"Does the teacher have anything else?" Edward Harris asked directly.

"No, that's all."

"Then I'll be going now."

After saying this stiff sentence, he turned to leave, but his eyes met William Bennett's. In that instant, William Bennett uncharacteristically felt a subtle pang of guilt.

It was obvious that this kind of conversation wasn't suitable for others to overhear.

William Bennett almost immediately said, "Elder Foster asked me to come to the office."

Edward Harris's dark eyes stared at William Bennett, and it was unclear whether he believed him or not. He stood there for a few seconds, then, expressionless, lifted his foot to leave. As he passed by William Bennett, he suddenly lowered his head, placed a hand on William Bennett's shoulder, and said coolly, "Teacher Foster is just over thirty, it's a bit much to call her Elder Foster."

With that, he walked away without looking back.

William Bennett stood there stunned for a moment. When he turned to look back, the hallway was already empty. He clicked his tongue inwardly, stepped into the office, and saw the homeroom teacher's desk right at the front, with a nameplate reading "John Foster".

Just as Edward Harris had said, the homeroom teacher looked just over thirty, with an oval face, glasses, very fair skin, and shoulder-length curly hair. With a bit of makeup, she could be quite pretty. Her only flaw was being too thin, which made her look a bit sickly.

Yes, John Foster was a female teacher, teaching physics to Class A.

William Bennett recalled his earlier slip of the tongue, calling her "Elder Foster", and scratched his nose with his index finger. He blamed Samuel Wright, that idiot, for calling such a young homeroom teacher "Old Foster". What was he thinking?

"Here already?" John Foster's eyes curved behind her glasses, warm and kind.

William Bennett smiled at her too. "Did you need something, teacher?"

"It's nothing much, really. I just felt a bit bad for not being at school to welcome the new student yesterday," she said to William Bennett. "And also about the course progress."

She nodded behind her and said, "We heard from Old Carter that you're a whole book behind in every subject. It's my fault for not being at school yesterday—otherwise, I could have helped you apply for an exemption, and you wouldn't have had to force yourself through today's weekly test."

William Bennett smiled but felt like coughing up blood inside, thinking, Why didn't you say so earlier!

John Foster saw the collapse behind his smile and was amused. She added, "These ten-plus hours today must have been tough, right?"

William Bennett replied modestly, "More than a little."

The other teachers laughed as well, including Old Cooper, who had just spoken with Edward Harris: "It's fine, we know your situation. We won't take this test's results seriously. Five or ten points is normal, so don't stress."

"Wait, I don't care about the others, but if you only get five or ten points in Chinese, that's a bit much, isn't it?"

"Same for English."

The teachers joked around, and the atmosphere in the office immediately became much more relaxed. John Foster glanced at William Bennett, as if checking whether he was nervous, only to find that this new student was truly unfazed.

So she got straight to the point: "We won't take this test seriously, but being so far behind is a real problem, and not a small one. Class A moves very fast—we have to finish all the high school material in the first half of the semester. We can't slow down for just one person. So... you'll need to find a way to catch up on your own while keeping up with the new lessons."

This was within William Bennett's expectations, and he nodded.

John Foster continued, "Make good use of your spare time. It'll definitely be hard, but grit your teeth and you'll get through it. During this summer period, your free time is still relatively ample. Evening self-study only goes until 8 p.m., and the night before an exam, there's no evening self-study at all—it's straight to break."

It was the first time William Bennett had heard this called a "break," and he gave a dry laugh.

The teachers laughed again. John Foster waved her hand and said, "Don't be so stiff. Alright, back to business. We won't count this test, but there's another weekly test next week. Can I see some progress from you then?"

"Of course."

John Foster exchanged glances with the other teachers and said, "We've estimated how much progress you can make in a week, so let's set a small goal for you."

William Bennett answered crisply, "Sure, how much?"

"Physics and chemistry are each out of 120 points. In a week, we hope you can get above 50 in each. For math, not counting the extra questions, it's out of 160—aim for 70. As for Chinese and English, we won't set a target, just do your best."

As John Foster spoke, she noticed the new student's expression was a bit odd and asked, "What's wrong, is it too hard?"

"No."

"Then what is it?"

William Bennett made a sound, "Mm," and said, "It's nothing, let's just go with that."

The teachers were puzzled all day, but by the next evening self-study, when the weekly test papers were graded, they saw that this new student, who had only gotten the textbooks the day before the test, scored as follows:

Physics and chemistry: 62 and 68. Math: 83. Chinese and English: both higher than the Class A average.

Author's note:

I've been traveling for work and catching flights these past two days, sorry, this update counts as last night's. I'll update again after I get off the plane tonight~ Thank you to the little angels who gave me "霸王票" or watered me with nutrient solution~

Thank you all so much for your support, I'll keep working hard!

Chapter 5 Moving