New Year

The author has something to say: A little skit—

Wei Xiaogong: I absolutely will not sell out my ** body!!! (Sorry, what was the key word? The wind was too loud; I didn't hear it clearly. ︿(￣︶￣)︿)

Chapter 24: New Year

To make it through the entrance exams six months from now, Lu Heng decided he had to study hard and keep improving. With sixteen years of extra life experience under his belt, and the determination to stay up all night memorizing questions—like someone hanging from a beam and pricking himself with an awl—he figured he could at least raise his scores in all nine subjects above passing by the final exams—

That was what Lu Heng thought. Unfortunately, reality loved to slap people in the face even more than fiction did!

It seemed that intelligence really had nothing to do with getting older!

During fourth-period self-study that afternoon, Lu Heng stared intently at the geography test in front of him. He'd spent forty-five minutes answering the questions with his books open, looking things up left and right, and then checking his answers against the key... Damn it, what was he supposed to make of a score of 59.5?

As if sensing the frustration and defeat practically seeping out of Lu Heng's pores, his deskmate leaned over and glanced at the big red Xs on the test. Smiling, he said, "Oh, these questions are actually pretty simple. You just have to get your head around them. First, you need to know how to read the map. Longitude increases as you go east, so that's east longitude; it increases as you go west, so that's west longitude. The dividing line between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres is... So point A is at... Point B is at... Every fifteen degrees equals one hour. If you know the time at point A and need to find the time at point B, you just do @##$$%%^^&&, and then $$%^&*^& because you add going east and subtract going west..."

W-wait a second! What did you just say? Were you reciting a tongue twister? How come I didn't understand a single word?

Lu Heng stared at his deskmate, utterly bewildered. The chubby boy used a ballpoint pen to gesture across the test as he explained, talking until his mouth went dry. When he finally looked up, Lu Heng's little eyes were even more dazed and blank than before.

Deskmate: "..."

Lu Heng: QAQ

After a long moment, his deskmate asked tentatively, speaking with great care, as if afraid he might hurt him, "You... didn't understand?"

Lu Heng nodded.

His deskmate blinked, then reached out with his chubby paw to flip through the worksheets on Lu Heng's desk. Aside from Chinese, English, history, and politics—the subjects that relied on rote memorization—the scores on his math, physics, and chemistry tests were simply too tragic to look at.

The chubby boy smacked his lips and said with a sigh, "Your foundations..." They weren't just a little shaky!

Lu Heng, who had dropped out of school sixteen years ago in his previous life: QAQ

His chubby deskmate scratched his head and couldn't help saying, "I think... given your situation, if you want to catch up, you'll have to start with the seventh-grade curriculum. Doing these practice tests won't help much right now."

Yanjing University Affiliated High School was one of the nation's top schools. Its pace and difficulty were already far beyond those of ordinary middle schools. The practice tests were full of challenging competition-level questions, and the students there were used to that kind of difficulty. But for Lu Heng, who hadn't been to school in sixteen years in his previous life and had little experience studying in this one, they were more than a little difficult!

His chubby deskmate sneaked a look at Lu Heng's much larger-than-average build and couldn't help shaking his head. Ancient Huaxian sayings were pretty spot-on: well-developed limbs and all that... Clearly, his brain—cough, cough!

Still, he had a pretty good memory!

His chubby deskmate tore a page from his notebook, quickly wrote down the names of several books with his ballpoint pen, and handed it to Lu Heng. "These are some of the supplementary books I found useful. I also have notes from seventh and eighth grade. I'll bring them for you tomorrow."

After saying that, his chubby deskmate patted Lu Heng on the shoulder and said earnestly, "Deskmate, this is as far as I can help you."

Lu Heng took the book list in both hands and thanked him eagerly, when someone suddenly called from the doorway, "Lu Heng, someone's here to see you."

Lu Heng turned around and saw Wei Linxuan standing outside in his high school uniform.

Wei Linxuan looked over Lu Heng, who had grown taller and leaner all over, and asked indignantly, "You secretly lost weight behind my back?"

"No." Lu Heng shook his head, looking droopy right down to the tips of his hair. "Studying wore me out."

Wei Linxuan: "..." There was so much wrong with that sentence, he didn't even know where to start!

Wei Linxuan simply ignored it. "Come on, I'm treating you to dinner tonight."

Lu Heng shook his head. "No need. I'll just grab something in the cafeteria." He still had to come back and memorize questions after dinner!

Wei Linxuan gave a disbelieving laugh and looked at Lu Heng with deep suspicion. "I heard that if teenagers lose weight, they might not grow any taller!"

Lu Heng: "?"

Wei Linxuan simply said, "Anyway, hurry up and come out. Starting today, I'm going to keep an eye on you while you eat!"

Lu Heng, looking dejected, clarified, "I'm not losing weight. I'm really just worn out from studying."

Still, he couldn't get out of it. Wei Linxuan all but dragged him to a private restaurant near the school.

Wei Linxuan ordered several dishes to Lu Heng's taste: crispy tea shrimp, lotus-leaf sticky rice chicken, boiled fish, and crab casserole.

After all the dishes had arrived, Wei Linxuan casually peeled a shrimp for Lu Heng and asked with a smile, "How have things been lately?"

Not great. He was studying so hard he might as well have been hanging from a beam and pricking himself with an awl, nearly staying up all night, and he was still a long way from passing.

"My foundation in the science subjects is just too weak. Math, physics, chemistry... Do you think I should hire a tutor?"

Lu Heng now felt that even signing up for a cram school wouldn't make up for his enormous score gap. The only thing he could do was take his deskmate's advice and go back through the middle school curriculum from the beginning. Maybe there was still hope.

"How about I tutor you?" Wei Linxuan volunteered.

"You?" Lu Heng looked doubtful. Wasn't someone's own academic performance not much better than his?

"What's with that look?" Wei Linxuan raised an eyebrow. "You should know that after three days apart, you ought to look at someone with new eyes. Your boss is all-powerful."

"It's settled. Starting tomorrow, I'll help you with your studies." And keep an eye on you while you eat.

Wei Linxuan meant what he said. Sure enough, starting the very next day, he kept a close eye on Lu Heng's studies.