Push Me Away When I Come, Don't Hold Me Back When I Leave - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: A Walking Bookshelf? A Walking Academy!

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“Class Monitor Chu, here’s your breakfast.” Since breakfast was prepared at home, Xia Ruoming also specially brought a portion for Chu Suhe today, and even bought a tea egg from MoMo convenience store on the way. She didn’t particularly like honey butter toast as it wasn’t considered very healthy, but it was perfect for the malnourished Chu Suhe.

“Ruo… Ruoming, you don’t need to bring me breakfast, I did eat properly.” Chu Suhe said somewhat uneasily when she saw the two pieces of toast, one tea egg, and a box of milk that Xia Ruoming placed in front of her.

Xia Ruoming found it somewhat amusing internally.

If eating half a steamed bun counted as eating breakfast properly, then she was indeed telling the truth.

“I bought too much this morning and can’t finish it now. If Class Monitor Chu doesn’t eat it, I’ll have to throw it away, but wasting food doesn’t seem right. Don’t you agree, Class Monitor Chu?”

“Well, alright then, I’ll eat it.” After hearing Xia Ruoming’s words, Chu Suhe timidly accepted the plastic bag and ran outside the classroom to eat in small bites.

The onlooking audience was already sweating after hearing this, one dared to say it, and one actually believed it.

These days, where would you find freshly baked sliced toast like this outside? Wasn’t it obvious that it was specially brought for you? And saying she couldn’t finish it, was that extra box of milk because she thought she could drink two boxes? Who was she trying to fool?

Yet that somewhat naive Chu Suhe actually believed it… But they also wished they could be deceived by Xia Ruoming like this…

After Chu Suhe finished enjoying the breakfast brought by Xia Ruoming, Xiao Qinghan walked into the classroom carrying a stack of test papers.

“Class monitor, please help distribute these test papers.”

“Huh? Isn’t this supposed to be English class? Why is Teacher Xiao teaching, and why are we having another test? Didn’t we just have one?” Some students below called out in confusion.

“Quiet!” Xiao Qinghan rolled up a book and struck the podium.

“Your Teacher Wang had some family matters to attend to, so I’m substituting today. I’ll be teaching the next two periods, including the English class. Also, this isn’t a test, I’ve prepared a collection of frequently misunderstood questions from past years. Today in class, we’ll solve and discuss them one by one.”

Numerous sighs of relief could be heard from below.

Xiao Qinghan felt quite helpless about this. If she were still a student, at such a crucial time, she would have wanted to take a test every other day, with the remaining time spent reviewing test papers.

Even though they were all third-year students from key high schools, there were still so many immature “babies,” which really gave her a headache.

“Additionally, there will be another mock exam next week!” Xiao Qinghan said expressionlessly, “Class monitor, distribute the papers now. Start writing, don’t secretly correct your mistakes. There’s no point in deceiving yourself. Record them down so you won’t make the same mistakes next time.”

The sighs immediately turned into wails.

Although they were wailing, no one would joke around with their future. Everyone started writing.

Most of the questions were cloze tests and reading comprehension. At each time checkpoint, Xiao Qinghan would have them stop writing and ask someone to stand up and explain their answer and reasoning.

Since this test paper wasn’t particularly challenging for Xia Ruoming anymore, she finished everything in just over 20 minutes. For the remaining time, she was even unconsciously spacing out…

Seeing Xia Ruoming’s absent-mindedness during the review, Xiao Qinghan strongly resisted the urge to throw a piece of chalk at her.

“Xia Ruoming!” After rolling up the book and striking the podium again, Xiao Qinghan called out in her direction.

“Hm? What is it, Teacher Xiao?” Coming back to her senses, Xia Ruoming realized many people were staring at her.

“You explain why the answer to the question I just discussed is B?” Xiao Qinghan knew English had always been Xia Ruoming’s weak point, and this type of question was particularly prone to mistakes. It would serve as a small warning to the daydreaming Xia Ruoming.

“Oh, okay.”

Not realizing that Xiao Qinghan intended to give her a small warning, Xia Ruoming directly explained what was wrong with each of the three options, and even provided no less than three examples from untranslated obscure English mystery novels to support option B.

Xiao Qinghan was almost dumbfounded, and all the students listened in amazement.

There’s a term for describing someone with extensive knowledge — a walking bookshelf — but for Xia Ruoming, that seemed insufficient. She should be called a walking academy!

In just a few dozen seconds, she went from spacing out to perfectly answering the question when called upon, and even found examples from English novels in real life. What kind of heaven-defying genius was this?

If Xiao Qinghan hadn’t interrupted her, she seemed to feel she hadn’t explained enough.

Xiao Qinghan walked down from the podium and patted Xia Ruoming’s shoulder, signaling her to sit down.

“Alright, alright, we know you’re clever, but you still need to pay attention in class. Every point counts in the exam, and you can’t guarantee you’ll know every question, right?” As she spoke, Xiao Qinghan picked up Xia Ruoming’s test paper to check how she did on the other questions.

Before looking, it was fine, but once she looked, Xiao Qinghan was almost petrified. The difficult questions they had already covered, Xia Ruoming hadn’t gotten a single one wrong, all marked correct in red pen, and moreover, including the time spent discussing questions, only 37-38 minutes had passed, with actual solving time being just over 20 minutes, Xia Ruoming had already completed the entire test paper.

“You… finished?” When Xiao Qinghan’s words came out, the whole class fell silent, with many people even thinking Xia Ruoming had just randomly chosen answers to fool around.

“Yeah, they’re all multiple choice questions anyway, no need to write anything, why would it take so long?”

Xia Ruoming’s casual words drew countless eye rolls. For them, even just completing the reading comprehension section above wouldn’t be possible in such a short time.

She looked at Xia Ruoming’s test paper, no errors, no corrections, and the various annotations were neat and beautiful, surpassing any she had ever seen! There were also various personal notes on the reading comprehension questions.

Xiao Qinghan truly believed it was the failed confession that had awakened Xia Ruoming’s demon-like talent. Even cheating with the answers wouldn’t be this fast! Moreover, many annotations clearly showed she had worked through it step by step herself!

“It seems as long as your listening doesn’t slip up, a perfect score in English is already set in stone.” Xiao Qinghan’s words carried a hint of complex emotion, but more so relief.

At this point, everyone, including Wang Sheng, looked at Xia Ruoming with envious and shocked gazes. In Xiao Qinghan’s mind, she believed that Xia Ruoming wouldn’t lose a single point on regular questions and essays in the college entrance exam. Before this, she had just been an ordinary student with nothing particularly outstanding.

In Xiao Qinghan’s imagination, because Xia Ruoming no longer intended to pursue Xu Fengwu, she had put all her energy into studying these past few days, greatly improving not only her English but other subjects as well.

But how could an ordinary person improve so dramatically in just a few days of studying?

Her original talent must have been unparalleled, but all these years she was held back because of her feelings for Xu Fengwu. It was hard to imagine how much energy she had spent on Xu Fengwu over these years.

Now she had improved so much in such a short time, she should have been destined to be a top scholar!

Thinking of this, Xiao Qinghan felt even more sorry for Xia Ruoming.