Forgetting School

Lin Er was a little speechless. She rolled her eyes and asked in a somewhat low voice, "Have you ever been to school?"

"What?"

Xiao Qiang had a pretty good temper, at least. Even that question didn't make him angry.

"'Poor man in threadbare clothes, he worries coal is cheap and wishes for colder weather. Those clad in silk from head to toe are not the ones who raise silkworms.' My family sells river snails to make money. How could we bear to eat them ourselves?"

Xiao Qiang stammered, his face full of guilt. Then he suddenly cried, "Wait, that's not right! You said you could decide to spend 800 yuan a month learning martial arts. How could your family be short of money?"

He only got one or two hundred yuan in pocket money a month!

Lin Er edged aside to avoid his flying spit and rolled her eyes. "Can't I earn it myself? My family is poor, but I can make money! I was the one who taught my grandparents to sell river snails!"

Xiao Qiang felt guilty again, but he also thought Lin Er didn't seem at all like a child from a poor family. His expression kept changing, looking very strange.

Inside, Grandpa Lin and the others finally finished talking. Grandpa Lin came out and beckoned to her, and Lin Er hurried over, looking at them expectantly.

"Come back next week for the apprenticeship ceremony!"

Lin Er looked at her future master, then at Grandpa Lin. Neither of them answered her questions, and Grandpa Lin was already pulling her away.

"Goodbye, Master! I'll come back next week!"

The old man nodded, his expression softening, and Lin Er felt reassured.

"Tsk, you're quick to take advantage, aren't you? You haven't even formally become his disciple yet!"

Lin Er ignored Xiao Qiang's smart mouth. After saying goodbye, she left with Grandpa Lin.

As they reached the mouth of the alley, she felt happy thinking she could start learning martial arts next week.

Then she suddenly thought of studying and stopped in her tracks. "Wait, Grandpa, I was supposed to go to school today!" She had actually forgotten to go to school!

Grandpa Lin paused, then couldn't resist smacking her. He was anxious too.

"Child, why didn't you say so earlier?"

The two hurried back to the square. Grandma Lin had already sold everything and packed up the buckets, and was waiting there for them!

"What have you two been up to? Why are you in such a hurry?"

Oh no, they hadn't gotten their stories straight!

Grandpa Lin stacked the buckets and carried them himself. A motorcycle taxi was waiting outside the square.

The three of them could fit if they squeezed together.

"We found her a martial arts master. We'll bring the apprenticeship gift next week. Oh, and this child was supposed to go back to school for evening study today, but she forgot!"

Grandma Lin raised a hand to hit her. "What does a girl need to learn martial arts for? And you didn't go to school! You even skipped class!"

"Grandma, Grandma, stop! I didn't do it on purpose. I really forgot!"

Unfortunately, there was nowhere to dodge on the motorcycle taxi. Lin Er could only take several smacks, her eyes filling with tears.

Now those were real hits! Lin Huihui hadn't been hit nearly enough!

No matter how fast the motorcycle taxi driver went, it was already eight by the time they got back to town. Lin Er only carried her old schoolbag when she went out; her new bag, homework, and textbooks were still at home, so they couldn't just drop her off.

So she went home with the two of them, asked the driver to wait a moment, then put on her schoolbag and had him take her back to school.

Grandpa Lin could explain things to Grandma Lin at home. After all, Lin Er herself still didn't know what exactly was going on. Did signing up for martial arts lessons require an apprenticeship gift?

At school, evening study for the first-years had already ended. The gatekeeper stopped Lin Er, and her homeroom teacher came over in slippers to collect her after getting the call.

"What happened to you? Coming to school in the middle of the night-did you forget you had evening study?"

When he'd noticed a student was missing during evening study, he'd nearly worried himself sick. He'd borrowed another teacher's motorcycle and asked his way to Lin Er's home, only to find that her younger sister was the only one there.

Only after asking the neighbors did he learn that she had gone to the city with her grandparents to sell things. He'd nearly died of anger.

"I'm sorry, teacher. I really did forget."

He thought of the family circumstances he'd learned about at the start of term, and of the earthen house and her younger sister's appearance when he'd visited this time.

Gao Bo sighed. "Making money is important, but studying is even more important. Once you've made something of yourself through your studies, you'll be able to earn all the money you want. Don't go along when your grandparents run their little business."

He could understand that, now the family finally had a way to make money, they would surely want everyone to pitch in.

But students still had to put their studies first. She couldn't run a small business her whole life, could she?

"I understand, teacher. My family really didn't force me to do anything. I genuinely forgot I had to come for evening study today."

"All right, I understand. Hurry back to the dorm and get some rest. I told Shi Meng your seat number. You have exams tomorrow, so sleep well tonight."

She hadn't brought any hot water back today, and Shi Meng had already washed. Lin Er used Scourgify on herself, but in the end she still gritted her teeth and wiped herself down with cold water.

She'd forgotten about it while enjoying the holiday, and the stove in her old schoolbag had gone out, so she couldn't heat any water right away.

Everyone in the dorm was curious about why she'd arrived at school so late. Shi Meng told her the seat number and was also curious why she had only come now.

Lin Er pulled the blanket up over her stomach, feeling miserable herself.

"I forgot. I was just thinking it was a seven-day holiday, and forgot we had to come back early for evening study."

The classmates eavesdropping around her fell silent for a moment. Very good. That was quite an excuse.

"You can even forget that?" Shi Meng's voice was full of disbelief.

Lin Er was truly the first to do something like this!

"So you just remembered in the middle of the night and came to school on your own?"

Wang Juan, on her right, couldn't help speaking up.

Since Xu Duoduo had left, the number of beds matched the number of people in the dorm, and the roommate to Lin Er's right had become Wang Juan.

"Yeah. An hour ago, I was still having fun at that Wenchang Tower park in the city."

In the darkness, Lin Er sounded utterly done with life, making everyone who was listening laugh.

"Sounds like you had a great time!"

"Enough, enough. I'm going to sleep!"

There was no chance of sleeping. If their dorm quieted down before the third-years finished class, that counted as an early night.

But Lin Er really did go to sleep. She had a sleep cheat now: all she had to do was close her eyes and cast Stupefy.

The monthly exams went smoothly. Lin Er estimated she could score around 480 points across Chinese, math, English, politics, history, and geography. First-year English was very simple.

She could get over 300 points in the three main subjects alone.

She did a little worse in politics, history, and geography, but could still scrape together a bit over 100 points.

For now, that looked about the same as her grades in her previous life.

Not bad. It was acceptable enough, considering she really wasn't studying as hard as she had in her previous life, especially in the minor subjects.

That score was average at school, but if she was still getting the same grades by graduation, she reckoned she'd end up at No. 2 Middle School again.

After the exams, they put the desks back. The students had all arranged their books neatly, just waiting for their homeroom teacher to give the order to change seats.

But there was no news on the first day, or the second. On the third day, the students couldn't hold back anymore and went to ask. Only then did their homeroom teacher remember.

Saying the results hadn't been compiled yet, he put off the seat change for another week.

The class erupted in groans. Quite a few students had long been suffering beside deskmates they disliked.