Chapter 3

  Yu Cai's life gradually got on the right track, being lively in math and history classes, looking worried and bored in language and English as well as physics and chemistry classes, but actually daydreaming and thinking about ways to earn pocket money.

  The knock on the door sounded again, and Yu Cai reflexively stood up, innocently blinking her eyes. "Sir, could you please repeat your question? I didn't quite catch it." This was already a classic move in the English class of Senior One Class Five, with Old Mei often asking Yu Cai questions, and Yu Cai often spacing out, so whenever she was asked, she would blink innocently and ask him to repeat the question, before answering easily.

  "Her English is indeed good, but pride is the biggest stumbling block to success. You will regret it one day."

  Yu Cai lowered her head humbly and asked, "Excuse me, but I've encountered a big problem. May I ask for your guidance after class?"

  Lao Mei nodded and continued to teach, Yu Cai collected her emotions and listened seriously, but it's really not surprising, this kind of simple and childish content, she wouldn't be distracted if she didn't space out.

  After class, Yu Cai made up a small lie, saying that her grandfather was ill and needed a lot of money. Her family members were all raising funds, and she also wanted to contribute some power. She asked Lao Mei if she could help her find a student to tutor, and promised that her English was quite good, and she could even pass the CET-4 exam.

  Lao Mei saw that she was serious and immediately believed her, and once again admired how she had learned so much at such a young age. However, she refused to help, saying it would affect her studies.

  Yu Caiqian guaranteed that she would stop taking her if her grades fell back during the mid-term exams, and Lao Mei finally agreed to go.

  Yu Cai put down her worries and immediately became happy, listening very attentively in the next language class. Throughout high school, her favorite teacher was the language teacher, who had taken a liking to her after reading one of her compositions and had been taking good care of her ever since, for which she was always grateful, even though she had gotten into the habit of sleeping during language classes.

  But fortunately, she listened, and the language teacher assigned an essay with no topic, style or word limit, aiming to test the students' language skills. Yu Cai smiled subtly, and throughout the first semester of graduate school and the second year, all of Yu Cai's time was spent practicing writing, reading a large number of books while writing by herself. Although she couldn't claim to have a deep literary foundation, she did learn many sentimental phrases that were enough to fool these high school students... Teacher Hua, I will definitely make you impressed again...

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, on the third day, the language teacher read out Yu Cai's two-thousand-word micro-lyric essay to the whole class as a model composition, praising her beautiful sentences, mature writing style, and sincere emotions, and asked everyone to borrow it after class to study.

  As soon as it came down, Qiao Jia rushed over to take a look. To be honest, Qiao Jia is the kind of generous and open-minded girl, very petty bourgeoisie, if she wasn't always comparing herself to Yu Cai, Yu Cai would have liked this kind of girl too.

  After Qiao Jia, Yu Cai didn't know where her composition book had gone, and when it was back in her hands again, it was already the next morning.

  Although it is said that misfortune never comes singly and good fortune never comes in pairs, Yu Cai's luck as a transmigrator was indeed exceptionally good. No sooner had she just gotten her composition book back than Old Mei called out to her, who was diligently reciting geography amidst the sound of English chatter.

  "I heard your composition this time is very good?" Old Mei's voice was tinged with a hint of teasing.

  Yu Cai humbly lowered her head, "It's thanks to Teacher Hua's inspiration that it's good."

  Lao Mei nodded, "It's hard for you to think of such a long-term problem at your young age. I inquired about what you said last time, and only one first-year high school student is willing to try it out. Are you okay with that?"

  Yu Cai was so excited that she almost blurted it out, what's the big deal about being a high school student, we can still get through university, barely suppressing her emotions, "High school is the best, I improve myself when helping him, doesn't affect my studies".

  Lao Mei nodded, "I've also thought of this. There's a student in our school, in Class 12, named Qi Shi Zhi. His dad said he wants to meet you first."

  "That's natural, when does he have time?"

  "Don't go home this Sunday afternoon?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "It's settled then, you can go back to your studies."

  "Ah, thank you teacher!" Yu Cai's smile was particularly sincere.

  As soon as school was over, Yucai rushed to the bookstore and bought a real English college entrance examination paper. These question types are somewhat unfamiliar, and I still need to review them carefully, make good preparations, and seize the opportunity now, or there may not be such a good chance next time.

  According to the address given by Lao Mei, Yu Cai inquired all the way and arrived at this relatively remote residential area. Since it was still early, Yu Cai entered a clothing store and once again confirmed that her attire was decent and her smile was steady. After adjusting her mood, she slowly walked towards the target location.

  When she arrived at the door, Yu Cai checked her watch again and found that she was exactly five minutes early. She knocked on the door three times in a rhythmic manner. Before long, the sound of slippers came from inside, and a middle-aged woman opened the door with a warm smile, inviting her in. Yu Cai thanked her and followed her into the living room.

  In the living room, a man wearing pajamas was sitting on the sofa looking at a magazine-like book. Seeing her come in, he stood up elegantly, with a professional smile floating on his face, and habitually stretched out his right hand, "Hello, I'm Yu Cai".

  The man's eyes flashed with surprise, and he reached out to grasp Yucai's right hand. "Hello, Qishu Fan, sit down."

  Yu Cai sat down on the sofa to his left, putting the English college entrance examination papers in his handbag on the glass coffee table in front of Qi Shu Fan, "Teacher Mei should have told you that you can randomly check the questions inside."

  Qī Shū merely shrugged and smiled, "I don't understand that English Japanese stuff, since Teacher Mei said you're fine, I trust him. I called you here today mainly to get a sense of your situation, and also to let you understand the situation with Xiè."

  Yu Cai nodded, "My family is from the countryside, my parents are both teachers, and I also have a younger brother in his third year of junior high school. As for my conduct, you can rest assured."

  Qishu's eyes faintly smiled, "I naturally trust you, what I don't trust is Shìzhī. His mother passed away when he was very young, and I was busy with work without time to accompany him. He used to live with his grandparents, but recently his second uncle took them away. I'm not often at home, now there's only an auntie I hired to keep him company, the one who opened the door for you just now."

  Yu Cai furrowed her brow, a typical single-parent family, children like this usually have psychological problems, I reckon it's hard to teach.

  "Shi's grades aren't very good, especially in English. He also resents tutoring classes or rather, he resents the teachers. It wasn't until Teacher Mei mentioned it that day that I thought maybe people of the same age would get along better and Shi would be more receptive."

  "It's like this, learning after all mainly relies on one's own efforts, if he is not willing to cooperate, there might not be much obvious progress..."

  "Don't worry about this, just do your part and that's it. Now let's talk about the treatment issue?"

  This man looks like someone who is used to giving orders, Yu Cai could only nod.

  "Because you also need to study, and we don't want your tutoring to affect your college entrance exams, so just spend one hour a day teaching Si Ze. However, I hope you can accompany him to read books during evening self-study, and if he doesn't understand something, he can ask you at any time."

  "This... " Yu Cai became embarrassed, two same-age boys and girls studying together every day, at this awkward age, it's strange if rumors don't spread all over the sky.

  Qishu Fan burst out laughing, and Yu Cai dared to guarantee that his smile absolutely had a sinister element of gloating.

  "How?"

  Yu Cai gritted her teeth and asked, "How much salary can you give me in a month?"

  "How much do you want?"

  "Considering your conditions are a bit harsh, I hope it's no less than six hundred per month."

  "Teacher Xiao Yu, you're really good at doing business, aren't you?"

  "Uh, actually I'd prefer it if you paid me three hundred a month and I just taught him one hour of class."

  Qishu Fan couldn't help but laugh again, "It seems that Teacher Yu is not very willing, in that case, I'll give you 700 yuan every month, can you guarantee to be serious and responsible?"

  "Don't worry about this, I've taken it on and I'll definitely be responsible. This is the basic professional ethics of a teacher—" Yu Cai almost bit her own tongue, it seems that half a year of being an intern teacher has already given her a huge psychological shadow.

  Qishu Fan laughed even more deeply, "It seems that Little Yu teacher has entered the role very quickly, so I can rest assured".

  "I declare in advance that if he is not willing to study with me, I will not be responsible. Also, I hope you can pay my monthly salary in advance."

  "Okay," said Qi Shu Fan as he got up and went into the house. When he came out, he had a leather wallet in his hand, from which he pulled out a few sheets and handed them to Yu Cai. Yu Cai took them and put them in her high school entrance exam papers, then put the book in her bag.

  Qishu smiled as he watched her put away the money. "Now isn't it time to meet your new student? Release him, come out and meet your little teacher."

  After waiting for a while without any movement, Qi Shu Fan smiled self-deprecatingly and walked to the door of a room, knocking on it, "Shi Zhi?"

  Still no response, so he could only continue knocking. Seeing his smile had turned somewhat bitter, Yucai stood up and said, "Anyway, we can see each other tomorrow, no need to bother."

  Qishu Fan couldn't help but nod, subconsciously making excuses for Qishu, "I'm usually too busy to pay attention to him, it's normal that he has opinions".

  Yu Cai shrugged, "What's the relationship with this? Alright then, it's settled. We have class until 5 o'clock and evening self-study at 7 o'clock. So from 5:45 to 6:45 is just enough time to finish talking and study together. Tomorrow night I'll go find him in their classroom."

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  "Well, I'll go first, see you later."

  "Stay for lunch."

  Yu Cai resolutely refused and jumped down the stairs as soon as she left the Qi's house, not even minding the scorching sun on her head. It felt great to have money again!

  Chapter 4

  Yu Cai's high school is divided into two parts. One part consists of students who were admitted based on their abilities, such as Yu Cai herself. The other part consists of students who relied on connections and money to get in. They are taught by the same teachers, but the quality of the students is vastly different. These students are assigned to classes 11 through 16, with Qi Shi being in class 12.

  Yucai had already sneaked into Class 12 during the break, pulled aside a passing classmate and asked him who Qi Xizhe was. At this time, most students hadn't returned from lunch yet, and there were only a few people scattered around in the classroom. Yucai immediately recognized Qi Xizhe with his cold expression.

  "Hello, I'm Yu Cai."

  The expressionless nod of the praying mantis indicates that it has seen someone.

  Yu Cai didn't mind, took out the junior high school English textbook she had found yesterday, "I asked Teacher Mei, he said you need to start reviewing from the second year of junior high, learning English is a gradual process, we'll start from the beginning and slowly catch up with the current pace. Now let's look at the first unit, can you read the vocabulary?" Yu Cai assumed that Ji Xie's silence meant she couldn't read, "Hmm, follow me in reading, don't be shy, English is a language, now we need to read it out loud, and later we'll speak it out loud..."

  To put it simply, Ji Xie is a good student. Let him read and he will read. When Yu Cai speaks, he doesn't make any small movements, he just doesn't like to speak and has a stiff face.

  More and more people came, the study atmosphere of Class 12 was very different from that of Yucai's Class 5. The students in Class 5 would start learning as soon as they entered the classroom, even when talking, they would lower their voices to avoid disturbing others. But here, the students were making a lot of noise, and there was a group of boys with bad intentions staring at Yucai and his friends, guessing that if it weren't for Jixie's icy face, they would have come over to tease them earlier.

  Yu Cai continued to speak in a steady and moderate tone, her voice not loud but clear, the result of years of training as a substitute teacher. Her vocal cords were not good and her throat was not suitable for loud speaking, if she spoke loudly, it would be difficult to continue with the next class, but in the noisy environment around her, her voice was exceptionally clear, making people feel like they were being soothed from ear to heart.

  Before long an hour had passed and Yu Zai put down her pen. "Are you going to read in your own classroom, come to our classroom or just choose any classroom?"

  Her eyes were still fixed on the book, as if she hadn't heard. Yu Cai smiled and said, "Then I'll go to your class, I'll be right back."

  Yu Cai Gang stood up, and a group of boys who had been staring at him for a long time finally sent out a tall and thin boy as their representative. "A Shi, who is this? Why don't you introduce us?"

  After half a year of hellish high school internship, Yu Cai naturally knew how to deal with these big boys who were afraid that the world would not be chaotic. Upon hearing this, she smiled slightly and said, "Hello, my name is Yu Cai, I'm from Class 5, and I'm Asha's cousin."

  The boy seemed skeptical, Yu Zai learned from the martial arts drama and made a fist, "I'll often visit your class in the future, please take care of me".

  That group of boys burst out laughing, some starting to shout, "A Shi, this cousin of yours is really interesting!"

  Yu Cai smiled warmly, as if she had seen that group of students who made her both headache and fond again.

  Qiao Jia saw Yu Cai carrying her school bag and other things, preparing to leave, and couldn't help but ask, "Class is about to start, where are you going?"

  "I may never come to self-study again."

  Qiao Jia looked at her seriously and said, "Yu Cai, I think you're very mysterious."

  Yu Cai laughed and thought that in Qiao Jia's eyes, she had always been rustic and unsophisticated, but now she had suddenly upgraded to being mysterious, which was really not easy.

  "Not coming to self-study is mysterious? There are others in our class who don't come either."

  "It's not this, it's just the feeling."

  "Big sister, I have to say, you're really too sensitive! Class is about to start, I'm leaving."

  Yu Cai finished speaking and hastily walked away with her bag, arriving at Class 12. She found an empty seat near Jixi and took out the geography materials to start studying.

  Class 12 also has teachers to supervise self-study, and when the teacher is present, it's very quiet. But as soon as they leave, almost everyone starts chatting. If it were in the past, Yu Cai would definitely be affected. However, after cultivating for ten years, she doesn't have this little bit of endurance. Yu Cai can apologize to her ancestors with a clear conscience. So, Yu Cai once again dives head-first into the mysterious and painful world of geography. Only when the sudden noise erupts does Yu Cai realize that class is already over. The feeling of loss that comes every time the self-study room lights are turned off during university days surges up in her heart again. Why can't it just be a little later before class ends?

  Yu Cai looked at the geography materials spread out on the table in front of her, although progress was slow, but she had a feeling that it was gradually getting better, as long as she persisted, it should be okay.

  Gathering his belongings, Yu Zai took a bag in one hand and rubbed his sore neck with the other. He nodded to Chong Qi and said, "I'll leave first, I'll come over again tomorrow night."

  Jiexi didn't say a word, but another boy smiled and said, "Cousin, want me to send you home?"

  Yu Cai's face floated up with a perfect smile, "No need, you guys be careful on the road, see you tomorrow!"

  Out of the teaching building, Yu Cai immediately blended into a group of chattering high school students. The clear wind and bright moon made Yu Cai involuntarily take a deep breath, it's great!