Chapter 85
Chapter 85
Before Qin Lan could say anything, a wail rose from the seat beside him.
“No!”
“I hate writing essays more than anything!”
Xue Chuan stared at the blackboard in utter despair. The agony on his face made him look like a man suffering from violent diarrhea only to discover someone had sealed the exit shut with superglue.
Judging by his expression, he genuinely had not listened to a single Chinese lesson throughout elementary and middle school.
Otherwise, even by following a stock formula, he should have been able to squeeze out six hundred words. He could not possibly be this empty-headed.
“It’s fine. I still have an ultimate move…”
With the grim resolve of a man making his last stand, Xue Chuan picked up the pen on his desk and began to write.
“My favorite thing is rainy weather. I still remember that rainy night when I developed a high fever, and my mother…”
Hearing him mutter, Qin Lan’s face changed dramatically.
“Fuck, seriously, man?”
“You’re actually forcing the old ‘high fever on a rainy night and Mom carries me to the hospital’ formula into this topic?”
“Will that really get you the thirty points you need to pass?”
Xue Chuan glared at him. “Shut up!”
“I don’t know how to write anything else…”
Qin Lan had no answer to that.
He looked down at the paper and pen on his desk but did not hurry to begin.
Around him came a soft chorus of pen tips scratching across paper.
Qin Lan swept his gaze across the room and discovered that the once-empty classroom had somehow filled with students.
Their bodies were all exceedingly faint, like translucent shadows with no visible facial features.
Were these the ghosts of students who had once studied in this classroom?
Qin Lan narrowed his eyes, sensing the curses emanating from their hazy forms.
They did not appear to harbor any desire to attack. Each simply kept its head down and worked on its essay.
“The atmosphere is certainly oppressive,” Qin Lan thought with a slight nod.
“Finishing an essay in thirty minutes isn’t difficult, but doing it while surrounded by ghosts is a fair test of one’s nerves.”
After a moment of consideration, Qin Lan set pen to paper and swiftly wrote an essay titled “My Favorite Puppy.”
Back in middle school, he could have written something like this with his eyes closed.
With Qin Lan’s current Spirit and Speed, less than two minutes had passed by the time he finished.
Qin Lan did not like puppies.
He had never owned one either.
But essays called for artistic embellishment, which was a polite way of saying that one could make the whole thing up.
After finishing, Qin Lan found it amusing to see Xue Chuan still frowning in thought.
“Teacher, I’m finished.”
Qin Lan raised his hand.
A student was supposed to raise a hand before speaking. Although they had not verified that rule, Qin Lan decided it was better to be safe.
The pale hand beckoned from thin air, and Qin Lan’s essay floated toward it.
“Passing an ordinary fill-in-the-blank essay prompt like this should be easy enough…” Qin Lan considered. “The real question is whether Xue Chuan can make it through…”
To his surprise, the Chinese Teacher’s shrill voice suddenly rang out.
“A puppy?!”
“At your age, you still have the time to think about keeping pets? What a waste of your life!”
“Fail!”
Under Qin Lan’s astonished gaze, Written Denunciation activated. An invisible slash reached him in an instant.
[You were cut apart by an enraged teacher. Killer: Chinese Teacher.]
[No attribute increase.]
What?
When he resurrected, Qin Lan’s expression darkened.
What was that supposed to mean?
His essay had been full of positivity, truth, goodness, and beauty. Its core theme had been the innocent harmony between humanity and nature. How could it possibly fail?
He lowered his gaze to the paper.
After a moment’s hesitation, Qin Lan picked up his pen and began writing again.
This time, his title was “My Beloved Family.”
Surely she could not fail an essay about the warmth of family.
Another two or three minutes passed. Refusing to accept defeat, Qin Lan handed in his new essay.
The Chinese Teacher’s voice thundered through the classroom once more.
“At a time like this, you still can’t focus on your studies?! You even have time to miss your parents?!”
“If you don’t earn good grades, how will you have the face to see them?”
“Fail!”
Fuck you!
Qin Lan flew into a rage… for roughly one second.
His opponent was a 4-Star anomaly, several full levels above him in strength.
For the moment, Qin Lan did not possess the ability to kick a 4-Star anomaly around like a ball.
As for Xue Chuan?
The guy might have grown somewhat stronger over the past two months, but he had never been particularly reliable.
At most, he qualified as the backup to the backup plan.
Qin Lan drew a deep breath and frowned as he wrote his third essay.
“My Favorite Subject.”
After failing twice, Qin Lan had already seen through the core of this composition lesson. He knew what the Chinese Teacher wanted to read.
This essay contained no elegant language and cited no famous texts.
Not only was the structure a complete mess, but it also contained plenty of misspellings.
However, Qin Lan had written about his favorite Chinese class.
When he handed it in, the Chinese Teacher’s voice sounded much gentler.
Qin Lan could even hear her satisfaction.
“Very good, very good… Now this is a quality essay.”
“Yes. At your age, studying is the most important thing. You don’t need to think about anything else.”
“Study Chinese and practice your writing. Only then can you earn a high score on the college entrance exam, enter a good university, and find a good job. Do you understand?”
Listening to her made Qin Lan physically ill.
What a nauseating speech.
It sounded horribly familiar, as if he had heard it hundreds of times before.
Over the following minutes, the indistinct student ghosts around him gradually began turning in their essays as well.
“Exercise?! Soccer?! Is that what you should be thinking about? Fail!”
“A career? You want to become a photographer? Utter nonsense! Your first duty is to get into a good university! Fail!”
“Heh. Your favorite person? You dare start dating this young? You’ve certainly grown bold… Fail! Report to my office after class!”
One ghost after another wailed and vanished, mercilessly rejected by the Chinese Teacher.
Qin Lan watched in silence as he waited for Xue Chuan.
He had already used a spare sheet of paper to complete a second essay.
If Xue Chuan could not finish or failed to hand in a suitable essay, Qin Lan would return to three minutes earlier and give this copy to him.
Qin Lan had no idea whether the trick would work, but it was the only option he could try.
After all, judging by Xue Chuan’s current expression…
It was hard to imagine how massive a pile of literary garbage he was squeezing out.
At last, just before the deadline, Xue Chuan’s expression relaxed and he set down his pen.
Qin Lan seized the chance to skim his essay.
With his current memory, Qin Lan could absorb ten lines at a glance and remember everything he saw. He was practically a human photocopier.
As soon as he finished reading, he knew this was bad.
The bastard really had written about developing a fever while doing homework late on a rainy night, then being carried to the hospital through the rain by his mother.
As Xue Chuan handed in his paper, Qin Lan sighed.
He was already prepared to break a rule on purpose and return to three minutes earlier.
However…
“Hmm… This is a complete mess… Is this what I taught you in class?”
“But since you were still doing homework while running a fever, your attitude toward studying is acceptable. I’ll give you thirty points.”
“You pass.”
What?
Qin Lan froze.
He looked at Xue Chuan, who had released a long breath of relief.
Then he looked at the pale hand on the blackboard, the ghosts around them, and the empty seats left behind by those erased for failing their essays.
“So that’s how it is?”
Qin Lan sneered. “That’s what this instance is trying to say… How revolting.”