Clutching the receiver, Yue Qingqing didn’t know what to say for a moment, and the other side didn’t rush her either.
The two people, spanning across China, were silent over the phone.
They could only hear each other’s faint breathing.
The restlessness and anxiety of this period were being quietly soothed.
Yue Qingqing suddenly understood why she had been feeling uneasy.
Because from her previous life to this one, Yue Qingqing had actually grown up under the protection of others.
In her past life, her senior brothers were extremely attentive, and in this life, the Yue Family had also protected her very well.
But now, it was finally time for Yue Qingqing to face things on her own.
Perhaps this is what it feels like for a lazy fish to fear the world outside the pan after lounging for too long?
Yue Qingqing’s thoughts were adrift when suddenly a faint chuckle came from the other side.
"What... what are you laughing at?"
Yue Qingqing swallowed, wondering if she had unconsciously spoken her thoughts out loud.
It didn’t seem like it, though.
Through the receiver, Jiang Jingze’s voice sounded as pleasant as ever.
"I’m laughing because you’re very cute."
"Why?" Yue Qingqing felt an irritated blush coming on, sensing a hint of mockery.
"I don’t know, I can just imagine what you look like, and it’s very cute."
Like a sticky rice dumpling, with puffed cheeks lost in thought.
Now she must have turned into an angry, pink, fermented rice dumpling.
Yue Qingqing felt Jiang Jingze’s laughter being transmitted into her ear, making the whole earlobe tingle, perhaps because the receiver was held too close.
"Stop laughing! I called to ask you about something related to studying."
Yue Qingqing finally stopped wasting phone charges and began to discuss serious matters.
Hearing that a kid named Qian Wentao was always provoking Yue Qingqing, Jiang Jingze snorted coldly.
Upon discovering Yue Qingqing’s recent anxieties, he let out a soft sigh, feeling very protective.
Yue Qingqing asked, "Jiang brother, I heard that your math scores are particularly good; you nearly had a perfect score on the college entrance exam. How did you do it?"
After pondering for a moment, Jiang Jingze replied, "Qingqing, do you know what native language thinking is?"
Native language thinking is the concept of adjusting your thought process to a native speaker’s mentality when learning a foreign language.
For instance, with English, beginners often translate what the other person says into Chinese to understand, and when responding, they translate their organized Chinese ideas back into English.
It’s a two-step process with two layers of translation in between.
But once you become more proficient in the language, you begin to understand English directly, without needing Chinese as an intermediary.
This is a classic case of native language thinking.
Jiang Jingze slowly explained, "Actually, there’s a similar trick to learning math. When you see a number, you can think of it as a shape, or as one among many numbers, analyzing it from the perspective of numbers..."
Jiang Jingze’s voice was very gentle, and Yue Qingqing’s earlobes turned inexplicably red.
Equally, what he said was very practical.
Yue Qingqing found herself listening intently without realizing it.
Time flew by quickly, and when Yue Qingqing looked at the clock in the living room again, she found that an hour had passed by.
"Today’s content is about this much," Teacher Jiang was also coming to the end of the lesson.
Yue Qingqing caught the key point, "Today?"
Jiang Jingze chuckled, "I can’t just ignore my silly child, can I? Let’s have lessons at this time for the next few days."
Yue Qingqing hadn’t expected that her spur-of-the-moment request for help would suddenly lead to extra tutoring sessions.
Was this a case of a forced sale?
Sensing Yue Qingqing’s hesitation, Jiang Jingze asked, "Don’t want to fulfill the bet?"
"I do!" Yue Qingqing clenched her fist; she couldn’t allow the homeroom teacher to apologize to that sort of person.
"So, continue tomorrow?"
"Yes!" This time, Yue Qingqing’s agreement was decisive.
"That settles it, then."
After Yue Qingqing hung up, Jiang Jingze kept laughing to himself.
How does that saying go again? Once a teacher, for a lifetime a—husband?