Reversed Life: Chapter 9 - A Model Student Who Respects Her Teachers and Values Proper Conduct! Her Morals are Absolutely First-rate!
Chapter 9: A Model Student Who Respects Her Teachers and Values Proper Conduct! Her Morals are Absolutely First-rate!
From the fragmented bits and pieces Yan Zhiyang told her, Mu Xiangxiang pieced together a thoroughly melodramatic story.
Basically, there was a boy in Class 2 named Bai Yingjie who liked a girl in his class. The girl rejected his confession, saying she didn’t want to date before university—but then turned around and personally delivered a love letter to Qiao Nan instead.
No one knew where Bai Yingjie heard about it, but he completely lost it. Not only had he repeatedly tried to make trouble for them throughout the previous semester, but during winter break, he apparently got further provoked and, dead drunk, actually came looking for a fight.
At the time, Qiao Nan couldn’t even be bothered with him. But for some reason, the usually timid and honest Bai Yingjie suddenly found unbelievable courage that day. When they tried to leave, he rushed forward cursing, and punched Yan Zhiyang in the face.
And if Yan Zhiyang were the type to endure that, he wouldn’t be Yan Zhiyang. So Bai Yingjie went home that day bruised and swollen.
Ordinarily, a hot-blooded teenage conflict should’ve ended there. But what happened afterward made the students of Class 9 deeply realize what “there’s always a bigger fish” really meant. Somehow, after returning home, Bai Yingjie told his family some version of events, and before long, Qiao Nan received a call from No. 12 High School saying that the parents of a student from Class 1 had accused them of committing school violence.
On one side was a top-ranking honor student from an experimental class, consistently among the top three in the grade. On the other side was Qiao Nan, the delinquent troublemaker from Class 9. The school claimed they were “investigating the situation,” but from the tone of the call, they had clearly already decided who was at fault. They even told Qiao Nan and the other involved students from Class 9 to bring their parents to school after the semester started to discuss punishment and compensation.
There was no way in hell Qiao Nan was going to tell his family about something so humiliating. And since the school obviously didn’t believe him anyway, he couldn’t even be bothered explaining. He just hung up.
According to Yan Zhiyang, Qiao Nan had been so pissed afterward that he threw on a jacket and went out racing his motorcycle.
*****
“Getting screwed over by a petty bastard is seriously fucking disgusting. If I’d known it’d turn out like this, I shouldn’t have held back that day. I should’ve hit him a few more times.” As the topic came up, several classmates who had originally been sitting at their own desks gathered around. One pale-skinned boy named Guo Zhi bent down and rolled up his pant leg, revealing whip-like marks on his calf. “When my dad found out, he beat the crap out of me too. It was like he’d lost his mind. I told him we weren’t the ones who started it, but he just wouldn’t believe me.”
A few girls immediately crowded around him sympathetically to look at the injuries. Yan Zhiyang laughed bitterly. “Well, isn’t it obvious who people are gonna believe? Look at who they are, and then look at what we are.”
The room went quiet for two seconds. Then he suddenly looked horrified and clasped his hands together toward Mu Xiangxiang repeatedly. “Brother Nan, Brother Nan, I wasn’t talking about you! I meant me! Me!”
These kids already seemed used to being treated that way. Very quickly, the gloomy atmosphere dissipated, and everyone pounced on Yan Zhiyang laughing, and cursing while punching and kicking him. Yan Zhiyang hurriedly tried to save himself. “Hey hey hey, I wasn’t talking about you guys either! My bad, my bad! Didn’t Old Mo say he believed us?!”
Old Mo was the homeroom teacher of Class 9—a gentle, easygoing middle-aged man who got along extremely well with his students. Everyone casually called him “Old Mo” all the time.
Mu Xiangxiang immediately noticed the shift in the emotions of the young people around her. Even while they continued piling on top of Yan Zhiyang and cursing at him, they were obviously genuinely happy inside. Even Guo Zhi, whose legs were covered in welts, looked radiant.
Among all the adults around them, only their homeroom teacher, Old Mo, had chosen to believe them. And that solitary, lonely bit of trust was already enough to satisfy their longing.
However, the brief happiness didn’t last long.
A student from Class 9 suddenly burst into the classroom, panting anxiously as he delivered the news: “Fuck! Goddammit! That old hag from Class 1 just went into the office to cause trouble for Old Mo!”
******
At No. 12 High School, it wasn’t just the students who were divided into ranks—the teachers were too.
Leaving aside the administrative staff, the homeroom teachers of the experimental classes and the homeroom teachers of the regular classes weren’t even assigned to the same office. By the time the students of Class 9 rushed to the office doorway, they could already hear their homeroom teacher Mo Wen’s patient voice inside: “Teacher Wang, calm down a little.”
Teacher Wang’s tone was extremely aggressive. “Teacher Mo, during the break, you said we’d discuss this after school started. Well, school’s started now. You owe me an explanation.”
Mo Wen sighed. “At the very least, I need to ask the students what actually happened.”
“What’s there to ask?!” Teacher Wang slammed the desk. “The facts are perfectly clear. Your Class 9 students surrounded and beat up Bai Yingjie from our class during vacation! Hurry up and punish those little hoodlums already. The student’s parents are still demanding an explanation.”
Mo Wen frowned. “Teacher Wang, that’s only Bai Yingjie’s side of the story. Shouldn’t we avoid jumping to conclusions?”
Teacher Wang froze for a moment, then looked at him coldly. “What are you implying?”
Thinking she was willing to listen, Mo Wen immediately explained: “After this happened, I took it very seriously and contacted the students from our class right away. I discovered that their version of events differs somewhat from Bai Yingjie’s—”
“Oh, I get it now.” Before he could finish, Teacher Wang sneered and cut him off. “Let me guess—they said Bai Yingjie from our class was the one who provoked them first?”
Leaning against the railing outside, Mu Xiangxiang heard Yan Zhiyang mutter under his breath while clutching the doorframe: “Well, yeah.”
Then the sharp voice inside rang out again like a blade: “Mo Wen! Teacher Mo! Not to be rude, but have some self-awareness! You actually believe the excuses made up by the trash from your class?!”
Hearing such naked contempt come from a teacher was completely different from the students’ earlier self-deprecating jokes. Every single student from Class 9 outside the office instantly changed expression.
The next second, Mo Wen’s furious shout exploded from inside: “Teacher Wang! How can you—please show some respect! I admit my students’ grades may not be as good as your class’s, but they’re all kind-hearted kids. I believe they would never bully a classmate for no reason!”
Teacher Wang snorted dismissively. “I can’t be bothered arguing about this with you. Bai Yingjie ranked third in the entire grade on the final exams last semester. He’s one of the future pillars of society from our class. In any case, I don’t want your favoritism leaving him with psychological trauma. Since the matter hasn’t blown up yet, and our class students still don’t know about it, hurry up and punish the people who deserve punishment and make them apologize. If you keep dragging this out, I’ll go directly to the new principal and let him handle it.”
The previous principal of No. 12 High School had been promoted last year, and this semester, a brand-new principal had parachuted in. If Teacher Wang carried this complaint straight to the new principal on his first day, it was obvious what kind of impression the homeroom teacher of Class 9 would leave.
A class’s academic performance was tied to a homeroom teacher’s bonus, reputation—everything. The gap in status between Class 1 and Class 9 was enormous. This was an outright threat.
The students of Class 9 standing outside the office all fell silent. Mu Xiangxiang noticed the fist at Yan Zhiyang’s side clench and unclench repeatedly, and suddenly stepped forward.
She grabbed him. “What are you trying to do?” she asked quietly, staring at him.
“Brother Nan, stay out of this.” Yan Zhiyang gritted his teeth. “Doesn’t she just want someone to vent Bai Yingjie’s anger on?”
Mu Xiangxiang didn’t let go. “This whole thing… is aimed at me.”
“I’d rather fucking die than let you apologize to that idiot,” Yan Zhiyang replied. “Besides, you didn’t even hit him that day. I’m the one who did it.”
“Brother Nan, just go back,” Guo Zhi and the others also started pushing Mu Xiangxiang toward the classroom. While pushing, they deliberately acted relaxed as they tried to persuade her. “It’s just a little disciplinary punishment. We’ve already got too many debts to care anymore. Besides, I’ve got thick skin. An apology’s no big deal.”
Mu Xiangxiang froze slightly. She still remembered the horrifying whip marks on the pale boy’s legs. Even though they were nominally all Qiao Nan’s friends, at this moment, the warmth and sincerity in their hearts was being shown to her.
It felt like touching a bundle of something soft and fragile. She didn’t know how to protect it, yet at the same time couldn’t help feeling angry toward the rough forces constantly poking and trampling on them.
Why were they so accustomed to accepting baseless accusations?
Even at her absolute lowest growing up, Mu Xiangxiang had always been the “other people’s child” praised by parents and teachers alike. She simply couldn’t understand it—but she did know that being falsely accused had to feel even worse than dealing with Fang Lingli.
In a calm tone, she said, “It wasn’t our fault. I won’t apologize.”
Then she lifted an arm, brushed aside the hands clutching at her sleeves and hem, and before Yan Zhiyang could rush forward to stop her, she knocked on the office door.
Mo Wen was still reeling from how different his colleague looked from the fair and upright person she usually pretended to be. When he turned around, he saw a face that shocked him even more.
Teacher Wang instinctively followed his gaze—and suddenly there was a young man standing in the doorway. Tall, well-built, somehow making even No. 12 High School’s hideous uniform look good. His handsome face was almost too refined, completely expressionless, every inch of him—from the tips of his hair to the soles of his shoes—radiating cold restraint and pressure.
Meeting those eyes, Teacher Wang unconsciously stood up straighter. “Y-you… hello?”
Mo Wen only snapped back to reality several seconds later. Though he had no idea why his usually unruly student suddenly seemed so serious, that didn’t stop him from feeling inexplicably nervous. “Uh… Qiao Nan? What’s the matter?”
So this was Qiao Nan?
Hearing the name Bai Yingjie had mentioned countless times, Teacher Wang couldn’t hide her astonishment. She looked the young man over from head to toe, unable to reconcile him with the hooligan thug Bai Yingjie had described.
“Hello, teachers,” Mu Xiangxiang greeted politely as she walked in and stopped before them. Seeing that both teachers were still standing, she thoughtfully raised a hand. “Please, sit.”
Both adults’ knees went weak. Their butts dropped right back into their chairs with a thud as they stared at her blankly.
The honor-student girl, who had never in her life experienced pressure from authority figures, quietly relaxed. It seemed the teachers at No. 12 High School were a bit more worldly than the ones at Yingcheng, but still fairly reasonable.
So she got straight to the point, looking directly at the female teacher sitting there stiffly. “Teacher Wang, I understand why you came. To be honest, I have a very different view of the conflict between Bai Yingjie and me. As for who’s actually right or wrong, I hope you can call him here so we can confront each other face-to-face.”
“Huh?” Teacher Wang went pale under that calm gaze. She almost nodded instinctively, but reason stopped her at the last second. “Y-you… what are you trying to do? Threaten him in person?”
Why would she think that? Mu Xiangxiang frowned in confusion. “What?”
The increasingly oppressive aura had Teacher Wang breaking out in cold sweat. At this moment, she genuinely felt like she was confronting some criminal force. Summoning all her courage, she was just about to refuse sternly when another voice interrupted from outside the door.
“Teacher Mo? Oh? Teacher Wang’s here too?”
The chubby director of discipline pushed open the door. He swept his gaze across the room, shivered at the strange atmosphere, then cheerfully stepped aside. “Principal Sun said he wanted to take a look around the school. We saw a crowd of students outside your office, so we came in to check. Busy with something?”
The “Principal Sun” he mentioned was obviously the new principal transferred in this semester. Hearing that, the two teachers who had been glued to their seats by Mu Xiangxiang practically sprang upright.
Then a man slowly walked out from behind the director. Tall, skinny, dark-skinned, and looking especially old for his age.
Principal Sun had only wanted to familiarize himself with the teachers’ office area, so he’d been completely relaxed—until he looked up and froze.
His eyes locked directly onto the boy in the No. 12 High School uniform standing behind the two teachers.
Holy shit. Wasn’t this the kid who’d offered him his seat on the bus this morning while he was trying to learn the school’s bus route?
Thinking about it now brought tears to his eyes. Principal Sun knew he looked old, but this was the first time he’d realized he looked old enough for someone to offer him a seat on public transport. His emotions back then had been… complicated. He honestly hadn’t wanted to accept the kindness, but somehow, when those calm yet strangely intimidating eyes looked at him, he’d ended up thanking the kid and sitting down anyway.
He hadn’t even dared shift around for the rest of the ride.
Mu Xiangxiang also recognized him as the grandpa from the bus earlier that morning. Slightly surprised, she still greeted him politely. “Hello, Principal. Hello, Director.”
Principal Sun: “…Hello, hello. Haha, so it’s you, little classmate. Thanks again for giving me your seat on the bus this morning.”
“Oh?” The director brightened immediately. “Very good, very good. Which class are you from? Excellent character.”
Teacher Wang: “………………”
The director continued cheerfully poking the hornet’s nest without realizing it. “By the way, what are you all doing here?”
Being praised made Mu Xiangxiang a little happy, so she unusually went the extra mile and pulled over two more chairs from the office area. “Please, sit.”
The moment the words fell, four people’s backsides dropped into chairs in perfect unison.
The director, who had originally only intended to accompany the new principal on a casual campus inspection: “???”
Principal Sun, who had truly only stopped by for a quick look: “……”
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