Rebirth: Starting from a Trainee Teacher

Chapter 57: A Little Show of Power

"Any comments?"

Zhou Jing held Zhang Boyao's outstretched wrist and said with a smile.

As he spoke, Zhou Jing's hands slowly tightened.

As a class teacher, you should not be soft-hearted when it is time to teach students a lesson. It is not good to always pamper students and treat them as friends.

Now that Zhou Jing confiscated a magazine, the students dared to ask for it back. Won’t they be arrogant and confront the teacher in the future?
"Ouch, it hurts!" Zhang Boyao felt as if his wrist bones were about to break. "No problem, no problem."

"What a good fake! Teacher Zhou doesn't look like he's in pain at all."

Zhang Boyao's desk mate Liu Teng said gloatingly.

"So do you want to try it?"

Zhou Jing let go of Zhang Boyao's hand and looked at Liu Teng.

"No, I'm very obedient."

Liu Teng just shook his hands, very tactful.

"Teacher Zhou, why are you so strong?"

Zhang Boyao rubbed his wrist, still feeling the excruciating pain.

"Is it that exaggerated?"

"That's right. Zhang Boyao is usually so arrogant, why is he so pretentious today?"

Others thought that Zhang Boyao was too weak and didn't realize that the head teacher was using too much force, so he yelled like a sissy.

"Teacher Zhou asked Xue Zhian to give it a try. This kid doubts you."

Zhang Boyao said angrily.

"I can't do it. Let a strong man do it. Xue Yongyong can break a 50-kilogram arm bar 50 times in a row. Teacher Zhou, do you believe it?"

Xue Zhian didn't have the courage or the desire to challenge his class teacher.

"None of us could beat Xue Yongyong in arm wrestling. Teacher Zhou defeated him."

Those who watch the fun never mind making trouble. The boy in front of Xue Yongyong gave up his seat, and the other boys in the back three rows also followed suit.

"It's not that exaggerated."

Xue Yongyong said this, but after all, he was young and energetic, and it was obvious that he really wanted to give it a try.

"Then let's have some fun."

Zhou Jing let these young people know what absolute strength is, otherwise they would always think that they, the young class teacher, were weak.

Xue Yongyong's deskmate quickly cleaned the table.

"Come on, Teacher Zhou."

The students in front also looked at it curiously.

"Whoever wins this apple will be rewarded."

Liu Teng said as he took out an apple from his schoolbag.

"Teacher Zhou doesn't need any more apples from you. Take out all the apples you have."

"That's right, Liu Teng, take them all out."

"Only two."

"This apple is quite hard. Let's try another way. Who can break it into four or eight pieces?"

Zhou Jing picked up an apple and squeezed it. It was a hard Red Fuji apple.

"Two pieces are no problem, but four pieces are a bit difficult. A tough guy should try it."

Liu Teng gave the other apple to Xue Yongyong.

"Let me try." Xue Yongyong broke the apple into two pieces without much effort. When he tried to break the two pieces into four, he put his hands on his legs and his face turned red, but he still failed. His palm slipped and half of the apple fell to the ground. Xue Yongyong shook his head and said, "No, no, my thumb is too slippery to use strength for the two pieces."

"Let me try."

Another boy picked up the half apple that had fallen on the ground and tried again, but also failed.

Then they all turned their eyes to Zhou Jing.

Zhou Jing was seen standing normally and effortlessly breaking the apple in half, and then breaking it into four pieces in the same way without the help of a fulcrum.

"Wow, Teacher Zhou is so relaxed."

"Look, Mr. Zhou can easily break the apple into four pieces just by using the strength of his arms."

The students were stunned and looked in admiration. The head teacher was extremely strong. No wonder Zhang Boyao was screaming when he was pinched.

"Do you still want to try?" Zhang Boyao wanted to take the book back when Zhou Jing wasn't paying attention, and Zhou Jing said with a smile.

"No, no, Teacher Zhou, please show mercy."

Zhang Boyao put the book down obediently.

"Okay, everyone read books. If your fist is not as hard as this apple, study hard from now on."

What Zhou Jing really meant was to warn students that it’s okay not to study hard, but not to make trouble.

The smarter students understood the teacher's hidden meaning, stopped playing around, and sat quietly in their seats to read. This teacher seemed to have a good temper, but in fact he was not a pushover at all.

Zhou Jing confiscated the magazine, returned to the podium and said:
"You can read magazines and other extracurricular reading materials after class, but don't read books that are not related to learning during class. In fact, those magazines you read are of little help in learning Chinese. I read them in high school and they are of little help in learning Chinese. Reading these magazines is worse than reading a dozen idioms every day."

"In high school Chinese language exams, including the college entrance exam, idioms account for a large proportion of the score."

"There are also Song poems. Read the 300 Song poems more often. You may have read them in the ancient poetry appreciation section of the college entrance examination. This is not an exaggeration. If you can finish reading the 300 Song poems, there is a more than 70% chance that you will encounter the original questions in the ancient poetry appreciation section of the college entrance examination. I hope that there will be at least one idiom dictionary on each of your desks."

Regardless of whether the students could listen or not, Zhou Jing still had to say what he had to say, and then he returned to the office.

"What books were confiscated from the students?"

There was only Yang Wenwen in the office. She saw Zhou Jing holding a book in his hand and smiled.

"Ghost stories. Does Teacher Yang like to read this kind of books?"

Zhou Jing showed the cover to Yang Wenwen and said.

"I like it, but I don't dare to watch it. I've watched it before and it scared me to death when I was walking alone at night."

When she was in college, one of her roommates liked to watch horror movies and Yang Wenwen also wanted to watch one, but she was too timid. Just listening to the weird background music of the horror movie made her feel spooky.

"It's more exciting for timid people to watch this, but it's boring for brave people. Don't you think so, Teacher Yang?"

Zhou Jing sat at his desk and read the book he had just confiscated to pass the time.

Although Yang Wenwen didn't dare to watch it, she couldn't deny it. "Indeed, watching horror movies is scary but it is indeed very exciting. What did you have for dinner?"

"We made do with what was left over from lunch. Where's Teacher Yang?"

"Stewed noodles."

This student is very good at managing life. Yang Wenwen admires Zhou Jing even more. She can't help but think about the girl among her relatives who is suitable in age to Zhou Jing. It would be great if they could be brought together to become a family.

“Do we have a morning meeting every Monday?”

"Yes, it starts at 7:20. If it's not open, we'll notify you separately."

"What do morning meetings usually talk about?"

Zhou Jing knew nothing about it as he had not attended the morning meeting yet.

"The performance of each class in the past week, students' lateness, performance in class and study sessions, etc."

"."

Beep beep!

Gu Jia’s profile picture flashed on Zhou Jing’s computer screen, and Zhou Jing checked the message immediately.

[You should be at school. I brought you something. Go to the parking lot and get it later.]

[Okay, thank you, Teacher Gu]

Zhou Jing didn't know what Gu Jia brought him, so he would make plans after seeing what was inside.

About ten minutes later, Gu Jia sent a message saying that she had entered the school gate. Zhou Jing got up and went to the parking lot, arriving almost at the same time as Gu Jia.

"My dad was on a business trip last week and his classmates gave him some pomegranates. We couldn't eat them all at home, so I brought some for you."

Gu Jia opened the trunk of the car and let Zhou Jing get it himself.

"Thank you, Mr. Gu. They are so big that two or three will be enough for me."

Zhou Jing thanked him again. The pomegranate was of great quality, big and red.

"Bring a few more. I can't eat so much by myself."

As Gu Jia spoke, she packed three for herself and let the boy take the remaining six or seven away in a box.

Zhou Jing said in a joking tone: "I am alone too, and I can't bear to give it to others as it was given by Teacher Gu."

"Take it back and eat it slowly."

Gu Jia was very satisfied with the boy's answer.

Gu Jia didn't know what was going on with her these days. There were so many acquaintances around her, but when she had good things, she just wanted to give them to the boy in front of her.

(End of this chapter)