Chapter 71: Mysterious Gift

Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Mysterious Gift

Chen Jingle watched Chen Qiyun run away with a smile. He wondered if bullying kids was fun. Of course it was! As long as they didn’t cry, it was fine. Crying would be troublesome. Fortunately, Chen Qiyun was already a middle schooler, not as prone to shedding tears as a four- or five-year-old.

Chen Jingle picked up a small bunch of grapes and popped them into his mouth. Thinking of the mystery gift he had promised Chen Qiyun earlier, he quickly came up with an idea. He’d prepare some dough first and take his time working on it after waking up in the afternoon. Then, he took a shower to get ready for his afternoon nap.

This weather was truly unbearable; doing anything at all would leave one drenched in sweat. Not to mention, he had been busy making lunch in the kitchen, and he still smelled of grease and smoke. It was impossible to sleep without a shower.

Meanwhile, Chen Qiyun returned home.

Her grandmother was sitting in the living room, cooling off in front of the fan. Seeing her return, she frowned and asked, "Where did you run off to? You didn’t even know to come back for lunch."

"I was at Brother Le’s house doing exam papers," Chen Qiyun replied. "I can ask him if there’s anything I don’t understand."

"So, did you finish your papers?"

"I finished the Chinese and English ones."

Her grandmother gave a heavy snort. "Studying hard is better than running wild all day, isn’t it?"

Chen Qiyun found the words incredibly grating. She actually really disliked how they always had phrases like "study hard" on their lips. It wasn’t like she was brainless; she knew what she should be doing and when. But adults always liked to add their two cents, making themselves seem so impressive, so... authoritative.

Right, authoritative.

It was as if everything had to be under their control. When in reality, they couldn’t even control their own tempers. Because of this, Chen Qiyun much preferred staying at Chen Jingle’s place. At the very least, no one would lecture her for no reason. Even if Chen Jingle scolded her, it was because she had genuinely done something wrong.

Returning to her small bedroom, she first put away the completed papers and then prepared the ones for the afternoon. After a moment of thought, she dragged out a dusty cardboard box from under her bed, opened it, and dug out her primary school Chinese textbooks from grades four to six. Just as Chen Jingle had said, she needed to review her past lessons.

At this moment, her grandmother shouted from outside again. "You still haven’t eaten! What are you waiting for?"

"I know." Chen Qiyun felt a bit irritated, but she couldn’t be bothered to argue. It was easier to just obey them.

It was already 2:00 PM when Chen Jingle woke up.

[Great job, baby! You have successfully completed the afternoon nap mission. Reward: +0.1 cm in height. Current height: 174.7 cm.]

With the system’s help, Chen Jingle’s growth rate was much faster than Chen Qiyun’s. Perhaps his recent consistent workouts played a part too.

Going downstairs, he first checked the kitchen. After an hour and a half of fermentation, the dough was ready. He gave it a few simple kneads to punch out the air before putting it into the fridge.

For his afternoon theoretical studies, he chose the *Outline of National History* once again. Chen Jingle planned to finish off the last bit of historical content so he could shift his focus to other subjects.

He thought, "There’s way too much to learn!"

Right now, he was like a sponge dropped into water, frantically absorbing external knowledge. Normally, this would be a classic case of ’haste makes waste.’ But since he had the system, even if he couldn’t digest it all immediately, he could just gorge on it first and worry about it later.

At this time, Chen Qiyun arrived as well. Just like in the morning, Chen Jingle had her do the exam papers first, planning to explain her mistakes and clarify any confusion during the second class. The two sat in quiet harmony, each busy with their own tasks.

"Finally done studying!"

After reading and studying continuously for an hour, Chen Jingle instinctively stretched his back and let out a long breath. Having spent the past few days frantically cramming knowledge into his brain, he felt completely numb, as if he had overeaten.

Taking advantage of the ten-minute break between classes, he walked into the kitchen, took out the dough, and got to work with a CLANG and a CLATTER.

Hearing the noise from her room, Chen Qiyun wanted to peek out and see what he was making. But her homework wasn’t finished yet. The thought of Chen Jingle scolding her later for leaving so much blank immediately squashed the idea.

In the kitchen, Chen Jingle was busy wrestling with the dough. Thanks to the system’s buffs, after studying for a while, his dough-making skills had reached the master level. Whipping up flour-based foods was as easy as breathing. He wasn’t making steamed buns today; he was going to steam something interesting.

In just a short ten minutes, Chen Jingle was basically done. He could easily handle the remaining finishing touches during the next break. Washing his hands clean, he prepared to start the tutoring session.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you spacing out for? Focus!" Chen Jingle tapped the table.

Chen Qiyun snapped back to reality. Looking a bit embarrassed, she grinned. "I was wondering what delicious food you were making in the kitchen just now."

Chen Jingle was speechless. "I just worked on some dough, nothing special."

"Dough, huh... Is it savory meat buns?"

"Do you smell any savory meat?"

"No."

"Well, there you go!"

Chen Qiyun fell silent, her face showing disappointment.

As Chen Jingle began his explanations, her attention finally drifted back to her studies. Among all her subjects, Chen Qiyun was the worst at math—even worse than English. It was a complete disaster. Chen Jingle had to spend more time breaking the concepts down into finer details.

Even though he was a pure humanities student whose own math grades were nothing to write home about, he had the system. Mere middle school math was still well within his grasp. And so, relying on his middle school proficiency, he explained the difficult points to Chen Qiyun.

Surprisingly enough, it worked quite well. After all, anything beyond high school level would be way over her head anyway.

"Do you even pay attention in class?" Chen Jingle frowned deeply. With this kind of level, no wonder she failed her quizzes.

Chen Qiyun shrank her neck back. "I can’t hear him."

"Can’t hear?" He wondered if he had misheard.

Chen Qiyun explained, "The math teacher’s voice goes up and down during class. He’s a bit senile and often starts mumbling to himself halfway through a sentence. I sit in the third row and I still can’t hear a word he says."

Chen Jingle was speechless. That was ridiculous! But on second thought, the teaching quality at No. 8 Middle School was exactly like that.

He could only massage his temples and say, "Then you need to try and self-study. Spend more time previewing the material before class. If you don’t understand something during the lesson, go ask the teacher or your classmates after class. You can’t just give up completely because of the teacher’s problem."

Chen Qiyun replied with an "Oh," her eyes darting around.

Seeing her like this, Chen Jingle knew she definitely hadn’t taken his words to heart. He reached out and pinched her cheek. "Don’t play dumb with me. My job is to tutor, not to teach. You need to cultivate your own self-study skills. Once you get to college, you’ll be relying on self-study most of the time. It’s a completely different learning model compared to middle and high school. People with weak self-study skills start falling behind once they reach college."

"I got it!" Chen Qiyun irritably squirmed out of his grasp.

"Alright, finish the rest of the papers. Also, review the difficult questions and the mistakes I just explained to you a few more times. If you want to thoroughly master a concept, learning it once isn’t enough. You need to review it at least five times."

Chen Jingle announced the end of the class and immediately slipped into the kitchen to resume his unfinished project.

Chen Qiyun sighed. Resting her chin on her hands, she stared at the papers and began to review the concepts from earlier. It wasn’t until she had gone over the two exam papers again that she made her way to the kitchen.