Old Xu

Biodata

Background / History

Xu Zhiqiang comes from Batang Village, next to Cheng Che’s family hometown of Pond Village. His father, Xu Tiande, celebrates his eightieth birthday during Cheng Che’s final year of high school. Xu Chengguo, the family’s eldest son, helps receive guests at the celebration 26 27.

Old Xu is married to Yan Ping. Their daughter, Xu Ruanning, performs as the singer Yan Ruanning, taking her stage surname from her mother. Few people in Spring City or Batang Village connect the singer with Old Xu’s family, and he does not publicize the relationship 20 27 28.

By Cheng Che’s graduation, Old Xu has taught for more than twenty years, including over a decade teaching mathematics. He has watched Class Five’s students grow from their first year through graduation 6 36 38.

Appearance

• Sparse hair: He pats his noticeably thinning hair before announcing mock-exam results 7.
• Glasses: He wears glasses while reviewing papers and reading glasses at home 6 20.
• Familiar classroom accessories: He regularly enters lessons carrying a large tea mug and a stack of examination papers 5 7 19.

Personality

Old Xu combines classroom authority with blunt humor. He motivates his seniors by contrasting an air-conditioned office job with hauling bricks, and his reputation alone is enough for Guo Xin’s warning that he is coming to disperse a crowd around Cheng Che. Despite his emphasis on examinations, he repeatedly tells students that identifying weaknesses matters more than rankings 1 7 25 31.

He takes genuine pleasure in his students’ improvement and willingly recognizes work that surpasses his own. After Cheng Che presents an alternative mathematics solution, Old Xu openly calls it more concise than his method. He also defends Cheng Che when Yan Ruanning begins implying that his sudden academic improvement might involve cheating 7 20.

His concern extends beyond academic performance. He delays moving to a downtown apartment because living beside the school makes supervising morning study easier. After graduation, he cautions his students against fighting and excessive drinking, then requires everyone to report their safe arrival home after karaoke 20 36.

Abilities & Skills

Mathematics Teaching

Old Xu has more than a decade of mathematics-teaching experience and closely examines both answers and working methods 6.

• Recognizes Cheng Che’s improvement by comparing his new results with earlier scores and reviewing the rigor of his written solutions 6.
• Teaches differentiation and interval-based approaches to problems while inviting students to demonstrate alternative methods 7.
• Encourages classmates to seek explanations from either himself or Cheng Che when they do not understand a solution 7.

Student Guidance

He supports students through examination preparation, public speaking, and university decisions.

• Organizes mock-exam seating and directs the class monitor to maintain spacing between desks 5.
• Gives Cheng Che a sample speech, prepares a backup manuscript, and reassures him before his schoolwide address 19 20.
• Advises Cheng Che to consider his university choices carefully after admissions teams begin calling 38.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Final-Year Examination Preparation

• Marks the hundred-day countdown to the college entrance examination and urges the class not to give up on improving 1.
• Announces a two-day, grade-wide mock examination and organizes Class Five’s classroom for testing 3 5.
• Discovers that Cheng Che has reached 508 points and tenth in class, with 128 in mathematics, after previously scoring only a little over eighty in that subject 6.
• Publicly praises Cheng Che’s progress and asks him to explain his alternative solution at the blackboard 7.

Schoolwide Speech

• Selects Cheng Che to share his study experience after he reaches 630 points, thirtieth in the school, and third in the grade in mathematics 19.
• Prepares a replacement speech in case Cheng Che needs one, but accidentally leaves it at home, prompting Yan Ruanning to deliver it 20.
• Encourages Cheng Che backstage before the address, which completes the first stage of Cheng Che’s charisma trial 20.
• Responds to the principal’s suggestion of using Cheng Che in the school’s recruitment video by insisting that he be paid 20.

Batang Village Visit

• Encounters Cheng Che while secretly smoking in an alley during his father’s birthday banquet 27.
• Invites him to the following day’s family meal, calling him his prized pupil and joking that a Tsinghua or Peking University admission would impress his colleagues 27.
• His invitation leads Cheng Che and Yan Ruanning to discover that her father and his homeroom teacher are the same person 28.
• At the meal, supports exercise but warns Cheng Che not to let tennis distract him from the college entrance examination; Yan Ruanning counters that Cheng Che has genuine professional potential 29.

Graduation and Provincial Top Score

• Announces Cheng Che’s 150 in mathematics, the only perfect score in the year, while discouraging competition over rankings before the entrance examination 31.
• Attends Class Five’s graduation reunion, then arranges a nearby karaoke venue and gives the students safety instructions 36.
• Calls Cheng Che after his 732-point provincial first-place result, celebrating the first provincial top scorer of his teaching career 38.

Relationships

• Cheng Che — Student and prized pupil. Old Xu follows his improvement closely, supports his public speaking, welcomes him into a family meal, and celebrates his eventual provincial top score 6 20 27 38.
• Yan Ruanning / Xu Ruanning — Daughter. She teases him over his special attention to Cheng Che and urges him to move somewhere more comfortable; he firmly rejects her suggestion that Cheng Che might have cheated 20.
• Yan Ping — Wife. She shares his pride in Cheng Che’s progress and sends their daughter to deliver his forgotten speech 20.
• Xu Tiande — Father, whose eightieth-birthday celebration brings Old Xu and Cheng Che together outside school 11 27.
• Xu Chengguo — Older brother. Attends the family meal where Old Xu explains Cheng Che’s connection to Yan Ruanning’s music video 27 29.
• Class Five — Homeroom students whom he has guided for three years; his graduation advice emphasizes their safety and consideration for their parents 36.

Notable Quotes

“Don't take it too seriously. It's only one mock exam. Finding your problems matters more than your score.” 7

“Then make something up on the spot. You're going up there to share your experience, not recite a textbook.” 20

“Sure, as long as you pay him.” — Responding to the principal’s recruitment-video proposal 20

Trivia

• Reads webnovels; Cheng Che’s unexpected improvement reminds him of stories he has read 6.
• Goes running around the school track in the morning 20.
• Owns a car bought by his daughter, but says he cannot drive it and leaves it parked in the residential compound 20.
• Watches Yan Ruanning’s “Midsummer Reply” music video three times, privately wondering how his student ended up appearing in his daughter’s production 27.