Making a Name in One Battle

No one objected. Gao Bo looked at the calm expression in Lin Er's eyes, then turned to the three boys with a headache.

"The boys' restroom for a month, and a thousand-word self-criticism from each of you. You'll read them at Monday's assembly. You—" He turned back to Lin Er. "You're a girl. Why did you get into a fight with them? You've got a mouth, don't you know how to use it? A thousand-word self-criticism from you too! Have your parents come in next week!"

Then he looked at them and slapped the desk. "Any objections?"

Lin Er dropped the tissue into the trash and obediently shook her head. "No objections."

The teachers in the office looked from one to another. Finally, they exchanged glances and gave Gao Bo a somewhat pitying look.

Tsk, the boys were hard enough to handle. Now his class had a female troublemaker too.

Lin Er genuinely thought she had been quite reasonable. She hadn't attacked any of their vital points. It wasn't that she hadn't considered settling for a war of words, but they were the ones who had started the fight.

She had thought the blow was aimed at her, and raising her hand to slap someone had just been an instinctive attempt to block it. Even after the first time she was hit, she hadn't retaliated. They were the ones who wouldn't stop.

She had already been hurt. If she didn't hit back, all those years of memories would have been for nothing.

She'd been given the chance to pick on someone younger than her. How could she not give it a try?

They had to write their self-criticisms in the office. They could use the desks of any teachers who weren't supervising evening study and had gone home.

Lin Er went back to the classroom for a pen and paper. Paying no attention to the meaning behind her classmates' stares, she put away her wand and magic book and went to the office.

Ying Yuecheng had picked up and sorted her books for her. During the fight, the boys' side had pulled people off unfairly, and he had helped hold two of them back. Lin Er didn't appreciate it.

Tsk, no matter how close they became later in her memories, she'd remember that he hadn't helped her fight now. That was only fair.

She had never written a self-criticism before. She had spent her whole previous life as a good girl, so it was quite a novelty.

Lin Er sat at the English teacher's desk, working quickly while trying to ease the pain in her chest.

She didn't know how to write a self-criticism, but she was good at narrative essays. Her best record had been a thousand words in thirty minutes, a skill drilled into her by their homeroom teacher, who was now running back and forth between the classroom and the office.

By the end of the first evening study period, Lin Er had finished. Gao Bo held her self-criticism, at a loss for words.

The handwriting was neat and the account clear and orderly. It was a narrative from beginning to end, stopping just short of describing what the students in the class had done during the fight.

There wasn't a single word of regret or apology.

"You've written it very clearly. Reading it, I felt like I was right there. Come on, tell me, what were you thinking?"

She was a girl fighting three boys. How could she possibly beat them? Wasn't she the one who would get hurt?

The self-criticism was slapped onto the desk. Lin Er was still wondering how to deal with her father being summoned to school, hoping he would have already left for work by the time she got home. Her grandfather was good at keeping things to himself.

Hearing the question brought her back to herself. Her tone was ordinary, with none of the timidness Gao Bo remembered.

"You can't just let people lay their hands on you. If you give in, they'll think you're scared, and the bullying will never end. If they dare hit me, I have to hit back.

"It doesn't matter if they gang up on me. I'll just go after one of them. If I hit hard enough, they'll know I'll fight back, and naturally they won't think I'm easy to bully anymore. If they don't kill me with one stab, I'll always get them back."

Lin Er trusted her homeroom teacher. She had also noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with her mindset. She wanted so badly to change, to break free of the cowardice she had once had.

As a result, she was fine most of the time, but whenever something happened, she was prone to losing her temper and going to extremes.

In the past, she might have dared to think that way, but she would never have dared to act on it. She had too many misgivings.

But being reborn was like being given an extra life, and she felt as though there was nothing much to worry about anymore.

Listening to the first part, Gao Bo had assumed at most that someone had taught her this because they were afraid she'd be bullied at school. But when he heard the end, he realized something was wrong.

The three boys dawdling over their self-criticisms behind them and the teachers who had been inexplicably busy all stopped. The boys stole glances at Lin Er, inexplicably feeling a chill on their necks.

"How did your thoughts go there? How old are you? What kind of deep-seated grudge could you possibly have that you'd talk about life and death? If someone bullies you, tell a teacher or your parents. What problem can't be solved?"

Lin Er watched him, his voice softening as he spoke earnestly. She thought she would laugh, but she felt nothing at all. She simply thought it over very seriously, then spoke to him.

"None of it can be solved. Teachers and parents can only help for a while. No one can protect someone forever, and no one would have the patience to keep protecting someone forever."

Lin Er lowered her eyes. The only person who could always protect her was herself.

"Ahem, now, you can't think of everything that way. You're all so young. If you have a conflict, you can just talk it out. Why take it that far?"

Seeing that Gao Bo was silent, a teacher nearby hurried over to persuade her. Students like this were actually the most troublesome. Once there was a problem with their thinking, it couldn't be set right with one or two self-criticisms. They might go to extremes one day.

Lin Er raised her head, her gaze calm but carrying a trace of stubbornness. "You're right, teacher. But some things can't be solved by reasoning. Like you said, I'm young, but it's precisely because I'm young that I understand what real bullying is. It can't be solved just by talking things out. Besides, when kids going through their chuunibyou phase have already started hitting you, who's going to listen to reason?"

Gao Bo frowned and was about to say something, but Lin Er continued, "Do you know what the scariest kind of bullying is? It's when everyone thinks it's just 'kids messing around,' while the person being bullied has to brace themselves mentally every day before walking into school."

Just as she once had.

The office suddenly fell silent. The three boys writing their self-criticisms in the corner instinctively shrank back.

"I'm not trying to cause trouble." Lin Er's voice was soft, but she enunciated every word clearly. "I just don't want to be the person who gets pushed around and doesn't dare make a sound anymore."

Looking at the student before him, whose intelligence had once been called into question but who was now excessively mature for her age, Gao Bo suddenly realized this was more than simple adolescent rebellion.

He put down the self-criticism in his hand, his tone turning serious. "Lin Er, the things you're talking about—did something happen?"

His concerned question brought Lin Er back to herself. Realizing what she had said, she was somewhat at a loss for words, but she still shook her head.

"It's nothing, teacher. I'll try to keep my emotions under control from now on."

When he asked again, Lin Er only shook her head. Some things were impossible to explain, and some things hadn't happened yet.

Because Lin Er had written quickly, she returned for the second evening study period. Her classmates all instinctively looked at her, but she paid them no mind.

It was the math teacher's first time supervising evening study. When Lin Er returned, she simply nodded and let her go back to her seat.

School ended after the period. The students who passed Lin Er all instinctively quickened their pace. To be honest, Lin Er probably didn't know it, but she had been quite frightening when she fought and bit people, her eyes full of excitement.

That night, she again went back to the new house to bathe and heat water. When she plugged it in and the indicator light didn't come on, she realized she had forgotten to turn off the power yesterday. But someone in the family had come by and switched it off today.

When her father came back for a temporary stay, he always stayed at the old house. She hadn't expected the coincidence that he had come by today. She found the key on the windowsill, opened the back door, and used a bamboo pole to flip the main power switch back on.