Through The Strait Gates Chapter 5

Dou Xun and Xu Xilin were "invited" to Qilixiang's office on Friday's long break.

Xu Xilin hadn't had such an embarra.s.sing episode in years. He tried to sc.r.a.pe up some remorse, and came to the conclusion that he did nothing wrong---it was all because Dou Xun was too big of an a.r.s.e.

Ever since the first day Dou Xun arrived, Xu Xilin felt like they clashed with each other completely. And then Tsai Jing happened, and Luo Bing happened. The hate kept piling up, quant.i.ty change causing qualitative change, the verbal fight evolving into a physical one.

Qilixiang was enraged. "Speak! Look at how you did your job as the organization leader, Xu Xilin! Why did you get into a fight?"

Xu Xilin's jaw throbbed a numb pain. He accidentally bit his tongue during the fight, so now his mouth was full of the tang of blood. He sneaked a peek out of the corner of his eye at the even more disheveled Dou Xun, and decided that this kid was used to fights as he was used to eating. But determined from the result, it was the two years of kickboxing cla.s.ses he took in junior high that gained the upper hand.

In front of the homeroom teacher, Xu Xilin didn't want to lose. But he also didn't want to waste any effort on explaining, so he simply lowered his head and acknowledged his mistake. "I was just too rash in the moment, it won't happen again."

Hearing the sentence full of fake sincerity, Dou Xun immediately let out a snicker. His lips split, it was uncomfortable for him to express his disdain with his mouth. So he used every facial muscle he had instead.

Qilixiang: "......"

She knew why these two rascals got into a fight. Having seen Dou Xun's demeanor, she almost wanted to get over there and punch him herself too.

It took Qilixiang several deep breaths to calm down. She slammed her palm down on the desk, and yelled, "Is 'rash' even a half-decent reason? If you can punch your cla.s.smate now because you're rash, what will happen when you're 'rash' in the future? Stab someone and kill them?"

Xu Xilin's expression dropped. "Ms., I was wrong. Do you need me to go back and write an inspection immediately? There will be no next time, I promise."

Dou Xun immediately rolled his eyes.

Even a *comical dialogue probably couldn't be as seamless as this.

Qilixiang felt like she really needed some instant cardio-relievers.

She had been the homeroom teacher of this cla.s.s since they were in the first grade of high school. She knew that Xu Xilin was someone who only obeyed the rules on the outside, and never learned his lessons. When admitting his mistakes, he was smooth as a whistle, but that didn't stop him from having a "next time". All his beautifully written inspections were auth.o.r.ed by Tsai Jing.

If this was a normal occasion, Qilixiang wouldn't have let him go so easily. But you only realize when there's something to compare, and compared to the snorting Dou Xun, Xu Xilin seemed much more adorable. Almost to the extent of gentle.

Deciding fast, Qilixiang quickly punished them fifty hits each. After some more warnings, she let them go back to their cla.s.ses.

On the surface, she seemed to be harsher to Xu Xilin. But the second the two students left, she pulled out the address book, and called Dou Xun's father, Dou Junliang.

Qilixiang spoke a single "hey", and before she could say what she was calling for, Dou Junliang had already spoke, uncaring that she was going to speak, "Ms. Zhang......ah, h.e.l.lo, Ms. Zhang, it's so inappropriate, having you to put effort in calling. Did Dou Xun get into trouble again? Let me tell you, don't think of saving me the embarra.s.sment, just punish him. This tree needs tr.i.m.m.i.n.g to make him grow straight. Right! So, uh, can I call you later? I'm quite busy over here......"

Having been working in a school for a long time, the teacher did not know that words did not mean the slightest s.h.i.+t to some people in society---after Dou Junliang's words, she actually waited for Dou Xun's parent to return a call. She waited for a whole day, and received not even a "meow".

She then realized that "I'll call you later" was the same as "I'll treat you to a meal later"--they both meant "Bye, please f.u.c.k off ASAP."

Until close to the evening did an unfamiliar woman come find her.

The woman said that she was Dou Xun's father's secretary. The first thing she did when she saw Qilixiang was to stuff a jewelry box into her arms. She spoke stickily, "Boss asks you to take care of our child."

"Our child." The two words revealed her naked, great aspiration of becoming a stepmother.

Qilixiang spoke. "On this...I think it would be more appropriate for Dou Xun's parent to come himself. As you can see, he got into a fight with a cla.s.smate today, and a physical one..."

The secretary did not give the slightest f.u.c.k about whether Dou Xun got into a fight or not. Bored out of her mind, she cleaned her nails, listening to Qilixiang complain. She rolled her eyes, and gave a perfunctory reply bare of any effort, "Yes, we know, so that's why we let you, the teacher, take extra care of him."

Qilixiang: "......"

"Oh right, missus, the heavy thing in the box is a necklace. If you need, the counter provides unlimited free cleaning in the future." The secretary's expression turned into one of drooling, looking as if she could barely keep herself back from stealing it for herself, "One from a famous brand, and a sixty percent discount takes a hundred thousand off! Plus, the service quality is really good."

How high-quality something was wasn't something a normal peasant could recognize by eye. *But it's hard for one to enter the hall of grace.

*But it's hard for one to enter the hall of grace: Chinese for "nope b.i.t.c.h, I'm broke, art and all that high quality stuff is not for us peasants"

Her mouth dry from all the talking, Qilixiang really wanted to smack Miss Sixty Percent Discount in the face.

She accepted gifts, but not any gift. A thousand-dollar gift card or two sometimes was enough--but her tiny bit of greed definitely wasn't large enough to contain a famous brand necklace. Qilixiang stuffed the box back into the secretary's hands. "My total income per year isn't even a hundred thousand, I can't take this. Miss, maybe you can take this back and let the parent come, 'Kay?"

The secretary didn't detect the irony in her words. She replied shyly and delicately, "I am the parent."

Qilixiang failed to communicate with Dou Junliang's brainless secretary. Tired, both physically and mentally, she shooed her away. Glancing at the clock, it was already the afternoon free study period--Sixth High School made a point of having students study on their own, and only had two cla.s.ses of actual subjects in the afternoon. The remaining two was free study or gym.

She snuck to the cla.s.sroom's back door, and peeked at the inside from the window to see the math helper and English helper splitting the blackboard to write down the homework requirements for the weekend. The Chinese helper was walking around and taking essays--all those who hadn't finished theirs yet was bent down on their desks, working hard.

Xu Xilin was one of them. But he was more unafraid, since he had Tsai Jing.

Tsai Jing was extremely talented, and could create an outstanding essay on the spot. He was verbally composing a spontaneous small book report with full quotes for Xu Xilin to copy down.

"*Lu Ai Gong once said to Confucius, *'I was born deep in the palace, and was raised by women's hands. I had not tasted any sadness, any worries, any toils, never tasted...'"

But Xu Xilin was a stereotypical sciences student. He only knew to memorize things exactly when it came to language arts--he only knew what the teacher taught that was imprinted in his mind, and if it was anything the teacher hadn't taught, he just scrabbled up rubbish. The only reading materials he read outside of cla.s.s was *Wuxia and fantasy novels.

His mind was all tangled and messed up with the gigantic amount of information that was input in his brain, "Waaaaait! How do you *write the character for "I" for an emperor?"

The LA helper was tense and jittery, close to jumping up and down out of nervousness. "Can't you just write the spelling? Xu Tuanzuo, can you hurry up? You're the only one so fas.h.i.+onable copying homework! What, practicing listening?"

Right when Qilixiang was really to storm in and catch a copying stereotype, she saw Dou Xun, her hand on the doork.n.o.b, on the brink of opening the door.

A water-based pen was held between Dou Xun's fingers, his desk full of draft paper with writings that no one but him could understand. Even more, he wasn't concentrated on his own business as usual, and was instead staring at the noisy people surrounding the desk in front of him, his mind drifted to somewhere else.

There were still wounds on his face. His expression was a tad bit off--it seemed like disdain at a brief glance, but there was the faintest glint of jealousy underneath.

Of course, he wasn't jealous of the guy that just punched him this morning, it was just......the whole cla.s.s was bustling with life, and he was the only one stranded from all of them.

But the jealousy was merely a quick flash. Dou Xun was probably shamed of the showing of weakness, and he soon focused again, his expression turning icy. Looking even more indifferent, he turned back at his desk, and stuffed his headphones back in.

Qilixiang sighed, deciding not to go into the cla.s.sroom after all. She silently went back to the office.

She had Dou Xun's report card. His scores weren't bad--they were the exact opposite. They were good. Too good. He already skipped a grade back when he was young, and even tried to skip a second time, although the attempt was blocked by his homeroom teacher back then. The attempt was steadily stopped by the teacher because although Dou Xun was indeed smart, he wasn't a prodigy in a specific field. That meant that except for showing off, his high IQ had no materialistic use.

And he already had an antisocial personality, which made him unable to fit in with people the same age as him. If he continued to skip grades, he would never be able to learn to communicate with others.

When he was young, a "child genius" did sound nice, but he had to grow up someday. And when he was neither a "child" nor a "genius", but hadn't learned how to socialize and fit into society yet, who would give a f.u.c.k about him?

Unfortunately, ignorant parents and the brainless society's public opinion loved to wors.h.i.+p the intelligence quotient. No one listened to that teacher's sincere, yelled out truth.

Why Dou Xun transferred to Sixth High School from out of town was also because Sixth High School had a policy: Eleventh grade students recommended by the school could enter that year's college entrance examination. The parents also clearly expressed that they were here for the policy when they arrived.

Even counted fully, the most Dou Xun would stay was a semester. Just a brief stopping---as long as he didn't get involved in anything extreme, the teacher could spend zero effort on this student.

And looking at how Dou Junliang acted, Qilixiang knew that he was quite proud of his smart child, probably even thinking that she, as a homeroom teacher, cared too much, unable to sent away with a shopping card.

This type of parent always thought this way--the only thing that the child needed to be good at was studying.

Qilixiang rubbed her temples, and felt like she had to talk with Dou Xun's parent next week no matter what. If his father wouldn't come, she'll simply call his mother. His mother couldn't not care about her son's future.

Friday evenings were the happiest time of the week in the school--even if homework were spilling out of the student's backpacks.

Wu Tao and the guys gathered around Xu Xilin, discussing loudly and merrily on where they were going to hang out on the weekend, the noise they were creating so loud that even the overheating headphones could not defend themselves against it.

Dou Xun glanced at Xu Xilin's back once gloomily, and then picked up his backpack and strode out of the cla.s.sroom from the back door, the split corner of his lips feeling as if thousands of needles were stabbing it.

With a "bang", he shut the door behind him. Wu Tao looked at Dou Xun's desk, and whispered into Xu Xilin's ear, "What do you say, Xiao Lin Zi? How about we take care of that kid?"

Xu Xilin frowned, knowing that Wu Tao's "take care" was not a normal one.

Wu Tao was a boarding student--Sixth High School wasn't an actual boarding school, and its dorms were in bad condition. Most students that lived too far away from the school chose to rent a room close to the school if they could.

As there were too little female boarding students, for safety reasons, the school arranged for them to live in the teaching and administrative staff dorm instead. The student dorm building became a boys-only building, and the supervising relaxed, causing the inside to form a special "ecosphere".

Sixth High School was the city's key high school, and to get to the higher end of the pyramid in the cla.s.s, you not only had to maintain your relations, but also keep your grades up. And playing around was simply kept that way. Even if someone held a grudge against somebody else, the most they would do was to get a group of people to isolate them in the school. They would never do anything really serious.

But the dorms were something else entirely.

The dorms had sports students that trained every day and night, poor students from far from the city, and *students here to repeat their last year of high school. They naturally split into several groups, and they had both overlaps and conflicts. Complicated relations sparked conflicts everywhere, eventually forming a grouping situation.

Things like locking people in a bathroom stall was pretty common. Most of the victims didn't dare to squeak a word, and as long as an ambulance wasn't needed, the teachers knew nothing.

A hand supporting himself on the back of Xu Xilin's chair and a young, ruthless look on his face, Wu Tao said, "If we put guys like him in our room, he'll bow down in three days. Won't dare to meow if we tell him to bark, wanna bet?"

Notes:

*comical dialogue: xiangsheng, 相聲, a play/dialogue thing performed by a pair

*Lu Ai Gong: A lord back in the China's Chun Qiu Warring Kingdoms Era.

*I was born...: text in ancient Chinese, ugh

*Wuxia: a genre of Chinese (usually in the YA category) fiction.

*Write: Because this novel is in CN. You write Chinese characters, not spell.

*students here to repeat their last year of high school: Chinese people do this not because they were held back in twelfth grade, but because they want another shot at a better university.

Happy Valentines~~~

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