WIFTY - 9

I’ll sell you my English grades.
The bonus is me—do you want it?
——From Su Zaizai’s Little Fairy Diary

After a night had passed, Su Zaizai was already back to her usual energetic self.

After all, she wasn’t the type to worry unnecessarily.

No matter what, she decided to flirt first and think later.

With this mindset, Su Zaizai began frequently making her presence known around Zhang Lurang.

In the afternoon, after finishing her meal, she said goodbye to Jiang Jia and returned to the classroom.

After timing it carefully, she spent fifteen minutes on her homework before gathering the rest of today’s assignments and heading straight for the reading room.

Finding the same spot as last time, she immediately spotted Zhang Lurang sitting there with his head bowed, working on his homework.

As usual, someone was sitting across from him, so Su Zaizai decisively took the seat next to him.

Zhang Lurang didn’t even bat an eyelid.

It seemed he didn’t care who sat beside him at all—his focus remained completely undistracted.

Su Zaizai glanced at his workbook.

English cloze test.

She blinked and stopped paying attention to him, instead turning her focus to the chemical formulas in her own workbook, frustration nearly overwhelming her.

Her English was so good—why did these letter combinations suddenly look like gibberish to her?!

Question three: Particles with the same number of electrons are called isoelectronic species. Which of the following particles does not belong to isoelectronic species…

Deciding to stop complaining, Su Zaizai quickly picked up her pen and began scribbling furiously on her scratch paper for over ten minutes.

Zhang Lurang, who had been struggling with English, was inexplicably distracted by the sound of her quietly muttering under her breath while counting on her fingers: “Hydrogen, helium, lithium; lithium, beryllium, boron; carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon; sodium… sodium… no, no, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sodium, thirteen.”

Zhang Lurang: “…”

When she finally figured out the answer, her mind felt a wave of relief wash over her.

Solving a difficult problem gave her such a sense of accomplishment.

As her guard dropped, Su Zaizai immediately noticed Zhang Lurang’s gaze on her.

His eyes were strange, filled with an emotion she couldn’t quite understand.

Feeling uncomfortable under his stare, Su Zaizai quickly lowered her eyes.

Only when he looked away did she let out a sigh of relief.

Then, cautiously, she stole another glance at his workbook.

…He was still stuck on that cloze test.

And she realized she had done this one before. Curious, Su Zaizai leaned over and glanced at it a few times, thought about the answer, but hesitated to say anything.

Soon, she withdrew her gaze and continued writing for another ten minutes. When she glanced over again and saw that he was still working on the same cloze test, she grew so anxious she almost wanted to snatch it from him and finish it herself.

Ten minutes later, noticing that Zhang Lurang had finally moved on to the grammar fill-in-the-blank section, Su Zaizai felt an inexplicable sense of relief.

At 6:20, after Zhang Lurang wrote down the final answer to the first reading comprehension passage, he began packing up his things to leave.

Su Zaizai hurriedly stuffed her belongings into her bag and rushed after him.

Once outside the reading room, she stood beside him and couldn’t help but whisper softly: “You’re way too slow at those cloze tests—it took you almost half an hour! That’s such a waste of time.”

When it came to English, Zhang Lurang was also feeling frustrated. He fell silent for a moment before speaking in a low, heavy tone: “If I don’t understand something, I don’t want to continue.”

Hearing this, Su Zaizai was somewhat shocked: “You understood it?”

“…” Though in reality, he hadn’t.

“You only got three questions right! Did you really understand it?!”

“…” She didn’t have to humiliate him so bluntly, did she?

Su Zaizai continued her relentless commentary beside him. For the first time, Zhang Lurang felt a flicker of irritation and said in a deep voice: “You only got three multiple-choice chemistry questions right, and the answer you spent fifteen minutes on was still wrong.”

Hearing him speak such a long sentence for the first time, Su Zaizai was momentarily stunned. Then, unwilling to admit defeat, she defended herself: “That’s because I haven’t attended class!”

Zhang Lurang, who had diligently attended every English class yet still scored only thirty points, fell silent.

Su Zaizai quickly realized her mistake and hastily rephrased her words: “Ahem, that’s because I haven’t done this type of question before. Now that I’ve tried it, I’ll get it next time.”

Zhang Lurang remained silent.

Su Zaizai scratched her head and continued trying to salvage the situation, emphasizing: “I listen super attentively in every class, but I just can’t seem to understand. Sigh, it’s so frustrating.”

She absolutely wasn’t one of those students who didn’t pay attention in class—she was ambitious!

Seeing that Zhang Lurang showed no interest in continuing the conversation, Su Zaizai stopped talking as well.

The corridor was quiet, filled only with the sound of the wind whistling, the rhythmic “tap tap” of their shoes against the floor, the soft sound of their breathing—and Su Zaizai’s increasingly rapid heartbeat.

Soon, they reached the third floor.

Zhang Lurang silently headed toward the classroom.

“Zhang Lurang,” Su Zaizai called out from the stairwell. The dim light from the energy-saving lamp illuminated her, making her fair face glow with radiance.

He turned his head, his expression indifferent, quietly waiting for her to speak.

The pitch-black sky loomed overhead, shrouded in night like a thick mist.

Su Zaizai stopped joking around and softly reminded him: “Don’t just blindly do problems—it’s more useful to memorize vocabulary.”

________________________________________

“Huh? So you’re teaching a top student how to study now?!”

Choked by Jiang Jia’s words, Su Zaizai stammered in rebuttal: “His English isn’t even close to being a top student’s, okay?!”

“But even with his English score, he ranked in the top fifty last month.”

“…” Unable to argue further, Su Zaizai thought for a moment and then replied seriously: “Anyway, I’m sure he hasn’t memorized any vocabulary. That cloze test had only a few unfamiliar words—all from Unit One—and he couldn’t even understand them.”

“Even top students have their struggles,” Jiang Jia sighed.

“I know my advice probably sounded pretty funny.” Su Zaizai flipped open her chemistry workbook and looked at the multiple-choice question. “But I feel like he’s really troubled by his English.”

“After all, all his friends are there. If he gets kicked out of the advanced class, he’ll have to start over with new people.”

Ah, so that’s how it is.

Su Zaizai stopped dwelling on it and pointed at the question: “Can you help me figure out what I got wrong here?”

Jiang Jia picked up her pencil, grabbed a piece of scratch paper, and began explaining. After finishing, she suddenly found it amusing: “Hey, you’re actually asking about chemistry problems? Didn’t you say you were breaking up with chemistry?”

“We reconciled,” Su Zaizai said, resting her chin on her hand, looking a bit downcast. “Ah… sodium, magnesium, aluminum… Why do I always mix them up, ugh!”

He probably didn’t hear that…

So embarrassing.

________________________________________

After the final evening study session ended, Zhang Lurang took out the English answer key and checked his cloze test answers. As expected, he had only gotten three right, two grammar questions correct—but surprisingly, he had gotten all the reading comprehension questions right.

This instantly lifted his spirits a bit.

Still, he didn’t want to look at the explanations. After a quick glance, he tossed the answer key back into his desk drawer.

Ye Zhenxin stood up, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and noticed the sea of red marks on his workbook. Unable to help herself, she remarked: “How could you get so many wrong again?”

Zhang Lurang didn’t respond.

She thought for a moment, then sat back down and turned her head to look at him: “Do you want me to teach you?”

“No need.”

His curt reply left Ye Zhenxin a little embarrassed, but she didn’t say anything else, merely adding: “Well, don’t be discouraged. Keep practicing, and your grades will improve.”

“Mhm.”

Zhang Lurang closed his workbook and placed it back in the drawer.

Seeing his lack of interest, Ye Zhenxin found the situation rather dull. She bid him farewell and walked out.

Zhang Lurang took out his math textbook and began reviewing ahead. It wasn’t until close to dorm curfew that he started packing up his things to head back to the dormitory.

He pulled out the books he needed from his desk or drawer.

Finally, his gaze landed on the English Compulsory Book 1. He picked it up.

Su Zaizai’s earlier words echoed in his mind:

——”Don’t just blindly do problems—it’s more useful to memorize vocabulary.”

He didn’t think much of it and carelessly tossed the book back onto the top of the stack on his desk.

Then he walked over to the door, flipped the circuit breaker off, stepped outside, closed the front door, and turned to walk toward the back door. As he paused mid-action, Zhang Lurang inexplicably recalled Su Zaizai reciting the periodic table earlier that day.

…Could it be that when he was doing English problems, he looked just as ridiculous to others?

No way.

Zhang Lurang ran his fingers through his hair and stood there for a moment.

In the end, he walked back to his seat, using the hallway light filtering into the classroom to pick up the book once more.

…He might as well give it a try.