It's the students' fault if they are too popular.

Teacher Tong went to substitute for Class 9. It was like he had lent his wife to someone else. The whole class felt like they were being neglected.

If they knew that Class 9 was not paying attention in class, they would be even more furious.

-

-

In the office, Tong Yao was explaining a problem to Yan Zhi.

During this process, she did not feel the bitch spirit of a green tea girl. On the contrary, she felt comfortable with Yan Zhi. Although she lacked the naivety of a certain little girl, she was more considerate and just right. She understood everything at once and could draw inferences from one example. She even felt that Yan Zhi could do these questions.

"Teacher Tong, are you still accepting students for your weekend intensive class?" After asking the question, Yan Zhi pointed with her fingers and said embarrassedly, "Forget it if it's full."

She even thought of an excuse for rejection. Tong Yao smiled. After the weekend classes were divided into two groups, there were indeed a few vacancies. No teacher disliked motivated children, so she gave a positive answer:

"I collected it. If you add it up, it's almost full. Saturday night and Sunday afternoon are fine."

"Thank you, Teacher Tong!" Yan Zhi said with surprise, looking like an excited little girl, "I want to come on Saturday night."

"Ah."

Having achieved her goal, Yan Zhi bowed slightly and left the office. In the corridor, she passed Ruan Qian who was going to get some water.

Ruan Qian turned around, but she didn't expect that the man was also looking back at her.

"……Hello."

Ruan Qian spoke first. She felt that everyone should know each other. After all, it was a kind of fate that they had been in the office together with Long Ting.

"Hello," Yan Zhi said with a smile, "How is Teacher Long treating you now?"

Ruan Qian hesitated. She didn't want to talk about this topic because it sounded like a sarcastic remark.

Seeing that she didn't say anything, Yan Zhi waved her hand and left briskly.

Ruan Qian stopped where she was, feeling inexplicably uneasy.

Chapter 21: Her persistence is not a hobby

Most of the campus activities at No. 1 Middle School are concentrated in the first two months of school, and the most active student organizations are the Student Union and clubs.

For students, it is too late to join the student union in the second year of high school. They cannot become cadres and it is a waste of energy. Clubs are different. They are loosely managed and do not have strict attendance requirements. Even students in the third year of high school can still participate.

The dinner time is when students have the longest free time, and this is also when clubs recruit new members.

As Tong Yao passed by the playground, her eyes were gradually drawn to the crowds of people. Students from various clubs moved two tables to the side of the track, with each bed only five meters apart. Printed posters hung on the tables, exuding passion and dreams, attracting those who were eager to sign up.

Tong Yao mingled with the students, enjoying the hip-hop performance of the hip-hop club. This club was very strange, with the most people watching but very few signing up. Everyone was shy to show off themselves, let alone hip-hop, which was a very flamboyant and unrestrained dance.

From a distance, Ruan Qian, holding a sketchbook, saw Tong Yao in the crowd.

No wonder, in the eyes of the little girl, the nursery rhyme is particularly conspicuous, shining in the crowd, as eye-catching as a colorful character appearing in a black and white cartoon.

"Sister Yaoyao!"

A call made Tong Yao turn her head.

Xu Yin ran up to her, stood on tiptoe and glanced at the crowd, and said curiously:

"Sister Yaoyao, do you like hip-hop dance?"

"I can't dance," said Tong Yao, "but I like watching people dance."

She was spinning on the ground like a top, and she admired that.

"Do you want to join a club?" Tong Yao asked casually.

"Well," Xu Yin pointed to the distance, "I signed up for the Sudoku Club."

"Sudoku? Oh, I know."

It's really a hardcore hobby.

Ruan Qian stopped moving forward and stood there blankly. When Teacher Tong turned around, she immediately turned her back to avoid him. It was not that she didn't want to see Teacher Tong, she just... didn't want to experience the feeling of squeezing in to get along with others, the kind of embarrassment and forced smile that was like oil dropped into water, unable to blend in.

Teacher Tong and Xu Yin were chatting, and she didn't want to disturb them. Besides, she... didn't have a topic in mind.

"Don't you want to go find your teacher Tong?"

A sudden voice sounded in my ears.

Ruan Qian was startled and jumped away like a rabbit, only to find that it was the girl from Class 9.

"You are……"

The word "green tea" almost came out of her mouth, but Ruan Qian held back, biting her lower lip, and looked at the man warily.

"My name is Yan Zhi, and I'll be taking extra classes with Teacher Tong in the future." Yan Zhi said with a smile, "Your name is Ruan Qian, right?"

Ruan Qian's focus is not here:

"How do you know my name?"

Rather than this question, she actually wanted to ask why she said "your teacher Tong" - did even the people from other classes know that teacher Tong favored her...

"It's not hard to find out the name." Yan Zhi looked at Tong Yao in the distance and narrowed her eyes. "You are really timid."

No one wants to be called timid, and the little girl got angry instantly:

"Why do you say that?"

"Just say that day in the office," Yan Zhi chuckled, "You didn't dare to tell the truth? Long Ting must have scolded you badly, right?"

Ruan Qian was silent.

After a long while, she stubbornly retorted:

"I just think... it's unnecessary."

Now when she recalled that day, she actually forgot the details of Long Ting scolding her, but she could remember some scenes of Long Ting teaching them carefully. Those harsh words left wounds on her body, but after being healed by time and love, the new skin was still flawless.

"I don't know how she scolded you, but... I forgive her."

In the office, Ruan Qian could feel Long Ting's panic and fear, even a hint of pleading, and the eagerness of the grade leader, Teacher Ye, to protect her colleagues. Maybe it was just because the vice principal was listening in, or maybe it was because Long Ting really realized the seriousness of the problem... The price had been paid, in short, she no longer hated Long Ting.

"You are so generous." Yan Zhi lowered her head, kicked away a small stone, and suddenly raised her head, "I was so happy to know that she will be transferred next semester. She will never learn her lesson unless she suffers a little. People like you will only be scolded by her."

What she didn't say was, do nothing and just wait for what you want to be taken away from you.

Ruan Qian did not refute.

If every scolding can earn Teacher Tong's concern for her, then being scolded is no big deal. She actually admires people like Yan Zhi. Not all students have the courage and ability to fight with adults. She only knows to obey the rules, while Yan Zhi has learned to use the rules and give full play to her advantages to achieve her goals.

In such a comparison, she is indeed very timid.

Why would Yan Zhi say this?

Because in Yan Zhi's eyes, Ruan Qian was simply a coward. She was a proactive person and couldn't help but point fingers at her, or even laugh at her. It was like a master in a game pointing fingers at a rookie, and it was a sense of superiority at work.

"Just take your time to find a club." Yan Zhi curled her lips, "Bye."

After saying that, she walked towards the direction of the nursery rhyme.

Ruan Qian stood there in a daze. Soon, she realized that Teacher Tong might be looking in this direction. If he saw her, it would be bad if she didn't go over. But if she went over, she would just be drowned out by the conversation between Xu Yin and Yan Zhi.

She ran away.

There's nothing wrong with finding a club on your own.

She opened her sketchbook and ran her fingertips over the cartoon characters on it. She looked around but didn't find anyone with the same interests as her.

She wanted to join the "manga" club. Not a club for reading manga, but a club for drawing manga.

Unfortunately, the comics club of No. 1 Middle School belongs to the former.

She stopped in front of the art club. The table was filled with various members' works, colorful watercolors, vivid sketches... But that was not right. What she wanted to draw was a story, not a person, an object or a scene.

"Soft?"

The voice behind me was very close.

You don't have to think twice to know who it is.

"I see that you usually like to draw in a draft book, but I didn't expect you have a sketchbook." Tong Yao's smiling voice came from behind.

The panicked little girl immediately closed the sketchbook, as if something embarrassing had been seen.

Yan Zhi at the back had a complicated expression. What was this? Ruan Qian could run into Teacher Tong by chance even without moving? It was like when a game expert told him how to attack a boss, but he found out that the rookie had already killed the boss by pressing buttons randomly.

So weird.

"Let me see it," Tong Yao couldn't help but tease the shy little girl, "It would be a shame if I don't let people see my drawing."

"That's right." Xu Yin agreed, looking eager to try.

Ruan Qian looked aside, not daring to look them in the face. Her paintings were so-so, and she was afraid to be embarrassed if she showed them to them, but... she also wanted to get some recognition. She persisted without any feedback, and only needed a little recognition to keep working hard.

"...I'll only show it to Teacher Tong." Ruan Qian said in a low voice.

"Why are you so nice to me?" Tong Yao thought the little girl was very cute. "Thank you."

She took the little girl's sketchbook and started flipping through the pages from the first page.

At first, there were messy lines, then slowly I could draw parallel and straight lines. Then, I started to draw objects, such as spheres, cross-shaped objects, apples, and finally combinations.

"It's a great painting." She couldn't help but exclaim.

"That's a copy..." The little girl lowered her head. She knew that people who didn't know how to draw would think her copy was amazing, but they didn't know how many times she had to scribble and revise to get it to that state.

“But it’s very similar.” Tong Yao had never drawn before, so she thought copying was pretty impressive. She continued to flip through the pages, and finally anime characters began to appear, first a Q version, and then a complete beautiful girl.

She pursed her lips and made no comment.

To be honest, as someone who had watched so many excellent animations in her previous life, she had very high standards. Although she couldn't tell the details of the little girl's drawings, she knew that they were far from professional.

If you look closely, the face is actually pretty good, with standard big eyes in Japanese anime, but the body structure is a bit strange, especially the joints, the movements seem stiff.

The style of painting is a bit similar to the story of stickmen.

"I sneaked out to buy breakfast today, and when I threw the money in, the boss didn't seem to see it, so I had to take it out and throw it back in in front of him.

"The boss thought I was a thief, but luckily the people around me testified for me."

The little man in the picture book has a string of tears on his face, and the background is a stall outside the school gate. Although the style of the painting is very simple, and the main points of the story are mainly based on text, it is... very interesting.

"Wait, you can't read the rest!" The little girl suddenly realized that it was her diary with all her little thoughts written in it, how could she let Teacher Tong see it!

"what?"

The sketchbook was taken back and Tong Yao looked regretful. She quickly flipped through a few pages before it was taken away. It was obvious that the picture at the back was of a classroom, and the word "Tong" was written on the head of one of the little people.

Isn’t it so cute to write a diary using comics?

Chapter 22: Even so, she didn't want to give up

Tong Yaodan knew that Ruan Qian liked painting, but she didn't know that she liked it so much and could express it in the form of comics.

"Did you teach yourself?" Tong Yao asked.

"Yeah." Ruan Qian hugged the sketchbook tightly, "Teacher Tong...what do you think of the profession of cartoonist?"

"Cartoonist?" Tong Yao smiled knowingly, "You want to be a cartoonist?"

"...No." The little girl quickly denied it, but her evasive eyes betrayed her when she lied.

"I don't quite understand. Does anyone of you know?" Tong Yao turned to Xu Yin and Yan Zhi beside her.

Xu Yin spread her hands: "Probably not. There are so many people drawing comics in China, but only a few are famous. I only know one, Xia Da."

The little girl retorted: "There are still many famous cartoonists! For example, Mao Xiaole, Yan Kai and Teacher Mi Er, and..."

She said a lot, obviously she had done her homework.

Yan Zhi said: "There are many platforms now. There are many kinds of comic magazines sold outside the school gate. The market seems to be pretty good. But in terms of income...even those at the top of the pyramid have lower incomes than the top levels in other industries."

As for those cartoonists who no one cares about, they can only become cannon fodder and disappear in the dust.

Reality is always the cruelest problem.

"We can talk about it after the college entrance examination." Noticing the little girl's disappointment, Tong Yao comforted her, "Don't think too much now. Just treat painting as a hobby."

As a hobby?

Ruan Qian lowered her head. High school students are racing against time. Hobbies are worthless in high school. When she was painting, others were doing exercises. Only by giving up this hobby could she have a chance to get better grades. But she did not regard painting as a hobby, but as a dream, a dream that she could start pursuing now, a dream that might transcend academic qualifications.