Third year was a tragedy, and that was especially so for Lu Yu Chen . His progress was worse than some of the Year Twos who had learnt the syllabus beforehand . He’s never had a nice expression on after the second day of lesson . He felt as though he’d just hoped over from junior high instead; he couldn’t comprehend anything .
The scores to the first monthly test came out . His dear violent little sister glittered on the superstar board as third in place in the entire level . Her glittering number one for her Math, Physics, Chemistry and English coming first place added on to her sparkling position . If it weren’t for her History, Politics and Language that pulled her marks down, she’d definitely have the first place in the level well under her belt .
Even if they had different genes, they still ate the same food, stayed in the same house and had the same parents, but why was the difference still so large!
Lu Yu Chen had never spared a thought about this before . He’d been blinded by all sorts of luxurious vices back when he was still in Jing Teng . Now that he’s left the place and came to a completely foreign environment, he was submerged in confusion .
Xu Mo had just finished dinner and wanted to head out to “digest” her food . She still had yet to figure out the excretory system so the food she’d consumed could only be dispersed as energy while cultivating her mental power . The night breeze of late autumn was already starting to get chilly . Tian Jin Jin was too lazy to head down so she went with Qi Shan who had been complaining that she wanted to lose weight downstairs to the field . Before they reached however, they saw a tall figure lingering around the entrance of the dorm .
“Lu Yu Chen, what is it?” Xuan Mo knew that he was downstairs since long ago; he’d been here turning in around in so many circles it had even her mental web all dizzy .
Lu Yu Chen stopped . He looked at Qi Shan, then looked at Xuan Mo, frowning .
Qi Shan very tactfully laughed an excuse: “Aha, Xuan Mo, I’ll go run first, you guys chat . ”
Even though it was publicly known that Lu Yu Chen and Xuan Mo were siblings by law, almost all the students for some reason still believe that they were together . Even Tian Jin Jin who’d known how poor Xuan Mo’s relationship with Lu Yu Chen had been before under Qi Shan’s brainwashing too converted into believing these two had something going on between them .
Xuan Mo didn’t know something like romance fiction existed, and had yet to encounter anything similar to trigger that related memories, so she could only look at Qi Shan’s meaningful smile as she left . Behind them however, the dorm aunt stared at the two of them intently, her gaze increasingly dangerous .
Lu Yu Chen’s knowledge regarding romance novels definitely paled in comparison when pulled up against the previous Xuan Mo, but compared the ther Xuan Mo now, he knew too much . And so, he could only mutter something inaudible, before asking awkwardly: “You, why are you free?”
Xuan Mo looked at him strangely: “What is it . ” She seemed to not have learnt how to raise the pitch of a statement to make it a question .
“I heard your results are friggin’ amazing . ” Lu Yu Chen said, looking at her meaningfully .
Xuan Mo looked at him . Z L T
“You, know what I mean right?”
“How will I know if you don’t tell me?” Xuan Mo was very honest . There wasn’t anything such as tuition to her; the education back in Scorpio Planet made it such that there was no such thing as tuition .
“Fvck! You’re doing this on purpose right!” Lu Yu Chen imploded once again .
“…” Xuan Mo raised her brow, before turning, ready to leave .
“Aye aye, hold on!” Lu Yu Chen reached to catch her elbow . Xuan Mo however lightly evaded his hand as though she could see what was happening behind her .
Lu Yu Chen paused . When he saw that Xuan Mo was going to cross into the females-restricted form area, he quickly caught up and blocked way her off: “Alright! I’ll say! Can you to tuition me?”
“You’re in year three . ” Xuan Mo stated, “while I am in year one . ”
“Aye I know! I want you to tuition me year one stuff!” Lu Yu Chen scratched his head, “I’m not sure if I can still make it, but I should at least try . ”
Wa Lu Yu Chen turning over a new leaf?
Xuan Mo didn’t reply . She’d never been a teacher before in both her lives, how was she going to tuition him? She hadn’t even picked up the art of listening in class yet and he wanted her to teach him?
Lu Yu Chen couldn’t figure out what Xuan Mo was thinking seeing that she was silent . Even if they had a poor relationship, it was more of a deadlock rather than something worse . Now that Xuan Mo’s changed and became more likeable (?), he couldn’t help but want to better their relationship . He was willing to reveal his weakness, but he’s never thought about whether Xuan Mo wanted to reciprocate his feeling .
“Oh, Mo Mo I’m gonna die, don’t just stand and watch!” He’s even played the nickname card, if she’d not gonna agree then he had no other tricks up his sleeve either .
“I don’t know how to tuition . ” Xuan Mo was very vexed . She didn’t reject him; she did have a lot of spare time and there wasn’t much meaning to cultivating all day, it’s not like there’s gonna be a spaceship for her to pilot .
“Aye, it doesn’t have to be all systematic, just help me out with the questions I don’t know . ” Lu Yu Chen wasn’t at all embarrassed about his shortcomings, “I don’t need you to help me tuition the subjects English and Language you’re not as good in, I just need help with Math, Physics and Chemistry, I’m from Science stream . ”
“…when?” Z L T
“Ah?” THMYO IS HOSTED @ ZHANLAN TL
Xuan Mo turned to leave .
“Aye hold it hold it! Goodness, can you be more gentle?! Why so valiant?!” Lu Yu Chen went up to block her again, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, “when are you free?”
“Year Threes should be busier I’ll accommodate your timing . ” Xuan Mo replied in rare understanding .
“Then, afternoon, or at night? Or morning study… you probably don’t wake up that early . ” Lu Yu Chen suddenly thought of something, before he asked excitedly, “Aye Mo Mo, do you exercise in the morning?”
Xuan Mo slanted him a look: “And then spend every single minute of spare time I have on you?”
“Eh, fine then . ” Lu Yu Chen scratched his head, “let’s keep it in the afternoon and night then, I’ll look for you in your classroom, can do?”
The Xuan Mo student who’d never stayed to study at night pronounced that she was under much pressure . She remained quiet for a long while before finally nodding her head .
Lu Yu Chen sighed in relief . He pulled out an notebook but realised he had no pen with him when he checked . Seeing how they’d taken a long time discussing and it was late, he decided to leave instead .
Xuan Mo looked around . She no longer was bothered to take a night stroll, and so, she turned to return upstairs instead . She suddenly sensed a message very apparently directed at her suddenly floating past in her mental web; it read: seventeenth November, wait for a black sedan with the car plate number ending with 234 outside your school entrance .
…after countless experiments, she knew the message without even needing to get her phone out . This news was from the Zone Seven she’s not heard from in a long time .
She’d almost forgotten about that . They’d been so secretive then;if it wasn’t the fact that she knew her memory would never be wrong, she’d almost thought the zone seven thing had never happened .
Of course she knew she was being constantly watched, but such surveillance that was didn’t have any poor intentions in her dictionary was ignorable . Because Scorpio Planet had, too, been a place that was enshrouded in surveillance so as to ensure the resident’s security .
She wasn’t sure how humans thought . She definitely didn’t know how her by-the-book, Blue-Planet-being-esque life was of influence to them, but one thing she knew was that she hadn’t done anything that’s out of the ordinary .
Five in the afternoon on seventeenth November was the time lesson ended this Friday . The confidential agreement did mention that she was not to tell this to her friends or family . In other words, she had to lie .
She wasn’t accustomed to lying . Either she didn’t say it, or she say it in a way that made the other party think of something else . She would be very uneasy if she lied .
The majority of the times when she needed to lie were to people of higher authority than her . She had to risk being probed by their mental power that was much more powerful than hers when she did so . But here in Blue Planet, she couldn’t be bothered to even lie to them .
And so, how she should lie became a huge question mark for her .
Lying was an art, she needed to have a deeper understanding of what went on inside their heads, and more life experiences–both of which were things she lacked .
Xuan Mo started vexing over this from Wednesday . In the beginning, she started to take note of the mental state of the people around her unconsciously, taking careful note whenever she found traces of lies before attentively analysing and collating their meaning, sources, and consequences . In the end, she still had no idea what excuse she was going to make up so as to get past Xuan Mo’s mother who had already told her since Monday that she was picking them up this coming Friday, and the not so easily deceiveable Lu Yu Chen .
However, the hardest problem at hand was tuitioning .
The next day, Wednesday afternoon, Xuan Mo didn’t return to her dorm after lunch . Instead she went to sit in her classroom . Lu Yu Chen was already at her classroom waiting for her . There were only a handful of hardworking people sprinkled around in the classroom . When they saw Xuan Mo enter, they donned an expression akin to bumping into a ghost .
Lu Yu Chen was very uncomfortable being mixed among the bunch of Year Ones, but getting his Year One little sister to go to his classroom and tuition him among his Year Three classroom was even more uncomfortable . And so, he could only clench his teeth and hold it in . He handed his English script to Xuan Mo, saying: “The parts underlined in black are the parts I need help with . ”
Xuan Mo looked at the script; it was filled with black ink . She handed his script back to him, replying expressionlessly: “Circle the ones you don’t need help with . ”
Lu Yu Chen: “…”
Following that, Xuan Mo pointed at the first question . Lu Yu Chen’s answer was A but was later corrected to C . She looked at the question: “You corrected it correctly . ”
Lu Yu Chen felt like pulling his hair out: “That’s cuz I marked it according to the answers!”
“Oh . ” Xuan Mo looked at it again, “since you know the answer, what else is there to ask?”
“I want to know why!”
“There’s no whys to why it’s put like that . ”
“Didn’t the teacher said something about the arrangement of the grammar…”
“You’re a pig . ”
“What?”
“Are you going to ask why you’re a pig?”
“Hah?” THMYO IS HOSTED @ ZHANLAN TL
“Because you are a pig . ” Xuan Mo shrugged, “that’s it, that’s how it’s put . It’s the same for the question you got wrong . Do you need a reason for that?”
“…” Lu Yu Chen paused .
Previously, he did have a feeling that he might perhaps just meet the crappiest possible teacher ever in history .
As his gut told him, his feeling was correct .
After accepting “that’s just how the result is” for a Math question, then “that’s just how the rule is” for a Physics question, then “that’s how the process is” for a Chemistry question, and all sorts of “do you need a reason for that?” answer from Xuan Mo, Lu Yu Chen finally announced his defeat .
He roared, indignant: “I’m not gonna get you to tuition me even if I resit the year!”
Friday quickly came .
Lu Yu Chen stood outside Xuan Mo’s classroom with a dark expression . Xuan Mo slowly packed her things and walked ut . Just as she was heading out without a word, someone called her from behind . She turned, it was Yi Hai Lan . He was his bag slinged on one shoulder as he ran up: “Xuan Mo, are you free later?”
“What is it . ”
“Oh, the different clubs are recruiting members soon but Teacher Lee wanted the few of us to join the student council . She mentioned your name, why don’t you stay back and join us?” After saying that, he nodded as he smiled at Lu Yu Chen .
Lu Yu Chen tsked: “Why tell now, Xuan Mo your mom’s already outside waiting . ”
“Only the class rep had to stay back initially, but Teacher Lee suddenly told me that she hoped Xuan Mo can join too, hence as to why I’m only catching you before you leave . ” Yi Hai Lan looked at Xuan Mo, “So Xuan Mo, you staying? Don’t worry, I can send you back after the meeting’s over . ”
“You don’t need to send her, we’ll wait for a bit . You guys go to your meeting, I’ll let aunt know . ” Lu Yu Chen picked up Xuan Mo’s bag and left .
Xuan Mo suddenly felt like something blinking bright lit up in her head, and that brightness was even coupled with a ding . She whooshed around and said to Lu Yu Chen: “Lu Yu Chen! I’ll head home on my own later, don’t wait for me . ”
“It’s fine, isn’t it just a meeting, we’ll wait . ” Lu Yu Chen thought Xuan Mo was embarrassed .
“It might take a while though, everyone needs to introduce themselves and the position they’re contending for, and then they’re going to go through the prerequisites and how to fill up the application form and all… don’t worry, I’ll take care of her . ” Yi Hai Lan patted Xuan Mo, smiling, “right Mo Mo!” as though they were close as brothers .
Xuan Mo held in the impulse to fling off his touchy hand . Clenching her teeth, she nodded: “Enh, you guys head back first . ”
Lu Yu Chen was very dissatisfied . He started, wanting to say something, but his expression darkened instead and turned to leave the school .
Xuan Mo followed Yi Hai Lan back into the classroom where the rest of the class committee members were waiting for their form teacher Lin Fei . When her mental power checked that Lu Yu Chen had already Lu Yu Chen had already left in Xuan Mo mother’s car, she checked the time . It was four fifty-two . She immediately stood: “I’m leaving . ”
“Ah? But the meeting hasn’t started . ” Yi Hai Lan widened his eyes .
His reply was Xuan Mo’s retreating silhouette .
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