Xia Jinshu had already been to the English Club several times at school that day.
After finishing her speech on the flag-raising platform, she had gone there first and left her reply on top of the bookcase.
She had originally thought Song Yunshen would be like her: he would pick up the letter during a break between classes that morning and reply to her immediately.
Since she had written her class and name this time, Xia Jinshu made repeated trips to the English Club to check for a reply, while also waiting in case Song Yunshen came straight to her classroom to deliver one.
But she waited all day without seeing him.
She hadn't expected him to pick up the letter only after school.
He really could bide his time...
Then again... for Song Yunshen, it was just a matter of finding a tutor.
But for Xia Jinshu, it was a major matter involving a salary of three thousand yuan a month.
As for whether it was one hundred or two hundred yuan an hour, Xia Jinshu didn't care at all.
After all, her summer vacation time wasn't worth much, so if it would make the tutoring agreement easier to secure, she could readily accept an hourly rate of one hundred yuan.
Even fifty yuan an hour would do!
She could easily teach Song Yunshen English for two hours every day.
No, no, even two hours might not be enough.
To demonstrate her formidable abilities as the top student in the grade on the midterms, she wouldn't just go through the motions like the tutors in Song Yunshen's diary.
If she was going to be a tutor, she naturally had to produce results.
If she really became Song Yunshen's tutor, Xia Jinshu would definitely make plans for the results of her teaching.
Since Song Yunshen's English grades weren't very good, she would tentatively set the initial goal for this summer vacation at raising his English score to one hundred.
That score shouldn't be too difficult.
As Xia Jinshu calculated, she even thought that if Song Yunshen could stun everyone with his English score on the exam at the start of the new term, she might be able to continue tutoring him.
She wouldn't have time on school days, but she could easily keep tutoring him on weekends.
At one hundred yuan an hour, two hours each day on the weekend would come to four hundred yuan, wouldn't it?
Four hundred yuan a week, shared among the three sisters at home, meant they really could eat meat at every meal!
At that thought, a blissful smile appeared on Xia Jinshu's face, but she quickly reined it in.
Come to think of it, it was strange. Song Yunshen didn't seem surprised after seeing her name?
Maybe he didn't know her?
Xia Jinshu thought she ought to be quite well known among the boys at school. If Song Yunshen hadn't heard of her, he probably didn't pay much attention to such things.
That was good news instead.
She read through Song Yunshen's diary once more, and this time her attention returned to the first half.
Then she glanced at her younger sister and sighed softly to herself.
From the looks of it, was Song Yunshen really pursuing her Xiao Nuo?
He had even started treating her to lunch.
And Xiao Nuo hadn't turned him down.
According to Song Yunshen's diary, Xiao Nuo often praised him for being handsome, even though she had told Xia Jinshu that he looked ordinary...
She wondered what he actually looked like, to have managed to charm her younger sister.
Xia Jinshu knew full well that, like her, Xia Yunuo was quite popular at school. She had already rejected quite a few boys who pursued her or confessed to her in her first year of high school.
Let alone accepting some boy's invitation to treat her to a meal.
She wondered what had happened between the two of them to make Xia Yunuo lower her guard a little.
It really was most unusual.
"Sis, you've been looking at me this whole time," Xia Yunuo suddenly said, setting down her pen and turning to Xia Jinshu. "Is something wrong?"
"N-no, nothing." Xia Jinshu guiltily looked away, but then she couldn't resist probing. "I told Mom yesterday that I wanted to work part-time as a tutor, and she agreed for now. Once I earn some money, how about I take you all out for a big meal?"
"Mm." Xia Yunuo nodded.
She wasn't as lively as Ningning and generally didn't offer much emotional support, so Xia Jinshu was used to that reaction from her.
But Xia Yunuo was thinking that she would find a part-time tutoring job too, and then treat the family to a meal out.
She just didn't know if she could find one.
She planned to wait until the final exams were over that week, then ask Teacher Song for advice, as Song Yunshen had suggested.
Hopefully Teacher Song could help her.
But she didn't necessarily have to be a tutor.
Hadn't her sister said before that she wanted to work at a milk tea shop?
Xia Yunuo thought she could give that a try too.
It was all earning money, so what made one job better or more respectable than another?
Seeing her sister's reaction, Xia Jinshu breathed a small sigh of relief.
From the looks of it, Song Yunshen probably hadn't talked to Xia Yunuo about the possibility of Xia Jinshu becoming his tutor.
But that made sense. She had only just written her name in her reply, so even if he had mentioned the tutoring, he couldn't have named her.
In that case, she ought to remind Song Yunshen and ask him to keep it a secret for her.
After all, judging by the situation, her younger sister probably really did have some feelings for Song Yunshen.
If she found out that Xia Jinshu was going to tutor Song Yunshen and got jealous, affecting their relationship as sisters, that wouldn't be good.
Although Xia Yunuo probably wasn't that petty, Xia Jinshu still made that choice instinctively.
"Xiao Nuo," Xia Jinshu asked again, "do you have any plans for summer vacation besides your tutoring classes?"
"What other plans could I have?"
"Like... dates or something?" Xia Jinshu continued to probe. "If there really is someone you like and you want to go out together, you have to tell me. I'll give you a date fund. You can't keep spending the boy's money."
"There isn't anyone..." Xia Yunuo looked helpless. "Sis, did you hear someone talking nonsense? There really isn't anything between Song Yunshen and me."
"I didn't even say it was him."
Xia Yunuo: "..."
Tuesday.
Since final exams started tomorrow, all of today's classes were self-study.
Whichever subject was scheduled, the corresponding teacher would sit at the podium, and students could go up and ask questions directly.
Song Yunshen had nothing to ask, so during self-study, he and Xu Zhuoyue drew grids in their scratch notebooks.
Once they had finished, they started playing five-in-a-row, battling from dawn till dusk and using up an entire scratch notebook.
Because of the self-study sessions, Song Yunshen and Xia Jinshu exchanged replies more frequently that day.
Xia Jinshu picked up his reply first thing in the morning and wrote her response.
Song Yunshen went to take a look after second period and, finding a reply, wrote back during third period and delivered it again.
At noon, Xia Jinshu went to pick up his reply, and they continued their conversation in the letters.
After repeated discussions and consultations, the two finally decided to meet for a meal at noon on Saturday, after the final exams, to discuss the specifics of the tutoring in person.