Let's Do Some Questions - Chapter 28

The homeroom teacher actually didn’t really want to deal with Song Man’s matters. After all, Song Man was very special, like an anomaly that appeared out of nowhere.

Her family and the benefits they could provide her… honestly, sometimes she felt a lot of pressure and was very conflicted. She didn’t want to yield to capital, wanting to teach her class well. But she also really wanted to yield to benefits, to get the professional title she might be evaluated for.

The current situation was that she had already more or less yielded, and there was no going back. She wanted to ignore Song Man, but also wanted to treat her like a VIP. But then she felt this was particularly bad of her, so she was very conflicted.

So when she saw this scene in the classroom, her subconscious reaction was that Song Man had done something and was standing against the whole class.

Song Man had just turned her head. The result was seeing the whole class staring at her, and then seeing the homeroom teacher and math teacher standing at the door staring at her.

???

What’s going on?

Song Man turned back as if nothing had happened. Chu Fengqiu sat back in her seat as if nothing had happened.

The whole class saw that they were back to doing their own things, there was nothing more to see, so they also lowered their heads and started studying as if nothing had happened.

The homeroom teacher breathed a sigh of relief, smiled at the math teacher, continued their previous conversation, and walked forward as if nothing had happened.

Song Man sat in her seat, with only one thought in her mind.

I really want Chu Fengqiu to press the other side too.

Song Man kept thinking about this, thinking about school ending, and then thinking about the evening.

Even when sitting in her room facing the English vocabulary words on her desk, she was still thinking about this.

Outside the window, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse. The tall streetlights stood quietly, like silent guardians. Occasionally, a few cicadas chirped, perhaps far away, so the sound wasn’t very clear.

Tomorrow was the English exam, and Chu Fengqiu came to give Song Man a crash course.

But there wasn’t any particularly good method. After all, the prerequisite for learning English well was remembering vocabulary and understanding some grammar.

“You should have no problem with the listening part, since your spoken English is very good. For the rest, the difficulty should also be… Song Man?” Chu Fengqiu was speaking when she noticed the person next to her had zoned out.

“Song Man? Are you listening?” Chu Fengqiu tried to call Song Man back from her vacant thoughts.

“Ah… yes.” Song Man answered distractedly, looking at Chu Fengqiu’s fingers with some hesitation.

For this kind of thing, should I say it or not?

If she didn’t say it, she felt really uncomfortable, but saying it felt strangely embarrassing, quite odd.

“Then let’s go over the vocabulary first, and then memorize the essay opening.” Chu Fengqiu felt that cramming at the last minute was also useful; every point gained was a point.

“Okay.” Song Man agreed verbally, then her thoughts drifted off again.

“Is something on your mind?” Chu Fengqiu couldn’t help but ask.

“No… um… just…” Song Man looked left and right.

“If I can help, I’d be happy to.”

“Oh… it’s just… actually, it’s nothing much.” Song Man scratched her head, looking a bit restless.

“It’s just… well… could you massage my other arm too?” Song Man’s face turned red all the way to her neck as she said it.

Actually, Song Man wasn’t lacking in this regard. If she wanted a full massage, she could completely go outside or have someone give her a full body spa at home.

She just liked things to have a beginning and an end. Since Chu Fengqiu started it, it had to be Chu Fengqiu who finished it.

Arms have left and right. Chu Fengqiu only massaged one, and the other arm felt uncomfortable no matter what, like something was missing.

“Just because of this?” Chu Fengqiu wondered what Song Man had been thinking about all evening that made her out of sorts, and it turned out to be just this?

“Come here.” Song Man extended her arm.

Chu Fengqiu stepped forward and massaged that arm for Song Man, and also gave her shoulders a squeeze, making Song Man feel both pain and comfort.

Song Man actually exercised regularly, so her back muscles weren’t usually stiff. It was just that she slept on the desk today and didn’t sleep comfortably, which made her neck and shoulders hurt.

Song Man hummed comfortably. Chu Fengqiu secretly stroked Song Man’s hair when she wasn’t paying attention, feeling the softness slip through her fingertips, and curved her eyes into a smile. For no particular reason, she just suddenly felt very happy.

After making Song Man comfortable, Chu Fengqiu didn’t forget the main task.

“Memorize the essay opening.”

“Okay.” Song Man wanted to enjoy it a bit longer, but she still picked up the book, muttering the essay template Chu Fengqiu had given her.

Chu Fengqiu sat next to Song Man. Song Man looked up and watched Chu Fengqiu working on the B version of “Five Years Gaokao, Three Years Mocks”.

Chu Fengqiu seemed very good at spinning her pen. When she was thinking, her right hand would unconsciously spin it, sliding it up and down her fingers, looking very smooth and pleasing to the eye. Occasionally, she would stop to write the answer in the notebook, and sometimes she would calculate on scratch paper.

Her expression as she looked at the problem book was serious, seemingly completely focused.

But it was only seemingly so. As Song Man was watching, she saw Chu Fengqiu extend her left hand and block her view.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“Just curious. You keep doing problems, aren’t you tired?”

“It’s not tiring.” For Chu Fengqiu, doing problems was a process of constantly overcoming and climbing. And problems were much simpler than other things; you just needed to solve them, and then right was right, and wrong was wrong.

“Chu Fengqiu, were you one of those good students since you were little, the kind of ‘child from another family’ whose wall could be covered with award certificates?” Song Man asked curiously, but her tone was actually quite certain.

After all, Chu Fengqiu looked like the type with good upbringing, a straight-A student who was a good girl since childhood.

“Is that what you think?” Chu Fengqiu’s expression was a bit strange, as if she wanted to laugh but couldn’t.

“Isn’t it?” Song Man’s face showed a hint of inquiry.

Chu Fengqiu smiled and shook her head. The darkness of the past poured out for a moment, then was forcefully pushed back by her.

That was something she didn’t want people to know. What she showed now was good enough.

Since Song Man thought so, it was fine to let her think that way.

“Then…?”

“How could covering one whole wall be enough? At least two.” Chu Fengqiu said playfully, making Song Man snort with laughter.

“Narcissist.” Song Man clearly saw the beast about to leap out of Chu Fengqiu’s eyes the moment she was asked, but she still played along.

Perhaps using “beast” wasn’t quite appropriate. Song Man was more inclined to describe it as a somewhat suppressed darkness that could seize one’s mind, but it was only for a brief moment before Chu Fengqiu immediately returned to her original self.

“That’s the truth.” Chu Fengqiu spread her hands.

They tacitly moved past the matter.

Song Man also had secrets, so she felt it was normal for Chu Fengqiu to have secrets too.

She picked up the essay book and watched Chu Fengqiu continue doing problems.

The pen swayed in Chu Fengqiu’s hand, seemingly drawing the points of light into lines.

Song Man looked at the points of light and felt that Chu Fengqiu’s secret was definitely not a happy one.

She held up the essay booklet, shaking her head and muttering English vocabulary words.

Chu Fengqiu hid the smile on her face. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Song Man was no longer looking at her and was continuing to work on the problem book.

The next day, Song Man raised her score a bit on the English exam. When taking the science comprehensive exam, she was more free-spirited. She got more points on the multiple-choice questions, wrote down the simple ones for the rest, and left the problems outside the “academic underachiever” range blank or just wrote a random number.

She didn’t want to soar to the top just yet; it wasn’t time for that.

The monthly exam only lasted two days. Because grading was done by computer, the teachers could save some effort, and the grading speed was much faster. Usually, on the third day, the Chinese and Math scores would be released. And the teachers would usually start going over the exams on the third day.

The Chinese teacher had the class representative hand out the answer sheets and paced back and forth on the podium.

“This time, our class’s average score isn’t high, it’s even much lower than Class Two’s.”

Everyone’s heart sank upon hearing this. Some people secretly cast their gaze towards Song Man.

“I’ll project the scores first.”

Without a doubt, the bottom score in Chinese for Class One belonged to Song Man.

Song Man scored 79. Actually, across the entire grade, it wasn’t bad enough to be the absolute last place. If Song Man’s previous Chinese teacher saw it, they might even feel relieved. But the Chinese teacher for Class One clearly didn’t understand the situation and was filled with shock. They knew that even the worst Chinese score in Class One could reach 90, which was passing.

“The best essay in our class this time was written by Chu Fengqiu. She only lost 2 points on the essay.” When the teacher saw Chu Fengqiu, a smile appeared on her face again.

Everyone applauded.

“The worst essay… Song Man, tell me, why did you write an essay in prose?”

“Teacher, the prompt said any genre except poetry and prose.” Song Man spread her hands, looking completely unconcerned.

“But we required an argumentative essay. Fine, even if you wrote prose, you went off-topic. What does this prompt have to do with your strawberry milk?” The Chinese teacher asked, suppressing her anger.

“To answer the teacher, there’s no relation.”

The Chinese teacher wanted to criticize her but held back, and started having everyone check answers and then went over the problems.

Song Man looked at the exam paper on her desk, sprawled out without proper posture. She felt someone looking at her and turned her head to see Chu Fengqiu.

Fortunately, she didn’t see any disgust on Chu Fengqiu’s face, just simple concern.

Song Man grinned at her and even winked.

Anyway, it wasn’t the first time she had encountered this situation. From the moment she made this decision, she already knew what she would face.

At first, she really couldn’t stand it and wanted to show it several times. Later, she slowly got used to it. It was just that after being an academic underachiever for several years, suddenly being singled out again, and even dragging down the class average, was still quite embarrassing.

She felt that her dad’s move was actually quite bad.

Her dad wanted to use this environment to motivate and stimulate her to strive forward. But did her dad know that if it wasn’t handled well, she might be overstimulated and perhaps develop a dislike for studying?

Her dad definitely knew, which was why he begged Chu Fengqiu to help her.

What a mess.

Song Man rubbed her neck. Sometimes, thinking about it, Song Qinglan really wasn’t worth her putting in all this effort. But sometimes, thinking about it, what would she be like now if she hadn’t done that back then?

Maybe she’d be a second Chu Fengqiu, or perhaps a second Song Qinglan.

Good at studying, good grades, praised by elders, a role model in others’ mouths, bearing many expectations.

Ha, boring.

It’s quite good now. Because expectations are low, whatever she does won’t disappoint people too much.

You’re happy, I’m happy, everyone’s happy, how great.

As Song Man thought this, she still felt inevitably annoyed.

Until Chu Fengqiu secretly held her hand.