Chapter 59: The “Early Dating” Supported by the Sophomore Math Teacher
When they returned to school, the third period had already started, and it was a math class.
Once they sat down, Liu Zhiwei continued with the lesson. After the class ended, he called Wen Xia and the others to his office, asking them to bring their test papers with them.
Wen Xia had the lowest score among the three, with He Sheng scoring 101 and Xu Min scoring 98.
Liu Zhiwei looked at the test papers. Considering the difficulty level, the three of them had done pretty well. He looked up at the lesson-planning teacher, Cao Jun. “Teacher Cao, will you be taking the afternoon self-study session?”
Hearing this, the other teachers all laughed. Cao Jun was notorious for taking over self-study sessions, which was why Class 8’s physics class was always the best in the parallel classes.
Cao Jun laughed along, not at all embarrassed. “I was planning to take it, but if Teacher Liu wants to use it, I’ll take the self-study session tomorrow instead.”
The chemistry teacher, Xue Wenyan, chimed in with a smile, “Teacher Cao, I need the self-study period tomorrow for an exam. Could you switch with me?”
Cao Jun readily agreed, “In that case, I’ll take the self-study on the day after tomorrow. I’ll accommodate you all.”
With three consecutive self-study periods taken over, Wen Xia could only sigh in exasperation.
He Sheng pushed up his glasses, and Xu Min remained expressionless.
Cao Jun suddenly remembered something and kindly asked Wen Xia, “Wen Xia, how much did your cousin score this time?”
The results of the math competition had not been announced yet.
The other teachers all perked up, clearly very interested.
Wen Xia replied, “150.”
The math teachers knew best the difficulty of this set of problems, and to score 150 points was truly impressive.
Ahem…
To be honest, if they were asked to take the same competition, they probably wouldn’t be able to score a perfect score either.
Teachers genuinely liked students with good results, and Liu Zhiwei jokingly smiled, “Wen Xia, bring your cousin to school more often. Maybe he’ll spread the good learning atmosphere to the No.2 Middle School.”
The other teachers all nodded and laughed.
After graduation, they would realize that this early dating was something they had actively facilitated and fully “supported.”
Wen Xia, feeling a little guilty, nervously touched her nose and obediently nodded.
The fourth period’s self-study was switched to a math class. The students of Class 8 groaned in complaint, but Liu Zhiwei pretended not to hear them. He set up the projector and displayed the math competition test paper.
“I’m going to go over the problems from this math competition in front of the whole class. Don’t copy them down. I’ll find time to print them out for you to solve again in the next couple of days.”
“The difficulty of these problems is very high for you guys. If I just let you solve them blindly, you’ll end up with piles of scores in the 20s or 30s.”
“Listen carefully. I’m taking time to explain this paper to you, so there’s definitely a reason for it.”
After a brief moment of complaints, the students reluctantly sat up and started paying attention to his explanations.
A few boys at the back fell asleep, already seasoned in such matters. Liu Zhiwei sighed inwardly, but still shouted at them in annoyance, “Everyone in the back, wake up! If you keep sleeping, you’ll have to come up front to sleep.”
Once everyone was awake, Liu Zhiwei started explaining the problems. “The first problem is very typical. This kind of question has appeared in nearly seven years of the college entrance exams. The difficulty isn’t high—it’s essentially a scoring problem, so pay close attention to this kind of question…”
The self-study period ended after Liu Zhiwei covered just eight multiple-choice questions.
Knowing that the students needed to line up, Liu Zhiwei ended the class on time.
After lunch, Qin Mo called Wen Xia to tutor her remotely, starting with the ninth problem. “This one’s a bit difficult. If you don’t understand anything, just ask me to stop.”
Wen Xia held her pen, nodding as she replied, “Okay.”
Qin Mo continued, “Let’s assume g(x) = 2√(1-x), with the domain of -1 ≤ x ≤ 1…”
Qin Mo continued tutoring her over the phone until it was almost time for self-study. “Wife, copy all the math formulas from first year high school twenty times. After school, I’ll check and quiz you.”
Wen Xia’s grasp of first-year knowledge wasn’t very solid.
Wen Xia: “…”
She silently resisted. If she had to copy more formulas, she would really start having nightmares; she had already dreamt about math formulas three times.
“Good girl, there’s a reward once you finish copying,” Qin Mo gently coaxed her.
Wen Xia obediently replied, “Okay.”
After hanging up the phone, she grabbed her pen and reviewed the problems Qin Mo had explained to make sure she understood everything.
Once she was certain there was nothing she didn’t understand, she pulled out her math notebook and began copying the formulas.
At that moment, she noticed Xu Min looking at her. “Is something wrong?”
Xu Min hesitated a little before replying, “Wen Xia, could you explain this problem to me? I didn’t understand when the teacher explained it earlier.”
“Sure,” Wen Xia smiled.
Beside them, He Sheng pushed up his glasses and chimed in, “Can I listen too?”
Soon, the three of them were gathered together, heads bent over the problem.
Teacher Cao Jun came by to check on the evening study session and saw the three of them working together. After standing for a while, listening to their discussion, he moved on to patrol the rest of the students.
…
After the evening self-study session ended, in the dormitory, Wen Xia took out the trophy Qin Mo had awarded her from her pink backpack and showed it off to Liu An’an and Jiang Yan. “This is my cousin’s trophy.”
Liu An’an touched it enviously. “If I got a trophy like that, my mom would probably worship me and burn incense every day.”
Jiang Yan agreed, “Same here.”
Just then, Xu Min returned and handed Wen Xia a milk carton. “Thank you for explaining the problems to me.”
Xu Min’s family wasn’t well-off, and Wen Xia had almost never seen her eat snacks; her meals were often from the three-yuan window at the cafeteria.
Wen Xia thought for a moment and accepted the gift, then took out a bag of chips from the cupboard and handed it to her with a smile. “Here, have these.”
“No, thank you,” Xu Min declined.
Xu Min shook her head, but Wen Xia smiled and took her hand, pressing the chips into her palm.
“Here, take them. Good desk-mate, no rejections, or I’ll get mad!”
Xu Min froze for a moment, looking at Wen Xia’s sincere face, and felt warmth in her heart. She knew that her family wasn’t well off, and many classmates secretly looked down on her, calling her a country bumpkin.
So, she had always tried to avoid interacting much with her peers.
“Thank you,” she said, accepting the chips.
…
This week, Wen Xia spent most of her time either doing test papers or copying math formulas. Surprisingly, this repetitive method actually helped her solidify her memory much more than she had expected.
The usual trio, the “Iron Triangle,” was now often missing one person. Liu An’an and Jiang Yan had stopped playing around and started focusing on their studies. They frequently came to Wen Xia with questions, and Wen Xia would explain things in great detail.
With Wen Xia’s encouragement, Liu An’an and Jiang Yan began to take an interest in studying. They were especially excited when they solved problems they couldn’t do before, feeling a sense of accomplishment.
On Friday after school, Wen Xia, Liu An’an, and Jiang Yan decided to practice their dance routines at Wen Xia’s house and spend the night there.
Both Liu An’an and Jiang Yan’s families were easygoing and had no problem with them staying over at Wen Xia’s place. After giving a few reminders, they agreed.
Wen De didn’t mind either. He took the three girls out for dinner and then dropped them off at home. To make them feel more comfortable, he went to the factory office so they could have some privacy.
When the door closed behind him, Liu An’an collapsed onto the couch with a look of relief, “I almost suffocated in there.”
Wen Xia chuckled and poked her arm. “Your Uncle Wen is very kind.”
“Uncle Wen is kind to you, Xia Xia. If anyone else were there, he’d ‘change his face.’ Just like your cousin,” Jiang Yan teased with a mischievous grin.
Wen Xia laughed at her words. When she thought about it, she realized it was true. Both Wen De and Qin Mo were the types to wear cold, indifferent faces when dealing with strangers.
As for Wen De, she had no comment, but Qin Mo… well, he was a p*rvert.
A shameless p*rvert.
At least, that was how he was with her.
