April 13, 1978, Sunny

The third period in the afternoon was a math remedial class. Teacher Yu was absent due to personal matters, and the class leader, Teacher Dai, came to inform us to copy the problems from the blackboard for homework.

Xiao Lin wanted to take advantage of the situation and came over to ask me to help her copy. I said, "You're really lazy, just copy it yourself."

"No, I insist that you copy it."

She handed me a pen and paper, insisting that I copy it. I knew she had a stubborn streak, so I didn't say much and started copying for her. While copying, I suddenly stopped and said softly, "Tomorrow is the physics test, don't forget."

"I remember, whatever test it is, I'm not afraid." She said fearlessly. That was for sure; tests were a piece of cake for her, but science subjects were my weak point, especially physics. I still felt uneasy thinking about the last time the physics teacher called on me and I answered incorrectly. She wasn't afraid, but I was quite scared.

In front of this academic overachiever, I always had to save some face for myself. I paused my pen again and casually said, "I think the same way; after all, it's just doing homework. Isn't that what we did today? As soon as the teacher arrived, she assigned homework, and we had to hand it in before class ended. Didn't we complete it just the same?"