On the other end of the phone, Xi Liye looked at Wen Chu’s message:
“Dating you really means having zero privacy, Classmate Xi.”
And the pointing sticker that came with it.
His eyes flickered slightly.
He could imagine what she probably looked like right now—
Cheeks puffed up, embarrassed and annoyed, yet still pretending to be calm.
Like a small animal whose nest had been put on display, fur standing on end but too afraid to actually bite.
The image suddenly appeared in his mind.
The corners of his lips lifted slightly.
【L.YE: You don’t like being noticed?】
He asked directly.
Wen Chu looked at the message and sighed, tapping away on the screen.
【ChuChu Hiding: Of course. Isn’t it better to keep things low-key?】
【ChuChu Hiding: Besides, I’m really not good at dealing with lots of people.】
That was the truth.
She was social anxiety itself.
Xi Liye looked at her reply and fell into a brief silence.
Not good at dealing with lots of people.
So this afternoon in the classroom, when she had initially played on her phone instead of looking at him, it wasn’t because of him.
It was because too many people were watching.
And later, when the kitten drawing caught her attention and made her temporarily forget her surroundings, she had finally shown a more natural expression.
So it wasn’t that she didn’t care about him.
【L.YE: Got it.】
Wen Chu looked at those familiar three words.
For some reason, she relaxed a little, yet also felt uncertain.
【ChuChu Hiding: Oh…】
She replied dryly with one word.
Just as she thought the conversation would end with the usual good night, another message from Xi Liye popped up.
【L.YE: Next time, we’ll find somewhere quieter.】
Wen Chu: “???”
【ChuChu Hiding: What?】
【L.YE: Next time, we’ll meet somewhere with fewer people, where no one will see us.】
Wen Chu: Bro, do you even know what you’re saying?
For some reason, she suddenly felt as if the two of them were having an affair.
Countless images instantly flashed through her mind:
The deepest corner of the library.
A deserted campus road late at night.
Or the couple-filled little grove behind the school…
Stop!
Stop right there!
Wen Chu shook her head violently, trying to throw those messy thoughts away.
She must have been led astray by Xi Liye.
The direction of this conversation was way too strange!
Of course, Wen Chu never expected that their next date would truly be somewhere without many people watching.
In fact, the entire space only had her and Xi Liye in it.
When Xi Liye brought her to his luxury apartment near campus, Wen Chu was still trapped in a state of confusion.
Who am I?
Where am I?
Why am I here?
She stood on the entryway floor, still clutching her canvas bag filled with several English books.
Her gaze swept blankly across the living room.
Only one thought repeatedly flashed through her mind:
Was my brain squeezed by a door? Why did I agree to come here?!
The situation was like this.
The CET-4 and CET-6 exams were only two weeks away.
Everyone knew that these English exams were important.
They were stepping stones for employment.
But to Wen Chu, English was pure nightmare fuel.
Back during her own college entrance exams, she had only squeezed into a top domestic university because her math and physics scores were nearly perfect.
In university, while others easily passed CET-4, she took it eight times.
From the second semester of freshman year all the way to her final chance before graduating senior year.
Each attempt ended in failure.
Her scores always danced around ten or twenty points below the passing line.
After transmigrating, although her identity had changed, her PTSD toward English had not weakened at all.
She had checked the original owner’s transcript.
The original owner had not passed CET-4 either.
Hahaha.
So transmigrating did have benefits after all.
She had been given the opportunity to take CET-4 for the ninth time.
Wen Chu stared at the open CET-6 practice paper, looking at the endless unfamiliar words and despairingly long reading passages.
She was so stressed that she wanted to pull out her hair.
Of course—
If she was suffering, she absolutely wouldn’t let Xi Liye have an easy time either.
That was Wen Chu’s final stubbornness and spoiled-girlfriend essence.
Before agreeing to let Xi Liye tutor her, and during the days waiting for the weekend, Wen Chu had precisely shifted the focus of her affection-bombing harassment to complaining about CET-4.
She launched noise attacks on Xi Liye’s WeChat.
In the end, Xi Liye probably couldn’t stand it anymore and actually agreed to tutor her.
But now that she had arrived at his apartment, she was starting to regret it.
“Why don’t we go to the library instead…”
Wen Chu attempted one final struggle.
Xi Liye pointed out the truth.
“The library should be fully booked at this time.”
“After all, many people are preparing for CET-4 and CET-6.”
Wen Chu: “…”
She couldn’t refute that.
Before finals and CET exams, finding a seat in Huada’s library was practically impossible.
“Fine, fine.”
Wen Chu set down her bag.
Still, she didn’t forget to deliver one spoiled-girlfriend line.
“Then I’ll leave my CET-4 to you, Teacher Xi.”
“If I still don’t pass this time…”
She paused and deliberately emphasized her tone, sounding slightly unreasonable and coquettish.
“I’ll blame you!”
“It’ll all be because you didn’t teach me well!”
After saying it, she felt guilty first.
This demand was completely unreasonable.
If she failed, it was clearly her own problem.
However, after listening, Xi Liye showed no obvious emotional fluctuation.
His ears were still replaying the way Wen Chu had called him Teacher Xi.
For some reason, his ears felt slightly itchy.
“Okay.”
He agreed decisively.
“I’ll take responsibility.”
Wen Chu: “…”
He agreed just like that?
A moment later, Xi Liye went to his study and returned with a very thick stack of printed materials.
Then he handed them to Wen Chu.
“What is this?”
Wen Chu accepted the heavy pile of paper and flipped it open in confusion.
The paper quality was excellent.
The printing was clear.
It was a carefully organized set of CET-4 Question Type Analysis and Problem-Solving Strategies.
Each question type was explained in detail.
There were solving steps and thought processes for every section.
The writing and translation parts weren’t dry templates either.
Instead, they provided multiple frameworks and alternative expressions.
This was not an ordinary review packet that could be bought on the market.
It was more like a custom-made study guide prepared specifically for her.
Wen Chu flipped through several pages.
The more she read, the more shocked she became.
How much time and effort had this taken?
Wasn’t Xi Liye busy with experiments?
How did he have time to organize all of this?
“When did you make this?”
She looked up.
Her voice felt slightly dry.
Her heart had been touched.
Xi Liye sat down on the single sofa beside her.
“A few days ago.”
A few days ago…
Meaning that during the time she had been bombarding him with complaints, not only had he listened—
He had also prepared study notes for her?
Damn.
If Xi Liye weren’t destined to become a lunatic who would ruin her life later, Wen Chu would have slid to her knees and called him godfather on the spot.
In the end, she could only force out one dry sentence:
“…Thank you.”
Xi Liye looked at her slightly reddened ears and flickering gaze.
The corners of his lips curved almost imperceptibly.
“You’re welcome.”
His gaze landed on the stack of materials.
“Now, can we begin?”
Wen Chu immediately sat up straight.
Indicating there was absolutely no problem.
Two hours later, Xi Liye stared at the red marks across Wen Chu’s test paper and fell into deep thought.
He gave an order.
“Your vocabulary is severely insufficient.”
“Starting today, memorize two hundred high-frequency core words every day.”
“I’ll test you.”
Wen Chu: “…”
Two hundred?!
Every day?!
And he would test her?!
Her vision went dark.
After more than an hour of memorizing words, Wen Chu felt as if her brain had turned into mush.
Her throat was also dry from constantly speaking.
“Rest for ten minutes.”
Xi Liye finally announced a break and stood to refill her water.
Wen Chu collapsed on the sofa, completely lifeless.
Xi Liye handed her the cup and returned to his seat.
His gaze fell on her expression of despair.
“Now I’ll test your vocabulary.”
Xi Liye recited several words.
Wen Chu stumbled through their Chinese meanings.
But there were a few words she was extremely familiar with and answered immediately.
Xi Liye raised a brow.
Then encouraged her:
“Not bad.”
“You memorized this word very well.”
At first, hearing not bad made a tiny spark of joy and vanity rise in Wen Chu’s heart.
But after hearing the second half, that little pride instantly froze.
Inside, she screamed:
Did I memorize that?
That’s the name of a module library I see every day when coding!
No matter how bad my English is, I can still react automatically to professional terminology, okay?!
But her vanity wouldn’t let her admit it.
She could only laugh dryly and answer vaguely:
“That’s right.”
“I’m just that outstanding.”
By the time today’s tutoring session finally ended, Wen Chu barely came back to life.
English…
Truly wasn’t something humans were meant to study.