At ten thirty that night, Xia Jinshu and Xia Yunuo went to bed on time.
The layout of their home's master bedroom was a little different from that of an ordinary family. Instead of a double bed, there was a bunk bed against the wall, like the ones in a dormitory.
The bed frame took up little space, leaving enough room in the bedroom for a large desk where all three sisters could do their homework at the same time.
But their youngest sister usually boarded at school, so the three of them only studied together on Saturday nights.
On school days, only Xia Jinshu and Xia Yunuo were home in the evenings.
Now, with the lights off, Xia Yunuo climbed into the top bunk and lay down.
Xia Jinshu sat on the edge of the bottom bunk, thinking again of the diary connected to another boy, his reply that day about the English Club, and her younger sister's special feelings for him.
So she asked Xia Yunuo again, "Xiao Nuo."
"Hmm?"
"What kind of person is that boy in your class you ask math questions?"
"Sis... I already told you I don't like him." Xia Yunuo opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling, a little helpless. "He's just a very ordinary boy."
"Is he handsome?"
"Why are you asking that kind of question too?"
"It wouldn't hurt to answer."
"...He's average."
"Is that so?" Xia Jinshu tilted her head back and looked at the same patch of ceiling as her sister, thinking that perhaps, just as her sister had said, Song Yunshen really was an ordinary-looking boy.
But beauty was in the eye of the beholder-was that why her sister praised Song Yunshen's good looks every day?
It was hard to imagine what her sister would look like as she praised that boy.
"So why are you asking, Sis?" After a moment's silence, Xia Yunuo asked in return, "Such a boring question."
"It's nothing." Xia Jinshu shook her head. "I just think I saw him at the English Club before, but he didn't leave much of an impression."
"Oh, I see." Xia Yunuo answered and said nothing more.
So Xia Jinshu asked again, "Then what kind of person do you think he is?"
Perhaps the late hour made people more eager to open up. With the conversation having reached this point, Xia Yunuo couldn't help recalling certain things from her class.
In particular, over the past half month, she had heard Song Yunshen's inner thoughts every day, making it all the more inevitable that she paid him a lot of attention.
Hearing her sister's question, Xia Yunuo said without thinking, "He seems pretty serious. He's very earnest and thorough when he explains problems, but sometimes he goofs around with the other boys. Hmm... he's also a little narcissistic."
"I see..." Xia Jinshu quietly committed it to memory, gradually sketching out Song Yunshen's personality in her mind.
Although she still hadn't met Song Yunshen in person and didn't even know what he looked like, she had already formed a preliminary impression of him.
For some reason, the conversation came to a halt.
Xia Jinshu asked no more questions, and Xia Yunuo simply went back to sleep without another word.
The two soon drifted off to sleep.
It wasn't until after three in the morning that Xia Jinshu felt the need to pee and got up to use the bathroom.
As she came out of the bathroom, she happened to hear the front door opening.
The next second, the living room light came on.
Xia Jinshu instinctively narrowed her eyes and raised a hand to shield her face. She walked over to the living room and looked at Yan Zhenxia, who had just come home.
"Xiao Shu? Why are you still up so late?" Yan Zhenxia came in looking exhausted, but when she saw Xia Jinshu, she still tried to pull herself together and squeeze out a smile as she asked with concern.
"I went to bed early. I only got up to use the bathroom." Xia Jinshu took Yan Zhenxia's bag and put it on the table for her. "Mom, go take a shower and get some sleep early."
"Mm, you too." Yan Zhenxia stroked her daughter's hair. "Go back to your room and sleep. Don't worry about me."
As Yan Zhenxia headed toward the bathroom, Xia Jinshu followed close behind. After hesitating again and again, she finally spoke up. "Mom, there's something I want to discuss with you... It's what I talked to you about last time..."
"Xiao Shu." Yan Zhenxia turned around and placed both hands on Xia Jinshu's shoulders, her expression earnest and serious. "Although Mom works hard right now, I feel secure and content."
"All three of you have been good and obedient since you were little, and now you're all doing very well in school. That's already a great comfort to me."
"What you need to do now is study hard and get into a good university. Only then will you have better opportunities in the future."
"We can't neglect what's essential for the sake of something secondary, can we?"
"Don't bring up working part-time over summer vacation again."
At this point, Yan Zhenxia paused briefly before continuing, "Also, your school should have summer classes, right?"
"The teacher mentioned it to us at the last parent-teacher meeting. For the two-month summer vacation, it's only two hundred yuan per subject. That's already very cheap compared with outside tutoring classes."
"Let's not skimp on that money. You and Xiao Nuo should attend the summer classes and stop thinking about working."
Xia Jinshu listened patiently to everything Yan Zhenxia said and took a moment to organize her thoughts before speaking slowly:
"Mom, I won't work at the milk tea shop, but I don't need to attend tutoring classes either."
"The school's tutoring classes are mainly for students who aren't doing well in a particular subject. They wouldn't be much use to me."
"Take Xiao Nuo, for example. A math class would be enough for her. Her grades in the other subjects aren't bad enough to need tutoring."
"I ranked first in the whole grade on the midterms. There's really no need for me to take tutoring classes. You can call the teacher and ask; I'm definitely not lying to you."
"As for working part-time over the summer, I have a new idea now: private tutoring."
"Private tutoring?" Yan Zhenxia looked puzzled. "Isn't tutoring something teachers do?"
"Lots of university students work their way through school by tutoring junior and senior high students too," Xia Jinshu said. "I recently met a student who needs an English tutor over summer vacation. It pays a hundred yuan an hour."
"Really?" Yan Zhenxia hesitated a little.
"Besides, teaching others is itself a very effective way to learn." Xia Jinshu continued to persuade her. "It's called the Feynman Learning Technique. Only when you can explain a point of knowledge to someone else in simple terms does it mean you've fully mastered it."
"So when I tutor someone, I'll also be reinforcing what I've learned. That'll definitely be much more effective than just attending the school's tutoring classes."
"...We'll talk about it later." Yan Zhenxia shook her head. "Tell me about the student when the time comes. Don't let anyone swindle you."
"Got it~ So you agree?" Xia Jinshu wrapped her arms around Yan Zhenxia's arm and asked, her face lighting up with a smile.
"I told you, we'll decide after I've asked about the details."
"Mm-hmm!"
In the bedroom.
A figure leaned by the door, quietly listening to the conversation in the living room.
Only when she heard Xia Jinshu's footsteps returning to the room did she hurry back into bed and pretend she had been asleep the whole time.
A tutor...
A hundred yuan an hour...