44: This is for the good of the school.

Lin Que's words—

"Teacher, can I not go?"

were like a basin of ice water poured straight down over the freshly boiling classroom.

Everyone fell silent.

Wu Di's hand, which was draped around Lin Que's neck, froze in midair,

and the wild joy on his face turned into bewilderment.

"Brother Que, are you not fully awake yet? That's a quota recommended by the school!"

The look of shock on Zhang Ya's face quickly faded, replaced by an eagerly suppressed glee.

She lowered her head, pretending to organize her textbooks, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up.

Refuse? Good.

Slapping Teacher Shen in the face in public and treating the school's recommendation as child's play.

Lin Que, you are courting death yourself, so you can't blame anyone else.

From now on, I want to see how she can still show favoritism toward you!

On the podium, Shen Qingqiu gripped the chalk tightly.

No one knew what kind of binding promise she had made,

to the principal in his office for this quota.

"If I can't bend this crooked-necked tree back, all my merit evaluations for this year will be canceled."

She had even pulled out a recommendation letter handwritten by Professor Li Yuanchao,

only to barely suppress those opposing voices from the Academic Affairs Office.

She had thought,

this was a path she had finally found that could guide this poisonous tree toward the light.

She had even imagined that,

when Lin Que experienced firsthand the warm atmosphere of "The Miracles of the Namiya General Store",

and saw with his own eyes the scenes of readers being moved by Jian Shen's writings,

his heart, wrapped in darkness, might perhaps loosen up.

As a result, he casually asked her in front of the whole class whether he could not go.

She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her surging emotions,

and her voice betrayed no joy or anger:

"Lin Que, stand up."

Lin Que stood up slowly, covering his mouth to cut off an imminent yawn.

"Give me a reason."

Shen Qingqiu stared at him, pronouncing each word distinctly.

All the classmates pricked up their ears.

Lin Que yawned, slowly straightened his body,

and scratched his head with an "earnest" expression.

"A reason? Um…"

He paused, his gaze sweeping between Shen Qingqiu and the surrounding classmates,

carrying a bit of innocent sincerity:

"Teacher, think about it. You know my reputation nowadays.

What poisonous weed, what spiritual opium…

If I go, and someone happens to see it,

saying how Jiangcheng No. 1 High School sent a problematic student to cheer on Teacher Jian Shen?

Wouldn't that be smearing your face and the school's reputation?

I certainly don't want to cause you trouble."

He spread his hands, his tone relaxed:

"I am doing this… for the good of the school."

"Pfft—"

Wu Di couldn't hold it in and almost burst out laughing,

but when Shen Qingqiu's ice-cold gaze swept over, he abruptly forced the laughter back in,

his face turning the color of a pig's liver.

The expressions of all the classmates became extremely bizarre.

These words sounded, it seemed… really somewhat logical, damn it?

A thorny trouble-maker famous for writing dark and desperate styles,

running off to participate in a literary event famous for being warm and healing—

no matter how one thought about it, this picture was completely incongruous.

Called a student representative, it sounded more like going to wreck the place.

The smile on Zhang Ya's face also froze.

She had originally thought Lin Que would find some stupid reason like "I don't want to go" or "I'm not interested."

And then be sternly rebuked on the spot.

She never expected that he could actually package the matter of "not wanting to go"

into a lofty reason of "thinking of the reputation of the teacher and the school"!

This was no longer shamelessness; this was simply sublimating shamelessness into an art!

Standing on the podium, Shen Qingqiu felt her blood pressure rising slowly and steadily.

She was so angry she laughed.

She had seen mischievous ones, she had seen rebellious ones,

but someone like Lin Que, who could make crooked reasoning sound so high-sounding,

and splash a basin of dirty water back onto her face in such a considerate manner, was the very first in over twenty years.

She looked at Lin Que's face, which was plastered with the words "I'm thinking of you, hurry up and praise me,"

and a breath was stuck in her chest, neither going up nor down.

"The school appreciates your good intentions."

She squeezed a few words out from between her teeth, then moved her gaze away from Lin Que's face and swept it across the whole class.

"But the school's decision cannot be changed. This matter is settled just like this.

Lin Que, Saturday morning at nine o'clock, the Municipal Library, arrive on time.

If you dare to be late by a single minute, your Chinese grade for this semester will be directly wiped out to zero!"

She didn't continue, but the warning intent in that gaze

made Wu Di subconsciously shrink his neck.

"All right, class starts."

Shen Qingqiu opened her lesson plans, her voice returning to its habitual icy chill,

only the hand holding the chalk exerted a bit more force than usual.

Lin Que shrugged indifferently, sat back down,

and slumped back onto his desk amidst Wu Di's adoring gaze.

Only Shen Qingqiu herself knew that her inner self was far from as calm as she looked on the surface.

Lin Que's reason was like a thorn, piercing precisely into her heart.

Had she been wrong from the very beginning?

...

In the evening, Lin Que returned to the new home at Xisheng Mansion.

As soon as he entered the door, he smelled the rich fragrance of home-cooked food.

Wang Xiulian was humming a tune, busy in the open-concept kitchen, with an uncontainable smile on her face.

Lin Jianguo was sitting on the sofa in the living room,

wearing reading glasses, intently reading the newspaper in his hands.

That newspaper was the Jiangcheng Evening News.

"You're back?"

Lin Jianguo raised his head and pushed up his glasses.

"Go wash your hands and eat."

"What good news is there today, Dad, Mom, that you're so happy?"

Lin Que changed his shoes and walked to the living room.

Wang Xiulian walked out carrying a plate of stir-fried pork with chili peppers,

"Little Que, look!"

Wang Xiulian pointed glowingly at the newspaper Lin Jianguo was reading.

"It's all published in the newspaper! That person named Jian Shen is simply amazing!"

Lin Jianguo also put down the newspaper,

and his usually stern face was now full of admiration.

"More than just amazing."

He remarked with emotion.

"When I was playing chess in the neighborhood today, Old Zhang and the others were all praising him.

They said this Teacher Jian Shen has a truly good heart.

To save a little girl, he even dared to stand up hard against those officials, and now he's going to do some kind of public welfare.

Tsk tsk, this is what we intellectuals should look like—having backbone!"

Wang Xiulian put the dishes on the table, pulled Lin Que's hand,

and earnestly lectured him:

"Son, did you hear that?

This is the role model you should learn from!

From now on, read fewer of those web novels full of fighting and killing that scare people to death,

read more of his books, and learn how he writes such heartwarming and good stories."

She paused, then remembering something, she added excitedly:

"Right, the newspaper says that this Saturday, Teacher Jian Shen's book will be premiering at the Municipal Library!

Our family will go together then, and we must buy a few copies back—

one for you to read yourself, one to keep at home,

and others… to take and give to your teachers and classmates, let them learn too!"

Listening to his parents praising Jian Shen in fancy ways one after another,

and even dragging him to attend his own new book release conference,

to buy his own books for himself, and then give them to his own teachers and classmates…

he stood in place with an obedient smile on his face, while inside he almost laughed like a squealing pig.

"Dad, Mom, the school also talked about this matter today."

He picked up a few bites of meat and stuffed them into his mouth, speaking while chewing.

"The school also… mm mm mm…"

Lin Jianguo pretended to be angry and said:

"You child, you only say half of what you speak, can't you finish eating before talking?"

Lin Que made a motion of swallowing hard, and stroked his chest with his hand.

"Cough cough, the school also said they're sending me as a representative to attend the event!"

"Really?"

Mother Lin stood up in pleasant surprise, looking at Lin Que.

"My son is just so excellent, he can even represent the entire school to meet that Teacher Jian Shen!"

Lin Que shoveled down another two large mouthfuls of rice and waved his hand.

"Mhm, that Jian Shen didn't say he was going to the release site; I'm just one of many student representatives!"

"Is that so? Not even showing up at the release site in person—this great author is truly mysterious."

Mother Lin sat down thoughtfully.

"What do you know? This is called keeping one's true identity hidden. Such commercial things—Teacher doesn't care about them at all!"

Father Lin lectured Mother Lin with a look of understanding.

Hearing this, Mother Lin nodded as if she understood half of it.

"Right, Little Que."

As if suddenly remembering something.

"This time the school letting you go as a representative must mean they think very highly of you.

When you get there, if by any chance you meet that teacher, you must study hard with him! Do you know?"

"I know, Mom."

He held back his smile and nodded deadpan.

"I will definitely learn well from Teacher Jian Shen and strive to write such positive-energy works as soon as possible."

"If I can see him, by the way I'll ask for an autograph for you guys!"

"Hey, that's right!"

Wang Xiulian patted his hand with satisfaction.

The family happily ate dinner together.

At the dinner table, while shoveling rice into his mouth,

Lin Que listened to his parents enthusiastically planning their weekend celebrity-chasing schedule, finding it quite amusing in his heart.

He only responded with "Mhm mhm,"

when his cell phone vibrated.

Accompanied by a text message notification from an unknown number.

[Hello, Student Lin Que. I am Xu Lan, an editor at Xinchao Magazine Agency. Apologies for the abrupt intrusion.

Regarding Saturday's book signing, Teacher Shen has already communicated with me.

On behalf of the magazine agency, I sincerely welcome your arrival.]

Xu Lan? Lin Que's eyebrows twitched up.

Immediately afterwards, a second text message was sent over.

[Additionally, as a loyal reader of Teacher "Jian Shen," I personally also very much want to chat with you.

I am very curious, how a person who can write texts like "firefly"

would feel after reading "The Miracles of the Namiya General Store".