CM - 49

Zhou Shuirong was having a terrible time at school. Neither the teachers nor the students would look at her properly. During a mini-exam, her test paper was missing; they said they hadn’t printed enough, so she didn’t have to take it.

In the bathroom, she could always hear insults directed at her. After cursing, they would gloat, saying that Shen Tingwen had been taking care of Teacher Fan recently and seemed to have seen Zhou Shuirong’s true colors.

Zhou Shuirong could calmly listen to their foul language, but she couldn’t calmly listen to that last part about Shen Tingwen.

She didn’t believe Shen Tingwen was truly sincere with her, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew he wasn’t siding with Teacher Fan based on just two of their sentences. He was probably trying to use Teacher Fan to help clear her name.

She wondered if he was being foolish. Were they only cursing her because of Teacher Fan? They were just using this incident to vent their dissatisfaction with her.

If it weren’t for this incident, they would have found another one. She could list a few reasons why they were dissatisfied with her, but at its core, a lot of hatred doesn’t need a reason.

After the third period, the English teacher walked in, slammed a stack of papers onto the desk, and said angrily, “Zhou Shuirong, stand up!”

Zhou Shuirong stood up.

Everyone was waiting for the show.

The English teacher picked up a paper. “If you don’t want to take the exam, then don’t. What is this you’ve written? I know a lot has happened to you lately, but school is a place for learning. I don’t care what you do outside of class; as long as you do well in your studies, I’ll consider you my student. But look at your attitude toward learning. Do you still deserve to be taught by me? You wrote on the English test paper as if it were a Chinese test! You wrote a classical Chinese essay for an English composition?!”

The class erupted in laughter.

Zhou Shuirong knew what had happened. Someone must have swapped her paper.

She spoke plainly, “Did I mess up my own paper just so you could come to class and scold me? Even a mentally ill person wouldn’t be so self-destructive, would they? The fact that you would believe such a shoddy prank shows that you’ve believed everything else that’s happened recently—that I pushed a teacher, that I have a flawed character, and that I disrespected you by writing nonsense on the paper. I’ve learned a lot of idioms since I came back to China, and one that resonates most with me is: ‘good things don’t come in pairs, but misfortunes never come alone.’“

The people in the class whispered about her. There was still no kind word; they all said she was pretending to be innocent, making a flimsy argument, and being deliberately difficult.

This was a perfect example of how a lie, if told and spread a thousand times, becomes the “truth.”

Zhou Shuirong had reached a point at National University High School where everyone turned on her. The very few rational individuals didn’t dare express their opinions because they would always be shouted down and drowned out by the angry, loud voices.

The English teacher was an adult, after all. Even if she believed the rumors, Zhou Shuirong’s words embarrassed her a little, so she quickly ended the topic and told her not to do it again.

But the students didn’t let the matter go. Zhou Shuirong had made a fool of the English teacher, which was considered an added sin. She was even targeted during morning exercise and was forced to stand at attention for an hour.

Standing at attention and weighted running were Zhou Shuirong’s strengths; Si Wen had trained her well. But for some reason, she felt the sun in China was especially harsh, and it made her face burn.

During her physical education class in the morning, Zhao Guqing saw Zhou Shuirong standing in the sun and felt a little sad.

Zhu Jiayi comforted her, “Don’t think about it too much.”

Zhao Guqing said, “Just look at the people who are cursing Zhou Shuirong the most. They seem to hate her, but if they had the chance to become her, I can tell you, not a single one of them would refuse.”

Zhu Jiayi also admitted this. Zhou Shuirong was beautiful, rich, and a good student. There were too many things about her that people wanted to be.

Thinking back to the heroes and beauties of past dynasties who were famous but also infamous, and then looking at Zhou Shuirong, although she couldn’t be compared to them, the problem seemed to be the same.