If You Already Know Everything, Then There's No Point in Me Being Here

Ding Yebai's pupils widened slightly at those words. He was clearly surprised, though there was little change visible on that icy face of his.

"Some people are like rainbows—you only know they exist once you meet them?"

Ding Yebai had heard that saying long ago, but it had gone in one ear and out the other. He had never taken it seriously.

He might have seen the original English line back then. But with his personality, he would definitely have deliberately ignored it.

"Have you seen the movie Flipped?" Yang Zhi asked him.

Ding Yebai said, "No."

Yang Zhi lowered her eyes with a faint smile and softly explained, "It's a very good English movie. The original line in the film goes like this."

[Some of us are shallow, some of us are golden on the outside and rotten within, but every once in a while, you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.]

She thoughtfully said it once in English, then explained it again in Chinese.

"Later, when a writer wrote a review after watching the movie, they came up with the romantic line, 'Some people are like rainbows—you only know they exist once you meet them.'"

"It roughly means that after meeting the right person, you'll discover how colorful and extraordinary they are, their radiance eclipsing everyone else's."

Her sweet voice was like a spring breeze sweeping across an endless grassland, and like a meteor streaking through the pitch-black night sky.

It struck the boy's heart so lightly, yet so precisely.

After hearing that, Ding Yebai leaned back in his chair and instinctively turned his head to look at Sister Yang Zhi.

Were graduate students all this poised, eloquent, and refined?

It came naturally to her, without the slightest hint of showing off in her words.

Her knowledge far surpassed his, yet she was still willing to lower herself, listen to him, and explain his confusion.

Yang Zhi paused, then looked at Ding Yebai as well. Her eyes curved into little bridges as she smiled brightly. "Isn't that sentence beautiful?"

Her voice was soft, just soft enough that it would be scattered by the wind the moment it drifted into Ding Yebai's ears.

Staring into her bright eyes, Ding Yebai suddenly did not know what to say.

He knew that he had lost focus because of her.

Uh...

Ahem!

"It's alright. Just a little better-sounding than my translation, that's all."

He sounded as though he were trying to save face. One hand rested on the desk as he habitually spun his pen.

Yang Zhi smiled. "English can be romantic too. It isn't as dull as you imagine. And personally, I think it's very useful for you at your current stage."

Ding Yebai said, "..."

Yang Zhi said, "I heard from your Older Sister that you want to get into the best university in the country?"

"Yes," Ding Yebai answered firmly.

Yang Zhi said, "I think your chances will be greater if you can improve your English scores. Don't worry. I'll help you, and I'll definitely raise your grades."

Ding Yebai raised an eyebrow, a trace of doubt showing in his eyes. "Sister Yang Zhi... you're pretty confident."

It was already the final year. How much could things really improve?

"Believe in yourself. I can see that you have the potential. You're so smart—what could possibly stump you?"

Yang Zhi smiled at him, her gaze as bright and pure as the moon.

Ding Yebai said, "..."

When he was little, people often said he was smart, a genius.

As he grew older, fewer and fewer people praised him so bluntly.

Ding Yebai secretly felt pleased and did not argue.

"Then, Sister Yang Zhi, what are we studying now?"

Yang Zhi said, "I've looked at your English papers too. There are quite a few problems. Your vocabulary is lacking, and your grasp of grammar isn't solid either. How about this? I'll give you a vocabulary list every day for you to memorize, then quiz you in class the next evening. I'll also give you a test paper. It won't have too many questions. You can finish it during the day, and I'll explain it to you at night."

She paused and asked, "Have you finished your school assignments?"

"I have," Ding Yebai replied quickly.

His mind was quick, and those incredibly easy assignments could be finished entirely during class or in breaks after class.

Of course.

He would not sit around doing nothing once he got home either.

Organizing incorrect questions, doing practice papers, reviewing, and so on.

Yang Zhi said, "Then I have a reading comprehension test here. Do it, and I'll mark it for you."

"Alright." Ding Yebai took the paper and immediately began answering the questions.

Yang Zhi sat beside him. At first, she watched Ding Yebai study, but later realized that the boy was not used to being watched while studying. She promptly opened the book she had brought with her and lowered her head to read.

Ding Yebai worked through questions quickly, no matter the subject.

For math and science, it was because his mind worked quickly. As for the others... he was simply getting them over with.

After a while—

"Sister Yang Zhi, I'm done."

When he said that, Yang Zhi was briefly stunned.

That fast... Had he answered seriously?

Still, Yang Zhi merely smiled, took the paper, and marked it carefully.

Ding Yebai glanced at her, then picked up the mechanical pencil and eraser beside him. On a blank sheet of paper, he began drawing the trajectories of electrons in a magnetic field from that day's physics quiz.

Since he was free anyway, he might as well work on something else.

Questions he did not understand felt like thorns in his heart. If he could not figure them out, he probably would not even sleep well.

Besides, he thought that even drawing this was more interesting than doing an English paper.

Though he looked so indifferent on the surface, he had already imagined Yang Zhi saying things like, "With your English mistakes this bad, you're beyond saving," or, "You're still getting this wrong? I could teach a cow, a horse, or a pig better than this!!"

As he thought about it, he became distracted.

After using the eraser, he casually flicked it aside. That useless little black oval rolled onto the floor.

Ding Yebai said, "..."

Damn it.

He had lost another eraser.

Little things like erasers, tape, and pen caps disappeared forever the moment they hit the floor.

Just as he was about to bend down to look for it, he caught sight of Sister Yang Zhi bending down too from the corner of his eye.

"No need, I'll pick it up myself." Ding Yebai hurriedly stopped her.

Yang Zhi straightened up and smoothed her hair. "Alright."

Although she did not help Ding Yebai pick up the eraser, her hand instinctively shielded the corner of the desk to keep him from bumping into anything sharp when he stood up.

And when Ding Yebai rose, his hair really did brush against Yang Zhi's hand.

He froze for a moment and looked at her.

Yang Zhi, meanwhile, was busy with her own things. She placed the paper on the desk and smiled at him. "Did you find it?"

Ding Yebai said, "No."

Yang Zhi took an eraser from her bag and handed it to him. "Then use mine for now."

"Thanks."

Ding Yebai took it neatly.

Come to think of it, she had not criticized him for doing something else during English class???

Hmm, she was pretty relaxed. He did not like strict, terrifyingly fierce people teaching him.

"By the way, Sister Yang Zhi, did I get a lot wrong?"

That question was completely pointless. He really had not put much effort into the English paper, so getting many questions wrong was inevitable.

Who knew what wire in his brain had crossed for him to cling to that tiny sliver of hope and ask anyway?

Yang Zhi's expression did not change much. She still wore a sweet smile. "A lot."

In a gentle tone, she pointed out the places where he had made mistakes.

Ding Yebai habitually nodded. With an unconscious note of self-reproach in his voice, he said, "To be honest, I'm really bad at English."

Yang Zhi said, "That's alright. If you got everything right, then what would be the point of me being here?"

"Hm?" Ding Yebai was stunned for a moment.

Yang Zhi smoothed out the test paper with her hand and placed it before Ding Yebai. "I came here to help you study and explain things to you. If you got everything right, what would I be needed for? It's fine to make mistakes. I'll explain them clearly, and next time, we just won't make the same mistakes."

Ding Yebai looked into her eyes, like a tank of crystal-clear water that could reflect anything.

He immediately set his pencil, eraser, and scratch paper aside, picked up the English paper, and sat up straight.

"Sister Yang Zhi, go ahead."

"Then let's look at the first one. This question..."

Eight-thirty.

After finishing the lesson, Yang Zhi left Ding Yebai's home.

Ding Yuerong walked her out, while Ding Yebai remained in his bedroom the entire time.

After a while—

He watched his Older Sister come upstairs from the first floor and suddenly asked, "She left?"

Ding Yuerong yawned and languidly sat down on the sofa. "Yep. How was her teaching?"

Ding Yebai said, "It was alright."

Ding Yuerong said, "Then let her keep teaching you. How strange—I thought you'd be really resistant."

Ding Yebai said, "Sister, I want to ask you something. I'm already in my final year of high school. If I'm getting tutoring at this point, shouldn't I find an older teacher with lots of experience? Why did you find a young college student?"

Ding Yuerong lazily rose from the sofa, blew on the hot water in her cup, and said solemnly, "Because those people are too expensive, while your Sister Yang Zhi is tutoring you for free."

Ding Yebai said, "..."

That was right. Ding Yuerong was an exquisite advocate of frugality. In the Ding family, probably no one understood saving money better than she did.

This woman was the founder of a well-known comic app, for heaven's sake! It was truly rare to see someone so successful being this frugal.

Ding Yebai frowned. He really could not hold it in any longer and finally asked, "So what kind of agreement did you make that made her voluntarily tutor me? For free, too???"

He paused, narrowed his eyes, and said suspiciously, "You didn't grab some weakness of hers and force her, did you... If that's the case, make her leave immediately. You can't force people to do things against their will."

"What do you take your sister for?! Not long ago, Yang Zhi went to teach in a remote mountain region. Then the city was locked down because of an infectious disease, and she couldn't get out. During that time, her Grandma happened to get seriously ill. Apparently, there was no one else to take care of her... Since I lived nearby, the moment I heard about it, I rushed to the hospital and looked after her for a while."

"How long?" Ding Yebai asked.

"Not that long. A month, maybe. Then Grandma recovered and was discharged."

Ding Yuerong looked at him honestly, paused, and continued, "She's my best friend. I had to help her. Once the lockdown was lifted, she immediately came to find me and asked if there was anything she could help me with. She said she would do everything in her power to help. I thought about it and figured that I was naturally beautiful, financially well-off, my career was on the rise, and I was so happy that I didn't need anything at all."

After saying that, she took out her phone and held it up for Ding Yebai to see. "Hey, what a coincidence. Mom's call came right then. It was on speakerphone, and after Yang Zhi heard it, she directly said, 'How about I tutor your younger brother? I'll definitely help him improve his grades. I won't charge anything, Senior Sister, so please don't worry.'"

So that was how it was...

Ding Yebai let out a sigh of relief.

It was not easy for good friends to go that far for each other.

The moment she heard someone was in trouble, she went right over. It seemed his Older Sister truly cherished this friend.

Ding Yuerong said, "How could we possibly turn down lessons delivered right to our door for free... Ahem!! Don't worry, my junior sister is very capable. The person your sister found definitely won't let you down."

At that point, she took a tactical sip of coffee. Though she had clearly been exposed for simply wanting to save money, she still pretended to be completely calm. "But, Ye Bai, have you noticed? Your Sister Yang Zhi really is beautiful. That kind of pure, spirited face, along with that gentle and intellectual temperament... It's a real loss that talent scouts haven't discovered her."

Ding Yebai heard his Older Sister say all that while he was getting a drink from the refrigerator.

After listening, he quietly added, "Is that really necessary?"

Ding Yuerong shot him an annoyed sideways glance. "If your sister looked like her, I'd carry a mirror around and stare at myself twenty-four hours a day. I wouldn't even close the bathroom door when I showered... I wouldn't even close the door in a public restroom!"

"Calm down. You'd get arrested as a pervert." Ding Yebai raised an eyebrow and turned his head away.

She had just said she was naturally beautiful...

The corners of his lips lifted slightly. He really had been amused.

"Everyone in the family has double eyelids, but I'm the only one with tiny monolids. Am I even biologically related to you people?! Luckily, your sister practiced piano the day after tomorrow, so I have a nice temperament." Ding Yuerong continued complaining from the sofa.

Ding Yebai silently looked at her, turned to go back to his room, and said coldly, "Big double eyelids aren't necessarily prettier. Everyone has their own beauty. Your eyes turn into slits when you smile, but... they're alright too."

For this always cool and cocky boy to say something like "You're cute" or "You're beautiful" to the Older Sister he had grown up bickering with was simply unrealistic.

In truth, saying "they're alright too" already conveyed all the affection he could manage.

After saying that, Ding Yebai shook his head, turned, walked into his bedroom, and with a bang, gently pulled the door shut.

Ding Yuerong stared at his bedroom door in surprise. "Good lord. That brat actually said something like that."