Chapter 70: Chapter 70: Go Ahead and Copy, a Dull Pencil is Better Than a Sharp Mind

What a fine "head-pressing" memorization method.

Zhou Shaojie felt his mind clear up.

It wasn’t that his thoughts on memorizing vocabulary had cleared up. Rather, it was the realization that before memorizing a single word, he first had to beat the crap out of Shen Yuan!

But compared to Shen Yuan, Zhou Shaojie’s physical strength was a bit too pathetic.

A face-off?

Whether it was a battle of wits or a battle of fists, Zhou Shaojie couldn’t win.

The only things Zhou Shaojie could possibly one-up Shen Yuan in were his own weirdness and the number of times he’d been subjected to Aruba.

In any case, Shen Yuan could never have thought up that "Zero-Point Parting" idea.

It was too ridiculous.

"We can’t recite things out loud during evening self-study. Is there another way?"

"There is, my friend. There is."

Shen Yuan nodded, meeting Ah Jie’s hopeful gaze.

"A good memory is no match for a tired pen. Just copy them! By the time you finish copying three vocabulary books this thick, you’ll have them memorized."

Shen Yuan gestured to indicate the thickness.

It was a thickness of about two centimeters. Three vocabulary books, each two centimeters thick.

Ah Jie swallowed. That was, to put it mildly, a bit of an exaggeration.

"Nay, my good sir. You..."

"Scared already?" Shen Yuan chuckled. "I haven’t even brought out all of my cousin’s methods, and you’re already afraid?"

Everything Shen Yuan was describing, he had personally experienced.

Shen Yuan’s excellent English was all thanks to his Eldest Female Cousin’s "patient" guidance.

Ah Jie was dumbfounded.

"So, Sister Shui is gentle with us just because we’re her students, right?"

’But when it’s her little brother, she makes him study to death, is that it?’

Shen Yuan let out a long sigh. "It’s a story too sad to tell! Lao Jie, want to experience it for yourself?"

Ah Jie waved his hands frantically. "I’ll pass."

The words had barely left his mouth when Shen Yuan slammed a hand against the wall, leaning in close. His face twisted into the menacing grin of a movie villain.

"Come on, give it a try. You were the one who asked. Now, let’s start by copying everything one time."

Ah Jie’s delicate frame shuddered.

For the rest of evening self-study, Ah Jie buried his head and copied vocabulary, letting out soft sobs.

Shen Yuan, meanwhile, sat at his desk looking over physics problems.

The physics section was weighted more heavily on the comprehensive science exam, and since physics wasn’t exactly Shen Yuan’s strong suit, it was just as important for him to focus on it if he wanted to boost his overall score.

Of course, he couldn’t let his chemistry slide either.

It was just that in the time he had left, he could only focus on physics.

’As for chemistry, I’ll deal with that during the first round of review.’

Paced by their reviewing, the evening self-study session flew by. When the bell rang, the class president, Xu Ziqiong, who was sitting at the teacher’s desk, spoke up.

"Hold on, everyone, hold on!"

The students, who had been about to cheer, quickly snapped their mouths shut and turned their gazes to the class president.

"Tomorrow is Teacher’s Day. Should we prepare something?"

"The monthly exam already cost us a ton of brain cells. Class President, let’s not waste any more thinking about some unimportant holiday, okay?"

"Let’s just give flowers. It’s the easiest thing, no thought required."

"Let’s give him good scores instead. If you give Old Zhou something like that, he’ll definitely say it’s just a bunch of flashy nonsense and that he’d rather you just get a better grade."

"True. Let’s not get him anything, then."

Listening to the jumble of opinions, Xu Ziqiong made an executive decision.

"Okay, the final decision is to do well on the exam. Everyone, do your best tomorrow! And you’d all better raise our class’s average score!"

Shen Yuan’s mouth twitched. He turned to Zhou Shaojie. "This class culture... did you start this too?"

Ah Jie gave him a look of mock indignation. "Hey! That’s pure slander! This is called respecting the collective opinion. And the collective opinion is to give them the gift of good grades."

Shen Yuan was at a loss for words.

"Hey, aren’t you going to get Sister Shui something? She’s your cousin, after all."

Shen Yuan shrugged. "Same as always. I’ll treat her to a meal."

His Eldest Female Cousin never actually asked Shen Yuan for gifts on Teacher’s Day. She was always perfectly happy just conning a free meal out of him.

Shen Yuan had asked her about it once.

Yang Yishui’s answer had left a deep impression on him.

"Gifts, my ass. I’d rather have a day off."

"Usually, when students see a teacher, they wish they were blind. But on Teacher’s Day, they show up with a flower and say, ’Hello, teacher. Thank you for your hard work.’ And then I have to pretend to be touched. What’s the point?"

"It’s just a propaganda tool for the school leadership."

It was obvious how deep his Eldest Female Cousin’s resentment for Teacher’s Day ran.

When Yang Yishui had first started her career, her stunning looks often made her one of the main subjects for the school’s Teacher’s Day promotional materials.

It was exciting at first, but over time, all that was left was resentment.

Work outside of her actual job was just exploitation.

...

「The next morning」

Yang Yishui patrolled the classroom during the morning self-study period, as usual.

As she passed Shen Yuan’s desk, he stopped her.

Yang Yishui glanced down at the physics paper on his desk and said quickly, "I’m crap at physics."

"I’m not asking you to teach me physics. I wanted to ask what you’re thinking for dinner tonight. My treat."

His Eldest Female Cousin leaned in close to Shen Yuan and whispered, "Are you bringing your little childhood sweetheart?"

"Do you want me to retract that dinner invitation?"

Seeing the warning look on Shen Yuan’s face, his Eldest Female Cousin scoffed, "Tch."

"I bet you’ll bring her anyway."

"Hey!"

Shen Yuan shot her a comically indignant glare, but his Eldest Female Cousin had already scurried away.

"Are you bringing your little childhood sweetheart?"

Ah Jie was asking for it again.

Shen Yuan employed the head-pressing memorization method passed down from his cousin.

After "curing" Ah Jie’s affliction, Shen Yuan prepared to get back to his physics.

As his gaze fell back on the physics problems, Shen Yuan subconsciously turned to glance at Li Zhi, who was sitting across the aisle.

The beautiful girl seemed completely unaffected by her period today. There was a healthy, vital beauty to her face; her rosy profile was absolutely gorgeous.

Li Zhi sensed his stare and turned to look at Shen Yuan.

’Tsk.’

’Her face is even more gorgeous from the front.’

Shen Yuan made up his mind.

’I’ll invite her,’ he decided, ’if she’s willing to come.’

As far as Shen Yuan knew, Li Zhi rarely turned down an invitation if he was the one paying for dinner.

Li Zhi looked at Shen Yuan’s dopey, infatuated expression with a look of utter disdain.

The morning’s English exam passed quickly.

Out of the two-hour English exam, Shen Yuan spent a whole hour of it just sitting there.

With his mastery of English, if he were to lose any significant points, it was more likely he’d made a mistake bubbling in the answer sheet than actually getting a question wrong.

"Holy shit! Lao Yuan! Your method actually works!"

Not long after he returned to the classroom, Shen Yuan heard Ah Jie’s excited voice call out from the doorway.

"I feel like I totally aced my English test this time!"

"You’re experiencing one of life’s great delusions."

Hearing this, Ah Jie’s eyebrows shot up. "Oh yeah? Let’s compare answers!"

The dynamic had shifted. Where Shen Yuan used to hover around Li Zhi and Ah Jie to compare answers, it was now Ah Jie hovering around Shen Yuan.

But unlike Shen Yuan, who used to get more and more excited with every correct match, Ah Jie was met with a rude awakening right from the start.

"No way, seriously? You got the very first question wrong?"

"Oh, bro!"

"I have reason to believe you didn’t understand the reading comprehension section at all."

"Which passage *did* you understand?"

Ah Jie’s initial confidence had completely evaporated.

"Don’t say any more, don’t say any more! Bro, just stop!"

Seeing Ah Jie’s crestfallen expression, Shen Yuan patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"But, you know, you have actually improved overall."

Ah Jie looked up at Shen Yuan, his face full of hope.

The next second, Shen Yuan’s voice reached his ears.

"As long as you stick to the ’write-it-out’ plan, you’re bound to succeed! I copied three notebooks’ worth, so you should aim for five, minimum!"

The hope on Ah Jie’s face vanished.