Chapter 68: Tutoring?
It was a beautiful afternoon with clear skies and pleasant weather.
Outside the classroom windows, the scenery looked especially nice.
Inside Class 3 of the first-year high school students, everyone was busy working on a math quiz during class.
Since the final exams were approaching and all the course material had already been taught, the students' remaining days were filled with reviewing old lessons, endless exercises, and countless test papers.
Today's class was no exception.
The test paper had been written by their math teacher, Xu Yuyi, and all the questions covered topics taught during the semester.
In the quiet classroom, the only sounds were the soft noises of students writing.
For the top students, the two class periods given for the test were more than enough.
They could finish the paper quickly and still have plenty of time left to check for mistakes or unanswered questions.
For the weaker students, even one class period was more than enough.
Other than the multiple-choice section, most of their papers were blank.
At best, they would write the word "Solution" under the written-answer questions, add a sentence like "According to the information given in the problem," and then simply copy the information from the question.
If they happened to meet a kind teacher, they might even earn a single point for effort.
As for the multiple-choice questions, their strategy was simple.
If there were three long answers and one short answer, choose the short one.
If there were three short answers and one long answer, choose the long one.
If all the answers looked similar, choose C.
Using that method, they could usually guess two or three questions correctly.
Of course, there were exceptions.
Li Nuo was one of them.
Although he was also at the level of a poor math student, he did not want to completely give up like the others.
He still carefully read every multiple-choice question.
After doing calculations on scratch paper, he would choose his answer seriously.
For fill-in-the-blank and written-answer questions, he wrote down everything he knew.
As for the final application problems, he neither had enough time nor the ability to solve them, so he could only write the word "Solution" and leave it at that.
Even though he always filled his test papers from top to bottom, his final scores were often no better than those of the weaker students.
Still, because he never left blanks, his teachers could tell that he was genuinely trying.
Normally, a test taken in the afternoon would be graded and returned the next day.
Looking at his fully completed test paper and the scratch paper covered in formulas and problem-solving steps, Li Nuo felt quite satisfied as he handed it in.
The next morning, the math teacher returned the graded tests.
During break time, Li Nuo eagerly picked up his paper.
However, the moment he saw the large red 38 written at the top, his excitement instantly disappeared.
He sighed.
"Looks like I'm really hopeless after all."
"Not bad! You actually scored eight points more than me!"
Zhou Qikuan laughed as he leaned over Li Nuo's shoulder and looked at the paper.
"Really?"
Li Nuo turned around in surprise.
"Yeah."
Zhou Qikuan held up his own paper.
"Too bad I only got six multiple-choice questions right. If I had guessed two more correctly, I'd have scored two points higher than you."
After hearing that, Li Nuo looked at Zhou Qikuan's test paper.
Only then did he realize that everything except the multiple-choice section was blank.
Meanwhile, he had filled every part of his own paper. Yet he had only scored eight points more.
A bitter feeling immediately filled his heart.
"Your thirty points were all from guessing, weren't they?"
Li Nuo stared at him speechlessly.
"Yep, all guessed."
Zhou Qikuan grinned.
"But didn't someone once say that luck is part of strength?"
"So your strength is zero, and your luck is one hundred?" Li Nuo replied.
"Hey, don't take things so seriously."
Zhou Qikuan rolled up his sleeves dramatically.
"Looks like I need to show you my true strength."
As he spoke, he pretended to put Li Nuo in a headlock.
"Wait, wait! I was wrong! I was wrong!"
Before Zhou Qikuan's arm could reach him, Li Nuo quickly dodged away and apologized repeatedly.
While they were fooling around, the class bell rang.
Naturally, the next math lesson was used to review the test paper.
However, even after an entire class period, they had not finished explaining the multiple-choice questions.
After class, their homeroom teacher and math teacher, Xu Yuyi, called Li Nuo to her office.
When he arrived, he discovered that An Ran'er had also been summoned.
The two stood in front of their teacher.
One looked graceful and composed.
The other looked completely lost.
"Li Nuo, you don't need to be so nervous."
Xu Yuyi smiled warmly.
"Y-Yes."
Li Nuo tried to look calm, but he was still visibly nervous.
Seeing this, Xu Yuyi decided not to waste time.
"Do you know why I asked both of you to come here?"
"I don't know," Li Nuo answered.
An Ran'er shook her head as well.
"I heard a rumor," Xu Yuyi said.
"You two are dating, aren't you?"
"We are not!"
Both of them answered at the exact same time.
Then they stared at each other in surprise before quickly looking away with slight blushes on their faces.
"Alright, alright."
Xu Yuyi took a sip from her thermos.
"You don't have to deny it so quickly. I'm not saying students can't date."
Then she continued,
"What I actually wanted to ask is this. If that's really the case, could An Ran'er help tutor Li Nuo in math?"
"You want me to tutor him in math?"
An Ran'er looked surprised.
"That's right."
Xu Yuyi nodded.
"Although Li Nuo's grades are poor, I can tell from his test papers that he genuinely wants to work hard."
"He probably just hasn't found the right method yet. So I thought of asking you to help him. After all, you're the top math student in our class."
Then she looked toward Li Nuo.
"What do you think of this idea?"
"I don't think An Ran'er would agree..."
Li Nuo secretly glanced at her, hoping she would reject the proposal immediately.
Ever since the guitar practice incident, he had learned exactly how terrifying An Ran'er's teaching style could be.
She believed in intensive training. She would keep pushing until the goal was achieved.
If she became his math tutor, he would rather give up math entirely.
"I agree."
An Ran'er suddenly answered.
What the hell are you agreeing to?!
Li Nuo screamed internally.
"Wonderful!"
Xu Yuyi happily stood up. Then she looked at Li Nuo.
"You agree too, right?"
"Y-Yeah, of course..."
Li Nuo smiled on the surface.
Inside, however, it felt as though lightning had struck him several times.
He knew his future was about to become very painful.
"Then it's settled."
Xu Yuyi smiled brightly.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing your math grades improve, Li Nuo."
Then she winked at them.
"Of course, besides your academic results, I hope your romantic relationship can make some progress too."
"..."
"..."
The two stared at her speechlessly. Feeling awkward under their gaze, Xu Yuyi coughed lightly.
"Ahem... well... anyway... You can both go back to class now."