8 Manners

The next two weeks went pass in a blur. Wang Zhiyu spent most of her time, reviewing school content and practising the piano. She got her uniform, did a diagnostic test for the school, went for an induction day and eventually, the first day of school approached.

Zhiyu was so nervous for it that she got up at 5 am just to get ready. She took a shower, stretched, washed her hair and stretched some more. She contemplated whether she wanted to cover her scar with foundation. In the end, she chose not to. It wasn't so prominent that it could be seen and one would have to look very closely in order to see it.

Finally, at 7:30 am, she made her way down to breakfast. Elder Wang sat at the table reading the newspaper, deeply absorbed in the business news of the day. When he saw Wang Zhiyu wearing her school uniform, he felt himself tear up slightly. It had been ages since he last saw his baby girl in a uniform. Although he had been reluctant to let her go to school initially, he now knew that she would finally be able to have a normal teenage life.

Zhiyu sat at the table, wolfing down her breakfast. She wasn't that hungry but for some reason, she felt the need to put some food in her stomach, as though there was a gaping hole in her that needed filling. "Slow down, you'll give yourself indigestion." Elder Wang chuckled slightly.

Hearing him, she paused to swallow and immediately started choking. Slightly panicked, butler Yun passed Zhiyu a glass of water whilst elder Wang put down his newspaper and patted her back slowly. He looked at her disapprovingly. "I'm fine. It just got stuck in my throat a bit." Trying to appease the old man, she slowed down and placed each spoonful of food into her mouth almost dramatically, chewing at least ten times before swallowing.

"Hah, if you had eaten that slowly before, you wouldn't have choked at all." Elder Wang knew that she had a tendency to gulp down food when she was nervous or stressed, so he didn't reprimand her too much about it, as he knew that she would eat more slowly on a usual day.

"Don't worry too much about the school day. I know you'll do just fine. Just be yourself and try to make friends. It doesn't matter who they are, as long as they aren't doing anything illegal or bad. Listen to the teachers and try not to get yourself in trouble on the first day." Although elder Wang was comforting her, he was actually just as nervous as, if not more than, his granddaughter. Rambling on, he kept giving her advice about school life.

'Elder Wang, you haven't been to school for over 50 years. Will your advice actually be relevant?' Butler Yun was starting to get anxious. It was already 8 am and the elder was still talking. At 8:10, butler Yun had had enough. The young miss needed to get to school by 8:30 and there was definitely going to be traffic on the roads. "Old master, the young miss should leave to go to school now if she is to get to school on time."

With this, grandpa Wang finally let her go to school. Usually, it was possible to get to school from their family mansion in 15 minutes, but it was already 9:15 by the time Zhiyu got to school. In her head, she scolded the old man for talking so much. Now, she was running late on her first day!

Having attended the induction session yesterday, she knew that she had to head to the teachers' room to find her homeroom teacher, Miss Li. But she was late. Would Miss Li still be in the teachers' room? She was probably in their classroom and as such, Zhiyu tried to find her way to her homeroom. However, after walking through many corridors, she realised she was completely and utterly lost.

She looked around. She could hear the sound of people chatting nearby but couldn't see a single person. Walking towards the noise, she came across a row of full classrooms. When she wandered past the classrooms, each door was labelled: 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, etc. It seemed as though this corridor of classrooms was for the second years.

Peeking inside a classroom, the teacher was basically letting the students do whatever they wanted, whilst he was reading. There were some students chatting, some playing a game on a phone, some people watching and very few were reading. It looked like the class hadn't officially started. Wang Zhiyu breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the teacher could show her the way to her homeroom. After all, it didn't look like they were doing anything productive.

She breathed in and knocked on the door, opening it immediately afterwards. Zhu Bao looked up from his book, somewhat annoyed that someone had disturbed him. "Excuse me, I'm a new student. Do you know where Miss Li's homeroom is?"

Although she had asked politely, Mr Zhu was now seriously irritated. "Well, new student, it would be manners to introduce yourself first, right?"

Zhiyu flushed with embarrassment as a few of the students in the classroom snickered. "I'm sorry. My name is Wang Zhiyu. I'm in Year 3 Class 2."

Upon hearing that Wang Zhiyu was new and in her last year of high school, Zhu Bao was surprised. Very few students transferred to the People's High School in their last year of secondary education. In fact, most of those that did either got in through connections or were brilliant students. Looking at this pretty girl, she did not appear to be too smart and immediately, he concluded that she had definitely gotten in through connections.

"Now that's better. There are about four teachers named Miss Li in this school. How was I meant to know which one you meant? Once you leave this classroom, turn left, walk up the stairs and Year 3 Class 2 will be the second classroom on your right. Try not to get hurt, okay? This poor teacher cannot afford it if you suddenly lose your footing on the stairs."

With this, the entire class of students burst into laughter. Although he had given Zhiyu the directions to the classroom, his condescending and sarcastic tone made it clear that he did not think that she was good enough for this school.

She thanked him as she walked out, but she was fuming inside. No one had ever treated her this way. Who did that ugly, balding teacher think he was? If not for the old man at home telling her not to make trouble on the first day, she would have gotten him fired there and then!

His directions were right though. Hmph! At least he wasn't a liar. Standing outside the door labelled with 3-2, she knocked politely and opened it.