No one understands rebirth better than me

Chapter 121 Call him Guan Ren
"Tsk..."

"?"

During her morning run on Saturday, Gu Wancheng suddenly frowned slightly while resting.

Ever since Guan Ren first reminded her, she now takes off her shoes to check them whenever she feels uncomfortable, and empties out the small pebbles and particles from the track.

If you don't feel uncomfortable, then you don't need to.

Today, however, she showed signs of slight discomfort on her face, yet she did not take off her shoes.

She simply sat on the chair, slightly tiptoeing, with one delicate hand gently pressing on the heel of her shoe.

"Teacher Gu, are your heels chafed?"

Gu Wancheng glanced at the obvious concern on the student's face and nodded:
"Yeah, a little bit."

"We have to be careful! We don't want it to get worn out!"

"..."

Gu Wancheng didn't quite understand why her student seemed even more heartbroken than she was when she heard that her teacher's foot might be injured.

But this is not important.

Importantly, Guan Ren pulled two Band-Aids out of his pocket the next moment.

"Teacher Gu, please stick this on your heel."

Applying bandages to the heels is a common way for women to prevent blisters when wearing shoes.

Especially in summer.

Although it is late autumn and early winter, Gu Wancheng's feet are obviously more delicate than those of an ordinary woman, otherwise she would not feel uncomfortable after running for a long time even while wearing cotton socks.

However, seeing the band-aid Guan Ren had taken out, Gu Wancheng couldn't help but ask:
"You carry these with you?"

"Yes, just in case."

Guan Ren nodded:
"When you're traveling, it's always good to be prepared, because you never know when you might need to use it."

"..."

Gu Wancheng didn't say anything and reached out to take the band-aid, but Guan Ren had already squatted down.

"Hey!"

Gu Wancheng was startled:
"What are you doing?"

"I'll stick it on for you, Teacher Gu."

Gu Wancheng frowned slightly:
"No, I'll do it myself."

"But you can't see it, so you can't stick it accurately."

"That's not necessary, I..."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all, Teacher Gu. It's just a small thing."

“You…tsk!”

Seeing her student squatting in front of her, Gu Wancheng felt a little strange. She didn't want to linger and just wanted to get it over with quickly. So she put her hands on the bench, frowned slightly, and shut her mouth.

"Teacher Gu, please take off your shoes."

"..."

Gu Wancheng parted her bright red lips slightly, then slowly pulled her small, cotton-socked feet out of her shoes.

But because her feet were warm from running, the sudden contact with the cold air caused her toes to instinctively curl up.

Then Guan Ren raised his hand, wanting to help her take off her socks a little.

Unfortunately, they acted too late.

Gu Wancheng has already taken the initiative to do so.

Slender white fingers slipped into the top of the sock, slightly loosened it, and then gently pulled the white cotton sock down to her ankles along her smooth skin.

However, cotton socks are elastic and will still block the area where a band-aid needs to be applied.

So you need to pull it down a little further, piling a circle of snow-white cotton cloth around the soles of your feet, revealing your smooth, rounded heels, just like a young girl's.

"..."

Looking at that half-undressed, half-covered jade foot, Guan Ren's heart stirred slightly.

One can only say that such a beautiful scene is also a kind of "half-hidden beauty".

At the same time, because the socks that had been taken off were wrapped around the soles of her feet, there was a slight congestion in her heels, which made the originally light and delicate pink blush on them even more intense, like a shy blush on a young girl's cheeks, as tempting as a washed cherry.

Are you alright?

"Ah? Oh! Almost done, almost done..."

Guan Ren almost forgot his business while pulling on the band-aid, but when he heard Gu Wancheng's suspicious urging, he immediately and accurately applied the band-aid to the heel bone above Gu Wancheng's heel.

Then, he extended one finger from each hand, placed it on Gu Wancheng's soft hind feet for leverage, and pressed down firmly.

"Alright, Teacher Gu, give me the other one too."

"..."

Gu Wancheng found these words somewhat awkward.

But she gave it to him as he asked.

----------

After applying the two bandages, Gu Wancheng started running again and indeed didn't feel any unusual discomfort.

Then it's time for another week of tutoring classes.

After getting used to things last week.

This week's tutoring sessions were much more formal, with stricter discipline and atmosphere.

However, for Guan Ren, strictness is someone else's problem.

He himself was quite relaxed and didn't feel much pressure.

He gets tutoring in Chinese, math, and English. He doesn't care much about Chinese, he listens attentively to math lessons, and he treats English tutoring as just a way to memorize vocabulary under the teacher's supervision. Because of Guan Ren's midterm grades, An Ning was initially somewhat skeptical of his recommended learning method of "focusing on vocabulary and using movies as supplementary entertainment."

But this week, seeing that Guan Ren was actually putting his method into practice—the teacher was lecturing while he was memorizing words—my trust in him increased significantly.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"!"

An Ning, who had been secretly peeking at Guan Ren for a while, was discovered. Her delicate face immediately turned red, and she pursed her lips like a frightened little bird, turning her head away in a panic.

Guan Ren didn't take it seriously at the time.

But after class, when she bought a grilled sausage and came back, I saw her diligently writing words in her notebook.

"Yes, that's right."

"!"

Guan Ren, munching on a grilled sausage, jumped up and down in surprise. Little Lemon was startled again. After seeing Guan Ren smiling as he stared at the words she was copying, she subconsciously raised her hand to cover the notebook.

"Your handwriting is beautiful."

Guan Ren, completely oblivious to boundaries, moved even closer and began to seriously examine the words An Ning had written.

"Mmm...it's really beautiful..."

Not only in English, but Guan Ren also glanced at the few Chinese characters on the notebook and couldn't help but feel a deep respect:
"It sounds exactly like your voice."

"?"

An Ning, whose face had been flushed the whole time, paused slightly upon hearing this and couldn't help but ask in a low voice:
"Words can be read, but sounds are heard..."

"I know."

Guan Ren gestured with the half-eaten sausage in his hand, gazing into An Ning's clear eyes, and grinned:
"I'm just using synesthesia here to better describe just how beautiful your handwriting is."

"..."

An Ning's face turned even redder, and she lowered her head, not daring to look at him.

Guan Ren was even happier and moved even closer to her, just like he used to be with Gu Youli:
Do you have a plan for memorizing vocabulary? Which words do you focus on?

When the topic of studying came up, An Ning would forget her blushing slightly and reply softly and sweetly:
"I memorized the key vocabulary that the teacher mentioned in class."

"Hmm... I'm not saying you shouldn't memorize it, but from a planning perspective, I have better suggestions. Would you like to hear them?"

"think."

An Ning nodded vigorously. Since she had chosen to believe Guan Ren's method, she might as well "go all the way down this path".

"Okay, I can tell you, but in exchange, you have to promise me one thing."

"Eh?"

Why is Guan Ren so serious one minute and so unserious the next? An Ning blinked blankly.
"What is it?"

"Show me another blush."

“(///_///)

It would have been better if Guan Ren hadn't brought it up, because the blush that had faded on Xiao Ningmeng's cute cheeks suddenly reappeared.

Mm, so cute.

Guan Ren exclaimed that he loved watching it and then, true to his word, began to talk at length:

"...First of all, the truly important vocabulary is often not what the teacher says, but rather the words that are difficult for you to remember on your own..."

"...Secondly, when memorizing vocabulary, you shouldn't only focus on key words; you also need to stay familiar with the commonly used ones, otherwise you'll easily overlook some..."

"...In general, memorizing vocabulary is a long-term task. It requires several large memorization sessions every few days, along with regular small memorization sessions. It's best to combine it with actual articles. For example, there's an English reading series called 'Bookworms,' which has grammar and vocabulary that are very suitable for high school students. Once you feel you've memorized enough vocabulary, you can start reading these books to reinforce and familiarize yourself with their usage..."

Finally, when recommending English reading materials, Guan Ren immediately thought of An Ning's family circumstances, so he added:
"If you need it, I can lend you some English books from my home."

"Uh-huh!"

As Guan Ren's words became increasingly reasonable, An Ning listened more and more attentively.
"Thank you, Guan Ren."

"Hey, I already told you, you should be called Guan Ren."

"Guan... Guan Ren."

"Hey~!"

However, while vocabulary is certainly important, Guan Ren personally believes it accounts for seven or even nine out of ten points in high school English learning.

But that doesn’t mean grammar isn’t important.

However, grammar is relatively easy to learn, and once you understand it, it becomes fixed and not easy to forget, unlike vocabulary which requires repeated memorization.

"An Ning, how's your grammar coming along?"

"generally."

"Okay then, I'll gradually compile some high school grammar rules, especially some special usages, since I need them myself anyway. I'll give you a copy when it's done, if you don't mind."

How could An Ning possibly find it offensive? Her eyes sparkled at the words, and she stammered, unsure what to say, finally managing only one sentence:
"Thank you, Guan Ren."

"No need to thank me, and don't thank me again. You may not know, but I have a rule that I don't say thank you to my classmates."

My deskmate…

Upon hearing this word, An Ning paused for a moment before realizing what it meant.

It really is.

Although Xiao Ningmeng only sat next to a girl at school, Guan Ren was indeed her deskmate in the tutoring class.

My deskmate is very efficient. He pulled a brand new notebook out of his bag, opened a reference book like "53" (a popular Chinese textbook for writing practice), and started writing with great seriousness.

"..."

An Ning blinked her soft eyes, about to continue memorizing vocabulary, but her gaze lingered briefly between Guan Ren's arm and the tip of the sausage skewer he had finished eating.

He silently reached out, picked up the skewer, ran to the trash can, bent it, rubbed the pointed end on the ground, and threw it in.

Guan Ren, who was focused on writing, suddenly looked up at the sky, seemingly lost in thought. Finally, with great seriousness, he wrote four large characters on the entire brand-new notebook cover:
[Key English Points]

(End of this chapter)