Chapter 3: Wanting to Be Noticed Even Without Studying Hard
“Hey, why did Teacher Tong call you to the office this morning?” Jiang Yiming asked, full of gossip.
Ruan Xi leaned against the tiled wall, the coolness seeping into her back. She turned her head away, unwilling to divulge anything. “She didn’t really say anything.”
But she quietly gripped the chocolate bar in her pocket.
She had checked it when no one was looking; the wrapper was covered in German, and it seemed expensive. She couldn’t bear to eat it.
Just then, Tong Yao suddenly walked down from the podium. Ruan Xi jolted, almost thinking she was coming for her.
But she wasn’t.
Tong Yao stopped at the middle row, holding a competition book in her arms. She tapped on Ji Chen’s desk and then pointed outside the window.
The two of them went out to discuss the problems.
She used the back door when she left. The places she passed seemed to carry a faint fragrance—not the slightly pungent smell of perfume, but a very soothing, refreshing sweetness that seeped into the heart.
Ruan Xi looked out the window at the backs of Tong Yao and Ji Chen. Teacher Tong leaned the book against the railing, calculating stroke by stroke. Faint phrases like “universal formula” and “sum-to-product” could be heard. Thinking carefully, Ruan Xi realized she probably didn’t even know how to write those formulas from memory.
She thought sourly, What’s the use of grinding for Teacher Tong’s favor? She’ll definitely marry some tall, rich, and handsome guy in the future, maybe even a domineering CEO.
It seemed only that kind of person would be worthy of Teacher Tong.
“Do you know how old Teacher Tong is?” Jiang Yiming asked mysteriously.
“I don’t know.”
“I do.” The boy grinned. “Do you want to know?”
“No.”
“Then I won’t say.”
“Damn it, tell me!” Ruan Xi snapped out of embarrassment.
Then, she saw Jiang Yiming reach into his desk drawer and pull out a mobile phone.
“You!” Ruan Xi was shocked. “You dare not hand in your phone right at the start of school?”
“Shh, keep it down.” Jiang Yiming opened the search bar and showed Ruan Xi. “I found our teacher.”
Ruan Xi was skeptical as she took the phone—
Other People’s Child! 13-Year-Old Genius Girl Admitted to A University
How are those child prodigies doing now?
The girl in the photo looked exactly like Teacher Tong, and her name was right below it.
The view count wasn’t high, and there were no comments. Honestly, modern people were long used to seeing geniuses and didn’t find it strange anymore.
Calculating from the time the news was published, Teacher Tong was now…
“18 years old?” She asked uncertainly.
“Correct!” Jiang Yiming said triumphantly.
18 years old… 18 years old…
Only two years older than herself…
For some reason, Ruan Xi felt a tickle in her heart. It was like a seed sprouting inside her body, its budding branches poking at her heartstrings.
There was a commotion behind her. Ji Chen had returned from outside, looking enlightened and… satisfied. Tong Yao sat back at the podium and began preparing lessons.
Even Ruan Xi could feel the restlessness of the classmates.
They wanted to ask questions but didn’t quite dare.
To be honest, she didn’t quite dare either. She was afraid her question would be too simple and she’d be blocked by a dismissive “Didn’t I cover this in class?” or “Go check the book yourself.”
That would be too embarrassing.
After all, Old Man Chen was like that before. He refused to explain simple questions, allocating all his limited resources to the top students.
There was nothing wrong with that; society was just like that. Besides, students usually kept a respectful distance from teachers. If they had difficult problems, they’d rather ask the top students. If they saw a teacher in the cafeteria, they would only pray the teacher wouldn’t sit with them. But with Teacher Tong, everything seemed to have changed.
Ruan Xi looked at the answer sheet handed out that afternoon. Her math sheet was a mess of errors.
How about… going to Teacher Tong for a heart-to-heart?
She summoned her courage. Just as she was about to stand up, she realized someone in front of her had beaten her to it, walking up to the podium with a test paper.
She caught a glimpse of it. A dazzling 145 was written on the paper.
145 points.
What the hell are you asking questions for?!
**
**
“Hmm…”
Tong Yao carefully examined the test paper in front of her and said:
“You were careless on this question. It’s a pity, you were almost perfect.”
Yin Jiali stuck out her tongue and pointed to the last question.
“Teacher, my method here doesn’t seem very standard. Can I write it like this in the future?”
“Hmm?” Tong Yao looked down. “This question requires a second derivative… you used integration? Converting it to find the area… pretty good. I think your method is better than the reference answer.”
“Hehe.” The girl smiled brilliantly.
“Share your method with everyone in class tomorrow,” Tong Yao said. “Prepare for it?”
“Okay!”
The girl walked down from the podium with a bounce in her step like a happy rabbit.
Hmm… quite cute.
On the surface, she acted calm and mature, but the joy in her eyes couldn’t be hidden.
Tong Yao knew very well that this girl was probably fishing for praise. She didn’t dislike such behavior; in fact, she was quite happy about it. Students shouldn’t be lifeless. Having a little vanity, especially academic vanity, wasn’t a bad thing. She wasn’t stingy with her praise.
However, immediately after, she saw a lifeless face.
Ruan Xi.
The girl held her test paper, not daring to look at her. She simply placed the paper on the podium and said with very little confidence:
“Teacher… can you help me analyze my paper?”
70 points.
Tong Yao took the test paper and smiled. “Sure.”
After speaking, she stood up. “Let’s go to the corridor.”
At seven-thirty, the sky outside was already dark. The lights in the corridor weren’t bright at all; one had to rely on the light from the classroom to see the answer sheet clearly. Ruan Xi lowered her head obediently. Teacher Tong… was standing so close to her, their shoulders almost touching.
“So many mistakes in the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blanks? Each one is worth five points.”
She heard Teacher Tong say.
“…Mm.”
“You basically got the points for the first two parts of the big questions. You have good test-taking skills.” Tong Yao’s eyes curved into a smile. Most children craved recognition, so she leaned toward praise—she wasn’t the homeroom teacher anyway, so she didn’t need to worry about spoiling the students.
“R-Really?” Ruan Xi stammered. She looked up and re-examined her test paper, but the result was still… too unbearable to look at.
“The school gave you science students advanced tutoring on derivatives over the summer. It’s normal not to have a firm grasp on it yet,” Tong Yao’s finger brushed against her lower lip. “If the foundation isn’t solid, the earth shakes and the mountains sway. I will teach you well this semester, step by step. Don’t rush.”
“…Mm.”
“By the way, why didn’t you choose liberal arts? I see your Chinese and English scores are quite good.” She looked at the girl. “How were your liberal arts subjects before?”
“My liberal arts grades were a bit better than science…” Ruan Xi lowered her head again. “But my parents made me choose science.”
Actually, choosing liberal arts or science didn’t make much difference. Even if her liberal arts grades were slightly better, the universities she could get into might not be better than with science. She had thought about escaping from math, physics, and chemistry. It was only the beginning of the second year, so switching from science to liberal arts wasn’t impossible, but now…
Leaving physics aside, she felt she could at least… fall in love with math.
Someone come and slap me awake. Was she liking math? She was… lusting after her own teacher.
“Since that’s the case, then persist,” Tong Yao smiled. “Focus wholeheartedly and don’t let your mind wander. Throw thoughts like ‘if only I had chosen liberal arts’ aside.”
Ruan Xi blinked, her voice faint. “Mm.”
“Then let’s continue looking at the paper.”
The moon appeared faintly in the sky.
Teacher Tong’s collarbones were exquisite under her shirt. Ruan Xi shifted her gaze back. On the corridor of the adjacent class, a teacher was also explaining problems to a student. Inside the classroom, without a teacher presiding, there were faint sounds of conversation.
But none of that mattered.
“Teacher,” Ruan Xi felt a bit embarrassed. “Am I taking up too much of your time?”
Tong Yao looked back and said with relief, “It’s fine. No one else is coming to ask questions right now anyway.”
In half an hour, Tong Yao finished analyzing the entire paper. It happened to be almost time for the break. She handed the paper back to Ruan Xi and said:
“You can come to the office to ask me anytime in the future. You remember where my desk is, right?”
Ruan Xi blushed. “Mm!”
“Alright then, go back inside.”
Tong Yao checked the time. She had to go to Class 4 for the third evening self-study session. She would be free for the hour in between. So before leaving, she said to the students of Class 7:
“I’ll be in the office until nine o’clock. Just come find me if you need anything.”
The students responded one after another: “Okay!”
Break time.
“Not bad,” Jiang Yiming said with great interest. “Monopolizing Teacher Tong for so long.”
Ruan Xi stared into space alone, silently agreeing.
**
**
During the second period, the teacher on duty was the chemistry teacher, Long Ting.
A woman in her early thirties with sharp features, rumored to be unmarried. Although she didn’t scold people often, when she got angry, she would just stare at you, looking like a female ghost. Her nickname was the Iron Maiden.
Ruan Xi felt guilty because she hadn’t handed in her chemistry summer homework and was terrified of attracting Long Ting’s attention.
Just then, someone walked up to the podium.
Ruan Xi took a peek and was startled. It was Ji Chen again.
He was holding a competition book in his arms.
“What is it?” Long Ting asked, turning her head on the podium.
“I’m going to ask Teacher Tong some questions,” Ji Chen explained.
Long Ting nodded. “Alright, go ahead.”
Ruan Xi: “!!”
That guy!
He wants to take this opportunity to go to Teacher Tong alone!
Given Teacher Tong’s personality, as long as she was free and Ji Chen didn’t leave, she would keep explaining, right?!
Ji Chen… a parasite who only knew how to ask teachers, an infant with no independent thinking ability. It was people like him who corrupted the social atmosphere and turned the elite class into exquisite egoists. With such poor self-study ability, what was he doing studying for the Olympiad…
Her jealousy was about to spray out of her eyes.
She envied Ji Chen.
Sometimes she felt she must be possessed, actually getting nervous over a teacher she just met as if it were something huge.
But from this seat, looking out the window, she could see the office door by the stairwell.
Ruan Xi chewed on her pen cap, sitting on pins and needles. She had only written one question in over ten minutes, and Ji Chen still hadn’t come back.
With a swish, she stood up.
Long Ting on the podium looked up instantly, staring at her from head to toe.
Ruan Xi bit the bullet and walked up, her posture humbled into the dust. Holding a stack of math books in her arms, she whispered:
“Teacher, I want to… go ask Teacher Tong some questions.”
Long Ting glanced at her sideways.
“Have you finished your chemistry homework?”
“Uh… no…”
“Then go finish your chemistry homework first. I’m right here; if you don’t understand anything, you can ask me directly.” Long Ting’s tone brooked no refusal.
“But…” Ruan Xi’s excuse stuck in her throat, and she finally lowered her head. “Okay…”
She returned to her seat dejectedly.
Jiang Yiming gloated and laughed at her from the side, but she couldn’t even be bothered to respond.
