The second class was calculus.
Xiao Qi went from being a little nervous at first to looking forward to it with great anticipation.
Reviewing what she had previewed yesterday, many things she didn't quite understand before suddenly became crystal clear.
Calculus was supposed to be relatively difficult. She had earned the admiration of twelve classmates, but was only rewarded with an introductory level, while Marxism Basics directly reached the expert level.
She felt the system also had corresponding algorithms.
Whether it was introductory or expert, Xiao Qi still needed to spend time practicing and learning hands-on. If she didn't look at the books or study at all, this would actually be an empty skill and useless.
Having an introductory or expert level meant that was her level of understanding. To actually reach that level still required her to work hard, rather than reap without sowing. However, compared to others, she already had many advantages. She had a clear goal, and knew that as long as she was willing to make an effort, there would be a reward.
The class bell rang, and an older lady came in wearing stylish glasses.
The glasses were very beautiful, gold rimmed, with fine gold chains on both sides that could be hung around the neck.
The old lady was also wearing lipstick. Her hair was snow white, short and permed into soft curls. She wore a burgundy track suit and was very tall, standing up straight.
She looked very fashionable. If not for her white hair, it would be hard to tell she was an old lady.
This was an old lady who lived a very elegant life.
Xiao Qi immediately received the first-hand gossip from her roommate Mielle: "This teacher is very powerful. She returned after being recruited from a famous university. It's said that she likes the natural environment here, so she came to retire. Otherwise our school wouldn't be able to hire such an awesome teacher at the professor level."
The old lady wrote beautiful characters on the blackboard and introduced herself as Lu Ruxue.
After finishing writing, she turned and smiled at everyone. Her teeth were very neat and white...they must be dentures, but looked very nice.
Ms. Lu was clearly not old-fashioned. Xiao Qi thought she would just write on the blackboard, but instead she took out a USB drive decorated with furry charms and plugged it into the computer at the podium. She began showing her slides.
She also took out a blue folding pointer that looked like a conductor's baton. Not only was it beautiful, but it also lit up when pressed...
Teacher Lu's slides were very simple without much content, just listing a few points.
But she taught the class very well.
Calculus, which most people find difficult, seemed very simple under her lucid instruction. At least Xiao Qi felt this way. She not only found it simple, but also very interesting.
This teacher was too good. If Xiao Qi's high school math teacher had taught like this, she felt her math score could have easily been 30 points higher.
How a teacher is reflects directly on the students.
From this experience, Teacher Lu's teaching ability seemed to be the highest among the few teachers she had so far.
To make calculus interesting and easy to understand was truly not easy.
Like Professor Bai, who taught Information Management on the first day, he was interesting and told all kinds of jokes, but had nothing to do with the textbook. Class was fun and relaxing, but after it ended, Xiao Qi felt she hadn't learned anything at all and would have to rely completely on self-study.
Xiao Qi looked at Professor Bai's slides, which were just perfunctory using slides found online. Xiao Qi could find them herself, nothing new.
Teacher Lu taught very well. Calculus, such a dry course, and Xiao Qi felt time flew by. Before she knew it, class was over and it was time to go eat. She was even a little reluctant, with lingering feelings.
She also actively interacted with the teacher in class, taking the initiative to answer questions. But this time there was no admiration from classmates, nor any rewards. Even so, Xiao Qi was quite happy. She felt taking the initiative to answer questions not only honed her courage, but also deepened her learning. In the future, when she encounters similar questions again, she believes she will remember them for life.
After class, as usual, she took the initiative to go up and tell the teacher that she was the study committee member, and the teacher could look for her if needed. Then she asked for the teacher's phone number and WeChat.
Usually older teachers don't use WeChat, but Ms. Lu was clearly an exception. She had WeChat under the name Ruxue. She also posted a lot of moments, unlike other old men and women always forwarding health rumors. Ms. Lu's moments had many scenic photos, pictures of herself, audio of her reciting articles, singing, and dancing videos. Her life was very colorful.
Then Xiao Qi observed Ms. Lu's WeChat ID was luruxue1950. If that followed the norm, it was probably the teacher's year of birth. That would mean the teacher was almost 70 years old...
On the way to the cafeteria, Mielle saw her roommate looking at her phone and asked what she was looking at.
Xiao Qi told her roommate about her discovery.
They were all very surprised. The calculus teacher was almost 70 years old? She looked at most in her 50s, and her figure was still very good.
Xiao Qi also felt that if she could maintain that condition at 70, it would be invincible.
But thinking from 17 to 70, there were still so, so many years in between, it felt endless.
Xiao Qi searched online again, and sure enough, there was information on Teacher Lu, she really was born in 1950. Teacher Lu's demeanor was very good. At her age, not a hint of a hunchback, giving a very relaxed impression. Her smile was also bright and sunny, very spirited.
Xiao Qi had been a little slack these days, not doing the private tutoring exercises every day. Sometimes when she was too busy, she would miss them. Now she felt she should start practicing again. As a 17-year-old girl, her demeanor was not as good as a nearly 70-year-old lady, she really was very lazy.
At noon, Xiao Qi ate at the cafeteria with her roommates. Her roommates were used to her appetite, because they bought groceries and cooked together, so their table always looked very abundant. Of course everyone bought and ate their own portions. Mielle would buy more desserts since she liked sweets. Yunshu always got fruit salads and such, since she liked fruit.
Xiao Qi and Wei Cheng got relatively large portions. Occasionally Xiao Qi would also pick some dishes she thought looked especially fresh.
They all felt their dorm arrangement worked well. This way there was more variety in their meals, and less waste.
Today at lunch, coincidentally, Chu Yu and Lin Dongqing from the dorm next door were sitting at the table beside them. Su Li from their dorm usually didn't join them and didn't eat at the cafeteria.
Chu Yu and Lin Dongqing also ate separately, although sitting together. Their meals were not combined.
After eating, they went back to the dorm.
Unexpectedly, right before class in the afternoon, Yunshu's outgoing hometown friend Rong Jiaojiao came to their dorm to chat, because they had a big combined class that afternoon with three classes together.
Rong Jiaojiao came to ask if they wanted her to grab seats, since her class only had that one class in the afternoon. She could go early to grab seats for them.
The big class was in a lecture hall with tiered seating that you could sit anywhere in.
Although Rong Jiaojiao was a bit opportunistic, she was also relatively familiar. She didn't stand on ceremony and was very forward. Xiao Qi and her roommates were not very good at rejecting people, so they were used to her.
Mielle didn't like Rong Jiaojiao at first, but Rong Jiaojiao was also very gossipy, and the two gossip-lovers got familiar with each other.
Rong Jiaojiao asked Yunshu, and the slow-talking Yunshu barely acknowledged her. Mielle replied, "Jiaojiao, just help us grab seats in the middle towards the back, the further back the better."
The mental health education lecture was said to just be watching educational videos, nothing interesting. Sitting too close in a lecture hall like that was uncomfortable. Since you could see the big screen clearly anyway, sitting in the back made it easy to slip out if needed. As someone who had already attended student council meetings before, Mielle was very familiar with this routine.
"Okay, I'll try my best to grab back seats for you guys later." Rong Jiaojiao said with a smile.
After looking around, seeing the door was closed, she then gossiped in a low voice, "Yunshu, I heard that every time your dorm eats, you pay to buy food and everyone eats together. They said you're really generous and treat everyone. I'd love to be in the same dorm as you."
Yunshu looked confused.
Xiao Qi had a serious expression.
Wei Cheng's face turned red.
Mielle jumped off her bed in excitement, "Who's spreading rumors?"
It was clearly everyone buying their own food and then eating together. Even though the food Wei Cheng bought was more ordinary, she was always careful not to take advantage of others. If she ate an extra bite of Rong Jiaojiao's bread, she would make a note of it and think about helping Rong Jiaojiao out later by doing some chores or something to make up for it. The bread and pastries she brought back from the stables, she divided up evenly among her roommates.
Rong Jiaojiao had not expected Chen Mei to get so emotional. She had just heard something that sounded a bit off, so she came over to say something.
In her opinion, this was the kind of thing Gu Yunshu would do. Gu Yunshu's family really had money. In a city as big as Fu Cheng, the Gu family was located right in the city center by the best location in the hot springs park. They had a huge villa that took up a very large area of land. The family was said to have a hot spring pool directly in their home where they could soak in the hot springs. Their front and back yards were like gardens. Although she had never seen it herself, she had heard classmates talk about it. The Gu family were truly wealthy people, not just regular rich. Treating dormmates to a meal was nothing to them.
"I didn't treat my dormmates to eat," Gu Yunshu explained.
She was not the type to ingratiate herself with others through fancy gestures. After living together for so long since the start of the semester, she felt she got along well enough with her roommates that there was no need for that.
Wei Cheng's face was flushed red, but she still spoke up, "Yunshu often buys lots of fruit for us to eat."
Gu Yunshu loved eating fruit and would always buy piles of it. Wei Cheng would help carry it all back, but without a fridge in the dorm, it would easily spoil. So Yunshu would share it with her roommates, otherwise it would just go bad.
In the past, little seven would probably have felt just as awkward and embarrassed as Wei Cheng. But now she just realized that college students weren't much more mature than high schoolers after all.
It was after she had joined the class group chat over summer break and a classmate added her, telling her about how Xia Zhen had gossiped behind her back saying her family were peasants and her aunt was a garbage collector, while pretending to be rich herself, that Xiao Qi finally understood what was going on between herself and Xia Zhen. At first she had felt hurt, but later she came to terms with it, realizing that when you associate with petty jealous people, you can't win no matter what you do or don't do. You just have to stay away from people like that.
"It's been exposed as a rumor already, why are you still getting worked up? We have class this afternoon, hurry up and get ready," said Xiao Qi to the bristling Mei.
Chen Mei was still upset. "If I find out who spread those rumors, I'll definitely..."
"You'll definitely what?"
Chen Mei thought about a gossiping cousin she had once fought with without resolving anything. "Forget it, I won't bother with people like that. The innocent have nothing to fear," she said awkwardly.
Rong Jiaojiao had already sensed things were off and made her exit earlier. The others tidied up and headed out the door to class, without any hard feelings about the incident. On the contrary, Yunshu felt bad and apologized to them.
