During the weekend night, Xiaoqi was busy studying until very late.
Su Simei came back in the middle of the night to get something, and saw her niece still studying. She felt quite distressed and brought over a bag of hot milk.
Xiaoqi had to move her Tuesday lessons to Monday because she had a competition on Tuesday. She didn't move them to Wednesday because she had classes on Thursday, and was worried the students wouldn't be able to digest the material if she taught them on Wednesday after just learning new things on Monday. Plus on Monday morning she had Japanese class, so she didn't have time to prepare her lessons, so she had to prepare them ahead of time.
That's why she was studying so late into the night.
She was worried that after passing her peak awakeness she wouldn't be able to fall asleep. Sometimes that would happen. But after drinking the warm milk her auntie brought over, she fell asleep almost immediately after laying down, feeling very settled.
The next morning after breakfast she went to Japanese class, and taught English in the afternoon.
Her Japanese teacher Zhou Meiling dressed beautifully as always, wearing a white silk blouse with a big butterfly bow drooping over her chest, and a tight skirt around her bottom. At her waist was a small thin belt, and she wore sheer stockings and very high heels, at least 10 centimeters. But she walked very steadily in them. Xiaoqi noticed that even with the high heels on, Zhou Laoshi was about the same height as herself. She looked tall but wasn't actually that tall.
Her hair was permed and curled into waves, half put up and half down. The half that was down curled in neat waves, while the half that was up, having been permed, was a bit messy looking but made her face appear smaller.
Xiaoqi’s first impression was that Zhou Laoshi was dressed very elegantly. Dressing like that, she would have had to sit very properly, with her legs together side-saddle style. If she carelessly spread her legs while sitting in that tight skirt, her underwear would show. The thin belt at her waist surely wasn’t comfortable either, requiring her to continually suck in her stomach.
When Zhou Meiling saw Xiaoqi’s outfit of sweatpants and a faded t-shirt, she was already convinced. Although Xiaoqi was young and beautiful with fair white skin and decent features, Zhou Meiling, who had very high standards for clothing and appearance, still felt uncomfortable seeing her dress like that.
On the other hand, Guan Jingzhi was much more pleasing to the eye, the little girl wearing a pretty bubble sleeve blouse and chiffon skirt, looking like a little princess. With above average looks and such clever dressing, she was a perfect 10.
After scrutinizing their appearances, Zhou Meiling started teaching.
First she reviewed the previous lesson, and saw that both students had studied well and done the review very nicely. Xiaoqi spoke particularly fluently without any unfamiliarity. Zhou Meiling then continued teaching new content.
Seeing both girls studying diligently, competing with snow white skin, faces plastered with layers of skincare products, Zhou Meiling felt quite unhappy. She thought to herself that while Guan Jingzhi had good family circumstances and conditions enabling nice skin from a young age, this Xiaoqi grew up in the countryside yet also had such fair smooth skin. The privileges of youth!
During the break, Zhou Meiling asked Xiaoqi, “How are you finding the books I gave you?”
"I'm still reading 'One Day in the Life of an Edo Townsman'. I haven't started on the other two yet,” Xiaoqi admitted bashfully.
Zhou Meiling raised her eyebrows. She had assumed Xiaoqi was very hardworking and would have read through the books she gave her already.
Although the Japanese textbooks Xiaoqi used looked new, the pages were quite worn and full of notes, making Zhou Meiling think she was a very diligent student.
"Reading more books will benefit you and broaden your horizons. Don't neglect them for playing around, even though you're young,” Zhou Meiling advised in earnest. Although the girl didn’t look bad, her family background and life experiences constrained her. She was naturally disadvantaged.
Xiaoqi sincerely accepted her teacher’s guidance, also feeling recently that her busy schedule left little time for reading books. She would have more time after the swimming competition was over.
Upon hearing Zhou Laoshi say this, Guan Jingzhi felt she had misunderstood. With Xiaoqi Laoshi’s schedule, calling that “just playing around” was preposterous. She had seen Xiaoqi’s daily study routine herself - completely packed from morning to night without a moment of rest. She was practically a superwoman. And Zhou Laoshi was telling her not to spend all her time playing?
"Teacher, Xiaoqi is on our town’s swimming team and has the provincial swimming tournament tomorrow," Guan Jingzhi supplied.
Hearing this, Zhou Meiling was indeed stunned. She had figured Xiaoqi was the bookworm academic sort without realizing this bookish looking girl was actually on the swim team.
"Oh? Xiaoqi's quite a good swimmer?" she asked.
"No no, I only just started learning," Xiaoqi quickly clarified, not one to boast.
"Xiaoqi got 6th place in the preliminaries for the whole province!" Guan Jingzhi bragged.
She and her group had all become Xiaoqi's fangirls now. Even level-headed Guan Jingzhi was won over after hearing Xiaoqi sing and seeing her swim and run.
Zhou Meiling: ...
She kept silent, not wanting to talk further, and focused on teaching Japanese again. But she made a mental note about tomorrow’s swimming competition. Their Culture Palace was also collaborating with it after all, since swimming fell under the domain of sports and culture.
It was quite a professional competition; she’d heard the top three qualifying would be considered for the national team, eventually representing the country in the Olympics potentially.
Gazing at the attentive Xiaoqi concentrating and taking notes, Zhou Meiling felt exhausted...and rather pissed off.
Xiaoqi didn’t comprehend Zhou Laoshi’s strange intricate psychological state at all. She simply felt Zhou Laoshi taught very interestingly, learned quickly herself, and couldn’t help learning extra material knowing she still wouldn’t have enough to review later. It was like when a teacher assigns some homework but you finish it all already, leaving you with nothing else to work on so you have to go find some extra problems to solve...
In the afternoon lessons with the seven Liang Jiajia students, everyone chattered excitedly about going to see Laoshi's competition tomorrow. Xiaoqi was quite shy by nature, although the aura of being placed on a pedestal warded people off. Still, Liang Jiajia and girls were clever and not afraid at all, knowing Teacher had an easygoing personality.
Unable to refuse with the girls’ insistence, Xiaoqi conceded. After all the venue wasn't opened specially by her; official competitions allowed ticket buying spectators. She couldn't stop them from entering even if she declined.
During the break the girls talked about making banners and colored light boards - they were in full fangirl mode. Xiaoqi was exasperated but amused.
She hurriedly dissuaded them from going overboard, emphasizing she was merely a small-time newbie on the swim team.
The afternoon classes went smoothly, chatting and laughing the whole time until it was over.
Xiaoqi herself had taken some Japanese lessons and felt Zhou Laoshi taught very well in one respect - integrating personal examples to teach depth and clarity for impressive memorability.
Now when teaching, Xiaoqi would also use examples. Of course not all were from herself; she didn’t have that many shining moments. At most some embarrassing tales. She would also share some classmate stories sometimes, or recall examples her own English teachers used, combining them with the textbook content to liven up the lesson. Her relationship with the students also grew closer.
Before she knew it the afternoon had passed, and Xiaoqi had also extended the time, earning some extra money. But she didn't feel tired at all.
Liang Jiajia had also improved tremendously. Her foundation was slightly weaker but she was clever and caught up quickly. Studying together everyday with her group of girlfriends, they spurred each other on to study harder too.
After class finished, it was nearly dark outside already. Liang Huaying happened to get off work from her company and come back right then.
She asked Xiaoqi to stay for dinner but Xiaoqi declined, saying her auntie had prepared dinner already and it would be inappropriate.
She still felt uneasy eating at someone else’s home.
The other students all said goodbye and left too.
Liang Huaying knew today’s lesson was moved up early because of Xiaoqi’s swimming tournament tomorrow.
She had specially set aside time to go watch it with her daughter tomorrow. Her daughter had pestered her insisting they go.
Unable to refuse her daughter’s demands, Liang Huaying felt very grateful to the young teacher for the tremendous change in her daughter lately. She pondered how to properly thank her. Hearing her daughter wanted to make banners and signs and such, she immediately called her company employees and ordered them to start preparing banners and signs.
