Let's Do Some Questions - Chapter 29

Chu Fengqiu’s hand was cool, and it strangely soothed the inner restlessness that Song Man felt in that instant.

Chu Fengqiu stroked Song Man’s fingers, drawing a circle on Song Man’s palm with her fingertip. It had no special meaning; she just wanted Song Man to calm down.

Whether Song Man truly knew the answer or not wasn’t very important to Chu Fengqiu anymore. What mattered was that Song Man was in a bad mood right now.

Song Man needed to cheer up, Chu Fengqiu thought.

When Song Man was happy, watching her made Chu Fengqiu feel good too.

Song Man held Chu Fengqiu’s hand back, feeling the coolness in the stuffy summer heat. She rested her head on the desk, turning to give Chu Fengqiu a smile.

“These multiple-choice questions were quite difficult. Only three students in our class got them all right. Which three students? Please raise your hands.”

The questions on sentence errors, ancient poetry, and classical Chinese were all challenging this time. The Chinese teacher looked at the single-item analysis; most students got one or two wrong, a few got three or four wrong, and only three students got them all right.

Chu Fengqiu raised one hand, holding Song Man’s with the other. The other student was a boy wearing glasses.

“Chu Fengqiu, Fan Ya, and who is the third student?”

The Chinese teacher cast an appreciative glance at the two students who had raised their hands, waiting for the third to appear.

No one responded.

Everyone looked at each other.

The Chinese teacher was a little puzzled. She glanced at the analysis sheet in her hand; there was indeed a third student.

“Everyone has checked their answers, so you should know if you got them all right. The third person, please raise your hand. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about; you can get group points.”

Qingcheng No. 1 High implemented a group learning system, dividing students into small groups for internal management and using group points for evaluations. So, getting extra points was quite appealing to everyone.

“I’m in your group, right?”

Song Man looked at Chu Fengqiu and asked softly.

Chu Fengqiu nodded. She was the leader of their group.

Song Man raised her hand.

The Chinese teacher was somewhat surprised, and everyone else was dumbfounded.

“Song Man, you got them all right?”

“Teacher, you can check.”

Song Man held up her answer sheet.

The Chinese teacher actually took Song Man’s answer sheet and checked it, finding that she had indeed gotten them all right.

“That’s quite good.”

The Chinese teacher’s praise was a bit stiff, as she had been annoyed by Song Man earlier.

“Could she have just guessed them all?”

“Guessing them all right is also a skill, isn’t it?”

Song Man heard the whispers but didn’t take them to heart.

“Teacher, the points should be counted, right?”

Song Man tilted her head and asked with a grin.

“Yes.”

The Chinese teacher nodded. Those were her words just now; she couldn’t take them back.

Song Man took back her answer sheet and threw a wink at Chu Fengqiu. Seeing Song Man’s smug little expression, Chu Fengqiu felt the urge to ruffle Song Man’s hair again.

But that couldn’t happen yet; Song Man would definitely get annoyed, Chu Fengqiu thought with a hint of regret.

The Chinese teacher continued explaining the test. Clearly, she also believed that Song Man’s perfect score on the multiple-choice questions was more due to luck than skill. So, when she got to the ancient poetry question, she called on Song Man.

“This ancient poetry question stumped eighty percent of our class. Most of you had a high error rate on this question. Song Man, would you stand up and translate this ancient poem?”

Song Man stood up, her hand slipping from Chu Fengqiu’s.

Chu Fengqiu’s palm had long been warmed by Song Man’s touch, and when the warmth suddenly disappeared, her fingertips felt a chill.

Everyone waited for Song Man to stammer or make something up, but to their surprise, she translated the entire ancient poem very smoothly, handling both literal and interpretive translation well.

Are you kidding? Would Song Man let others laugh at her?

Except for things she deliberately chose to show others, or truly unexpected situations, don’t even think about it at other times.

Song Man looked over at Chu Fengqiu, who quietly gave her a thumbs-up.

Song Man lifted her chin. When she heard the teacher tell her to sit down, she did.

Just then, the class bell rang. Song Man grinned at Chu Fengqiu.

“Was I cool just now?”

“Cool, very impressive.”

“Of course, who do you think I am? Could a mere ancient poem stump me?”

Song Man looked smug, then leaned closer to Chu Fengqiu, lowering her voice to whisper.

“Actually, it’s because my dad forced me to memorize this poem before, and I even copied it several times.”

Song Man firmly maintained her persona.

Don’t ask. If you ask, the answer is: I don’t know, I memorized it, I guessed, I’m just lucky.

Chu Fengqiu looked like she might have believed it, and also like she hadn’t.

She just smiled at Song Man, her expression unreadable.

After two periods of Chinese class, it was math class.

Chu Fengqiu was the class monitor and also the math class representative. During the break, she brought back the answer sheets, and Song Man helped her hand them out.

Most students in the class didn’t look up when they saw Song Man walking by, but there was one exception.

Song Man had noticed someone staring at her earlier. The look wasn’t malicious; it seemed to be just simple curiosity. When Song Man looked back, that person would quickly avert their gaze.

When Song Man handed him the test paper, she remembered his name; it was the boy named Fan Ya.

He looked thin and small, wore glasses, and his bangs partially covered his face, making him seem very introverted.

He was one of the three students the Chinese teacher had mentioned who got all the multiple-choice questions right.

Song Man placed the paper on his desk. He reached out and pulled it towards him, revealing a slender wrist, as thin as a girl’s.

There was nothing about him that particularly attracted Song Man, so she just glanced at him and returned to her seat after distributing the papers.

The next two periods were math class. The math teacher was a short, humorous middle-aged man. He never spent a lot of time analyzing things before going over the test. He would first give the answers, then directly ask students to look at the questions with more errors, explain the difficult problems, and then the simpler ones.

Song Qinglan had a good impression of this math teacher and listened with interest, even though she understood everything.

The third question the teacher discussed was multiple-choice question 12.

“This question, ah, isn’t actually very difficult.”

Most students in the class voiced their doubts.

“This question is just being deliberately obscure. It’s digging a pit, full of traps. You’re still young and didn’t see through it.”

The math teacher said this with a cheerful expression on his face.

“Teacher, you didn’t write this question, did you?”

A student asked loudly.

“Indeed, it was I.”

The math teacher replied in a formal, literary style, a smile of successful mischief on his face.

“Not many students in the entire grade got this question right. What makes me happy is that three students in our class did.”

There was another round of murmuring. Although the last question was widely considered difficult, in previous exams, their class usually had more than ten students get it right. This time, there were only three.

“Which three students? Please raise your hands.”

The math teacher smiled as he looked at everyone.

Chu Fengqiu raised her hand.

“Does this count for points?”

Song Man asked softly.

“I don’t know,” Chu Fengqiu replied quietly.

“Chu Fengqiu, Fan Ya, and which other student?”

Song Man was a little surprised to hear that name again and looked back.

The small boy pushed up his glasses, looking unusually quiet.

“Teacher, does getting this right add points?”

Song Man asked.

“Group points? Yes.”

As soon as the math teacher finished speaking, Song Man raised her hand.

“Holy crap… how is it her again…”

“This time she definitely guessed.”

“Her luck is too good, I’m jealous.”

Song Man happily waved her hand. The math teacher smiled and nodded at her.

“Three students, please come up and write down how you solved it.”

“Teacher, I actually guessed this question.”

Song Man said with a sincere expression.

While she could use the excuse of having memorized the ancient poem, she really couldn’t bluff her way through this math problem. If she explained it, it would be hard to end well.

If the homeroom teacher found out, she would definitely tell her dad.

Her dad would definitely share this good news with her mom and Song Qinglan, and then she might receive a concerned phone call from Song Qinglan.

She didn’t want Song Qinglan to know even a hint of it.

Song Man might not see many things clearly, but she was absolutely certain about Song Qinglan’s suspicion.

Sometimes, constantly explaining to someone that you have no ulterior motives regarding something is very tiring, because if they don’t believe you, they just don’t believe you.

Song Man felt that even if Song Qinglan believed her eighty percent, if she made any unintentional move in the future, Song Qinglan would probably immediately overthink things, and that eighty percent would turn into zero percent.

Just thinking about it was exhausting. Song Man was too lazy to battle Song Qinglan on this.

More murmuring spread through the class, mostly along the lines of ‘I knew it’.

“If you guessed it right, you don’t need to come up and write it, but I still want to praise you. After all, luck is also part of strength. Listen carefully later and try to be able to do it next time. Next time will be true strength.”

The math teacher said encouragingly, smiling as he asked the other two students to come up.

Song Man nodded, her fingertip tracing the math problem.

This teacher was quite cute.

The reason she liked math back then wasn’t just because of its logic, but also because of the teacher who first introduced her to it when she was young and naive.

The person who led her into the world of math was Song Qinglan.

Because her sister liked it, Song Man was initially very interested in math. Eventually, she truly felt the joy that math could bring. Even though things were like this with Song Qinglan now, she still loved math.

At the blackboard, Chu Fengqiu and Fan Ya were writing the steps to solve the last problem.

Chu Fengqiu finished first. Her logical thinking was clear, and the steps flowed smoothly from beginning to end, giving a pleasing feeling.

Song Man felt comfortable just watching, sighing inwardly. Chu Fengqiu was truly a person who made others feel comfortable, whether it was her appearance, personality, logical thinking, or even playing games. Song Man thought she was simply perfect.

After watching Chu Fengqiu, she looked at the other one. Fan Ya was a bit slower and his writing was a little messy, but his general approach wasn’t off track, and he eventually calculated the answer.

The math teacher praised both of them and then used Chu Fengqiu’s solution to explain.

Chu Fengqiu’s expression didn’t change when she was praised; she remained calm and composed, the curve of her lips unchanged.

Seeing her like this, Song Man wanted to tease her. She deliberately put her hand into Chu Fengqiu’s and used her finger to scratch Chu Fengqiu’s palm.

Her fingers were suddenly squeezed tight. Song Man looked at Chu Fengqiu, who was looking back at her, and raised an eyebrow, her expression full of youthful spirit.