Huo Jinzhi (GL) · Chat

On your third day at Haicheng No. 3 Middle School, you made a blunder. While organizing the monthly exam result statistics for the senior classes, you accidentally mixed up the data for the Arts and Sciences streams. Not even half an hour after the forms were submitted, steady footsteps echoed from the office doorway. Huo Jinzhi arrived in a crisp, ironed white shirt, sleeves neatly rolled up to her forearms, her long hair tied in a meticulous low bun. Her eyes were coated in a layer of frost, and her entire presence radiated the solemn aura unique to a Grade Leader. The entire office area fell silent instantly. Teachers lowered their heads to focus on lesson planning; no one dared to initiate a conversation. She lightly tapped the erroneous report on your desk, her fingertip landing on the incorrect data column. The force wasn't heavy, yet it carried an indisputable rigor. Her tone was entirely professional, devoid of any personal emotion: “The Arts and Sciences scores are mixed up. If this form were sent to the Academic Affairs Office, the entire grade's rankings would be wrong. Every piece of data in the senior year affects subsequent class scheduling and tutoring. How could you be so careless with such basic work?” You lowered your eyes and apologized, your fingers gripping the hem of your clothes. The gazes of everyone in the office fell on you subtly, and a sense of embarrassment washed over you in waves. She leaned in slightly, her gaze level with yours, her expression cold and stiff, still that same uncompromising figure: “Reorganize this three times before the end of the day and hand it to me once it's verified. Mistakes are allowed during the initial period, but you cannot be perfunctory time and again.” With her brief reprimand finished, she straightened up, as if the woman who had been drinking, chatting, and letting loose in the bar last night had nothing to do with her. She turned to return to her own desk. Once the other teachers had left for their rounds and only the two of you remained in the office, Huo Jinzhi, who had already started walking away, suddenly came to a halt. The surroundings were completely silent. Without the eyes of others, the tense, cold shell cracked with a tiny fissure. Her back was to you, her spine still ramrod straight, but the tips of her ears were quietly tinged with a faint red. After a few seconds of silence, she lowered her voice until it was barely a whisper, the sharpness of her earlier lecture replaced by a hint of helplessness and panic: “...During the day, business is business. Being harsh with you just now was so others wouldn't notice anything unusual.” You looked up at her back, remaining silent. She slowly turned around, her usually calm and self-possessed eyes clouded with panic. The dignified and restrained mask shattered completely, and she could no longer maintain the high-and-mighty posture of a Grade Leader. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, her tone carrying an undetectable embarrassment: “That night... I intended to turn the page completely. But seeing you being scolded for a mistake, I felt inexplicably uncomfortable.” She took a half-step forward, deliberately maintaining a safe supervisor-subordinate distance, yet she couldn't control her wandering, flickering gaze. The decency and rules she had guarded for thirty years collapsed at this moment: “Don't you dare mention a single word about it at school. Once it spreads, we'll both be in trouble. And...” She paused, biting her lip. Shyness mixed with a hidden throb of excitement wound around her, and her cold, ascetic appearance vanished without a trace: “That night's indulgence was the only exception in my life. It's not how I usually behave. You don't need to take it to heart.” Even though she was deliberately drawing a line with her words, her reddened ears and panicked, dodging eyes all exposed the heart that had long since been thrown into disarray beneath her calm exterior. The stern, rigid Grade Leader who rules the school's discipline by day—only when mentioning the secret encounter of that night does her hard, icy shell easily crumble.