Night.
Lin Yuan's house.
"Baozi don't distract us." Lin Yuan put the fat cat back on his bed and lightly scolded him. His sister was still at work, so there was no one to look after the fat cat.
"Meow meow!" The fat cat was upset.
Lin Yuan glanced at Ning Qing who was at the desk marking his homework and spoke softly, "Baobao, you have to be a good boy, don't cause trouble or I'll leave you in a trashcan!"
Lin Yuan didn't know if the fat cat understood or not but it finally stopped squirming around and curled up quietly against his pillow.
Lin Yuan gave a sigh of relief and then returned to his chair. At this time, Ning Qing glanced up from the paper, "Are you really going to leave him in a trashcan? You're very cruel Lin Yuan."
"..."
"Are you finished?" He gestured to his homework.
"Hmmm." Ning Qing nodded, then she seemed to realise something, "You are very direct now huh?"
She shook her head, "Before you used to speak very politely."
"Oh."
Ning Qing smiled, "Aren't you going to ask whether you should go back to speaking politely."
"No."
"..."
Lin Yuan glanced at her cramped expression, and felt he had figured it out. He took back the paper with a slight smile and looked through her corrections. The reading comprehension seems to have improved a bit, there were less red lines.
"By the way, in the group chat, you said you were going to watch a movie this Saturday?"
"Yeah, well you said to watch English movies…" Lin Yuan replied. Actually he didn't really like superhero movies but he had watched all the prequels in the Waspman franchise since they were easier to understand.
"Aha, so this is because of me? Then I'm grateful that you listen to what I say so carefully!" She spoke in a teasing tone at first but then she became more serious, "That's good, even though it might not be immediately obvious, exposure is the most important thing when learning a new language."
Lin Yuan nodded, "I also got some more picture books from the library."
Seeing her face looked normal, he added, "I was surprised, there are a lot of them in English."
"Really? Aha, then you're lucky!"
"Yeah…"
"Alright, then we should start going through speaking next." Ning Qing said.
Lin Yuan got up to get his second year English textbook, just then he accidentally brushed against her feet when he shuffled.
He looked down at Ning Qing seriously, "That was an accident."
"… Okay."
"Don't make a mistake and misunderstand me this time."
"…" Ning Qing's face was dark.
Lin Yuan sat back down smiling to himself. He was in a good mood for a while, until he started reciting.
"That's wrong, you misread that."
"No, start again."
"Again."
Lin Yuan looked up at her serious face, he wanted to say you can't use your power for personal vendettas.
"What's the matter? Why aren't you reciting?" Ning Qing's voice was soft but sharp.
Lin Yuan knew he had made a mistake, he got too arrogant. Shaking his head, he felt he needed something to distract her with.
"I feel like I don't sound right…" Lin Yuan put on a curious face, "How do you speak without an accent?"
"Well it comes with practice, if you keep doing what you're doing now, you can also do it." Ning Qing spoke casually wanting to get back to the work, but she saw that his eyes were glazing over, so she added, "Actually, I studied in England at Cambridge for a semester when I was doing my undergraduate degree, that helped a lot."
"Cambridge? Cambridge University?" Lin Yuan was excited.
"You know about it?" Ning Qing was confused by his sudden excitement, then she understood, "Oh right, their maths department is very famous."
"Not just maths." Lin Yuan's voice was soft.
"Why? Do you want to apply to Cambridge University? It'll be difficult but if you want I can help you look into it. If you do though, you need to work hard in your English lessons!" Ning Qing advised.
Lin Yuan just shook his head, "No…I need to go to Tsinghua."
"Because of your father?"
"..."
"Your sister told me he also went to Tsinghua University."
"You and my sister are very close huh?" Lin Yuan's tone had a little bite.
But Ning Qing was unabated, "Well I was also there at that time, we were already friends then, five years ago."
"Oh."
"Is that why you wanted to be at the national training camp, because of the special admission?"
Lin Yuan glanced at her, he didn't expect her to keep prodding. He was silent for a while then he shook his head, "No, that's not it. My father, he won a gold medal at the International Physics Olympiad. I only found out about it in my second year."
He laughed, "I wanted to do physics, but I found I was much better at maths. I thought I could also win a medal but I started too late, I couldn't pass the cutt off…"
Lin Yuan twirled his pen in hand, "So this time, I want to get into Tsinghua. I have to do well."
He looked up at Ning Qing with a half-smile, "Are you going to say I shouldn't put so much pressure on myself?"
Ning Qing shook her head, "No."
Her eyes were very gentle, "I can also understand. When my parents passed away I wanted to get away, go somewhere where I knew no one. But later I found myself wanting to go to the same places and do the same things, to retrace their steps. Wanting to connect with them in some way."
"…"
"Then do you want to be a teacher?"
"Huh?"
"Your parents were teachers right? You also teach…"
Ning Qing was surprised, she had never really thought about it like that. The main reason she taught at a cram school before was because it paid well and the hours were shorter.
Actually, what does anyone who pursues a literature degree want to do? The answer is quite obvious.
Ning Qing had a wry smile and she only said, "Maybe."
Then she asked curiously, "Do you think I make a good teacher?"
Lin Yuan thought about it for a moment then shook his head and said with a serious face, "I can't tell yet, I have to see my marks."
Ning Qing laughed, and complained jokingly: "You're very strict!"
"Well, then do you want to be a physicist?"
This time it was Lin Yuan's turn to be unsure. He wanted to get into the maths department at Tsinghua but he wasn't really sure what to do after that. He liked psychics, it was probably his best subject after maths at school, but he thought would also like to study pure mathematics.
Ultimately all these thoughts culminated into a single word, "Maybe."
Hearing this Ning Qing smiled, "Well you're still young, you have lots of time."