Chapter 56

After a bunch of annoying formalities they had to carry out, Xuan Mo finally rushed back into her house at eight in the morning . Her step-dad was already out, but her mom was still having breakfast . When she saw Xuan Mo, she paused: “Weren’t you feeling ill? Why are out so early in the morning?”

Xuan Mo was quiet for the longest time before replying: “Exercise . ”

Lying wasn’t her forte; she’d just lied that Lu Qing was her dad earlier this morning, and that had already used up all her lying cells inside her for this period of time .

Thank goodness she’d always appeared serious when she spoke, so her mom didn’t think twice about what she’d said . She nodded her head instead: “You should rest more, kids will grow taller if they sleep more . ”

Xuan Mo sat at the table and scooped herself a bowl of porridge, her actions extremely human-like . The thoughts in her mind however was very strange: how tall did she want her to grow? She could literally grow the length right now, it’s just that she’s afraid of scaring the shit out of them .

A message suddenly came in and her notification sounded . The sound was the regular ding without any further decoration .

Xuan Mo didn’t even need to read it to know what was written in the message . It was Yi Hai Lan doing his check-ins again, and while he was at it, he didn’t forget to inform Xuan Mo how much homework she’d lagged behind by .

Her mom was puzzled: “Mo Mo, are you not gonna check your message? What if your classmate has something important to say?”

Xuan Mo was optionless . She took out her phone, gave it a pacifying look before shaking her head: “Someone sent it wrongly . ”

Really, she’s getting better and better at lying .

Her mom didn’t suspect her . She picked up her coat by the table after finishing her porridge, reminding Xuan Mo: “Remember not to run around too much, take care of your health and head back to school once you’re well . You were very strong and healthy previously, but you fall ill so easily nowadays… finals are around the corner, I’m planning to bring you out for a holiday during break, don’t tell me you don’t have the mood to play then . ”

Why did it seem like she’s never in the mood to play, yet always, for some reason, playing… Xuan Mo was quiet . After finishing her own porridge and watching as her mom left, she returned to her room . She had nothing to do today so she figured she should head to school for fun .

And so, she picked up her school bag, leisurely plopped in some things she needed and hopped onto the bus headed for school .

When she reached school, the third lesson of the day was already coming to an end . When Xuan Mo knocked and entered the classroom, is was Fang Zhi teaching math class . He was very concerned about Xuan Mo, and immediately said after she entered: “Xuan Mo, aren’t you on leave, why are you in school?” Before she could reply, he continued: “Return to your seat then, don’t force it if you can’t take it . Just ask if you have any questions . ”

Everyone was busy thinking about the question on the black board so none of them paid attention to Fang Zhi’s words of concern . Even if they did, none of them felt like anything was off, because Fang Zhi’s favouritism towards students strong in math was an open secret in the school, and remember, Xuan Mo’s a math genius!

Fang Zhi allocated the last five minutes for the class to do a practice question . As the last five minutes began, he observed the students’ progress . Upon seeing Xuan Mo taking out her textbook, he walked over and flipped open her book for her: “The content you missed is from page thirty-two to thirty-eight . You should take a look at the example questions, they’ll cover the main points of the content . We’re here now . ” He pointed at a practice question similar in length to the example questions— an entire-page long . “This question includes the topics we’ve covered in the past few days . You can follow the solution steps and procedures of the example questions in front . It shouldn’t be too hard for you to catch up . ”

He had extreme confidence in Xuan Mo .

Xuan Mo watched as Fang Zhi flipped through the pages . As he did so, she glanced through the content before instantly matching it up with a piece of memory she’d previously embedded in her head from flipping through the textbook . After giving the question a brief look, she completed the knowledge transfusion and started absorbing the content in her head . She nodded: “Enh, got it . ”

Fang Zhi, thinking that Xuan Mo’s answer was in reply to the directions he gave her about the content she missed, smiled, before walking to the front of the classroom . After a while, the bell rang, signalling the end of the class . Fang Zhi clapped his hands: “Alright, hand in your exercise books to the front . It’s fine if you don’t know how to do it or don’t get it . Hurry now, don’t eat into the time for your next class . ”

And so, the moans and groans of the students sounded before they handed in their exercise books in reluctance .

It was only then did Xuan Mo realised that the exercise book needed to be handed in . She figured that there was no reason for her to hide the fact that she knew how to solve the question . And so, she quickly took out her exercise book to copy out the question . As she copied, she thought about how to solve the question as she churned through the theory in her head . After which, she wrote down the first few compulsory lines of simple formula, added a model to indicate her understanding before scribbling down the answer .

Fang Zhi was still waiting for the last few students who were taking their own sweet time . When he saw that Xuan Mo submitted, he was particularly surprised: “I’m only checking the last question, not the previous ones . ”

“I know . ” Xuan Mo still submitted her notebook before returning to her seat .

After her, the remaining students submitted their notebooks too . Fang Zhi didn’t think too much into it . He picked up the notebooks and left . Their next class was politics, and their teacher, a plump lady, had walked and was readying her teaching materials .

Yi Hai Lan busy with the question previously . Now that there’s a little break, he finally had the time to communicate to Xuan Mo his elation: “Mo Mo, don’t you still have a long time before your leave ends? Why did you come to school today?”

“It’s boring at home . ”

“Is it cuz you received my text?” Yi Hai Lan didn’t at all try to hide his narcissistic side . At that, his smile grew wider, “don’t worry, I’ve kept all your homework for you!”

At that, he pulled out a huge stack of paper; it was all the stuff that had been accumulated in the past two days .

Xuan Mo stared at the stack of scripts before she slowly turned: “Bin ‘em . ”

“Hah? But these homework contributes to your overall marks . ”

“Throw it . ”

“Alright then . ” Yi Hai Lan wasn’t a rigid person, so he rolled them up and dumped them in the bin before turning to hop back to Xuan Mo’s side, “Mo Mo, are you feeling better . ”

“I’m feeling great . ”

“Oh, then d’you wanna hang out when you have time?!”

“I’m busy . ”

“But, I’ve asked your friends, they said you don’t head out on weekends . ”

“I’m busy . ”

“C’mon, don’t be like this, wanna karaoke this Saturday?”

“I’m busy . ”

“It’s a deal then . Your friends are going too . They seem pretty excited, so don’t rain on their parade . ”

Before Xuan Mo could reject again, the politics teacher in front cleared her throat, and the class began .

Xuan Mo could only turn her head back to glare at Yi Hai Lan . When she saw the crumpled scripts in the bin diagonally behind him, she suddenly figured that one day, she was definitely gonna roll him up and bin him, then throttle him and then stomp the shit out of him…

Yi Hai Lan, having a particularly sensitive sixth sense, suddenly adjusted his shirt while he was taking notes…

The last two periods was self-study . Fang Zhi came in to distribute the exercise books . As he distributed, he couldn’t help but sigh .

The students revealed all sorts of expression upon receiving theirs; some were elated, some were worried .

“The question this time is the last question in XX year’s paper, and it killed many students . Even though there are other thinking questions in the textbook, I still wanted you to try it out . You know my style too, so if you want to complain that it’s too hard, feel free to leave . ”

“Though the majority of you have all sorts of issues with your answers, what’s comforting is that your final answers are generally correct, or should I say, you can still score some marks for this question rather than throwing all the marks away . As long as you score the parts that you should know and can do, that’s good enough . It’s really rare for students to score full marks for questions like these . We only have one student that scored full marks for this question, and that is Han Tao . ”

Soft exclamations of amazement sounded, and many students turned around to look . The academics rep Han Tao on the other hand was unmoved . When the students turned around however, they also raised their heads to peek at Xuan Mo .