Chapter 30: The Invisible Crushing of Qin Shueba
Wen Xia tilted her delicate face upward and blinked. “So even the straight-A student with a score of 700, Qin Mo, needs tutoring.”
Qin Mo slung the pink backpack over his left shoulder, raising an eyebrow slightly and speaking in a low, husky voice, “I’m accompanying my wife.”
“Who’s your wife? I haven’t married you.”
After saying this, Wen Xia skipped ahead, her jet-black ponytail swaying as she moved.
Qin Mo chuckled lightly, his long legs swiftly catching up to her. He reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Hmm? Wife, say it again. I didn’t hear you clearly, just now.”
…
The two of them entered the tutoring center in the last minute. There were no more seats available in the front, so they found the last two seats, one on the left and one on the right, and sat down as desk mates.
In the morning, there was a back-to-back math class. The male teacher, with a Mediterranean hairstyle and glasses, looked like a veteran educator who had been teaching for many years.
He adjusted his glasses and spoke in Mandarin with a regional accent. “Hello, students. I’m your math teacher, Yang Zhongwei. You can call me Teacher Yang or Uncle Yang.”
His tone was gentle, probably because the students were paying for the tutoring.
“Since it’s my first class with you, I don’t know your situation yet, so we’ll spend the next forty minutes doing a test. The test consists of twenty multiple-choice questions, covering the key points from the entire first-year high school curriculum.”
“Students in the front, please pass the papers to the back.”
After receiving the test papers, Wen Xia glanced over them quickly, took out her pen, and neatly wrote down her name. She also noticed that Qin Mo had written his name as well.
On the podium, Yang Zhongwei continued, “Make sure to do the test on your own. Don’t copy, or I won’t know how well you’ve grasped the key concepts from first-year high school.”
The test officially began.
Qin Mo glanced at Wen Xia, who was working through her problems on a scrap of paper, then picked up his pen and quickly began filling in the answers on his test paper. In just ten minutes, he had finished all twenty questions.
His gaze shifted again to Wen Xia, who had only made it to question five and had already gotten four wrong. It seemed her foundation… hmm… wasn’t that bad, but still needed work.
Yang Zhongwei walked down from the podium, about to remind Qin Mo not to copy, but he was surprised to find that Qin Mo had already finished his test.
“Student, you’re done?”
“Mm.”
Qin Mo nodded.
Yang Zhongwei picked up his test paper and was taken aback when he saw that it was all correct. These were his own questions, so there was no chance of copying from the internet.
He couldn’t help but study Qin Mo for a moment but didn’t want to disturb the other students. He placed the paper back on the desk and walked away.
Wen Xia glanced at Qin Mo’s test paper and saw that he had already finished.
She thought to herself: That was fast.
The next moment, she realized that four of the five problems she had done were wrong compared to Qin Mo’s answers.
“…”
Given Qin Mo’s abilities, it was highly likely that she had made the mistakes. She was completely deflated.
Forty minutes passed quickly, and Teacher Yang Zhongwei began collecting the papers. He then sat at the podium, quickly grading them.
Qin Mo’s eyes fell on the dense two pages of notes on Wen Xia’s desk. “…”
How did his own wife manage to scribble so much on paper and still get most of the problems wrong?
Out of the twenty multiple-choice questions, she had only gotten three right. Well, one of those correct answers was probably a lucky guess.
At this rate, she’d have a better chance of picking one answer for all the questions.
“Qin Mo, this is so hard,” Wen Xia sighed dramatically, her face a picture of frustration.
Qin Mo gently patted the back of her head and, with a bit of a guilty conscience, complimented her, “You did great.”
“Really?”
Wen Xia thought to herself that since Qin Xueba said it was good, it must be true. Her frustration was immediately lifted.
When the test papers were handed back, her eyes were immediately drawn to the red crosses on her paper. There were no scores, just the markings.
She looked at Qin Mo. “…”
This was his idea of “great”? She only got three questions right, and even random guessing might have done better.
She looked over at Qin Mo’s test paper. A large check mark, a “1,” and two “0”s.
“…”
She felt that the teacher must have deliberately avoided giving her a score to spare her from the blow to her self-esteem.
Standing at the front of the classroom, Yang Zhongwei began analyzing, “Aside from a few students with a solid foundation, most of you have a weak grasp of first-year high school knowledge. In that case, I will start from the first chapter of the textbook. Please pay attention, everyone.”
As she listened to the lesson, Wen Xia glanced at Qin Mo. He was paying attention to the teacher, rarely writing anything, but whenever the teacher pointed out key points, he would underline them or mark them with a triangle symbol.
Wen Xia quickly shifted her focus back to the lesson and concentrated.
In the final class of the morning, Yang Zhongwei had them review what they had learned.
Qin Mo took out the test paper, using a black pen to circle the first question. “The teacher already covered a similar problem. Xia Xia, do it again.”
Wen Xia picked up her scrap paper, worked through the problem, and took about four or five minutes to find the correct answer.
“Give me the scrap paper.”
Qin Mo wrote down a variation of the problem on the paper. It required a different approach, but the same formula applied.
Wen Xia carefully read the problem three times before starting to work out the solution. On the third step, Qin Mo spoke up, gently tapping the problem with the tip of his pen. “Wrong. Recheck the question.”
“Sometimes, forward reasoning doesn’t work. Try working backward. With the same math formula, there are dozens, even hundreds, of different problem types. Rigid thinking won’t help.”
Listening to his reminder, Wen Xia looked at the problem again and changed her approach. Her confidence returned. “Is the answer 2?”
Qin Mo nodded. “For this type of question, there’s a shortcut. You can directly apply the formula to the options in a multiple-choice question. It’s a quick way to get the correct answer.”
He didn’t like using shortcuts like this, as it wasted time, but for Wen Xia, who struggled with math, this was an efficient approach.
Afterward, he went over some of the key points the teacher had discussed in class with Wen Xia, helping her to reinforce and deepen her understanding.
…
After resting at home for a while, Wen De glanced at his watch. It was 11:46. He rubbed his temples, changed into casual clothes, and headed to Pearson.
He arrived at Pearson at 11:53.
Standing by the window, he pursed his lips, his gaze falling on the last row of students in the classroom.
The boy had short, messy hair that just touched his eyebrows. His lips moved as he patiently explained something.
The girl, with a small face the size of a palm, was very focused. Occasionally, she nodded or shook her head.
At 11:59, Wen De turned and left.
He didn’t know how to handle the situation of Wen Xia’s early dating.
Ding ding… The bell rang.
Wen Xia packed her pens and books into her bag and, with a grin, called out to Qin Mo using his new nickname. “Qin ‘Kuai,’ what are we having for lunch?”
Qin Kuai?
Kuai (Fast)?
Qin Mo raised an eyebrow with a meaningful look. “Is my wife complaining that I’m too quick? Next time, I’ll slow down.”
Wen Xia: “…”
If she couldn’t catch the double meaning in Qin Mo’s words, then all those years of sharing a bed with him would have been for nothing.
At that moment, her phone rang. It was a call from Wen De. She gave Qin Mo a “shh” gesture and answered the call. “Dad.”
Wen De’s voice was as calm as ever. “Remember to eat.”
“Dad, I know. Are you at the factory?”
“Mm.”
“Dad, don’t work too hard. Your health is important.” Wen Xia paused for a moment, then added, emphasizing each word, “Dad, I’ll worry about you.”
There was silence on the other end for a while. “Mm.”
