He wants to adopt a younger sister, but his aloof wife disagrees.

The air in the study was thick with tension, even more oppressive than in the interrogation room.

The sky outside the window had already darkened, and only the desk lamp emitted a pale light, illuminating the appalling exam paper on the desk.

Su Xiaoruan chewed on her pen, slumped over the table, her brows furrowed in a deep frown. She stared at the math test paper in front of her, which seemed like gibberish, feeling like her brain was completely blank.

"elder brother……"

Su Xiaoruan raised her head, her once bright and lively eyes now filled with a clear naiveté:

"Are these 'sin' and 'cos'...some kind of new imported cigarette?"

Jiang Che, who was standing next to him, twitched his lips violently.

He reached up and pressed his throbbing temples, feeling his blood pressure soaring rapidly.

"Cigarettes?" Jiang Che pointed to the test paper. "These are sine and cosine! Trigonometric functions! This is knowledge we should have learned in junior high!"

"And this, f(x), not an insult, it's a function!"

At this moment, Jiang Che finally understood the despair of those parents who accompanied their children to school.

He originally thought Su Xiaoruan was just a poor student, but he didn't expect she was a child who had slipped through the net of nine years of compulsory education. Ever since she ran away from home at the age of thirteen and started living in the underworld, the knowledge she had accumulated was basically at the elementary school level of addition and subtraction.

"This is way too difficult..."

Su Xiaoruan threw down her pen in a huff and slumped onto the table, throwing a tantrum.

"When I was out on the streets, all I needed to know was how to calculate protection money and how to count empty bottles. Who uses functions to buy groceries?"

"Brother, can I skip school? I'll be your babysitter, I'll wash dishes, I don't want to learn this..."

She was truly in pain. For her, reading was more terrifying than being attacked with a knife.

"no."

Jiang Che refused decisively.

"Shen Qingge said that if you don't go to school, you'll become a cleaner. You want to clean toilets?"

"I don't want to..." Su Xiaoruan shrank her neck.

"Then sit down properly."

Jiang Che sighed. Since force wouldn't work, he had to try a softer approach. The system's mission was to nurture her into a capable person; he couldn't let her remain illiterate.

He walked around the desk and went behind Su Xiaoruan.

"Pick up the pen."

Su Xiaoruan obediently picked up the pen.

Jiang Che leaned down, placed one hand on the table, and used the other hand to grasp Su Xiaoruan's hand holding the pen.

From the side, this posture makes it look as if he's holding Su Xiaoruan in his arms from behind.

"Look at this question."

Jiang Che's voice rang in Su Xiaoruan's ear, deep and magnetic, with a warm breath that gently sprayed onto her neck.

Su Xiaoruan's body suddenly stiffened.

The faint scent of tobacco, characteristic of mature men, mixed with the fresh aroma of aftershave, instantly enveloped her.

Her back was pressed tightly against Jiang Che's warm chest, and she could even feel the firm muscle lines under the thin shirt.

"My heart is racing... my body temperature is rising..."

Su Xiaoruan couldn't concentrate on any functions anymore; she felt like her brain was completely fried, filled only with thoughts like "Brother hugged me" and "Brother smells so good."

"Draw these auxiliary lines like this... Do you understand?" Jiang Che held her hand and drew a line on the paper.

"Huh? Oh... I understand, I understand." Su Xiaoruan nodded haphazardly, her face as red as a ripe tomato.

She doesn't know anything.

【Ding! 】

[The host is detected to be currently engaged in "preaching, imparting knowledge, and resolving doubts."]

[Development assistance system activated.]

[Congratulations, host, you have acquired the temporary skill: God-level Master Teacher Aura.]

[Halo Effect: While wearing the aura, the host's explanations will become clearer and easier to understand, students' concentration will increase by 200%, and intelligence will temporarily increase by 10.]

As the system notification sounded, Jiang Che felt his thoughts on teaching become incredibly clear instantly.

His lectures changed in pace; they were no longer dry sermons but became lively and interesting.

Su Xiaoruan, who had been distracted, suddenly felt the fog in her head clear up. Jiang Che's voice seemed to have a magical power, guiding her thoughts along with the tip of her pen.

"Huh? So that's how it is?"

Su Xiaoruan's eyes lit up. "If we just move this angle over, it becomes a right triangle?"

"Yes, smart."

Jiang Che chuckled softly and glanced at her sideways.

The two were extremely close, their noses almost touching.

The atmosphere became extremely ambiguous at that moment.

……

"Click".

The front door was opened.

Shen Qingge came home from get off work.

Today, she deliberately canceled an unimportant social engagement and went home early. Ever since she felt a sense of crisis, her top priority now is to keep an eye on the "cheating couple" at home.

"Jiang Che?"

There was no one in the living room.

Shen Qingge changed her shoes and frowned. There was no one in the kitchen.

Faintly, a low conversation could be heard coming from the direction of the study.

Shen Qingge walked over quietly. The study door was ajar, leaving a crack in the door.

She stood in the doorway, peering through the crack inside.

Upon seeing this, Shen Qingge's blood pressure instantly soared to 180.

All I could see was the dim yellow light from the table lamp.

Jiang Che bent over, almost touching Su Xiaoruan's back. He held Su Xiaoruan's hand, and the two of them were scribbling on a piece of paper, their heads close together.

From Shen Qingge's perspective, this wasn't tutoring at all; it was clearly flirting!

Moreover, because the soundproofing was so good, and the distance was a bit far, she could only hear some fragmented words:

"You're going in now..." (Actually, it's substituting numbers into a formula)

"Relax your grip..." (Actually, Su Xiaoruan was gripping the pen too tightly)

"Yes, this is the spot, can you feel it?" (Actually, it's about finding the key to solving the problem)

Shen Qingge's fingers tightened instantly on the doorknob, her knuckles turning white.

Ok.

I just went out to work, and you guys were acting out Romeo and Juliet in the study, right?

Have you no shame?!

Shen Qingge took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the urge to kick the door open.

She is Shen Qingge, a dignified female CEO. She can't confront them like a shrew. She will use her intelligence and the authority of the legal wife to gracefully separate them.

She turned and walked toward the kitchen.

Three minutes later.

"Knock knock knock".

There was a knock on the study door, followed by it being pushed open.

"Oh, you guys are studying?"

Shen Qingge strode in carrying a plate of cut fruit (mainly to carry a fork as a weapon), a standard but fake professional smile on her face.

The two people in the study were startled.

Jiang Che straightened up, without putting down the pen in his hand.

Su Xiaoruan, looking guilty, hid the test paper in her clothes and stammered, "Sister... Sister's back."

"Yes, I'm back."

Shen Qingge walked to the desk and slammed the fruit plate down on it with a loud bang, making the pen holder tremble.

"Have some fruit, don't overwork yourself."

As Shen Qingge spoke, her gaze swept across the spot where the two had just been pressed together, sharp as a knife, her tone sarcastic:

"You guys seem pretty 'engaged' in your tutoring session. Are you standing so close because you're afraid you won't be able to see the questions, or because you're afraid the other person will run away?"

Jiang Che smiled helplessly, picked up a piece of apple, and stuffed it into his mouth:

"Her foundation was too weak; she didn't recognize many symbols, so I had to teach her step by step."

"Poor foundation?"

Shen Qingge sneered, her gaze falling on Su Xiaoruan's test paper covered in red crosses.

"Can't even do junior high math?" Shen Qingge picked up the test paper, glanced at it, and a ruthless sneer of a top student looking down on a struggling student curled at the corner of her lips. "For this question, you're going to put the auxiliary line here? Are you trying to draw a maze?"

Su Xiaoruan blushed deeply, humiliated, and retorted softly, "Then... then, do you know how, sister?"

"I can?"

Shen Qingge felt as if she had heard a joke.

She was the top science student in Jianghai City's college entrance examination that year, and holds two master's degrees from a world-renowned Ivy League university!

"Get out of the way."

Shen Qingge reached out, but instead of pulling the chair next to her, she squeezed between Jiang Che and Su Xiaoruan.

"Jiang Che, go cook."

Shen Qingge plopped down on the edge of the desk (or squeezed in next to Su Xiaoruan), snatched the pen from Jiang Che's hand, and exuded an aura of dominance:

"You can't teach this kind of problem. Let me do it."

"I'll show you what a top student's problem-solving approach looks like."

Jiang Che: "..."

Su Xiaoruan: "..."

Jiang Che looked at his wife, who had forcibly taken over what was originally his "ambiguous teaching spot," and couldn't help but laugh and cry. This woman's competitive spirit could be quite adorable at times.

"Okay, please, Teacher Shen."

Jiang Che shrugged, turned and walked out of the study. "Then I'll go chop some vegetables. You guys... good luck."

The study door closed.

The air suddenly became suffocating.

Su Xiaoruan huddled in her chair, looking at Shen Qingge, who exuded an aura of immense power, and felt like a primary school student being kept after class by her homeroom teacher.

"Sister... Sister, are you going to teach me?" Su Xiaoruan swallowed.

"Stop talking nonsense."

Shen Qingge pushed up glasses that weren't actually on her nose, twirling a pen in her hand, her eyes sharp:

"Put your hands up here."

Su Xiaoruan placed her hands on the table with trepidation.

Shen Qingge didn't hold her hand (disdainfully), but instead pointed forcefully at the test paper with the tip of her pen:

"Listen carefully, I'll only say this once. If you dare to lose focus, you won't get dinner tonight."

"For this problem, let X be..."

The next half hour.

From the study came Shen Qingge's stern lecture voice and Su Xiaoruan's devastating wails:

"Slow down, sister! Your brain's about to grow out of shape!"

"It's just a triangle, why bother calculating the area of ​​its psychological trauma?!"

"Waaaah... I miss my brother..."

In the kitchen.

Jiang Che, who was chopping vegetables, couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard the commotion inside.

He shook his head and glanced at the system interface in his mind.

[Family harmony improves.]

Shen Qingge's participation rate increased by 50%.

It seems that this so-called "battleground" can sometimes be a unique form of family team building.

However, it's tough on Su Xiaoruan, that academically challenged student.