Looking at Hu Yuying's shy demeanor, Long Aotian gave her a strange look: "Has no one ever told you that you're beautiful?"
Hearing this, Hu Yuying didn't know how to respond, so she became even more nervous.
Her demure appearance, with her eyes slightly lowered, was exactly like a little white fox from ancient myths, exuding a pure charm that was both alluring and captivating.
Her occasional glances, fleeting and striking, completely disarmed people, inspiring a desire for conquest and possession.
"No way?"
"Stop, stop talking." Hu Yuying pretended to pick up a roll of paper: "This problem is very simple. I have it recorded in my notebook. Let me find it for you."
"Many of the exercises on these papers are also key knowledge points. I'll write them down for you later. If you practice regularly, your grades will definitely improve."
Looking at Hu Yuying's flustered appearance, Long Aotian found it amusing. This girl was really easily teased.
Look how red her little face had gotten.
Seeing the smile on Long Aotian's lips, the originally nervous Hu Yuying actually felt less anxious.
In fact, through their unconscious interactions and Long Aotian's deliberate guidance, the sense of restraint on Hu Yuying had significantly dissipated.
If it had been before, upon hearing such words, she would have long since lowered her head, not even daring to look at anyone.
The ugly duckling turned into a swan because it was a swan all along.
Hu Yuying was the same, just like the common trope in novels where the female protagonist gradually transforms, ultimately completing her metamorphosis and astonishing everyone.
What she needed most now was to build her self-confidence.
It's very easy to destroy someone's self-confidence.
But building someone's self-confidence is incredibly difficult.
At least for Hu Yuying today, it was undoubtedly a wonderful day.
She had received more compliments today than in her entire first and second years of high school combined.
Thanks to having a good big brother.
Thinking of this, Hu Yuying secretly cheered herself on, determined to help her big brother improve his grades.
Seeing how motivated Hu Yuying was, Long Aotian also got energized.
Ten minutes later: "You wait a moment, my mind is a bit muddled right now. Let me collect myself. Given the function f(x) = kx + b..."
Hu Yuying waited quietly, but when she saw smoke rising from her big brother's head, her eyes suddenly widened.
She pointed at Long Aotian's head in surprise: "Big brother, your, your head is smoking."
"Huh?" Long Aotian was stunned for a moment: "I can't see it? Could it be that my brain is growing?"
"Then, Big Brother, do you still want to study?"
"Yes." Long Aotian said without hesitation: "I feel like a god of learning has possessed me; I'm unstoppable now!"
After Hu Yuying completely recited the problem-solving method, she looked at Long Aotian with earnest expectation: "Did you learn it?"
"Well, it's alright." Long Aotian hadn't actually learned it, but he was a bit embarrassed.
After all, the impression he had left on Hu Yuying so far was one of overwhelming dominance and brilliant wisdom!
If she knew he was actually an idiot, would she still respect him?
Hearing Long Aotian's words, Hu Yuying's eyes curved, and she tilted her head, suppressing a smile: "Then shall we go over it again?"
The reason she suppressed her smile was because Long Aotian clearly didn't understand, yet he insisted on pretending to.
His guilty look was completely different from when he lectured Wang Shuo earlier!
He was a bit silly.
"Then, let's go over it again. You write it down with a pen."
"Okay."
As Class 7's top slacker, he was actually discussing studying with a new classmate.
This was something unimaginable before.
But the conversation between the two of them was a bit too abstract, wasn't it?
Overusing his brain, his hair smoking, he insisted it was a god of learning possessing him.
He was clearly feeling guilty just now, wasn't he? He even said he had already learned it!
Everyone was secretly watching Long Aotian and Hu Yuying.
They kept whispering to each other.
Even Wang Shuo couldn't help but look at Long Aotian: "Is he serious?" His tone was one of disbelief.
"He couldn't really be growing a brain, could he? I saw his head smoking just now too." Wang Shuo's deskmate said with surprise.
As the second-to-last and third-to-last students, they still couldn't believe that the last-place student would actually take the initiative to study, and even make his head smoke from it.
The teacher faced over 60 students in the entire class at once, and with time limits for each lesson, they couldn't explain problems in meticulous detail, otherwise it would delay the progress of new curriculum. Therefore, their explanations were not comprehensive.
Hu Yuying's one-on-one guidance was very detailed in explaining the problem-solving process.
Sometimes when Long Aotian didn't understand, Hu Yuying would immediately switch to a different problem-solving approach, which allowed Long Aotian to understand faster.
"Is that right?"
Hu Yuying nodded gently: "Mm."
"Yes!" He stretched, feeling incredibly proud of himself.
No one had told him how to solve this problem; he had figured it out step by step based on the solution steps Hu Yuying provided!
A genius, he was simply a genius!
Looking at Long Aotian's happy expression, a glimmer of light flashed in Hu Yuying's eyes, but it quickly dimmed as she seemed to think of something.
Everyone's happiness seemed so simple.
In the past, when those people saw her in a pathetic state, they would be very happy and joyful.
Some people appeared domineering and difficult to provoke, yet their happiness was simply from solving a basic math problem.
Why was her own happiness so difficult to achieve?
She didn't ask for much, only hoping that no one would bully her anymore.
She had never proactively provoked anyone; she just wanted to study quietly, get into her desired university, then earn money and support her family. But why was it so hard?
If she hadn't met Big Brother, she might still be getting bullied now.
Taking a deep breath, she bravely looked at Long Aotian: "Brother Long, if I'm your follower, will no one bully me anymore?"
Long Aotian heard this and was silent for a few seconds.
Then he met Hu Yuying's gaze, not directly answering her question, but instead said with a serious expression: "Do you know how excellent you are?"
"Excellent? Me?" A brief look of confusion appeared in Hu Yuying's eyes.
"Let me guess. If I'm right, will you nod, okay?"
Hu Yuying looked at Long Aotian without speaking, then nodded.
"Among those who used to bully you, did someone confess to you but you rejected him?"
Hearing this, Hu Yuying instinctively pursed her lips, but under Long Aotian's gaze, she still nodded.
Long Aotian chuckled softly: "Looks like I guessed right."
"Among those who used to bully you, did they insult your appearance? Did they falsely accuse you of cheating on exams?"
Hu Yuying remembered something, her eyes lowered slightly, and her head unconsciously drooped a lot, but she still nodded.
"So, do you know how truly excellent you are?"
"Excellent people will always attract each other, but some visual animals who simply want to possess will try every possible way to drag you down with them."
"Because you are good enough, to some people, it's like a swan and a toad, or white clouds and the mud on the ground."
"Only when the swan becomes an ugly duckling, when the white clouds are stained with mud, will these people have a tiny chance."
At this point, Long Aotian meaningfully looked at Wang Shuo, who was picking his nose.
Hu Yuying followed Long Aotian's gaze, then immediately looked away.
"But similarly, jealousy can also disfigure a person."
"The people they like to pursue are easily attracted by your presence, so their self-esteem begins to act up. But when they find that they are inferior to you in every way, yet are unwilling to admit that you are better than them..."
"That's when targeting appears. They will find ways to expose your most embarrassing moments in front of everyone, staining your once excellent self."
"Thus, a stained you becomes less excellent."
Long Aotian's words, while seemingly guiding Hu Yuying, were actually just infinitely magnifying her strengths.
As a passionate young man from the new world, Long Aotian was 28 years old before he transmigrated.
Calling himself an 'uncle' in front of this 18-year-old girl wasn't going too far, was it?
Having experienced more in society, witnessed too much human warmth and coldness, the fickleness of the world, and the wickedness of human hearts, he naturally knew how to comfort people effectively.
In fact, Long Aotian wasn't entirely wrong.
After junior high, males and females enter a period of youthful innocence and budding romance.
In high school, the attraction between sexes, coupled with the hormonal surges of adolescence, often leads to certain special infatuations with exceptionally good-looking girls and boys.
Being rejected after a confession and developing resentment is very common, even among adults.
It's also normal for someone who has a crush on someone else to feel jealousy when that person likes someone else.
The root of the problem still lay within Hu Yuying herself...