Xia Jinsu had already visited the English Club several times today.
After finishing her speech on the flag-raising podium, she made her first trip there to place her reply on top of the bookcase. She had originally thought Song Yunshen would be like her, taking advantage of the break between morning classes to grab the letter and write back immediately. Since she had included her name and class this time, she not only repeatedly checked the club for a response but also waited anxiously, half-expecting him to deliver his reply directly to her classroom.
Yet she waited the entire day without seeing a trace of him. As it turned out, he hadn’t picked up the letter until after school.
"He really is surprisingly patient," she thought.
Then again, it made sense. For Song Yunshen, he was merely looking for a tutor. But for Xia Jinsu, this was a major deal involving a monthly salary of three thousand yuan.
As for whether the rate was one hundred or two hundred yuan an hour, it didn’t matter to her at all. After all, her free time during the summer vacation wasn’t particularly valuable. If accepting a lower rate made sealing the deal easier, she would gladly take one hundred an hour. Hell, even fifty an hour would work! She could easily tutor him for two hours a day.
"No, wait, two hours might not be enough," she mused. To demonstrate her absolute capability as the top student in the midterm exams, she certainly wouldn’t half-ass the job like the tutors mentioned in his diary. If she was going to be his tutor, she would definitely deliver results.
If she truly secured the position, Xia Jinsu would carefully plan out her teaching curriculum. Since Song Yunshen’s English grades weren’t great, she decided her initial summer goal would be to raise his score to a solid one hundred points. That shouldn’t be too difficult.
As Xia Jinsu calculated this, she even started thinking ahead to the post-summer period. If Song Yunshen could shock everyone with his English score in the back-to-school exams, she might just be able to continue as his tutor. Though she wouldn’t have time during regular school days, she could absolutely keep tutoring him on weekends.
One hundred yuan an hour, two hours a day on weekends—that would be four hundred yuan a week! Split among the three sisters at home, they could literally afford to eat meat at every meal!
At this thought, a blissful smile bloomed on her face, though she quickly reined it in.
"It is a bit strange, though," she thought. "Song Yunshen didn’t seem surprised after seeing my name. Maybe he doesn’t know who I am?"
She figured she was reasonably famous among the boys at school. If Song Yunshen hadn’t heard of her, he must be someone who rarely paid attention to gossip. That was actually good news.
Reading through his diary entry again, Xia Jinsu shifted her focus to the first half. She glanced at her younger sister and sighed softly to herself.
"By the looks of it, is Song Yunshen really pursuing Nuo?" she wondered. "He’s already buying her lunch. And she didn’t even refuse."
According to his diary, Nuo frequently praised his good looks, even though she had told Xia Jinsu that his appearance was just average. She wondered what the guy actually looked like in person to have successfully charmed her sister.
Xia Jinsu knew very well that Xia Yunuo was quite popular at school, much like herself. As a freshman, she had already rejected numerous boys’ pursuits and confessions. Accepting a boy’s invitation for lunch was virtually unheard of for her. Xia Jinsu wondered what kind of story had unfolded between the two to make Xia Yunuo open up her guarded heart even a little.
It was a rare occurrence indeed.
"You’ve been staring at me for a while now," Xia Yunuo said, suddenly putting down her pen and turning to face her sister. "Is something wrong?"
"N-No, nothing’s wrong," Xia Jinsu replied, averting her gaze with a guilty conscience. However, she couldn’t resist probing a bit. "I told Mom yesterday about taking up a part-time tutoring job, and she tentatively agreed. Once I make some money, how about I take you all out for a big feast?"
"Okay," Xia Yunuo nodded.
She wasn’t as energetic as Ningning and rarely provided much emotional reaction, so Xia Jinsu was already used to this mild response.
In her heart, however, Xia Yunuo was thinking that she also needed to find a part-time tutoring gig so she could treat their family to a nice meal too. She just didn’t know if she could actually secure one. She planned to follow Song Yunshen’s advice and consult Teacher Song once the final exams were over this week. Hopefully, Teacher Song would be able to help her.
But it didn’t necessarily have to be tutoring. Hadn’t her sister mentioned wanting to work at a milk tea shop before? Xia Yunuo felt she could give that a try as well. It was all about making money; why should one job be considered any more or less noble than another?
Watching her sister’s reaction, Xia Jinsu breathed a small sigh of relief. From the looks of it, Song Yunshen hadn’t discussed the possibility of her becoming his tutor with Xia Yunuo. But that made sense. Since she had only just revealed her name in her reply, even if he mentioned looking for a tutor, he wouldn’t have been able to drop her name.
That meant she needed to remind Song Yunshen and ask him to keep this a secret for her. Given the current situation, it seemed her younger sister genuinely had feelings for him. If Xia Yunuo found out she was tutoring him and got jealous, it could strain their sisterly bond, which would be terrible. Though Xia Yunuo probably wasn’t that petty, Xia Jinsu subconsciously made the decision to err on the side of caution.
"Nuo," Xia Jinsu asked again. "Aside from cram school, do you have any other plans for the summer vacation?"
"What other plans could I have?"
"Like... going on a date, perhaps?" Xia Jinsu continued to prod. "If you really have someone you like and want to go out with, you have to tell me. I’ll give you a dating fund so you don’t have to keep spending a boy’s money."
"I don’t have anyone," Xia Yunuo said, her face full of exasperation. "Did you listen to some random gossip? Song Yunshen and I really don’t have that kind of relationship."
"I never said it was him."
Xia Yunuo was speechless.
Tuesday.
Because the final exams were tomorrow, all of today’s classes were dedicated to self-study. During each period, the respective subject teacher sat at the podium, available for any direct questions.
Song Yunshen didn’t have anything to ask. During the self-study periods, he and Xu Zhuoyue simply drew grid lines on a scratchpad. Once the board was ready, they played Gomoku, battling from morning until dusk and exhausting an entire notebook in the process.
Thanks to the self-study sessions, the frequency of correspondence between Song Yunshen and Xia Jinsu drastically increased. Xia Jinsu picked up his letter early in the morning and quickly wrote her reply. When Song Yunshen went to check during the break after the second period and found her response, he drafted his own reply during the third period and delivered it. At noon, Xia Jinsu picked up his latest letter, and their paper conversation continued.
After several rounds of discussion and negotiation, the two finally decided to meet for lunch on Saturday noon, right after the final exams, to discuss the specific details of the tutoring arrangement in person.