Оn thе wау, Su Zaizai kерt thinking аbоut оne thing.
What tyре of girl doеs Zhang Lurang асtuаllу likе?
Нe’s so quiеt and reserved—shouldn’t he find sоmеonе talkаtivе tо сomрlеmеnt him...
Вut hе seеms to prefеr рeаce and quiеt, so he рrobablу finds hеr quitе nоisу.
Аhhhhh, it’s sо strange—whу сan’t shе stор talking оncе shе starts spеаking with him? She rеally isn’t the tуpe to gеt оvеrly fаmiliar with peорlе so еаsilу, but shе just саn’t cоntrоl hersеlf!
It feеls like evеrything shе dоеs in front оf him is wrоng.
Unаblе to figure it out, Su Zаizai inexplicаbly began tо recаll: when shе аcсidentally bumped into Zhang Lurang on the bus today, what expression did he have on his face?
It wasn’t until she reached the school gate that she remembered.
She had been too nervous at the time—she didn’t even dare to look at him.
But Su Zaizai recalled that moment on the sports field when she grabbed Zhang Lurang’s wrist—the emotion that flashed in his eyes was impatience and... annoyance.
He’s too hard to win over.
In Zhang Lurang’s eyes, her looks probably don’t count for anything at all.
Then she’ll just have to rely on her personal charm to win him over.
...If she even has any.
When Su Zaizai arrived at the classroom, it wasn’t even five o’clock yet, but more than ten people were already there. A few were gathered together chatting, while the rest were studying.
After resting for a bit, she quickly picked up her physics workbook and began doing her homework with immense agony.
Halfway through, Jiang Jia walked in through the front door, sat down at her seat, and excitedly leaned over to ask, “Hey, Zaizai, did you get it?”
Su Zaizai felt like her head was about to explode from looking at the physics problems, and hearing this question made it even worse. Her pen paused for a moment, her expression ambiguous.
She sighed and brushed it off casually, “Let me finish this first.”
Seeing that she was working on physics problems, Jiang Jia sympathetically patted her shoulder and didn’t disturb her further, quietly pulling out her phone to play.
Suddenly, she noticed Su Zaizai’s WeChat nickname: “Huh, why did you change your WeChat name?”
Jiang Jia hadn’t added a note for Su Zaizai, so she could immediately see that her nickname had changed.
Su Zaizai let out an “ah” but didn’t explain.
“What’s wrong with you? ‘Little Fairy’ was so much better—why change it to ‘Su Idiot’?”
“...I just changed it to ‘szz.’”
“Isn’t that just ‘Su Idiot’?”
“Get lost.”
With all this commotion, Su Zaizai lost her mood for doing homework.
After thinking for a moment, she briefly mentioned to Jiang Jia what had happened today and then asked, “Do you think he doesn’t exactly hate me? After all, he basically responds whenever I talk to him...”
“I don’t know either,” Jiang Jia thought for a moment. “But I heard from my classmates that Zhang Lurang is just that kind of person. Even though he seems aloof and cold, he basically responds whenever someone talks to him, so he doesn’t make people feel awkward.”
“Oh.” Su Zaizai felt a bit disappointed.
“Zhou Xuyin looks so lively and noisy, but he’s actually the type who will absolutely ignore you if he doesn’t want to deal with you. So, in comparison, the girls in their class actually prefer Zhang Lurang.”
Thinking about it this way, Zhang Lurang really seems to enjoy leading people on. Su Zaizai felt a bit weary.
If she ever managed to win him over, she’d have to constantly guard against him straying.
The more she thought about it, the more downcast Su Zaizai became: “I’m so afraid he hates me.”Jiang Jia hesitated for a moment, offering comfort, "It probably won't happen."
"Afraid I might do something wrong, afraid I might be too enthusiastic, and afraid he might think I'm too cold." Su Zai Zai rubbed her eyes, unable to take anything in, just murmuring, "But what can I do? I've never pursued anyone else before."
Su Zai Zai had no experience.
So that balance—she couldn't quite grasp it.
For Zhang Lu Rang, she had nothing but a heart full of enthusiasm.
Whenever she encountered him, all that enthusiasm found an outlet.
Su Zai Zai couldn't control it.
Her enthusiasm for him, the involuntary display of her affection.
Su Zai Zai couldn't control it at all.
Chapter Nine
I'll sell you my English grades.
The freebie is me—want it or not?
—From "Su Zai Zai's Little Fairy Diary"
After a night passed, Su Zai Zai regained her spirits.
After all, she wasn't the type to worry unnecessarily.
No matter what, she'd just go for it first and see.
With that mindset, Su Zai Zai began making her presence felt around Zhang Lu Rang with remarkable frequency.
After finishing dinner in the afternoon, she bid farewell to Jiang Jia and returned to the classroom.
Timing it just right, Su Zai Zai spent fifteen minutes on her homework before grabbing the rest of the day's assignments and heading straight to the reading room.
Finding the same spot as last time, she immediately spotted Zhang Lu Rang, head bowed as he worked on his homework.
The seat opposite him was still occupied, so Su Zai Zai decisively took the seat beside him.
Zhang Lu Rang didn't even bat an eyelid.
He seemed completely indifferent to who sat beside him, his focus never wavering.
Su Zai Zai glanced at his exercise book.
English cloze test.
She blinked, shifting her attention away from him and turning to the chemical formulas in her own exercise book, feeling so frustrated she was nearly on the verge of a breakdown.
Why was it that, despite being so good at English, she couldn't recognize these letters when they were combined?
Question three: Particles with equal numbers of electrons are called isoelectronic species. Which of the following particles is not an isoelectronic species...
Su Zai Zai decided to stop complaining and quickly picked up her pen, scribbling and sketching in her rough draft notebook for over ten minutes.
Zhang Lu Rang, tormented by English, inexplicably found his attention drifting as he listened to the person beside him counting on her fingers, whispering under her breath: "Hydrogen, helium, lithium... lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium... sodium... no, no, magnesium, aluminum, sodium, silicon, phosphorus, sodium, thirteen."
Zhang Lu Rang: "..."
When she finally calculated the answer, her spirits lifted as if liberated.
Solving a difficult problem felt incredibly rewarding.
With her mind at ease, Su Zai Zai immediately noticed Zhang Lu Rang's gaze directed her way.
His expression was strange, carrying an emotion she couldn't quite decipher.
Su Zai Zai felt a bit embarrassed under his stare and quickly lowered her eyes.
Only when he looked away did she let out a sigh of relief.
Then, cautiously, she glanced at his exercise book.
...He was still stuck on that cloze test.
And it seemed like she had done this one before. Su Zai Zai curiously leaned over to take a look, pondering the answer, hesitating to speak.
Soon, she withdrew her gaze and worked for another ten minutes. When she turned back, she saw he was still on that cloze test, and she felt so anxious she almost wanted to snatch it away and do it for him.
Another ten minutes later, noticing that Zhang Lu Rang had moved on to the grammar section, Su Zai Zai inexplicably breathed a little easier.At 6:20 PM, after Zhang Lu Rang filled in the last answer for the first reading comprehension section, he began packing his things to leave.
Su Zai Zai hurriedly stuffed her belongings into her backpack and quickly followed him.
Once outside the reading room, she stood beside him and couldn’t help but whisper a reminder, "You took way too long on the cloze test. You spent almost half an hour on it—such a waste of time."
Mentioning English made Zhang Lu Rang quite irritable. He fell silent for a moment before speaking in a low, muffled tone, "If I don’t understand it, I don’t want to keep going."
Hearing this, Su Zai Zai was somewhat shocked. "You understood it?"
"..." Even though he hadn’t.
"You only got three questions right! Did you really understand it?!"
"..." She didn’t have to humiliate him so directly, did she?
Beside him, Su Zai Zai continued chattering away with her complaints. For the first time, Zhang Lu Rang felt a flicker of annoyance and said sternly, "You only got three multiple-choice questions right in chemistry. You spent fifteen minutes thinking about that one question, and the answer you wrote was still wrong."
Hearing him speak such a long sentence for the first time, Su Zai Zai was momentarily stunned. Then, unwilling to back down, she defended herself, "That’s because I never attended those classes."
Zhang Lu Rang, who had listened attentively in every English class yet still scored thirty points, fell silent.
Su Zai Zai immediately realized her mistake and forcefully corrected herself, "Ahem, ahem, it’s because I’ve never done that type of question before. Now that I’ve done it this time, I’ll know how to do it next time."
Zhang Lu Rang remained silent.
Su Zai Zai scratched her head and continued trying to salvage the situation, emphasizing, "I listen super attentively in every class, but I just can’t seem to grasp it. Ugh, it’s so frustrating."
She was definitely not the kind of student who slacked off in class—she was very diligent!
Seeing that Zhang Lu Rang had no intention of continuing the conversation, Su Zai Zai also fell silent.
The hallway was quiet, filled with the sound of howling wind, the tapping of shoes against the floor, the soft breaths of the two, and… Su Zai Zai’s rapidly beating heart.
They soon reached the third floor.
Zhang Lu Rang silently headed toward the classroom.
"Zhang Lu Rang." Su Zai Zai stood at the stairwell, the dim light of the energy-saving lamp casting a glow on her, making her fair face appear even more radiant.
He turned around, his expression indifferent, quietly waiting for her to speak.
The darkening sky was shrouded in a mist-like night.
Su Zai Zai stopped joking and softly reminded him, "Don’t just drill exercises mindlessly. Memorizing vocabulary properly is much more useful."
"Huh? So you’re teaching a top student how to study?!"
Su Zai Zai was taken aback by her words and stammered in rebuttal, "He’s not a top student in English at all, okay?"
"But he still ranked in the top fifty in the grade for last month’s exam, even with his English score included."
"..." Su Zai Zai couldn’t argue. After thinking for a moment, she replied earnestly, "Anyway, I’m sure he hasn’t memorized any vocabulary. That cloze test only had a few unfamiliar words—they were all from the first unit, and he couldn’t understand any of them."
"Even top students have their struggles," Jiang Jia sighed.
"Actually, I know it’s pretty laughable for me to remind him like that," Su Zai Zai said, flipping open her chemistry workbook and looking at the multiple-choice question. "But it feels like he’s genuinely troubled by English."
"After all, his friends are all in the advanced class. If he gets moved out, he’ll have to make new friends all over again."
Oh, is that so?Su Zai Zai didn’t dwell on it any longer. Pointing at the question, she asked, “Can you help me see where I went wrong with this one?”
Jiang Jia pressed down her pencil, took out a rough draft paper, and began explaining it to her. After finishing, she suddenly felt a bit amazed: “Hey, you’re actually asking about a chemistry problem? Didn’t you say you were going to cut ties with chemistry?”
“We made up.” Su Zai Zai rested her chin on her hand, looking somewhat frustrated. “Ah, sodium, magnesium, aluminum… Why do I always mix them up…”
He probably didn’t hear that, right…
So embarrassing.
After the last class of evening self-study.
Zhang Lu Rang took out the English answer key to check his answers for the cloze test. Sure enough, he only got three right, and only two for the grammar section. Surprisingly, he got all the reading comprehension questions correct.
This instantly lifted his mood quite a bit.
But he still didn’t want to look at the explanations. After a quick glance, he tossed the answer key back into his drawer.
Ye Zhenxin stood up, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and couldn’t help but comment when she saw the sea of red marks on his exercise book: “How did you get so many wrong again?”
Zhang Lu Rang didn’t answer.
She thought for a moment, then sat back down and turned her head to look at him. “Do you want me to teach you?”
“No need.”
His straightforward reply made Ye Zhenxin feel a bit awkward, but she didn’t say anything else. Instead, she added, “Ah, well, don’t get discouraged. Keep working hard, and your grades will improve eventually.”
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