BXBX NOVEL Chapter 442
Ziek often fantasized about how it would feel like to go to school with Bing Shi, and now when he had an opportunity, he already wanted to drop out. Her notes reminded him of how the classes were always way too slow for his liking.
|Why didn’t you ask me to teach you instead?|
|”If I were really serious about it, I would have run to you for help, but it’s something I decided on a whim. I want to try out many things with the option to quit anytime I want. I was afraid that if you taught me, I would feel the pressure to continue.”|
Her answer convinced Ziek to let the matter go. Imagine how annoying it would be, to be constantly teaching someone new things just for them to quit midway. He would hate it, she would hate it, anyone would hate it.
|Did you always sit in the front rows?|
|”No, I would always start with the back seat. I made it a rule to always lower expectations on the first day, avoid participating much in the first few classes, and then engage more as the semester went on.”|
|What the...|
|”The lecturers felt like they were great teachers to be able to gain interest from a backwards hick. I received more mentoring and encouragement because I showed more promise than they had assumed.”|
.....
|...|
In the past, when he saw the number of students and teachers flocking around Bing Shi on her graduation day, he had a hunch that she was more popular than she had portrayed to him. He had the means to watch her every step, but did he want a partner he needed to stalk all day or a partner he could rely on?
|Do you want me to behave?|
Bing Shi rubbed her ear, making sure she heard right. It didn’t matter where she decided to sit as it would be fairly easy for the teachers to spot students like Ziek.
|”You know how to behave?”|
|I can pretend to be successfully domesticated by a female lead.|
|”...”|
Even if Ziek made an effort to not piss anyone off, he would still do. He knew that he would cut through any positive atmosphere with a brief, factual and blunt statement and drain the positivity instantly, like air draining from a popped balloon. Was he sad about it? Absolutely not; it helped him feel less annoyed by the absurdity of the universe, “This is going to suck big.”
Bing Shi could guess he was going to stare at the teacher to make them feel like they were six inches tall throughout the whole lecture, “Why are you here when you know it’s going to be boring?”
Ziek returned her notebook, “If I had something better to do, you can bet I wouldn’t be here.”
“So there is currently nothing better to do than to be with me?” Asking joyously, Bing Shi was very happy to attend classes with her husband, feeling a tad pity for him. In his eyes, everyone must be looking incredibly stupid, “How does it feel like to lower yourself to my level?”
Supporting his chin with his right palm, he flicked her temples, “Like time well wasted.” If someone didn’t know her, they would think she was degrading herself, but he knew better. She was well aware of being a god and therefore, her question was a way of bragging about it, “The first who falls asleep during a class will have to pay for lunch tomorrow.”
Bing Shi lifted her nose with a smug grin, “I’m out of pocket money, so I don’t have a choice but to win.” She could go without sleep for a long period. For exactly how long, she didn’t know.
· · ———- · ???· ———- · ·
The math class started with about fifteen students attending and to Ziek’s surprise, the teacher deliberately picked on other students instead of him.
That’s when he noticed how his wife sneaked him another math problem from the course book. He knew how she wouldn’t understand the complicated theories instantly, and her only way to learn the topic fast was to see lots of solutions to different examples like an AI. So after he wrote down all the steps, she would study his answer, and then try to do it on her own.
When Bing Shi told Ziek how the problems in the course book were becoming too easy, and how the ones in the exams would be many times more difficult, he ended up coming up with new problems for her. He would also periodically go to their space to check on his son’s progress in solving a puzzle for toddlers, “...”
Ying Xiong had been chewing on a wooden cube instead of putting it inside the correct gap of a box. He laid on the ground, looking like he was going through an existential crisis, “Daddy, daddy, daddy...mommy.” One, two, three... four. He counted on his chubby little fingers while waiting for someone to come home, “Mommy.” Five. He looked around the room and then started counting the fingers on his left hand again.
“Daddy.” One. Ying Xiong unwrapped his thumb. “Mommy.” Five. He unwrapped his pinky, then held his new handphone against his ear, “Mommy?” Hello? Mommy? Can mommy hear Stinky Bun?
Ying Xiong learned how to read time much faster compared to other things. If Ziek told the toddler that he would be back in five minutes, one can bet that if he were only a few seconds late, the ticking bomb inside of that little body would blast up and a disaster would occur. Not only could his son’s progress stagnate but it could also reverse.
After Bing Shi felt that she got smart enough to pass an exam, she sighed in satisfaction from her productivity and decided to give their son another call.
Because they sat so close to the teacher, the teacher could see what they were doing the whole time and was even careful not to interrupt them. He pretended to see nothing when the most hard-working students in his class decided to take a break to play on their phones. The lecture would end in five minutes anyway.
Ziek glanced at his wife then at his son. There was finally something their son inherited from both of them – lots of playfulness with a hella load of timing skills. If someone thought it would be math, then they thought wrong. His wife might be quite good at math, but not their son, who was slightly below average (in toddler’s terms).