Chapter 159: Teacher!

"If it's out of battery, go charge it! How could it be out of battery bright and early in the morning? How am I supposed to get through the day? At a crucial time like this, your phone is actually dead..." Zhang Xiaotu muttered incessantly.

I want to charge it too! But it's not something you can just charge whenever you want!

That human-shaped power bank is not someone to be trifled with!

Shi Qingqing continued to... lie across her desk, feeling like her will to live was hanging by a thread.

"What the heck, votes are eight yuan each now! Eight yuan! Our great Qingming is truly crawling with filthy rich folks, these tycoons are way too hardcore..."

After two classes had passed, it was no longer Zhang Xiaotu's voice.

Instead, it was other classmates in the room slamming their desks and springing to their feet.

"The top ten rankings have refreshed again, a few new entries just surged up. What on earth is written here? It's hideous! It's clearly not as good-looking as what I wrote, so infuriating."

"You can just tell they bought votes with red envelopes..."

"This tenth place is the one I just cast my vote for, the eight-yuan-red-envelope-per-vote one..."

"Damn it, don't force me to go buy votes with red envelopes too. I'm going to collect red envelopes at nine yuan a pop!"

"Come, come, come, I won't even vote for my girlfriend's entry anymore. Nine yuan each, I'll vote for you every single day."

"Get lost, are you going to take my money too, bro? Leave the vote, keep your money..."

...

Shi Qingqing watched as the situation exploded into a frenzy. Everyone across the board was buying and selling votes with red envelopes. Qingming High School was least lacking in all sorts of wealthy patrons; for the sake of victory and for their handsome school prince, there were probably quite a few people willing to casually drop hundreds of thousands.

But the problem was! Her phone was out of battery, dead, dead, dead...

She could only watch helplessly. Damn it all, what was the most painful thing in the world?

It was having a dead phone!

Knowing full well that piles upon piles of red packets were all rightfully hers—at this rate, snatching ten or twenty thousand a day would have been a complete breeze...

And yet her phone was dead!

Her heart was bleeding.

Shi Qingqing couldn't even endure until the end of the school day. During the lunch break, she sneaked over to the outer perimeter of Qingyuan.

To see if she might have a chance to fake a chance encounter, and run into Zhan Su or something...

***

In Vice Principal Liu's office.

Deng Hui walked in leaning on a crutch, limping slightly.

"Teacher!"

Liu Yixi was currently engaged in his daily calligraphy practice. He was a prominent figure in the domestic calligraphy world, and his greatest hobby in life was wielding the brush and splashing ink.

After finishing a large character, he finally looked up at Deng Hui. "Your injuries haven't fully healed yet, why did you check out of the hospital?"

"Teacher, I couldn't wait any longer. The calligraphy competition has already started, and lying in bed felt like lying on a bed of nails every single day; I simply couldn't stay down any longer. Besides, the doctor said as long as I'm a bit careful, I can engage in moderate activity."

Liu Yixi nodded. Wearing black-rimmed framed glasses, he exuded an aura of scholarly pedantry.

"As long as it's fine, you certainly shouldn't miss the calligraphy competition. The number of participants is growing increasingly large nowadays. Entering earlier and getting votes earlier will also yield a higher vote count."

Wasn't that precisely the truth?

Deng Hui had checked out of the hospital early precisely for the sake of the vote count. He was afraid that if he were late, his votes wouldn't go up, no matter how well he wrote...

After all, gathering votes took time!

"Teacher, I wrote a piece and plan to enter it in the library's calligraphy competition. Please help me take a look and refine my perspective."

With that, Deng Hui pulled a scroll of calligraphy paper from the backpack behind him.

Upon unfurling it, several large characters were revealed.

'Book Mountain Academy'

Liu Yixi nodded. "Not bad, not bad. The script has form and sinew, bone and intent, flowing like clouds and water. It's a huge improvement compared to before."

Having received his teacher's praise, a flash of smugness crossed Deng Hui's eyes.