I'll sell you my English grades.
And as a bonus, you get me too. Want it?
"Su Zai Zai the Little Fairy's Diary"
After just one night, Su Zai Zai had regained her spirits.
After all, she wasn't the type to worry too much about things.
No matter what, she thought, just go for it first.
With this mindset, Su Zai Zai began to frequently try to make her presence known around Zhang Lu Rang.
In the afternoon, after finishing lunch, she said goodbye to Jiang Jia and returned to the classroom.
After timing it well, Su Zai Zai did her homework for fifteen minutes, then grabbed the remaining assignments for the day and headed straight to the reading room.
She found the same spot as last time and immediately spotted Zhang Lu Rang, who was sitting with his head down, doing homework.
Someone was still sitting across from him, so Su Zai Zai decisively sat down next to him.
Zhang Lu Rang didn't even lift an eyelid.
It seemed like he didn't care at all who sat next to him; his attention remained completely undisturbed.
Su Zai Zai glanced at his workbook.
It was an English cloze test.
She blinked and decided not to focus on him, turning back to look at the chemical formulas in her own workbook, nearly breaking down from frustration.
Her English was so good, so why did these letters stop making sense when they were combined?
Question three: Particles with equal numbers of electrons are called isoelectronic species. Which of the following particles is not an isoelectronic species...
Su Zai Zai decided to stop complaining and quickly started scribbling away on her scratch paper for a good ten minutes.
Meanwhile, Zhang Lu Rang, who was struggling with English, found himself inexplicably distracted, listening to the person beside him muttering under her breath, "Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium... sodium... no, no, that's not right... magnesium, aluminum, sodium, silicon, phosphorus... sodium, thirteen."
Zhang Lu Rang: "..."
When she finally figured out the answer, her spirit seemed to relax as if a huge weight had been lifted.
Solving a difficult problem was incredibly satisfying.
As soon as her mind relaxed, Su Zai Zai immediately noticed Zhang Lu Rang's gaze.
His expression was odd, with a hint of confusion that she couldn't quite understand.
Su Zai Zai felt a bit embarrassed being stared at like that and quickly lowered her eyes.
It wasn't until he looked away that she let out a breath of relief.
Then, she cautiously glanced at his workbook.
...He was still stuck on that cloze test.
And she had actually done that one before. Out of curiosity, Su Zai Zai leaned closer to look at it for a moment, thought about the answer, and then hesitated to say something.
She quickly looked away and wrote for another ten minutes. When she turned back and saw him still working on that same cloze test, she was so anxious she almost wanted to grab it and do it for him.
Ten minutes later, when she noticed Zhang Lu Rang had moved on to the grammar section, Su Zai Zai inexplicably felt much more relieved.
At 6:20 p.m., when Zhang Lu Rang wrote down the last answer to the first reading comprehension passage, he began to pack up his things and leave.
Su Zai Zai hurriedly stuffed her things into her backpack and quickly followed him out.
As they left the reading room, she stood next to him and couldn't help but quietly remind him, "You took way too long on that cloze test. You spent nearly half an hour on it-it's such a waste of time."
Talking about English made Zhang Lu Rang feel frustrated too. He was silent for a moment before finally speaking in a low, sullen voiceHearing this, Su Zai Zai was a bit shocked, "You understood it?"
"..." Well, not really.
"You only got three questions right! Did you really understand it?"
"..." Did she really have to embarrass him like that?
Su Zai Zai continued her barrage of complaints, and Zhang Lu Rang, surprisingly, began to feel a little annoyed. He said in a deep voice, "You only got three chemistry multiple-choice questions right, and you spent fifteen minutes on a problem and still got the answer wrong."
Hearing him speak so much for the first time, Su Zai Zai was a little stunned. Then, she stubbornly defended herself, "That's because I didn't attend the class."
Zhang Lu Rang, who had diligently attended every English class but still only scored thirty points, fell silent.
Su Zai Zai quickly realized her mistake and hurriedly corrected herself, "Ahem, what I meant was, I haven't done this type of problem before. Now that I've done it once, I'll get it right next time."
Zhang Lu Rang remained silent.
Su Zai Zai scratched her head and continued trying to salvage the situation, emphasizing, "I pay super close attention in every class, but I just don't get it. Sigh, it's really frustrating."
She definitely wasn't one of those students who didn't pay attention in class. She was very diligent!
Seeing that Zhang Lu Rang had no desire to continue the conversation, Su Zai Zai also stopped talking.
The hallway was very quiet, with only the sound of the wind whistling, the tapping of shoes on the floor, the soft breathing of the two people, and... Su Zai Zai's accelerating heartbeat.
The two quickly reached the third floor.
Zhang Lu Rang silently headed toward the classroom.
"Zhang Lu Rang," Su Zai Zai called out, standing at the landing of the stairs. The dim light from the energy-saving lamp cast a soft glow on her, making her fair face appear even more radiant.
He turned around, his expression indifferent, quietly waiting for her to speak.
The sky was pitch black, and the night had descended like a mist.
Su Zai Zai, no longer in a joking mood, softly reminded him, "Don't just keep doing exercises non-stop. It's more effective to memorize the vocabulary properly."
"Huh? So you're actually teaching the top student how to study now?!"
Su Zai Zai was momentarily at a loss for words, then stammered, "But his English isn't top-notch at all, okay?"
"But he still ranked in the top fifty for the whole grade in the last monthly exam, including English."
"..." Su Zai Zai couldn't argue with that. After a moment of thought, she replied earnestly, "Well, I'm pretty sure he didn't memorize the vocabulary. That cloze test had only a few new words, all from the first unit, and he couldn't understand them."
"Even top students have their struggles," Jiang Jia sighed.
"I know it was kind of ridiculous to remind him like that," Su Zai Zai admitted as she flipped open her chemistry workbook, looking at one of the multiple-choice questions. "But it really seems like he's troubled by English."
"Well, all his friends are in that class, and now that he's been put into the honors class, he has to make new friends all over again."
Oh, is that so?
Su Zai Zai didn't dwell on it further and instead pointed at the question. "Can you help me figure out where I went wrong with this one?"
Jiang Jia grabbed a pencil and some scratch paper and started explaining the problem to her. After she finished, she suddenly found it a bit amusing. "Hey, you're actually asking a chemistry question? Didn't you say you were going to break up withchemistry?"
"We made up," Su Zai Zai said, resting her chin on her hand, a bit frustrated. "Ah, sodium, magnesium, aluminum... Why do I always get them mixed up?"
He didn't hear that, did he...
How embarrassing.
After the last evening class ended, Zhang Lu Rang checked the answers for his English cloze test. As expected, he only got three right. For the grammar section, he only got two correct, but surprisingly, he got all the reading comprehension questions right.
This immediately improved his mood quite a bit.
But he still didn't want to look at the explanations, so he glanced at them briefly before tossing the answer sheet back into his drawer.
Ye Zhenxin stood up, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and noticed the sea of red marks on his workbook. She couldn't help but ask, "Why did you get so many wrong again?"
Zhang Lu Rang didn't reply.
After a moment of thought, she sat back down and turned her head to look at him. "Do you want me to help you?"
"No need."
His blunt response made Ye Zhenxin a bit awkward, but she didn't say anything else. She just added, "Well, don't be discouraged. Keep working hard, and your grades will improve."
"Mm."
Zhang Lu Rang closed the workbook and put it back in his drawer.
Seeing him like this, Ye Zhenxin felt a bit bored and said goodbye before walking out.
Zhang Lu Rang pulled out his math book and began reviewing. It wasn't until it was almost time for the dormitory curfew that he started packing up to head back to the dorm.
He pulled out the books he needed from his desk or drawer.
Finally, his gaze fell on the first volume of his English textbook. He picked it up.
In his mind, Su Zai Zai's words from earlier echoed.
"Don't just keep doing exercises non-stop. It's more effective to memorize the vocabulary properly."
He didn't pay much attention to it and carelessly tossed the book on top of the stack of books on his desk.
Then he walked over to the door and turned off the lights.
As he stepped out the front door, he hesitated at the back door, suddenly recalling the way Su Zai Zai looked when she was recitingthe periodic table earlier today.
...Could it be that when he was doing English exercises, he looked just as ridiculous to others?
No way. Zhang Lu Rang scratched his head and stood there for a moment.
In the end, he returned to his desk, and in the dim light from the hallway shining into the classroom, he picked up the book on top of the stack.
...Might as well start memorizing.