Chapter 33 Chapter 33 My Chinese teacher was my math teacher.

Chapter 33

Jin Ran discovered for the first time that being a teacher also has its downsides.

For example, if there are students in the family, she not only has to answer their questions at school, but also when she gets home!

It's practically a walking Q&A machine!

On her rare day off, she had already made plans. However, while idly strolling around in the morning, she discovered a sauna on the first floor. Upon asking the maid, she learned that it had been there from the beginning, and that there were even professional masseuses among the maids.

Upon hearing this, Jin Ran immediately planned to get a spa massage to relax her tense neck and shoulders, which had been strained from studying for exams. Now, however, she has to postpone her plans.

It's a good thing that children are motivated, and as teachers, we need to give them our full support and actively help them improve their exam ranking by fifteen places.

Jin Ran concealed her inner regret and readily agreed on the surface.

Jin Ran wasn't surprised that Jiang Xuli would take the initiative to ask her questions.

As stepmother and son, they may not be very close, but as teacher and student, their relationship is quite harmonious. Taking advantage of her position as teacher, Jin Ran often called on him to answer questions in class.

"By the way, I'll probably be recording a video later, do you mind?"

Jin Ran remembered something and explained seriously, "Don't misunderstand, I didn't film you on purpose. I record every time I give a trial lecture so that it's easier to review and improve my teaching methods later."

Jiang Xuli was somewhat surprised to hear this.

It turned out that those wonderful and relaxed classes were the result of many private practice sessions. In the end, that inexplicable sense of shame vanished instantly—even people more talented than him were working so hard, so what reason did he have to slack off?

“I have no objection,” he replied readily.

And that's how things were settled.

Jin Ran first went to get her recording equipment: a tripod and a mobile phone. She set up the recording in the living room on the first floor.

Jiang Xuli felt embarrassed to just sit and wait, so she went to the kitchen and asked Chef Wang for some snacks, which she placed next to her homework, intending to eat a few bites when she got hungry.

The passing housekeeper, seeing the two enjoying each other's company, couldn't help but smile.

When the lady first came to the house, the young master and lady had some disagreements due to their personality differences. Gradually, they got along more and more comfortably and easily. Rather than being like mother and son, the housekeeper felt that they were more like peers who respected each other.

Both the wife and the young master are wonderful people.

Thinking of this, the housekeeper took out her phone and captured this heartwarming scene, then happily sent it to her husband who was at work.

He thought that his husband would feel warm inside when he saw this photo.

/

Jin Ran was unaware of the behavior of the housekeeper, Lao Liu.

She carefully adjusted the camera angle to make sure the two of them weren't captured on camera.

During her high school years, Jin Ran had a friend who loved photography. He greatly admired her appearance and often asked her to be his model. Before each shoot, Jin Ran would make a clear request: the photos could be taken, but they couldn't be posted online.

Call it being a celebrity with a heavy heart, or being paranoid, but Jin Ran really does rarely share her photos and videos on public platforms.

This caution stemmed from two unpleasant experiences: her uncle's family had a cousin who was a fan of a celebrity and was once obsessed with a very good-looking star. So much so that when she stopped being a fan, she actually photoshopped unflattering pictures of that star and spread them everywhere.

The second thing was a news report that Jin Ran remembers caused a huge uproar online. An ordinary girl shared her life photos on a social media platform, which were then stolen by criminals who spread rumors everywhere. Although the matter was eventually clarified, it still had a great impact on the girl's daily life.

Therefore, Jin Ran would rather be cautious than get herself into similar trouble.

"Let's make it clear that my Chinese language skills are only slightly above average, and I may not be able to solve all the problems. Let's study and learn from each other together."

The two sat cross-legged in front of the sofa. Jiang Xuli nodded upon hearing this, and then solemnly opened the documents.

After a night of hard work, the once clean paper documents are now covered with red marks, showing the care and attention of the person reading them. The parts that were not understood were also clearly marked.

Jin Ran looked closely.

"What was tattooed on Yue Fei's back: 'Loyalty to serve the country'..."

Almost as soon as the question was read aloud, she blurted out without hesitation, "It must be 'Serving the Country with Utmost Loyalty,' so the answer is B."

Jiang Xuli glanced at her: "I chose B, I was wrong."

Jin Ran: "?"

“That shouldn’t be the case,” she said, her face full of doubt, gesturing in the air a few times. “Have you heard that song? ‘Smoke rises, the land stretches northward, dragon banners unfurl, horses neigh, swords flash like frost—’”

Jiang Xuli continued expressionlessly: "My heart is like the vast Yellow River, boundless and untamed; in these twenty years of turmoil, who can stand against me—"

After they finished singing, they looked at each other and saw the same mutual appreciation in their different eyes.

“…Why don’t we look at the next one first?” Jin Ran turned to the next page of information, which contained famous poems and phrases that were required for the high school entrance exam.

Although she graduated many years ago and had long forgotten her Chinese language knowledge, she was still full of confidence: "What is the next line after 'How much sorrow can one have?'"

Hmm, that sounds familiar. The answer is on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't remember it. Instead, all sorts of modified poems keep popping into my head: "...just off my brow, yet on my heart?"

Jiang Xuli: "...Don't tell me that the next line after 'Nancun Quntong bullied me because I'm old and weak' is 'With a laugh, the children vanished into thin air.'"

Jin Ran couldn't help but burst out laughing, confirming that the two of them were watching the same modified version: "Not only that, there's also 'I urge you to drink another cup of wine, to dispel our eternal sorrows together.' 'Startled awake from my deathbed, I laugh and ask, 'Where do you come from, guest?'"

I couldn't remember a single line of the proper classical poems, but I could recite the modified versions backwards fluently.

Well, let's not talk about the second brother, they're both equally bad at Chinese!

The tutoring session ended in a disastrous failure.

Jin Ran even posted a message on her WeChat Moments about this: 【It's undeniable that my Chinese language skills were taught by my math teacher!】

The accompanying image shows the modified version of the poem the two had just exchanged.

Mingji Technology Conference Room.

The manager in charge of the report suddenly heard a cell phone notification sound.

He frowned subconsciously—thinking to himself, who was so rude as to not mute the phone during a meeting? Looking up to find the source of the noise, he saw President Jiang, sitting in the main seat, calmly picking up his phone.

The man remained calm and showed no intention of interrupting the meeting. The manager had no choice but to continue his report. As he flipped through the documents in his hand, he caught a glimpse of President Jiang seemingly smiling.

Hmm? Was he really that good at it?

Jiang Mingxu first saw the photos sent by the housekeeper.

A young and beautiful female teacher and a boy with a childlike appearance sat facing each other. The table was covered with cookies and desserts, making it look more like a spring tea party than a tutoring session.

A familiar profile picture popped up in the upper right corner, and he clicked on it to see Jin Ran's post on WeChat Moments.

[It's undeniable that my Chinese language skills were taught by my math teacher!]

Aside from his daily work, Jiang Mingxu rarely indulged in the internet and naturally had only a superficial understanding of popular internet slang. Curious, he zoomed in on the picture and discovered that the paper contained a jumble of incoherent poems.

It sounds reasonable at first glance, but upon closer reading, it's utter nonsense.

A smile appeared in his eyes.

It's as if I can see the two of them sitting there, scratching their heads in front of the white paper.

There's a little trick at the very bottom of the picture that only those who click on it can see.

A line of delicate text, no bigger than an ant.

—Please answer the next line after "I removed my battle robes from the general."

Jiang Mingxu never replies to posts on WeChat Moments.

But this time, he surprisingly opened the comments section and slowly typed out a reply.

Over there, the manager finished reporting on the project and saw President Jiang's smile. Thinking he had passed the test, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Before he could even catch his breath, he heard President Jiang's gentle voice say, "Go back and redo it."

manager:"……"

/

Finally, Jin Ran sought outside help and was able to barely sort out the complex knowledge points in the Chinese language questions.

Xu Zhen, who suffered the psychological attack, expressed strong condemnation: "The person who did the test has absolutely no literary cultivation! I could recite such basic things in first grade!"

Jin Ran had been shot in the chest with an arrow, and she didn't dare to stand up and admit it, weakly saying: "Maybe those who are good at math aren't so good at Chinese."

Xu Zhen thought about it and agreed: "[That's possible. When I was in school, I always got 130 in Chinese, but I never got over 100 in math.]"

Hearing this, Jin Ran felt a little better—no one can be perfect.

She put down her phone and finally had a chance to go to the sauna. After relaxing every pore on her body and feeling refreshed, she came out of the sauna and found that there were new replies on her WeChat Moments.

J: [On the day the Imperial Attendant returns from his post in peacetime, I will remove my battle robes with you.]

J: [No next sentence.]

Jin Ran: ?

If I remember correctly, Jiang Mingxu studied finance, right?

Her face fell, and in that instant, only one thought remained in her mind—we were both science students, and yet there was a traitor in our family!

/

On Monday, the national flag is raised and the national anthem is played.

During a break from her duty shift, Jin Ran specifically asked a teacher in the administration department to help her purchase a batch of cardboard. She didn't even blink when paying—not because she had suddenly become enlightened and regarded money as dirt, but because she had indeed recently become much more financially secure.

The story begins after Mr. Jin's birthday banquet.

The banquet that day caused a disturbance. Afterwards, the old man not only sent someone to return the gifts intact, but also prepared an extra apology gift.

Even more surprisingly, he sent a message to Jin Ran: From now on, she doesn't need to pay attention to those people, just live her own life in peace, and she doesn't need to go back to the Jin family unless it's something important.

Jin Ran remained remarkably calm in the face of this.

Although she didn't know the specific details, she could guess a thing or two from Old Master Jin's attitude—the marriage between the Jin family and Jiang Mingxu was probably not just a cooperation, but some kind of exchange of interests, and even the dominant power was in Jiang Mingxu's hands. Otherwise, the old man would never have taken the initiative to back down.

Unfortunately, some members of the Jin family failed to see this point and even tried to use this marriage to control Jiang Mingxu, but in the end, they mostly made a mess of things.

I wonder if her cousin regrets it.

These thoughts went through my mind without leaving any trace.

Jin Ran is simply too busy.

After the written test, her "partner" learning method was officially implemented in the class. As the experimental class, Class 3 required all students, whether they were commuting to school or living on campus, to participate in the math partner team during evening self-study.

Upon receiving the news, the parents in the group all expressed their support.

[Don't worry, Teacher Jin, my child is a boarding student and has always participated in evening self-study sessions.]

My child is a day student, but in order to participate in this support group, I asked my husband to adjust his pick-up and drop-off times to ensure that his studies wouldn't be affected.

Education requires the joint efforts of teachers and parents. Ms. Jin, please feel free to let us know if you need our cooperation in the future!

Seeing the enthusiastic parents, Jin Ran felt gratified, knowing that her efforts had not been in vain: "Parents, please rest assured, this is the first time we're trying this out. The class will only last thirty minutes, and we should be able to finish around 7:30."

She posted a schedule in the group, answered several parents' questions, and then began preparations.

That's right. Although they are learning in "partners," Jin Ran doesn't intend to let the students learn independently.

Putting aside whether high school students have that much self-discipline, this isn't just simple studying; it's a series of challenging mini-games created based on each student's weaknesses.

Each question requires two people to complete it together.

The questions were created by her in consultation with other teachers, and they covered not only math knowledge but also other subjects such as Chinese and English.

The other teachers thought it was a good idea, but no one was willing to do such a large workload. Since Jin Ran was willing, they were happy to offer some help.

With the major preparations complete, all that's left is to cut out the cards and set up the venue.

Jin Ran spent the entire afternoon completing all the preparations.

On Monday evening, the day students from Class 3 stayed after school to study with the boarding students.

Jin Ran reminded parents again in the group chat, and also sent a private message to someone: "Classes end at 7:30 PM, parents, remember to pick up your children at the east gate!"