She Adopted Me After My Biological Mother Passed Away - Chapter 28

Time has begun to accelerate. Chi Yeyu: “Gaga-ga! Let me open the way!!”

Entering senior year in August, the school placed immense importance on the first parent-teacher meeting on Friday. Students were repeatedly reminded to ensure one parent attended in person, those who couldn’t had to join online.

When Chi Yeyu arrived at the school, Shi Shuxue went downstairs to meet her. She looked at Chi Yeyu with a heavy heart for a long time, seemingly uneasy. Chi Yeyu promised she wouldn’t cause any trouble and would listen to the teachers seriously.

In front of the integrated teaching building, cars were moving back and forth, creating a total gridlock. Shi Shuxue was still pondering if there was anything she hadn’t explained clearly when she was spotted by Xu Qiaoli, who was carrying a box of books out of the building. Xu shouted:

“Scholar-God! I want to sit next to you in the self-study room later! Want to walk together?”

Shi Shuxue turned to look at her, picked up her backpack, and said to Chi Yeyu: “I’m heading off then.”

Chi Yeyu was still thinking that the nickname “Scholar-God” was quite funny, she hadn’t expected Shi Shuxue to make such “mischievous” friends in class. Seeing her figure walk away, she called out: “I’ll pick you up when the meeting’s over!”

Without looking back, Shi Shuxue waved her hand as she walked away.

Chi Yeyu followed the notification in the class group chat to find the Liberal Arts classroom on the third floor. She sat in the seat labeled with Shi Shuxue’s name.

She had arrived quite early, and parents were trickling in. She casually observed the classroom environment and realized that from Shi Shuxue’s perspective, it was truly inconvenient to slack off, being in a front-center position near the podium, the teacher could see her the moment they turned around.

On the blackboard, two lines were written in large chalk letters: Home-School Communication Meeting Senior Year (Class 11) Liberal Arts “Point of the Spear” Sprint Class.

What on earth is a “Point of the Spear” Sprint Class?

Chi Yeyu pulled out her phone, zoomed in on the screen, and snapped a photo of the words on the blackboard.

At this moment, Chi Yeyu still hadn’t realized what kind of class Shi Shuxue was in or what kind of grades she achieved.

Five minutes before the meeting started, a woman dressed in professional attire rushed in. Chi Yeyu glanced up, and the woman happened to look over as well. The moment their eyes met, both were stunned.

“Chi Yeyu, why are you here?” Ci Tang’s mouth hung slightly open, her eyes unable to hide her shock. She scanned her memory for any connection Chi Yeyu might have, but she couldn’t figure out where a high schooler would come from in Chi’s family.

Chi Yeyu, however, took it in stride. She waved her hand and said, “Long time no see. I’m here for my girl’s meeting. Aren’t you here for the same?”

Ci Tang asked, “Where did you get a ‘girl’ from?”

“Hahaha, take a guess! Oh, don’t glare at me, she’s from the Captain’s family. I’ve been raising her since she passed,” Chi Yeyu said. “Are you a teacher for some subject, or are you here as a parent?”

“I wouldn’t have the heart to jump ship from the court to be a private high school teacher,” Ci Tang said, looking down at the seating chart sent in the group chat.

Chi Yeyu understood and patted the seat next to her. “Then see if you’re sitting here.”

Shi Shuxue’s desk-mate was Ci Cheng. She had a vague impression of the kid but had never linked him to Ci Tang.

“I actually am. Looks like the two of us are desk-mates now.” Ci Tang sat down and pulled out her phone to start replying to messages again. “A new intern arrived; I’ve been teaching them for almost a month and they still can’t figure anything out.”

“Is the court always this busy?” Chi Yeyu asked.

“It’s okay now, it gets busier at the end of the year.” Ci Tang smiled. “Back then, Shi Xianyu advised me not to go to the court but to the procuratorate instead. I thought my personality wasn’t suited for it and insisted on ‘landing’ at the court.”

“Shi Xianyu herself never even passed the bar exam. She just says whatever comes to mind, she even tried to convince me to learn the drums,” Chi Yeyu said.

“Are you… going to keep playing in the band?” Ci Tang asked.

She was among the first group of members who played in the band with Shi Xianyu. During college, she was a skilled drummer but didn’t continue, having decided early on to take the civil service exam. Seeing the band was about to lose an excellent drummer and drummers being the hardest to find. Shi Xianyu had tricked Chi Yeyu into following them to learn the drums for a while.

Chi Yeyu had originally wanted to join the band as a backup because she saw Shi Xianyu playing guitar and singing, looking cool and eye-catching. She never expected Shi Xianyu wouldn’t teach her guitar but instead urged her to play the drums. Having a bit of a “performer personality,” Chi didn’t want to be tucked away at the back of the stage behind a drum kit, claiming her handsome and beautiful face shouldn’t be hidden.

Shi Xianyu had lazily scratched her head, telling her she wouldn’t have that worry once she grew taller, and promised to teach her drums personally. Only then did Chi Yeyu reluctantly agree.

In the end, she spent every week following them around as a gopher. The “Great Miss Chi” had never been treated like that getting them takeout, cleaning up, and occasionally babysitting for Shi Xianyu. But thinking she could learn something from the Captain, she stubbornly endured it.

Eventually, it was Ci Tang who couldn’t stand it and offered to teach her the drums for a few days every week so she wouldn’t be led astray by Shi Xianyu’s amateur skills.

She didn’t answer Ci Tang’s question. The homeroom teacher entered the classroom, walked to the podium to set up the PPT, and began the meeting.

The multimedia screen first displayed a ranking of grades. Initially, Chi Yeyu didn’t realize it was sorted from highest to lowest. Seeing Shi Shuxue’s name in the first row didn’t strike her as anything special.

That was until she began looking at Shi Shuxue’s individual scores: Chinese, Math, English, Politics… finally, in the total score column, she saw a shocking number.

687.

Wait… what’s the maximum score?

“This is the ranking for our class’s entrance exam,” the teacher’s voice came clearly through the microphone to every corner of the room, her gaze slowly sweeping over the parents. “Entering senior year, everyone needs a clear understanding of their child’s academic weaknesses. This ranking provides a direct look at where each child stands, making it easier to target weaknesses in the future.”

The cursor paused at Shi Shuxue’s name. “I especially want to mention Shi Shuxue. A score of 687 is not only first in the class but also ranks at the top of the entire grade. Her subjects are balanced with no obvious weak points, which provides a very solid foundation for the first round of senior year review.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a low murmur of discussion broke out among the parents.

Chi Yeyu asked Ci Tang in disbelief: “What?!”

Ci Tang was originally surprised that Shi Xianyu could produce such a brilliant daughter, but seeing Chi Yeyu even more shocked, she felt a bit speechless. “You didn’t actually go this long without knowing your kid’s grades, did you?”

Chi Yeyu really didn’t know. She only knew Shi Shuxue was good at math, but she often saw her “rotting” at home. She assumed Shi Shuxue was the type with severe imbalances in her subjects. Out of respect and care for the child, she hadn’t even asked when the final grades came out last semester.

Who can tell her why Shi Shuxue’s grades are so good?

She immediately sent a message to Shi Shuxue: [What on earth are you hiding!!!]

Shi Shuxue wasn’t just smart, she was a genius among geniuses… another perfect score in math, and a total score over thirty points higher than the second place. Now, Chi finally understood why the homeroom teacher had been so anxious about Shi Shuxue’s “declining” grades the first time she was called in.

In the lecture hall during self-study, Shi Shuxue had her head buried in her desk cubby playing on her phone. Seeing Chi Yeyu’s message, her heart skipped a beat, thinking she was in trouble, wondering when she had been “exposed.”

Then she realized Chi Yeyu was in the middle of the parent-teacher meeting, the matter was clearly not what she was thinking of. She calmly waited for the follow-up, which was just one word:

[Chi Yeyu: Beast.]

Shi Shuxue’s fingers trembled as she replied with several question marks.

After the meeting ended, Shi Shuxue packed her bag and got into Chi Yeyu’s car. She grabbed Chi Yeyu and asked, “What were you ‘beasting’ about?”

“Me? It should be you!” Chi Yeyu turned around and repeatedly pinched her cheeks, saying fiercely, “You have grades like this, why didn’t you tell me?”

Shi Shuxue’s face was squished and kneaded, but her heart felt much steadier. So it was this. She had thought…

“Mmph, you never asked me.” She pulled at Chi Yeyu’s claws, saying unclearly, “And it’s not really something worth mentioning.”

Chi Yeyu exploded: “Not worth it? Then what is worth it! You should be writing a monthly illustrated report of everything you do and sending it to me!”

“That’s tyranny,” Shi Shuxue condemned with a cold face.

Chi Yeyu: “Then I’m a tyrant!”

Shi Shuxue ignored her, turning her head toward the car window to watch the trees passing by. After driving for a while out of boredom, Chi Yeyu spoke up: “Your grades are so good, why did you put D University Finance on your college preference form?”

“Is that not okay? Is your alma mater that bad?” Shi Shuxue asked.

Chi Yeyu thought about it. “It’s not bad, it’s just that with your grades, you could go to the very top, do you really want to study finance?”

“I don’t have a specific major I want to study,” Shi Shuxue said. She wasn’t interested in the sciences, nor was she interested in the liberal arts. Since she chose the liberal arts track, she figured she might as well become a teacher so she could have winter and summer breaks. Her thoughts when choosing her subjects were that simple.

“I see. Well, you chose liberal arts, and many people choose that based on interest. Since you aren’t interested in anything, why not take a career personality test?” She remembered her conversation with Ci Tang; future planning should match one’s personality.

“Don’t want to,” Shi Shuxue said.

Chi Yeyu smiled easily and said nonchalantly, “Fine then. We’ll just look at your scores when the time comes and go wherever requires the highest points.”

Shi Shuxue didn’t want to talk about the future, so she pivoted: “Did the teacher only talk about grades? Nothing else?”

“Your teacher said we should give our all to create the best conditions for your college entrance exams. She also mentioned creating a good home environment and monitoring your emotions constantly, every year there are students who can’t handle the pressure and fail the exam,” Chi Yeyu recited sentence by sentence. “Oh right, she specifically warned against dating. Since this is a critical period, if there’s a breakup or something, the emotional issues could ruin your grades.”

Shi Shuxue said, “Oh.”

“I’m quite relieved on that front. You look like someone with zero romantic experience, you don’t seem like the type to like anyone.”

“I have someone I like,” Shi Shuxue said out of the blue.

Chi Yeyu slammed on the brakes and hit the horn: “WHAT?!”

Shi Shuxue unbuckled her seatbelt, prepared to get out of the car, and said calmly, “I said I have someone I admire.”

Chi Yeyu’s eyebrows slowly rose, her eyes widening to an unprecedented degree. She spun around and grabbed Shi’s thin shoulders, pulling her face to face to confirm: “That kind of like? Romantic feelings? For real? Are you just pulling my leg?”

“The kind of like where I want to date them. It’s for real.” Shi Shuxue still maintained her deadpan face, her pure black eyes meeting Chi’s. Her voice was as flat as a flatlined EKG.

“Who on earth is it?” Chi Yeyu wished she could pour out the girl’s brain and sift through it herself. She wasn’t worried about the grades, she was just frantically concerned about why the seeds of “early love” had sprouted. How old was she? Which brat or jerk had managed to capture her little one’s heart?

Shi Shuxue looked at her for two seconds and described absentmindedly: “It’s someone whose brain is a bit problematic. They always have a mysterious smile on their face, kind of silly. They talk a lot when chatting with me, a bit annoying. But they’re very good-looking, a decent person, and they have a ‘human’ touch.”