Translator: 549690339
Steve Burton brought home Ruby Gregory’s term papers from her class and began grading them right in front of her.
No elementary school student is indifferent or uncurious about their own end-of-term results.
Ruby was no exception, she stood by the table, sucking on a lollipop, tiptoeing, her eyes fixed on Steve Burton grading her paper.
That day in Steve Burton’s study, the scene unfolded like this:
While working on the fourth grade examination questions, Steve Burton didn’t hesitate to criticize Ruby Gregory whenever he found mistakes: “Ruby Gregory, were you half asleep during the exam? Even the word ‘encounter’ is wrong in your composition.”
Back then, elementary school exam papers were mostly completed with a pencil.
As he spoke, he took out an eraser and erased Ruby Gregory’s misspelled word ‘encounter’, replaced it with the correct one, and marked it with a check in red pen.
“Ruby Gregory, did you skip breakfast? You didn’t even bother to answer this fill in the blank question, just skipped directly past it.”
“Forgot? How come you don’t forget that your name is Ruby Gregory, huh?”
“Ruby Gregory, are you a pig? Even US$27-5 divided by twenty-seven, you can’t get it right.’
“Ruby Gregory… ” “Ruby Gregory… ”
“Ruby Gregory…”
As many mistakes as there were on Ruby Gregory’s end-of-term paper, that was how many times Steve Burton sarcastically scolded Ruby Gregory.
As many times as Steve Burton scolded Ruby Gregory, that was how many times he took the eraser and erased Ruby Gregory’s mistakes, and corrected them with a pencil.
After being scolded one by one by Steve Burton’s wicked words, Ruby’s eyes turned red in the end.
Glancing at her teetering tears, Steve Burton tightened his grip on his pencil, clearly trying to comfort the girl about to cry. However, the words that came out ot his mouth were lacking in comforting components: “Ruby Gregory, dare to shed a tear, try it.”
Ruby Gregory felt even more wronged, and the tears fell pitter-patter on their own.
Steve Burton was even more flustered deep down. He stared at the paper, and the words that came out of his mouth were all threats: “Ruby Gregory, if you dare to shed another tear, I’ll grade all your finals zero.”
Ruby Gregory burst into crying instantly like a child.
Steve Burton threw down his pen, muttered a low, “troublemaker,”
Then he took a tissue from the table, wiped the tears from the corner of Ruby Gregory’s eyes, and his tone became a little more constrained: “Alright, I was wrong, stop crying.”
Although not a hint of admitting his mistake could be heard from his voice tone.
But that was the first time he had ever backed down in front of Ruby Gregory in his life.
Ruby Gregory was not a child who harbored grudges, she stopped crying immediately, looked at Steve Burton, and asked the question she cared most about: “So, how many points exactly did I score?”