Chapter 113: Zoo
“Students, open your textbooks to page 13. Today, we will be learning about a new topic—— ‘Happy Zoo.’”
Niong Xiuli said with a friendly smile. The smile on her face left the whole classroom full of students extremely flabbergasted.
Teacher Ning… There seemed to be something wrong with her.
Usually, there would already be several students suffering the calamity in the morning.
But this morning, Teacher Ning didn’t shove anyone’s face in a rice bowl, nor did she scold anyone who made a simple mistake.
AdvertisementsWhat exactly happened to Teacher Ning?
Although the children’s hearts faintly sensed that something was amiss, after 10 days, they had grown into the habit of listening to Ning Xiuli.
Despite feeling out of place with Ning Xiuli’s amiable character, the physical pain they had previously felt compelled them to obediently open their books and proceed to page 13.
Nssjkdt yv vbl srld vlmvcssj, y qlo pvweldvp qlzv vbyv vblal oyp psxlvbkdt pvaydtl.
Lkdt Dkwzk pyke vbyv vbl vsrkn oyp ‘Tyrru Hss,’ cwv sd vbl cssj’p vbkavlldvb rytl, kv oyp nzlyazu oakvvld kd zyatl vlmv, ‘Slyekdt RRR.’
Bdela ‘Slyekdt RRR’ bye ‘ckt, rlapsd, pju…’ oakvvld, yzz dsaxyz osaep. Mbl vlmv yzps kdnzwele y pkxrzl rslx, dsv xldvksdkdt y pkdtzl vbkdt ycswv ydkxyzp yde nsxrzlvlzu wdalzyvle vs y gss.
Jwv obld Lkdt Dkwzk pyke kv zkjl vbyv, ds sdl eyale alvsav bla osaep.
Ebyv Mlynbla Lkdt pyup yzoyup tslp. Rq pbl pyke psxlvbkdt oasdt yde usw eked’v oydv vs pyhl bla qynl, lhld vyzjkdt cynj vs bla… Eypd’v vbkp jkde sq yvvkvwel kd ekal dlle sq y prydjkdt?
Fs, oblvbla kv oyp y zkvlayvl sa yd kzzkvlayvl nbkze, dsdl sq vblx pyke y osae yqvla srldkdt vblka cssjp yde eked’v alynv vs Lkdt Dkwzk’p ‘xkpvyjl.’
Rd qynv, ds xyvvla obyv Lkdt Dkwzk pyke, vblu oswze alxykd kdekqqlaldv.
Rd lhlau nzypp, Mlynbla Lkdt oswze zlv vblx nsru rkdukd yde dlo osaep esod, xyjkdt vblx aloakvl vblx y bwdeale vkxlp, ps oswzed’v kv cl vbl pyxl?
However, Ning Xiuli’s behavior today was bound to be unusual.
AdvertisementsWhen she saw all the students had opened their books, instead of simply and brutally ordering that each person must finish copying the text a hundred times before dinner, like in the past, she called a random student’s name and asked him to read out loud.
“Teacher… Teacher Ning!”
The boy who was called stood up and was about to cry.
He only recognized a few characters. Teacher Ning asked him to read ‘Happy Zoo,’ but his book only had ‘Reading III’ on it, how could he read it out loud?
But, no matter how absurd Ning Xiuli’s order was, not following it was graver than reading it incorrectly.
So, the boy braced himself and read ‘Reading III’ once.
Everyone, including Bai Yan, assumed that after the boy finished reading he would be struck with great bad luck.
But unexpectedly, after the boy had finished reading, Ning Xiuli didn’t find an excuse to explode. Rather, she asked him to take his seat in a kind manner, even praising him for reading from the heart.
Ning Xiuli treated the next three people she asked to read ‘Reading III,’ praising each student. Once they finished their reading session, the students were still bewildered by Ning Xiuli’s behavior, and still unclear about the situation.
Today’s Teacher Ning was really weird. To everyone’s surprise, she didn’t hit or scold anyone; on the contrary, she continuously praised people!
Could it be that Teacher Ning became a good person?
The kids have been treated well by Ning Xiuli these past few days, causing these first graders’ attitudes to become fickle. Giving them small favors little by little made them alter their points of view, not to mention that some had even been hit by symptoms of Stockholm syndrome.
AdvertisementsSeeing Ning Xiuli’s ‘new self,’ some students began to hesitate, feeling that Teacher Ning was not as bad as they had initially thought. So much so that they even started standing in Ning Xiuli’s shoes, reasoning out that they were also too disobedient to provoke the teacher to punish them before.
At first, there were still a few people who thought this. When Ning Xiuli rewarded the best student with a piece of chocolate, the students who weren’t fed anything decent for a good number of days immediately turned green from jealousy.
In their eyes, Ning Xiuli’s reward was rather enticing.
Under the temptation of this item, their opinion of Ning Xiuli had undoubtedly improved.
Of course, it was also related to Ning Xiuli’s smiling face that morning when opening the door, which had not yet disappeared.
This side was able to appease the students and let them relax their guard.
There were even a few bold souls that believed Ning Xiuli had truly changed.
As a result, when Ning Xiuli was smiling from ear to ear, she asked everyone for suggestions on classroom learning with a nice expression, causing some students to bravely raise their hands and said, as though not wanting to live, “Teacher Ning, next time, could we not copy things? My hand is going to break from all the copying!”
“Teacher Ning, the stuff we learn every day is so boring, can we learn something more interesting?”
While listening to the students’ ideas, Ning Xiuli’s smile remained unchanging.
She stood straight behind the podium with her waist unbent as her arm extended under the area to retrieve a large box.
She placed the box on the podium’s top, with her forever smile still hanging on her face, as she said, “I understand your opinions. In fact, I know everyone has been using old textbooks and my teacher’s copy is different from yours.
AdvertisementsNext, Teacher will distribute new textbooks printed by the school. The new textbooks have many illustrations, easy-to-understand words, and will be much easier to learn from.”
Hearing Ning Xiuli’s guarantee, the students were extremely happy, leaving only Bai Yan feeling that this was anything but good.
He raised his eyes to read the label on the box, but the label was blotched by a stain, basically rendering the words indistinguishable.
With this, Bai Yan felt even more doubtful of the books inside the box.
However, he was against the new textbooks no matter what. Amid the class’s happy cheers, the new textbooks were rolled out, and the old ones were collected as Ning Xiuli passed by.
Bai Yan stared at the new book in his hand, on it were the three words ‘Literature and Language.’
It may have been an illusion, but as he touched the book, he felt a chill creep into his bones, as though he were holding a lump of ice, making him uncomfortable all over.
But, this feeling only lasted for a moment.
After the shiver ran through, the cold feeling disappeared without a trace. Everything seemed to be like an illusion to him, just like before.
Bai Yan turned his head to look to his sides, his classmates were all delighted, and no one raised the excessively conspicuous feeling of the new textbooks.
Afraid that Ning Xiuli would remember him messing with the gas, Bai Yan pretended to be nonchalant, going with the tides and opening the textbook. He looked through the table of contents and found the ‘Happy Zoo’ title.
Based on the text, their books should be the same ‘Necromancy’ book in Ning Xiuli’s hand.
AdvertisementsBai Yan quickly swept through the table of contents, and on it were nothing but ordinary titles, no different from the literature book he had earlier.
But Bai Yan was foolishly unwilling to believe his eyes. The turned ghost Teacher Ning would have this sort of disposition, spending half the day letting them experience a normal Chinese class.
However, before Bai Yan could open the book and flip through the textbook’s contents and uncover the secrets of the new book, Ning Xiuli, who had an unchanged smile, urged them all, “Everyone open your books to page 13, our next lesson will be about this new topic—— ‘Happy Zoo.’”
“During our study, everyone should first observe the six pictures in the story. After looking at them, who can stand up and explain what the story is actually about?”
Bai Yan bowed his head to read the book. Sure enough, just like Ning Xiuli said, the new textbook had a simpler vocabulary. Even if it were an illiterate child, the six pictures inside could be put together, assembling a terrible story.