What's wrong with me, a school principal, listening to students' suggestions?

These are the rules.

Lin Yucai put his hands back in his pockets and glanced around the room.

"Is there a problem?"

Li Daqiang raised his arm in the crowd, his 200-pound body standing out conspicuously.

"Principal! I have a question!"

"explain."

What games can you play on the computers in an esports arena?

The whole place burst into laughter.

Lin Yucai smiled too.

"I can play all the mainstream esports games."

"But this is only available during weekends; the device will be locked on weekdays."

"The principal is awesome!"

"Long live the principal!"

"Principal, I want to have your babies!"

This sentence came from the girls' line.

The whole audience burst into laughter again.

Su Qingyan stood to the side of the stage, her lips twitching, unsure whether to laugh or to enforce discipline.

After the flag-raising ceremony, the No. 13 Middle School was enveloped in a strange atmosphere unlike anything it had ever experienced before.

This kind of atmosphere is called spontaneous involution.

When Zhao Wenjie from Class 4 of Grade 11 walked into the classroom during the first period in the morning, he almost thought he had gone to the wrong place.

Forty-two students sat neatly in their seats.

Textbooks and notebooks were laid out on the desks; no one was slouching or playing on their phones.

Even Li Daqiang was sitting up straight.

The textbook in front of him was turned to yesterday's preview page, which was covered with notes.

Although the handwriting was so messy it looked like scribbles, it was indeed a record.

"Class, today we'll be discussing how to solve quadratic inequalities."

Zhao Wenjie picked up the stylus and drew a parabola on the smart blackboard.

In the past, when he talked about this part, at least half of the audience seemed to be sleepwalking.

But today, forty-two pairs of eyes followed the movement of his pen tip, like forty-two fixed cameras.

Zhao Wenjie's hand trembled slightly.

He taught mathematics at No. 13 Middle School for two years.

For two years, he got used to lecturing to thin air.

I've grown accustomed to students slumped over their desks, and to the feeling of despair I feel every time I grade an exam.

But now, these students are listening attentively to his lectures.

The purpose was to play games on the weekend.

But what does it matter?

During the ten-minute break between classes, the atmosphere in the hallway changes.

In the past, during breaks between classes, students would either gather together to gossip or chase each other and play around.

Now, it's much better; you can see people carrying textbooks everywhere in the corridors.

"Do you know how to do this problem? Can you teach me?"

"I'm not really good at it either, but I know I can just use a formula."

"What formula?"

"That one... b squared minus 4ac."

"Isn't that the discriminant? You need to use Vieta's formulas to solve this problem."

What are Vieta's theorems?

"I'll go ask Teacher Zhao."

Zhao Wenjie was asked seven questions during this break.

This set a new single-session break record for him since he began teaching at No. 13 Middle School.

English teacher Li Wan'er was in a similar situation.

She was surrounded by three girls in the hallway, who kept asking her about the use of the subjunctive mood. She was only able to escape after talking for fifteen minutes.

When I got back to the office, my hair was all messed up from scratching.

"Old Zhao, is it the same on your end?"

As soon as Li Wan'er entered the room, she saw Zhao Wenjie leaning back in his chair, panting.

"More than that, I suspect their souls have all been replaced."

"The power of the e-sports arena is just too great."

"Who cares about its power? They're learning anyway." Zhao Wenjie shook his head with a smile. "It's enough that they're learning."

The news spread very quickly.

By noon, it wasn't just the teachers and students of No. 13 Middle School who were discussing the e-sports arena.

Because of the posts on social media by students from No. 13 Middle School, this matter has been brought to the attention of students throughout the city.

"No. 13 Middle School has built a fully-equipped e-sports arena with eighty computers! Located on campus! Free of charge!"

"The condition is passing the exam or improving your ranking by ten places."

"I heard that the whole school is studying like crazy so they can play games."

"What about our school? It doesn't even have a decent computer lab, and the computers are still ten-year-old giant computers."

The comments section of the No. 1 High School students was particularly interesting after seeing this news.

"I'm studying until 10:30 PM, and you guys are playing with aliens? The world is so unfair!"

"In our school's computer lab, it takes five minutes to boot up a computer and three minutes to open Word. Crashing is the norm."

"Who is the principal of No. 13 Middle School? Is he a legendary hero?"

"I'm a second-year high school student at No. 1 High School. I've seriously considered transferring schools, and I'm not kidding."

These screenshots of the comments were sent to Qian Wenhua's phone.

Qian Wenhua sat in the principal's office of the No. 1 Middle School, his hand gripping his phone slightly.

"Let him do what he wants."

He said coldly to Chen Zhigang beside him.

Midterm exams are just around the corner.

"We'll see how much his e-sports arena and school uniform reforms help students score."

Chen Zhigang pushed up his glasses, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping himself.

What he was trying to say was, what if the results at No. 13 Middle School really did improve?

But seeing Qian Wenhua's expression, he swallowed his words.

……

The first weekend after the esports arena opened.

The in-class quiz on Friday afternoon became the most competitive exam in the history of No. 13 Middle School.

As usual, the questions will focus on the basics and cover the content taught this week.

It's not difficult; as long as you listen attentively in class, passing shouldn't be a problem.

What's intense is the students' state of mind.

Five minutes before the exam began, an eerie tension filled every classroom.

The students, who were usually carefree and irresponsible, were now sitting upright, their eyes filled with the determination to pass this time.

Li Daqiang studied until 10:30 the night before the exam.

This person, who never used to open a textbook, read the key points that Zhao Wenjie had highlighted for him three times.

Although he wasn't very proficient at solving quadratic inequalities, he at least knew the steps.

He worked very slowly during the exam, doing the calculations several times on scratch paper for each question.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, but he was never in a daze.

Zhang Yang's situation is even more interesting.

His grades weren't too bad; he ranked eighteenth in his class at the end of last semester.

Passing the exam wasn't difficult for him, but he set himself a goal: to be in the top ten.

He doesn't care about the esports arena experience tickets; he just needs to pass the basics.

He wanted to be in the top ten purely because of his competitive spirit.

"Yang-ge, how did you finish writing so quickly?"

Skinny Monkey watched as Zhang Yang turned to the last page of the exam paper and rubbed his wrist.

"The questions aren't difficult."

Why don't you check it out?

Zhang Yang hesitated for a moment, then flipped through the test paper again from beginning to end.

He never did this before.

In the past, I would just finish the exam and hand it in, whether it was right or wrong, it didn't matter.

But it's different now.

He didn't want to lose points.

Results are released immediately after the exam.

The passing rate for Class 3, Grade 11 is 78%.

This number left the homeroom teacher stunned on the podium for several seconds.

At the end of last semester, the passing rate of this class was only 32%.

"Zhang Yang, 87 points, sixth in the class."

Zhang Yang leaned back in his chair, his face expressionless.

But his hand clenched under the table for a moment and then relaxed.

sixth.

They've made it into the top ten!