This humble Taoist priest wants to take the college entrance exam.

Chapter 47 Who isn't a study buddy? (Bonus chapter with 4300 words)
Chen Shi'an arrived at the classroom just in time. He and Lin Mengqiu went out to take out the trash and came back to find that the morning reading session had already started fifteen minutes ago.

Today's morning reading was in English, and the voices in the class were all in foreign languages. Chen Shi'an couldn't understand it, but he was confident that he would be able to understand it soon.

Chen Shi'an and Lin Mengqiu carried trash cans in through the back door. Most of the students in the front row didn't notice them, but some of the students in the back row cast curious glances at them.

When they saw the brand-new trash cans, everyone was a little stunned. Had they replaced them with new ones?

With the class monitor in front of him, no one dared to speak to the Taoist priest.

Chen Shi'an carried the bucket back to the corner and put it away. Lin Mengqiu, however, didn't rush back to her seat. Instead, she picked up a pen from the tray on the bulletin board at the back of the classroom and wrote a warning in a blank space on the bulletin board.

Let's work together to keep the classroom clean!
[Please pour the soup and water into the toilet!]
[Do not dump trash in the classroom trash cans!]
This wasn't a rule set by Lin Mengqiu herself; it was a requirement of the school's teaching and living management. The management plan even went into more detail, categorizing waste into dry waste, wet waste, kitchen waste, paper, and other miscellaneous items.

Of course, it's fine to throw random trash into the bins on ordinary days, but spilling half a bucket of unfinished instant noodles, soup and all, into the classroom's public trash can really crossed Lin Mengqiu's line.

Although she was the class monitor, she rarely interfered in class management, and the less she did, the more her authority was highlighted.

It was rare to see the class monitor speak, so the students all started looking for the culprit.

"It must have been the instant noodles Brother Zhuo ate last night!"

"Damn it! Which bastard stole my sausage?!"

"Damn it, who would actually throw away instant noodles?"

Liu Zhuoran: "..."

After playing basketball yesterday evening, Liu Zhuoran went to the cafeteria for dinner, but he still felt hungry, so he bought a cup of instant noodles and also borrowed a sausage from Zihan. Sometimes people are just like that; they feel so hungry they could eat a whole cow, but after only a couple of bites of the instant noodles, they suddenly feel full and casually dump them into the trash can...

Now look what's happened! He's offended the class monitor, and his days are numbered!

Chen Shi'an followed Lin Mengqiu back to his seat. Suddenly, a hand reached out from the aisle and grabbed his clothes, then stuffed a rare, nearly 99% rare item into his hand.

"Daoist, Daoist! Please apologize to the class monitor for me. I didn't mean to pour the instant noodles into the bucket. It's just that Lao Liang suddenly came to the classroom. Daoist! Daoist! We played ball together yesterday. You really have to help me with this! Here, take this sausage!"

"Your mom, this is my sausage!"

"Shut up, I need to borrow your dad's to save my life! I'll give you two back later!"

"You stole one of mine last night!"

Chen Shi'an: "..."

Liu Zhuoran, weren't you the one who told me to dunk as hard as I could yesterday?

Fortunately, the Taoist priest didn't mind, didn't take the sausages, and went back to his seat after agreeing.

Lin Mengqiu had already sat down. She put away the math test she hadn't finished and took out her English morning reading materials.

“Squad leader, Liu Zhuoran just said that he was the one who dumped the instant noodles,” Chen Shi’an said.

"Ah."

"Spare his life."

"..."

Lin Mengqiu ignored him and began her morning reading on her own.

Now that the message had been delivered, Chen Shi'an began his morning reading.

He took out his seventh-grade English textbook, the reading pen that Teacher Ye had given him, and the grammar materials that Xiao Zhi had given him.

Currently, he focuses his main energy on studying the three main subjects, with mathematics taking up the most time. In addition to math class, he also studies math during physics, chemistry and biology classes.

He only studied Chinese and English on his own during Chinese and English classes.

He has a solid foundation in Chinese, and can improve his answering style through standardized training; as for English, it mainly involves memorizing, reciting, practicing, listening, and speaking more, and his daily English classes should be sufficient.

Chen Shi'an didn't memorize English words according to the vocabulary list at the back of the textbook. Instead, he used a reading pen to look up the words in the text while memorizing all the words that appeared on it.

During yesterday's two consecutive English classes, he watched and took notes, and has already memorized 346 words.

He no longer needs a reading pen to know the meaning and how to read the previous texts, but his pronunciation is inaccurate. When he takes words out and freely combines them to make sentences, his grammatical habits are very awkward.

Fortunately, with Wen Zhixia's grammar materials, I can now read, memorize, and figure out the grammatical rules and sentence construction patterns as I go.

Lin Mengqiu glanced over out of the corner of her eye and stole a look.

Just as she was about to look away, she noticed the grammar materials that he had clearly put a lot of effort into organizing beside him.

The documents are printed.

It has no signature or publisher, so it was clearly printed by an individual.

Where is it?
"Did Teacher Ye give it to you?" she suddenly asked.

"Ok?"

Chen Shi'an turned to look at her, a little puzzled. He then followed her gaze and moved the grammar document in his hand. "You mean this?"

"Ah."

"It wasn't from Teacher Ye, it was given to me by my study partner."

Studying... partners?
I've only been at school for two days, where am I supposed to find a study buddy...?

If we're really talking about study partners, shouldn't it be me...?

We agreed that you can ask me if you don't understand anything in your studies...

Who isn't a study buddy? Why don't you ask me about English?

"Can I take a look?"

"These should all be very basic for you."

Chen Shi'an was very generous. As he spoke, he casually moved the document in his hand between the two of them.

Lin Mengqiu reached out and moved the documents in front of her.

She didn't say anything, but simply turned a few pages quietly.

It is very well organized and suitable for people with poor English skills to read and learn from. It even includes a lot of the author's own personal learning experience. Although it is just a basic grammar material, the fact that it is so well organized shows that the author's English level is not low.

"Yes, this is great material. It's suitable for you. If you study it thoroughly, it will greatly improve your English scores."

Lin Mengqiu calmly commented, gently closed the few pages of documents, and pushed them back between the two of them on the table.

Chen Shi'an blinked.

Not right.

Something is wrong!
Even Teacher Ye's amazing reading pen couldn't earn him a single word of praise, yet this document deserves such a long comment from the usually taciturn class monitor.
He could sense that the girl's emotions seemed to have changed, but he couldn't fathom what she was thinking beneath her calm, expressionless face.

Fortunately, his innate sense of crisis taught him how to avoid risks. Although he couldn't figure out what she was thinking, he could vaguely sense that it was best to avoid mentioning grammar study materials to Lin Mengqiu, or rather, study partners.

Chen Shi'an moved the grammar document from the middle of their table back to its original position. He had placed it on the left side, but now he quietly moved it to the right side, away from Lin Mengqiu.

After making these small safety maneuvers, he glanced at Lin Mengqiu out of the corner of his eye.

She was silently writing something in her notebook, her expression and demeanor looking no different from usual, as if the 'something' just happened a moment ago was merely Chen Shi'an's imagination.

What should I write...?
-
1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1……-10？

What the hell is this...!
……

The class continued its English reading session. Amidst the clear voices of students reading aloud, Ms. Ye entered the classroom.

Ye Mingmei and Liang Huiyang are both outstanding teachers at the school. As a teacher of main subjects, in addition to teaching English to Class 5, Teacher Ye also teaches English to Class 11, who is Wen Zhixia's English teacher. Chen Shi'an had heard Wen Zhixia mention this during dinner yesterday.

If you ask what the difference is between science and humanities, besides the combined science and humanities subjects, it's mathematics. Under the old college entrance examination model, mathematics for humanities students was simpler than for science students, but Chinese and English for science students used the same exam paper as humanities students.

This has made many science students resentful, wondering why math is easier for humanities students, while English and Chinese are the same for science students!
Today, as is the school's usual English morning reading session, Ms. Ye arrived at school earlier than usual, at seven o'clock. She first took a walk around Class 5, and then went upstairs to take a walk around Class 11.

Ms. Ye is well-liked by everyone. When she walks around the classroom, students often come to her with notebooks to ask her questions, and she answers them with great patience.

"Teacher Ye! Teacher Ye! How do you do this problem?"

"Teacher Ye, don't believe him! That scoundrel specifically searched for difficult questions online!"

"Wang Yuze, you still need to work on your writing. Did you memorize the model essay I asked you to memorize last time?"

"Memorized it! Memorized it!"

English essays are not as difficult as Chinese essays. They do not require high writing skills. Mastering the universal English essay formula can quickly build an essay framework. Memorizing some high-scoring sentence patterns can add brilliance to the essay and instantly improve its quality.

As the English teacher of the top-performing classes in both arts and sciences, Ms. Ye hasn't had a headache for a long time because of a student's poor English foundation.

Teacher Ye walked from the first group all the way to Chen Shi'an, who was sitting by the aisle in the fourth group.

The young Taoist priest was in a state of flow, holding a reading pen and studying a seventh-grade text using the grammar materials.

Lin Mengqiu noticed Teacher Ye. She stood slightly behind and to the side of Chen Shi'an, bending down to watch him study with curiosity.

Seeing that Teacher Ye didn't seem to intend to call Chen Shi'an, she reluctantly withdrew her pen after intending to poke Chen Shi'an's pen.

Teacher Ye observed quietly for two minutes, then couldn't help but whisper, "Why isn't Shi'an reading aloud?"

Chen Shi'an did not respond.

Lin Mengqiu's pen finally found its purpose, and it slashed out with a whoosh.

Chen Shi'an: "?"

Why does it feel like your criticism is tinged with personal emotion? Like Jing Ke's assassination attempt on the King of Qin!

Faced with Chen Shi'an's question, Lin Mengqiu merely raised her eyelids, a barely perceptible hint of satisfaction on her lips, and said in a steady voice, "Teacher Ye is asking you a question."

"Teacher Ye?... I'm sorry, Teacher Ye, I was memorizing vocabulary and didn't notice."

Why isn't Shi'an reading it aloud?

Teacher Ye smiled gently, not minding at all. "You still need to read more English, especially memorizing vocabulary and practicing speaking. Reading more will deepen your memory."

"I think it will be more efficient to memorize all the words and understand the grammatical structure first, and then correct my spoken English later."

"They complement each other, and you'll find it difficult to memorize words if you read silently like this."

"Fortunately."

How's your learning going?

"Thanks to Teacher Ye's reading pen, it has been a great help. I feel like there are no problems for now."

Teacher Ye reached out and picked up the grammar materials on his desk and looked at them.

"Hmm, did you find the materials yourself? It's good that you have this self-learning awareness."

"Given to me by my study partner."

"That's a great study partner. We can learn and improve together."

Lin Mengqiu: "..."

"How many words has Shi'an memorized?"

Teacher Ye was prepared to encourage him. Whether he said he memorized five or ten, she would encourage him. After all, there was still a long time before the college entrance examination. If he could memorize ten words every day, his vocabulary would definitely be sufficient in two years.

"Four hundred and seventy-three."

"..."

Hearing Chen Shi'an's numbers, complete with odd and even numbers, Teacher Ye was momentarily stunned and didn't react.

"Huh? How many?"

"That's 473."

The vocabulary in the first semester of seventh grade English textbooks, excluding duplicates, is only about three hundred words. Chen Shi'an had already finished them all in the two consecutive English classes yesterday. Now, during this morning reading period, he is memorizing the second semester of seventh grade English textbooks, still memorizing all the unfamiliar words on the pages one by one.

Teacher Ye was dumbfounded.

After asking Chen Shi'an how he memorized the words, she picked up his seventh-grade English textbook and randomly picked a few words from it to ask him.

How do you spell "[pronunciation]"?

"Pu Nanxi A God - Pronunciation"

"[Express]"

"Excosbulieshen - expression"

Teacher Ye randomly picked a few words from the questions in the text, not the words that were required to be memorized from the vocabulary list. Even so, Chen Shi'an spelled them out perfectly, without missing a single letter—except for his somewhat stiff pronunciation.

A look of disbelief and surprise appeared on her face.

Is it thanks to the reading pen?

Or perhaps, Chen Shi'an is one in a million English learning prodigy?
Absolutely no English foundation! Absolutely no English foundation! Yet, I mastered over four hundred words in just one day! In one day!
Yesterday, when Teacher Zhang was fretting over Chen Shi'an's math foundation in the office, Teacher Ye, listening in, felt a pang of sympathy. "Nine-year-old fish," she thought, "that's a legendary creature."

But she never expected that Chen Shi'an would give her such a big surprise in just one day!

Not to mention Teacher Ye, even Lin Mengqiu, who was eavesdropping nearby, was stunned. She even forgot to move her pen and turned to look at Chen Shi'an with an incredulous expression.

Lin Mengqiu would rather believe that Chen Shi'an had a naturally good memory than believe that it was thanks to his English or other study partners. Otherwise, wouldn't it make her, the math teacher, seem useless?

His study partner really knows how to pick and choose! She was here first, so why should she be in charge of the hardest math?

“Shi An… very good, very good.”

Ms. Ye couldn't recall the words of encouragement she had prepared. Instead, she said earnestly, "Hmm... you've fallen behind in your other subjects as well. In addition to studying English, you also need to catch up on your other subjects. You need to balance work and rest, and you also need to take care of your health."

Chen Shi'an blinked. Could it be that Teacher Ye thought he had been memorizing English all day?

He didn't explain, but simply nodded and said, "I know, thank you for your concern, Teacher Ye."

"Well, Shi'an, keep up the good work! Your teacher has more and more confidence in you! Feel free to ask me anything you don't understand. Keep it up!"

After finishing her speech, Teacher Ye left in a cheerful mood. She had to go to her office... No, no, this matter must not be made public, otherwise Teacher Zhang and the others would definitely be extremely jealous.

Chen Shi'an continued memorizing vocabulary.

Before he could even enter a state of flow, a voice drifted softly from the side—

"If you don't understand English, you can ask me."

"……what?"

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(End of this chapter)