“Ahem!” Su Yang tried to cover up the awkward scene by clearing his throat. He then said to Qu Xiaomeng, “Have some porridge first.”
However, Su Yang’s bluff was still in effect as Qu Xiaomeng was still caught in the moment. She pouted her round cheeks and said loudly, “I don’t want to be a vegetarian! I want meat!”
‘Sh*t, I think I might have gone too far with the hypnotizing. Did I add points to my bull sh*tting ability?’
He tapped Qu Xiaomeng’s shoulder and calmed her down. “Even if you want to have meat, you must eat some porridge first.”
Qu Xiaomeng looked at him with a silly cute expression. “Really?”
He nodded seriously.
“Okay...”
After she had her porridge, the lecturer and student trio headed back to the lecture hall. When they reached the entrance of the hall, Qu Xiaomeng finally regained her senses and realized that she had been fooled. She got grumpy and started to stomp her foot in her mind.
‘My goodness! Qu Xiaomeng! You are so stupid! How can you let your student trick you? It must be the diet. I haven’t had rice for the past few days, so I must be lacking glucose in my brain!’
She glared at Su Yang. She knew he had bluffed her for her own good, but the insult of being lectured by her own student made her grumpy.
Su Yang felt the burning gaze from Qu Xiaomeng, so he glanced at her. “What’s wrong?”
Since he spoke to her first, she cleared her throat and feigned a serious look. “Mr. Su, I suppose you aren’t lying to me about passing the semester as well, are you?”
‘As well?’
Su Yang sharply captured the term. It seemed like his lecturer had noticed what happened, so he said, “Of course not. I’m giving my heart to learning English.” He did not even learn a single alphabet in the past two weeks.
Qu Xiaomeng nodded and simply believed him.
Just before Su Yang heaved a breath of relief, she said, “Then, I’ll look forward to your score in the midterms next Tuesday.”
Su Yang was shocked. ‘Wait, what? Midterms are next Tuesday?”
Qu Xiaomeng looked at him. “What’s wrong? Surprised?”
He nodded dully.
Chu Xia whispered into his ear, “Ms. Qu mentioned the midterms in the last class.”
He was speechless this time. ‘Great, I have to thank myself for not paying attention in class.’
Qu Xiaomeng continued to look at him with a delighted gaze. “Mr. Su, do your best in your midterms. I have my eyes on your score.”
At that very moment, Su Yang’s mind had a bunch of thoughts about revenge like the story about Mr. Dongpo and the wolf[1]. She must have done this to get back to him for bluffing her.
At the next moment, a beep sounded in his mind.
[New Random Mission: Score at least 59 marks in the midterms next Tuesday.]
‘What the...? What is the difference between 59 marks and passing the midterms? It’s not funny at all! What else can I get? 59.5 marks?
‘The system knows that my English is bad, yet it gives me a mission in English. I dare you to give me a mission about Mathematics. I’ll take it even if you ask me to score 100 in the test!’
However, the system could not hear Su Yang’s grumbling, so it did not change.
Su Yang felt defeated. ‘Sigh. Passing English is harder than scoring 100 in Mathematics...’
He sat down at the last row and amid his ceaseless grumble, Monday’s English class started.
Maybe because of the bowl of life-saving porridge, Qu Xiaomeng was a lot healthier and louder during the lecture. She continued her passionate English lecture in front of the hall. Even though the students tried their best to listen, they could not understand because their level in English was not as good as Qu Xiaomeng.
Needless to say, Qu Xiaomeng’s level of English and her knowledge was quite high, but her teaching of the language was nothing stellar.
A great learner might not be a good teacher. A teacher was an occupation that required practice. It required one to master the knowledge at hand and split it down into digestible bits to the students so that they could learn better.
This was the reason why a great teacher might not result in great students.
Soon enough, the first session of English was over. The effect of the porridge might have faded because Qu Xiaomeng suddenly felt weak during the break. Her stomach started to hurt again. While it was not as bad as before, it was still not comfortable.
It was then a beep sounded in Su Yang’s head. He was lying on the table and was at war with English.
Su Yang curiously tapped the Random Mission.
[New Random Mission: Help your English lecturer to get rid of Chronic Gastritis]
‘Er...’
Su Yang looked towards the podium and saw Qu Xiaomeng on the chair when her hands over her chest while her face looked a little pale.
‘It seems like she’s damaged her stomach from all the dieting.’
Girls nowadays wanted to be slim and slender, but they never realized that boys liked girls with a little meat. A girl that was too thin was never a boy’s favorite because she would feel stiff when hugged.
Su Yang sized Qu Xiaomeng up. Her forehead was covered in sweat again. Even though she made him study English, he was not that heartless to watch her suffer.
‘Fine. I’m really a kind guy. I’m not doing this because of the mission.’
Curing Qu Xiaomeng was actually a piece of cake. When Su Yang received the mission, he thought of Sanque.
Ever since that ginseng came to life from his point-addition, it played dead in Gru’s pot and did not even say a word throughout the day. It did not even greet Su Yang in the morning.
Even Little Hus, that naughty b*stard, would flatter him just so he could have a sniff of breakfast.
Now would be the best time to put the ginseng to use.
With that in mind, Su Yang looked around sleazily before he took his phone out. He tapped on it and typed a sentence to Deeny: [Deeny, ask Sanque how much of his roots do I need to cure Chronic Gastritis?]
Two seconds later, Deeny replied: [Sanque says 3 cm of its roots.]
Su Yang: [Cut it for me and soak it in hot water. Put it on my table. I have a use for it.]
[Okay.]
After replying to Su Yang, Deeny pulled out a pair of scissors from the drawer of the tea table in the living room. She flew to Sanque and whispered, “Sanque, bear with the pain. Master says he needed 3 cm of you.”
Sanque opened its eyes slowly and glanced at her dully.
Just when she thought the ginseng was a cool and arrogant one, Sanque said, “Go easy on me.”
Deeny was slightly stunned before laughter broke out from her. “Sanque! Your cool and arrogant personality is ruined! Do you know that?”
Sanque looked at her without saying anything.
Deeny was smart enough to not continue the conversation because Su Yang was waiting. She raised the scissors and counted three roots at Sanque’s head.
Chop! Three roots were snipped off from Sanque’s head.
After that, Deeny flew away with the roots and put them into a cup of hot water. When the roots touched the hot water, they slowly dissolved and disappeared into the water in the blink of an eye. The transparent water then turned slightly yellow.
Deeny then put the cup of ginseng water on the table, waiting for Su Yang to scan it out of the virtual space.
On the other hand, while Sanque was watching Deeny flying around with her chores, its wrinkled face crumpled and a sentence spilled out softly, “It...really...hurts...”
[1] Mr. Dongpo and the wolf: The story is about Mr. Dongpo showing kindness to a wolf but eventually got attacked by it. Mr. Dongpo saved a wolf from a hunter, but the wolf tried to attack him after the hunter left. Moral of the story: don’t be kind to the wrong people or your kindness will bite you back.