Chapter 65: Outwardly Reserved

"Sorry for being a bit late after school today. Remember to review tomorrow's lessons when you get home, everyone. Class 10 doesn't assign homework." Fang Xiaoling closed her book and was about to step down from the podium when she noticed Zheng Zhe standing at the entrance of the classroom, seemingly waiting for her.

Today, Zheng Zhe was not wearing his school uniform; instead, he wore a long grey trench coat, which made him look much more mature.

"Wait a moment, everyone!" Fang Xiaoling suddenly called out. "I have something more to say."

Many students in Class 10 had already packed their bags and left their seats, but upon hearing her words, they returned to their respective places.

Looking at the students sitting with straightened backs below the podium, Fang Xiaoling felt a slight sting in her nose. "Everyone, you've all worked very hard these past few days. In a couple of days, the school will hold a mock exam, and I hope you all achieve good results..."

"Don't worry, Sister Ling!"

"Sister Ling, our Class 10 will definitely win some glory!"

The students below were full of confidence. Over the past half month, what Fang Xiaoling taught them was not just knowledge from the textbooks; more importantly, she made them realize one undeniable truth—the students of Class 10 were no worse than those in any other class.

"No matter what environment you find yourselves in, everyone has the right to decide what kind of life they want to live." Fang Xiaoling glanced at Zheng Zhe outside the door, then turned her gaze back to the students in the classroom, continuing, "Perhaps before long, I won't be able to teach you anymore..."

"Sister Ling, where are you going?" The atmosphere below grew somewhat tense. "Are you going back to Class 1? Are you transferring schools?"

"No..." Fang Xiaoling thought for a moment and smiled. "It's just that the knowledge I prepared beforehand might not be enough anymore. After all, what true geniuses are there in this world? I simply spent some time diligently preparing my lessons. Initially, I just wanted to showcase the results of my own studies, but I never expected to end up teaching for so many days..."

"Stop joking, Sister Ling! You teach really well!" The students chimed in to encourage her. "Yeah! We all love listening to your classes. You explain things much better than those regular teachers!"

"I am not a teacher!" Fang Xiaoling's voice rose above theirs. "I am just an ordinary student too... Students, I simply want to tell you that as long as you work hard enough and put your heart into learning, even without being in a top class, even without a great teacher, you can still achieve excellent results!"

"Who says you don't have a great teacher?" The physics teacher with a buzz cut walked in from outside the door, followed by teachers of other subjects from this grade level.

The physics teacher stepped onto the podium and said, "We teachers have seen everything with our own eyes these past few days. Through her hard work, Classmate Li Mengling has not only been teaching the students of Class 10, but she has also been teaching us teachers as well. Honestly, the daily changes in each of you have filled us with profound shame. On behalf of all the teachers here, I want to apologize to the students of Class 10."

After the physics teacher finished speaking, the teachers standing in a row behind him all bowed deeply in unison.

"I'm sorry, teachers. I've been quite awful too..." Zhang Xinyan suddenly stood up and bowed to the teachers on the podium as well.

All the students stood up and said in unison, "We're sorry, teachers."

The physics teacher nodded gently. When he first decided to become an educator, he had truly been free of worldly ambitions. Yet, as time passed, performance metrics had become paramount. Neglecting the children's futures while focusing solely on personal advancement went against his original aspirations. These words had been bottled up in the hearts of these teachers for a long time; they had long wanted to speak out, but felt it would damage their pride. Voicing them today brought an immense sense of relief.

"Thank you, teachers." Fang Xiaoling was also deeply moved. "Class 10 is in your hands from now on."

"Mengling, you've done your absolute best." The physics teacher gently patted her head. "When I first became the head teacher of Class 10, I felt so unfortunate, even developing a resigned, apathetic mindset. I felt like the school assigned this class to me just to target me. But your actions changed my perspective. Now, I feel extremely lucky to be the head teacher of this class."

With that, he stood in front of the podium, looked at the students of Class 10 for a moment, and then announced in a ringing voice, "Class is dismissed, everyone!"

Fang Xiaoling and all the students bowed together and said in unison, "Goodbye, teacher!"

After school, Fang Xiaoling and Zheng Zhe walked home together. She noticed that he opened his mouth several times as if wanting to speak, but stopped himself.

"What do you want to say? You can just spit it out."

"I... I have too much to say, but suddenly I don't know where to begin." Zheng Zhe lowered his head. After a moment, he suddenly asked, "You're actually a genius, aren't you? From listening to your lectures, I know for a fact that you've mastered far more than just what's in the textbooks."

"Does that matter?"

"I just feel like hard work has lost its meaning," Zheng Zhe said heavily. "You've shown me what a real genius looks like. After listening to your classes, I realized that no matter how hard I try, I'll never catch up to you."

"Stop letting your imagination run wild. Actually, I only studied up to that specific part of the textbook; I don't know any of the advanced knowledge beyond that," Fang Xiaoling nudged his shoulder gently with a smile. "Who knows, maybe I'll have to rely on you to tutor me in the future, little master student."

"Really?" Zheng Zhe looked at her in disbelief. "But when you were teaching, that confidence of yours made it seem like you knew everything... And during your foreign language classes..."

"Oh, what's so hard about that?" Fang Xiaoling interrupted him. "I just memorized the online videos beforehand. Honestly, I didn't even know what those words actually meant; I was just parroting what I saw. I taught it exactly the way the online course teachers did."

Hearing this, Zheng Zhe nodded, half-convinced.

"Alright, the rest is up to you now."

"Up to who?"

"Up to me!" Li Mengling suddenly jumped up and wrapped her arms around Zheng Zhe's neck. "How come you knew to wait for me after school today? Could it be that you couldn't wait to experience the feeling of kissing again?"

"Mengling, stop it. There are people around," Zheng Zhe turned his head nervously like a thief, terrified that someone might see them.

"So what if there are people? You have the guts to do it, but no guts to let people know?" Li Mengling was shorter, and her arms forced Zheng Zhe to walk hunched over. "You were very proactive with your kisses last night. Who would've guessed? You look so reserved on the outside, but you're actually quite wild!"

"Mengling! Will you please stop talking about that? I..." Zheng Zhe hunched his shoulders and shrank back, looking just like a trapped rabbit.

"What about it? I'm asking you, why did you run away last night?" Li Mengling acted like a bossy gang leader bullying a schoolchild. "You made it look like I was forcing you. What's the big idea?"

"No, I just felt that..."

"Felt what? Spit it out!"

"Is it really appropriate for us to be like this? After all, we're only in our first year of high school," Zheng Zhe pushed up his glasses and stammered, "We s-... we should still be focusing primarily on our studies right now."

"Oh... so you think I'm holding you back from getting into a top university, is that it?" Li Mengling suddenly widened her eyes and scolded loudly, "You think I'm leading you astray, huh?!"