Free Web NovelChapter 41: Chapter 40: Gentle Niu Lianhua
"You guys have no idea! When I was in line, some of the people going up were hilarious..."
"There was this guy, over thirty, all grown-up and scared like a girl. Can you believe this? They had already put on the safety harness, what was there to be afraid of? He was shaking so much, kept yelling ’I don’t want to jump! I don’t want to jump!’ and then someone pushed him off. I couldn’t stop laughing!"
"When it was my turn, I kept rushing the safety guy. I couldn’t wait, honestly!"
"Jumping off was thrilling! Falling freely through the air and then swinging up and down on the rope... felt just like flying. It was so much fun!"
"I want to do it again next time!"
"You guys shouldn’t be scared, it’s no big deal. You should all give it a try and build up some courage!"
As Sun Liang devoured skewer after skewer, his anger quickly dissipated. While munching on his food, he related his experiences.
Zhao Yi and the others nodded along as they listened.
Now, Sun Liang was the boss.
But his words were nothing but boasts, and Zhao Yi didn’t believe a word of it.
Niu Lianhua quickly warned, "Linlin, you mustn’t go, it’s too dangerous." She turned to the others, "None of you are allowed to go either!"
The three of them nodded in agreement.
Sun Liang’s expression suddenly became full of resentment.
They all had a great time playing.
When Zhao Yi left, he felt refreshed. The mentality of a thirty-year-old can be just as childlike, deriving joy from play.
He had figured it out.
One million?
Only fools don’t take money!
The Apple Company wanted to use him for promotion, just like hiring a celebrity for endorsement. Cooperation involves both parties giving something, and expecting something for nothing is pure fantasy.
So...
Double the happiness!
"Let’s go!"
"Let’s head to the mall before we go home!"
"To buy a computer!"
Zhao Yi hailed a cab and headed to the mall with Sun Liang.
The second floor of the mall was an electronics store. They went straight into the Apple shop. They spent a good while looking at the laptops, but no sales assistant came over to serve them.
This...
Differential treatment?
Zhao Yi glanced at Sun Liang’s school uniform and understood why. Who would expect two high school students to purchase an expensive MacBook?
They were not the target consumers!
Zhao Yi reviewed the specifications of the latest MacBook Pro and spent a long time operating a demo model Air, even taking a note of the operating system’s version number.
They stayed in the Apple store for more than half an hour.
Then, they left.
"You were looking so closely, I thought you were going to buy it!" Sun Liang said sulkily, "Did you see that guy’s expression just now?"
"Who?"
"The one with the side-parting, standing next to you. He didn’t say a word, probably because he was afraid you’d break the computer."
Sun Liang said indignantly, "He looks down on us!"
"I guess that’s normal!"
Zhao Yi didn’t mind, "If I were the salesperson and saw two students intensely operating a computer, I would be worried too. The computer costs over ten thousand you know!"
Sun Liang remained discontent.
In the end...
Zhao Yi ended up selecting a high-performance desktop in a store next door.
Truthfully, he wanted to buy a top-of-the-line MacBook Pro. Compared to Windows, the Mac’s operating system is more stable and professional, making it the perfect choice for a programmer with its support for various types of software development.
When using a Windows computer for development, one must install a Linux system.
However...
Zhao Yi realized his circumstances were different. He was not a programmer from ten or so years in the future and had no need for software development tools.
Besides, he was invited to attend the Apple Company’s laptop release event.
Mr. Cavaleiro would almost certainly give him a brand-new MacBook Pro, right?
Once home...
He installed the computer and set up the internet connection.
The next morning, Sun Liang arrived earlier than Zhao Yi. Instead of motivatedly tutoring Zhao Yi in math, he dashed to the computer.
"Let me play!"
Sun Liang installed the Penguin Game and began furiously typing away.
After Zhao Yi finished breakfast, he walked over and pulled out the plug.
"What are you doing? I haven’t finished playing!"
Sun Liang’s face was full of resentment.
Zhao Yi said seriously, "You’ve been playing for an hour already. You played all day yesterday, and today it’s time to study."
"Like this, I’ll look at math and you can study English!"
He tossed a copy of High School Vocabulary Summary to Sun Liang.
Sun Liang flipped through a few pages, each filled with words and their explanations. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Sun Liang raised his head and said with frustration, "Zhao Yi, when did you become so studious? Ever since we started high school, you’ve changed."
"Have I become handsome?"
"You’ve betrayed our circle of friends and our friendship!"
"Quit whining!"
Zhao Yi rolled his eyes, "Your gaming is disturbing my studying. Remember, you’re here to tutor me, not to play."
"..."
Under conditions of ineffective protest, Sun Liang reluctantly started memorizing vocabulary.
Zhao Yi chuckled.
In his memory.
Sun Liang did not get into his dream university, and he had to settle for a college in a remote area. He later found a job locally, settled down, and never returned as he gradually lost touch due to the distance.
Maybe learning more English now would enable him to get into a better University?
But...
Butterflies are quite powerful, aren’t they!
If Sun Liang had not been assigned to the remote area college, he would never have met his future wife. He would have split up a marriage pair, perhaps even a happily married couple, and snuffed out ... what wasn’t even a cell yet.
Zhao Yi’s eyes were wide open and a sense of guilt surged in his heart. He took a deep breath and turned his head to stare at Sun Liang seriously.
Should he, perhaps, try to snatch the book away?
...
After the holiday, the atmosphere in class had become somewhat restless.
Sun Liang had become the center of attention in the third class.
He bragged about bungee jumping in Happy Valley, constantly saying how brave he was. He almost described himself as a heroic martyr who blocks gunshots, all while complaining about how inconsiderate Lin Xiaoqing and Zhao Yi were to go eat street food and forget to take pictures for him.
Lin Xiaoqing was dumbfounded.
Actually, they did think about Sun Liang, but the fortune-telling booth distracted them for too much time. By the time they thought of checking on him, they believed they had already missed their chance, so they decided to grab something to eat.
Zhao Yi was playing with a coin, seeming unbothered.
Tails.
Tails.
Still tails. freēwēbnovel.com
He flipped it six times in a row and found a bit of a pattern.
"Class starts now! Be quiet!"
A stern shout came from the doorway. Niu Lianhua walked in with a math textbook in her hands.
This math lesson was very ordinary.
Niu Lianhua taught some post-derivative concepts, asked everyone to solve some minor problems, and read her book after leaving few minutes for self-studying.
She walked around the classroom.
When she passed Zhao Yi, Niu Lianhua suddenly stopped and put on a friendly smile. She asked in a slightly strange, gentle tone, "Zhao Yi, did you have any trouble understanding what I just explained?"
"No no...no..." Zhao Yi was a bit thrown off but quickly responded.
"That’s good."
Sun Liang looked over in surprise.
Lin Xiaoqing also turned her head, glanced at the stunned Zhao Yi, pointed at Niu Lianhua with her fingers, and her eyes spelled out a question, "What’s happening?"
Sun Liang shook his head blankly.
Right after the math class ended and as soon as Niu Lianhua stepped out of the classroom, Lin Xiaoqing immediately exclaimed, "Zhao Yi! What happened! Demon King Niu just turned gentle!"
Sun Liang imitated her with a funny voice, "Zhao Yi, did you find anything difficult to understand in my explaining before?"
"Note that tone."
He said, grinning lewdly, "Did you two hit it off after hanging out together..."
"Hahaha!"
Lin Xiaoqing sank to her knees, laughing heartily.
Zhao Yi, hearing this, wore a dark face. Remembering the tone of Niu Lianhua just now, he shivered involuntarily.
In the afternoon.
The elite class had a combined math lesson.
Niu Lianhua walked into the classroom with a stack of papers, slammed them on the desk, and roared, "Last Friday’s test, I am very disappointed!"
"Unexpectedly!"
"In Class A, among the top fifty students in the whole grade, three people failed the exam!"
"How did you solve the problems? This test paper is not easy to score high on, but there are many easy questions. It should be straightforward to score over a hundred!"
"I won’t name and shame. If anyone failed, copy the incorrect questions ten times and explain why you got it wrong. Hand it over to me tomorrow!"
"Of course."
Niu Lianhua’s tone changed, "While some did poorly, others did well. There is one student in class who made noticeable progress!"
"Now, let’s give back the test papers!"
"The highest scorer, Sun Liang, achieved 142!"
Sun Liang took his test paper, and the comment he received was, "You got one multiple-choice question wrong, weren’t you paying attention?"
"Hehe."
"He Ronghua, 135 points, you got one wrong on both the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank sections. The long answer questions were done well, only the final question lost some points."
"Zhao Yi——"
Seeing Zhao Yi step up to receive his test paper, Niu Lianhua immediately put on a kind smile again, and with what she thought was a gentle tone, affably said, "131 points! Your improvement this time is very significant! All of you need to learn from Zhao Yi!"
"You left a blank in the fill-in-the-blank section, and you did need to improve on the difficult questions. Additionally, some questions were scored down because you skipped some calculation steps."
"O-okay..."
Zhao Yi quickly retreated with his test paper.
Nobody in the class cared about Niu Lianhua’s tone of speech this time. All of them stared at Zhao Yi in shock as he returned to his seat.
points?
It was indeed a ’significant improvement.’ He just barely used to pass the math test in the split class!
to 40 points improvement in less than a month?
You’re joking, right?
