In the classroom of 2nd Year Class 3, the first lesson of evening self-study was English.
This time, the monthly English exam was the first in the schedule, and using the computer, the marks were done quickly. After the whole monthly exam was done, the English results have already come out.
Because Lu Shiman was dismissed as a homeroom teacher, her actions in the sixth examination room were not only spread among the students, but also became well known in the teachers’ office.
During this monthly exam time, Lu Shiman hardly even dared to set foot in the office, for fear of seeing other teachers talking about her with mocking gazes. After the English results came out, seeing that Zhu Tong once again got a perfect score, she felt even more like got slapped in the face until her face was burning hot.
Even if she deliberately targeted Zhu Tong, even if her invigilation affected the students’ mentality in the examination, Zhu Tong did not lose a single point.
Her intentional or unintentional interference appeared ignorant and stupid in front of the perfect score.
She regretted it later, and felt that she was simply crazy to do such things that ended up hurting herself because she perceived an injustice being done to her.
But it was too late.
In stark contrast, the English teacher of Class 3 was very happy.
She felt that Zhu Tong was her lucky star. After Zhu Tong transferred to No. 1 Middle School, the average English score of Class 3 had been first in the whole 2nd Year. The English teachers of other classes envied her.
However, the teachers of other subjects in Class 3 were not so happy.
Because Zhu Tong’s answering method was too special, other teachers who marked the test papers could directly recognize Zhu Tong’s answer sheet without relying on handwriting recognition.
When Shi Wenshu saw the answer sheets “shared” to him by teachers of other subjects. He had the illusion that this “bad” student was reported collectively by the teachers.
He looked at Zhu Tong’s answer sheet, sighed heavily, and then called Shao Ming to the office.
That’s right, Shao Ming was the one who was called.
It was the first time that Class 3 saw their resident Study God being called to the office after the exam. There were many speculations that sprouted from this.
“Why did Shi-laoshi call Shao Ming to the office? Could it be that even the Study God encountered his first stumbling block in this monthly exam?”
“Lu Zheyu, you may change from being Lao Er to Lao Yi this time… ah, I mean, getting first place.1LZY is called “Lao Er/old two” because of his grade, so if he got first place, he would be called “Lao Yi/old one” instead.”
Lu Zheyu was neither sad nor happy. He only blankly stated, “Impossible.”
Other people:”…”
‘Is your self-worth a little too low?’
Zhu Tong sat in his seat and looked at the front door of the classroom, feeling a little uneasy. ‘Shao Ming wouldn’t have flunked the exam because he was busy tutoring me, right?’
In the office, Shi Wenshu put several answer sheets in front of Shao Ming, and Shao Ming was not surprised when he saw the familiar handwriting on them.
“I heard that you have been tutoring Zhu Tong recently?” Shi Wenshu asked.
Shao Ming nodded and said, “Indeed, it has been a couple of days.”
Shi Wenshu looked at the answer sheet and said, “Compared with his last test results, his progress in this test is obvious. It’s his way of answering…”
Shao Ming couldn’t help but chuckle.
Shi Wenshu looked up at him with a complicated gaze. “You have been his deskmate for so long. Do you think there is any way to change his way of thinking?”
It’s true that Zhu Tong was too “principled” in his approach to answering questions. Even teachers couldn’t make him let go of the said principles.
Shao Ming took the answer sheet in Shi Wenshu’s hand.
A lot of hard questions2the original is “big question”, this means the hard questions that yield big points. were answered well.
He suddenly thought that when Zhu Tong usually did questions, he only picked questions that he knew how to do. The difference was that every time he submitted an assignment, there was not an empty question.
He was very good at learning, asking questions when he did not understand, and completing every homework carefully.
It’s just that during exams, there was nobody he could “ask”. So every question he had no idea how to answer just… left blank.
This resulted in him not getting any point for lucky answers or partial answers.
Shao Ming looked at the exam sheet for a while, and he really wanted to know what was going on in Zhu Tong’s mind. There was glint in his eyes, before he nodded to Shi Wenshu. “Okay, I’ll think of a way to convince him.”
Shi Wenshu was slightly startled. “Do you really have a solution?”
Shao Ming was close to Zhu Tong, and Shi Wenshu knew this well. If he wanted to convince Zhu Tong, he really needed to do this via Shao Ming – this would be akin to prescribing the right medicine. The two of them discussed a plan.
He didn’t expect Shao Ming to be so straightforward.
Shao Ming smiled and said, “Well, don’t worry, Laoshi , make sure to complete the task.”
“…”
When he returned to the classroom, he saw his deskmate who was currently looking at the front door of the classroom.
There were many people in the corridor between classes, and his deskmate didn’t seem to notice him.
He quietly walked around behind Zhu Tong from the back of the classroom. He looked at the person who was still staring at the front door, bent down, blew softly right next to the shorter youth’s ear. Then, he whispered with a slight smile, “Mr. Deskmate, are you looking for me?”
Zhu Tong’s ears were sensitive, so he immediately sensed a warm breath on it. He turned his head to meet Shao Ming’s enlarged handsome face, and was slightly startled. “You… how did you…”
He then looked at the front door of the classroom and at Shao Ming, who had appeared behind him, “When did you come back?”
Shao Ming replied, “Just now.”
Zhu Tong: “…”
Somehow, his ear still felt itchy at the place that Shao Ming blew just now. He couldn’t help but scratch it, wondering why he was staring at the door of the classroom and like he lost someone.
Shao Ming smiled and sat back in his seat.
Zhu Tong hesitated. “…What did Shi-laoshi say to you?”
Shao Ming supported his head with one hand, raised his eyebrows and said, “One good news and one bad news, which one do you want to hear first?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
‘Is there really bad news?’
In line with the principle of restraint first and pleasure later, Zhu Tong decided, “Bad news first then.”
Shao Ming said: “The bad news is that you did well in the exam this time, and you have made great progress. Shi-laoshi decided to let me continue to tutor you and correct your habit of leaving blank answers.”
“…”
‘Why is this the bad news? This should be good news, right?’
‘Wait… correcting the blank answers?’
Zhu Tong defended his method by saying: “I can’t answer those I left blank.”
–Since he couldn’t do it, of course he could only leave it blank.
Shao Ming tilted his head and asked, “Not at all?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
Not really, he was just not sure about the answer.
He paused for a while and decided to hold off on answering. Instead, he asked, “Then… what’s the good news?”
Shao Ming looked at him with a cozy attitude.
Zhu Tong: “?”
“The good news is…” Shao Ming deliberately paused, “If you want to continue being tutored, you may not be able to move out for the time being.”
Originally, it was said that the tutoring was only for the monthly exam.
Zhu Tong pondered for a while, and asked, “Why is this good news?”
Shao Ming asked back, “You don’t want to continue getting tutored?”
“No,” Zhu Tong paused and corrected, “Yes.”
He really liked that Shao Ming gave him tutoring.
He was a familiar and excellent person of the same age who had the same learning progress as himself, yet he could “tutor” him. Learning from him wasn’t uncomfortable, and he really did improve his grade. Of course, he wanted to continue the tutoring.
Shao Ming suddenly smiled. “Yes, if you want to improve your grades, I will continue. How about you pay half the rent as your tuition money? Isn’t this good news?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
‘That makes sense.’
Shao Ming didn’t bother with him anymore about the good news and bad news, and instead said, “Now let’s talk about your blank answers.”
He took the Math exam’s answer sheet then asked, “Which of the following questions did you not do?”
Zhu Tong took a pen and circled two questions. “There are only two hard questions in Math I left blank.”
Shao Ming said, “Try to do it on your scratch paper.”
“…”
Zhu Tong was unsure, but he gave it a try.
Shao Ming looked at the result he had come up with after thinking hard, and said, “The answer is wrong, but if you wrote this as your answer, you could get 11 points for writing down your steps.”
Zhu Tong was stunned. “So many?”
Shao Ming explained, “If you write these steps, even if you don’t really solve them, it’s still the result of your own thinking, and they are your own achievements, right?”
“…”
During the examination, Zhu Tong told Shi Wenshu that the scores he obtained were not his own if he only guessed it at random.
‘Did Shi-laoshi told Shao Ming about this?’
“And the more you don’t know how to answer it, the more you have to do. Only by writing, can you think further. It doesn’t matter if you do it wrong. The wrong question will deepen your impression of your current weakness and prevent you from making the same mistakes next time.”
“…”
Zhu Tong suddenly froze.
Seeing the shorter youth staring blankly at him, Shao Ming laughed and asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Zhu Tong answered, “I’m not used to you… being so serious all of a sudden.”
Even if Shao Ming explained the knowledge points to him before, his voice was very soft. Suddenly, he said such a straight “teacher’s speech”, which seemed so serious.
Shao Ming was also stunned for a moment, wondering in surprise, when did he become so serious?
For a young master like Zhu Tong, who has never had to worry about food and clothing for the rest of his life even if he fails an exam, do grades really matter to him?
If he has a question, it is enough to help him answer it. Why does he interfere so much?
–It’s just that this Young Master worked so hard, it would be a pity if he couldn’t get the corresponding results.
The corners of Shao Ming’s lips were slightly raised, and he hurriedly inched closer to him, only talking once he got close enough. “So… you’re saying that you prefer the unruly me?”
Once Shao Ming closed their gap, Zhu Tong suddenly felt short of breath.
The distance between them was really close. Zhu Tong’s face suddenly became hot, and he hurriedly averted his gaze before saying, “No, I just feel… not used to it.”
Shao Ming relentlessly pressed forward, “So, is my conjecture correct?”
Zhu Tong thought for a while, then nodded, “Yes.”
“Will you leave blank answers in the future?”
“…Never.”
Shao Ming nodded with satisfaction and stepped back a little, “The hard questions should be done, and the fill-in-the-blank questions should also be done, otherwise the teachers of each subject will cry.”
Zhu Tong turned to look at him.
Shao Ming said seriously, “Yes, I will really cry.”
Seeing that he was joking, Zhu Tong let out a helpless smile. He nodded and said seriously, “Okay, I see.”
Even if Shao Ming wouldn’t cry, he really cared about his grades.
‘It turned out that the exam results were not just my business,’ Zhu Tong mused. He suddenly had a new understanding of the exam.
Seeing him bowing his head and thinking, Shao Ming also let out a small smile.
Tang Nuan was correcting her English test paper in front of her . It seemed that she encountered a question that she could not understand. She turned around and looked at the two “Study Gods” in the back seat, and chose to ask Zhu Tong.
“Zhu Tong, can you help translate this sentence?”
Zhu Tong didn’t think too much. He put his pen down to read Tang Nuan’s English exam paper, and then began to translate what Tang Nuan asked.
His English was really strong in both spoken language and article analysis. There was a lot of medical vocabulary in that paragraph, which wasn’t taught normally in the curriculum – they could’ve only learned it by self-study. However, this posed no problem for Zhu Tong, and he could still explain it without any stumbling.
Shao Ming subconsciously thought of the answer sheets he saw in the office. After Tang Nuan thanked him and turned around, he asked, “Why do you have such good grades in English alone?”
Even if he’s only good at one subject, the comparison was really too outrageous.
Hearing that, Zhu Tong paused, “Oh”, then continued, “My good English should be to the credit of my family doctor. He’s American.”
‘A family doctor.’ Shao Ming’s eyes darkened, but his expression wasn’t visible. He asked, “his face was not visible, and he said, “Is it because he’s always around?”
“No.” Zhu Tong shook his head, “It’s because I don’t want to hear him speak Chinese.”
Shao Ming didn’t expect that answer. “Don’t want to listen to his Chinese?”
“Yeah.” Zhu Tong seemed to have thought of something interesting, looked at Shao Ming and said, “His Chinese is not standard. It sounds really awkward.”
In the beginning, the doctor was not his family doctor, but was occasionally invited by his grandfather to monitor his health, so he could barely bear his awful spoken Chinese.
It was only later that his health got worse and worse, and his grandfather was so worried that he simply let the doctor live in their house, so he was forced to have his ears washed every day by the doctor’s broken “Chinese”.
After this went on for more than a month, Zhu Tong couldn’t hold on any longer. He was inspired to start learning English, and communicated with doctors in his poor English every day.
Just as he was uncomfortable with the doctor’s Chinese, the doctor was also very uncomfortable with his English.
Then he persuaded him subtly, “Ken wii thalk inn Chinesse?”3he tried to say: 我们可以用中文交流, which pronounced “wǒmen kěyǐ yòng zhōngwén jiāoliú”; but he instead said “wòmen kèyǐ yòng zhòngwén jiàoliú” He messed up the tone, so it sounded incorrigible.
Zhu Tong’s answer was concise and clear: “No.”
The doctor:”…”
Thinking of the past, Zhu Tong was washed with many mixed emotions. “It’s just that after we hurt each other for a few years, my English is getting better, but his Chinese is still so bad.”
It was the first time Shao Ming heard him describe his past so carefully. Subconsciously, the corners of his mouth rose.
“It sounds like your family doctor is quite interesting.”
Zhu Tong said in distress. “What’s interesting? I have a headache whenever I talk to him.”
After speaking, he sighed again, “But it is indeed thanks to him that I grew up until this day.”
It might be because his family doctor was actually a quite famous specialist surgeon, his medical prowess was unquestionably fantastic.
Shao Ming smiled slightly, and reminded himself not to inquire about some sensitive things, but he couldn’t help but say, “Your body… what’s going on?”
‘Why is your health so poor?’ he wanted to ask.
He looked like a porcelain vase perched on a high shelf. It might look pretty, but it was fragile to touch. It made people very cautious and nervous whenever they handled it.
Zhu Tong: “…”
His body’s shit condition was, of course, due to his “villain status” debuff.
He paused, then hesitantly answered, “Maybe… it’s genetic, my mother’s health is also quite poor.”
“…”
A typical perfunctory answer.
Shao Ming didn’t want to prod further. He took the draft paper he had used before and began to explain to him the two hard Math questions Zhu Tong previously stumbled upon.
If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I’ll release an additional chapter ^^
