"...Where is it?"Hearing the hint of worry coming from the voice beside her, the girl regained hope. "Did he leave it at his house?"
Zhou Lei unzipped his bag even more and put both his hands inside to look for the papers. His movements became frantic, his arms swinging wildly.
Soon enough, he placed his bag down and took out his empty hands. "I... misplaced them."
The girl chuckled a little bit. "This guy... He was so enthusiastic a moment ago!"
Zhou Lei inhaled a deep breath. "Don"t worry, me. It"s evident that majority of the cla.s.s doesn"t have an a.s.signment, so you"re safe. Don"t worry."
With this, his worry alleviated somewhat.
Meanwhile, hearing the gasp of his students, the teacher rolled his eyes while writing on the board, his back facing the students.
He was half-disappointed at his students, but the other half of him also expected this kind of outcome. After all, children will be children...
He capped the marker and grabbed the cloth, erasing the content off the whiteboard before most of the students got the chance to see it.
After doing so, he turned around and adjusted his gla.s.ses. "Did you do your homework?"
A sudden quietness swept over the cla.s.sroom. One could even hear the breeze outside.
Seeing that his students did not answer, he continued to speak, "Raise your hand if you don"t have your homework."
Of course, in the cla.s.s, not one raised their hand. They were unwilling to be the scapegoat; who knew if the others would follow suit or if they would just abandon you, leaving you alone in the predicament?
Well, there was one exception.
Upon hearing the teacher"s request, Zhou Lei, although having the same thoughts as the rest of his cla.s.smates, unconsciously raised his hand.
The swift hand grabbed the attention of both the teacher and the students.
"Ah! I"m..." Without explaining himself, Zhou Lei began to slowly put his down. In the midst of doing so, he saw the teacher walking towards him with hands behind his back.
The girl beside Zhou Lei felt second-hand embarra.s.sment for her seatmate. After all, judging by his expression, he really had no intentions of doing it in the first place.
Inside the teacher"s head, explosions were going off. "Zhou Lei? This diligent student? He really didn"t do his homework?"
He approached Zhou Lei curiously. "If that"s the case... then don"t blame me for giving you no score on this homework."
Zhou Lei refused to make eye contact with the teacher, pointing his head downwards and looking at the floor. He twiddled with his thumbs, waiting for the teacher to grind him.
The teacher asked a question. However, it was a question no one had expected. "Did you leave it at home?"
At first, the teacher was willing to believe that for the first time, the diligent student Zhou Lei forgot to do his homework. However, the more he thought about it, the more implausible this possibility became.
Finally, he remembered one crucial evidence which corresponded to the fact that Zhou Lei had done his homework: last night, he had reached out to him on social media to ask about the homework!
If he had forgotten about this fact, would he have embarra.s.sed himself?
Zhou Lei"s eyes lit up and he raised his head to look at the teacher. "Ah, yes, teacher."
"Erm..." The teacher did not know what to do now that he had confirmed it. Should he delay the checking to tomorrow? Should he exempt Zhou Lei from the checking until tomorrow?
Honestly, the teacher was facing a dilemma. As per the rules, he would have to put a zero on Zhou Lei"s grading sheet. In spite of that, the huge bags under his student"s eyes made it hard for him to choose.
"Anyway, most of the students won"t have a score if I checked them today. Maybe I should wait until tomorrow. Ah, but what of the students that did their homework today? Wouldn"t their all-nighter be for nothing?"
The teacher scratched his head, unable to come to a decision. He glanced at the two other students who were guaranteed to have done their homework. Jiang Zi Yun had an indifferent face, as always. He then compared it to Huang Fulin, who had a self-satisfied expression on his face.
Zhou Lei pursed his lips, preparing to speak.
Before he could, a soft but cold voice sounded from across the room. "Sir, I don"t have an a.s.signment either."
It came from... Jiang Zi Yun!
The teacher widened his eyes. "Are you sure? You left your homework too?"
"Hmm," Jiang Zi Yun placed a finger on her lips, before she continued speaking, "actually, I didn"t leave the homework. It"s just that I didn"t do it in the first place."
"Are these guys for real? Two of the students I thought were 100% going to have a homework... actually didn"t? What"s next, is Huang Fulin going to raise his hand next?!"
Huang Fulin, who was gloating over the fact that both of his rivals admitted to not having homework, shuddered. He felt someone staring at his back.
"T- teacher, I have my homework..." With a timid voice, he could only cover his head with the papers of his a.s.signment.
Just like that, the teacher"s gaze softened. He grabbed Huang Fulin"s papers and checked them. "Ah, here we go..."
Having gotten an idea, the teacher walked outside of the room. "Ms. Jiang, Mr. Zhou, come with me."
The rest of the students were dazed by the events that unfolded right in front of their eyes. "What is Mr. Wuzhou going to do to them?"
After a while, the two went back along with Mr. Wuzhou. He had a satisfied expression. Zhou Lei let out a sigh of relief, and Jiang Zi Yun maintained a cold demeanor, although anyone could see the hint of warmth exuding from her.
The two returned back to their seats, while Mr. Wuzhou walked towards the teacher"s desk.
"Okay, cla.s.s. Listen to me. I"ll be marking your homework today, however I"m exempting these two."
As soon as he said that, Zhou Lei shot a sneaky glance at Jiang Zi Yun. This time, however, she had done the same...
.....
After a few seconds of reminiscing, Zhou Lei snapped out of his daze and turned his gaze back towards the beggar in front of him.
With a deep sigh, he placed his hands on the beggar"s shoulders, which prompted her to stop eating and look at him.
Zhou Lei opened his mouth. "Are you... Zi Yun? Jiang Zi Yun?"
"Ah..." The beggar had some sort of explosion in her mind as she opened her mouth, allowing the piece of sandwich she was chewing to fall onto the cold hard ground.
"Y- yes, I am Jiang Zi Yun."