In the office, the homeroom teacher of Class Ten, Penelope Clark, was sitting upright at his desk, grading essays. In fact, this time the essay wasn’t an assignment he had given, but rather a schoolwide task assigned to the entire grade, with the theme of environmental protection. Each class would select the best essay to be presented at the grade level, and from the thirty-six classes in grades seven through nine, a dozen or so of the best essays would be chosen to be published in the school magazine.

After reading more than a dozen essays in a row, he rubbed the corners of his eyes, feeling a bit of eye fatigue. They all seemed to be cut from the same mold, all talking about how everyone is responsible for protecting the environment, or describing one or two touching stories about environmental protection—very commonplace.

“Sigh, forget it, let’s take a look at Jessica Parker’s.” Penelope Clark sighed, found Jessica Parker’s essay from the pile, and opened it. The title was “A Letter to Mr. World.”

“Not bad, personifying the world and using the world’s voice to accuse people of destroying the environment. Both the creativity and the writing are excellent. Looks like, once again, the essay chosen from our Class Ten will be Jessica Parker’s.” With that, Penelope Clark skimmed through it, basically following his usual grading routine: check the title, the beginning, and the ending.

Suddenly, Penelope Clark noticed a novel title.

“Hey—Come Out.” From the title alone, there was no hint of any connection to environmental protection; it sounded more like an essay about manners or morality.

Penelope Clark felt a spark of interest and skimmed through it, discovering that it was actually a micro-novel.

His interest grew even more.

“Who wrote this essay?” He turned to the title page—Brian Carter.

“Brian Carter?”

He kept reading. There was no doubt that the essay was extremely well written, but that was only natural—after all, it was written by Hoshi Shinichi, the father of Japanese micro-novels, and had even been selected as a text in the second semester of eighth grade. Of course, that was on Earth, but this also indirectly proved the brilliance of this micro-novel.

Even if this story were judged by professional novelists, it would be considered a rare gem, let alone being used for a middle school magazine competition.

“Brilliant. I didn’t expect Brian Carter to perform beyond expectations and write such an outstanding micro-novel.”

“Class, it’s time for your lesson. Please return to your classrooms as soon as possible…” The bell rang for class.

There was still a Chinese class that afternoon. At this time, Penelope Clark carried a stack of essays into the classroom. “I’m very pleased. Everyone completed yesterday’s assignment very seriously. This time, two students wrote exceptionally good essays.”

“One is Jessica Parker. In her writing, the world even becomes a person. Both her writing and creativity are excellent.” The students below all looked as if they had expected this—every time there was an essay, Jessica Parker was always mentioned.

“As for the second student, I want to give special praise.”

“That is Brian Carter. The essay is titled ‘Hey—Come Out,’ a science fiction micro-novel. Now, I’ll read it aloud so everyone can see what makes this essay so good…”

※※※

“After a typhoon, the sky was clear. Not far from the city, in the nearby suburbs, a village had been damaged by the storm. However, the losses weren’t too serious—only a small temple at the foot of the mountain outside the village had been completely swept away by the typhoon, but no one was hurt. The next morning, when the villagers learned of this, they began to discuss it.

‘Which dynasty was that temple from?’ ‘Who knows? It’s been there for ages, anyway.’ …”

Chapter 5: The First Close Encounter with the Editor-in-Chief

“Hey—Come Out,” the general content of this story—

The story first describes the discovery of a bottomless pit, which later becomes the best place to dispose of the city’s garbage. All kinds of trash are thrown into the pit, and the city becomes more and more beautiful. But strangely, the initial shout into the pit (“Hey—come out,” which is also where the title comes from) is heard coming from the sky, and the first small stone thrown into the pit also falls from the sky. Although the story ends abruptly here, it’s easy to imagine that all the garbage people threw into the pit would soon fall from the sky.

“As usual, each class will select one essay as a candidate for the school magazine, and this time, our Class Ten’s recommendation is Brian Carter’s essay.”

“Jessica Parker, don’t be discouraged. Your essay was also excellent, and your writing skills are very strong. Keep working hard next time.” Jessica Parker looked at Brian Carter with a hint of displeasure. In the past, the spot for the school magazine recommendation from Class Ten had always been hers, and she had been published several times. She hadn’t expected Brian Carter to suddenly emerge and take the spot this time.

However, Jessica Parker also knew that Brian Carter’s micro-novel was indeed more brilliant than hers. Not to mention the writing, just in terms of originality—she had personified the world and written a letter to it, which was a good idea, but Brian Carter had written a micro science fiction novel, linking sci-fi with environmental protection, and in terms of creativity, he had clearly outdone her.

That afternoon’s Chinese class was a self-study period for the students, and it was also the last class of the day—after class, school would be over.