"I'll go get the other chair." Lin Yuan briefly entered the room first to put down his bag.
He glanced at Ning Qing who was still standing out in the hallway with a bit of confusion.
"I'll wait outside first if you want to tidy up or anything…" She spoke very politely but was surprisingly direct this time.
Lin Yuan was embarrassed.
Does my room look that messy?
Look, the bed is made properly, the pillows are neatly placed, all the clothes are hanging tidily in the cupboard, the small carpet doesn't have any creases and there is no dust on any of the wood.
"No it's fine you can come in, I'll get the other chair."
Then ignoring Ning Qing he walked to the room down the hallway without any urgency.
Ning Qing hesitated for a second and then entered his room. The soft fluffy guest slippers glided across the wood until she almost tripped over a book. The room was actually quite big, but except for a small alcove of tidiness near the bed, it was covered in sprawling books and messy white papers filled with various writings.
There was a large window near the desk. It was closed but you could faintly hear the rain outside hitting diagonally against it.
She picked up the book she'd almost tripped on. It looked like a math's exercise book and it was quite thick. Slowly surveying the room she walked over to Lin Yuan's equally messy desk.
It's not dirty. There was no dust and there was a fresh smell in the air. There was a guitar hanging on the wall but there were no posters of basketball players or football players like you'd expect from a teenage boy.
But the bookshelves were filled with what looked like text books and various other exercise books, maths, physics, chemistry - no english. There was clearly not enough space because other books were lying in tall piles in various spots around the room, some fiction books as well -
Huh?
She had just placed the exercise book on the table when something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Lying on the small desk beside the bed were a large pile of novels.
Romance novels.
At the same time, Lin Yuan entered his sister's bedroom, grimacing at the light pink walls. He quickly got the office chair that had probably been unused for a while and was now a placeholder for some clothes.
Before leaving he glanced around the room.
Looking at the crumpled bed sheet and the clothes hanging all over the place, he smiled indulgently while shaking his head.
Tsk, this girl is really messy.
Dragging the chair slowly to his room, he was surprised to see Ning Qing calmly clearing away the papers and books on his desk. She had her large tote bag on the chair and was now taking out stacks of paper and placing them on the desk.
Lin Yuan felt his face turn red.
Damn it.
"Um…" He coughed lightly to get her attention then began to explain to himself, "I didn't realise it was so messy, you don't have to clean it, I'll do it, I'll do it."
He placed the chair down and went over to the desk but was surprised when he saw the weird expression on her face.
"What's wrong…your face?"
"Oh, it's nothing."
Ning Qing quickly put away her strange thoughts, then gestured toward the other chair.
"It's okay, I'm already finished. Let's get the chair and then we can start, okay?"
After Ning Qing sat down, she began to look through the sorted materials.
This was a special test paper she had compiled to test Lin Yuan's shortcomings. She'd only received the call yesterday so she didn't have much time but she had tried her best.
Sister Yuerong is doing me a favour so I have to take it seriously, even if I may only be teaching him this one time.
Lin Yuan saw her serious expression, and bit down the words he was about to say.
That's my chair though…
He sullenly drew his sister's pink chair to the desk, making sure to keep an appropriate distance. Ning Qing looked up to glance at his movements and then at the open bedroom door and smiled.
"Well, I have seen your grades. Your math and comprehensive science are both very good. It's mainly your English and Chinese that are a little bit behind. Your mother asked me to focus on tutoring you in English. So we'll focus on that first, is that okay?"
Lin Yuan was a little helpless as he listened.
Ning Qing instantly caught his expression.
"Why? You don't like English?" She still had a gentle smile and asked in a soft voice.
"Well it's not that I don't like it…"
Well clearly you don't like it, you're a smart kid, if you liked English your grades would be much better.
But she didn't say that. She just smiled reassuringly.
"It's fine if you don't like it, there are lots of ways to make learning English fun, but we'll talk about that later. First let's do this test, it will let me know exactly where your shortcomings are."
She handed him a pile of papers.
At first Ning Qing had been watching Lin Yuan attempting the answers with a serious look in his eyes but she could tell he was feeling self conscious, so later she just went on her phone.
So for a while there was only the sound of pen against paper and the faint sound of rain in the room. One side had their head down and the other other was looking through her phone and would occasionally glance up to look at the serious figure.
His eyelashes are quite long…
After some time, Lin Yuan put his pen down and rubbed his eyes. He glanced at Ning Qing who was seriously staring at her phone and coughed lightly.
"Um, I've finished."
Ning Qing was surprised. She looked down at the time on her phone and saw that only twenty minutes had passed.
"Are you sure? We have more time, you know."
"I've answered all the ones I could." Lin Yuan's voice was soft.
Ning Qing nodded and then took the paper full of writing from his hand.
"Well I'll need ten or so minutes to mark this, so you can take a short break."
Upon hearing this Lin Yuan yawned and stretched exaggeratedly, then got up from his chair to walk to his bed, picked up a book and plopped down onto the mattress. Ning Qing looked at his movements and felt it was a little funny.
They're quite similar.
Now their positions were reversed. Ning Qing was seriously marking the papers while Lin Yuan would occasionally glance at her. Even with the distance, under the ceiling light he noticed that her eyes were actually hazel, and they seemed to glow like bright searchlights shining upon a dark sea.
Her skin was without blemish and had a healthy colour to it. Sometimes she would twirl her pen when she was thinking or her eyes would wander to some point in the air and glaze over.
He realised he'd been reading the same page for a few minutes when she finally put her pen down and beckoned him over.
"Okay, I've finished marking…" She paused to organise her words, "...well it's good that you wrote something for all the questions, it's always better not to leave any answers blank."
Lin Yuan felt annoyed at her conciliatory words.
"I probably got most of them wrong, right?"
"Yes."
Now Lin Yuan was surprised by her straightforward answer.
She looked at him seriously for a few seconds then broke out in a smile.
"But that's why I'm here isn't it?"
"Basically I've figured out your main problems are reading comprehension, and by the way your vocabulary is much too low and your grammar is not solid, this is the most basic thing for English. So mainly we'll focus on these things first. I'll give you a list of words to memorise by the next lesson, okay?"
This time she really felt like a teacher, so Lin Yuan couldn't help but straighten his back and put his palms on his knees like an obedient student listening carefully.
"From my experience the most important thing you need when learning English is language intuition, especially for comprehending large passages, do you know what that means?"
Lin Yuan shook his head.
"Well it's like how you intuitively know when a sentence in Chinese doesn't feel right when you hear it, or how a word doesn't make sense or feels awkward. You're not thinking about grammar or vocabulary as you're speaking right?"
"They don't teach you this in high school as much as they should, but getting familiar with the language by reading and listening to it constantly will help you build your intuition. Remember what I said before about fun ways to learn, this is what I mean."
Lin Yuan didn't quite understand what she was talking about. Perhaps seeing his confusion she further explained.
"For example you can watch English movies with subtitles, have you seen many English films?"
The last time he went to the movies was when he was a kid…
"So you're saying I can study by watching films."
Looking at his mischievous expression, Ning Qing suddenly laughed. It was a soft and soothing chuckle, ringing out like bells.
"Well it's not just watching, you have to pay attention and actively listen, and it's not just movies you can watch shows or read books "
Ning Qing looked around his room at the various exercise books, and then continued speaking.
"Actually English is more useful than you think. Your sister told me you want to get into Tsinghua University. If you just improve your English it will be the easiest way to ensure you pass. And besides you like maths right? You'll need English to read foreign papers and many textbooks are written in English."
Lin Yuan felt confused. Of course he knew that improving his English was the most practical decision but this is the last year, how much better can he get? He was only hoping to improve his marks just enough so that it didn't drag his rankings down. The rest felt too extravagant.
"It's easier said than done."
Ning Qing looked at his vacillating expression and spoke with certainty.
"Trust me, I will definitely help you improve. You are so smart, I know you can do it."
Staring back at those clear eyes and feeling the confidence of her words, Lin Yuan was a little flustered.
"Okay." He replied quietly.
Hearing this, she smiled and then handed him his marked test paper.
"Good. Now let's go through the questions, one by one. This first question…"
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