7 – Chuan Ge is Damn Good
Xue Yingying had no choice but to reluctantly carry her books back to her seat.
By the time Xin Jushang returned, Zhou Yuchuan’s anger hadn’t fully subsided.
He couldn’t understand why his deskmate seemed to have no temper at all when it came to others. She clearly knew how to refuse in front of him—even the water he offered, she didn’t want to drink.
Thinking of this, Zhou Yuchuan grew even more frustrated.
But then it occurred to him—he attributed Xin Jushang’s inability to refuse others to her insecurity about her appearance and grades.
Yes! That must be it.
Having identified the root of the problem, Zhou Yuchuan now began to think about solutions.
Appearance was something innate; there wasn’t much that could be changed about that.
But grades…
At this thought, Zhou Yuchuan instantly perked up, because he came up with a brilliant idea:
He could help his poor little deskmate improve her grades!
Meanwhile, Xin Jushang, who was focused on solving problems beside him, had no idea about Zhou Yuchuan’s thoughts.
“Xin Jushang.”
He deliberately lowered his voice.
Seeing that Xin Jushang remained unmoved, he grew a bit anxious and couldn’t help tugging at the hem of her shirt.
Xin Jushang was wearing a loose white round-neck shirt that day, and with his tug, the fabric on her right shoulder slipped down slightly, revealing her fair, smooth skin.
For a moment, Zhou Yuchuan was stunned.
It was as if his cerebral cortex had been suddenly stimulated, and dopamine began flooding his brain.
When he snapped back to reality, he met Xin Jushang’s angry eyes.
It was the first time she had been this furious, thinking Zhou Yuchuan was deliberately teasing her. Her eyelashes trembled slightly as she said, “Zhou Yuchuan, are you crazy?”
“Yeah, I am,” Zhou Yuchuan blurted out.
As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized he had said the wrong thing. Just as he was about to explain, he unexpectedly noticed that his little deskmate…
Was actually smiling?!
His usually cold and aloof deskmate, who rarely smiled, was now grinning with her eyes curved into crescents after hearing his response.
He had to admit, his little deskmate’s eyes were truly exceptional.
Clear and bright, so beautiful that one couldn’t help but want to lose themselves in them.
Seeing Zhou Yuchuan staring at her motionlessly, Xin Jushang quickly suppressed her smile and lowered her head to continue looking at the problems.
But inside, she couldn’t calm down for a long time.
She wondered how she could have been amused by that narcissist just now. It was so embarrassing.
To be completely defeated by her opponent during an argument—she felt utterly weak.
After a long while.
A note appeared in front of her. It was clearly torn from a scrap of scratch paper, with a bunch of messy physics symbols scribbled on the back.
She was determined to see what this narcissist had written.
Xin Jushang unfolded the note and saw a line written in bold, forceful handwriting:
“Sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean it. I wanted to tell you that if you ever have questions you can’t solve, feel free to ask me anytime. Brother Chuan is super good at this.”
At the end, Zhou Yuchuan had drawn an incredibly ugly smiley face, trying his best to prove his sincerity to Xin Jushang.
After reading the note, Xin Jushang expressionlessly crumpled it up and placed it inside her desk drawer.
She was utterly speechless at this self-absorbed narcissist.
Where did he get the confidence to say something like that to her? When had she ever said her grades were so poor that she needed his tutoring?
Who would come out on top in the exams was still uncertain.
Xin Jushang pressed her temples and returned to her immersive studying state.
Meanwhile, Zhou Yuchuan, who was sitting beside her, assumed that Xin Jushang was too embarrassed to ask him for help with her homework. After all, girls were creatures who couldn’t easily swallow their pride.
He had no choice but to lean closer to her and observe his deskmate’s progress on her assignments.
One glance was all it took to shock him.
This… this was all competition-level math!
And it was almost identical to the standard answers.
Now, there was only one truth…
Resting his chin on one hand, Zhou Yuchuan was absolutely certain of his deduction.
Perhaps sensing Zhou Yuchuan’s presence, Xin Jushang looked up and sighed helplessly, “Could you please stop bothering me? I really don’t have any questions to ask you.”
“I understand, I get it.” Zhou Yuchuan patted Xin Jushang’s shoulder sympathetically. “You can’t do the school assignments, but you can’t just sit there doing nothing either. So, you’re copying the answers to competition problems during self-study.”
Yes, that must be it.
His poor little deskmate was trying so hard not to be looked down upon by her classmates!
He was almost moved by Xin Jushang’s admirable dedication to her studies.
Xin Jushang: …
Was this narcissist determined to insist that she was bad at academics?
She had worked through every single problem herself, and he was accusing her of copying answers?
She was utterly speechless.
Fine, if that’s how he wanted it, she’d play along.
Xin Jushang nodded with feigned sorrow, pretending to have been completely exposed—
“You’re right. I can only secretly search for answers to the school assignments at home. I can’t do anything in class, so I just copy competition problem answers to pass the time.”
…She almost believed it herself.
Hearing Xin Jushang confide in him for the first time, Zhou Yuchuan was also touched. He felt even more strongly that helping his deskmate improve her grades should be put on the agenda immediately.
Calculating the time until the first monthly exam, he realized there were less than two weeks left. Time was truly tight.
To avoid dampening Zhou Yuchuan’s enthusiasm and also to tease him, Xin Jushang began occasionally asking him very basic questions.
Even then, he still couldn’t tell she was doing it on purpose.
It seemed Zhou Yuchuan really was a pig.
Xin Jushang shook her head regretfully in her mind.
How pitiful, to become a pig at such a young age.
“Huh? Why are you shaking your head?” Zhou Yuchuan was utterly baffled, while also pointing at the problem Xin Jushang had just asked him with exasperation. “Such a basic question—I’ve explained it six times, and you still don’t get it?”
Xin Jushang froze for a moment, then pretended to be earnest as she shook her head. “I don’t get it. What should I do? I’m so dumb.”
The first time in her life she’d ever admitted to being an idiot, and it had to be like this.
Seeing his little deskmate sinking into self-doubt again, Zhou Yuchuan couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity, his heart softening. “It’s okay, I’ll explain it a few more times. You can think it over on your own.”
Sigh, he was already imagining the scene after the first monthly exam: his little deskmate holding her bottom-of-the-class score, crying her eyes out at her desk.
How should he comfort her then…
After explaining problems to Xin Jushang for over a week, though with little progress, Zhou Yuchuan felt he had done his best.
After all, he had analyzed the same problem for Xin Jushang ten times. But his silly little deskmate just couldn’t wrap her head around it.
He had even rehearsed in his mind how he would comfort Xin Jushang after the monthly exam.
Meanwhile, Xin Jushang remained completely unaware of Zhou Yuchuan’s rich inner monologue.
After school that day, Xu Zhiyan pulled Xin Jushang along, wanting her to accompany her to the convenience store to buy a few sticks of oden.
Inside the convenience store.
As Xin Jushang stood quietly by the entrance waiting for Xu Zhiyan, a flirtatious voice drifted into her ears—
“Hey beautiful, can I get your WeChat?”