What's Wrong With Being Fifteen Years Older Than Me?! - Chapter 27.1

The alarm clock went off at six in the morning. A hand quickly reached out from under the comforter to turn it off. I really don’t want to get up. Why do people have to go to school?

They had gotten off the highway at one in the morning, and Ye Li didn’t go to bed until after two. She had barely slept for a few hours. Just as she was struggling to get up, Auntie Lu’s voice came from outside the door.

“Xiaoli, you’re going to be late for morning self-study.” Every time this happened, Ye Li felt like the other person’s voice was like a devil’s whisper.

But when she remembered that Auntie Lu’s work started at nine and that she was getting up so early just to wake her up, she felt a little bad.

“I’m getting up now,” the girl said sleepily.

It took her half an hour to get ready. Morning self-study started at 6:40 a.m., and Ye Li had a full ten minutes to walk to school, which was across the street. Just as she was about to leave with her backpack, the woman inside stopped her.

“I’m sorry, we got back too late last night. You must not have slept well. Take this with you to drink this morning. You don’t like sugar, so I only added milk.” Ye Li looked down at the bottle the other person handed her. It was coffee mixed with milk, so it was a latte.

“Oh, okay,” the girl said, taking the bottle and hurrying out. There were ice cubes in the bottle. It was cold to the touch, and the condensation on the bottle quickly made her palm wet.

Today, only the seniors were starting school, so the school gate wasn’t as crowded as usual. When Ye Li got to the classroom, she glanced at the schedule on the blackboard and took out her English book. She was still very sleepy. The girl rubbed her temples and had to open the bottle of coffee Auntie Lu had made for her. The teacher hadn’t arrived yet, and the students in the back of the classroom were complaining.

“This vacation felt like nothing.” “It feels like yesterday was the first day of vacation, and we’re back at school already.” “Just endure it. This time next year, summer vacation will be fun.” …

Ye Li was reviewing her vocabulary and occasionally taking a sip of coffee from the bottle. She didn’t even realize she had finished the entire bottle during morning self-study. She picked up the bottle and looked at the volume. 500ml… Was Auntie Lu serious? She wasn’t sleepy anymore, but she didn’t have any room for breakfast.

Ye Li had lunch with Han Yueyue. In just fifteen days, the girl had so much to say. Ye Li ate her food and occasionally gave a halfhearted response. Her phone vibrated in her pocket. The girl took it out and looked at it. She looked up at the girl in front of her. “It’s a message from your sister.”

[Qin Shu: Let’s go out tonight with your sister.] Han Yueyue’s eyes immediately drooped. She propped up her face with one hand. “She’s so brave. When other people break up, they get sad and depressed for a while. But she’s acting like nothing happened.”

Ye Li listened to her and typed a reply: [Evening self-study ends at 10 p.m. If I don’t go home at that time, Auntie Lu will probably call me nonstop. I’ll pass.]

After she sent the message, it kept saying: “Typing…”

[Qin Shu: Okay, I didn’t think of that. You guys are still high school students.]

Ye Li showed the other person her phone, a helpless smile on her face. Han Yueyue immediately complained, “What are you so proud of? We’ll be college students next year.”

“You only have the guts to complain behind her back.” Ye Li knew her so well. Just then, a new message came in.

[Qin Shu: Then I’ll find a way to get into the school for dinner. Let’s meet at the usual spot. I’ll bring you bubble tea.]

At about six in the afternoon, the Jingchuan No. 1 High School track field was much quieter without the freshmen and sophomores. The orange-red sunset filled the sky with a golden glow. A light breeze occasionally blew, rustling the leaves on the trees, but it didn’t take away the summer heat.

Ye Li and Han Yueyue walked from the senior building to the track field. They saw the girl sitting on the bleachers from a distance. She had long hair, makeup on, and was wearing her own clothes, which made her look out of place. Han Yueyue, who had just gotten her bubble tea, complained in a low voice, “Sis, why does Ye Li get a twenty yuan mango sago dessert, and I get a ten yuan pearl milk tea? You’re playing favorites.”

“Don’t you know you’re allergic to mangoes?” Qin Shu’s one sentence left Han Yueyue speechless.

“When is your school entrance exam?” Qin Shu suddenly turned to Ye Li.

“The school entrance exam is in February next year, but the provincial exam is at the end of this year,” Ye Li replied.

Qin Shu was about to say something else when Han Yueyue, who was sitting on the edge, scooted to the middle and suddenly interjected, “I’m planning to take the IELTS and TOEFL in January next year. Are you taking them, Ye Li?”

Qin Shu: “…”

“Are those for studying abroad? I’m not planning to study abroad,” Ye Li said, shaking her head.

“Huh? I thought your Auntie Lu would plan for you to take them,” Han Yueyue said, a little disappointed.

“She did mention it, and my dad even thought about it, too. But my speaking is so bad. I’d die if I went abroad!” Ye Li said, shrugging.

“You’ll get better at speaking if you go abroad and practice.”

“You sound exactly like Auntie Lu…” Ye Li said, turning her head in disbelief.

“Hey, if you two both go abroad, what am I going to do? Do I have to apply to be an exchange student?” Qin Shu asked, laughing and crying.

“We’ll see,” Ye Li said, holding her bubble tea. She lowered her long eyelashes, her thoughts complicated.

It was late August. After being back at school for a month, they had their first monthly exam, which lasted two days. Everyone felt like they had been tortured for two days and were miserable. After evening self-study, Ye Li came back and took out her homework to do, as usual. She didn’t even notice when a glass of milk was placed on the table in front of her. The girl looked up slightly and saw the woman slowly sitting across from her.

“How were your grades on this monthly exam?” As expected, Auntie Lu always asked about her grades. Not only that, but the woman would also meticulously create a spreadsheet, analyzing her progress and where she lost points. Ye Li quietly opened her backpack and took out a stack of exams.

Lu Zhiyun took her exams and first looked at the scores. Then, she took out a pen and a small notebook where she had kept a detailed record of Ye Li’s grades and rankings since high school. Ye Li often wondered if her dad were to do this, it would be a mess. Her grades would be all over the place.

“Your class ranking went up by 20. Not bad. But your English score dropped by ten points. That’s a big difference. I’ll take a look at the reason,” Lu Zhiyun said. The girl was buried in her homework, but she analyzed the problem. “I might have gotten a lot wrong on the cloze test. There were a lot of new words in it.”

Lu Zhiyun found the problem on the exam. Because she had been helping Ye Li with high school English for the past few years, she could easily tell which words were high school vocabulary and which were new words. She glanced at the article and quickly listed all the new words. “You lost seven points on the cloze test, but I also noticed that you lost three more points on the listening test than last time.”

When she heard the woman, Ye Li looked up in surprise and said, a little embarrassed, “I got distracted after the listening started, so I just guessed on the first few questions.” At that moment, she thought Auntie Lu was amazing. She could even catch a small mistake like that.

“I see. You have to be more careful next time, especially during the college entrance exam. You have to be fully focused. It’s not worth it to lose points like that,” Lu Zhiyun said. She looked at the girl who was diligently doing her homework and didn’t want to bother her anymore. She said, “One last thing. After discussing it with your dad, we’ve decided to sign you up for tutoring. Many kids are getting extra classes now that they’re seniors. If we don’t, you could fall behind easily.”

Ye Li had always disliked tutoring. Besides her summer interest classes and art training, she had never taken any extra academic classes. When she heard this, the hand holding her pen paused.

“Oh, okay,” she said. This time, she accepted it calmly. She probably realized that this was the trend and there was nothing she could do about it. Ye Li wrote for a little while longer. She saw the woman across from her slowly getting up to leave. She suddenly asked, “When does the tutoring start, and what subjects are they for?”

Lu Zhiyun stopped at the table and calmly replied, “You don’t need tutoring for math. I can tutor you in English at home. For Chinese… I’m planning to sign you up for a class to improve your score on the college entrance exam essay. And for the science portion, you’re a little weak in physics, so we’ll just do physics.”

Ye Li thought about it. It was only two classes: an essay class and a physics class. She had heard from Han Yueyue that her family had signed her up for every subject. With this in mind, she felt that her situation was acceptable. A week later, Ye Li officially joined the tutoring army.

Due to the special schedule of seniors, the tutoring class was once a week, for two and a half hours. One course was twelve classes, which meant that Ye Li would not have her only day off on the weekend for the next three months. Whether she would continue tutoring depended on whether her scores improved on the next few monthly exams. In short, things weren’t going to be easy until after the college entrance exam.

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