Afternoon at two-thirty, the alarm rang on time.
An Ling had showered and then napped for a while.
She rarely slept so soundly in the middle of the day.
But after being woken by the alarm, her lower back and entire back truly ached.
It was the result of a body that had gone without exercise for a long time suddenly being put through high-intensity activity.
She sat on the edge of the bed in a daze for a good while before dragging her heavy steps into the bathroom, changing her sanitary pad, and washing her face with warm water to clear her head a little.
“Sigh…”
An Ling sighed, picked up a comb to smooth out her hair, and then tidied the fur on her tail.
After getting herself ready and changing into her school uniform, she shouldered her backpack and went downstairs.
While packing her things, she always had a faint sense of unease, always feeling as if she had forgotten something very important.
She opened the door. Li Yang was already standing outside.
“How’s your energy?”
He looked her up and down.
“Still alright.”
An Ling rubbed her eyes.
“Just a bit tired.”
“It’s fine. We won’t practice for long this afternoon. You’ll be able to rest then.”
“Hopefully…”
An Ling said listlessly.
“Alright, let’s go. First to school. Training is for the competition later, after all.”
Li Yang pulled the listless An Ling toward school.
“By the way, did you forget anything?”
An Ling, walking beside Li Yang, suddenly asked.
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
Li Yang felt around all the pockets on his body.
“Nothing left behind. Phone, keys, backpack, earphones—all on me.”
“I brought everything too, but I still have the feeling that I forgot something important.”
Could it be that she remembered the water in the backpack that day?
Li Yang became alert.
No, I have to divert her attention.
“I suddenly feel like time is a bit tight.”
Li Yang said abruptly.
“Think about it. On Tuesday I have to take part in two events. There won’t be much time to practice with you. How about we practice a little longer this afternoon after coming back?”
“Ah! No!”
“Then there won’t be enough practice time.”
Li Yang smiled smugly.
An Ling’s attention had indeed been drawn away.
“There’s a half-day off in the afternoon of the sports meet too! There’ll be time to practice. I want to rest a bit more this afternoon.”
The two of them soon arrived at school while bantering back and forth, and Li Yang had successfully diverted An Ling’s attention.
But the moment he stepped into the school, he seemed to feel a faint ominous premonition as well.
The classmates around them were walking in pairs toward their respective classrooms.
It felt no different from usual when coming to school.
It must be me scaring myself, Li Yang thought, pulling the somewhat acting spoiled An Ling into the teaching building.
When they were about to reach the classroom, something felt wrong.
The corridor outside the classroom today was especially quiet.
He actually didn’t hear the usual loud chatter of the classmates.
Walking into the classroom, all the classmates were sitting obediently in their seats, quiet to the point of being a bit eerie.
An Ling and Li Yang quickly found the reason as well. Homeroom teacher Zhang Jingyi was currently sitting at the podium.
With this big Buddha suppressing them, of course the classmates in the class didn’t dare to act up.
An Ling and Li Yang hurriedly sat obediently back in their own seats.
“Class President, why did Teacher Zhang come so early today?”
An Ling sat down and quietly asked Zhou Meng about the situation.
“She said today she wanted to come check the class’s homework herself. Maybe it was a sudden impulse. Before, she would also come like this every few weeks.”
Zhou Meng said.
“Homework!”
An Ling almost cried out.
“We’re doomed! We’re doomed!”
An Ling finally remembered what she had forgotten.
The homework!
After playing with Li Yang for two days, she hadn’t written the homework at all.
And her luck was so bad that this week the homeroom teacher had come in person to check the homework.
“Class President, what should I do? I didn’t write the homework.”
An Ling said quietly to Zhou Meng.
“No way? An Ling, how could you not have written the homework?”
“On the day of the holiday I was all muddle-headed and didn’t note down the homework. Yesterday I even had Li Yang take me out to play and forgot. What should I do, Class President~”
“I can’t do anything about it either. Teacher Zhang will probably have people stand up of their own accord later. Just be honest. She might go easy on you.”
“That’s the only way.”
An Ling weakly collapsed into her seat.
After a while longer, more classmates walked into the classroom one after another, until everyone who should be present had arrived.
Zhang Jingyi stood up from her seat.
“Today everyone’s homework will be personally checked by me. Those who haven’t finished their homework, be conscious about it and stand up yourselves. If I have to dig you out, you’re done for.”
Li Yang turned his head and looked at An Ling with a face full of despair.
An Ling hadn’t written the homework, of course he hadn’t written it either.
Now the two of them were doomed together.
An Ling used her eyes to signal Li Yang to stand up together with her.
The two of them hadn’t written a single bit of homework.
It was already too late to make up for it.
They could only strive for lenient treatment.
“Sigh~” An Ling took the lead in standing up, and Li Yang also followed behind her and stood up.
There were three other classmates standing in the classroom.
Zhang Jingyi looked around the circle, and finally let her gaze fall on An Ling.
There seemed to be a bit of surprise in her eyes.
An Ling lowered her head in embarrassment.
“Alright, you few are quite honest. All of you speak up. Why didn’t you finish the homework.”
Zhang Jingyi turned her gaze onto Li Yang.
“Li Yang, you go first. You’re an old hand at this. Last week I still thought you had improved. This week you’re at it again, and even brought an extra one along. At least this time you’re a bit more honest and dared to admit it proactively.”
He hadn’t written a single bit.
There was no way not to admit it.
Li Yang was also very helpless.
“Teacher Zhang, it’s just… these past two days An Ling wasn’t feeling well. There was no one at her house. The two of us have been playing together since we were little. Our two families live next to each other. I took care of her for a day and forgot to write the homework.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. The Class President can also prove it. An Ling has been unwell since the day the holiday started.”
Li Yang hurriedly patched things up.
“Even if you took care of An Ling for a day, couldn’t you still write it this morning?”
“This…”
Li Yang scratched his head.
He couldn’t think of any words to explain himself.
“Then An Ling is the same, right?”
Zhang Jingyi moved her gaze onto An Ling.
An Ling nodded.
“Seeing that it’s your first time, you admitted it of your own accord, and you have a bit of a reason, I’ll let you two off this time. Make up the homework before the holiday this week and bring it to me. I’ll check it one question at a time.”
Just like that?
An Ling raised her head in pleasant surprise and looked at the homeroom teacher.
There was actually no punishment at all, and the time given was so generous.
“Thank you, Teacher Zhang.”
Li Yang and An Ling the two of them quickly thanked her.
The three classmates after that, Zhang Jingyi also asked a bit about each.
The punishments weren’t heavy either.
Then it was the whole-class inspection. Four classmates whose homework was partially unfinished were found out.
Those punishments were heavier.
All the homework had to be copied three times, and would also be checked one by one later.
An Ling looked around.
Only she and Li Yang were the two people whose homework hadn’t been written at all.
Fortunately, the homeroom teacher didn’t look at the two’s homework afterward.
Otherwise the punishment wouldn’t have been this light.
It counted as both lucky and unlucky.
They had escaped this disaster.