Criticism

After seven periods, Qin Huai, their homeroom teacher and English teacher, said a few brief words and left the classroom...

Sun Sun stepped up to the podium and swept her gaze over the classroom with an air of authority...

Apart from Qin An, hardly anyone dared raise their head and look Sun Sun in the eye. Most lowered their heads when they met her gaze, or their eyes shifted evasively...

Being looked at by such a dazzlingly beautiful girl, so composed she bordered on cold, made most of these rural children, who felt somewhat inferior in her presence, blush and feel their hearts race...

"Wang Qi, Wang Huanle, Li Mei, and Liu Zhen were late today. They'll be responsible for cleaning... Thirteen people haven't finished their summer homework. They must turn it in within three days... Qin An deserves particular criticism. Today, he skipped the midday nap period, failed to concentrate in class several times, didn't listen attentively, and didn't do a single period's classwork. He also left all his summer homework undone and attempted to bribe a class officer. I hereby issue him a stern reprimand and ask the entire class to keep an eye on him and push him to improve his studies..." Sun Sun's gaze passed over Qin An, and she looked down at her notebook again. "Class officers, stay for a brief meeting. Qin An, you stay too... Class dismissed."

Seeing Sun Sun looking quite authoritative, every inch a stern, self-disciplined leader, Qin An was inwardly amused. At the moment, though, he didn't dare laugh aloud and offend her too badly...

Qin An hadn't expected this. He had helped Sun Sun copy out the lyrics, and although he had said he wanted no payment, he had thought she would let things slide, or at least not single him out for criticism. Who knew she really would show no favoritism, so iron-fisted and merciless...

Sun Sun was a girl of principle. That was why she had managed to keep herself unsullied when she first entered the entertainment industry, and it was also why the tragedy had ultimately occurred: her older female cousin realized persuasion was useless, and that director lost confidence, finally resorting to desperate measures...

The students, who had long since packed their schoolbags, poured out of the classroom in a rush. Sun Sun stepped down from the podium and returned to her seat, only to find that although Qin An wasn't exactly beaming, he certainly showed not the slightest awareness of shame...

Normally, what student who was called out by name didn't lower their head almost beneath their desk? Yet Qin An acted as though nothing had happened. What a thick skin...

Sun Sun sat down, and the class officers gathered around...

Sun Sun said a few words about carrying out class work, assigned each class officer several struggling students to focus on helping, and finally said, "This week's blackboard bulletin has to be finished this afternoon. Ye Xiaohua, you're responsible for the layout. Are you ready?"

"It's all ready. We're just short of some colored chalk..." Ye Xiaohua glanced toward the podium...

Qin An didn't know why Sun Sun had made him stay. He looked up at Ye Xiaohua. The girl had very delicate features and was rather petite. If Qin An remembered correctly, Ye Xiaohua hadn't gotten into No. 1 High School and had gone straight to an art vocational secondary school instead. Later, she had become a designer with a modest reputation in China, though Qin An no longer remembered exactly which field she had worked in...

"Liu Cai, go ask Teacher Qin for some..." Liu Cai was the sports representative. Like the sports representatives in most classes, he was tall and strongly built. The sports representative also held the lowest standing among the class officers, since this was the only position not tied to academic results...

"Why not have Qin An go? Isn't Teacher Qin his dad?" Liu Cai was somewhat reluctant. Everyone knew that once the meeting ended, there would be no way to sit beside Sun Sun openly and with complete confidence. This was a rare chance to get close to her. Normally, he simply didn't dare, nor did he have the courage to exchange more than a few words with her...

"Just go when I tell you to..." Sun Sun glared at him...

Liu Cai obediently went, without the slightest show of temper, immediately falling into line. In fact, merely raising that small objection had already made this well-developed fourteen-year-old, who stood over a meter seventy, feel nervous...

"I'll copy out an essay and some maxims. Qin An will handle the English corner..." Sun Sun assigned the last tasks. "All right, any class officers with nothing else to do can go home..."

Several of the male class officers left somewhat reluctantly. Ye Xiaohua, Sun Sun, Qin An, and Li Hao, the study representative, remained...

Liu Cai returned with the colored chalk, glanced at Li Hao, and left with his schoolbag as well...

"Li Hao, why aren't you leaving?" Sun Sun looked at him in puzzlement...

Li Hao was the study representative. His grades were second only to Sun Sun's in the class, and he could rank among the top ten in their year. His family was comfortably off, and unlike ordinary rural children, he didn't feel inferior. He could talk and joke freely even with Sun Sun...

Qin An remembered that back then, Li Hao had been quite jealous that Qin An got to share a desk with Sun Sun. Li Hao considered himself the only boy in the school qualified to be her friend, and he always found plenty of excuses to approach her. They were invariably respectable-sounding matters concerning the class or their studies, and each time, he made Sun Sun feel these were indeed things he needed to discuss with her, so she wasn't particularly on her guard against him...

But Li Hao's relationship with Sun Sun went no further than that. He was a little closer to her than ordinary classmates who had barely exchanged a few words with her throughout all three years of junior high, but they were nowhere near being friends...

"Sun Sun, my English grades are the best. I've always written the English corner before... Can he manage it?" Li Hao looked doubtfully at Qin An, a trace of disdain already at the corner of his mouth. "He may be Teacher Qin's son, but everyone knows he was kicked out of Class 68. His grades are an absolute mess. Apart from making trouble, he can't do anything..."

"We're putting together a blackboard bulletin. The English corner only needs a short passage copied out. It's not a test. Are you saying he can't even write the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet?" Sun Sun was extremely displeased with Li Hao's doubts...

"My English handwriting is pretty good too. I practiced hard for a long time to prepare for the blackboard bulletin..." Li Hao persisted in trying to secure the task...

So she had dragged him into doing the grunt work. Qin An yawned. He wasn't particularly interested. Taking part in class activities and savoring these carefree days was a pleasure, but what he wanted to do now was go find Ye Zhulan...

"You write it, then. I'm leaving..." Qin An's eyes lit up. Ye Zhulan's figure flashed past the doorway, then her little head quickly poked back out. She glanced at Qin An before running gleefully down the stairs...

Qin An knew Ye Zhulan definitely meant for him to come find her. He grabbed his schoolbag and dashed for the door...

"Heh, I knew he wouldn't dare make a fool of himself..." Li Hao's voice drifted over coldly...

Qin An turned his head and saw the disappointment in Sun Sun's eyes...

Ye Zhulan... wait for me... Qin An called silently. He turned back, took a piece of white chalk from the podium, and tossed it to Li Hao. "You write first... Since you dare, I'll watch you make a fool of yourself..."