My wife is a witch princess

Chapter 37 Going to the Meeting Alone

Xia Li looked a little silly as she counted on her fingers, but she just hadn't mastered the method yet.

With Song Che's guidance, she grasped the concept in just one afternoon and now knows how to neatly draft and calculate even the largest numbers.

After studying at home for an afternoon, Song Che discovered a problem that was even more serious than studying.

It's not due to low efficiency, laziness, or forgetting too much knowledge.

But damn it, there's no heating!

He glanced at the energy-efficient air conditioner in the bedroom, internally debating whether or not to turn it on.

I sat there for half a day in the freezing winter, and my hands were almost swollen from the cold.

Xia Li, who was standing to the side, was covering her mouth with her hands and breathing on them repeatedly.

Beep beep—

The phone suddenly rang, and Song Che answered it.

"Mom... Oh, okay, I'll go to school. What? You're coming back next month? Alright, I'll go to school first. My grades have dropped drastically lately, and I'm not in a good state... Ah, I'm dating someone?"

How come I didn't know I was in a relationship?

Song Che wasn't prepared to die. He hadn't revealed a single word about Xia Li, so how did his mother know that a girl lived in the house?

It couldn't be that Xia Li had become a spirit and secretly took his phone to call his mother, could it?

After hanging up the phone, he told Xia Li, "I'm going to school, I'll be back soon. You can read some magazines, or... tease Bruce a bit."

"..."

Xia Li stared blankly for a few seconds as Song Che closed the door and left, before she felt Bruce rubbing against her leg.

She picked it up and suddenly realized how warm the cat's belly was. So she left her hand there for a while.

……

The office is located on the second floor of the school.

The sun was setting, and it was already time for evening self-study. Most students stayed in the classroom, while some went to the library. Only Song Che in the entire class applied to study at home.

Song Che hurried past his classroom window and arrived at the office door. A girl with short, ear-length hair quietly followed him out of the classroom.

As the chief contractor of the Witch Princess in the Kingdom of Hit, he had faced a powerful Demon King, but now he felt that the Demon King was not even three-tenths as terrifying as the teacher behind the door.

His hand hovered over the door, but he hesitated to push it open.

I could hear several teachers talking inside the door; some of their voices sounded familiar.

Upon listening carefully, Song Che felt a chill run down his spine.

One, two, three... seven.

All seven teachers are here. Back in the day, Guan Yu went to the banquet alone with his Green Dragon Crescent Blade!

Suddenly, a loud thud was heard from inside, like a textbook being slammed onto the table, and a female voice drowned out the rest of the discussion.

"Stop blaming the kids! If you can't teach them well, look at yourself first! Look at their Chinese language scores: perfect marks for composition and reading comprehension, a total of 137. The 13 points deducted were for being too lazy to write the classical Chinese section—what does that even mean? If you ask me, Song Che is just controlling his scores and hiding his true abilities!"

"Is that his excuse for only doing multiple-choice questions in other subjects? Isn't that blatant disrespect for the teacher? He even applied to go home to study at noon, I shouldn't have approved it!" another voice retorted.

The Chinese teacher immediately interrupted, "Vulgar! All you care about are grades. Have you read Song Che's essays? A teenager with such a profound understanding of life, death, and time—his breadth of vision and experience far surpasses that of us old folks!"

Song Che, standing outside the door, froze in mid-air, unsure whether to go in or back out.

Just then—

With a creak, the homeroom teacher opened the door, holding a teacup, and met Song Che's gaze.

"Teacher, I just arrived... How about I come back another time?"

"Come in, let's chat. I'll go get some water and be right back."

Song Che composed himself and walked into the office.

I'm a little flustered, but not scared. Just be polite and sincerely admit your mistakes.

In the office, seven teachers were either sitting or standing. The desk in the very center was the homeroom teacher's desk, and the surrounding desks were piled high with test papers, answer sheets, folders, and... a deck of cards that hadn't been put away yet.

The Chinese teacher sat at her desk at the back, with a bag of sweet cakes beside her.

Seeing that no one spoke for a moment, she picked up a piece and handed it to Song Che: "Try it, I made it myself."

The other teachers all looked disgusted when they saw the sugar cake. The biology teacher couldn't help but speak up, "Ms. Lan, next time you make something... try a bite yourself before sharing it with others."

The Chinese teacher had already handed it to Song Che. He didn't know whether to take it or not, so he took a bite.

Why is this sweet cake spicy?

Song Che's mind raced: saying it was delicious would seem hypocritical; saying it was terrible would upset his only supporter, his Chinese teacher.

After a moment's hesitation, he looked up and gave a sincere smile: "The sugar cakes the teacher made... taste just like the ones my mom makes."

Upon hearing this, the Chinese teacher nodded in satisfaction, her eyes filled with admiration for the child.

The other teachers silently turned their faces away: Your mom puts chili peppers in the sugar cakes she makes, right?

Just then, the homeroom teacher returned with a water cup, followed by the short-haired girl with her head down. The girl stood next to Song Che; he remembered her—besides Jiang Shuo, she was another close friend of his. He didn't know why she had failed the exam this time, and they were both here for questioning.

Three labels floated above this girl's head:

"Female psychopath", "Gender dysphoria", "Excessive gaming addiction"

The Chinese teacher also handed her a piece of sweet cake: "Here, have a taste."

The girl took a small bite and swallowed it with difficulty.

"How is it?"

"So...delicious."

Class teacher Ms. Li took a sip of tea, her gaze slowly sweeping between Song Che and Zhang Hanyu.

"Zhang Hanyu." She turned to the girl who was still secretly inhaling to relieve the spiciness, "I've looked at your test paper. You got the exact same multiple-choice questions wrong as Song Che. You got the first two steps of the math problem right, but started scribbling on the third step. Did you get distracted halfway through, or did you think the rest was worthless?"

Zhang Hanyu lowered his head, his voice barely audible: "I... I found the later calculations too troublesome, so... I just wrote some down..."

"Just write something random?" the math teacher couldn't help but interject. He was a middle-aged man with black-rimmed glasses, and his tone was full of disappointment. "Do you know how many people are affected by just one point on the college entrance exam? Just write something random? You're being careless about your future!"

Zhang Hanyu's eyes immediately reddened.

Teacher Li waved her hand, signaling Teacher Chen to calm down. She then turned to look at Song Che.

"Song Che, your situation is rather special. Teacher Lan also said that scoring 137 in Chinese shows that it's not a matter of ability. But in other subjects, especially the combined science and math, the multiple-choice questions were obviously guessed. Zhang Hanyu sat behind you during the exam and copied from you, you know? The essay questions were either left blank or you only wrote a few formulas. The English essay was even a long string of..."

She paused, then added, "Some kind of self-created symbol. Could you explain it?"

All the teachers' eyes turned to him.

Song Che knew he couldn't avoid it. His back was straight, his face showing no panic, only a moderate sense of shame.

"Teacher Li, teachers, I'm sorry for making you worry." He first bowed sincerely. "I really didn't have the right attitude during this exam. Especially the big questions in the science and math sections, it wasn't that I didn't know how, it's just... I had some resistance."

"Conflict?" The physics teacher, an elderly gentleman with gray hair, pushed up his glasses.

Song Che nodded, speaking calmly and clearly, "Some things happened at home recently, which affected my mental state. When I saw those complicated calculations, I don't know why... I got stuck on them."

He was telling half truths.

The "family matters" naturally refer to Xia Li's appearance, and her emotional fluctuations are genuine.

As for getting bogged down in details—to some extent, after experiencing the rules of the magical world, looking at certain physical models can indeed create a subtle sense of alienation, since magic is something that defies Newton's laws!

But this reason is much more believable than "[I actually came back from another world, and my mind is full of potion recipes]", after all, the pressure of senior year of high school is immense, and the teachers are well aware of that.

"Then how do you explain it in Chinese?" The English teacher, a young woman, asked curiously. "Those thoughts about life and death, time, in your essay don't seem like something a student who gets bogged down in trivialities would write. And that string of symbols on your English test... what kind of code is that?"

She laughed as she spoke. The symbols looked messy, but upon closer inspection, a pattern could be found. She had taken cryptography as an elective in college, and these symbols had similarities to variant Morse code. She even planned to study what Song Che had written that night.

Song Che laughed, scratching the back of his head somewhat sheepishly: "I'm sorry to have made you laugh, teacher. As for Chinese... it's probably because I've always liked reading all sorts of books, so I tend to overthink things. That string of symbols..."

His smile held a hint of helplessness. "Actually, I just made it up for fun when I was under a lot of pressure. I was distracted during the exam and wrote it down without realizing it... I'm very sorry, I wasn't serious."

He admitted his mistake, but attributed the cause to fluctuations in his mindset and high pressure—common problems for senior high school students.

Sure enough, the teachers' expressions softened somewhat. Students aren't afraid of making mistakes; what they're afraid of is not admitting them. Song Che's attitude at least showed that he knew what was going on.

Teacher Lan chimed in, "See? What did I tell you? This kid is just too thoughtful and overthinks things! Which teenager isn't sentimental? What's wrong with a little philosophical thinking? I think it's a good thing!"

Zhang Hanyu lowered his head even further, but kept stealing glances at Song Che out of the corner of his eye.

The homeroom teacher glanced at Song Che, but didn't pursue the matter further, simply tapping on the desk:

"I accept your reasoning. But your attitude must be corrected. You applied to study at home yourself. I gave you that autonomy because I trust your self-discipline, not because I want you to slack off."

"I understand, Teacher Li," Song Che immediately replied. "I will make a detailed plan and report my progress to you every day. I will focus on improving my weaker subjects and will not make the same mistakes again."

"Talk is cheap." Teacher Li pulled a test paper from the drawer. "Next Monday, I want to see your improved attitude reflected in your grades. If you're still selectively answering questions like this..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but her meaning was clear.

"No problem." Song Che took the test paper, but he was actually not sure.

Even if you pull out all your hair in a week, you might not be able to get it back.

"And you," Teacher Li looked at Zhang Hanyu, "your problem... never mind, you know it yourself. I've been there, I just advise you not to let it interfere with your work. This question wasn't difficult, Song Che just wrote whatever came to mind, but you started writing randomly after you finished half of it, just to come to the office and get a scolding?"

The homeroom teacher sighed. "Go back. If your grades drop again, call your parents. I'm a teacher; I have to fulfill my responsibilities..."

Song Che nodded: "Okay, teacher."

Zhang Hanyu stammered, "I understand..."

The two left the office, the door closing behind them, and the corridor fell silent.

Zhang Hanyu let out a long sigh of relief. She whispered to Song Che, "You scared me to death... You're amazing, you weren't afraid even when the teacher was so fierce. And that sweet cake, it was so spicy, how did you manage to eat it?"

Song Che smiled, offering no explanation, only saying, "Let's go, at least we've managed to get away with it."

"Okay." Zhang Hanyu suddenly tugged at Song Che's sleeve and asked, "How was it? Was I... a good friend...?"

"Much more considerate than Jiang Shuo. It's just that you got scolded for nothing this time. I don't have time to play games with you lately."

As they reached the stairwell, Zhang Hanyu suddenly asked, "Song Che, are you not coming to school anymore?"

"Yeah, I'm studying at home."

"Okay... wait a minute, I'll return the umbrella to you from last time."

"Umbrella?" Song Che didn't remember this. "Okay, I'll wait for you here."