Chapter 182: Chapter 184: Exam

“This is for you,” Tang Yuxin handed a few sheets of character posters to them. These characters went from simple to complex. Once they could write these characters, they would then only need to mix and match them in the future. Other than the combination of the characters, there wouldn’t be much drastic change.

Thanking her, Xu Miaomiao and Chen Lidong gladly collected the posters. As soon as they saw the characters on them, they immediately fell in love with them.

By evening, the parents of Xu Miaomiao and Chen Lidong came to pick up their children. When asked about their day, both children enthusiastically reported that they were able to complete their homework quickly and efficiently at Tang Yuxin’s house. Furthermore, she was a good teacher who taught them the basics and even gave them character posters to practise. Hearing this, the parents felt satisfied with their decision to send their children to her.

However, they didn’t want to take advantage of Yuxin’s kindness nor impose on her time, so they decided to bring some gifts each time they came over. In this manner, they gradually became familiar with each other.

Chen Lidong especially liked Sisi. From the very first visit, he had enjoyed playing with Sisi. A little sister as young as her was adorable to him. Sisi also liked “brother” Lidong, who would always bring her lots of tasty treats and fun toys.

The three older children and the little one would sit together to do their homework after school. They could sit for hours, and no one found it boring or tedious. On the contrary, they reveled in the spirit of friendly competition.

Tang Yuxin took their textbooks and circled the key points in each of them. These points had been emphasized over and over by their teachers. This content was very likely to show up in their exams. Perhaps her outstanding ability to predict the examination content was related to her previous life’s memory. Even though she couldn’t remember all the exam topics from her past life, the sense of familiarity with some topics led her to believe those were the key points for the exam.

If her prediction were accurate this time, it would be pretty close to the real exam.

The key points she highlighted were to be memorized by Xu Miaomiao and Chen Lidong. Whatever the circumstances, they had to ensure that these points stuck in their minds.

At the end of the school day, they would get together to do homework, review the previous day’s work, and pre-study the next day’s material. This approach ensured that they would comprehend the content well in class. In the mornings, they would arrive at school half an hour earlier. During this half hour, the three of them would recite their books outside school. Yuxin would also teach them English dialogues. Though her English wasn’t perfect, she had attended college where English was a required course, which was more than adequate to handle the simple English of middle school.

Every day was like this; she also made Xu Miaomiao and Chen Lidong follow her schedule. She woke up half an hour earlier and slept an hour later, using this extra time for revision and extracurricular reading.

For instance, she suggested reading excellent essays, well-written prose, and poetry anthologies. There were no shortcuts to write essays well. She didn’t see herself as a writer, a scholar, a poet, or a person of culture.

All she did was to express her thoughts and experiences. If asked to write on other topics, she might produce ordinary pieces. She knew she wasn’t cut out for being a literary person.

However, she knew that to improve in essay writing, one should read and write more often and ponder more on what was read. As an adult, her perspectives varied greatly from those of other people. Naturally, what she wrote was more mature. But students were different than her. They didn’t have the life experiences she had; they didn’t have the equanimity of a past life, the frustrations of living in that life, or the liberation and regrets of dying. That’s why they still weren’t able to express their feelings through words.

Therefore, they needed to read more, do more thinking and observation, and also engage in deeper contemplation.

What reassured Tang Yuxin was that although her two students were not particularly intelligent, they were very diligent and obedient. When she told them to rise earlier and sleep later, they did exactly that.

Don’t ask how she knew all this; the parents from the two families were in touch.

Recently, Mr. Xu and Mr. Chen have been extremely proud of their children’s improvements.

According to them, their children have grown up as they get up early every day to study. Unlike before, when they used to sleep until the last possible moment before hurriedly getting up for school. And now, they even help with household chores and assist their mothers in cooking.

For families with only one child, witnessing these changes made them feel very relieved. As their children grew and became more sensible, the parents naturally felt moved too.

It was the end of the semester at their junior high school and examinations followed soon after. With the examinations done, the Lunar New Year was nigh.

Time was fleeting, passing in the blink of an eye.

And just like a swift horse crossing a gap, before they even knew it, time had already flown by unnoticed.

Tang Yuxin took out her pencil case and every item from inside, including her pens, erasers, and rulers. When their exam papers were distributed, she glanced at hers.

The first exam was for the Chinese language subject and to her delight, the questions were quite similar to the ones she had predicted. In order to help Xu Miaomiao and Chen Lidong remember the topics they had studied, she had made them review several times and memorize the content to heart.

She sneakily glanced at Xu Miaomiao sitting in front of her. Miaomiao caught her eye and flashed her a smile. Her animated eyes seemed to have an extra sparkle at that moment, making her appear more lively.

It seemed that she was confident about the examination since she knew all the answers. Chen Lidong had already picked up his pen to start writing. With an intensely focused expression on his face, his pen moved rapidly across the page without any pauses.

He was eager to write down his answers. Little did anyone know that his palms were sweaty from the excitement of recognizing most of the questions. Unlike his previous experiences of staring blankly at the exam paper, uncertain of where to start.

Questions he didn’t know how to answer, areas he didn’t understand… After an examination, when he wanted to cross-check his answers, he usually had no clue where the questions came from. Now it was different; he still remembered which narrative the questions were derived from and on which page of his textbook.

It felt as if the book was right in front of him and he was simply copying down the correct answers from it.

He was eager to write down the answers before he forgets them.