372. The Miserable Student
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“My kid was pretty well-behaved when he was younger. Once he hit middle school, though, nobody’s words would get through to him! He’s always causing trouble at school. He even punched a teacher back in junior high—can you believe that?”
“His grades are terrible! Failing every subject! He spends all day messing around on his phone or getting into fights. He’s already in the first year of high school, and in a couple of years, he’s supposed to be taking university entrance exams. How is he going to manage like this?”
This dark-skinned parent shook his head and sighed dramatically. “Thank goodness we found you, or he’d be doomed for life!”
Li Na chuckled, nodding her head. “Yeah, the first time I saw him, I thought he was just some street punk.”
“Isn’t he a punk? I’m getting old, and I can’t control him anymore,” the worried parent glanced toward the bedroom. “Can the little girl you recommended really handle him?”
Li Na hesitated a moment, then honestly shook her head. “Hard to say… But her English teaching skills are definitely solid. If only…”
Before she could finish, a bl**d-curdling scream erupted from the bedroom.
The parent turned pale, fearing his son had attacked the tutor. He jumped up to rush inside but suddenly realized the scream sounded a bit like Pan Maoxin’s voice.
He exchanged worried glances with Li Na and hurried into the other room, flinging the door open to find Lin Nan facing away from them, standing next to the bed, while Pan Maoxin cowered in the corner, trembling in terror, a massive bruise marring his face.
What was once a hulking man over six feet tall now resembled a quivering quail, hands covering his cheeks, tears welling in his eyes, as if he were a little girl being bullied.
“You really went too hard!” Li Na gasped in shock.
Lin Nan, looking quite awkward, turned around to face them, sheepishly stepping back a bit. “Maybe a little… He was driving me crazy!”
Oh no! With that kind of beating, she’d never get to keep her tutoring gig!
If she didn’t owe money, she’d count herself lucky.
Even when Li Na hit Pan Maoxin, it was little more than a painful smack with no damage done. But this punch from Lin Nan? He’d likely need at least a week to recover!
“Dad…” Pan Maoxin wailed as he saw his father standing in the doorway, speechless. He sounded like a child complaining, “She hit me! I’m bleeding!”
His father shook his head, letting out a long sigh. “After class, I’ll take you to the hospital.”
“Still going to class?” Pan Maoxin looked as gray as a ghost.
“Seeing you like this makes me feel better,” his dad chuckled, clearly amused. “This kid is fearless, except when it comes to you two little girls—now that’s a way to teach!”
Am I even your actual son?!
Lin Nan was stunned; she had expected to get yelled at and have to pay for damages.
The parent walked up to Lin Nan, giving her an approving look before putting on a serious face. “Ms. Lin, you can’t be rough with him anymore!”
Lin Nan nodded eagerly.
“If you must be rough, wait until I’m not around.”
Despair flickered in Pan Maoxin’s eyes.
He might as well have continued with Li Na. At least she would hit him but never leave a mark! But this new teacher? One punch, and he looked like a roadkill pig! He couldn’t even fathom how he was going to face his buddies at school after this!
He slumped down, holding his face, and thought about how he would be mocked for getting beat up by a girl—his fragile little ego shattered like glass.
His father returned with some Yunnan Baiyao, shaking his head in pity while smoothing it over Pan Maoxin’s bruise, mumbling as he went. The once rebellious Pan Maoxin sat there like an obedient little kitten, curled up and looking like a two-hundred-pound baby.
Lin Nan hung her head, feeling guilty as if she had done something terribly wrong, while Li Na stood there, arms crossed, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
After half an hour of chaos, they finally left the bedroom, leaving only Pan Maoxin and Lin Nan sitting at the desk.
“So, shall we start class?” Lin Nan took out the English textbook from his first semester.
“Oh…” Pan Maoxin slumped his shoulders, looking glum and defeated.
Well, if he was willing to listen, then regardless of his attitude, magic would help him remember what was said.
Lin Nan didn’t mind that, pulling a chair over and flipping to the vocabulary section with a gentle smile. “I’ll read once, then you read after me, alright?”
Pan Maoxin glanced up at her smile, which made him tremble even more.
Just a moment ago, that punch had made him realize that the distance between life and d*ath could be covered with a single blow.
Feeling the grim reaper might be lurking nearby was… uncomfortable, to say the least.
“Um…” It had been ages since Lin Nan used English, so she had also forgotten some words. Luckily, she still could piece them together using phonetics. If all else failed, there was always her phone for help.
“c, a, l, m, calm, peaceful,” Lin Nan worked her magic as she sat next to Pan Maoxin, softly reading the words.
Pan Maoxin obediently followed along but was baffled; Lin Nan’s teaching didn’t seem much different from other teachers. Who actually taught word by word like this?
He was just going through the motions, covering his bruise.
Half an hour later, after going through his first semester vocabulary, Lin Nan finally closed the book, pulled out a worksheet, and handed it to him. “Got it memorized? Let’s have a little quiz.”
“Wouldn’t it be strange to remember?” Pan Maoxin instinctively grumbled.
Lin Nan dispelled her magic, smiling as she set the paper and pen in front of him to start quizzing.
What surprised Pan Maoxin was that as he began to recall, he suddenly realized that the words Lin Nan had painstakingly taught him were now deeply etched in his mind.
He was a bit dazed; he’d never known his memory could be this good before.
He instinctively wrote down the words popping into his head on the paper, quickly finishing the quiz. Handing over the paper, filled with vocabulary, he looked up, surprised. “Are you really good friends with Teacher Li Na?”
“Why’s that?” Lin Nan checked his words, worried her magic had gone wrong.
“When she taught me last semester, it was kind of… inefficient too, but I somehow remembered everything.”
She looked up, ignoring Pan Maoxin’s words, smiling as she waved the paper in her hand. “All correct! Go play a couple of games of Honor of Kings, then we’ll continue.”
It wasn’t that Lin Nan didn’t want to continue, but using magic for too long gave her a bit of a headache.
She lightly pressed her fingers against her temples, frowning as she endured the side effects of overusing her abilities.
She had become accustomed to this kind of side effect, especially when she’d used her speed-reading magic to memorize things quickly; it often led to these situations.
Pan Maoxin watched his gentle, demure, and somewhat cute new teacher and felt his bruise throb even more painfully.
This teacher hit way harder than Li Na—she didn’t leave a shred of dignity!
Who knew where that slender little arm got its strength?
“Okay, okay, no more games. Let’s get back to it.”
He huddled his neck down, worried it was a trap—what if halfway through, they had to start class again? Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place!
