Chapter 4: I Owe It All to My Principal!

Outside No. 99 High School.

Ji Bai had just rounded the corner when he spotted the enormous red banner in the distance, its yellow lettering displaying his name for all to see.

His foot slipped. He nearly took himself and his bicycle into the ditch.

“Is all this really necessary…?”

Muttering to himself, he braced for it and rode up to the gate.

Before he had even stopped properly, a familiar figure came rushing over like a gust of wind.

“JI BAI!”

His homeroom teacher Li Mei was louder than the school’s battered bell. Her face glowed, and her eyes shone with a light he had never seen before.

The light of someone who had taught hopeless classes for twenty years and finally produced the city’s top scorer. Her life had been worth living, goddammit! She looked happier than a lottery winner.

“Come on, Ji Bai, get inside! The principal’s been waiting ages!”

Ms. Li seized his arm as though afraid he might bolt and all but swept him into the teaching building.

His subject teachers were already waiting in the corridor.

The math teacher, who had been complaining in the group chat just yesterday about his sleeping in class and handing in blank papers, rushed up first and clapped him warmly on the shoulder.

“Ji Bai! I always said there was something special about you! Sleeping in class? You knew it all already. Couldn’t be bothered to listen! True wisdom hides behind a foolish exterior!”

The Chinese teacher adjusted their glasses, smiling so broadly their face creased all over. “I said that writing ‘In spring I sleep and never bathe’ from memory showed creativity! Thinking outside the box! The makings of a top scorer, just as I thought!”

The English teacher approached, insulated mug in hand. “Don’t forget to visit us after you graduate! Think how often I called on you to answer questions. Building your mental resilience!”

They surrounded Ji Bai, fussing over him with overwhelming warmth.

Of course they did. This was the city’s top scorer!

Teaching a top scorer brought more than bragging rights. The Education Bureau bonus and the school reward together were worth half a year’s salary!

Right now, Ji Bai was a walking ATM. Every teacher’s darling.

Principal Wang came out to welcome him in person, seized his hand, and ushered him into the office.

“Ji Bai! At last, you’re here! Sit down, sit down! Tea? A soft drink?”

“Either’s fine. No need to fuss, Principal.” Ji Bai dropped casually into a seat.

After a little small talk about the weather, Principal Wang lifted his teacup and smiled as though the thought had only just occurred to him.

“Ji Bai, honestly, I still feel like I’m dreaming. You usually scored around three hundred in the mocks. How did you suddenly do so well in the gaokao? Were you hiding your abilities all along?”

Ji Bai had just taken a sip of cola. He waved a hand, utterly untroubled.

“Ah, nothing special. I usually couldn’t be bothered to take the exams seriously. I knew how to do all those questions. I just thought scoring too high would draw attention. I’m used to keeping a low profile.”

“It was only the gaokao this time. Wrote down a few answers, and somehow I got seven-hundred-something. Business as usual. Business as usual.”

Principal Wang’s smile froze. The corner of his mouth twitched. He set down his cup and gave a sigh of carefully manufactured regret.

“Oh? I see.”

“Well, given your particular family circumstances, the school had set aside a scholarship of a hundred thousand yuan for your university tuition and living expenses.”

“But since you’re so capable, I suppose you won’t be needing that little bit of money. Quite right, too. A star student will shine wherever he goes.”

Ji Bai’s hand stopped dead, cola still raised.

A hundred thousand?

“Sorry? What was that, Principal? Too windy. Didn’t catch it. Could you say it again?”

Principal Wang took a leisurely sip of tea. “I said the school had set aside a hundred-thousand-yuan scholarship for you.”

“Not that bit! Before that!”

“Before that? I asked how you suddenly did so well.”

Ji Bai slapped the cola down on the desk and sat bolt upright. His expression turned solemn, his voice utterly sincere.

“Principal! How can you even ask? I did so well because of your outstanding leadership! Here at No. 99, we have an upright school ethos and a thriving culture of learning!”

“And all our teachers have poured their hearts into teaching us! Without their tireless work, day and night, how could I possibly have achieved these results?”

“I’m just an ordinary student. It was the school that nurtured me. You and the teachers guided me every step of the way!”

“Without No. 99, I wouldn’t be where I am today!”

Every word rang out with conviction. Such heartfelt sincerity.

Principal Wang broke into a smile, his aging face bunching into a chrysanthemum.

“That’s what I like about you, my boy. Your honesty! Don’t worry. You’ll get every last cent of that hundred-thousand-yuan scholarship. I’ll have Finance transfer it to your bank account.”

Ji Bai smiled too and thumped his chest in promise. “Rest assured, Principal! Whether it’s Education Bureau officials interviewing me or a television crew filming, that’s exactly what I’ll tell them!”

“I owe everything to the principal’s leadership, the teachers’ guidance, and the school’s support! My story won’t change by so much as half a word!”

Warmth and harmony filled the office. Principal Wang couldn’t stop smiling. The more he looked at Ji Bai, the more he liked him.

He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost time for the exercise break.

“Ji Bai, as it happens, the whole school will be out on the sports field for exercises in a moment.”

“Would you like to go up and say a few words to the younger students? Share your study tips, give them a little encouragement?”

Ji Bai’s eyes lit up.

More than a thousand people in the school. Surely he could farm a mountain of Shock Points from this!

He nodded at once. “No problem, Principal! Just tell me what you need!”

Delighted, Principal Wang went straight to the broadcast room and grabbed the microphone. His excited voice rang throughout the school.

“Attention, all staff and students! Attention, all staff and students!”

“Assemble on the sports field immediately! Assemble immediately!”

“Today! Is the proudest day! In the thirty-year history of No. 99 High School!”

“We’ve produced a top scorer! Fucheng’s top-scoring science-track candidate! Sixth in the province! Ji Bai!”

“Today! Give your senior a thunderous round of applause! As he shares the secrets of his academic success!”

“What does this prove? It proves our teachers are as good as anyone else’s! Our students are as bright as anyone else’s! If you’re willing to work hard, Experimental High, the high school affiliated with the normal university, No. 1 High—we can beat the lot of them!”

Principal Wang had cut himself completely loose. Beside him, the vice principal kept frantically signaling with their eyes: Too much, Principal. Maybe rein it in a little. Principal Wang ignored every hint, growing more animated by the second.

He went from the history of the school to his own educational philosophy.

Out on the sports field, more than a thousand students had lined up by class.

Every one of them was bewildered by the announcement.

“So he really is the top scorer? They didn’t hang the wrong banner?”

“Our school produced the top scorer? Just yesterday I told my mom it was hard enough to get into any undergraduate program from this dump…”

“How did he do it?? He cheated, right??”

“Are you stupid? You think you can cheat your way to sixth in the entire province in the gaokao?”

Restless murmurs, arguments, and disbelieving exclamations rippled through the crowd.

Ji Bai stood to one side of the broadcast room, listening as Principal Wang used the microphone to praise him to the heavens.

“Less than three hundred in the high school entrance exam three years ago! Three years later, the city’s top-scoring science-track candidate!”

“Brilliant, diligent, hardworking! The pride of No. 99 since its founding!”

“A student like this is a role model for every child in our school!”

Even Ji Bai’s thick skin was starting to fail him.

Enough, Old Wang! Keep going and he’d start believing it himself!

But the announcement was out. Thousands of eyes were fixed on the platform. Too late to back out now.

What should he talk about?

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a dusty acoustic guitar leaning against the wall in the broadcast room.

His eyes lit up.

There it was!