Shen Yuan stood obediently at the shop entrance, waiting for the owner to finish making his rice ball and egg pancake. He was also waiting for Li Zhi, who stood beside him, to review the results of his hour-and-a-half of work from last night.
Multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blanks, calculation problems, and the final long-form question.
It was no exaggeration to say that it took Shen Yuan a while just to read the questions.
But to be honest, Shen Yuan hadn't used any external help on these three problems; he had done them entirely on his own.
Otherwise, Li Zhi wouldn't be frowning so intensely right now.
Li Zhi knew Shen Yuan had a weak foundation in math, so she hadn't had high expectations that he would solve these three problems.
What Li Zhi wanted to see was Shen Yuan's problem-solving process.
Honestly, it was terrible.
When their breakfast was ready, Shen Yuan respectfully offered the deluxe egg pancake with both hands.
"Young Master Li, I beg for your guidance."
Li Zhi hefted the egg pancake in her hand. It had some serious weight to it.
The beautiful girl spoke unhurriedly, "You and I have a bet going on. Why should I teach you? If I teach you and I lose, wouldn't I be at a disadvantage?"
"It's just a bet, not a marriage proposal."
Hearing this, Li Zhi immediately looked at Shen Yuan warily. "Are you lusting after my body?! In that case, I definitely can't teach you!"
"I..."
Shen Yuan opened his mouth. "That's right, baby, I'm absolutely craving you."
Seeing Shen Yuan take the bait, the corners of Li Zhi's mouth lifted as she teased, "Oh? You're really craving me? Then why were you so head-over-heels for that girl with the surname Tong?"
Fuck!
'A moment of foolishness has left a lifelong stain.'
"Hey now, Young Master Li, can we please not talk about this?"
Li Zhi sneered. "This dark past of yours? I'll be dining out on this for the rest of my life!"
'What's that about the Embroidered Spring Saber?'
'Oh, wait. In high school, it should be called a gel pen.'
In the end, Li Zhi still gave Shen Yuan the problem-solving approach.
The beautiful girl had written down the solution long ago and put it in her pocket, just waiting to see if she could bait Shen Yuan into saying something.
Sure enough, the moment she dangled the hook, Shen Yuan bit.
A day's happiness starts with poking at Shen Yuan's dark past.
It was senior year, after all. Just as He Zhiyu had said, the sense of urgency was quite palpable.
Especially watching the Gaokao countdown calendar in the classroom have a page torn off day by day, that feeling of tension became even more tangible.
In a situation like this, everyone needed to find a little fun in their days to be able to breathe.
Li Zhi's fun was her sharp tongue.
Her main principle was that as long as she was happy, who cared if you were suffering or not.
Once, Li Zhi's sharp tongue was spread evenly among everyone in Class 15. Now, she doted on Shen Yuan alone.
Whenever Li Zhi found an opportunity, Shen Yuan would inevitably suffer a verbal beating.
Shen Yuan didn't really mind, though.
'From what I know of Li Zhi, she's just sharp-tongued; she doesn't actually look down on people.'
'The beautiful girl's thoughts are still very pure and easy to guess.'
'If I willingly take the bait, it makes her happy.'
'That way, even at the risk of losing the bet, the beautiful girl will still choose to give me the problem-solving approach and help me improve my math score.'
'If you want to get something, you have to give something.'
'It's just a bit of an embarrassing past. Doesn't hurt at all.'
'This is called emotional intelligence.'
'Family, isn't this a huge win?'
'As long as I can score a 620, I'll have redeemed myself!'
SOB SOB SOB.
I have to say, Old Zhou really has his teaching methods.
...
According to the weekly testing tradition, there were three tests on Friday and three on Saturday.
As for the specific schedule, that was up to the teachers themselves.
Since only the seniors were at school on Saturdays, there were no morning exercises.
So Sister Lan used the long break between classes for the Chinese weekly test.
It was fine to cut a few minutes from other subjects; after all, with something like math, if you couldn't solve a problem, you really couldn't solve it. An extra hour wouldn't help.
But Chinese was different.
Lose ten minutes, and you wouldn't even be able to finish your essay.
That's why Sister Lan usually chose Saturdays or Sundays for the weekly test, times when she could take over the long break.
After the Chinese weekly test ended, the biology weekly test began without a break.
It was absolutely killer.
"Damn it, senior year is worse than prison!"
Watching the test papers fall like snowflakes, Zhou Shaojie let out a cry of despair.
Yang Ze turned to pass the papers. "You say that like you've actually been to prison."
"Fuck, even if I haven't eaten pork, haven't I seen a pig run?"
Biology was relatively simple compared to physics and chemistry.
The question types were predictable, and the problem-solving methods were all more or less the same.
It was just some damn Mendel's peas and fruit flies.
Once you did enough problems and understood the material, your score would basically stabilize.
By the afternoon, after the physics weekly test, everyone was basically dazed.
Then Old Zhou came in with the test papers to pour cold water on them.
The kind that shocks you wide awake.
Shen Yuan stared at the 85 on his test paper, his mind went numb.
He glanced at the papers of the two people next to him.
Zhou Shaojie: 150. Li Zhi: 150.
Fuck!
"'How did I even get into the honors class?'"
Hearing Shen Yuan muttering to himself, Zhou Shaojie turned his head and glanced at Shen Yuan's score.
He couldn't hold back.
"Fuck, is your cerebellum underdeveloped or something?"
"You just fucking wait for the evening self-study session!"
Only then did Zhou Shaojie remember that Shuishui had bailed today, and Shen Yuan was in charge of the two evening self-study periods!
He immediately dropped into a pleading slide on his knees.
"Bro, I was wrong! I'll buy you a Coke!"
"Mango pomelo sago. Bring it tonight."
"Deal!" Zhou Shaojie agreed in a heartbeat.
"Now that's more like it. I'll tell you the English homework first."
Shen Yuan took out the workbook and casually flipped to a page.
Ah Jie happily started on the English homework.
He was already fantasizing about the envious looks he'd get from others when he told them he'd already finished his English homework.
As for Shen Yuan, he focused all his attention on Old Zhou.
And then he discovered, to his astonishment, that he could actually understand.
Especially the explanation for the last three long-form questions.
In the past, during explanations for these kinds of problems, Shen Yuan would have felt completely lost.
All he could do was nod at his desk, pretending he understood.
Even in the honors class.
There was nothing to be done about it; his foundation from the Lower Realm was just too poor.
No matter how well Old Zhou taught, he couldn't build a skyscraper on flat ground for him, nor could he meticulously break down the problem from start to finish just for one person.
Unless Shen Yuan asked him after class.
But today was different. With the experience pack Li Zhi had gifted him, Shen Yuan could fill in the gaps in his knowledge.
It allowed him to understand the method for solving this type of problem.
He couldn't guarantee he'd get it completely right the next time he encountered it, but at least he could score some points.
Thinking of this, Shen Yuan leaned over to Li Zhi's side. "I'll buy you a mango pomelo sago tonight."
Li Zhi gave a cool nod.
It was only right.
Then, Shen Yuan took the mango pomelo sago that Zhou Shaojie had dutifully offered him and dutifully offered it to Li Zhi.
He hadn't spent a single cent, yet he'd made his childhood friend happy.
'Tsk. (Smug.)'
Before the evening self-study session began, Shen Yuan took a trip to the teachers' office.
Eldest Female Cousin was indeed not in the office, but the damn test papers were stacked sky-high.
Shen Yuan picked up the papers for Class 15 and muttered, "I'm not even the fucking class representative, but I'm doing the class rep's work. Seriously."
'No, wait...'
'It seems like I'm doing the teacher's job.'
Thinking about it this way made Shen Yuan feel even worse.
The moment he entered the classroom, Shen Yuan announced, "Sister Shui isn't here. I'm handing out the tests, and I'll write the answers on the board. I'll go over the problems everyone got wrong. If only a few people missed a question, ask someone who got it right. We'll skip the ones everyone got correct."
Shen Yuan set the tests down and, with a single sentence, suppressed the murmurs of discontent.
"After that, it's free study."
"Yuan! I love you!"
"Yuan! I want to have your babies!"
Shen Yuan gestured for quiet with his hands. "Everyone, quiet down. Oh, right. No English homework today."
The cheers grew even louder.
At that moment, Zhou Shaojie, who had been furiously flipping through an English dictionary at his desk, lifted his head.
"?"
Seeing the expression on Zhou Shaojie's face—a look that was three parts astonishment, three parts regret, three parts anger, and one part sorrow—
Li Zhi couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.