A Straight Wife Fallen from the Sky - Chapter 24

Sang Zhancheng froze for a moment.

Although she felt that Mu Jiahui must be joking, the other woman’s expression was incredibly solemn and serious, without the slightest hint of teasing.

“Really?” This was the very first person who had ever expressed confidence in her.

Even her strict high school homeroom teacher had given up on lecturing her after Sang Zhancheng failed repeatedly, let alone saying something like having faith in her.

“Even though I don’t know anything right now? Even though I’ve scored so many zeros?” Sang Zhancheng asked Mu Jiahui, nearly on the verge of wiping away tears.

Mu Jiahui had already witnessed the little crybaby’s ability to weep.

But this was the first time she had seen the child cry so carefully, without a single trace of acting.

“Yes. I believe you can do it. I’ve tutored several students whose foundations were about as bad as yours, and they all got into good schools.”

Mu Jiahui had indeed tutored more than one college entrance examinee. Some were students she sponsored who shared similar backgrounds with her, while others were favors for people, such as a colleague’s child.

“Several?” Sang Zhancheng looked up slightly.

There were actually many others as bad as her whom Mu Jiahui had tutored!

Sang Zhancheng unexpectedly started feeling a bit of confidence in herself.

Even though she was the one who practiced self-denial, she was the one who slacked off, and she was the one who scored zeros.

“Yes, several. One… scored three hundred points initially and ended up getting into a first-tier university in our area. Another started with only a hundred or so points—lower than you—and eventually got into a Top 2 university.”

Though the latter had regional and ethnic advantages, there was no need to mention those to Sang Zhancheng while trying to motivate her.

And the gap between a three-hundred-point scores out of a total of seven hundred and fifty and Sang Zhancheng’s two hundred points was actually quite large.

But in order not to dampen the child’s confidence and enthusiasm for learning, Mu Jiahui told a small lie.

In truth, being repeatedly reminded of that pile of zeros by Sang Zhancheng, she felt quite guilty saying it.

Sang Zhancheng wiped away the tears pooling in her eyes and choked out, “Mumu, you are too kind, boohoo… This is the first time, ugh, the first time I’ve heard such words… Before, they all said succubi are stupid, and no one had confidence that a succubus could do well in exams…”

Growing up, the “compliments” the succubus heard most were probably: “It’s okay if you’re stupid, I’ll still like you,” “It’s okay if your grades are bad, your parents will support you,” or “It doesn’t matter if you can’t memorize or pass exams, you can live a worry-free life later if you find a good partner.”

However, no matter how careless or purely innocent Sang Zhancheng was, she was still subject to the discipline of worldly standards. She framed herself within the boundaries of either instinct or culture and possessed the ability to judge good from bad, and right from wrong.

Wasn’t the subtext of those compliments that being stupid was a bad thing?

It was only because those people were kind that they wouldn’t directly say Sang Zhancheng was “bad” and would instead comfort her by saying it “didn’t matter.”

Over time, Sang Zhancheng came to agree with those views.

She was indeed dull-witted; she had to use her fingers for basic arithmetic, she used idioms incorrectly, and today she had scored a bunch of zeros.

But just as those words suggested, she also felt being stupid was “okay.” She accepted the status quo with a clear conscience and didn’t have the slightest thought of changing it.

She was like someone wrapped in a soft cocoon and dropped into warm water.

Beneath was fire and above was a pot lid; she didn’t even have the thought of escaping.

She knew the fire would scorch her and the lid was too heavy; she couldn’t escape.

She knew effort was futile.

Because she was stupid.

So she had given up trying long ago; at least that way her heart felt comfortable.

But today, someone suddenly told her that she might not be stupid.

She might just be like many ordinary people.

There were many others at her level, and they had relied on their own hard work to earn degrees and status, earning the ability to support themselves and proving that they could do it.

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t moved at all.

No matter how much she accepted the fact of her own dullness, she had fantasized about becoming smart.

The person in front of her seemed bathed in a layer of light.

Sang Zhancheng blinked. Mu Jiahui’s features became clear, but for the first time, they lacked their sharp edge and were not piercing at all.

The devil who forced her to do nine sets of exam papers a day could actually be this gentle.

Sang Zhancheng probably liked her a little bit more.

Hearing the latter half of Sang Zhancheng’s sentence, Mu Jiahui sighed.

She actually felt a sense of empathy.

Even though Sang Zhancheng’s family background and upbringing were worlds apart from her own.

Before Mu Jiahui met her high school homeroom teacher, the words she heard most were, “Girls have poor logic for science, they lack stamina, they won’t cut it in high school, they aren’t cut out for studying.”

Moving forward against the wind when everyone is negating you is an exhausting thing.

With the slightest slip, that boat cannot withstand the massive wind and waves; it capsizes, and you sink.

Perhaps when that female teacher first sternly criticized her for her dropping rank and demanded to know if she really wanted to get into a good university, her feelings were just like Sang Zhancheng’s are now.

Mu Jiahui looked at Sang Zhancheng, her eyes filled with an emotion Sang Zhancheng couldn’t decipher.

She was looking at her past self, her expression so complex that Sang Zhancheng thought she had said something wrong.

“Mumu?” Even if this first bit of recognition was still too ethereal, Sang Zhancheng was unwilling to let go and let it turn into a lie.

She desperately needed to confirm Mu Jiahui’s true thoughts.

“Don’t listen to them.” Mu Jiahui withdrew her distant gaze and patted the young girl’s hand.

“You aren’t stupid, you aren’t dumb; you just lack a good method and a diligent attitude. The college entrance exam is one of the fairest ways to select talent; there is no such thing as it being unsuitable for a certain race. Even people missing one or two senses can take the exam. Whoever says it’s impossible for you to do well is acting out of malice.”

These words were like a reassuring pill.

Mu Jiahui truly believed she could do it. Sang Zhancheng sniffled.

“But I… I’m also very slow at memorizing things, and even when I know how to do a problem, I take a long time to react…”

The young girl’s body trembled as she sobbed quietly, using weak rebuttals to seek a sense of security.

For the first time, Mu Jiahui felt she was somewhat pitiable, and the thought of wiping her tears sprouted.

And Mu Jiahui did exactly that.

She pulled out a tissue and clumsily began to wipe away the continuous stream of tears from Sang Zhancheng’s face.

“If the method is wrong, you get half the result with twice the effort. Besides, memory and proficiency can be trained.”

Sang Zhancheng gasped, her mouth hanging open as she breathed, clearly wanting to say something.

Mu Jiahui saw this and, thinking she might be emotionally overwhelmed, didn’t say much, only silently wiping her tears.

As a result, Sang Zhancheng swallowed all the words stuck in her throat and, catching Mu Jiahui off guard, broke through her defenses.

The little succubus’s nature erupted; she’ pouted her lips and leaned in, her heart-shaped tail swaying back and forth, its pink color ambiguous and cute.

Mu Jiahui pushed her away without mercy.

Being moved is one thing, but speak your mind properly—why try to kiss her at the slightest provocation?

As if she really enjoyed kissing this little pudding.

After this thought popped into Mu Jiahui’s mind, a familiar, hot, and suffocating sensation crawled up her body along with the memory; the tips of her ears suddenly turned red.

She shook her head vigorously.

She was straight; it was absolutely impossible for her to enjoy kissing a young girl!

Thinking this, she moved a bit further away from Sang Zhancheng.

Sang Zhancheng pouted, her recent touched emotions crumbling into dust.

She had thought that since Mu Jiahui said those things, she must really like her.

They had been together for almost two days; it was only normal to like her.

She was a succubus, after all; wouldn’t it be strange if she wasn’t likable?

The result was Mu Jiahui’s decisive rejection, which once again sent Sang Zhancheng into self-doubt.

Even more like adding fuel to the fire were Mu Jiahui’s next words.

“If you want to do well on the exam, you have to start reviewing tonight. First, self-study one unit using the teaching aids and the textbook. I’m going for a run; if you have any questions, ask me when I get back.”