"Well……".
After Ying Yunsheng left, Mao Xianzhi entered the classroom immediately, opened a folder, took out a thin stack of papers and flattened them: "The results of last month's essay contest in Chongliu City are out. Students whose names are called, come up and collect your certificates."
Class hadn't started yet, and the noisy students below had fallen silent upon hearing this.
The awards were read out starting with the third prize, and each time a name was read, a round of applause would erupt from the audience.
"Wu Yiqing won the second prize for her essay 'Starving Corpses'."
"Clap clap, clap clap clap, clap clap clap, clap clap clap!"
"Zhu Yi won first prize for his essay 'The gavel'."
"Clap clap, clap clap clap, clap clap clap, clap clap clap!"
Ji Li was solving equations on a draft paper when he heard the title of the essay, and his pen suddenly paused.
Zhu Yi was the last person in the class to receive an award. Holding the certificate, he walked down from the stage, and his deskmate Ye Ruhui praised him without reservation: "First prize, you've been hiding your talent."
"It's alright," Zhu Yi said with a slight smile. "Just lucky."
Although Mao Xianzhi did not require everyone to participate, he was clearly very pleased that his students had won awards, and his tone was cheerful: "All five works submitted by our class won awards, not bad. I was so proud when I received the award certificate in the grade last year."
Jian Mingyuan, who was standing next to him, exclaimed "Huh?" and leaned over to ask, "Hey genius, didn't you write an essay for a competition before? Why didn't you submit it?"
"Well……"
"Ji Li?"
"Um."
Since the other party expressed their approval, Jian Mingyuan didn't think much of it, but sighed with a bit of regret: "Didn't you already finish half of that essay? If you had submitted it, you would definitely have won an award. What was it called again?"
Ji Li glanced at the table in front of him, said nothing, and continued solving the problem.
It's called "The Juggle".
A note from the author:
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Call for Submissions
This essay contest was the one that Mao Xianzhi had Ji Li help announce. The homeroom teacher commented that it was "just a small competition in the city with little prestige, so participation was not mandatory for the whole class."
“The grade level stipulates that each class must submit at least one entry. You are the class monitor, so this task is assigned to you,” Mao Xianzhi said. “There’s a prize for winning an award.”
Later, he posted the notice on the classroom bulletin board to inform everyone of the news. He also collected the works submitted by other students in the class before the deadline and sent them directly to the grade group without going through Mao Xianzhi's hands.
However, before that, because he was unsure if anyone else was willing to spend their time on this, Ji Li remembered his homeroom teacher's instructions and wrote a nearly 3,000-word entry for the competition in advance.
Including his, their class submitted a total of five works, but Zhu Yi did not submit one.
Now, Mao Xianzhi stands on the podium and says that all five works submitted by their class won awards, but Zhu Yi's work was an extra one.
.
The prize money for the competition needs to be collected by the winning students themselves from the finance office.
Zhu Yi had just arrived at the finance department when he saw Ji Li standing outside the door.
He stopped: "You're here in the finance department too?"
Ji Li shook his head: "I came to ask you, why do you insist on using my essay?"
"What did you say?"
"After everyone else in the class finished writing their essays for the essay contest, they all handed them directly to me. I received a total of four essays, plus my own, making five in total, but yours wasn't among them."
"I wrote one myself and submitted it to the grade level group. Is that not allowed?"
"Our homeroom teacher said that all five of our class's essays won awards, but in fact, including you, our class should have had six essays. It just so happens that I was missing when the teacher was calling out names."
"Maybe it was lost when it was handed in? It's just a piece of paper; a gust of wind could blow it away, right? Just because my essay title is the same as yours, you think I copied your essay?"
“I don’t think I’ve revealed anything about what I wrote from beginning to end.” Ji Li looked at him. “How did you know my essay title was the same as yours?”
"Uh..." Zhu Yi's palms gradually became sweaty, but his tone suddenly rose: "My seat is right in front of you, is it wrong for me to just turn my head and see you?"
Ji Li gazed at him quietly: "Only by investigating things can one attain true knowledge."
Zhu Yi was taken aback.
"Knowledge leads to sincerity; sincerity leads to a righteous heart; a righteous heart leads to self-cultivation; self-cultivation leads to family harmony; family harmony leads to governing the state; governing the state leads to bringing peace to the world." Ji Li's voice was calm and gentle. "Did you use this sentence in your essay?"
Zhu Yi frowned: "Why are you asking this?"
"This is a sentence I quoted in my essay, and it's also the source of the long idiom in the essay topic, 'Cultivate oneself, regulate one's family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world,' so I wrote it that way subconsciously," Ji Li said. "But I later looked up the original text and realized that I actually used the sentence incorrectly. The correct word order should be: Cultivate oneself, regulate one's family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world."
He said softly, "If you also used this sentence in your essay, it's unlikely that you would make the same mistake as me."
Zhu Yi froze on the spot, his lips suddenly trembling.
“The organizers should keep the original of the first-prize winning entry. Ask the teachers in the grade level; they should be able to get it.” Ji Li quietly watched as the color drained from his face. “So, would you like to come with me to the grade level office now?”
The finance office is located at the end of the corridor on the first floor of the office building, and it is rarely visited on weekdays. Occasionally, students from the teaching building in the distance will play and joke around during breaks, chasing each other to the side door of the office building, peeking in this direction for a couple of seconds, and then retreating back to find their companions.
The clamor of laughter and chatter fell to the ground, easily turning people's thoughts into a tangled mess.
“Judging from your appearance, you probably don’t need it anymore,” Ji Li said. “I told you, I came here just to ask you why you did this. I don’t have my phone on me right now. If you don’t believe me, you can search me.”
The air remained still for a long time.
"Class is about to start." Ji Li glanced at the time. "You really don't have anything to say? Or is there no compelling reason, and it's just because you dislike me?"
"I just can't stand you, so what?!"
Ji Li raised his eyes.
"Aren't you surprised?" Zhu Yi laughed. "You have good grades, a good family background, your teachers value you, and you're always easy to talk to. Do you think everyone in the world should like you and revolve around you?"
Ji Li did not interrupt.
A sudden outburst of emotion is very draining. Zhu Yi shrugged and tried to catch his breath, his eyes turning red as he stared at people.
He and Ji Li are completely different people.
His mother died unexpectedly at a young age, and his father, who was lame in one leg, spent his days pushing a beat-up tin cart across the street from the school. From elementary school to junior high and then to high school, wherever he went in school, his father would push the tin cart there. Zhu Yi once protested because it was too easy to run into acquaintances outside the school, but his father dismissed it with "I'm doing this for you," and he never dared to bring it up again.
Every day, I go to school, do my homework, and review my lessons. I live as the most inconspicuous and invisible person in the class. Deep down, I always long for the friendship and brotherhood that are most common at this age, but in reality, I don't even dare to speak loudly to my classmates. Occasionally, when asked what others think of him, I always have to watch others think for a long time before I can squeeze out a silent and timid sentence.
When I was a child, my relatives would talk about how he could probably tutor a student who was good at studying, but now even that's gone.
Because of Kiri. But not entirely because of Kiri.
Provincial key high schools are never short of outstanding students. He can only put in more effort than others to maintain his grades. But there is always someone who is always overshadowing him. He is not only good at studying. He also participates in extracurricular activities. He spends time helping teachers with their work. He often chats and laughs with his classmates.
For example, during the arts festival performances, Ji Li was the first person approached by the arts committee member who begged him to participate.
For example, when the sports meet required writing a broadcast script, the homeroom teacher's first reaction was to entrust the task entirely to Ji Li.
For example, when classmates around him pooled their money to buy milk tea and asked for their opinions, Zhu Yi refused because he didn't have the means to afford such drinks. Then, others would turn to Ji Li and ask for his opinion.
Even though Ke Li clearly gave the same answer of refusal, others would still patiently confirm it, even saying they wouldn't stop until the other person admitted "I don't drink beverages".
It's clear whether it's a polite, symbolic inquiry or a genuine invitation.
For example, in the math class that just ended, the teacher talked about the results of the weekly test. She first praised Ji Li for half a minute before she was willing to read out the next name.
Although Zhu Yi, the math class representative, came in second place, his score was nearly 20 points lower than Ji Li's, which seemed quite insignificant. The math teacher read out all the names of Zhu Yi and several others who scored above 120 before finally saying, "These students also did well. Keep up the good work next time. Okay, everyone, take out your test papers. Today we'll go over the questions you got wrong."
Not even a single word of praise is allowed; it must be shared with others.
In the first week after the class division in the second year of high school, he asked the teacher about the poverty subsidy, but in the end, Ji Li even personally delivered the application form to the grade group office.
Everything he tried so hard to obtain but could not, someone else obtained it all with ease.
They also acted as if they didn't care at all.
Zhu Yi stared intently at him: "Do you know that what you're doing... is really... disgusting?"
After the essay contest was announced, Zhu Yi didn't know who he was angry with, but he refused to submit his work and didn't even tell anyone that he was going to participate. When he brought his carefully written manuscript into the office, the teacher who was supposed to collect manuscripts was not there, and he could see the signature of the manuscript at the top of the stack of manuscripts on the table as soon as he looked up.
With just a quick glance, what he saw was enough for him to understand that he was destined to lose to his opponent in this competition.
A person's conscience needs many constraints to maintain it, such as national laws, social condemnation, and the opinions of those around them.
However, malice can escalate to its peak in an instant with just a small trigger.
Submissions must be printed.
He took down the top one, entered it into the text, reprinted and bound it, with a kind of revenge he couldn't explain, and didn't change a single word except for the name.
Even though his heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest, he didn't even flinch until he delivered the new manuscript to the office. He even managed a calm smile when a teacher asked him about it.
If the homeroom teacher hadn't happened to read out the titles of everyone's award-winning essays, and hadn't mentioned with great joy that all five essays submitted by the class had won awards, no one would have known about this.
Ji Li stared at him silently for half a minute before asking, "Are you done?"
Zhu Yi was provoked by his words: "Do you think I'm ridiculous? Who do you think you are? If it weren't for the fact that you were born into a good family and didn't have money or resources to rely on, do you think you could still talk to me like this? You're lucky, but what about me? Why should I be a stepping stone for someone like you? I'm going to prove that you're nothing!"
"Then what are you doing?"
"Well……"
"If you look down on me so much and want to prove you're better than me, why did you use my work to enter the competition? Don't you even think you can beat me?"
Zhu Yi gritted his teeth and remained silent.
Just then, the loudspeaker in the hallway rang urgently. Ji Li didn't say anything more to him: "Before this weekend, I hope you go to the teacher yourself and explain things clearly. Rather than admitting it, I guess you'd be even less able to accept that I was the one who leaked the information."
"You have no proof, the teacher won't believe you..."
"Don't you know there are surveillance cameras behind you?"
Zhu Yi suddenly turned his head, and the camera that had been staring in his direction suddenly came into view, its infrared beams flashing.
“There’s one more thing,” Ji Li looked at him, “I didn’t actually write the sentence I quoted in the essay wrong.”
Zhu Yi's hand, hanging by his side, trembled violently in disbelief: "You..."