Xia Jinshu wasn't going to explain the problem to Song Yunshen.
After Song Yunshen took out the English final exam paper, Xia Jinshu had already entered teaching mode, taking the exam paper with a serious expression and spreading it out on the desk.
She then pointed to the first listening comprehension question on the test paper and asked Song Yunshen, "Can you understand what the question means?"
"----Why do I feel like you're questioning my intelligence?" Song Yunshen's lips twitched, but he still replied, "The question asks what this man is going to do."
"Yes, very good." Xia Jinshu nodded. "What do the next three options mean?"
"Ahem—" When asked this, Song Yunshen hesitated a bit, "A should be returning the book, right? B is buying the book, C is unknown."
"So how did you get it right?" Xia Jinshu asked again. "The answer is C, right?"
"When I listened, it didn't seem to mention buying or returning books, so it can only be C," Song Yunshen said. "It was a guess."
"Hmm." Xia Jinshu didn't explain what option C meant, and instead continued to ask about the second question.
After asking him a series of questions, Xia Jinshu didn't explain the questions to him at all. She just went through the entire test paper to figure out Song Yunshen's current level of vocabulary and problem-solving strategies.
The listening and multiple-choice questions were fine, but when it came to the cloze test and reading comprehension, Song Yunshen started to struggle with large sections of sentences.
I rely entirely on intuition when answering questions.
If I put this word in, hmm, it makes sense, so that's it!
Song Yunshen wasn't ashamed at all; he answered Xia Jinshu's questions truthfully.
This saved Xia Jinshu a lot of trouble.
"So how did you write the essay with such a limited vocabulary?" Xia Jinshu glanced at the essay on the answer sheet. Actually, it was not bad, at least not as bad as his vocabulary suggested.
"Oh, this." Song Yunshen pointed to some circled words on the test paper in front of him. "I'm too lazy to memorize them, but I actually know the general meaning of many of these words, I just can't spell them. I circle them when I'm doing the questions, and I can use them when I'm writing the essays."
Xia Jinshu:
As a top student, she had never been troubled by vocabulary and never imagined there was such a method.
It just goes to show that even academically weak students have their own methods; getting a 90 is still a testament to their abilities.
But not many.
Xia Jinshu had figured out Song Yunshen abilities after about twenty minutes.
Song Yunshen glanced at the passing time and was secretly pleased, feeling that things were going to be pretty easy this way.
Xia Jinshu didn't care what he was thinking. After getting a basic understanding of the situation, she opened her lesson plan again and said to Song Yunshen, "Let me briefly explain the plan for this summer's tutoring sessions. You can also give me your opinions."
"OK." Song Yunshen sat up straight. " Teacher Xia, please go ahead."
It feels a little strange to hear someone my age call me Teacher Xia.
But Xia Jinshu didn't let him change his mind, and continued, "The simplest way to improve your English in a short period of time during the summer vacation is to memorize vocabulary."
"To put it bluntly, if you can understand the meaning of the questions and options on this test paper, getting a perfect score is a piece of cake."
"It's because you couldn't understand some of the words that you had to guess on many questions; otherwise, you wouldn't have lost so many points."
"Your science grades are very good, and you actually have a strong ability to understand questions; it's just that you often don't understand what the questions are saying."
Hearing her implication, Song Yunshen couldn't help but tentatively ask, "So you mean, from now on, our classes will mainly consist of memorizing vocabulary?"
"Of course not." Xia Jinshu looked at him strangely. "What kind of in-home tutor just makes you memorize vocabulary?"
"Of course you should do this after class. You have other tasks to complete during class time."
You'll understand once you hear me out.
Upon hearing this, Song Yunshen was immediately shocked.
What does "complete after class" mean?
So you want me to spend extra time memorizing vocabulary outside of class?
Are you suggesting I'll assign some homework?
We were promised only one hour of class per day!
How can you be such a responsible teacher! You only get three thousand yuan a month, why are you so dedicated?
It won't give you any extra bonus!
Xia Jinshu ignored his shocked expression, smiled slightly, and continued to introduce her course schedule.
"I'll come at 3:30 every day from now on, which should allow me to start class about ten minutes earlier."
"These ten-odd minutes are mainly for spot checks, including words that you need to memorize and spell, words whose meanings you need to know but don't necessarily need to spell, as well as some fixed sentence patterns and short passages to memorize."
"After this part is finished, classes will officially begin."
"I will start with the most basic grammar, including the subject-verb-object structure of sentences, simple sentences, compound sentences, tenses, clauses, and so on, gradually helping you build a framework for English structure."
"If I can master these concepts during these two months of summer vacation, I think getting 120 points won't be difficult at all."
"As for further improvement, you'll need to start with training in complex and long sentences, including practicing with past exam questions, but there's no rush."
"During the summer vacation, you just need to do what I just mentioned."
What do you mean by "that's enough"?
I'm hiring you as a tutor partly to provide you with some financial assistance, and partly because you're my future girlfriend.
Is this how you repay me?!
This is utterly ingratitude!
Xia Jinshu clearly saw the reluctance in Song Yunshen's eyes. She smiled slightly, picked up her phone, and said, "I'll also send a copy of this lesson plan to Uncle Song. If you have any opinions, you can bring them up now."
"Ignore him." Song Mingyuan's voice suddenly came from the other end of the camera. " Teacher Xia's arrangement is quite good; she clearly put in the effort and made preparations. Song Yunshen, you can't let her down."
Song Yunshen, who was just thinking about how to fool Xia Jinshu, immediately stopped when he heard Lao Song's voice from above. His eyes twitched and he gave up.
This is troublesome.
His future girlfriend hasn't even officially started dating him yet, and she's already hooked up with the family's biggest backer.
How am I supposed to deal with her then?
We're doomed!
Why don't we hurry up and test out the trigger conditions for the soul swap? Then we can have Xia Kening come and teach us in her place from now on!
He could even happily stroll around outside while still wearing Xia Kening's body.
Or simply playing on your phone at her house would be fine too.
It's better than being caught by Teacher Xia and forced to absorb a lot of knowledge, right?
Xia Jinshu was slightly startled to find that Song Mingyuan was peeking at her again.
Having learned from her previous two experiences, she quickly calmed down and greeted the camera, "Hello Uncle Song."
"It's nothing, I just watched for a little while. I listened a bit longer because I heard you talking about the course schedule," Song Mingyuan said. "Just do it your way. If there's anything he didn't do well, just tell me."
"You're not home right now, how can you control me?" Song Yunshen retorted defiantly.
"You suggested the English tutoring yourself, and you chose the teacher yourself," Song Mingyuan said calmly. "If you still don't study hard after all this, then I'll send the new computer to your uncle's place. I'll talk to him about it."
"No!" Upon hearing this, Song Yunshen was immediately terrified and begged for mercy, "I'll learn! I promise I'll learn seriously! Don't touch my computer!"
"Then good luck," Song Mingyuan chuckled. "I heard from your aunt that she made a bet with Teacher Xia: if you get 120 on the entrance exam, Teacher Xia can eat braised chicken for free forever?"
"Yeah, that's right." Song Yunshen replied perfunctorily, "What's wrong?"
He probably won't pass the exam anyway.
It's my future girlfriend, so I can just treat her myself; whether it's free or not doesn't matter.
"Then I'll offer an extra incentive," Song Mingyuan said. "You got 90 points on your English final exam this time. For every 10 points your score increases on the next exam after school starts, I'll give Teacher Xia an extra 1000 yuan bonus."
"Ah?" Xia Jinshu was immediately tempted upon hearing this, but she still waved her hand in a flustered manner to decline, "This..."
"This isn't good. I've already received my salary. If Song Yunshen's grades can improve, then it's something I should do."
"I won't change my mind now that I've said it. Teacher Xia, you'd better keep trying," Song Mingyuan said with a smile. "That kid isn't so obedient; my bonus won't come easily."
"Hmm----" Since Uncle Song has said so, Xia Jinshu had no choice but to accept it gladly, nodding vigorously, "Okay, Uncle Song, I will definitely keep a close eye on him."
"Then you can continue. I really won't bother you this time." After saying that, Song Mingyuan exited the monitoring page.
Song Yunshen stared speechlessly at Xia Jinshu Shu's eyes, which seemed to be burning with flames, feeling as if he had shot himself in the foot.
After being provoked by her father, Xia Jinshu's motivation to become a teacher is probably at its peak.
This turn of events was completely different from what he had expected!
We agreed to slack off and drift along together!
How did it turn out like this!
No!
"Student Song," Xia Jinshu smiled at him, tilting her head slightly, "I look forward to your guidance throughout the summer vacation."
Song Yunshen's lips twitched slightly, as he tried one last time to argue. " Teacher Xia, I think there's an even better way to teach."
"You say."
"How about we have classes in my bedroom from now on? I have a desk there too," Song Yunshen said earnestly. "I usually study at home there. I don't come to the study room often; I only stay here to play games."
"I'm used to playing games here, so now that I have to attend classes here, I'm finding it hard to concentrate."
So you see----
"Then let me ask Uncle Song—" Xia Jinshu picked up her phone upon hearing this.
"Stop!" Song Yunshen quickly reached out and pressed down on the back of her hand. "Never mind what I said!"
Xia Jinshu silently withdrew her right hand from Song Yunshen's palm, still faintly feeling the lingering warmth on the back of her hand.
Her gaze swept across Song Yunshen's face, then she lowered her eyes and gently stroked the back of her right hand with her left.
"Shall we continue with the lesson then?" Xia Jinshu said.
"Okay, I'll listen to Teacher Xia." Song Yunshen had a resigned expression on his face, having temporarily given up the struggle.
"Today was only the first lesson, so I haven't gone into the lessons I mentioned before. I just went through the process of memorizing vocabulary and doing spot checks."
It was five o'clock in the evening. Xia Jinshu had no intention of going overtime and said to Song Yunshen, "Considering your enthusiasm for learning over the first half month, I won't assign you any high-intensity memorization tasks right away."
Today I'll only give you 10 words to memorize and spell, 20 words whose meanings you need to know, and 5 short phrases containing those words.
"Take some time tonight and tomorrow morning to memorize it carefully. I will be checking your work tomorrow afternoon."
After Xia Jinshu finished speaking, she smiled slightly and said, "That concludes today's lesson. Class dismissed."
"Finally over----" Song Yunshen slumped back in his chair, letting out a long sigh of relief. He felt his head was throbbing, as if Xia Jinshu had completely filled it up.
However, compared to the effect of Xia Yunuo's forced indoctrination last time, Song Yunshen suddenly realized that Xia Jinshu's teaching method didn't seem too difficult to accept.
In the entire lesson, he only memorized 10 words, understood the meanings of 20 words, and then learned 5 short sentences.
Once you can spell those 10 words and roughly remember the meanings of the other 20 words, the meanings of the 5 short sentences will naturally become clear.
Conversely, after memorizing the meanings of five short sentences, the words learned earlier are stored in the brain in a different way.
That's quite amazing.
"Then I'll head home now," Xia Jinshu said, standing up. "I need to go home and cook, so I won't bother you any longer."
"Oh, okay then." Song Yunshen stood up as well. "I'll go with you."
"Ah?"
"Come downstairs for dinner." Song Yunshen shrugged helplessly. "I live alone, and I can't cook, so I'll have to go out to find something to eat."
"I see—" Xia Jinshu paused for a moment, her gaze suddenly falling on the piano next to the study door, then she pursed her lips.
Speaking of which, it seems that Song Yunshen's family is also a divorced family.
I wonder where his mother is now.
She did think of inviting Song Yunshen to her home for dinner.
But Xiao Nuo is still at home, so she definitely can't bring Song Yunshen over, otherwise her being his tutor will be exposed.
"So you're going to eat out all summer?" Xia Jinshu asked as she followed him to his front door.
"Not really," Song Yunshen said. "We can go to my uncle's house for lunch, but we can't always go there for dinner, so we either eat out or order takeout."
"Takeout food is unhealthy," Xia Jinshu said, frowning.
Yan Zhenxia had worked as a food delivery driver for a while and knew very well the nature of those deliveries; she had already reminded people at home many times about the procedures.
Upon hearing that Song Yunshen would also order takeout, I immediately felt something was amiss.
"It's alright," Song Yunshen chuckled. "There's nothing I can do if no one's cooking."
Upon hearing his words, Xia Jinshu thought of Song Yunshen's mother and the contents of the diary she had seen before, and subconsciously pursed her lips.
A maternal glow unexpectedly rose within me.
Thinking about the bonus Uncle Song mentioned today, and how kind he's been to me...
"How about I make it for you from now on?"
"Ah?"