Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Before she experienced the tragedy in life. Her impression of teachers remained at ‘hard-working gardeners1. Teachers imparted knowledge and nurtured students. They were all positive images.
Chen Xiaoyan stood on the lower level of the teachers’ office, which was a row of two-storied conjoined buildings. She raised her head and looked at the mottled building, then said softly, “Teacher, if you hadn’t shattered my worldview, showed me how a plaster saint acts, neglected to do what a teacher should do, and let yourself be corrupted by money, I wouldn’t have been a psychologist who was corrupted by money and did not act according to a psychologist’s code of ethics. In order to seek revenge for the psychologist that I turned out to be in the previous life, I’ve decided to come to settle things with you, Teacher.”
She pushed her glasses and said, “That was just the pleasantries. The point is, give back what you took. It’s that simple.”
The teacher in charge of her class was a 30-something woman who wore black-rimmed glasses. She was strict and emitted the righteousness of a teacher without needing to speak a word.
She was that ‘righteous’ person who received money from her father and hid the fact of her admission to the university. Then, she received money from the bastard’s family to stop her from collecting the record.
She may have looked like a teacher, but she was far from one.
When Chen Xiaoqian went to level two, she saw the teacher in the two-bedroom that the school provided her. She was giving tuition to her daughter.
“Yaya, how did mother teach you? This is an easy question, how can you not know? Our country practices socialism and our mission is to increase the quality of the people, this is a bonus question!”
Her class teacher happened to be a political teacher and was annoyed that her daughter could not understand such an easy question.
“It’s probably because the quality of the teacher is questionable. That’s why the child could sense a difference in reality and what you teach in the textbook. That’s why she can’t answer the question.” Chen Xiaoqian’s voice rang in the tiny room.
The teacher did not expect to see Chen Xiaoqian. She put on the dignified class teacher look and frowned.
“You didn’t knock on the door.”
“Am I supposed to say ‘I’m here’ too? I think you must’ve forgotten, I’m no longer your student.” Chen Xiaoqian entered without invitation. She was surprised when she saw the girl doing homework at the table.
It was the girl she met on the first day of her rebirth. It was the girl who was beaten by the father for stealing. The girl who suffered from Kleptomania!
The girl blushed when she saw Chen Xiaoqian. She looked at Chen Xiaoqian nervously as she was afraid Chen Xiaoqian would tell her mother about the stealing incident.
“Yaya, you go out first.” The teacher noticed that Chen Xiaoqian was not friendly. Thus, she sent her daughter out.
Chen Xiaoqian closed the door and pressed a button in her pocket.
“Why are you here?” The teacher asked.
“I’m here to confirm with you the score of my college entrance exam. I want to know if I really didn’t pass the exam.”
The teacher’s face changed when she heard Chen Xiaoqian mention that. Her voice became unnatural.
“The score? I’ve given you the score already, didn’t I? I have so many students, I can’t remember every students’ scores…”
“Haha, you may not remember others. But I’m sure that you remember mine. It’s okay if you have forgotten. Let me help to jolt that memory.”
Chen Xiaoqian took a stack of exam papers from her bag. She bought this year’s college entrance paper question bank from the roadside just now.
“Would you like me to do all these for you now? Teacher, in my three years of high school, I’ve always remained one of the top three students. This year, our district’s top scorer scored six hundred and eighty-five. I may not be a top scorer but I’ve never scored lower than six hundred and forty in all the placement tests. How is it possible that I didn’t pass the college entrance exam?”
She always wanted to ask those questions in her previous life. However, she was young and lacked social experience. The teachers represented absolute authority, so even if she did have something to say, she dared not say them. She did not have the courage to challenge authority then.
At that point, however, she asked all those questions.
The teacher never thought that a girl who was usually so quiet would ask her those questions. Moreover, she could not refute any of them.
She went pale for about ten seconds. Then she tried to muster a teacher’s authority to oppress Chen Xiaoqian and said, “You didn’t study well and now you come to my place to make a scene? This kind of conduct is problematic.”
“Aren’t you afraid of waking up with a long nose? Wouldn’t you know if I have studied well? Morality? You’re a teacher of politics. You’re not fit to be a teacher for what you did. In fact, you’re not fit to be a human. You’ve lost the baseline.”
When the teacher accepted money from Chen Lin, she probably did not think that she provoked someone that would be difficult to deal with. She was unable to refute every word that Chen Xiaoqian threw at her, so she turned and was ready to leave.
Chen Xiaoqian blocked the door and said, “Tell me again, what’s my score!”
It was another year or two before the college entrance exam scores were available online. Before the internet was popularized, nobody knew just how many people were cheated by the ruthless for their own interests.
“Stop pestering me. You failed the exam!”
The moment Chen Xiaoqian heard that she took her trump card. She took the red admission notice and the record from the post office from her bag.
“Then tell me, what is this?”Chen Xiaoqian read every word from the admission notice.
“Chen Xiaoqian, we’re happy to inform you that your application to the faculty of sociology and psychology for the professional study in clinical psychology has been accepted. Please report to…”
Chen Xiaoqian did not finish reading it, but the arrogance of the teacher vanished.
“How did you get that?!”
“That’s not the point. The point is, teacher, what would the people in the Bureau of Education do when they hear this conversation. Would you like to take a guess?”
Chen Xiaoqian took a walkman from her pocket and showed her.
The blood drained from the teacher’s face. She took a step back. She looked at Chen Xiaoqian as though she saw a ghost.
She was just a child, a teen. How could she come up with such a ruthless plan?
It was like Chen Xiaoqian could read her thoughts. She walked to the teacher’s bookcase. There were books on Marx, Lenin, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiaoping. Was it not ironic that a teacher of politics would do such a thing.
“Teacher, you teach people about compassion, duty, propriety, integrity, ideals, and hard work. But you betrayed all that and destroyed a young person’s dream? Did you climb on the dreams and bodies of others to achieve your dream?”
“Since you’ve got the admission notice, then just get ready for university. There’s no point talking about this anymore,” the teacher said diffidently. She was afraid as Chen Xiaoqian said she wanted to report her to the Bureau of Education.
If that got out, she would not be able to be a teacher anymore.
“No point? What do you mean there is no point? One year of kindergarten, six years of primary school, three years of middle school, and three years of high school. I’ve studied for a total of thirteen years. How many thirteen years can one waste? And all you can say is there’s ‘no point’ to get rid of me?”