I'm an Insanely Good Support

The next day, to thank Chen for introducing him to this part-time job, Lu Zhou decided to treat her to a meal.

However, he found himself torn over whether to have braised chicken with rice or KFC.

So he asked the opinion of the only other living person in the dorm—Liu Rui.

Liu Rui, who was duo-queueing with an online friend, had once again been sent back to the fountain by the enemy team. Already annoyed, he did not listen carefully to Lu Zhou's question and casually replied without turning around, "Malatang. Cheap and filling!"

And then...

Lu Zhou really did treat her to it.

Outside Mountain City Malatang on the snack street by the school gate, Chen Yushan, her hair tied in a single ponytail, sat across from Lu Zhou and stuck out her tongue from the spice.

Even though the heat had nearly brought tears to her eyes, Chen Yushan stubbornly endured it and asked while eating, "So? Is there still hope for my sister's Mathematics?"

Was it really that spicy?

Lu Zhou tossed a fish ball into his mouth in confusion. Chewing, he said, "There's still hope... probably? Anyway, I'll do my best."

"Then I'll leave her to you. My little sister... actually had very good science grades in middle school, but later... Ahhh, it's killing me!"

Lu Zhou silently handed her a cup of water and asked, "Later?"

Chen Yushan drained the water in one gulp, cutely stuck out her tongue, and continued after catching her breath. "Later... my aunt and uncle had some problems with their relationship. The two of them are fighting over Mengqi's custody. I don't know the specifics, but Mengqi is temporarily living with my aunt now."

Lu Zhou silently nodded without saying anything.

He was not particularly interested in other people's private affairs. In a sense, he was quite self-centered.

After finishing their malatang, Lu Zhou walked Chen back near her dorm building before turning toward the library.

On the way to the library, he received two emails.

One was from Teacher Liu, containing feedback on that Mathematical Modeling assignment.

The other was a reply from the journal Modern Communications and Geographic Information Technology, informing him that the payment had been transferred to his bank account: 150 yuan per paper, 1,350 yuan in total. Please check and confirm receipt.

"..."

Nine SCI papers and this was all he got. Sure enough, building missiles paid less than frying eggs...

Lu Zhou could not help sighing inwardly.

Still, over a thousand yuan was not a small amount. Adding the three thousand he had earned tutoring yesterday, he now had more than seven thousand yuan in his card. It would definitely be enough to pay his tuition.

He had originally planned to put it off and settle everything at once before graduation, but it seemed that would no longer be necessary.

Over the next few days, Lu Zhou's life became very regular. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, he stayed up late cramming books. Tuesdays and Thursdays were for consolidating what he had learned while previewing courses in information technology, electronic engineering, biology, chemistry, and other subjects. He also did not neglect his Mathematical Modeling practice.

Sometimes, he truly felt that if he could maintain such good study habits, becoming a top student would only be a matter of time, even without the system's help.

The system had merely accelerated that process.

It was like strapping on a rocket...

On Saturday, as usual, Lu Zhou went to Madam Yang's home to tutor Han Mengqi in Mathematics.

Perhaps because of the previous incident, or perhaps because mother and daughter had reached some sort of agreement, Madam Yang did not lock the door before leaving for work this time. She merely told Lu Zhou to keep a close eye on her daughter.

Watching her mother leave with a blank expression, Han Mengqi looked at Lu Zhou. "Then, let's begin."

With that, she turned and went back to her room.

Following Han Mengqi into the room, Lu Zhou was surprised to find that, after not seeing her for a week, she had actually cleaned it up this time.

Without any unnecessary conversation, Han Mengqi spread her books across the desk, flipped to the dog-eared page, and looked at Lu Zhou.

"Following the outline you gave me, I've already reached Analytic Geometry in Compulsory Two... then what?"

"Then what?" Lu Zhou raised an eyebrow and asked with a smile, "Why don't you first tell me what you don't understand?"

"There's nothing I don't understand. It feels pretty easy." Han Mengqi raised her little chin and impatiently said, "Then what?"

"Then I'll give you a question." Lu Zhou took an A4 sheet from the side and wrote on it.

After writing the question, Lu Zhou made a please-go-ahead gesture.

Han Mengqi's eyebrow twitched slightly. She had just bragged, and she had not expected Lu Zhou to test her on the spot.

Gritting her teeth, she picked up her pen and pondered over the scratch paper for a long time.

Ten minutes passed, and she had only solved the first step.

Namely—

After waiting about ten minutes, Lu Zhou checked the time and smiled. "During the college entrance examination, you can spend at most ten minutes thinking about a single question. As things stand, you could only get three points on this one."

"Ugh..." Han Mengqi gritted her teeth, looking unconvinced. But that was how problem-solving worked. The more anxious you became, the less likely you were to solve it.

Lu Zhou smiled, pulled out a test paper from the pile of materials beside him, pointed to the second-to-last major question, and continued, "More importantly, this is a question you got wrong on this test paper."

"...You're bullying me." Han Mengqi threw down her pen and glared at Lu Zhou angrily. "I know I'm stupid, okay?"

"I'm only teaching you, and I never said you were stupid. On the contrary, I think highly of your intelligence, so please don't belittle yourself." Lu Zhou picked up the pen she had thrown down and wrote out the remaining steps on the A4 paper. "The key to this kind of question is determining the value of M, so for the second step, you must let M(x1, y1) and solve it based on the two given conditions: |MF2| = 5/3 and M lying on parabola C2..."

"Our second objective is to determine the semi-focal length of ellipse C1. Once we solve that step, the remaining problems become matters of solving systems of equations."

Lu Zhou wrote down the key points of every step and clarified the line of reasoning.

At first, Han Mengqi looked impatient, but the expression in her eyes gradually became serious as she stared at the paper.

In the end, a flicker of realization appeared on her face.

Her little lips moved slightly. Staring intently at the scratch paper, Han Mengqi furrowed her brows and nodded thoughtfully. "So that's how it is..."

"Your teacher must have explained this before. You simply never listened."

"Our teacher... didn't explain it as thoroughly as you did." Han Mengqi weakly argued.

Lu Zhou laughed. "Why don't you say that to your Mathematics teacher and see if you can make him mad enough to drop dead?"

Han Mengqi's teeth itched with anger, but there was nothing she could do to him. She could only snort.

"No wonder my sister said you... said you're really sharp-tongued..."

Lu Zhou: ???

Someone was talking badly about him behind his back?

He could not pretend he had not heard that.

Lu Zhou coughed and changed the subject. Picking up his pen, he said, "This is a typical problem of finding an ellipse's equation from an intersection point. I believe that the next time you encounter this type of question, you'll at least get half the points."

"What about the other half?" Han Mengqi asked, tilting her head.

"The other half is in the second question. This kind of problem is usually tested together with vector problems in the college entrance examination, so there's generally a second part..."

As he spoke, Lu Zhou continued writing beneath the question.

The instant Han Mengqi saw the question, she was completely dumbfounded and looked helplessly at Lu Zhou.

However, Lu Zhou did not look at her. He sat down on the edge of the bed, casually picked up a workbook from the side, and began searching for the next example problem.

"Try solving it first. If you can't, I'll teach you. You have fifteen minutes. Start."

Even worse than the first question, this time Han Mengqi only wrote the word "Solution." Not a single other line was correct.

Perhaps because he had a younger sister around her age, Lu Zhou did not become impatient or mock her by calling it another "free points" question. Instead, he patiently explained the method and process to her.

Looking at the steps on the scratch paper, Han Mengqi widened her eyes and softly said, "That's amazing..."

"My learning process is one of constant summarization—learning from mistakes. I hope you'll find the problems you usually can't solve, preferably copy them into a notebook yourself, and I'll explain them to you every week." Lu Zhou handed the pen back to Han Mengqi and casually said, "An error notebook is essential for learning Mathematics, or even any science subject. If you want to do well in science, you have to prepare one. Just like an ADC buys Doran's Blade when leaving base, and a support buys wards—it's basic stuff."

Han Mengqi's eyes lit up, and she immediately became interested. Interrupting him, she asked, "You play League of Legends too? Which server? I'm insanely good at Soraka!"

"...Blackberry."

"I'll add you as a friend! Give me your QQ number... Ow!"

Lu Zhou reached out and flicked her forehead. Looking at her as she covered it, he said irritably, "Still thinking about games? Get a hundred in Mathematics on this month's exam first!"