Chapter 19
Zhai Meiqian had always been a woman of action.
She listened attentively in class that day, and even attended Zhou Rui's elective course, then reviewed the lesson content and taught it to Zhou Rui.
Initially indifferent, Zhou Rui was a little shocked to see Zhai Meiqian teaching quite competently.
Looks like his mother wasn't a complete fool after all.
The last two periods could be used for self-study in the classroom. Those who signed up for interest groups would go, leaving the classroom partly empty during the last two periods.
Quite a few people went to interest groups that day, so Zhai Meiqian kept Zhou Rui behind to tutor him on the course content.
Zhou Rui went so far as to call over Li Xiaonan and Yang Ming too, while Zhuo Wenqian didn't budge.
The four of them occupied the middle four rows of desks.
Zhai Meiqian sat alone in the front row, turning her chair to face Zhou Rui as she explained the problems.
She had a good attitude and explained quite patiently for the first ten minutes.
After thirty minutes, her attitude started deteriorating.
When Zhou Rui still didn't get it after she explained again, Zhai Meiqian slammed her pen down in frustration.
"The key point is the meaning of price elasticity of demand, and its relationship with changes in total revenue. Do you understand that?" Zhai Meiqian asked.
As someone who had never studied this stuff, she was unexpectedly doing better than Zhou Rui even with impromptu teaching.
"Oh..." Zhou Rui felt like he was sinking into confusion.
"Then why did you choose B?" Zhai Meiqian asked again.
"It was the longest answer..."
"After so many years, what exactly have you been studying?" Zhai Meiqian shouted in exasperation. "How could you choose B? How could it be B?"
"Then is it C?" Zhou Rui ventured tentatively.
Failing students had a strange faith that subconsciously made them avoid choosing A.
Zhai Meiqian was exasperated. "With two choices left you managed to eliminate the right answer. Does the correct answer look that ugly that none of you like it?"
Li Xiaonan awkwardly coughed and conceded, though he used to be the overbearing king: "Next time I'll choose A."
Zhai Meiqian covered her face in frustration.
She had fallen into self-despair and self-doubt.
Did something go wrong during Zhou Rui's cesarean delivery that caused him to turn out like this? Otherwise how could she have given birth to such a silly thing?
And Zhou Rui's friends were truly a uniformly pathetic bunch, united in their failing grades.
Yang Ming felt so awkward he wished he could cover his head. They were supposed to help friends in times of trouble, but what could he do in this situation?
Li Xiaonan sat with his arms crossed, staring blankly at Zhou Rui. They had once lived and died together, promising to carry each other through difficulties.
But...he didn't want to do homework with Zhou Rui.
Zhai Meiqian stood up and grabbed Zhou Rui's uniform to make him sit down again, yelling loudly, "Sit down!"
Dragged down forcibly, Zhou Rui plopped heavily into his seat again.
Infuriated, he took out his phone as if to make a call.
"Calling Uncle Hou for help is useless. He listens to me!" Zhai Meiqian slapped the table.
"I'm calling the police!" Zhou Rui was so angry he started shouting too. "You're a terrorist in school! I'll get the police uncles to take you away!"
Look!
See what the school tyrant has been reduced to!
Zhai Meiqian looked at Zhou Rui, then the other three people.
Only Li Xiaonan dared meet her gaze. She shoved the question paper in front of Li Xiaonan and said, "Li Xiaonan, take a look at this question. Is it really that difficult?"
Li Xiaonan hesitated, then after reading the question, asked Zhai Meiqian, "We've confirmed B and C are wrong answers?"
"Yes." Zhai Meiqian nodded.
"Then I choose D," Li Xiaonan said.
Failing students subconsciously avoided choosing A out of some strange faith.
Zhai Meiqian was exasperated. "With two choices you managed to eliminate the right answer again. Does the correct answer look so ugly that none of you like it?"
Embarrassed, Li Xiaonan awkwardly coughed again and conceded, "Next time I'll choose A."
Zhai Meiqian covered her face in despair.
She had sunk into self-despair and self-doubt.
Did something go wrong with Zhou Rui's delivery that caused him to turn out like this? How else could she have birthed such a silly thing?
And Zhou Rui's friends were truly a uniformly pathetic bunch, failing together in solidarity.
Yang Ming couldn't take it anymore and stood up to leave. "My treat. I'll get milk tea for five."
Then he dashed off.
Li Xiaonan looked left and right, then quietly laid his head on the desk and mumbled, "I feel a bit dizzy, going to nap for a while."
Zhuo Wenqian wanted to escape too but didn't move. "That jerk Yang Ming. I wanted to slip away too but he said he'd treat us to milk tea so I have to stay and wait, or I'd feel like I missed out on a billion dollars."
"Scientists aren't made in a day." Zhou Rui tried to appeal to Zhai Meiqian's rationality.
Zhai Meiqian was usually quite nice, a really likeable mom.
But once she lost her temper, most people couldn't take it.
He had seen Zhai Meiqian lose her temper so many times yet didn't run away, because she was his mom.
Zhou Rui still couldn't understand why Hou Ranxi didn't run away after seeing Zhai Meiqian's temper so many times. What was he after?
"Scientists don't perform as terribly as you. You're already in high school but still performing so badly." Zhai Meiqian's voice lowered in anger.
"Let's take it slow, no need to rush."
"How can we not rush? You're already in 10th grade! And you're still messing around." Zhai Meiqian's temper flared again.
Zhou Rui's body shook at her yelling. He really couldn't stand the injustice and quickly packed up his things.
There wasn't much for him to take - just his homework, U-shaped pillow, and pink washing machine. He slung his bag over his shoulder and left.
"Where are you going?" Zhai Meiqian asked.
"I'm running away from class!" Zhou Rui gritted out.
Zhuo Wenqian followed behind Zhou Rui and soon came back to report, "Zhai Meiqian, Zhou Rui ran to Class 1 and went into their classroom."
"What's he going there for?"
"Class 1 of the international section is like the top rocket class in our international section."
Zhai Meiqian dragged her chair back and sat down. "Ignore him!"
"When Yang Ming buys the milk tea back, should we send some to Class 1?"
"Why is your focus only on milk tea?"
"I won't talk to you anymore. Go cool off." Zhuo Wenqian immediately fell silent.
Zhou Rui entered Class 1's classroom, and the Class 1 students were quite shocked.
They were all studious people, and not many had gone for interest groups, so their classroom was still packed full.
Upon entering the classroom, Zhou Rui bumped into Class 1's form teacher straight away.
Class 1's form teacher was a beautiful blonde foreigner named Huang Hua. She had previously graduated two students who went to Cambridge University, and was now teaching the elite class.
Seeing Zhou Rui, Huang Hua asked in surprise, "Sweetie, what brings you here?"
After thinking for a while, Zhou Rui pointed at Zhang Ruchen and said, "I'm looking for him."
Sitting in the classroom, Zhang Ruchen looked strangely at Zhou Rui. Then he saw Zhou Rui dragging a chair over to sit beside him.
Zhang Ruchen instinctively shifted further in, keeping some distance from Zhou Rui, and asked, "Do you need something?"
"Sweetie, it's a bit..." Huang Hua also came over to speak to Zhou Rui, seemingly finding it odd too.
"I can't stay in my class anymore." Zhou Rui answered dejectedly.
"Huh?" Huang Hua was very surprised.
"Zhai Meiqian in my class is too frightening." Zhou Rui patted his chest, still horrified.
"Then you want to join our class?"
"Yes, seeking refuge."
Class 1 students were quite shocked indeed.
Who was that? Zhou Rui! There wasn't a single person in the international section who didn't know Zhou Rui.
Or rather, the entire Jiahua School had heard of Zhou Rui to some degree.
And now Zhou Rui was driven out of his class by a new female transfer student, Zhai Meiqian, to the point he couldn't even stay in class. He even said Zhai Meiqian was too frightening, more frightening than Zhou Rui.
A woman frightening enough to scare Zhou Rui must be terrifying beyond measure!
Unlike other teachers, Huang Hua found it quite interesting after hearing about it. She said to Zhou Rui, "How about this - sitting there is quite jarring, so why not move the last row desk here, to be in front of Zhang Ruchen?"
This was already special treatment, giving him a good seat.
Zhou Rui didn't nitpick and really went to drag a desk over and sat in front of Zhang Ruchen.
Zhang Ruchen stared blankly at Zhou Rui, then looked around at the other students' gazes, finding it unbelievable too.
But he smiled again recalling how Zhai Meiqian pressed Zhou Rui's head down to make him apologize.
He understood now.
It wasn't that Zhou Rui feared Zhai Meiqian, but rather he yielded to her and didn't fuss over it, unexpectedly obeying Zhai Meiqian's words.
After sitting down, Zhou Rui turned and quietly asked Zhang Ruchen, "Is it hard to score 100 like you guys?"
Zhang Ruchen thought about it before asking back, "Do you know what our total comprehensive exam score is?"
"How much is it?"
"300. So scoring 100 should be quite easy."
"Oh...the total is 300." Even with 300, Zhou Rui would find scoring 100 hard.
Zhang Ruchen nodded and lowered his head to continue doing homework.
Zhou Rui leaned in again to ask, "Can you coach me a bit, just on multiple choice to make sure I pick the right answer the second time?"
"No," Zhang Ruchen immediately rejected.
"You're the only person I can think of who's really good at studying and nice too. Otherwise Zhai Meiqian will beat me to death."
"You're affecting my chances of getting into Harvard like this," Zhang Ruchen said seriously to Zhou Rui, going along with Zhou Rui's jest and joking back.
"Oh, don't say that. Teach me - what if we end up becoming fellow alumni?"
Zhang Ruchen couldn't help smiling slightly, but quickly regained his composure and shook his head again: "No."
Zhou Rui was extremely anxious, leaning back in his chair in despair: "That's it, I feel like I won't make it through this week. I want to take time off school, I can't stay here anymore, Chai Meiqian is completely obsessed."
"How about we make a deal," Zhang Ruchen said in a low voice.
Zhang Ruchen's voice was very pleasing, just like a broadcaster's, enunciating clearly - the kind of voice that could easily go viral on Douyin with just a voice clip.
"Let's hear it."
"How about... you help me print out a temporary tattoo?"
"That's it?" Zhou Rui sat up straight.
"Mm."
"You're pretty secretly naughty, alright, it's a deal." Zhou Rui agreed at once.
The author has something to say: Have you seen videos of parents teaching their kids how to do homework? There are two situations where they can't hold back: teaching kids to do homework, and husbands teaching wives how to drive in the passenger seat.
If you still like my writing style, remember to bookmark the author - there are many completed works you can read, mostly super sweet little romance stories.
Asking for pre-orders on my new book, you can jump to my author page.
"You Must Like Me"
Gu Ruo is always afraid of the bad boy from the athletics department. He's quite good-looking, just very fierce.
And he keeps showing up in front of her for some reason, just the other day he even said to her: "I won't let you off!"
Then he went and kissed her, leaving her a bit dizzy and not feeling well at all.
Is she being targeted for protection fees?
Shen Qing took a liking to a young auntie, a top student, fair and delicate, who speaks very softly, with a very sweet smile.
He worked up the courage to confess to her, but being in the habit of causing trouble usually, when he wanted to say "I won't give up on you," he accidentally said "I won't let you off" instead...
Oh well, whatever, might as well kiss her first and talk later.
Leave a comment for a random red packet worth 100 yuan, deadline is the 14th.
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