While Lin Feiran was furtively poking his head through the doorway of the second-years’ teachers’ office, he was startled by the voice of the Chinese literature teacher. “Oh, you came on your own? I was about to look for you.”
Lin Feiran jumped in fear when he heard the literature teacher speak. Because he had not looked in the literature teacher’s direction at all, he considered turning and running as if he had not heard. But then he heard the literature teacher’s shout that was capable of toppling the mountains and overturning the seas, “Lin Feiran! I’m calling you! Come over here!”
Lin Feiran immediately squeezed out a fake smile and diligently ran over. “Ah, Ms. Li, I’m here.”
Ms. Li frowned and pushed up her glasses, a cold light glinting off the lenses. She said severely, “Don’t grin so cheekily. What do you think you were doing during the midterms? I see that your grades in your other subjects are good. Do you not care about Chinese literature?”
“No, Ms. Li. Actually, I think that I improved from last time…” Lin Feiran tried to appeal. “I pay attention in literature class.”
“You pay attention?” Ms. Li pulled out Lin Feiran’s paper from the pile with perfect accuracy and pointed to a multiple choice question circled in red pen. “I explained the meaning of this word in the lesson a few days before the exam. I’ll give you another chance. What is the correct answer?”
“Teacher, let me think about it.” Lin Feiran’s face scrunched like a bitter melon as he looked at the question. He was stalling for time, eyes drifting to the other papers on the desk as he tried to peek at another classmate’s answer. But Ms. Li, with sharp eyes and agile hands, swiftly moved the stack of papers away.
Lin Feiran: “……”
Just as Lin Feiran was about to go bald from anxiety, the little girl’s ghost suddenly ran over carrying the rabbit plushie. She stood on tiptoe and looked with wide black eyes at the question Ms. Li was pointing to with her red pen, then craned her neck and looked at another student’s paper. Timidly, she said to Lin Feiran, “Pick A, big brother.”
Ms. Li prompted, “Have you decided? I think you’re just…”
Lin Feiran glanced at the little girl’s ghost gratefully and replied in a loud voice, “I pick A!”
The second half of Ms. Li’s sentence caught in her throat. She pointed at another question Lin Feiran had gotten wrong. “What about this one? I went over it too.”
The little girl’s ghost looked over at the other paper again and whispered, “Pick C, big brother.”
The corner of Lin Feiran’s mouth quirked. “I pick C, Ms. Li.”
Ms. Li did not believe in ghosts. She pointed at a fill-in-the-blank for a classic poem that Lin Feiran had not answered and asked, “What goes after ‘We lament that our lives last only such a short instance’”?
The little girl’s ghost frowned as she looked at the other paper. She seemed to be in about her first or second year of elementary school at most, and probably did not know enough vocabulary. After hesitating, she said softly, “I don’t know the first word, ‘the long river that has no…’”
Lin Feiran had memorized this poem before, and the moment he was reminded, he remembered, “And envy the long river that has no end!”
Ms. Li hissed in dissatisfaction and leaned against the back of her chair with her arms crossed. “What do you mean by this? The exam has finished, and you know it all now? Learning it after the fact?”
Lin Feiran surreptitiously gave the little girl’s ghost an ‘OK’ sign with his hand under the desk. The little girl’s ghost ignored him and ran back to Ms. Zheng’s side with the rabbit plushie in her arms.
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Don't You Like Me (Complete)
RomanceShort, rich, and handsome, Lin Feiran was always the center of attention. But after transferring schools in his second year of high school, he discovered that his limelight was snatched by his Adonis classmate, Gu Kaifeng.
