't many students in the class, but the Chinese teacher spoke so slowly that calling just over thirty names took him almost half an hour. After the last name, he slowly closed the roll book. "Classmate Dad failed to arrive for morning class on time, violating..."
Before he could finish, the classroom door was thrown open with a bang. Pei Yanchuan stood in the doorway, panting. "Reporting in!"
The Chinese teacher glanced at him and said coldly, "Morning class starts at seven. What time do you call this?!" Anger seeped into his voice. Pei Yanchuan's name had annoyed him for a while now, and this was the perfect chance to vent.
Pei Yanchuan stood at attention and answered loud and clear, "Six eighty-nine!"
The little old man at the podium froze. Even after more than ten seconds, he still hadn't processed it. "All right. Go back to your seat."
Su Fengzi was already used to Pei Yanchuan's outrageous antics, but Zhang Jinlian had never seen anything like this. Her eyes widened as she muttered, "You can do that?"
Pei Yanchuan sat down and shook his head at Zhang Jinlian. It had only worked because the little old man was elderly and hadn't caught on. This trick could only be used once; repeat it, and he would notice something was off.
Mediterranean, the little old man, set the roll book aside and gave another sinister smile. "Today, we'll use morning class to inspect everyone's appearance."
As soon as he finished speaking, a sheet of rules appeared on the desks.
[Student appearance regulations: 1. Male students are forbidden from wearing their hair long or dyeing it. Upon discovery, teachers have the right to adjust the student's hairstyle. 2. Students are strictly prohibited from wearing jewelry, including but not limited to rings, bracelets, and necklaces. 3. Students must maintain a smile during appearance inspections. Failure to do so will be considered disrespect toward the teacher. 4. ...]
Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi couldn't smile anymore after reading the first rule. This was clearly targeting them! Targeting them!!
Su Fengzi sighed. "I've spent four or five years growing this hair. If he shaves it off, I'm just going to die in this game."
Pei Yanchuan nodded in agreement. His situation was even worse than Su Fengzi's. Not only did he have a wolf cut, but he also had highlights and a necklace around his neck.
Though this was supposed to be an appearance inspection, the Chinese teacher stepped down from the podium and headed straight for them. Fair enough-the targets were obvious. They were the only two people in the class with long hair.
Pei Yanchuan only had time to take off his necklace and hastily stuff it into his desk drawer. As the Chinese teacher approached, he flashed a huge smile. He had already broken the rules, but one less violation was still one less violation.
But the overweight Mediterranean wasn't swayed by a friendly smile. He reached out and grabbed Pei Yanchuan's hair. "Classmate Dad," he said in a cold, mechanical voice, "you've broken the rules." It sounded like a death sentence.
Pei Yanchuan subtly leaned back, letting his hair slip out of that withered hand.
"Sir, what should I do about that?" Pei Yanchuan was still smiling and didn't look afraid.
Mediterranean lifted the corners of his stiff mouth and produced a pair of scissors from somewhere, reaching out to grab Pei Yanchuan's hair again.
Following the principle that blood could spill and heads could roll, but his hairstyle must stay intact, Pei Yanchuan sprang to his feet. "Sir, I can take care of it myself. No need to trouble you."
While Pei Yanchuan kept Mediterranean distracted with his banter, Su Fengzi quickly tied his hair up with an elastic and clipped it flat against the top of his head. Now it really didn't look like medium-long hair anymore—just a set of emo bangs.
"Take care of it yourself?" Mediterranean said slowly. "It's all right. I don't mind the trouble." As he spoke, the scissors advanced again, almost touching Pei Yanchuan's hair.
Pei Yanchuan sucked in a breath and scrambled backward. "Sir, as long as you leave my hair alone, I'll do anything you say!"
No one walked away from a hairdresser smiling, especially a hairdresser with a grudge against them.
Mediterranean went quiet for a few seconds. "All right. Recite Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng. If you can't, I'll treat it as a violation of school rules."
Pei Yanchuan paused briefly, then smiled. He hadn't expected it to be so easy. That demand might be difficult for someone else, but for a final-year high school student about to take the college entrance exam, it couldn't have been easier.
Pei Yanchuan cleared his throat. "Once the commandery of Yuzhang, now the new prefecture of Hongdu. Its stars lie in the domains of Wings and Chariot; its lands adjoin Mount Heng and Mount Lu..." He recited it smoothly, without a single stumble. When he finished, Mediterranean nodded in satisfaction and reluctantly let him off, turning his gaze toward the... emo kid beside him.
Mediterranean: ...
Though the rules didn't include this hairstyle, he still felt that the emo look counted as a violation. Unfortunately, without evidence, he couldn't touch this person. I'll add emo hairstyles to the school rules when I get back, Mediterranean thought.
Once the teacher left, Su Fengzi nudged Pei Yanchuan's chair with his foot and asked quietly, "Pei Xiaohu, did you get hurt? Is it bad?"
Pei Yanchuan turned around. "I did..." He instinctively started to say it wasn't serious, but remembering that the person in front of him could tell truth from lies, he answered honestly instead. "Pretty bad."
But he immediately added, "Still, I wasn't the one who came off worse."
Su Fengzi frowned. "Is that the point?!"
"Of course it matters." Pei Yanchuan looked utterly unconcerned. "If losses are inevitable, making the enemy lose even more is a victory!"
Su Fengzi: "..."
Just as the crisis on their side passed, Ye Chu's group ran into a new problem.
"Why? Why?!" Wu You miserably unraveled her braided pigtails. "Why aren't we even allowed to have pigtails?!"
Lu Rui soothed Wu You softly. "It's okay, it's okay. We'll braid them again once the inspection's over..."
Ye Chu silently helped undo the braid on the other side, still worrying about the two people in the Zhiyuan Building. The only short-haired boy had been forced into the girls' classroom building. What a cruel joke.
Xiao Xiao sat beside the three of them, helping check whether they had any other prohibited items on them.
"What's our next class?" After undoing her braids, Wu You still had to force out a smile for the damned math teacher.
Ye Chu glanced at the timetable on the blackboard. "PE. Does that mean we can have class with the people from the Zhiyuan Building?"
Xiao Xiao nodded. "Yes. We'll see them soon." She smiled sweetly, delighted that she would soon get to see her boyfriend.
"Is there anything we need to watch out for in PE?" Lu Rui asked. She wanted to prepare in advance rather than face another surprise battle.
Xiao Xiao tilted her head and thought for a moment. "PE is pretty simple. Just do what the teacher says. Usually, it's just ball games and running."
Lu Rui nodded and relaxed. Ball games and running didn't sound difficult.
"Holy ***!" Lu Rui ran, gasping for breath. "Nobody told me 'running' meant five kilometers!"
Wu You ran beside her, cursing as she went. "I've seriously had enough. Can't Ye Chu just pour poison down his throat and kill him outright?! Five kilometers! What kind of human being would do this?!"
Hearing his name, Ye Chu looked back. He was doing a little better than the two girls, but his cheeks were flushed and his breathing was uneven. The hair over his forehead was soaked with sweat and stuck to his face.
He still wasn't used to wearing a skirt, and he kept tugging it down hard with one hand as he ran.
Why did this school make them wear skirts even for PE?!
Before you continue