Yang Wei examined the paper, then said to Teacher Luo, "I"ll check with Liang Ming Hao."

"Oh, good." Teacher Luo nodded and smiled. "By the way, Teacher Yang, you look very lovely today."

Yang Wei laughed, put Liang Ming Hao"s test on her desk, then turned and walked out of the office. In the cla.s.sroom, the Chinese representative was leading everyone in the reading of a text. Yang Wei went in through the back door and knocked on Liang Ming Hao"s desk. "You, come to the office with me."

The boy"s heart thudded. Had he done something recently to warrant a parent-teacher conference? Was his red scarf too casual? He followed Yang Wei into the office, trembling uneasily. She sat down, looked up at him, and asked, "Who signed your mathematics paper?"

Liang Ming Hao paused, then said honestly, "My uncle."

"Your uncle, is it?" Yang Wei smiled. "Your uncle named "Octopus Ball"1"Takoyaki"? You"re sure it"s not "Dorayaki"?"

Liang Ming Hao: "..."

He lowered his head and took a look at the math paper on the table. The two words "Octopus Ball" blinded his eyes.

A deep sense of powerlessness welled up inside Liang Ming Hao"s heart. How could his uncle have been so stupid!

He snuffled and looked deeply introspective. "I"m sorry, Teacher Yang. I was wrong. I did so badly on the exam that I didn"t dare take it home to sign. I ran across someone holding a signing ceremony and I had him sign the paper for me."

Yang Wei: "..."

This little friend was putting up quite a fight for his uncle.

"Teacher Yang, I have realized my mistakes from the bottom of my heart. I will take the paper home and ask my uncle to sign it again."

He picked up the paper and attempted to leave. She s.n.a.t.c.hed the paper out of his hand and smiled at him. "This is quite serious. I may have to contact your mother abroad."

Liang Ming Hao: "..."

Sorry uncle. I can only help you this far.

Back in the cla.s.sroom, holding his test paper, Liang Ming Hao took out his mobile phone and sent his uncle a text message. "To my stupid silly uncle: Good job dropping the ball ^ _ ^"

When first period was over, he received a reply from Fang Cheng Ran. "What?"

Liang Ming Hao sent a photo of his paper"s signature. Ten seconds later...

Uncle: .................................

Liang Ming Hao: o(n_n)o~

As Yang Wei was preparing for her next cla.s.s, the phone on the table vibrated. Caller ID showed that it was Fang Cheng Ran. She blinked, picked up and walked to the window. "Fang Cheng Ran, what"s up?"

"Err...... If I told you I was a huge fan of Octopus Ball, so I imitate his signature, would you believe it?"

Yang Wei c.o.c.ked her head. "If it makes you feel better."

Fang Cheng Ran: "..."

He was silent for a while before telling her, "I"m sorry. I didn"t mean to deceive you. My family looks down on writing novels; they feel it isn"t a proper job. I was afraid you"d think the same, so I pretended to work in a hotel."

"Why would I think so? You haven"t stolen or robbed. You rely on your own labor to make money, which is much better than being a rich second generation, eating and playing while sitting idle. Besides, being a writer isn"t a profession just anyone can do."

Fang Cheng Ran was overjoyed. "Do you really think so?"

Yang Wei shrugged, "I don"t have the time to spare on cheering you up."

He laughed. Then she added, "But why didn"t you tell me that you were working at the hotel while writing novels on the side?"

Fang Cheng Ran: "..."

He... hadn"t thought of that.

Coughing drily, he asked in a suave tone, "Could I invite you out to dinner this evening?"

"I"ve been busy painting recently. Maybe next time."

Though somewhat disappointed, he said, "Next time, then. I"ll ask again."

Yang Wei replied, then hung up and continued to work on her lesson. When the current cla.s.s was over, Teacher Dai stormed into the office with Gu Lei trailing behind her. Yang Wei whimpered a little in her heart. Teacher Dai was surely about to blow her top again, and here she was, unable to flee.

Sure enough, Teacher Dai came over and slammed an exercise book onto Yang Wei"s desk. "Teacher Yang, please do something about your cla.s.s"s Gu Lei! I dictated twenty words in the last lesson, and he got fifteen of them wrong! Fifteen! And they were all so incredibly wrong! I heard that he got full marks on the last math test, so it doesn"t look like he"s stupid. Is there a problem with how I teach Chinese?!"

Yang Wei silently turned to look at Gu Lei. He was looking back at her, his little eyes accused and wronged. Yang Wei licked her lips and picked up the exercise book on the table. The answers were truly creative.

She put down the exercise book and smiled at Teacher Dai. "Come now, Teacher Dai, don"t you currently have another cla.s.s to teach soon? Leave Gu Lei to me to educate."

Teacher Yao, English textbooks in hand, chipped in helpfully. "Yeah, Gu Lei probably isn"t doing it because of you. The same thing happened with the English words I dictated last time, too."

Gu Lei: "..."

Thank you, Teacher Yao.

Teacher Dai said a more few words to Gu Lei before leaving. When the cla.s.s bell rang, Gu Lei was left in the office to receive a different education.

Yang Wei looked at him. "As Teacher Dai said, you"re able to take full marks in mathematics. Surely literature can"t be that dissimilar."

"Teacher Yang, don"t you think Chinese is so much harder than math?"

"No, I haven"t thought so."

Gu Lei gave her an earnest a.n.a.lysis. "Chinese vocabulary is too complicated! There"s emotional sentiments, being complimentary, being derogatory, implying things, being metaphorical... it"s all the same word! Yet there"s five or six different meanings depending on the context! How do we even speak?!"

Yang Wei: "..."

She couldn"t say anything to refute him.

"But mathematics is poles apart. Every question has its rules and every step has its principles, just like a stern gentleman."

Yang Wei: "..."

They said his language skills were poor, but his use of metaphor was quite skillful.

"Teacher Yang, from an artistic point of view, don"t you think mathematics is beautiful?"

"Not at all," Yang Wei said firmly. And what kind of art have you been looking at, you little primary school student?

"Aii." Having failed to talk sense into Yang Wei, Gu Lei felt very sorry for himself. "Since your husband was a math professor, I thought you"d fully understand the beauty of mathematics."

Yang Wei looked at him, a wide smile on her face. "Boys who study mathematics never find wives."

Gu Lei: "..."

What a serious threat.

Math teacher Luo, currently teaching in the cla.s.sroom, suddenly felt a pain in his knee.

Yang Wei returned the exercise book to Gu Lei. "Copy your wrong words twenty times each, then write an essay of no less than three hundred words. Give it to Teacher Dai before tomorrow morning"s self-study."

Gu Lei: " ..."

In Imperial City University, Qi Xiao Yan remained in the cla.s.sroom to answer a girl"s questions. She had been watching him secretly. He pushed the notebook back to her, fingertips on a certain point. "Show me this step again."

The abstruse, esoteric mathematical symbols and theorems hurt her head. She blinked large, limpid eyes at him. "Professor, I still don"t get it. Please explain it to me again. "

Qi Xiao Yan closed the notebook, packed up his things and left the cla.s.sroom. "You"d better transfer that IQ to another department."

Student: "..."

Her two friends sitting in the last row laughed their heads off mercilessly. One of them told her, "I told you this move wouldn"t work. You should try being first in the grade, soaking yourself in study every day, and pledging to be admitted into graduate school as Professor Qi"s grad student."

The first girl stuffed her notebook into her bag and snorted, "As if! You"ve seen for yourself what Professor Qi"s three graduate students have been tortured into."

"But they get to talk to him all the time. They get to receive his individual tutoring."

The two words "individual tutoring" made the previous girl"s mind wander for a moment. Then she heard the other say, "But Professor Qi"s pretty much already completely denied your IQ. According to his criteria for picking students, you"d have to be completely reborn."

"...Go to h.e.l.l!"

While those girls were playing around, Qi Xiao Yan had already left the school building. The cast and crew of was currently filming on the campus, and Song Jin spotted him as he emerged. Their gazes happened to collide, but when he saw her, he simply turned away and walked right past them, no expression on his face. Song Jin frowned a little, then called toward the director, "Sorry. Could we retake?"

When Yang Wei got off work, she was following the crowd out the school gate when a white car parked on the side of the road suddenly honked at her. She made her way around it, and as a result, the honking resounded even more vigorously.

Yang Wei glanced back. The white car slowly glided forward, stopping at her side. When the window in the back seat slowly wound down, a pair of burgundy sungla.s.ses appeared before her eyes. Yang Wei"s forehead wrinkled. It wasn"t like she had never been stopped aggressively by anyone before, but it was the first time this had happened with a woman - and one that could normally only be seen on TV, at that.

Song Jin looked her in the eye and asked flatly, "Teacher Yang, can we talk?" Yang Wei involuntarily fumbled with the hanging ornaments on her bag. If this had been any other star, she would have been excited regardless of whether or not she was their fan. Alas, it was Song Jin. To have found her at the school, she must have been investigated. Yang Wei forced a smile. "I"m sorry, may I ask which student you"re the parent of?"

Song Jin was taken aback for a moment. "I am Song Jin, Qi Xiao Yan"s junior from school."

Yang Wei nodded. "Oh, so you"re not a parent. We should have nothing to discuss, then." She continued forward after having said that, but Song Jin"s car followed not far behind.

"Teacher Yang, please get on. We can talk in the car, and it won"t take up too much time."

"I"m afraid I have nothing to say to you."

"But I have something to say to you. Please get in the car."

Yang Wei looked back at her, then went to the other side of the car, opened the door, and sat down. "Whatever you have to say, just say it."

Song Jin took off her sungla.s.ses and pinned her gaze on her. "Miss Yang, since you have already divorced Qi Xiao Yan, I hope that you will stop pestering him."

Turning around, Yang Wei gave her a look of ridicule. "Miss Song, have you filmed too many dramas? Are you going to give me a check to stay away from your son next? Well, if you dare give it, I"ll take it. Using your money to repair the city roads can be my contribution to society."

Song Yan"s delicate eyebrows furrowed. After a while, she said, "I really don"t understand how Qi Xiao Yan can like someone like you."

"It"s because you don"t understand that he doesn"t like you."

Song Jin pursed her lips. "I didn"t come here today to quarrel with you, Miss Yang. Perhaps you weren"t aware, but Qi Xiao Yan and I were having dinner that night at my place when you suddenly called him away. I can understand that you might have encountered trouble, but Qi Xiao Yan no longer has anything to do with you. So why do you continue to bother him?"

Yang Wei frowned. Looking the other woman in the eye, she said, "If Qi Xiao Yan thinks I"m troublesome, then he is welcome to tell me that himself. That, I would completely understand, but who are you, Miss Song, to make such remarks?"

Sung Jin looked back at her, one side of her mouth pulled up into a little smile. "Though you are also a teacher, Miss Yang, the fact that you two have divorced shows that there are some problems between you. I think you, too, understand that Qi Xiao Yan is a genius. Someone like yourself is hardly suitable to stand by his side. I, however, am different from you. At the age of sixteen, I was admitted to the Department of Mathematics in the Imperial City University with excellent results. Together, we have proved many mathematical propositions. I can put forward opinions on his papers, and we have much in common to talk about. What can you talk to him about? Pica.s.so? Da Vinci?"

Yang Wei endured the tens of thousands of beasts pounding by, and in a smooth and steady tone, replied, "You are right. In the field of mathematics, you do much better than I. Even if the conversation is about Goldbach, you can speak with great interest." She paused here, and smiled at Song Jin. "But Qi Xiao Yan is searching for a wife, not a student."

Having said her piece, she left without caring about Song Jin"s reaction. All the way from school to home, she cursed Qi Xiao Yan a hundred times in her heart.

She couldn"t shake it even after having rolled around the sofa twice. Picking up her phone, she sent a text to Qi Xiao Yan.

He was writing a paper at that moment, but when he heard the phone vibrate, he opened it to check.

Darling: (*·w·)8<>

Qi Xiao Yan: "..."

Having sent out a hara.s.sing text message, Yang Wei went to the kitchen to make herself noodles. After having dealt with Song Jin, she no longer even felt like making a simple stirfry. When the noodles were cooked, she checked her phone. There was a new text message.

Curly-bae: ... Are you sure?

Yang Wei smiled at the phone. Professor Qi had actually understood the meaning of that emoji!2errr if you squint... I do believe it is a castration emoji LOL

She did not intend on giving him a reply, and simply began eating noodles. After a while, her phone rang. She stared for a while at the screen, then answered. "What?"

"What"s wrong with you?"

Yang Wei rolled up her noodles in her chopsticks and blew on them. "Nothing"s wrong with me, but I"ve got to apologize to you. If I"d known that you were at Song Jin"s house that night, I would never have called you."

Qi Xiao Yan"s brow furrowed all of a sudden. "Song Jin went to find you?"

"Indeed. She seems to have been quite angry with me for destroying your good deeds. "

His fingers tightening on the phone, he explained urgently, "Nothing happened. That night we just had a simple meal."

"Ha ha, well, you"d better explain that to her. I don"t want to see her ever again. That"s all. Goodbye, Mr. Qi." She hung up.