What a twist! The loser heroine!

"Um, um... Ma Sha, which course is it?"

"Ah! I'm sorry! It's these questions."

She then seemed to wake from a dream and pointed to one of the problem-solving questions. Judging from the extent of the revisions in her notes, this question had probably been bothering her for quite some time.

Wen Shui nodded, and was about to look at the question when she was forced to look up by a very strong gaze.

I saw Princess Ji holding her Chinese textbook in her hand, deliberately shaking it twice, and then looking at me angrily.

【Huh? Do I have to teach her Mandarin? But my classmate Banami isn't here right now.】

Besides, Tian Aixing has already brought the questions over, so I can't just leave her behind.

Thinking of this, Wen Shui could only give an apologetic smile, and then, under Ji Gong's gaze, began to help Tian Aixing analyze the questions.

As he looked around, he realized something was wrong.

"Uh, good heavens... Mr. Ma, the vector direction here is wrong."

[Tian Aixing seems very hardworking, but she often makes mistakes in simple and basic areas. Is that considered cute?]

He gently shook his head. It might be a cute point in the world of anime, but in reality, it would be a disadvantage that would cause him to lose points on exams.

The types of mistakes Tian Aixing made in the subsequent questions further deepened his impression.

"I misunderstood the relationship between the direction of the parabola's opening and its coefficient in this problem."

"This question..."

After finally answering Tian Aixing's various questions, Wen Shui sighed inwardly.

This girl is pretty and well-dressed, even wearing her school uniform on a Saturday. She seems like a model student, so why does she make so many mistakes in such simple things...?

[I've been fooled by appearances again. Wake up, Kazuhiko Nukumi, stop believing stereotypes.]

He thought this through and then highlighted the solution to the last problem.

"Well, that's all for now, Ma Sha."

Tian Aixing seemed to realize she had a lot of questions. After following Wen Shui's train of thought and solving the last problem, she stood up and bowed to Wen Shui.

"Thank you so much for your great help."

Everyone around her was drawn to her sudden action. Wen Shui was startled by the stares of so many eyes on her.

"Don't use so many honorifics!" he quickly said, "I just... I was just helping you review the key points."

So Tian Aixing quickly sat down and said somewhat embarrassedly, "No, well... actually, you were a great help."

"I'm glad I could help you." Wen Shui pointed to the notes in the notebook: "In my opinion, Ma Ti seems to lack a grasp and application of basic knowledge points, so we should focus on working on this first."

But honestly, if someone can't even grasp the basics, how good can they be at anything else?

It's best not to say that particularly hurtful thing.

Thinking of this, Wen Shui encouraged, "The first midterm exam shouldn't be too difficult. You just need to be careful."

"Um...thank you."

Tian Aixing never dared to look at Wen Shui's face from beginning to end; she nodded shyly.

So, is that the end of it?

Before he could relax, he heard a soft "thump" from the table.

Looking up, I saw Himegami sitting in her seat with her textbook in hand, looking very serious. She coughed lightly, pretending that nothing had happened, while next to her, Hanami was looking at the pictures of ancient celebrities in her history textbook with a troubled expression.

[Is she catching a cold? By the way, Hanami-kun is already back. I was so focused on my homework I didn't even notice.]

He pondered for a moment, then stood up and sat down next to Princess Ji.

"So, what problem do you want me to solve?" he asked.

"Hmph, there are some parts of my reading comprehension that I don't understand." Ji Gong smiled and took out two mock exam papers for Chinese from her bag, clearly having come prepared.

"Let me take a look..."

The questions for Himegami are much simpler than those for Tenaihoshi; most of them are rather obscure questions about emotional analysis.

According to a method seemingly agreed upon by test-takers worldwide—which I've heard from who-knows-where—"If you don't know how to write something, just fill in the blanks with expressions of the author's homesickness"—

"By combining analysis with the historical context of the time, even if the answer doesn't meet the standard, at least you'll get some points."

As Wen Shui said this, she put down her pen.

"Oh, I see. I'll use this method to answer questions from now on."

"But speaking of which... I glanced at it, and your accuracy rate on the previous questions wasn't low either." Wen Shui looked at Ji Gong with a suspicious gaze: "Ji Gong, you should be quite good at Mandarin, right?"

"Huh? Is that so?"

Why did she start to doubt herself?

She smiled somewhat awkwardly, her eyes darting around as she looked at the surroundings. After a while, she said in a low voice, "Well, even the best students want to improve even further."

“That’s not wrong.” Wen Shui couldn’t help but glance at Asahi Chihaya, who was concentrating on doing the problems. Judging from the diagram, it was definitely a problem from the second semester.

To retract my earlier statement, some people have already moved beyond simply improving their grades.

After reviewing chemistry for a while, Wen Shui glanced down at her watch and realized that it was already 4:30 pm.

Time really does fly when you're focused. Nonomura, who already had a low profile, left early because her family's shop needed help. Almost no one noticed she was gone; it was only through exhaustive search that Nuku found out.

Due to the inertia of school hours in Japan, students gradually began to leave.

During this time, Wenshui was invited by Himegami to help Hanami answer a few history questions.

Hanami seems to have a terrible grasp of history. In her own words, "Historical figures aren't like math problems that you can imagine with beans."

Putting history aside, I always feel that Banami also had problems with her methods of learning mathematics.

Completely bewildered, Wen Shui decided to teach according to the student's aptitude.

"Perhaps... Hanami-kun, you could start by using foods with historical significance to connect them to a specific historical period—"

"Huh? Oh! I know!" Yagami seemed to have figured something out: "Just like how thinking of peaches reminds you of the Azuchi-Momoyama period, that's the feeling, isn't it?"

"Hmm...yes, that's true." Wen Shui nodded. Sure enough, when it comes to food, Banami's mind works incredibly fast.

"Hmph, this is a really good method for learning history. I'm going to name it the 'Hanami Learning Method'," Hanami said confidently, holding her history textbook.

[I'm the one who filed the claim, so please include my name in the list of assistants for the patent.]

As Wen Shui was thinking this, he was suddenly glared at by Xiao Ju across the table, which left him somewhat confused.

◇

"Thanks for your hard work."

"Thank you so much for your help!"

At 5:30 p.m., the student council president announced the end of the reading group over the loudspeaker in the study room.

Although they could continue studying in the study room for a while, everyone except the senior high school students seemed to want to go home more.

Himegami has taken Asahi to go shopping as planned, and Komari has also gone home early because of family matters.

Wen Shuihe walked alone on the street leading to the station, gently massaging his temples.

Although I'm a bit tired, I've learned a lot, and I should be able to get good results in this midterm exam.

Just then, hurried footsteps came from behind.

"Um! Please wait a minute!"

Wen Shui quickly stopped and looked back. Ma Titian Aixing was chasing after her.

"Tian Aixing?" Looking at Tian Aixing, who was breathing a little rapidly, Wen Shui asked in confusion, "Is something the matter? I don't remember going the same way as you."

"Um... it's like this, thank you so much for this afternoon." She walked over to Wen Shui and stopped, her expression seemingly a little reserved: "Those mistakes on the questions now seem a bit too easy..."

"It's nothing. The point of joining a book club is to help each other."

Tian Aixing was silent for a while before speaking, "Thinking back to what happened before... whether it was borrowing books, the book signing, or this book club, I have received so much care from you."

Everything else is fine, but I really didn't put in any effort at the autograph session, okay?

“So!” she suddenly exclaimed.

"So?!" Wen Shui was startled.

"So... that..."

Tian Aixing's slightly flushed face was hidden by the setting sun as she softly asked, "Tomorrow... is Wen Shui free?"

"Huh? Tomorrow? You're free."

"I... I'd like to invite you to lunch."

Wen Shui was stunned for a moment.

"Ah! This is just to express my gratitude! Wen Shui, don't overthink it! It's just to thank you for your help!" Tian Aixing nervously clutched the hem of her school uniform and said quickly, "It's normal interaction between classmates, it doesn't violate any school rules!"

"Hmm! No school rules were violated!"

This has nothing to do with school rules, and why are you repeating it?

Wen Shui thought about it for a moment after hearing this.

On Sunday, Yoshiki has to go out to attend a student council activity at Taoyuan Junior High School, and neither of his parents are home. Cooking lunch for one person is a hassle, and besides, Yoshiki won't be home, so he'll be quite bored.

"Alright then." With that thought, he nodded.

"Really, really?"

"So I guess I'm the type who stands people up..."

"Ah, no, it's just..." Tian Aixing paused, not continuing, "Never mind, anyway, thank you for accepting my invitation."

No need to thank me—

Wen Shui looked at Tian Aixing, who seemed a little nervous, and suddenly remembered her father's previous teachings.

"If we're not friends, let's just split the bill."

"However, there's no need for Tian Aixing to treat us," Wen Shui continued. "We can just split the bill."

“Huh? Why…” Tian Aixing’s face showed emotion.

"It feels a bit too much to ask a girl to pay for the meal."

To cover up the fact that he didn't consider the other person a friend, he decided to find a somewhat chauvinistic reason.

Upon hearing this, Tian Aixing stared intently at the warm water, and after a moment, she nodded.

"I understand, Wen Shui, you're such a good person."

Don't just randomly give out friend cards.

"Well, that's settled then!" She bowed to Wen Shui in farewell, "See you tomorrow, Wen Shui!"

"Okay, see you tomorrow. Please be careful on your journey."

Wen Shui added with a wry smile, "But then again, Tian Aixing, when communicating with classmates, it's actually better for both of you to relax a little."

"Hmm, I know, the president often says that about me too..." Tian Aixing said softly, then, as if realizing something, she quickly spoke up.

"I'll correct it! Please don't call me by my name anymore! You don't do that in the study room!"

After saying this, she turned and left angrily.

Wen Shui watched her retreating figure and shook his head with amusement.

Turning around, he put his hand in his pocket and was about to step onto the platform when he felt something strange in his pocket.

He fumbled and pulled out the object; it was a well-sealed, unopened piece of cream bread.

【Huh? What time is this?】

He racked his brains for a long time before he remembered that this was a so-called gift that his classmate, Banami, had forcibly stuffed into his pocket to thank him for helping her with a history question.

Oh, I see. I was so focused on my studies that I forgot about this.

He stared at the almost brand-new packaging for a long time before opening it.

It was almost dinnertime, and I was getting a little hungry.

With just a slight chew, the smooth texture and sweet aroma of the cream fill your mouth.