Who Says I Can't Be a Study Buddy?

Chen Shi'an had arrived at the classroom just before the bell. By the time he returned from taking out the trash with Lin Meng Qiu, the class's morning reading session had already been underway for fifteen minutes.

Today's morning reading was English, so every voice in the classroom was speaking a foreign language. Chen Shi'an couldn't understand it, but he was confident that it wouldn't take him long.

Chen Shi'an and Lin Meng Qiu carried the trash can in through the back door. Most of the students in the front rows didn't notice, while a few in the back cast curious looks their way.

Everyone froze for a moment at the sight of the sparkling-clean trash can. Had they gotten a new one?

With the class monitor right there, nobody dared strike up a conversation with the Daoist Master.

Chen Shi'an carried the can back to its corner and set it down. Beside him, Lin Meng Qiu didn't hurry back to her seat. Instead, she picked up a pen from the tray beneath the bulletin board at the back of the classroom and wrote a warning in an empty space-

[Let's all keep our classroom clean!]

As they read on,

[Pour soup and other liquids down the restroom drain!]

[Do not pour them into the classroom trash can!]

This wasn't a rule Lin Meng Qiu had made up herself. The school's classroom management regulations already required it. In fact, the guidelines divided things into even more specific categories: dry waste, wet waste, food waste, paper, and miscellaneous rubbish.

Of course, tossing assorted rubbish into the can usually wasn't a big deal. But dumping half a tub of unfinished instant noodles into the communal classroom trash can, broth and all, had crossed Lin Meng Qiu's bottom line.

Although she was the class monitor, she rarely interfered in classroom management. The less often she did, the more authority she carried when she spoke.

With the class monitor making one of her rare pronouncements, everyone started hunting for the culprit-

"It was definitely Zhuoran's instant noodles from last night!"

"Fuck! Which bastard stole my sausage?"

"God damn it, who could bear to throw away instant noodles?"

Liu Zhuoran: "..."

After playing basketball yesterday evening, Liu Zhuoran had eaten at the cafeteria, but he'd still felt hungry. So he'd bought a tub of instant noodles and swiped a sausage from Zihan. Sometimes people were just that ridiculous: he'd felt hungry enough to eat a whole cow, yet after barely two bites of noodles, he'd suddenly felt full. Then he'd casually dumped them into the trash can...

Great. Now he'd offended the class monitor. His days were numbered!

Chen Shi'an followed Lin Meng Qiu back to their seats. Suddenly, a hand reached out from beside the aisle, grabbed the hem of his shirt, and stuffed a sausage into his hand.

"Daoist Master, Daoist Master! Help me apologize to the class monitor! I didn't mean to dump my noodles in the can. Old Liang suddenly came into the classroom, that's why! Daoist Master! Daoist Master! We played basketball together yesterday, remember? You've really got to help me out! Here, take this sausage!"

"Fuck you, that's my sausage!"

"Quit yapping! Let your daddy borrow it to save his life! I'll give you two later!"

"You already stole one from me last night!"

Chen Shi'an: "..."

Weren't you the one telling me to dunk as hard as I could yesterday, Liu Zhuoran?

Fortunately, the Daoist Master didn't hold grudges. He didn't take the sausage either, but agreed to help and returned to his seat.

Lin Meng Qiu had already sat down. She put away the math paper she hadn't started and took out her English morning reading materials.

"Class monitor, Liu Zhuoran just told me he was the one who dumped the noodles," Chen Shi'an said.

"Mm."

"Spare his life."

"..."

Lin Meng Qiu ignored him and began her morning reading.

Since he'd delivered the message, Chen Shi'an started his morning reading too.

He took out his seventh-grade English textbook, the reading pen Teacher Ye had given him, and the grammar materials Little Cicada had prepared.

At the moment, he was devoting most of his energy to the three core subjects, with math taking up the most time. Besides math class, he also studied math during physics, chemistry, and biology.

As for Chinese and English, he only studied them on his own during their respective classes.

He had a solid foundation in Chinese and simply needed more standardized practice to correct his approach to answering questions. English mainly involved more memorizing, reciting, practicing, listening, and speaking. Studying during his daily English classes was more or less enough.

Chen Shi'an didn't memorize English words from the vocabulary lists at the back of the textbook. Instead, he used the reading pen to work through the passages while memorizing every word that appeared in them.

During yesterday's two consecutive English periods, he'd read and memorized his way through 346 words.

He no longer needed the reading pen to understand the earlier passages or know how to read them. His pronunciation was still off, though, and when he took individual words and combined them freely into sentences, his grasp of grammar was awkward.

Fortunately, with Wen Zhixia's grammar materials, he could now read, memorize, and work out the grammatical rules behind sentence construction at the same time.

Lin Meng Qiu's gaze drifted over, and she stole a glance.

Just as she was about to look away, she noticed the grammar notes beside his hand, which had clearly been organized with care.

The materials were printed.

There was no author's name or publisher. Someone had clearly printed them privately.

Where did they come from?

"Did Teacher Ye give you those?" she suddenly asked.

"Hm?"

Chen Shi'an turned to look at her, momentarily confused. Then he followed her gaze and moved the grammar notes in his hand. "You mean these?"

"Mm."

"They're not from Teacher Ye. My study buddy gave them to me."

Study... buddy?

He'd only been at school for two days. Where had he found a study buddy...?

If anyone was his study buddy, shouldn't it be me...?

I'd told him he could ask me whenever he didn't understand something...

Who says I can't be a study buddy? Why doesn't he ask me about English?

"Can I take a look?"

"It's probably all pretty basic for you."

Chen Shi'an was generous. As he spoke, he openly slid the materials over to the space between their seats.

Lin Meng Qiu reached out and moved them in front of herself.

She didn't say anything, merely leafed through a few pages.

They were very systematically organized and extremely suitable for someone with a weak English foundation. They even included quite a few of the writer's personal learning tips. They might only be basic grammar notes, but the quality of their organization made it clear that the writer's English was strong.

"Yes, these are good materials. They suit you. If you study them thoroughly and really master them, they'll make a big difference to your English grades."

Lin Meng Qiu offered her assessment calmly, gently closed the pages, and pushed them back between their desks.

Chen Shi'an blinked.

Something was off.

Something was definitely off!

Even Teacher Ye's miraculous reading pen hadn't earned a single word of appraisal. Yet these notes warranted such a long comment from the normally taciturn class monitor?

He could sense that something had shifted in the girl's mood, but he had absolutely no idea what lay beneath that utterly placid expression.

Fortunately, his natural sense of danger told him how to avoid trouble. Although he couldn't work out what she was thinking, he vaguely sensed that... he'd better mention the grammar materials less around Lin Meng Qiu. Or, more specifically, his study buddy?

Chen Shi'an retrieved the grammar notes from between their desks. He had originally placed them on his left, but now he discreetly moved them to his right, farther away from Lin Meng Qiu.

After these small evasive maneuvers, he glanced at Lin Meng Qiu again out of the corner of his eye.

She was silently writing something in her notebook. Her expression and demeanor looked no different from usual, as though the "something off" he'd noticed earlier had only been his imagination.

What's she writing...?

-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1...-10?

What the hell...?!

The class's English morning reading continued.

Amid the clear chorus of reading voices, Teacher Ye entered the classroom.

Like Liang Huiyang, Ye Mingmei was one of the school's outstanding senior teachers. As a core-subject teacher, Teacher Ye taught English to both Class Five and Class Eleven, which meant she was also Wen Zhixia's English teacher. Wen Zhixia had told Chen Shi'an that over dinner yesterday.

If you asked what distinguished the science and humanities tracks, aside from their respective combined subject exams, the answer was math. Under the old college entrance exam system, humanities math was easier than science math. Chinese and English, however, used the same papers for both tracks.

This left many science students indignant. Why did humanities students get easier math, while science students had to take the same English and Chinese exams as them?!

Since today's scheduled morning reading was English, Teacher Ye had arrived earlier than usual, reaching school at seven. She would make a round of Class Five first, then head upstairs to check on Class Eleven.

Teacher Ye was well loved by the students. As she walked around the classroom, students occasionally brought their notebooks over to ask questions, and she answered them with considerable patience.

"Teacher Ye! Teacher Ye! How do you do this question?"

"Don't trust him, Teacher Ye! The bastard deliberately found a hard question online!"

"Wang Yuze, you still need more practice with your essays. Have you memorized the model essay I assigned last time?"

"I have! I have!"

English essays weren't actually as difficult as Chinese essays and didn't demand the same level of writing ability. Mastering a versatile essay formula allowed students to quickly build a framework, while memorizing a few high-scoring sentence patterns could add polish and instantly improve the quality.

As the English teacher for the top classes in both the science and humanities tracks, Teacher Ye hadn't had to worry about a student's terribly weak English foundation in a long time.

Teacher Ye made her way from the first seating group to the fourth, where Chen Shi'an sat beside the aisle.

The young Taoist was in a flow state, using his reading pen alongside the grammar notes to study the seventh-grade textbook passages.

Lin Meng Qiu noticed Teacher Ye standing just behind Chen Shi'an to one side, bending slightly to watch his independent study with curiosity.

Seeing that Teacher Ye didn't seem inclined to interrupt him, she reluctantly withdrew the pen she'd been about to poke him with.

Teacher Ye watched quietly for two minutes before she couldn't help asking in a low voice, "Shi'an, why aren't you reading aloud?"

Chen Shi'an didn't react.

Lin Meng Qiu's pen finally found its purpose. It darted over and poked him.

Chen Shi'an: "?"

Why does that poke feel a little personal this time? Are you Jing Ke trying to assassinate the King of Qin?!

In response to his confusion, Lin Meng Qiu merely lifted her eyelids, the faintest trace of satisfaction at the corners of her mouth. She said evenly, "Teacher Ye asked you a question."

"Teacher Ye?... Sorry, Teacher Ye. I was memorizing vocabulary and didn't notice."

"Shi'an, why aren't you reading aloud?"

Teacher Ye smiled gently, unbothered. "You still need to read English aloud, especially when you're memorizing words and practicing speaking. Reading aloud helps reinforce your memory."

"I thought I'd memorize all the words and understand the grammatical structure first, then correct my spoken English later. That seemed more efficient."

"They complement each other. Besides, memorizing vocabulary is harder if you only read silently."

"It's not too bad."

"How's your studying coming along?"

"Your reading pen has been a huge help, Teacher Ye. I don't think I'm having any problems for now."

Teacher Ye reached out and picked up the grammar notes on his desk to look through them.

"Mm, did you find these yourself? It's good that you're taking the initiative to study independently."

"My study buddy gave them to me."

"Then you've got a wonderful study buddy. You can study and improve together."

Lin Meng Qiu: "..."

"How many words have you memorized, Shi'an?"

Teacher Ye was already prepared to encourage him. Whether he said five or ten, she would offer praise. After all, the college entrance exams were still a long way off. If he consistently learned ten words a day, his vocabulary would certainly be sufficient in two years.

"Four hundred and seventy-three."

"..."

Hearing Chen Shi'an give such a precise number, Teacher Ye failed to process it for a moment and froze.

"Huh? How many?"

"Four hundred and seventy-three so far."

Excluding duplicates, the passages in the first volume of the seventh-grade English textbook contained roughly three hundred words. Chen Shi'an had finished all of them during yesterday's two consecutive English periods. During this morning's reading session, he was memorizing the second volume, still going page by page and committing every unfamiliar word on the paper to memory.

Teacher Ye was dumbfounded.

After asking Chen Shi'an how he'd memorized them, she picked up his first-volume seventh-grade English textbook and randomly selected a few words to test him.

"How do you spell the word for [pronunciation]?"

"Prun-unsy-ay-shun-pronunciation."

"[Expression]."

"Ek-spresh-un-expression."

The words Teacher Ye picked at random were all from the instructions in the passages, not the required vocabulary lists. Even so, Chen Shi'an spelled every one without a single incorrect letter-though his pronunciation was a little stiff.

Profound disbelief and delight spread across her face.

Was this thanks to the reading pen?

Or was Chen Shi'an that one-in-ten-thousand

English-learning prodigy?

No English foundation. No English foundation at all! And he'd mastered more than four hundred words in one day! One day!

Yesterday, when Teacher Zhang had been agonizing over Chen Shi'an's math foundation in the office, Teacher Ye had felt apprehensive for herself too. A student who'd slipped through the cracks of nine years of compulsory education-that was a creature of legend.

Yet in just one day, Chen Shi'an had given her such an enormous surprise!

Never mind Teacher Ye-even Lin Meng Qiu, who'd been listening in beside him, was stunned. Her pen stopped moving, and she turned to stare at Chen Shi'an in disbelief.

Lin Meng Qiu would rather believe that Chen Shi'an naturally had a good memory than credit that English-whatever study buddy of his. Otherwise, wouldn't it make her, the one teaching him math, look useless?

That study buddy of his certainly knew how to pick the easy job! She'd gotten here first, so why was she stuck with math, the hardest subject?

"Shi'an... very good. Very good."

Teacher Ye suddenly couldn't remember the encouraging words she'd prepared. Instead, she earnestly said, "Well... you're quite far behind in your other subjects too. While you're studying English, you need to catch up on those as well. Balance work with rest, and make sure you look after yourself."

Chen Shi'an blinked. Surely Teacher Ye hadn't assumed he'd spent the entire day memorizing English vocabulary?

He didn't explain, though, and simply nodded. "I understand. Thank you for looking out for me, Teacher Ye."

"Mm. Anyway, keep working hard, Shi'an! I'm growing more and more confident in you! Ask me anytime there's something you don't understand. Keep it up! You can do it!"

With that, Teacher Ye left in high spirits. She had to go to the office... No, no, she couldn't let this get out. Teacher Zhang and the others would be jealous to death.

Chen Shi'an continued memorizing words.

Before he could enter his flow state, a soft remark drifted over from beside him-

"If there's anything you don't understand in English, you can ask me too."

"...Huh?"

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