“Arc 2— NOT A MATCH: An episode of tutoring disaster”


    “Good morning ss, I’m Teacher Liu, your discipline teacher,” A middle-aged man stood on the podium and began speaking. “The disciplinemittee of the school will be responsible for setting the length of your hair to that of your skirt and pants. For the past few days, we have been seeing how students disregard school fashion discipline to add their own zing which is quite uneptable.”


    The boy’s eyes widened as they heard the discipline teacher’s lecture.


    Han Zixin yawned as he heard another never-ending lecture with his hand ced behind his head. As he turned his gaze he found An Xin quickly writing each word that Teacher Liu was saying.


    “What are you doing?’ Han Zixin asked her in horror.


    “Making notes, “came the obvious reply.


    “She is a blockhead, “the boy who sits a desk ahead of Han Zixin and An Xin snickered, earning a deadly re from the school tyrant.


    “Little blockhead, you are not supposed to write such meaningless words,” Han Zixin said through gritted teeth._.


    An Xin didn’t bother to reply to him as she pulled out her English to Chinese dictionary and pped it on the desk, startling him. He gulped and turned his attention to the discipline teacher’s lecture.


    “You, stand up!” Teacher Liu stopped talking for a while and gestured to Han Zixin to stand up. “Why are your hair not cut ording to school standards?” It was after pointing out one student did he found several others with long and dishevelled hair. “You! You! You! All stand-up.”


    And so the boys stood up one by one.


    “Follow me,” Teacher Liu announced. The boys exchanged looks with one another but followed the teacher in the end.


    The boys from all the sses were standing in a never-ending line while teacher Liu was walking back and forth not saying a word and scaring the shit out of the students. Sometimes, silence was scarier than angry words and that was what he was doing right now. He must have learned this superpower from his mom by making students afraid and guilty by doing this silent treatment.


    After what seemed like an eternity, he said while looking at the first student who was from ss Ten K as always, “Why is your hair not cut?”


    “Sir, my barber has loose motions,” Demo said in a voice filled with grievance. “He couldn’t hold scissors without disrupting his motions.”


    The boys who were hearing him had put hands on their mouths to stop from bursting into a fit of uglyughter.


    “What about you?” Teacher Liu pointed at Ye Jun.


    “Me?” Ye Jun said pointing at himself and the teacher nodded his head. “Sir, my barber’s wife died. So, he has to close down his shop for the mounting period. I’m so sincere and loyal to my barber that I refuse to go to anyone else.”


    “Again?” Teacher Liu asked.


    “Huh?” Ye Jun didn’t understand what the teacher meant.


    “Last week, I asked you the same question and you had said his wife died, ” Teacher Liu informed.


    “Oh no, sir, it was his motherst week, “Ye Jun said immediately.


    “Didn’t you say a week beforest time that your barber’s mother died and he is in a mourning period?” Teacher Liu said.


    “That must be his mother’s mother,” Ye Jun muttered with an embarrassedugh while scratching his head.


    His answer made everyoneugh and teacher Liu angry.


    “Mr Dong, pleasee with your workers,” Teacher Liu announced and a team of barbers entered the school. “We have informed your parents about the little activity that our school is going to hold. And they have given their assent.”


    “Sir, what activity?” Demo asked as he felt an urge to cry for no apparent reason.


    “Haircutting activity,” Teacher Liu announced and the entire school cried.


    “Hehehe,” An Xin was giggling as she was running her fingers through Han Zixin’s short hair.


    “Can you stop it?” Han Zixin growled but she giggled even more.


    “Cheat prince, I can see your forehead and eyes now,” An Xin giggled as she poked his forehead with her index finger. She lowered her head to look at his eyes properly. “Ah, you have a gorgeous eye colour.”


    Han Zixin was staring back into her eyes when she was staring at his eyes. He didn’t blink for several seconds as he noticed how big and pure her eyes were. It was as if he could jump into her soul through her eyes.


    “Wow, cheat prince, you have such a wide forehead. No wonder you were hiding it with your long hair,” An Xinmented and Han Zixin red at her.


    “Xiuxiu!” Qiao Wei appeared at that moment. She drank water from An Xin’s water bottle and panted. “Do–”


    She panted once again and drank another mouthful of water.


    “The–”


    Once again, she had drunk a mouthful of water to stop panting.


    “Either youplete your sentence orplete panting,” Monamented as she applied a coat of nail paint over her manicured nails that she had to remove when the disciplinemittee came for checking.


    “How insensitive,” Qiao Wei muttered under her breath. Then, she looked at her adorable little sister and felt bad in her heart as she said, “The students from other sections of ss Ten have been making visits to our ss for no reason. We all believe that they want to see the student Peng Cheng apologize too.”


    “So, what? Let theme and see we also have a pure beauty in our ss,” Song Ci grinned as she imagined everyone getting shocked by knowing that a delicate beauty was in ss Ten K too.


    “Song Ci, are you crazy? The stupid campus belle contest is only two weeks away. A week after monthly tests,” Mona screamed. “Our Xiao Lan will be entangled with stress for nothing!”


    An Xin looked at Han Zixin who looked back at her with wide eyes.


    “Monthly tests!” Both screamed at the same time, making everyone pause.