Chapter 61: Team 10

Chapter 61: Class 10

"Ah..." Fang Xiaoling's memory was like a suddenly unlatched barn, flooding with related events. At the beginning of the semester, Li Mengling had also stayed in Class 1 based on her sharp mind. However, as the curriculum grew heavier, Li Mengling, who disliked studying, could no longer keep up with Class 1's pace. After dropping down to Class 2, she simply gave up and started hanging out with Zhang Xinyan and the other rebellious girls from Class 10.

"Sorry, Xinyan, I remembered incorrectly. Go back to your seat and study," Fang Xiaoling said to Zhang Xinyan. The latter wiped away her tears, clutched her books, and returned to her former seat.

This school organized its classes according to academic rankings. The lower a student's overall grade ranking, the further down the class number.

Looking at the "Class 10" sign above the classroom door, Fang Xiaoling muttered, "So those teachers weren't afraid to manage them; they just didn't want to..."

At this thought, she felt a surge of anger. Wasn't this simply the survival of the fittest under the law of the jungle? The class number had already defined these students' status. How could they possibly have the confidence to catch up?

What was most terrifying was that the teachers actually used the class numbers to judge the very nature of these students. Entering Class 10 was equivalent to being sent to a custody zone. Those teachers would only step inside to put on a show whenever they were in a good mood and wanted to "show mercy," mostly to soothe the guilt that deep down inside—perhaps while grading papers for the key classes—had unknowingly crept up on them.

When Fang Xiaoling looked at the entire class once more, her gaze was filled with deeper pity. Making up her mind, she slapped the podium and announced, "Classmates, starting today, I will be teaching you!"

"Huh?!" The whole classroom erupted in a commotion, but when Fang Xiaoling glared at them, no one dared to say anything more.

"It's physics class right now, right? Everyone open your textbooks to page one. We are going to start learning from the very beginning."

Seeing everyone begin flipping through their books, Fang Xiaoling nodded with satisfaction. Actually, these kids just lacked discipline. Weren't they quite obedient now?

"Zhang Xinyan, stop crying. From now on, you are the class's study commissar. If anyone dares not to pay attention, you don't need to report to me—just handle the discipline yourself!"

Zhang Xinyan froze for a moment, then instinctively straightened her posture. An unprecedented, glorious sense of mission seemed to awaken within her. Her dark eyes instantly lit up as she carefully scanned every classmate left and right.

"Don't just stare around; make sure you're listening to the lecture too." Fang Xiaoling straightened up and began to pump everyone up. "Classmates, we are only in the first year of high school. There is still plenty of time to catch up with the classes ahead. Don't give up on yourselves. Why should we let others look down on us? Pull yourselves together and show some backbone! We in Class 10 are going to make the whole school look at us in a new light!"

Seeing that everyone had straightened up, Fang Xiaoling put her hands on her hips as if her grand mission was accomplished. Now that everything was ready, all they needed was the eastern wind. "You in the first row, lend me your physics book and share one with your desk mate... Alright, since this is physics class, let's have Einstein teach you."

***

Just a few seconds later, Fang Xiaoling's eyes suddenly widened into perfect circles, and her tone of voice shifted to that of an old man. "Alright, students, I am Einstein. I will now be giving you your lesson."

The students tried hard to suppress their laughter, feeling that Fang Xiaoling's acting was spot-on. However, Fang Xiaoling up at the podium stared at the book for a long time without uttering a single word.

A fragment of Fang Xiaoling's consciousness remaining in the vessel muttered, "What are you daydreaming for? Don't you know how to read?"

"It's not that I don't know how; a spirit can comprehend any text," Einstein mumbled softly. "But what is there to teach in these? Haven't things already been explained clearly enough in the book?"

"Then just read the book! Get on with the class anyway!"

"Oh... Cartesian coordinate system..." Einstein read a few lines from the book, found it utterly boring, closed the book, and said, "Shall we talk about quantum mechanics instead?"

Ten minutes later, the blackboard was densely covered with intricate formulas. Most of the students had already fallen asleep, leaving only a few boys forcing their eyes open, purely to leave a good impression on the "teacher."

Since Einstein had been facing the blackboard, muttering to himself as he wrote, Fang Xiaoling had no idea what the situation in the classroom was like. It wasn't until he ran out of chalk and turned around to grab more that he discovered the entire class had been mumbled into a stupor by Einstein.

"Trusting you was a mistake! Completely unreliable! Switch people, switch people!"

Fang Xiaoling swapped to a "slightly more normal" physicist. Because a lot of time had been wasted earlier, the students were still unsatisfied when the end of the class arrived. Fang Xiaoling decided to end the class for now, promising that the next session would also be physics.

Yet, not a single student from Class 10 went to the restroom. Everyone unanimously demanded that Fang Xiaoling continue lecturing.

This drew the attention of onlookers from many other classes.

"Li Mengling is teaching physics to Class 10!"

The news quickly spread among the teachers and students across the school. By the time the warning bell for the next class rang, the doorway of the classroom was already packed with people.

While Class 10 wanted to study earnestly, students from other classes dared not cause any trouble. They simply watched in astonishment, amazed that Fang Xiaoling was speaking fluently like a real teacher, and equally amazed that the "delinquents" of Class 10 were listening as attentively as real students.

***

"Let them make a fuss; it's just a three-minute burst of enthusiasm." The teachers didn't pay much attention, mostly assuming that Li Mengling was striving to improve due to a sudden family upheaval and had prepared in advance. After all, freshman-year physics was still quite simple.

Some teachers who had free periods treated it like watching a show, standing at the doorway and listening with keen interest.

Later on, someone even brought a stool, sat at the back of the classroom to listen, and occasionally raised a hand to ask questions—not out of any intention to be difficult, but merely to test whether Li Mengling's grasp of the subject was truly solid.

The listening teachers would occasionally whisper among themselves, thinking that this Li Mengling was quite interesting. Not only was her lecture structured and logical, but she also really looked the part.

However, by the final foreign language class, everyone began to notice that something was amiss. Fang Xiaoling's spoken language was exceptionally fluent, switching effortlessly between two different tongues. Even the text she wrote on the blackboard was extremely smooth and elegant, making many foreign language teachers feel ashamed of their own proficiency.

"This child is a genius..."

The title of a genius was not something anyone could carry.

At Canglan No. 6 High School, only one person had been bestowed with the title of "Genius Scholar"—Zheng Zhe. At this moment, he was standing alone far away at the doorway of Class 1, gazing at the crowd gathered at the far end by the Class 10 doorway. Hearing the word "genius" drifting over from there, he felt a sense of loss.

The reason he was called a "genius scholar" was because his hard work was obvious to all. He was a genius, but even more so, an academic achiever. This title was earned through diligence and accumulation. But that Li Mengling—she was a notoriously "bad girl" throughout the school... How could that girl, whose grades had plummeted due to laziness, suddenly become a "genius" in everyone's eyes?

He never went over to see what was actually happening, feeling he had no time for such things. Those people flocking over and rubbernecking were merely chasing novelty; after a while, that Li Mengling would naturally run out of tricks.

With that thought, Zheng Zhe shook his head and turned to leave. As he walked downstairs, however, his path was blocked by a suitcase.

"Kid, have you seen Li Mengling?" Luo兰 asked, hugging a suitcase larger than her own torso. "I'm her older sister, and I'm looking for her regarding something."