Chapter 61: Chapter 61: The Novel Craze (Part 2)
These days, the small shops outside the school sell torches and batteries very quickly, which means that more and more students are reading novels under the covers at night with a flashlight, and then, during the day, more and more students are dozing off in class in the morning.
Feng Yiping is a little worried about everyone. If this continues, it really won't do. But he doesn't know what to do.
Reason with them? Don't think just because you get good grades and the teacher likes you, you can lecture people. And at this time, many students can't listen to reason. Although they all understand in their hearts that it's not right to read novels all day, in and out of class, they just can't help it.
Just like later, after the internet became popular, from primary school to university, many students skipped class to go online, stayed up all night online, and even spent all their tuition fees and living expenses on the internet, and eventually even went down the path of crime and robbed!
Many people mentioned these phenomena and kept shaking their heads, criticising these children for having too little self-control, saying how they resisted these temptations in the beginning.
But Feng Yiping asked himself, if he had been in primary school or junior high school when Internet cafes were everywhere near the school, would he have skipped classes and spent all day and night playing games online in the Internet cafes? He asked himself again and again, and the answer was yes, he would definitely have done the same thing.
Just like so many people in his class reading novels these days, he used to do the same thing, reading martial arts novels all night long. He also used to hide under the covers with a borrowed flashlight to read The Return of the Condor Heroes, but after seeing how the heroine was humiliated by Yin Zhi Ping, he was so angry that he couldn't bear to read any more. It wasn't until he was in technical secondary school and had no books to read that he rented the set again and read it to the end.
As someone who had been there, he understood all too well that reasoning was useless, because everyone actually understood the reasoning, but just couldn't do it! So how could he help his classmates? Feng Yiping really couldn't think of a good way for the time being.
Although Xiao Zhijie and Wang Changning had never been interested in these novels, the current learning atmosphere in the class had obviously affected them.
The gods reward those who are diligent, and after a couple of days, the opportunity finally came.
In Chinese class, they studied reportage, and the class teacher Wang Yumin gave everyone homework to write a reportage. Feng Wen was worried, because it was hard to make something up in a reportage. What should he write about?
Feng Yiping immediately came up with a solution: he told him to write about the class reading various novels. Firstly, the composition would be completed quickly, and it was a true story, which was more in line with the theme of reportage. Secondly, once such a reportage was written, the homeroom teacher would definitely take action after reading it, indirectly helping his classmates and allowing everyone to focus their minds on their studies again. Thirdly, by helping the teacher so much, Mr Wang would definitely have a good impression of him.
Feng Wen listened and thought it made sense, but he still hesitated a little, worried that his classmates would find him in trouble. Feng Yiping told him to set his mind at ease. He would be the one to receive and distribute the essays, and even if they were handed in, only Teacher Wang would mark them, so no one else would know.
He asked Feng Wen, 'Do you think Teacher Wang will definitely like you, or will your classmates probably complain about you?'
After hearing this, Feng Wen no longer hesitated. When he returned to school on Sunday, he handed in an essay about the class reading novels, writing in great detail about which classmates were reading what books.
Before evening study, Feng Yiping delivered the essay to Wang Yumin's house. He guessed that there might be action that night, but there was none. It didn't happen during Monday morning study, either, and it didn't happen until Monday afternoon.
The first class in the afternoon was Chinese. Wang Yumin arrived early at the classroom and, after everyone had arrived, searched through the students' desks, one by one, and confiscated the novels, placing them in large stacks on the teacher's desk.
This time, the confiscation was thorough, and even those who had torn the cover pages of their textbooks off and seamlessly glued them to the covers of the novels were turned over. When they were turned over, those students were full of disbelief! How could they have been so hidden?
Haha, it's only because Feng Wen's reportage was written in such detail.
If this composition were graded, Wang Yumin would probably give Feng Wen's a first.
Several hardworking students in the class were among those who had written it, which made her furious. She lectured everyone for most of the class, and finally threw in the towel. From now on, no matter inside or outside of class, no novels are allowed in the classrooms or dormitories of Class 1. If anyone is caught with a novel, their parents will be called to school to pick them up!
This is a very harsh measure. There is no parents' meeting yet, and parents don't have many chances to come to school. Once they are invited to school for this reason, the fate of the student who is caught can be imagined, and it will definitely not be good.
What's more, Wang Yumin also announced that the student who is caught can report those who are not caught. As long as he reports two, he will pass this level. Once this cunning plan was announced, it completely destroyed the hope of many people.
Not only that, but Teacher Wang notified each of the class teachers in the class. Starting this week, when the teachers saw something suspicious during class, they would come down and flip through the textbooks that the students had placed on their desks to see if anything was hidden underneath, or if the textbooks themselves were forged.
Teacher Wang herself was even more vigilant, and no matter whose class it was, she would slip over to the windows on the sides from time to time to observe and see if any students had not reformed.
Reasoning was useless, but the teacher's strong measures were very effective. After taking multiple measures, the situation of reading novels was immediately curbed. Although it was not completely eliminated, the number of people who read it again was extremely small and extremely covert, and it had little impact.
In the end, the fact that Feng Wen had indirectly reported him spread, and many classmates found out and wanted to argue with him. Some were so angry that they wanted to fight with him. Feng Wen was not a man of principle, and after a while, he betrayed Feng Yiping, saying that it was actually Feng Yiping's idea. However, no one believed him, and Feng Wen had no choice but to ask Teacher Wang to take his side.
With Teacher Wang backing him up, the students of course had to call off their protest. They had to keep their dissatisfaction and anger inside. However, Feng Wen has been having a hard time recently, and he is definitely being isolated by his classmates.
Only Xiao Zhijie believed what Feng Wen said, and when he met Feng Yiping, he gave him a thumbs-up, just like Commander Tang in 'The Tunnel War', and said, 'Excellent, really excellent!'
Feng Yiping took this as a sincere compliment and accepted it without hesitation. Teammates are sometimes for sale, especially teammates like Feng Wen. This time he bought him and he was very happy!
Wang Changning, however, corrected him from the side, saying, 'No, it should be said that it is really shady! Even our class, this week, everyone's desk has been searched twice.'
No matter what they said, Feng Yiping was still very happy. Things had turned out as he had wanted, he had not offended anyone, and the person who had been pushed out had received the teacher's appreciation. It also felt quite beautiful. The classmates had just had some novels confiscated and were all studying hard and improving every day. What was wrong with such a happy outcome for everyone?