"Lin Ruoxi, whatever you do, don’t ever, ever, *ever* become a teacher. You’d lead your students so far astray."

Xue Rui said with a miserable look on his face, repeating "ever" for emphasis.

Xue Rui had resolved to turn over a new leaf and study hard. It would help him get into a university and also improve his standing at home.

But the teachers’ classroom lectures were far too detailed.

Xue Rui tried listening in on a few classes, only to find that he already knew the parts he could understand. As for the parts he couldn’t, it was because he’d forgotten the basics and couldn’t recall them for the life of him.

So this week, he started bringing his middle school textbooks to school. He even asked Xue Yao for a few sets of high school entrance exam practice tests, planning to systematically review the fundamentals he’d learned before.

Xue Rui hadn’t considered hiring a tutor. It was expensive and time-consuming, and besides, he was never in the mood to study when facing those teachers.

Lin Ruoxi, a top student, was right there next to him. Of course he should have her tutor him. And when he got tired of studying, he could pinch her cheeks a few times to lighten the mood. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

But what did Lin Ruoxi do?

The thought gave Xue Rui a headache.

He would point his pen at a multiple-choice question—any question he looked at—and before he could even finish reading it, Lin Ruoxi would have already written down the answer, with absolutely no steps shown.

"But... that’s just how I do it," Lin Ruoxi said softly.

She understood what Xue Rui meant. She was a terrible tutor...

But she felt she had already been as detailed as possible. She even wrote out the steps for the fill-in-the-blank questions.

"Of course I know that," Xue Rui said, grabbing his books and leaving.

He was now certain that Lin Ruoxi was a bona fide genius. He couldn’t even read the questions as fast as she could solve them.

Furthermore, Lin Ruoxi’s textbooks were as clean as if they’d been licked over by Da Huang—not a single word was written in them.

Xue Rui glanced at the traced-over illustrations in a textbook and flicked Lin Ruoxi on the head.

During evening self-study sessions, Lin Ruoxi would always look like she was diligently writing something.

He’d always assumed she was a good kid from a poor family, making up for a lack of resources with sheer diligence.

Now, Xue Rui knew the truth. She wasn’t doing problems or homework at all...

...she was tracing the illustrations in her textbooks, or adding a tail to some little animal.

And the worst part was, her drawings were terrible.

Lin Ruoxi had already completely mastered the high school curriculum; there was no need for her to even glance at it.

In fact, Lin Ruoxi’s knowledge in certain subjects had likely already surpassed that of most graduate students.

When you’re at a different level, you see problems from a different perspective.

It was like trying to teach a first-grader two-digit addition and subtraction. The problem is simple; the hard part is teaching it to a child.

So Xue Rui didn’t blame her.

A deep sense of powerlessness washed over him. Xue Rui felt he couldn’t let Lin Ruoxi tutor him anymore. Any more of this, and his confidence would be completely shattered.

"Don’t hold back on the monthly exam in a few days. Give it your all."

Xue Rui picked up his books and went next door to Class One’s classroom.

Lin Ruoxi watched Xue Rui’s retreating figure through the window, a sense of dejection in her heart.

She had already tried to complicate the simple problems by breaking them down, but Xue Rui still didn’t understand.

’I must be the one who’s too dumb...’ Lin Ruoxi thought.

It was activity period now. A light rain pattered against the window. Lin Ruoxi clutched an umbrella, unsure if she should go home or not.

Usually, Xue Rui would leave with her around this time, but today he had gone to find Gu Muxue.

Lin Ruoxi sat dazedly in her seat and started doodling on her book illustrations to pass the time.

Xue Rui, carrying his books, arrived at the Class One classroom.

It was late September, the beginning of the rainy season in Hedong. The students weren’t running around outside much, preferring to stay in their classrooms and chat.

"Xue Rui, why are you carrying middle school textbooks?" a female classmate asked curiously.

"Can’t I decide to study hard?" Xue Rui said with a smile.

The girl gave him a surprised look, thinking the sun must have risen in the west.

But then she reconsidered. It was probably just a ploy to see Gu Muxue.

"Oh, Muxue hasn’t left yet," she remarked casually.

Gu Muxue, with her canvas bag on her back, was just about to get up and leave when she saw Xue Rui approaching. She hurriedly stuffed everything into her desk drawer.

Xue Rui looked curious. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing," Gu Muxue said flatly.

She had overheard what Xue Rui said earlier and guessed he was going to ask her for tutoring.

After all, he had asked her about some middle school physics concepts at lunch.

Gu Muxue was actually quite pleased with Xue Rui’s new attitude toward studying.

Even if they couldn’t attend the same university in the future, at least he would have more options. They could at least be in the same city.

Xue Rui put down his own books and casually picked up one of Gu Muxue’s textbooks, starting to flip through it.

Gu Muxue didn’t really mind. Xue Rui never asked for permission before taking her things; he often came over to mooch her snacks.

Of course, she had tacitly allowed it.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the familiar middle school textbook and suddenly remembered something. She quickly reached out to snatch her book back.

"Give it back," Gu Muxue said, snatching the book from Xue Rui’s hands.

Xue Rui paused. ’What’s with her? Snatching books?’

Xue Rui immediately picked up another one, and Gu Muxue jumped up to grab it again.

But Xue Rui was too tall. All he had to do was hold the book high up, and Gu Muxue could only hop in place, helpless.

"You!" Gu Muxue was so angry she wanted to bite him.

But there were too many people in the classroom right now...

"Hehe, can’t reach," Xue Rui taunted, waving the book in his hand.

"Hmph!" Gu Muxue feigned anger.

She slumped onto her desk, her gaze darting about, occasionally glancing at Xue Rui’s middle school textbooks.

Now that Gu Muxue had stopped fussing, Xue Rui finally had a chance to look at the textbook in his hand.

He flipped through it briefly but didn’t find anything. He thought she might have tucked a note or some other little secret inside.

A little disappointed, Xue Rui started flipping through Gu Muxue’s book from the beginning.

Actually, Xue Rui wanted to determine what type of student Gu Muxue was.

’What if... she’s another Lin Ruoxi? Then I’ll have to find someone else.’

However, seeing the lines of neat, elegant handwriting, Xue Rui smiled in satisfaction. Gu Muxue was a normal student.

The notes in the book were extremely detailed, neatly organized, and all the key points were highlighted.

They were clearly the notes of a top student.

’It’s just... this handwriting. Why does it look so familiar?’

Xue Rui looked puzzled. It was just too familiar, as if he had just seen it moments ago.

He picked up his own middle school textbook and discovered the handwriting was exactly the same.

Even the way the key points were highlighted was identical.

For example, there was a little red flower stamp placed next to especially important concepts.

Xue Rui was certain the notes in both books had been written by the same person.

"Muxue?" Xue Rui asked, a questioning look on his face.

Xue Rui never took notes. Firstly, because he was lazy, and secondly...

His handwriting was too ugly, and too big.

While others could fit all their notes on one page, he would need to flip to a second, and he often couldn’t find any blank space.

As a result, his own notes looked like a mess of black ants crawling all over, and even he couldn’t bear to look at them.

However, Xue Rui had always been very popular.

So, he’d found a workaround. He would get the girls in his class to take notes for him over the weekend, paying them with pastries from a restaurant.

He had always thought the girls from his class were the ones doing his notes. Why was it Gu Muxue?

Although he and Gu Muxue had always attended the same school, they’d had bad luck and were never placed in the same class.

In other words, his textbooks had somehow made their way from the hands of his female classmates to Gu Muxue.

There were a lot of notes to take in middle school, and filling one book took a long time. Gu Muxue had done them for all of Xue Rui’s subjects.

At this thought, Xue Rui gave Gu Muxue a deep look, awaiting her answer.

"Oh... I was tricked into it back then, alright?" Gu Muxue said lightly.

Gu Muxue snorted. "If I had known they were for you, I never would have done them."

Xue Rui looked at her strangely and flipped his own textbook to the first page.

His name was written in it. And what’s more, there was a cluster of little red flower stamps right over his name.

’She didn’t see my name? Then who put these stamps here?’

Xue Rui smiled but didn’t expose her lie.

’This girl,’ he thought. ’She’s great in every way, just too stubborn.’

"If you don’t need anything, I’m heading home now," Gu Muxue said, grabbing her schoolbag to leave.

Her heart was pounding. She was terrified Xue Rui would press her further on the matter.

’Why was I so stupid in middle school?’ she wondered.

To think she had applied all of her personal note-taking habits to Xue Rui’s textbooks.

Thank goodness Xue Rui was so oblivious and never paid attention to these things.

But she never could have imagined that now, in their second year of high school, Xue Rui would actually go back and look at his middle school textbooks!

She wanted to escape immediately.

"I do need something! How could I not? I want to learn from the top student in our grade," Xue Rui said with a serious expression.

"What do you mean?" Gu Muxue lowered her beautiful eyes, thinking Xue Rui was about to use this to make fun of her.

"Teacher Muxue, please tutor me. I really can’t figure this out on my own," Xue Rui pleaded sincerely, pressing his hands together in a begging gesture.

Gu Muxue’s eyes curved into crescents. She was very satisfied with Xue Rui’s eagerness to learn.

She extended a slender finger and pointed it at Xue Rui. "Though you are mischievous by nature, you are not beyond teaching."

"Thank you, Master," Xue Rui said, playing along.

They both put the matter of the notes behind them, acting as if nothing had happened.

In reality, they both knew exactly what was going on.

"Here, you can draw an auxiliary line first, and then..."

"Be more specific."

...

"When you see a midpoint, draw a median. When you see a median, double its length."

"What’s a midpoint?"

"..."

Gu Muxue felt a pang of despair at Xue Rui’s ignorance, but she wouldn’t give up.

Thankfully, Xue Rui’s attitude was also very serious, so she patiently started from the very beginning.

Gu Muxue’s pen moved across the textbook. "Look, AC equals AF, so this point..."

"I remember now! It’s all coming back to me!" Xue Rui exclaimed in a moment of enlightenment.

Seeing Xue Rui earnestly cramming the material he had once learned, Gu Muxue smiled.

She took out her own cup and poured a cupful of water for Xue Rui into the lid.

"Oh, thanks."

The knowledge Xue Rui had once learned hadn’t completely withered away. Instead, it had matured and become a seed, one that held memories.

And Gu Muxue was like a gardener with a watering can, carefully nurturing that seed until it slowly broke through the soil and sprouted new shoots.