Tutoring
The next morning, as Lu Er was looking through Ruan Xiyan's past exam papers in his room, analyzing his weaknesses and shortcomings in order to provide targeted tutoring, his vision suddenly blurred, and what came into view was the familiar layout of his room.
Is it raining again?
Lu Er didn't pay much attention. She noticed that she had earphones in her ears and music was playing in.
The intro is upbeat, like the background music of a cozy game. It's followed by male rap with a strong rhythm. Just listening to the melody without the lyrics, you'd think it was a soothing R&B song. It fits the kind of song she imagined Ruan Xiyan would like.
Lu Er was about to turn it off when she stopped for some reason. She listened to the song until the end, then looked at her phone again and remembered that the song was called "History".
She casually browsed through the app and discovered that Ruan Xiyan had created a separate playlist. After a quick look, she noticed that the songs in the playlist were of various styles, but overall they presented a bright and cheerful tone.
Staring at the playlist, Lu Er felt a strange urge to laugh. But she held it in.
She organized some review materials, and when the rain had subsided, she grabbed an umbrella and went out.
"Ding-a-ling," the crisp doorbell rang, and Ruan Xiyan hurriedly went to open the door: "Lu Er, good morning."
Lu Er put away the umbrella, paused for a moment without taking it inside, and laid it out to dry under the eaves: "Good morning."
In the living room, the black and white cat lay on the sofa cushions, its tail slapping back and forth, while the golden retriever stood beside it, paws resting on the side, gazing longingly. The scene resembled a retired emperor enjoying his golden years with his little servant.
Ruan Xiyan saw her looking over there and said, "The cow cat's injury hasn't healed yet, so it can't play with Mao Mao. Mao Mao is guarding it, waiting for it to have some fun."
"My mom and sister aren't here, so don't worry, do whatever you want."
In the end, Lu Er chose to tutor Ruan Xiyan in her room. As she pulled out a chair, she carefully analyzed the situation with Ruan Xiyan, saying, "Your main subjects are relatively weak, and your minor subjects are barely passing. Since you're currently working on your main subjects, I'll prioritize tutoring your minor subjects. Is that okay?" Seeing Ruan Xiyan nod, Lu Er then took out her biology mock exam review book.
She thought for a moment and picked a few questions to ask Ruan Xiyan before the tutoring session started.
Do you know what cyanobacteria are?
"...Single-celled organisms?" Ruan Xiyan asked tentatively.
"...Answer: prokaryote or eukaryote."
“…Oh.” Ruan Xiyan recalled the knowledge from the textbook, “Prokaryotes.”
Lu Er then proceeded to the next question: "What kind of transport is used to get glucose into the epithelial cells of the small intestinal villi?"
Ruan Xiyan remained silent for a moment, then glanced at her expression and said, "Free diffusion?"
Lu Er shook his head. He then answered, "Easy diffusion?"
Lu Er said calmly, "Free diffusion and facilitated diffusion are the same thing. Moreover, it is passive transport, while glucose entering the small intestinal villi epithelial cells is active transport." Ruan Xiyan scratched the back of her head and gave an embarrassed dry laugh.
"Next. In which phase of meiosis do homologous chromosomes cease to exist?"
Ruan Xiyan racked her brains, pondered for a long time, and finally gave up in frustration: "I'm sorry. I forgot what homologous chromosomes are."
"..." Lu Er sighed almost imperceptibly, "These are all basics, the most common test points in biology. I'll print out a set of key notes for you later. If you memorize them, you should be able to improve your score by more than twenty points."
"Okay, thank you, Teacher Lu."
Upon hearing the title "Teacher Lu," Lu Er paused for a moment but showed no sign of surprise: "Then let me first check your chemistry foundation."
As it turns out, Ruan Xiyan wasn't just bad at one subject; he was completely bad at all six. While others were well-rounded, he was a lopsided mess. Ruan Song's words, "Don't let yourself hold others back," weren't without reason, because the one who scored just over 300 points was none other than Ruan Xiyan.
—
After studying for more than two hours, Ruan Xiyan was tired. He started to urge Teacher Lu, "Teacher, are you tired? Let's take a break."
Lu Er thought she had been learning for a while, so she nodded. Seeing that she agreed, Ruan Xiyan rushed downstairs with great enthusiasm, and when she came back, she brought a box of sandwich cookies.
He handed it to Lu Er, who shook her head. She didn't really like this kind of snack.
Ruan Xiyan didn't insist. He opened a video software on his computer and watched the cartoons in his collection.
The screen showed a cartoon rabbit mimicking a human tapping buttons on its hand while a porter answered a phone call.
Then, at the direction of a rabbit wearing a red work hat, the rabbit and its friends, quacking, began connecting the pipes. After finishing, they playfully blew air into the pipe openings, infecting everyone who heard them with their quacking. A few mischievous rabbits.
Throughout the entire story, the rabbit kept quacking. Lu Er asked, puzzled, "Do you like watching this?" She suddenly realized that Ruan Xiyan's profile picture was this rabbit.
Ruan Xiyan's attitude was exactly the opposite. The more he looked at it, the more amused he became: "Isn't this rabbit funny? It's like an electronic pickled vegetable! I especially like watching it."
"I heard... this is for mental patients."
Ruan Xiyan's smile froze on her face.
"I heard it," Lu Er coughed and said, "but it might not be true."
Ruan Xiyan's smile faded, and she silently shut down her computer: "Then I won't watch it."
After giving up on watching cartoons, Ruan Xiyan, feeling bored for a while, suggested another idea: "Teacher Lu, how about we play some games? I'm so bored."
Lu Er's face was full of confusion: "What game?"
"Identity V"
She still looked puzzled, but Ruan Xiyan encouraged her enthusiastically, "I haven't been playing for very long either. Let's play together, and I can teach you."
“…I don’t have this game on my phone.” Lu Er was still resisting, but she was starting to waver a little.
Ruan Xiyan tossed the iPad to her: "I downloaded it here. You can play on my alternate account, you don't need the new account. I'll play on my phone."
The two teamed up. Ruan Xiyan explained the game mechanics to Lu Er in general terms, along with some other necessary aspects of the game, and then they played a few custom games to test it out. Once Lu Er understood it fairly well, he invited her to join a match.
Less than half a minute into the game, Lu Er frowned slightly and asked, "There's a bird circling around me."
"It must have been my character's bird that flew over there." Ruan Xiyan didn't think too much about it.
Half a second later.
"Oh no, it's a nightmare."
Lu Er played the Doctor and was caught by the hunter right at the start of the game. As a newbie, she was naturally not as skilled as the experienced players, and coupled with her unfamiliarity with the character's abilities, she was downed in no time.
Her teammates pulled her off the rocket chair, and Lu Er, controlling her character, asked with rare confusion, "What's that bird pecking at my head?"
"..." The bird pecking at its head, Ruan Xiyan was charmed by her words, and the corners of her mouth curved into a smile, "It's my character skill, the prophet, which can send out birds to protect you."
Fortunately, Ruan Xiyan's rank wasn't high, and the hunter she was matched with was also about the same skill level. After a while, unable to find anyone, she went to chase after the rescuer, who was a higher rank. During the four-player gate opening battle, the rescuer lured the hunter away, and Ruan Xiyan waited at the gate for a long time: "Where are you?"
"...I can't find the gate. I'm walking along the wall."
Ruan Xiyan: "..."
He leaned closer to look at Lu Er's screen and, sure enough, saw her doctor staring at a corner of Lakeview Village, with crows circling overhead.
"Just turn the screen this way and keep walking this way."
After playing a few rounds of the game, Lu Er got tired and rubbed her sore eyelids: "I'm not playing anymore."
“Okay.” Ruan Xiyan noticed it was almost lunchtime and asked her, “Are you hungry, teacher? Let’s order some takeout. What would you like to eat?” He was getting more and more comfortable calling her “teacher”.
Lu Erdu said, "It's up to you." After a moment, she added, "Let me order. You ordered porridge for me last time, so I'll order this time."
She always had a stubborn streak when it came to things she owed. Ruan Xiyan didn't force her and let her go.
—
After eating takeout and studying for a while, sunlight pierced through the curtains, casting a bright glow on the floor.
"I have to go. I have a part-time job this afternoon."
"Bye-bye." Ruan Xiyan saw her to the door. Lu Er held an umbrella in the light, her shadow gradually fading into the distance.
At Aunt Ruan Xiyan's flower shop, there didn't seem to be anyone working a summer job like Lu Er. In fact, there weren't any at all. Lu Er, holding a pot of geraniums, felt something was off, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.
She continued pruning the flowers. Just then, a little boy, who looked about ten years old, walked in from outside.
The boy, slightly nervous, said, "Hello. I want flowers..."
The store manager wasn't there, so Lu Er thought for a moment and ran over: "Hello, what kind of flowers would you like?"
"I want to give flowers to my dad," the boy stammered, "but I don't know what flowers he likes... so I don't know what to buy. I just hope to buy flowers that suit him."
These words made Lu Er frown slightly. As she pondered this, the shop manager arrived late: "Are there any customers? Little one, what kind of flowers would you like?"
The little boy repeated what he had said word for word. The shop manager thought for a moment and asked him, "Little friend, you brought a phone, right? Can I see a picture of your dad?"
The little boy did as he was told. In the photo, the man wearing a worker's hat has skin etched with deep lines like loess, sweat pouring down his face, yet he still smiles broadly at the camera, revealing his teeth.
While Lu Er was still pondering, the shop manager had already made up his mind: "Little friend, I can recommend this dwarf chrysanthemum to you. It's easy to care for and very inexpensive. See if you like it."
The pale purple petals and pale yellow buds were blooming gracefully. The little boy immediately liked it: "Auntie, please pack this up, thank you."
The little boy left, but Lu Er remained standing there. She didn't ask a question, but the shop manager, as if understanding her thoughts, smiled and said, "Do you want to know how I chose it?"
"Well, firstly, I can tell the child's financial situation. Chrysanthemums are cheap and easy to care for, and they can grow even without care this season. Secondly... do you know that appearance reflects the heart? I can guess a person's personality traits just by looking at their face..."
She stopped there, keeping everyone in suspense.
Lu Er went back to pruning the branches. The events of earlier were still replaying in her mind, and as she thought about it, a random idea popped into her head.
If it were Ruan Xiyan, what flower would suit him best?
"It's probably a sunflower," she thought.
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