hotmtlnovel Chapter 12: The First Master
Chapter 12: The First Master
Chapter 12
Xiao Yan lived not in a housing estate but in the most common alley houses in the old part of Nancheng, that is, the old, shabby, small residential buildings that are often referred to.
He walked his bicycle into the uneven stone road and parked it at the entrance of the first floor alley, then led Lin ChuSui upstairs to the second floor.
Lin ChuSui could even smell the raw musty wooden odor in the air.
Although the environment outside was not very good, the house was very clean, brightly lit, and even the corners of the furniture that were most prone to dust were cleaned spotless.
There were two bedrooms, one for Xiao Yan and one for his sister.
Coming to his place suddenly, Lin ChuSui felt a little uncomfortable.
At school, they were just the most common classmates, not even good friends.
Now coming to his home, seeing his real life, seeing Xiao Yan's completely different side from the clean and handsome top student at school.
Lin ChuSui felt that the distance between them... was suddenly reduced a lot involuntarily.
Xiao Yan went into the bedroom to change the sheets without saying a word.
Lin ChuSui stood awkwardly at the door, watching his back, and asked, "Is Sister Xiao... your real sister?"
They didn't look much alike.
Xiao Yan leisurely said while changing the sheets, "We met in the orphanage. She was my sister there, and she has always been my sister since."
Lin ChuSui nodded very understandingly and didn't ask any more.
...
That night, after Lin ChuSui took a bath, she put on the white T-shirt Xiao Yan had prepared for her to sleep in.
"The clothes are so big, are they your sister's?"
"My sister is in class with her phone on silent. I didn't want to take her clothes without permission. This T-shirt is mine."
"Oh."
Quite the gentleman, much better than a certain fake foreign devil.
Xiao Yan was doing homework at the desk. He turned his head slightly and glanced at her.
The little madam had just taken a bath. Her black hair was still damp and draped over her slender shoulders. Her small face was whiter than usual, and her lips were lightly flushed.
Her features were extremely beautiful and bright. It was just because she always looked depressed and wore sportswear to play with boys that her lovely features were obscured.
Xiao Yan's gaze moved down and fell below the V-neck of her collarbone. He glanced over it briefly before shifting his eyes away.
Lin ChuSui saw him doing homework, so she sidled over and leaned over the table to watch him do the questions.
"You got the third multiple choice question wrong. This one, you chose C. It should be B." Lin ChuSui pointed at the options.
Xiao Yan casually said, "Choosing C is not wrong. Xu Jia Ning is the one who got it wrong."
"How do you know it was something Xu Jia Ning said?"
"Among those around you... who else could point out a mistake to me besides your arrogant stepbrother?"
"You're so smart." Lin ChuSui flicked the corner of the page sullenly. "And he's not my stepbrother."
She didn't acknowledge it anyway.
Xiao Yan didn't argue with her about it. He just kept doing his homework.
Lin ChuSui leaned over the table. She hesitated for a moment before saying, "About what happened just now, don't tell anyone."
Xiao Yan continued calculating on the draft paper while saying, "You mean the thing about your bath not exceeding fifteen minutes?"
"No! What I told you when I came back... forget it." Lin ChuSui sullenly turned around.
He didn't care anyway.
That's right. It was just her own nagging secret that was hard to let go. How could others... take it to heart.
Xiao Yan's pen paused for a moment. "I won't say anything if you don't want me to."
As soon as Lin ChuSui heard this, she felt it was ominous. She looked at him warily, "Are you trying to threaten me again?"
Xiao Yan quickly wrote a math question on the draft paper and said to her, "Do this question correctly, and I'll keep your secret."
Lin ChuSui's mouth twitched. "Isn't that going overboard?"
Are top students' demands always this hardcore?
"You can choose to self-study from the textbook using formulas to derive it, or ask your stepbrother or someone else for help, or... me."
Lin ChuSui took a cursory look at the question and tragically found that she seemed to not even understand what the question was asking.
"I choose to ask you to teach me." Lin ChuSui didn't bother arguing anymore. She handed the draft paper directly in front of him, "Explain it to me."
Although she put on an expression like "the young miss is already giving you face by asking you to teach me", she shamelessly asked him to "help", Xiao Yan still conscientiously drew a parabola and patiently explained it to her step-by-step—
"F(x) is an odd function, so f(-x) = -f(x)... "
After listening for a while, Lin ChuSui started to doze off, then started daydreaming. Her gaze moved from the pen tip and fell on his fair hand, then along his arm, saw his sexy Adam's apple and his neck with protruding veins, and upward, his thin lips...
Sexy.
"Do you understand?"
She blinked, staring at his lips. "Not at all."
"Then I'll explain it to you again."
Lin ChuSui slumped over the table. "Scholar Xiao, why do you insist on going against me when you're so good-looking?!"
"I'll explain it to you again."
"I don't want to listen."
"When X is less than zero, -f(x) = f(-x) = -[-(negative x) minus 1] = negative x plus 1 greater than 0..."
Lin ChuSui yawned one after another.
Xiao Yan's gaze lightly fell on the draft paper. He paused for a few seconds, then took back the draft paper and continued doing his own exercises, no longer forcing her. "In life, only you can fulfill yourself. Friends can indulge you but can't live your life for you."
Seeing that he seemed a little angry, Lin ChuSui took out her phone and browsed her home screen for a while. Then she looked up at him again, feeling guilty. "I don't need anyone to fulfill me."
He continued calculating expressionlessly, not saying another word, looking as if he really was...
Angry.
Lin ChuSui felt a little bad. She finally picked up the draft paper from before, took a red pen from beside him, and earnestly looked at it for a while.
Look, of course she wouldn't be able to understand it.
Seeing his clean smile, Lin ChuSui was somewhat stunned.
This was the first time she had seen such a relaxed expression on him.
...
During morning reading class, Lu Chi leaned over from behind and whispered in her ear, "Going into the classroom together, you didn't really spend the night together, did you?"
"Yeah, I stayed over at his place for a night."
"Holy crap! The grade's number one, how was it?"
"How was what?"
"His ability! Is he good?"
"The grade's number one is of course good."
After saying this, even Lu TianBai looked back at them, her expression horrified.
To avoid corrupting minors, Lin ChuSui added, "The grade's number one is of course good, you were very happy copying his math homework, weren't you?"
"Don't say he tutored you all night."
"He really did."
"Lame~ Boring."
Xu JiaNing held a book of ancient poems and proses in his hand, mockingly said: "Not going home for the night, running to a boy's house to sleep at night, if your dad knew, he'd probably be so angry he'd jump up."
"None of your damn business." Lin ChuSui said very rudely, "And stop mentioning my dad!"
Xu JiaNing sneered coldly: "Clinging to someone who is already dead and unwilling to let go, making the living hurt and disappointed. You feel the whole world owes you, then who do you owe?"
Lin ChuSui's hand holding the Chinese textbook tightened: "To point fingers at my life...who do you think you are?"
"Sorry, my dad married your mom, so now I'm your elder brother, legally anyway." Xu JiaNing finally put down his book and looked up at her: "I'm polite to you because you took the initiative to take down the photos yesterday, so I feel you're not completely beyond redemption yet."
"Thanks, but I don't need your evaluation."
"I'm too lazy to evaluate you. Oh yes, by the way, they slept in the master bedroom last night."
Lin ChuSui's heart thumped rapidly, blood rushing to her head, her hands clenched tightly into fists: "You...say that again."
Xu JiaNing lifted his chin and sneered coldly: "Kid, do you think you can influence your parents' lives just by rebelling? Immature."
Xiao Yan glanced at Lin ChuSui, her face was already flushed red.
When anger reaches an extreme, it turns into deep helplessness.
Xu JiaNing had poked her most vulnerable spot.
Even Lu TianBai in the front row felt the tense atmosphere and looked back at them worriedly: "Girlfriend, calm down a bit."
Lu Chi's blood was also boiling, ready to be the first to rush up and fight with her if Lin ChuSui started a fight.
Lin ChuSui's voice trembled as she stared fiercely at Xu JiaNing: "My legal 'elder brother', you're very capable, better than me in every way, more sensible, more liked by the family, you enjoy this sense of superiority, don't you?"
Xu JiaNing sneered coldly: "If I have to get a sense of superiority from a loser, wouldn't that make me a total failure?"
"What are you saying!" Lu Chi finally couldn't stand it anymore. He stood up and grabbed Xu JiaNing by the collar: "Just because you can spout some English makes you awesome?"
He and Lin ChuSui had been best buddies since childhood, so of course he couldn't stand seeing Lin ChuSui bullied.
"Use your fists when you can't win with words?"
"Can't win? When ChuSui was awesome, you were still pretending to be a gentleman in some rubbish Eton school!"
Xu JiaNing sneered mockingly: "How awesome could she be? Did she finally pass math? Or did she finally get one question right in English listening?"
"Don't look down on people!" Lu Chi was so angry that smoke seemed to come out of his throat: "From elementary to middle school, ChuSui's grades were always good. She even went on TV!"
"You're joking, right?"
"Joking? Go find out for yourself, the genius girl with a photographic memory from Nancheng Affiliated High School, won so many prizes her hands went soft, and participated in the national memory competition on CCTV, beating down a bunch of Harvard and Oxford college students..."
Xiao Yan glanced at Lin ChuSui.
"Shut up!" Lin ChuSui sharply cut Lu Chi off.
Lu Chi was unwilling, wanted to say something more, but the knife-like gaze forced the words that had welled up in his throat back down.
He sat back down awkwardly, irritably opened his Chinese textbook, and didn't say any more.
Xu JiaNing also sat down, coldly mocking: "Boasting without preparation makes a fool of oneself. If she's so great, I'll call her brother."
Lin ChuSui's mood had calmed down again. She turned around and stared at Xu JiaNing for a long time.
Xu JiaNing felt goosebumps under her gaze and very rudely said, "What?"
Lin ChuSui casually pulled over his math exercise book on the upper left corner of his desk and pointed to the third question: "You got this question wrong, choose B, not C."
Xu JiaNing sneered and curled his lips mockingly: "Impossible."
Lin ChuSui recited aloud: "f(x) is an odd function, then f(-x)=-f(x)."
Xiao Yan slowly turned his head to look at her.
This question was one he had taught her last night, but she didn't understand at all...
The little auntie's jet black eyes were filled with a resolute light. She didn't even bother to use draft paper, directly saying: "When X is less than zero, -f(x)=f(-x)=-[-(negative x) minus 1]=negative x plus 1 greater than 0, so B should be chosen, and C is wrong because f(x) multiplied by f(-x) equals (x minus 1)(negative x plus 1) which is less than 0."
As Xiao Yan listened to her steps, his mind was also quickly calculating.
The corner of his mouth faintly curled up.
A learning disability student with no high school math foundation had actually...memorized all the steps to solving this problem.
...
"Holy crap!"
Before Xu JiaNing could react after Lin ChuSui finished speaking, Lu Chi and Zhang Cheng Yu clapped at the same time, their blood boiling—
"ChuSui is awesome! Serve tea for ChuSui!"
"Goddess ChuSui is back!"
Xu JiaNing picked up his pen and started furiously calculating on the draft paper. Soon, the answer was verified.
It was the same as the steps Lin ChuSui had recited. Choose B, not C. He had been careless.
Xu JiaNing looked at her uncertainly, seeming to start believing what Lu Chi had said earlier.
"Forget calling me brother, I don't lack little brothers." Lin ChuSui nobly and coldly turned around—
"Call me Lord ChuSui."