Chapter 10: One Cry Shocks Heaven and Earth

  Since that day when she was forced to stand together with Wang Xiao, he even kindly helped her write a self-criticism essay. After that, Jiang Ruyu felt that Wang Xiao wasn't as scary as the rumors said. He's just very quiet, likes to sleep or draw during class and doesn't like listening to lectures. Most of the time when they sat together at the same desk, Jiang Ruyu could basically ignore the existence of the person on her left. The feeling he gave her was like wind, or air. Quiet to the point where it's as if he didn't even exist, his presence couldn't be felt at all.

  So Jiang Ruoyu still thinks it's right not to judge people by their appearance. Such a quiet person, how can he be linked with that Wang Xiao who fought fiercely in the small alley that day?

  Jiang Yu held a pencil and held up her language textbook, looking at Wang Xiao with a slanted gaze. He was very focused when drawing, as if he were facing something sacred, and he also liked to bite the tip of his tongue. This cute expression on his handsome face really suited him. The painting was still that short-haired girl, this time in cartoon style, with big round eyes that were very cute. Compared to the popular Saint Seiya anime, Wang Xiao's cartoon drawing was not inferior at all.

  In her previous life, she had also honed exceptional calligraphy and painting skills in order to create forgeries. Whether it was Northern Stele or Southern Script, or the styles of Huang Ping or Xu Xi, she could easily produce something that looked authentic with just a few strokes. However, this cartoon style was something she had never come into contact with before, so when she saw Wang Xiao's painting, she couldn't help but feel a deep admiration for him.

  "Jiang Ruoyu, you tell us."

  The language teacher's voice suddenly came from the podium, Jiang YuYu was stunned and immediately stood up. "Ask her?" She had skipped class earlier and didn't even know which lesson they were on. Although she was nervous in her heart, Jiang YuYu still looked at the teacher with a pair of innocent eyes.

  The language teacher Liu Shuqin was somewhat angry, didn't even know what the question was, and Jiang Ruoyu obviously just dodged it earlier. So she said in a bad tone: "What is the writing background of 'The Charcoal Seller'? I assigned homework yesterday, come and introduce it to everyone."

  "Ballad of the Charcoal Seller"? It was written by Bai Juyi... Studying antiques, the most important thing is to understand history and study the social background at that time. In order to understand the society at that time, ancient poetry and literature have also been studied carefully. Now hearing the teacher's question, Jiang Ruyu naturally reflected a series of information about Bai Juyi's era in her mind, and said in her soft and gentle voice: "The Ballad of the Charcoal Seller is the 32nd poem in Bai Juyi's New Yuefu collection, which was written during the early years of the Yuanhe period. At that time, the harm caused by the palace market was at its deepest. He had a deep understanding of the palace market and had profound sympathy for the people, so he could write The Ballad of the Charcoal Seller."

  Jiang Yu nodded slightly, indicating that she had finished speaking. In fact, if she were to talk about that period of history, she could have spoken at length and provided more details. However, since it was a classroom question, she didn't want to stand out too much, so she just touched on the key points and said enough to get by.

  The classroom was silent, with all the students turning their heads to look at her, their eyes filled with surprise and admiration. Liu Shuqin was taken aback, having originally intended to single out a student who wasn't paying attention to criticize as a negative example for the whole class, which didn't take the subject of Chinese seriously. Unexpectedly, Jiang Ruoyu really could answer, and for the first time, she carefully sized up this usually overly quiet little girl, nodding her head in satisfaction. "Very good, Jiang Ruoyu has made sufficient preparations, everyone should learn from her, and review before class. Alright, you just mentioned 'gongshi', so can you introduce to everyone what 'gongshi' is?"

  Jiang Yu just sat down, and when she heard the teacher ask her, she immediately stood up again. After thinking for a moment, she said: "The palace market is a very shameful and abnormal way of plundering people's finances after the middle Tang Dynasty. In the old system, the daily necessities needed in the palace were all handled by the government and purchased from the people. At the end of Emperor Dezong's Zhenyuan period, it was changed to be handled directly by eunuchs. They often sent hundreds of people to various busy streets...

  They didn't even bring any documents or certificates, and whatever they saw that they liked, they would say was "imperial goods", and then casually give a price, and also ask the owner to deliver the goods to the palace. And what's most hateful is that after the owners delivered their goods, they still asked for "gate fees" and "foot fees". At that time, the merchants living in the city and the common people from the nearby suburbs were all deeply harmed. The Ballad of Mulan was written against this backdrop."

  Jiang Yu spoke eloquently, expressing things from her memory in simple words.

  For the first time, all her classmates saw a different her, no longer the girl who would blush at every word and never speak loudly. Now she exuded confidence in every conversation, her big eyes shining brightly, even her soft voice sounded firm. This made many people start to reevaluate her for the first time, discovering that this chubby girl was not as ugly as they had imagined. How could they have privately labeled her as the ugliest girl in the class before?

  Liu Shuqin nodded very satisfactorily and said: "Very good, please sit down, Jiang Ruoyu." The tone of praise was overflowing with words.

  Yu Shan turned her head to squeeze her eyes at Jiang Ruoyu, and Jiang Ruoyu smiled back at her, but found another girl with two braids and glasses turning her head to stare at her.

  Jiang Yu's innocent nose twitched, how did she offend this braid? Helplessly shrugging her shoulders, Jiang Yu lowered her head and seriously started reading. Sneaking a peek was fun, but if the exam didn't go well and she got beaten by her mom when she got home, it wouldn't be funny anymore. Taking advantage of the ample time now, she still had to make up for the lessons she missed earlier.

  At lunchtime, Jiang Ruyu and Yu Xiangxiang sat in the corner of the cafeteria, sipping the eight-treasure porridge from their bowls while listening to Yu Xiangxiang's continuous sighs.

  "......Little Rain, how are you so fierce? You almost scared Zhang Dan to death! When Teacher Liu asked others before, everyone didn't know the answer. Originally, Zhang Dan was the language class representative, and the teacher thought she should have known it, but she couldn't answer either. I didn't expect that as soon as you opened your mouth, you would come up with it! At that time, I was even sweating for you......"

  Jiang Yu let out a silent sigh, originally not wanting to draw attention to herself, but unexpectedly because of her carelessness, she still did something stupid. Fortunately, this was just school and not as dark as the workplace.

  She raised her head and smiled at Xanxan, Jiang Ruyu inadvertently glanced to the left and saw a girl sitting opposite her on a round table. This girl looked familiar... Wasn't this the person Wang Xiao drew?