What the hell was wrong with them eating about sharing food and drinks this way?

Something was telling Lu Xuan that if he scolded his twin, he wouldn’t be forgiven soon.

There was a bitter smile on his face when he saw how Han Zixin took her bag and she behaved as if the boy had hung up the moon for her. She didn’t show on her face that the bag was troubling her but when he carried her bag for her, she gave him that big almost blinding smile.

If she didn’t want to carry her bag, shouldn’t she tell her brother? He would have carried it for her too but she had to act all pitiful and sad with that obnoxious boy. He agreed that he was jealous. No, he was burning with jealousy. He didn’t like getting replaced.

When he went to his class, he saw Song Xueyun and Li Sicheng laughing and talking to each other. He furrowed his brow in displeasure but didn’t say anything. Once upon a time, he and Song Xueyun used to be the best of best friends, but now..he didn’t even know if they were friends. For a boy, she threw him out of his life.

If that’s what she wanted, he was happy.

In class K, when the politics teacher entered the class, he pointed his finger at An Xiulan and said, “Student An, see me in the staff room after the class ends.”

An Xiulan nodded her head like an obedient child that she was in front of the teacher.

The class ended and she followed the teacher to the staff room to hear what he had to say. The politics teacher was sitting in his seat while An Xiulan was standing in front of him with her and behind her back. It was clear from her posture that she was nervous.

“Do you know why I called you?” Teacher Sun asked her as he looked at her.

“Does it have something to do with my poor marks in this grade?” An Xiulan asked him in a nervous tone. Her score in politics was too low to even mention.historical

Teacher Sun smiled at her. He was a new teacher who entered the school this year. This student’s result in his class was worrisome. He couldn’t understand where he was going wrong. All the other students were keeping up with the pace of study but she could not. He wanted to understand what problem she was facing.

“Student An, may I ask where you are facing problems in this subject?” Teacher Sun gently asked her.

“I–I.. I feel blank when I read the textbook, ” An Xiulan replied in a low voice. “I think the history part of the subject is concerning. I can’t remember dates.”

“But you have a good score in history compared to this subject where it is not necessary to remember dates but concepts, ” Teacher Sun replied. He taught both history and politics to the students. He had taken all her answer sheets from other teachers too and tried to analyse her overall performance. As usual, she had the highest score in English, and mathematics was average. The language that was her weakest last year had improved by leaps and bounds. It was just her politics that was stuck on the line of failing.

He had come to a conclusion after reading all her answer sheets. As he went on to say, “The reason why you can’t improve is that you are trying to cram this subject like history when you should be understanding the concepts and writing it in your own words.”

Her problem was not new. He had seen a lot of students suffering from this thing but she wasn’t ready to leave her some bad habits. That involves cramming the ready-made notes.

“Do you know that you are too used to ready-made easy notes that you don’t try enough to make your own notes?” Teacher Sun asked her. “It’s a subject that you can understand while writing it. You don’t need to cram each word but understand what the topic is saying and then write it. We are not asking you to write in the same sophisticated and advanced book language.”

Teacher Sun took out her recent politics answer paper from his drawer and pointed at one question and said, “The question was simple– what is a monarchy? Look at what you write. It’s clear that you had crammed this answer and while writing you forget a word or two in the middle, thus ruining the whole meaning of the sentence. When it’s just a common sense question and you could have answered it according to your knowledge, not book definition.”

“I’m sorry, sir, ” An Xiulan mumbled as she lowered her head.

The gentle teacher of earlier changed into an angry one as he lightly slapped her answer sheet on the desk and said in a stern tone, “I didn’t ask for your apology and neither did I need it. If you want to apologize, you should apologize to yourself.”

An Xiulan swallowed as she took his scolding.

“It has been six months since you were in my class. You are someone who couldn’t even answer the simple question —what is politics? You couldn’t answer your subject definition, ” said the teacher in an angry tone. “Do you know what it makes me feel? A failure of the teacher.”

Teacher Sun continued, “It hurts me when I give my hundred per cent but my students aren’t even willing to give their ten per cent.”

Teacher Sun took deep breaths and then said in a forced calm tone, “Student An, if you don’t like my teaching method, you can ask for a new teacher but please take your studies seriously. I have been seeing you running after other students for ready-made notes to cram. I can give you in writing that until and unless you don’t take your studies seriously, you can’t pass my subject.”

_____

A/N: Sometimes, it feels as if the entire Universe is plotting against you.