“Liu Chengxi, could you come here for a moment?”

During the evening self-study session, the Chinese teacher stood at the entrance of Class One, smiling and waving inside.

Shen Yating curiously looked up and saw Liu Chengxi get up from his seat and walk out of the classroom.

Why would the Chinese teacher be looking for Liu Chengxi?

He wasn't the Chinese class representative.

It seemed like this had never happened before.

Liu Chengxi was also a little confused, so after walking up to the female teacher, he asked curiously, "Can we talk here?"

"Of course. Did you think I was going to whisper something to you?"

The Chinese teacher was amused, then returned to the main topic, "I don't know if it's just my imagination, but these last two times, your essays have seemed a bit different."

"Yes, they are different," Liu Chengxi admitted, nodding.

"I knew it." The Chinese teacher understood, nodding in agreement. "In the past, your essays were very square and orderly. You basically stuck to the theme, borrowed famous quotes, and the reasoning in the middle was also gradually elevated. You rarely scored below 48 points. But why did you suddenly decide to change?"

There are two types of change.

Upward change and downward change.

And there are also two foundations for change.

One is that the original wasn't good enough, and the other is that the original was already good.

Liu Chengxi fell into the second category.

His essays had always been quite good, and they had never held him back.

So, why change such a good advantage?

This was what the Chinese teacher couldn't understand.

"Is it because my recent essays weren't good?" Liu Chengxi asked back.

"Ah, no, they're actually not bad." The Chinese teacher shook her head, explaining, "The opening uses a very short, philosophical story to introduce the theme, which is a very clever method. Later on, when you're reasoning, your writing style suddenly becomes more refined, and some of the sentence structures are quite sophisticated."

"But."

Liu Chengxi looked at the Chinese teacher and very rationally said these two words.

"Yes, there's a 'but.'"

The teacher was amused by the kid's cleverness and said, "But another teacher and I had some disagreement about your essay. I think it's okay, the merits outweigh the flaws, and it deserves 52 points. But the other teacher thinks it's a bit off-topic and can only give it 46."

That's a difference of six points...

"But actually, it really is off-topic, isn't it?" Liu Chengxi asked, concerned.

After all, the Chinese teacher said 'the merits outweigh the flaws.'

Which meant that the flaws were still obvious.

"Well, there's a bit of a problem right from the start. Later, I could see that you were trying hard to stick to the theme, but it felt a little forced."

The Chinese teacher looked at the serious Liu Chengxi and said very frankly, "If it were perfectly in line with the theme, I think both that teacher and I would have given your writing a high score of 54 or higher."

In other words...

The idea wasn't wrong.

However, there was a deviation in its execution.

"So, going back to the original question," the Chinese teacher asked curiously, "Why did you change your original writing style?"

Why abandon an advantage? This was what she couldn't understand.

To this, Liu Chengxi said candidly, "I think my previous essays were a bit too mediocre, and the scores were only hovering around 48 to 50."

"Those are good scores." The Chinese teacher encouraged him, saying, "As a science student, isn't it great to reach that level in Chinese?"

"But in the high-score range, it's all about Chinese," Liu Chengxi said, stating his understanding.

"That's true, you're right." The Chinese teacher nodded in agreement.

She was even a little moved.

In this science-focused honors class, even a chemistry teacher dared to steal physical education class, but Chinese couldn't.

Many top students' attitude towards Chinese was that they could only squeeze out ten points, from 120 to 130, by working themselves to death.

But how easy was it to get points in math, physics, chemistry, and biology?

This Liu Chengxi was a good kid after all.

"So, you want to improve your score in Chinese, specifically in essays, and then compete with Shen Yating?" The Chinese teacher asked with a smile.

"...It's not just her."

Liu Chengxi felt something called 'embarrassment.'

How could this Chinese teacher say such a thing so openly?

"I understand, I understand." The Chinese teacher waved her hand, making an understanding expression. "The TV station even came to interview you. It's a good thing for students to choose a goal and find a competitor. Besides, you're both in the top five in the school, and you're both very smart kids..."

"Teacher, let's talk about essays."

Liu Chengxi interrupted.

"Oh, right, essays." The Chinese teacher was brought back to the topic and said to Liu Chengxi, "There's no problem with wanting to write essays with style, after all, essays that are too square are indeed difficult to get high scores. But there's one thing: the opening paragraph must be closely related to the topic, understand?"

"...Could you explain that in more detail?"

"It means that the essay itself is a suspense, posing a question for you to understand. You shouldn't also pose a question for the examiner to understand."

The Chinese teacher told Liu Chengxi with her rich experience, "I've participated in the grading of the *gaokao*, and once I graded essays. Let me tell you, the grading time for an average essay is 1 to 3 minutes. If it's a high-scoring essay, you need to discuss it with the grading team leader before scoring. Although it's also cross-grading, and there's more than one person grading the essay, if those teachers all lack patience and are similar in their aesthetic appreciation, it's very likely that they'll consistently give low scores to essays whose opening paragraphs don't stick to the topic."

"Is there such a difference between regular grading and *gaokao* grading?" Liu Chengxi asked.

"Yes." The Chinese teacher said, "I spent about five minutes looking at your essay. Because you're my student, and I know it's your essay, I was able to be patient and understand what you meant. But if it were the *gaokao*, I might have given it a slightly lower score."

"I understand." Liu Chengxi really understood this time.

Change is indeed a good thing.

But he was clearly not experienced enough.

"After the evening self-study session is over, come find me again, and I'll explain a few essays to you," the Chinese teacher said.

"Thank you for taking the time after work to explain the problems to me." Liu Chengxi thanked her respectfully.

"Okay, then come after the evening self-study session," the Chinese teacher said with a smile.

And so, Liu Chengxi returned to the classroom.

Continuing to attend the evening self-study session with everyone.

And after class, he walked up to Shen Yating and said, "I'm going to the Chinese teacher's office. Why don't you go back first?"

"Going to the Chinese teacher's office?" Shen Yating was stunned. "Just the two of you, in an office..."

"What are you thinking? It's about essays."

Liu Chengxi cupped Shen Yating's face with his hands and gently pinched it.

Then, the girls next to them covered their mouths, "Wow!"

A bunch of boys also 'ohhhh'ed.

Doing this in the classroom?

Spectacular!

"...Okay." Shen Yating blushed, then nodded, promising not to overthink it.

But after all, it was Liu Chengxi, so it was only natural that he would be a little likable.

This worry was still reasonable!

"Okay, then I'll go."

Liu Chengxi packed up his bag, left the classroom, and went to find the Chinese teacher.

"You two were talking so openly in the classroom?" Shen Yating's female classmate came over and teased, "Is that okay?"

"Yeah, it feels like he's not trying to hide anything at all," another girl said.

"It's just that his personality is more straightforward..." Shen Yating said shyly.

But in her heart, she was still very happy.

After all, the more natural and unreserved he was with her, the less likely she was to be cheated on.

"Are you going home now?" the classmate next to her asked.

"I'll write some more questions in the classroom for a while, then wait for him to go together."

"yoooooo!"

………

Liu Chengxi was in the Chinese teacher's office like this.

Besides him, there was also a senior high school girl with her Chinese teacher.

Likewise, it was all very normal after-school instruction.

Special guidance after school.

After studying for a while, Liu Chengxi also benefited a lot.

However, because it was already a bit late, both teachers sent them home.

After leaving the office, the girl took the initiative to walk next to Liu Chengxi, walking side by side with him.

At the same time, Shen Yating also came looking for him.

But after seeing the backs of the two walking side by side, she stopped in her tracks.

Then, she hid behind.

Could it be someone he knows?

"Chengxi, are you still in contact with Senior Li Xinyi?" the senior high school girl asked proactively.

Li Xinyi?

Do these two have mutual friends?

And still in contact... does that mean they were on good terms before?

Shen Yating suddenly became a little nervous.

"No," Liu Chengxi said.

He knew this senior high school girl. He had been in the same club with her before, and they had played badminton together.

As for the Li Xinyi she mentioned, she wasn't actually a friend of both of them.

She just knew that he liked... or rather admired Li Xinyi, so she took the initiative to bring it up.

Probably.

"Have you ever thought about going to the same school as her?" the senior high school girl asked with a smile.

"No." Liu Chengxi shook his head, saying, "She's going to Ji University, and I'll probably go to Huaqing."

"Huaqing? Huaqing is good." The senior high school girl suddenly said happily, "My target school is also Huaqing."

"Is that so..."

"What's with that reaction? Do you think I can't get into it?" The senior high school girl puffed out her cheeks, saying a little cutely.

"...I forgot you're a top 5 student, ugh." The senior high school girl said, holding her forehead.

"If you don't have anything else to do, Senior, then I'll..."

"Since you also want to go to Huaqing, wouldn't we become alumni?" the senior high school girl said rather enthusiastically.

"...I guess so." Liu Chengxi was already a little reluctant to talk, but the other party's enthusiasm made him only able to answer.

"Are you still joining the badminton club?"

"I'm not sure."

"Join it anyway." The senior high school girl actively invited him, "I'll get familiar with the club first, then you can join directly when you come, and I'll look after you."

"...I'll think about it. I might want to join some other clubs in college."

"Yes, it's good to join more clubs in college. It's more fun."

She...

Was saying a bit too much.

Liu Chengxi was already a little tired.

He didn't like talking to people who said meaningless things.

Too little information in the words gave people a sense of fatigue. And if there were too many such words stacked together, the fatigue would also be doubled.

"Then we'll be fellow villagers far away from home. We can take care of each other then." The girl continued enthusiastically.

"Mm." Liu Chengxi nodded.

"Then when you graduate and go to school, we can make an appointment, and I can even take you to register..."

Liu Chengxi, who had been perfunctorily answering the other party, suddenly interrupted after hearing this sentence, "That might not work. I'm going with Yating."

"Yating?" The senior high school girl paused, asking curiously, "Oh, is that your female classmate?"

"She's my girlfriend," Liu Chengxi explained.

Hearing this, the senior high school girl was obviously a little stunned.

But she quickly adjusted and said with a smile, "Then we can go together, anyway, it's the same school."

"Senior, you should go with your own classmates." Liu Chengxi immediately refused.

Then, he said rather seriously, "After all, I'm someone who has a girlfriend, so I still need to keep a certain distance from the opposite sex."

"Oh..."

The senior high school girl's expression gradually became subtle, and she said in a joking tone, "Your girlfriend doesn't even let you interact with other girls. Is she that fierce?"

"If you don't know her, don't evaluate her like that."

But Liu Chengxi didn't have any joking tone at all, and responded very formally, "She's cute and gentle."

This serious retort made the senior high school girl's expression suddenly become awkward. Then, she crossed her arms in front of her chest and said rather unhappily, "It was just a joke. Can't you tell?"

"In that case, I was also joking," Liu Chengxi said.

"Hmph, I'm leaving." The girl glanced at him unhappily, then quickened her pace and left.

And Liu Chengxi, looking at the other party's back, gently sighed.

Sure enough, he still couldn't get along with girls.

But it seemed that it wasn't all his fault.

He felt very natural with girls like Zhou Fu.

It seemed that his attitude would be affected by the other party's attitude.

And obviously, the senior high school girl just now wasn't as friendly as Zhou Fu.

Time to go home.

Without thinking too much, Liu Chengxi prepared to go downstairs.

Suddenly, a force was applied to Liu Chengxi's back.

Shen Yating jumped directly onto his back and kissed him on the side of his face, "Here's a cute and gentle kiss for you."

"..." Liu Chengxi supported her thighs with his hands, then turned his head and asked, "Were you waiting for me?"

"Yes." Shen Yating said with a smile, "I wasn't eavesdropping just now, I just happened to run into it. You have to believe me."

"I believe you," Liu Chengxi said with a smile.

"Then aren't you going to put me down yet?" Shen Yating asked jokingly, hugging his neck, "It's going to be criticized if we're too intimate at school."

"The teachers have basically all left work now, and the students have all returned to their dorms." However, Liu Chengxi appeared quite calm, not afraid.

"Then just carry me back directly." Shen Yating joked.

"Okay." But Liu Chengxi took it seriously and agreed directly.

Shen Yating then decided not to come down.

Then, when going downstairs, she quietly cupped her hand around his ear and whispered, "I like you."

After saying that, she quickly separated and stared at his face, looking at the boy's blushing and shy look...

However, Liu Chengxi was still calm.

Hmph, how boring.

Just as she was thinking this, Liu Chengxi's mouth curved into a smile, and he said gently:

"I love you."

(End of chapter)