And Samuel Bennett also began his life as an auditing student.

Chapter Eleven Study Progress I

Samuel Bennett sat down at his seat, put his book into the drawer, and saw that the classmate next to him had a Chinese textbook out for class. He immediately took out his own Chinese textbook, glanced at his deskmate’s page, and quickly turned to the same page himself.

His deskmate was also a boy. Sitting down, it was hard to tell his height, but now that the two were side by side, their shoulders were about the same height, so it was likely that standing up, he wouldn’t be shorter than Samuel Bennett either. He ignored the curious glances from classmates turning around to look at him, and just stared with interest at the teacher giving the lesson.

The Chinese class was being taught by a female teacher wearing glasses. She wasn’t very old, but looked like she was probably married, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight. Her looks were average, with a round face and not very tall, her hair tied in a big ponytail at the back of her head. She was teaching classical Chinese, specifically Confucius’ “The Master said: ‘Is it not a pleasure, having learned something, to try it out at due intervals? Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar?’” Samuel Bennett was already very familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, so he could understand the teacher’s explanation, which was pretty much the same as his own understanding. After listening for a while, he started to focus on his new textbook, starting from the beginning. The first few articles were mostly written by famous contemporary authors, which he hadn’t read before. He started from the first lesson, reading with great interest—the second, the third. The Chinese lessons in the first year of middle school weren’t very profound, and the modern texts were easy to understand. Usually, you just needed to remember the adjectives, phrases, and especially brilliant passages. But as Samuel Bennett read through each one, he could basically memorize them after just one reading. Before long, he had flipped to the lesson currently being taught. Further on, most of the lessons were classical Chinese. For other students, these might be hard to understand and especially hard to memorize, but for Samuel Bennett, he had already been able to recite them backwards and forwards when he was up in the mountains. So he just skimmed through the later content and didn’t look at it further.

When class ended, the classroom suddenly became lively. Some students hurried out to the restroom, some ran outside to play, but most cast their eyes toward Samuel Bennett. However, they were a bit shy and didn’t come over to talk to him, just discussed him with their friends. He didn’t pay attention to any of this, but noticed that his deskmate hadn’t left, so he took the initiative to start a conversation:

“Hi, my name is Samuel Bennett, I’m the new student.”

“I’m Andrew Bennett.” Kids from the countryside rarely take the initiative to talk to strangers, so he just answered simply.

“What’s the name of the teacher who just taught the class?” Samuel Bennett had gotten used to starting conversations while running his stall.

“She’s called Lily Dawson.”

“What’s the next class?”

“It’s math with the homeroom teacher.”

“Does the homeroom teacher hit students?” He’d read in books that teachers liked to hit students’ palms, and wanted to know if it was the same at school.

“Mr. Grant never hits anyone, but sometimes scolds very harshly. If you don’t pay attention in class, you’ll be punished with extra homework.” After chatting for a while, his deskmate Andrew Bennett started to talk more. After all, they were just kids, and soon forgot that this classmate was new.

“So besides Chinese and math, what other classes do we have?” Samuel Bennett already knew from the books he’d been given, but just wanted to make conversation and build rapport.

“We also have English, geography, and history. Oh, and there’s PE this afternoon, maybe we’ll play ball.” Andrew Bennett explained in detail.

Samuel Bennett kept trying to find things to talk about, but just then the bell rang for class, and Mr. Grant was already standing at the classroom door. Once all the students had returned to their seats, he walked in.

“Stand up!” a student at the front called out.

All the students stood up. Samuel Bennett didn’t know what was happening, but he reacted quickly and stood up with everyone else.

“Good morning, teacher!” the students all called out together, except for Samuel Bennett, who didn’t say anything because he didn’t know.

“Hello, students, please sit down.” Mr. Grant returned the greeting from the podium.

“Today we have a new student in our class. His name is Samuel Bennett. Samuel Bennett, please stand up and introduce yourself to the class,” Mr. Grant said from the podium.

Samuel Bennett stood up and said to the class, “My name is Samuel Bennett, I’m the new student. Please take care of me from now on.”

The students found it funny that he introduced himself like that. Usually, students weren’t so bold, and even if they spoke, it was as quiet as a mosquito. No one spoke as confidently as he did, and even added, “Please take care of me from now on.” But Samuel Bennett had seen a lot of the world at the market, and thought he was being very polite. The other students thought he was very bold, and his tone sounded a bit like an adult. In fact, Samuel Bennett was used to dealing with adults, so he spoke that way out of habit. Suddenly coming to school, these mountain kids, who rarely went out, found it hard to understand what he said.

But Mr. Grant thought he spoke well and was quite pleased. He nodded to Samuel Bennett and said, “Samuel Bennett, you may sit down.”