Chapter 124: Her Young Uncle Had Never Picked Her Up Before

At noon, Gu Ci returned home and brought back two large boxes. By now, everyone had grown accustomed to these boxes and felt no particular resistance toward them. In fact, seeing Gu Ci struggle to bring them over from the security office alone, they kindly suggested that next time she should let the boys in the class help her.

Gu Ci then pulled a stack of comprehensive science exam papers from her backpack and distributed them as usual for everyone to work on during the lunch study session. The students were already very familiar with these graded-difficulty sets, and they began to work through them with a rustle of pens.

As the lunch study session neared its end, Jin Jiejiao brought some major news to the class. After consulting with the other teachers, she had decided to carve out a portion of the time previously dedicated to uniform lecturing for a Q&A session. She had proposed this because the students in Class 12 were uneven in their academic levels; since every student had mastered different concepts, a "one-size-fits-all" lecture was incredibly inefficient.

The teachers agreed that her assessment was correct. Since Class 12 was already at the bottom, they had no reason to oppose Jin Jiejiao’s attempt at a novel approach. Once they started the new method, they realized its benefits. Initially, they had feared that Class 12 students would only ask simple, repetitive questions, leaving them unable to provide meaningful help to more than a few students.

Instead, they discovered that these students were capable of drawing inferences from a single example. Once a teacher explained a specific problem-solving approach to a student, that student would write the problem type on the blackboard and sign their name beneath it. Subsequently, if another classmate struggled with that type of problem, they would approach the student who had signed their name. That student would then explain the solution and share their thought process. Afterward, the student who had just learned the method would write their own name in a line beneath the first, so that a third student struggling with the same issue could seek help from the second, and so on.

This process went far beyond merely solving a problem; it became a cycle of inference, repetition, and consolidation. All the teachers were amazed by the novelty and the high efficiency of this approach. Some teachers who taught other classes even considered adopting this method, though they eventually dismissed the idea—primarily because they lacked the vast array of study materials that Class 12 now possessed.

***

When school finally ended, Gu Ci packed her bag at a leisurely pace. Huo Shuyue did not leave immediately either, moving with a sluggishness that mimicked a slow-motion film. Her eyes flickered toward Gu Ci every now and then, only to be quickly averted.

Just then, Gu Ci’s WeChat pinged.

【Qin Jing: Gu, are you done with school? I’m at the school gate. How about we go get some dinner?】

Gu Ci paused, her hands stilling over her bag, and glanced toward Huo Shuyue. Huo Shuyue had been looking at her, but the moment their eyes met, she snapped her head away, looking remarkably like someone trying to hide a bell by covering their own ears.

Gu Ci said, "..." She called out to Huo Shuyue, "I have something to take care of tonight..."

Huo Shuyue seemed to bristle, cutting her off immediately with a retort meant to hide her true feelings, "What does your business have to do with me? I don’t need you to tutor me! I hope you’re busy every single day—don't bother me!"

Gu Ci raised an eyebrow and calmly finished her sentence, "So, you’ll be coming to my place later."

Because of the tutoring, Gu Ci had told Gu Changrong that she was sharing an apartment with a friend near the school and wouldn't be coming home at night. This time, both Gu Changrong and Su Wan believed her, merely urging her to take good care of herself.

Huo Shuyue huffed, "I’m not coming!"

With that, she grabbed her bag and stormed out, though the weight that had been pressing on her heart for some reason lifted.

Huo Shuyue walked with a light step toward the stairwell. Just then, she heard the sound of girls laughing and talking from another direction. Upon recognizing one voice that was intimately familiar, Huo Shuyue’s back stiffened instinctively, and anger surged within her.

A group of girls walked past, chatting and laughing. The girl in the center glanced casually to the side and saw Huo Shuyue standing opposite her. The smile on the girl's face froze instantly. She lowered her head, trembling, and whispered to the girl beside her, "L-let's go, quickly."

The other girls instinctively looked in the direction she had been staring, and upon seeing it was Huo Shuyue, they too bowed their heads and hurried past her.

Once they were well out of sight, one of the girls let out a sigh of relief. "Scared the life out of me! I thought Huo Shuyue was going to come over and beat us up!"

"But... how come Huo Shuyue didn't seem as scary as the rumors say?"

***

"Shi Xuetong, what’s wrong? Are you okay?"

The girl surrounded by the group was indeed Shi Xuetong. At that moment, she was trembling, her face deathly pale, causing the girls from Class 11 great concern. She seemed genuinely terrified because of Huo Shuyue.

Her eyes flickered. Thinking back to the moment she had brushed past Huo Shuyue, she still felt a chill down her spine. She hadn't expected Huo Shuyue to just let her walk by like that.

Thinking this, she kept her head down and whispered, "I'm fine, it's just... everything from the past is over now..."

"The past? Did she bully you back then?"

Shi Xuetong immediately thought of how Huo Shuyue had refused to help her on Sunday and had deliberately made it impossible for her to stay in Class 12. A struggle played out in her eyes, and her gaze turned red. "I just never expected that even though she was always arrogant and domineering, I still considered her my friend, but she..."

As she spoke, Shi Xuetong covered her face, sobbing. The girls from Class 11 felt they understood the situation perfectly and began chattering away, comforting Shi Xuetong and speaking up for her grievances.

Huo Shuyue had said nothing from start to finish, yet the lighthearted feeling she had felt earlier seemed to have vanished completely.

She walked in silence all the way to the school gate. Just as she was preparing to walk home, a rebellious, carefree voice called out from a car.

"Little Shuyue, over here!"

It was Qin Yu's voice. Through the lowered window, Huo Shuyue saw Rong Ye sitting inside.

Huo Shuyue felt completely flattered. Her uncle had never come to pick her up before! This was truly the first time. She trotted over to the car, a smile on her face. "Uncle, what made you decide to come and get me?"

Rong Ye let out a casual, indifferent grunt. He scanned the area outside and asked, as if it were a passing thought, "Where is Gu Ci?"