noveltune Chapter 387 Question
Chapter 387 Question
February 12, 1991, Sheng Hua College, Higher Division.
There shouldn't have been so many people in the third-grade classroom in mid-February.
Under normal circumstances, by this time, the graduating class of the senior division of Sheng Hua College would have entered the "free admission" stage.
Students preparing for university exams can study at home, and students who have received recommendations only need to attend designated school days as arranged by the school. Most students whose families have decided to send them overseas will not sit in the classroom every day.
Based on past experience, during this period, it's considered quite lenient for the homeroom teacher if a classroom in the third-year A group is two-thirds full. After all, students at Sheng Hua Academy are not "good kids" in the ordinary sense; many students have family connections, and the school is used to leaving some room for compromise between rules and propriety.
But today, all members of Group A of the third year are present.
And not just today.
This has been the case all week.
Sawako Sugiura stood in front of the podium, looking at the students sitting neatly in the audience below, her feelings hard to describe.
She certainly knew why these students had come.
Some students, despite having already received recommendations from Keio University, held up reference books and said that "the school environment is more suitable for studying"; others, whose families had already arranged for them to study abroad after graduation, suddenly said that they wanted to cherish the last days of high school; and several students who usually liked to treat their free entry to school as true freedom have actually been sitting in their seats on time every day these past few days, without even being late.
The reasons are varied and seem quite convincing.
But Sugiura Sawako had been a teacher for twelve years, so of course she wouldn't really believe it.
She even heard that the neighboring classes had been much more lively these past few days than in previous years. The reasons were equally valid: some students came to ask teachers for advice, some came to submit supplementary graduation materials, and some came to participate in self-study groups that didn't even exist.
Then during breaks, the students would naturally pass by the door of the third-year A group, walking at a moderate pace, but their eyes would always drift into the classroom.
There's only one thing they want to see.
Or rather, there's only one person who wants to see it.
Saionji Satsuki.
Sawako Sugiura placed the chalk in the chalk tray below the blackboard, forcing herself to refocus her attention on the textbook.
Today she is teaching a modern Chinese text, and the excerpt is from Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "Rashomon".
This article is not difficult to explain.
It's not difficult to teach, at least for a regular classroom setting.
The problem is that today's third-year A group is not a regular classroom.
As Sawako talked about the psychological changes of the "servants," she couldn't help but glance at the corner of the classroom by the window.
Saionji Satsuki sat there, her uniform neatly worn, with textbooks, notebooks, and a fountain pen on the table.
Unlike other students who secretly read financial newspapers, she didn't put on any special act; she simply listened to the lecture quietly.
Satsuki has been back at school for a week now.
This week, Sugiura Sawako had made all sorts of preparations. She had considered that Satsuki might only come for half a day and then leave, that Satsuki would take the clerk and deal with all the school documents, and even that she would be like those spoiled students who were impatient with regular classes.
None of these events occurred.
Satsuki arrives at school on time every day and leaves on time. She greets the teacher before entering the classroom, talks to her classmates during breaks, and stays in the classroom during lunch break as usual. She is never difficult to anyone, and even when surrounded by people trying to talk to her, she can maintain a very polite smile.
Of course, no one would ever try to make things difficult for her.
Then, in just one week, she rebuilt a small circle within Group A of the third year.
This was not too unexpected for Sawako.
Children from the old Chinese community are usually much better than others in terms of etiquette and social skills.
Satsuki speaks gently, her demeanor is elegant, yet she carries an air of distance that commands respect. She doesn't need to do anything; simply sitting there, people naturally want to be near her.
What truly surprised Sawako was her learning ability.
Because Satsuki had been absent for a long time, Sawako was initially very worried that she would fall behind in the course. Although the school kept receiving her reports and assignments, paper materials were one thing, but actually sitting in the classroom was another.
To avoid embarrassing the young lady in class, Sawako even used the excuse of "pre-graduation review" to go over the knowledge points that needed to be confirmed in the senior year of Japanese.
After a week, she realized that her worries were somewhat unnecessary.
In the quiz a couple of days ago, Satsuki's score ranked among the top in the entire grade.
When the exam papers were graded, Sawako even flipped back the answer sheet to check it again to make sure the name wasn't wrong.
I got almost all the multiple-choice questions right, and my answers to the reading comprehension questions were also very impressive, especially the last question about the analysis of the article's structure and the characters' psychology, which was written in a more mature way than many students who attend classes regularly every day.
Judging by grades alone, Satsuki doesn't seem like a student who only attended 42 days in three years.
She's more like the kind of student who's already skimmed through the entire course and only occasionally goes back to school to check if the school is still there.
However, these are not the most pressing problems for Sawako right now.
What she's really struggling with now is whether or not to ask Satsuki to answer the question.
Logically speaking, it's normal for a student with good grades and attentive listening in class to be called on by the teacher. But when the person in question is Satsuki, things that are normal suddenly become abnormal.
If I don't call on her, will anyone in the class feel like I'm deliberately ignoring her?
If I call her, what if I happen to ask her a question she doesn't know the answer to?
Even if the question isn't difficult, what if she doesn't answer well enough and feels she's lost face in front of the whole class, and then simply doesn't come next week?
Sawako felt that her small frame was simply not up to the task of carrying such a large pot.
While she was thinking about these things, she still had to continue giving the lecture.
"As we just mentioned, when the servants took shelter from the rain under Rashomon, they did not immediately make a choice."
"He knew that if he didn't want to starve, he had to find a way to survive, but he was unwilling to admit that he would resort to theft. This hesitation is actually the most important psychological basis for the first half of the text."
Sawako picked up the chalk and wrote the word "hesitation" on the blackboard.
"But after the old woman appeared, this hesitation changed."
"The old woman's act of plucking the hair of the dead angered the servants, but the old woman's explanation transformed their anger into something else entirely."
As she said this, following her years of teaching experience, she paused naturally and turned to look at the audience.
"Okay, can anyone answer this: why did the servants' emotions shift from anger to action? How did the author portray this change?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Sawako regretted it.
She forgot that today's classroom was not her usual classroom.
The question itself is not difficult; any student could answer it correctly about 70-80% of the time.
But now the whole class is sitting neatly in rows, and Satsuki is among them.
Sawako suddenly didn't know where to look.
If she avoids looking at Satsuki, it would seem as if she is afraid to call out to her.
When her gaze fell on Satsuki, it was as if she was forcing her to answer.
The classroom was quiet for a few seconds.
Those few seconds felt like an entire semester to Sawako.
She was already mentally considering whether to randomly pick a student who usually had good grades and quickly pass the question over to them.
For example, Asakura in the front row is very steady. Although she has peeked at Satsuki three times today, at least her Japanese language grades are good. Hojo on the right is also good. Her family owns a publishing house and she has some interest in literature.
Just as she was about to speak, someone in the window seat raised their hand.
It is Gaoyue.
Sawako almost breathed a sigh of relief at that moment.
The fact that she raised her hand shows that she knows the answer.
Moreover, it proactively gave the teacher a very appropriate way out.
"Saionji-kun."
Sawako tried her best to make her voice sound steady.
Please answer this question.
Satsuki stood up.
She didn't rush to speak, but instead gently closed her textbook, as if she were reviewing the passages she had just read.
Almost simultaneously, all eyes in the class fell on her.
"I think the servant's change in mentality was not because he suddenly became cruel, but because the old woman gave him a reason to convince himself."
Sawako paused slightly in the hand holding the chalk.
This is a good start.
Satsuki continued, "The first half of the story focuses on the human condition. He has lost his job, has nowhere to go in the rain, and faces only hunger and death. However, he cannot directly admit that he would do bad things, so he remains stuck under Rashomon."
"Therefore, the 'stay' here is not just a physical stay, but also a psychological stay."
The classroom was quiet.
Even the students who are usually the most likely to lose focus in class listened very attentively.
"Later, when he saw the old woman pulling out the hair of a dead person, his first reaction was anger."
"Because at that time, he was still in the position of a judge, and he felt that he was at least cleaner than the old woman. But the old woman said that those who died also lived by deception, so it was not particularly shameful for her to pluck her hair in order not to starve to death."
Satsuki paused for a moment after saying this.
"That one sentence changed the servant's position."
Sawako's eyes lit up slightly.
Satsuki didn't look at the blackboard, but only at the direction of the textbook. Her voice wasn't loud, but it was loud enough for the whole classroom to hear.
"Before that, he was a man who saw evil. But after hearing the old woman's words, he realized that he could use the same reasoning—since the old woman could peel the hair off a dead person to survive, he could also peel the old woman's clothes to survive."
"The old woman was originally trying to defend herself, but her defense opened a door for the servant, turning his hesitation into action."
She looked up at Sawako.
"So the change here is not simply a shift from good to evil. The author is writing about how a person takes other people's reasons and turns them into their own."
"The old woman used that excuse to justify herself, which also gave the servants a pretext to attack. By the time the servants rushed at her, he no longer needed to convince himself."
For a moment, no one spoke in the classroom.
Sawako even forgot to respond immediately.
Satsuki's answer was very clear and complete.
She explained the characters' situations, psychological shifts, and narrative structure. What surprised Sawako the most was that when she said these things, it didn't sound like she was reciting answers; she genuinely understood the article.
A student who only attended classes for 42 days in three years was able to answer classroom questions to this extent after sitting back in the classroom for a week.
Sawako suddenly realized that the supplementary handouts she had prepared were probably somewhat unnecessary.
However, it's better to be superfluous.
This at least shows that she doesn't have to worry about Satsuki falling behind in class, nor does she have to worry about embarrassing the young lady in class.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's a very good answer."
Sawako finally spoke, her voice a little lighter than before.
"Saionji-kun grasped the most crucial point in the servants' psychological changes. The old woman's explanation did not stop the evil; instead, it became the servants' justification for their actions."
"This is also the most interesting part of Rashomon. The characters don't suddenly change, but rather find an excuse to get over it in a certain sentence or a certain scene."
Satsuki bowed slightly and sat down.
The classroom seemed to regain its normal rhythm.
Sawako turned around, wrote the word "reason" on the blackboard, and drew an arrow between "hesitation" and "action." Her expression softened slightly when her back was to the students.
That moment is over now.
As she continued writing on the blackboard, she couldn't help but wonder if Satsuki had noticed her inner turmoil.
That hand was raised just in time.
They neither asked her a question before she did, nor waited until the classroom became awkwardly quiet. They took over the entire lesson for her precisely when she was struggling to decide.
If it's by chance, that would be the best.
if not……
When Sawako finished writing on the blackboard and turned around, she saw that Satsuki was already writing in her notebook with her head down, looking as calm as if nothing had happened.
Regardless of the facts, the outcome is ultimately good.
She suddenly realized that this past month might not have been as terrible as she had imagined.
Satsuki has been back at school for a week now, and everything has gone smoothly. She arrives at school on time every day, attends classes as usual, and hands in her homework more neatly than other students. She even proactively raises her hand to help out the teacher in the most awkward situations.
If things continue like this, I should be able to safely see this great-aunt off to her graduation day.
Thinking of this, the weight that had been pressing on Sugiura Sawako's heart for a whole week finally eased a little.
She picked up her textbook and continued teaching.
"Then, let's move on to the next paragraph. After the servant made his choice, the author did not write where he went, only mentioning that he disappeared into the night."
"Why does the ending end here? You can think about it first."
The students in the classroom were looking down at their books.
The February sunlight streaming through the window fell warmly on the edge of the desk.
Sawako Sugiura glanced at the attendance book.
All members of Group A, Class 3, are present today.