Hopeless Romance (GL) - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Before the start of lunch break, Zhang Jianwei spent ten minutes conducting a brief analysis of the monthly exam results. Her feedback was primarily critical, supplemented by a few words of encouragement, and she announced the date for the upcoming parent-teacher conference. Watching the sea of wailing faces below, she suddenly felt that delivering such news right before naptime was perhaps unwise, though she doubted they would have been any happier if she had finished late and cut into their break. As she lamented for the 52nd time that being a head teacher was no easy task, the thought of Chen Chao motivated her to pull herself together.

During the final period, knowing she had to tutor Chen Pupu, Ye Du finished all of today’s homework in advance. Although her weekend tutoring sessions hadn’t started yet, Ye Sangshu would assign her extra exercises; not knowing how long the upcoming tutoring session would take, she decided to clear her existing tasks first. Chen Pupu hadn’t done well; her ranking had slipped since the entrance exam, and her Math score was only 108—essentially in the bottom ten of the class. Her scores for the other two subjects were acceptable, around 120, but in an experimental class at Yunchuan Middle School, these marks were underwhelming. However, it was only the first month; while Pupu wasn’t the “brilliant” type, her attitude toward learning was very earnest. With hard work, there was a good chance for significant improvement—after all, she had plenty of “room for growth.”

Ye Du’s desk was exceptionally tidy. Aside from the necessary textbooks, notebooks, and stationery bag for the current lesson, there was nothing else; after school, the surface was even cleaner. When Chen Pupu turned around, she couldn’t help but look back at her own “lived-in” desktop—piles of books, a half-finished carton of milk, a pack of tissues, and a water bottle. She sighed inwardly, thinking that perhaps this was the vast gap between herself and Ye Du.

Originally, Wang Zhu had also wanted Ye Du’s help. Considering she had essentially agreed to it back at the cafeteria, Ye Du felt she shouldn’t refuse, but after some thought, she declined. Her excuse was that her own Math was relatively weak and she was still short of a perfect score; tutoring two students would be too taxing and she feared she couldn’t give Wang Zhu the help she needed—plus, she had promised Chen Pupu first. Her explanation was seamless, leaving Wang Zhu with nothing to say but to look for someone else. For some reason, even though the four of them often ate together and hung out during P.E., and were familiar enough as classmates, Ye Du always felt a strange lack of closeness toward Wang Zhu.

Fortunately, while Jiang Xinwan’s total score wasn’t outstanding, she was quite talented in Math, scoring 140 on this exam. She took on the task of tutoring Wang Zhu. However, being good at a subject is one thing; whether one can teach it reliably is another matter entirely. Wang Zhu felt a bit discouraged; after all, her overall ranking was higher than Jiang Xinwan’s, and being tutored by her felt slightly bitter. But, such was the price of being poor at Math.

Despite having attended many cram schools growing up, Ye Du didn’t really know how to tutor others. She figured if she asked Chen Pupu to point out her own weaknesses, the feasibility might be low. Therefore, she decided to let Pupu do her homework first so she could see where Pupu got stuck and how she tried to solve the problems. This would allow her to understand Pupu’s grasp of knowledge points and her problem-solving methods.

After Chen Pupu finished just three multiple-choice questions, Ye Du began to lose her patience. This pace was simply too slow; she now reasonably suspected that Pupu might not even have finished the actual exam paper. These few questions weren’t difficult, covering basic definitions of rational numbers and number lines, but Pupu seemingly couldn’t remember the theorems. Even after picking an answer, she couldn’t resist flipping through the textbook to confirm. Ye Du bit her tongue and didn’t interrupt, simply noting the issue on her scratchpad and continuing to observe.

After a while, a thought occurred to Ye Du. She asked Chen Pupu, “Does me watching you like this affect your work? Because my mom loves watching me do homework sometimes, and it really annoys me.” Chen Pupu was clearly immersed in her struggle with the math problems; when interrupted, she didn’t even hear the question. She simply looked toward the source of the voice with a dazed expression and let out a subconscious “Huh?”

Pupu didn’t answer with words, but her reaction told Ye Du that she had been overthinking. Ye Du laughed softly—at herself for being so over-analytical, and at Chen Pupu’s endearing, somewhat slow-witted charm.

When Chen Pupu turned her workbook toward Ye Du, the latter checked her watch and realized that the two pages she could finish in 20 minutes had taken Pupu 52 minutes—and one question was still left blank. Ye Du wasn’t in a hurry to correct the answers. Instead, she planned to talk about foundational issues. She asked for Pupu’s notebook; it was neat and colorful, proving she was very attentive in class. Every point the teacher mentioned was recorded, with key sections highlighted in different colors. However, it was clear that these notes carved into the notebook hadn’t made a similarly deep impression on Pupu’s brain.

“Pupu, do you remember everything in this notebook?” Ye Du used a nickname to make her tone sound less like a lecture.

The other girl shook her head—the result Ye Du expected.

“Your notes are very thorough, but don’t you think that makes it just like another textbook? Everything is in here—things you’ve mastered and things you haven’t.” Chen Pupu looked at her, seemingly understanding but not quite.

Ye Du decided to rephrase: “What I mean is, you don’t need to write down everything the teacher says. Many theorems are already in the book; there’s no need to copy them again. The most important thing is to use the teacher’s help to understand these definitions.” She added, “Understanding is key. Right now, the problem is you haven’t understood them, so you can’t remember them, which makes it take too long to solve problems.”

“Then what should I do?” Chen Pupu felt it was impolite to let Ye Du do all the talking without responding, so she squeezed out this question.

“Try taking fewer notes first. Listen more to Mr. Huang, and if you really don’t understand, you can ask me immediately after class.” Ye Du felt that learning was a mysterious thing, and tutoring even more so. Many parents are obsessed with cram schools, thinking that more time and effort will inevitably lead to better results. But tutoring is rarely “providing charcoal in the snow” (essential help); it’s usually just “adding flowers to a brocade” (an extra polish). Children who have the internal will to learn and find achievement in it will do well even without extra help, while for those who don’t want to learn or aren’t suited for it, it’s just a new form of torment. So, when Pupu asked that question, Ye Du didn’t really know how to answer and could only give a vague response. Still, she had promised her friend, so she would give it her all.

In the remaining time, Ye Du quickly circled Pupu’s mistakes and told her to go home and organize the reasons for those errors, writing down her thought process at the time. Ye Du would correct those faulty logic paths and provide the right solutions during tomorrow’s session. As they packed up, Pupu asked if she wanted to leave together. Ye Du couldn’t think of a reason to say no, so she naturally agreed.

Chen Pupu also took the 53 bus, though she stayed on for four stops longer than Ye Du. Initially, Chen Sijun wanted his daughter to live on campus since the commute was long and safety was a concern, and it would also let her sleep more in the morning. But Qin Wei couldn’t bear the thought; she worried Pupu wouldn’t get enough nutrition at school. Since Pupu was in her growing years, Qin Wei wanted to serve her a bowl of good soup every day. Pupu herself didn’t want to board either; she was very sensitive to strange beds. Whenever they visited relatives during holidays, she could never sleep well. So, in the end, she chose to be a commuter.