Tutoring

Late at night, the Nightmare Space opened once more.

Lin Rui woke with a chill running through him. Opening his eyes, he found himself inside a very dilapidated wooden cabin.

His leather armor and longsword were nowhere to be seen, but the lantern the old priest had given him sat on a wooden table, casting a faint light.

Beyond the light lay darkness and deathly silence.

"Whose dream have I entered this time?" Lin Rui rubbed his hands together, climbed out of bed, got dressed, grabbed the lantern, and opened the door.

Outside was a mist-shrouded corridor. By the lantern's light, he saw another door standing ajar at the far end.

Intermittent sobbing came from behind it, as though the place were haunted.

The crying made Lin Rui's skin crawl a little. He hesitated for a long while before reaching out to push open the door, and then...

"Isn't this Toby's room?"

The bedroom looked just as it had before being cleaned, a complete mess. Clothes, food, packaging, dirty tissues-everything was strewn everywhere.

The one crying was Toby. The guy stood over six foot three, yet he was crying like a child.

Lin Rui relaxed a little. He guessed he had entered his tutoring student's dream. He went over, patted Toby's shoulder, and asked, "Toby, what happened?"

Toby raised his tear-filled eyes, his face full of grievance and panic. He trembled all over as he cried, his mountain of flesh curled into a ball, saying nothing.

Lin Rui raised the lantern to illuminate Toby's face and noticed a test paper clutched in his hand. Judging by the questions, it was probably an exam.

The paper was already filled in. At a glance, the handwriting looked like ghostly scrawls, and every answer was wrong.

Perhaps drawn by the light, Toby lifted his head, saw Lin Rui, and said shakily, "I can't get an A+. Mom and Dad will be disappointed."

Oh... so this is test anxiety, is it?

Even after reaching adulthood, Lin Rui often dreamed of returning to a high school classroom or exam hall, facing teachers or test questions, and waking in fright in the middle of the night.

"It's all right, it's all right. I'll help you." Lin Rui figured that comforting Toby a little should let him leave the Nightmare Space.

A mission notification also sounded in his mind: "Mission issued: remedial tutoring."

"In a rotten, depraved world, receiving a good education is very difficult. 'Tittytainment'-style happy education is a trap laid by evil spirits to enslave the lower classes."

"Demon hunter, remember: not everything can be solved through force.

Use your wisdom to help the child caught in this trap escape his predicament. Prevent him from being captured by evil spirits and falling into depravity. Teach him some knowledge."

"Mission reward: one attribute point."

Lin Rui casually took the test paper from Toby's grasp and examined it carefully. Discovering that it covered nothing but elementary school material, he immediately felt brimming with confidence.

"Come on, Toby. I'll teach you arithmetic with fractions."

"Let's start with something really simple. What's one-half plus one-third? Do you know the answer?"

Toby raised his head, pondered for ages, and stammered for a long time before saying quietly, "Two-fifths?"

Lin Rui's face twitched several times. Inwardly, he cursed, A ninth grader actually added the numerators and denominators straight together? Did his brain grow up on pig feed?

But he did not get angry. He could only say pleasantly, "You can't do arithmetic with fractions like that. First, you have to find a common multiple of the denominators and give them a common denominator.

You know what a common multiple is, right?"

Toby looked utterly vacant.

Lin Rui sensed disaster looming. Struggling to keep a smile on his face, he asked, "You must at least know what one plus one is, right?"

"Two," Toby answered.

"Very good. What about multiplication and division? Recite the nine-by-nine multiplication table for me," Lin Rui asked.

Toby immediately stalled. "What's a multiplication table?"

It's over. He really did grow up on pig feed. All that growth went into his size, not his brain.

Lin Rui's heart went cold. He would rather take up a sword and keep hacking at monsters than teach an idiot the most basic elementary school material.

No wonder the three Jones sisters offered a reward just for tutoring Toby to a B. I originally thought anyone could get a B. Who could have imagined, who could have imagined...

"Calm down, calm down. Let's take this one step at a time." Lin Rui comforted himself first. "Surely a fifteen-year-old can learn basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?

Have patience, patience..."

But half an hour later... Lin Rui grabbed Toby's head and shook it hard, cursing in a frenzy, "Toby, you really are a genius.

One plus one is two, but who told you one times one is also two, and one divided by one is still two? Is 'two' the only thing in your head?"

Toby wore a blank, dopey expression, understanding absolutely nothing and having no idea where he had gone wrong.

An hour later, Lin Rui grabbed a random cardboard tube and hammered Toby's head with it. "You can calculate A-B-C, but not A-(B-C)?

All I did was add parentheses. Two negatives make a positive-is that concept so difficult? Is your brain only the size of an almond?"

Not only did Toby fail to mend his ways, he felt terribly wronged instead, unable to understand why he was being punished-the teachers at school were never this savage.

Two hours later, Lin Rui shouted into the darkness of the Nightmare Space, "I give up, all right? I can't teach an idiot like this. Let me out, or I'm going to turn dark and become an evil spirit myself."

The Nightmare Space gave no response. Toby looked as dumb as a wooden chicken. The teaching mission simply could not be completed, and Lin Rui was truly worn out.

He had no idea how long he endured in the Nightmare Space. In any case, Lin Rui tried everything he could think of to teach Toby something, but the guy had a wooden fish for a brain. Not only was his foundation poor, nothing he was taught sank in.

Only when Lin Rui finally exhausted all his energy did the Nightmare Space shatter inch by inch and vanish into nothing. When he opened his eyes again, it was six in the morning. Naturally, the mission remained incomplete.

Mrs. Jones, who had only returned late the night before, was already up making breakfast in the kitchen. His head heavy and muddled, Lin Rui went downstairs, poured himself a cup of coffee, and sat at the dining table.

"How did you sleep last night?" Mrs. Jones looked exhausted too, relying on coffee to keep her going.

"Just look at my face." Lin Rui pointed to his face, thinking, *Taking this tutoring job was a massive mistake.

I thought it would be a piece of cake, but it turned out to be hell difficulty. I have to find a way to get out of this job, or I'm done for.*

As he thought, Lin Rui chatted with Mrs. Jones on and off. "Do you have to get up this early every day?"

"Yes, every day." Mrs. Jones sighed. "Today is actually pretty good. I got to come home and sleep in my own bed for four or five hours.

Sometimes I have to work the night shift. Night shifts at the hospital are terrifying. Even in the small hours, patients come in covered in blood.

I stay up all night, then have to rush to the supermarket after dawn to work as the stockroom supervisor. I get no rest at all."

As she spoke, Mrs. Jones glanced at the clock. "I have to leave soon. I must be at work before seven, or they'll dock my pay. I could even lose my job."

The microwave dinged, and a chicken thigh sandwich was placed on the dining table.

It was the breakfast Mrs. Jones had prepared for herself. She pointed at the refrigerator. "If you want something, help yourself from the fridge. Just heat it for two minutes."

Lin Rui opened the refrigerator and found it packed with food.

He could tell at a glance that it was all "expired" merchandise from the supermarket and could not help letting out a "Whoa." "Are these charitable donations too?"

"Taking the supermarket's 'expired' food from the day before saves quite a bit of money." Mrs. Jones shrugged. "I have no choice. I have a family to support."

"Could you take more?" Lin Rui asked. "I mean, you could sell this food. It costs you nothing."

"You think I haven't considered it?" Mrs. Jones shook her head. "Taking a little for myself is fine, but selling it would mean taking far more than a little. If I got caught, I'd lose my job."

"What about a charity sale after it's been donated?" An idea flashed through Lin Rui's mind, and the thought he had had yesterday took firmer shape. "That would definitely make money."

"This food can't be sold." Mrs. Jones still shook her head.

"No, you don't understand what I mean. The supermarket has large quantities of food nearing its expiration date to dispose of every day. It can only be donated, not sold.

But all that takes is a change in what you officially call it. What if Father Essen Borg, who receives the donations, held a charity sale with this food to raise funds?"

Lin Rui's suggestion stirred some interest in Mrs. Jones, but she still rejected it. "Father Borg follows the rules very closely. He wouldn't do that."

"What if the fundraising were to help people in difficulty? Like your husband, who lost the ability to work because of an injury and is being crushed under enormous medical bills."

Mrs. Jones's eyes began to shine... "That sounds promising. Keep talking."

"Giving relief food to homeless people on the streets doesn't actually mean much. Plenty of homeless people would be better off dead sooner.

People like your husband, who are willing to work and have job skills, are the ones worth helping. Of course, that includes me. I'm in difficulty too, and I need some money and help."

Lin Rui casually picked up a banana as well. "This overripe banana has already turned black, so it can't stay on sale. But the flesh is fine. You could still turn it into a milkshake and sell it."

Mrs. Jones grew more serious. "Yes, yes, of course that could be sold. But... how would we sell it? Who would we sell it to?"

"How about a little street stall? New York's streets are full of people rushing to work, along with tourists pouring in day and night. They need three cheap, convenient meals a day."

Lin Rui took an ice-cold hot dog out of the refrigerator. "Give this thing a ding in the microwave, put it in an insulated box, and take it to the foot of those office buildings in Manhattan. Four dollars each wouldn't be unreasonable, would it?"

Mrs. Jones shook her head again. "A stall is a good idea, but you need permits. First, you have to apply to the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for a temporary vendor license.

That license is extremely difficult to get.

If you're selling food, you also need to get a food safety certificate and a temporary food service permit from the New York City Health Department. Those are extremely difficult too.

Besides, if you apply as an individual, you also have to provide a Social Security number to get a sales tax number. You have to pay taxes."

Mrs. Jones sighed again. "Kid, your idea is good, but I've considered all of this. When I was looking for a second job, I thought about setting up a street stall too, but there were difficulties at every turn."

Lin Rui, however, revealed a sly smile. "What if we did this in the name of charity? Have Father Borg apply to the church for a charity sale-the tax-exempt kind.

The proceeds would go toward supporting ordinary people at the bottom who urgently need help. Father Borg probably wouldn't refuse."

Ah... Mrs. Jones was immediately dumbstruck. Lin Rui's logic was simple and clear, leaping over every obstacle in one bound.

By then, the four Jones children who had school or work had also gotten up. They stood in a row at the kitchen doorway and had all heard what Lin Rui said.

The eldest sister, Andrea, stepped forward, held Lin Rui's face, and kissed him. "Kid, I'm getting more and more interested in you."

The second sister, Samantha, murmured, "If I had a brain that clever, I wouldn't be working as a cashier at a shopping mall."

The third sister, Cynthia, slapped her younger brother Toby on the forehead and barked mercilessly, "Learn something. This is the kind of wisdom a man should have."

Toby's eyes were vacant and his mind foggy, as though he had not slept all night. When he saw Lin Rui, he could not help trembling all over, his face miserable, as though Lin Rui had tortured him.