The three-person squad, escorted by Hu Xiujie, moved under the flag platform.

The small wooden table was designed for two people and was a bit low. When three big guys gathered around, it felt crowded.

Xie Lan managed to stake out a small territory between Yu Fei and Dou Sheng. He took a breath, deciding to try hard to accept this Chinese-style high school life that left him at a loss.

He took out paper and pen. Looking up, he saw Dou Sheng and Yu Fei staring at him eagerly.

Xie Lan paused. “What’s wrong?”

Yu Fei said irritably, “Backpack isn’t here, no paper or pen.”

Dou Sheng followed with a calm nod. “Backpack is right here, but no paper or pen either.”

“……”

After getting some paper and pen, Dou Sheng scooted closer to Xie Lan and whispered, “I’ll teach you.”

“No need.” Xie Lan lifted the paper towards himself. “I want to write it myself.”

Dou Sheng was surprised. “Write it yourself?”

“Mmh.”

When Hu Xiujie mentioned exchanging the reflection letter for the phone just now, Xie Lan suddenly had an idea.

As long as there was one person in the class not bribed by Dou Sheng, he had a hope of finding something out.

It was just a bit shameless.

Dou Sheng watched him from the side, hesitating for a long time before hissing, “Don’t try to be a hero. Hu Xiujie is different from other teachers. If she thinks your attitude isn’t correct—”

“I will be very correct.” Xie Lan uncapped his pen, then fished out two reference books from his backpack and placed them on the table.

One English-Chinese dictionary, one idiom dictionary. Together they were forty centimeters thick, weighing seven or eight pounds.

Dou Sheng: “……”

Yu Fei was a veteran of reflection letters. His pen moved like a god as he whispered while writing, “Those three are probably writing reflections right now too.”

“Definitely.” Dou Sheng tore open the pack of cookies and placed it in the middle of the table. “Intelligence was inaccurate. What happened to Hu Xiujie taking leave?”

Yu Fei scoffed, very depressed. “100% she spread it herself. Fishing law enforcement (Entrapment)!”

Xie Lan didn’t understand what “fishing law enforcement” meant, but he could roughly understand from the context.

He suddenly remembered an idiom. “‘Under Teacher Hu’s crafty and cunning fishing law enforcement, we finally felt we were wrong.’ Is it okay to write this?”

With a clatter, Dou Sheng dropped his cookie in fright.¹

“Not okay!” He looked shocked. “I beg you, let me guide you. My phone is still in her hands.”

“If not okay, then not okay. What’s the rush? I’ll check again.” Xie Lan waved his hand in annoyance. “I want to complete it myself. Don’t come over.”

Dou Sheng: “……”

Writing the reflection letter was very stuttering. Although Xie Lan tried very hard to pad it with vernacular, he still had to stop and flip through the dictionary from time to time.

Halfway through, they hit the first break between evening self-study sessions. Fortunately, almost no one came to the front playground during the evening break.

Finally writing the last paragraph, Xie Lan tapped his somewhat numb waist. Turning his head, he saw Hu Xiujie still standing at the school gate.

“She’s not going to stare at us the whole time, is she?” Xie Lan nudged Dou Sheng gently with his elbow. “Is this also a rule?”

Dou Sheng turned his head quickly to look. “No, probably still staking out someone.”

Yu Fei, who finished ahead of them, chewed on a cookie and said gloomily, “Staking out this late, there must be a target. Wonder which hero could make Hu Xiujie stand at the school gate for an hour and a half.”

Just as he finished speaking, the hero’s figure appeared.

Very tall, very thin, short hair messy as if he had rolled in sand. School uniform unzipped, revealing a white hoodie covered in black soot and footprints.

Xie Lan stared at that figure for a while before realizing who it was.

Just a few days later, Chen Ge seemed to have lost another three to five pounds compared to the night they said goodbye. The lad of over 1.8 meters seemed to be nothing but a skeleton, standing there like a decadent, gray human shape.

Chen Ge was caught red-handed by Hu Xiujie. He was a head taller than Hu Xiujie, but while being scolded, he zipped up his school uniform and lowered his head, skillfully making one’s heart ache.

“Thin as a ghost.” Yu Fei, who was originally sleepy and swaying, stood up straight. “Douzi, could he be—”

“No.” Dou Sheng turned back coldly. “Probably just no money to eat. He knows better than us about those things.”

Hu Xiujie didn’t interrogate Chen Ge for too long, nor did she make him write a reflection. She let him go directly.

With half an hour left until school ended, Xie Lan finally put down the last punctuation mark and let out a long sigh.

Dou Sheng glanced at him and slowly signed his name on his reflection letter. “Give it to me, I’ll go hand it in?”

“No need.” Xie Lan said, “I’ll go to the office to exchange for your phone.”

“Go together?”

“Myself.” Xie Lan said, “Don’t follow.”

He organized the papers in his hand. His handwriting was twice as big as others’, stretching 800 words into four pages. “I’ll take yours over too.”

While following Hu Xiujie upstairs, Xie Lan took the opportunity to look at Yu Fei and Dou Sheng’s reflections.

Yu Fei’s was very formulaic, full of sentences that could be used anywhere, a bit like the essay templates Xie Lan had memorized.

Dou Sheng’s was pure nonsense. Six hundred out of eight hundred words were narrative, recounting the events of catching kittens and cutting off eight eggs in one go over the past two days. Only at the end did he perfunctorily write a few sentences like “I was very wrong,” “Hope teacher be lenient,” “Let Xie Lan off and return Xie Lan’s phone to him,” and so on.

Those who didn’t know would think Dou Sheng and he had such a good relationship.

Xie Lan indifferently put Dou Sheng’s reflection at the bottom and handed them to Hu Xiujie together.

Hu Xiujie drank a mouthful of hot water back at her seat before taking the reflections.

“Temperature dropped these two days.” She glanced at Xie Lan’s pant legs. “Did you wear long johns?”

Long johns…

Xie Lan said mechanically, “Wore them.”

“Really have to wear them, otherwise your legs will hurt at night.” Hu Xiujie got up and poured him a cup of hot water. “Know you were wrong?”

Xie Lan lowered his head and gave a “Mmh”.

Standing here, he finally understood what a brilliant strategy it was for Dou Sheng to act obedient in front of Hu Xiujie.

Fierce and cold as Hu Xiujie was, her expression softened a few degrees when facing him bowing his head to admit his mistake.

“Xie Lan, you are an honest and smart child, teacher can tell. Right now you are dragged down by Chinese, but if you study hard, getting into a key university isn’t a problem. Don’t go astray, and don’t just focus on playing around with Dou Sheng.” Hu Xiujie said earnestly, “After returning to China, the educational environment has changed, and the social environment has also changed. Steer your own rudder well, set sail, clarify your goals, don’t let your ideals slip away, understand?”

Xie Lan didn’t quite understand the second half, but he nodded obediently, then paused. “Actually, Dou Sheng is excellent. He’s good at both studying and playing.”

Hu Xiujie said “Mmh”. “That is true.”

“Teacher, do you know Dou Sheng’s Bilibili account?” Xie Lan asked seemingly inadvertently, following the conversation.

Hu Xiujie rolled her eyes at him. “Phone already handed in, still thinking about Bilibili?” As she spoke, she flipped through the two reflections in her hand. Seeing Dou Sheng’s reflection, she sneered and tossed it aside in disgust.

“These are theirs. Where’s yours?”

The path of asking the teacher also failed.

Xie Lan pinched the four pages in his hand, his voice very low. “Teacher, I am really guilty.”

Hu Xiujie: “Hm?”

“Returning to school in China as I imagined wasn’t skipping class within the first week.” Xie Lan paused slightly. “I want to read this reflection in front of the whole class.”

The office was quiet for a few seconds.

Then a question mark slowly appeared on Hu Xiujie’s face.

“You—” She repeated somewhat uncertainly, “Want to read the reflection in front of the whole class?”

Xie Lan kept his head down and gave a soft “Mmh”.

Hu Xiujie fell silent again.

After a good while, she said, “Let me see the reflection. Don’t tell me you learned bad things from Dou Sheng and are holding back some trick for me.”

“Of course not.” Xie Lan handed her the reflection.

Hu Xiujie flipped through it quickly and frowned. “Indeed no big problems… No, why?”

“Want to recognize my mistakes more profoundly,” Xie Lan said.

Hu Xiujie was dumbfounded for a while.

Xie Lan looked up, looking at her very sincerely. “Is it okay?”

“Okay… what’s not okay about this.” Hu Xiujie answered subconsciously. “But you—”

Xie Lan said, “But I’m a little embarrassed. Teacher, can you say you made me read it?”

The filter of confusion on Hu Xiujie’s face deepened another layer.

With fifteen minutes left until school ended, Hu Xiujie led Xie Lan back to the classroom. Walking in front, she muttered, “You kid are interesting. In twenty-five years of teaching, this is the first time a student has stumped me.” (Note: Xie Lan misunderstands “Jiang Zhu” – stumped/froze – later).

Xie Lan didn’t understand what “stumped” meant, only roughly guessed the first half of the sentence.

So he continued to be obedient. “Thank you, Teacher. I will make persistent efforts.”

Hu Xiujie: “……”

The classroom was very quiet. Old Ma was sitting at the podium desk writing lesson plans.

Hu Xiujie led Xie Lan in. The owls looked up blankly in unison.

“Xie Lan will read his reflection to everyone. The reason is skipping evening self-study and bringing a phone.” Hu Xiujie paused. “There are a few others who made mistakes. No time to read one by one. Go back and do three extra sets of comprehensive science papers. Deliver them to my office before school ends tomorrow.”

Dou Sheng looked at Xie Lan with worried eyes. Xie Lan only glanced at him, then lowered his head and stood in the center of the podium.

Old Ma moved aside curiously and cooperatively to give him space.

“Self-criticism. Xie Lan.”

“Today is the seventh day I returned to my motherland—the People’s Republic of China. Before I returned to my motherland, the People’s Republic of China, I did not expect myself to be like this now. What is it like? This has to start from what I did in the seven days since returning to my motherland.”

Che Ziming muttered below, “Padding the word count.”

“Indeed.” Wang Gou couldn’t help but add a little support.

Then Dou Sheng pressed Che Ziming’s head down.

The middle part was all dry words, roughly reviewing not trying hard in exams, breaking rules by bringing a phone, and delaying self-study because of non-study related matters, etc.

People below were holding back laughter. In Xie Lan’s peripheral vision, the corners of Old Ma’s mouth twitched several times. Finally, unable to hold it back, he walked to the window pretending to look at the scenery, but his shoulders were shaking.

But Xie Lan’s heart was still as water. He read steadily through two pages, three pages, four pages.

Reaching the last paragraph.

“Speaking back to the phone, my biggest mistake is that I haven’t studied after class these days, instead wasting time playing on my phone, especially watching Bilibili.”

Old Ma finally couldn’t help laughing. “Don’t be too harsh on yourself. B station also has a lot of meaningful content.”

The dismissal bell rang, cushioning his words. The owls also cracked a few relaxed jokes. However, Dou Sheng, who was lying on the table in the last row, suddenly sat up, looking at Xie Lan with vigilance.

Xie Lan looked at him calmly for a moment and smiled.

He paused for a few seconds until everyone quieted down again. The classroom was so quiet that the hiss of the fluorescent lights could be heard.

Holding the paper, Xie Lan read word by word: “Watching videos really wasted too much time, for example watching Uploader ‘Food-Loving MR.X’, etc. I was wrong, I will definitely change in the future.”

The last sentence confused the classmates.

“Who is Food-Loving MR.X?”

“Noble enough to have a separate name in a reflection letter?”

“Mukbang? So you love watching the food section?”

Standing on the podium, Xie Lan clearly saw the people below split into two groups with two kinds of faces.

More than half showed vigilance like Dou Sheng, including Dai You, Che Ziming, Yu Fei, and the class officers with high daily presence.

The other group, a small corner of people far from his seat, had the faces full of confusion that they should have.

Amidst the confusion, someone finally couldn’t help saying, “Why watch some MR.X? You’re in Class 4 now, at least watch ‘Ren Jian Jue Shuai Dou’ (Human World Absolute Handsome Dou).”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Dou Sheng’s expression went wooden on the spot.

“Ren Jian Jue Shuai Dou.” Xie Lan repeated the name softly.

Ren Jian Jue Shuai, Dou. RJJSD.

It matched.

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1. Fishing Law Enforcement is a literal translation of the Chinese term for Entrapment. Yu Fei claims the teacher spread the rumor that she was taking leave to “fish” (lure) the students into cutting class so she could catch them. Xie Lan uses this idiom in his reflection letter, which horrifies Dou Sheng because accusing a teacher of entrapment in a formal apology is very impolite. ↩︎