ATLAS TRANSLATES

Yang Shekun was caught off guard by her question, then suddenly realized that seat number three belonged to the top student Jiang.

Just as Xu Si came up from downstairs, he glanced at the two of them and asked, “What are you talking about?”

Jiang Qiang shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Hey Si-ge, weren’t you looking for the top student Jiang in exam room one? People are saying that Si-ge is interested in someone from exam room one, specifically the third person. Isn’t that Jiang?”

Xu Si: “…”

Jiang Qiang explained, “He was just feeling unsure about the exam, so he came to find me. Since I’ve been tutoring him recently, they misunderstood.”

Yang Shekun’s face lit up with understanding. “Oh, so that’s what it was.”

The gossip was right under his nose, but he hadn’t realized it. Though he didn’t believe that Xu Si’s sudden interest in studying had nothing to do with Jiang.

Xu Si put his exam papers away in the drawer. “When I went to find you, I hadn’t considered that. Sorry if it caused you trouble.”

Jiang Qiang shook her head. “It’s fine, it’s all just rumors anyway.”

Xu Si smiled. “True.”

His gaze remained fixed on Jiang Qiang, but he wondered if perhaps those rumors weren’t entirely false.

…

On the third day, after the last exam finished, everyone started packing up their things.

Just as Jiang Qiang was about to move her desk, she heard a voice behind her: “Let me handle that, take a break, little teacher.”

From the voice, Jiang Qiang knew it was Xu Si. He seemed to have run up the stairs, slightly out of breath with his hair slightly messy. She softly replied, “Okay.”

Xu Si pushed her desk in, then pushed his own desk in as well. When he saw Jiang Qiang carrying the chairs inside, he took them from her hands. “Let me do it.”

Jiang Qiang went back out to get both of their books, but again he took them from her.

After everything was tidied up and Jiang Qiang had just sat down, Wang Lin and Li Jingjing came over with their math exam papers.

Wang Lin asked Jiang Qiang, “Top student Jiang, what did you choose for the last multiple choice question in math? Li Jingjing and I got different answers. She chose A, I chose B. We’ve been arguing about this for ages.”

Yang Shekun looked at their flushed faces, which did indeed look like they’d been arguing for a while.

“I remember choosing C,” Jiang Qiang took out her math paper to show them, and sure enough, she had chosen C.

Li Jingjing: “Damn, it was C? We argued all that time and we were both wrong.”

Jiang Qiang nodded: “Yes, it’s C.”

“But why?” Li Jingjing looked at the question again, feeling her solution method wasn’t wrong.

Wang Lin also felt his approach was correct.

Li Jingjing first explained her solution method to Jiang Qiang: “Top student Jiang, my solution felt smooth, I don’t see where I went wrong.”

Jiang Qiang listened without interrupting until the end, then spoke: “Your auxiliary line was incorrect.” In a few sentences, she pointed out Li Jingjing’s mistake.

Li Jingjing suddenly understood: “Oh, so my approach was wrong from the start.”

Wang Lin drew a line with his finger: “Should it be drawn here?”

Jiang Qiang shook her head: “It can be drawn in these three positions.” She used the exam paper to explain to both of them, while Wang Lin and Li Jingjing crowded in front of her to listen.

Jiang Qiang’s explanation was clear, her voice gentle and soft.

Xu Si watched the three heads huddled together, feeling annoyed.

His little teacher was explaining problems to others too.

And they were so close to her.

Yet while they could discuss problems together, he couldn’t.

After Jiang Qiang finished explaining, both students had their moment of realization.

Wang Lin: “Thank you, top student Jiang.”

Li Jingjing also said: “Thank you, top student Jiang.”

At first, Jiang Qiang felt awkward hearing this title, but after hearing it so many times, she got used to it: “You’re welcome.”

The two then used Jiang Qiang’s math paper to check their other multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank answers.

Wang Lin: “I’m done for. I misread the second multiple choice question, got the last one wrong, couldn’t solve one fill-in-the-blank, and got another one wrong.”

Hearing this, Yang Shekun couldn’t help but speak up: “Don’t say that. Your multiple choice score is about the same as my total score. If you’re done for, how am I supposed to live?”

Wang Lin gave him a sheepish grin.

After checking their answers, Li Jingjing and Wang Lin left.

Yang Shekun took Jiang Qiang’s paper for a look. The good news was he got the last multiple choice question right; the bad news was that including this one, he only got four multiple choice questions correct.

Seeing his worried expression, Hao Ming asked: “What’s wrong? Did you fall asleep during the exam? What’s got you looking so troubled?”

“I only got four multiple choice questions right.”

“How do you know?”

Yang Shekun: “I checked against top student Jiang’s paper. Want to check yours?”

After checking his answers, Yang Shekun became even more depressed: “What the hell, Hao Ming, are we even friends? How come you’ve been studying secretly? How did you get so many right?”

Hao Ming looked at his own paper: “I didn’t.”

Xu Si watched as Jiang Qiang’s paper was passed back and forth.

He felt even more annoyed.

Other classmates who wanted to borrow Jiang Qiang’s papers to check their other subjects saw Xu Si’s gloomy expression and retreated.

Damn.

Did someone offend this god of plague?

A pair of soft white hands reached out to Xu Si: “Let me see your paper.”

Xu Si looked at her extended hand, almost putting his own hand in hers.

He hesitantly took out his neat stack of exam papers and placed them on Jiang Qiang’s desk: “I probably got a lot wrong.”

Jiang Qiang smiled at him: “That’s okay.”

Xu Si watched nervously as she looked at his papers, only breathing a sigh of relief when he saw no change in her expression.

Jiang Qiang showed him the math paper, pointing to the third question: “Didn’t we just cover this type of problem in the video lesson the other day?”

Xu Si looked at the question and remembered that during the video lesson, he had been distracted looking at her and hadn’t listened very carefully.

Seeing him stay quiet, Jiang Qiang thought he might have been too embarrassed to ask for multiple explanations that day: “It’s okay, if you don’t understand something, you can ask me as many times as you need, until you understand, okay?”

Hearing her gentle voice, Xu Si felt guilty: “I understand, little teacher.”

After saying this, he asked her: “If I ask you many, many times, won’t you find it annoying?”

“Not at all,” Jiang Qiang replied, then added: “As long as you understand in the end, that’s what matters.”

“Then will you think I’m not smart?”

Jiang Qiang paused for a moment, then answered seriously: “If there are problems I’ve explained several times and you still don’t understand, I won’t think you’re stupid. I’ll just think you’re not being serious.”

“I’ll be serious, little teacher.”