ISBH - Chapter 16
Chapter 16: Exam
Mo Sheng ran into the classroom panting hard.
Han Tian had studied abroad and was not quite used to the arrangement of classrooms here, so after floating into the room she started looking about with great interest.
The final grades from last semester were posted at the front of the classroom.
"Little Mo Sheng is amazing, second in the class..." Han Tian glanced at the grade sheet, floated to Mo Sheng's side and praised her in a low voice.
Mo Sheng lowered her head.
She had missed an exam yesterday, so no matter how well she did this time she could not place second again.
Feeling a little down, Mo Sheng set her backpack on the desk and took out the book for the next subject to review it carefully.
Strength was slowly returning to Han Tian's body, and remembering that Mo Sheng might well have brought along the thing she had been searching for at the garbage dump, she crouched beside her and stared at Mo Sheng's backpack.
Mo Sheng's backpack was small, and with the zipper open as she took out books, Han Tian could see everything inside at a glance.
A few pens and a few books, there was nothing in Mo Sheng's backpack that deserved special attention.
Han Tian frowned deeply.
Classmates arrived one after another in small groups, and before long the little girl who had tried to hit Mo Sheng came into the classroom too.
That little girl walked straight toward Mo Sheng.
Han Tian immediately stood up in alarm!
Yet there was nothing handy nearby, and Han Tian could find no way to protect Mo Sheng.
Unlike the arrogant bully she had seemed before, the little girl now pressed her lips together as if about to cry. She glared hard at Mo Sheng from a short distance in front of her, then turned and walked to the last row of the seats beside them.
There sat a little girl sleeping with her head on the desk.
The girl who had hit people walked over and shook the sleeping girl's arm. "Wang Zhi, I fell and hurt my leg..."
Wang Zhi raised her head with eyes still hazy from sleep.
Suddenly seeing a face with makeup among a crowd of barefaced students in seventh grade, Han Tian was surprised and could not help taking another look.
"Smack." The textbook in Mo Sheng's hands fell to the floor as she read.
Han Tian quickly turned back.
The little girl frowned at a problem in the math textbook, scribbling on paper with her brows knitted tight.
Han Tian leaned in to look and realized the little girl had already done this problem two days before. Last time she had solved it in no time, yet this time she seemed unable to work it out no matter what...
Han Tian no longer spared a glance for Wang Zhi nearby and stayed beside the little girl to watch her work on the problem.
"What happened?" Han Tian heard Wang Zhi's voice, still drowsy, sound behind her.
"Mo Sheng the thief stole the dress you wanted to give me. I couldn't stand it so I scolded her, and she dared to answer back..." The little girl blamed Mo Sheng first. "I ran over to hit her, and she pushed me..."
The little girl had fair skin and neat clothes and looked quiet and gentle. If Han Tian had not witnessed the whole thing, she would hardly have believed such a sweet and obedient girl could tell such a lie that turned right and wrong upside down.
Han Tian clenched her fists and spun around.
She had always thought she had a good temper, yet for the first time she felt the urge to hit someone!
This little girl was utterly shameless!
Wang Zhi's lashes trembled. She glanced at Mo Sheng beside them, then turned to comfort the little girl who had blamed others first. "Juanjuan, we're best friends. I know you're angry because I lost the birthday gift I meant to give you. Don't worry, I'll make it up to you. When my dad sends my allowance tomorrow, I'll buy you two dresses..."
Hearing Wang Zhi's words, the little girl called Juanjuan broke into a smile and kissed Wang Zhi on the cheek. "Zhizhi, you're so nice!"
Tsk, before it had been "Wang Zhi," and after Wang Zhi agreed to buy clothes it turned into "Zhizhi." So much for best friends...
As if she had gotten what she wanted, the little girl called Juanjuan smiled broadly and glanced back at Mo Sheng smugly. "Little stink bug, I'm in a good mood today, so I won't bother with you anymore..."
Mo Sheng kept her head down over her work as if she had not heard the provocation.
The little girl gritted her teeth and stared at Mo Sheng with hatred, looking as if she wanted to come over and bully her again...
Han Tian widened her eyes warily.
Luckily the class bell rang at that moment.
The little girl was not in Mo Sheng's class. Hearing the bell, she stamped her foot and wheedled Wang Zhi beside her. "Help me teach Mo Sheng the thief a lesson..." Then she darted out of the classroom.
The proctor walked in.
Before the exam, everyone had to move their backpacks outside.
Han Tian glanced at Mo Sheng as she put away her books. Mo Sheng had already worked out the whole problem.
Han Tian quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing Mo Sheng take her backpack outside, Han Tian floated out too. Seeing no one in the hallway, she, still unwilling to give up, opened the backpack to examine what was inside.
Yet the books and pens in Mo Sheng's backpack showed nothing unusual!
Then why had she been able to leave the room overnight?
What on earth had happened?
...
Unable to figure it out, Han Tian could only return to the classroom.
Han Tian had sharp eyes and noticed at once that a long bar of chocolate had appeared on Mo Sheng's desk.
Who had given this to Mo Sheng?
Han Tian glanced around. Wang Zhi seemed to be working on her exam paper, yet her gaze kept drifting toward Mo Sheng...
Mo Sheng seemed not to see Wang Zhi looking over. She bent over her exam paper and wrote with full focus, her lips pressed tight, completely ignoring the chocolate on her desk.
Han Tian crouched beside Mo Sheng to watch her write. As a professor, even though she believed Mo Sheng could not see her, professional duty made her hold back the urge to prompt her from the side. Since Mo Sheng had no deskmate and the desk beside her stood empty, Han Tian lay down on that desk and fell asleep.
When the bell ending the subject rang, Han Tian woke groggily to see Mo Sheng had handed in her exam paper and returned to her seat.
Wang Zhi leaned over from the side and passed straight through Han Tian's body. In recent days Han Tian had touched no one except Mo Sheng, so Wang Zhi's move startled her wide awake.
Mo Sheng's gaze flicked almost imperceptibly to the side, and she pressed her lips together.
"You little ugly freak, I admit I was wrong yesterday. I shouldn't have thought you stole my dress..." Wang Zhi looked awkward and pushed the chocolate on Mo Sheng's desk. "I already apologized to you. What more do you want?"
So Wang Zhi was the culprit who had bullied Mo Sheng yesterday?
Whose lawless daughter was this? Did she think that once she apologized, others simply had to forgive her?
She should try being beaten like that herself!
Han Tian glared at Wang Zhi in anger.
Clearly Mo Sheng did not want to forgive Wang Zhi either. She pressed her lips together and looked at her book without speaking.
Wang Zhi grew impatient and pressed relentlessly close to Mo Sheng. "Who are you putting on that look for? Didn't you promise my dad yesterday that you'd tutor me? If you keep making that face, I'll hit you every time I see you..."
She still had to tutor her?
Han Tian remembered Mo Sheng sobbing while hiding in the bathroom before, and clenched her fists slightly.
She wanted to tell Mo Sheng not to go, yet she could not think of any reason to stop her. She was no longer Professor Han, the leading figure in academic circles. In this world she was only a stranger no one could sense...
Han Tian pressed her lips together. In that instant she could not help thinking of Mo Sang again.
Mo Sang's stardom looked dazzling, yet with no background to support her, her journey had been far from smooth.
When Mo Sang first made her debut, she was in a group.
One member of the group was the lover of a senior executive at the company. Her professional ability was terrible, and jealous that Mo Sang was the soul of the group, she often bullied Mo Sang in private, yet in front of others she acted deeply caring toward Mo Sang. As a result everyone believed Mo Sang and that member were truly close as sisters, and forgave that member's awful skills along the way.
Some people at the company could not stand it, yet fearing that executive they dared not help Mo Sang. Only her Manager Li Ai tried her best to help Mo Sang, but the other side had too powerful a backing, so Li Ai could not protect Mo Sang either.
Even now, recalling those past events still pained Han Tian's heart.
A year and a half after debut, the group won a major music award. As the lead singer who wrote the lyrics and music, Mo Sang naturally went on stage to accept it.
Yet on the awards stage Mo Sang announced that she would drain her savings to terminate her contract with her original company and leave with her Manager Li Ai!
The news that Mo Sang would terminate her contract came without warning. Before the people at the original company could react, Mo Sang posted a series of revelations on Weibo. She released a video of that member beating Mo Sang, an audio recording of an executive subtly proposing a certain deal, and an audio recording of threats forcing Mo Sang to renew her contract...
For those few days the trending topics on Weibo were all about Mo Sang. Even passersby could not stand it and cried out, "Pretty sister has suffered so much!"
If even passersby felt this way, how much more the fans who had stayed with her all along. The fans had never imagined Mo Sang had suffered so many wrongs on the way, and every one of them was about to explode with anger!
Under pressure from public opinion, the original company did not pursue the penalty for breach of contract.
After Mo Sang left the original company, everyone thought she would join another big company, and many big companies extended offers to her. Yet Mo Sang joined no company at all. Instead she started a studio together with Li Ai...
In the years that followed, the name everyone in the entertainment industry knew best was Mo Sang!
Not only young starlets around her age, even established leading ladies had to avoid her brilliance...
Thinking back now, Han Tian realized how naive she had been. Mo Sang was the boss of her studio, and Li Ai had followed her lead the whole time...
Back then she had been too worried to think clearly, and had foolishly believed the talk about helping Mo Sang get treatment...
Han Tian loved Mo Sang, not only because she matched her sense of beauty completely, but because of her resilience, the way she could find her way out again every time she was pushed into a hopeless corner.
"Mo Sheng," Han Tian roughly understood what Mo Sheng was thinking as she watched her bow her head in silence. At this stage Mo Sheng had no power to fight back, and like Mo Sang back then she could only choose to endure, so that she would suffer less.
Han Tian softened her voice and said gently, "Someone I love once said, 'If the world deceives me and humiliates me, I will endure and yield, and one day I will make them regret it.'"
In fact Mo Sang's original words were, "If the world deceives me and humiliates me, I will endure and yield, and one day I will kill him!" But Han Tian did not want to teach a child to sound so fierce, so she changed the line without thinking.
"Mo Sheng, I will not teach you to swallow every insult. Your tolerance will only feed the arrogance of the shameless. But when you cannot control the situation, I hope you can learn patience. That is not cowardice or timidity, only another roundabout way to protect yourself. The method does not matter. As long as you can reach the result you want, you are a true hero..."
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