4 Chapter 4: Only Women and Villains are Difficult to Raise

The exam begins.

"Generally-speaking, ___good-education-is-regarded-as ____ticket-to-success. "

"A....B...."

[Causality Law!]

[Answer: C.]

"What-was-it-that-made-Susan..."

[Causality Law!]

[Answer: A.]

Zhao Yi quickly writes down his answers.

Shen Yan, who hasn't left his side yet, leans over to take a peek at his test paper and is surprised to see that he has already finished five questions and is about to write down the answer to the sixth one.

"Are you guessing the answers?"

Shen Yan instantly feels frustrated and before she can vent out, she notices that the answers on the paper...are they all correct?

Zhao Yi finishes ten questions with unprecedented speed.

Shen Yan scans down to the end and finds all the answers are correct, causing her to feel surprised.

She has kept an eye on the students' performances, and Zhao Yi's name was certainly not among the top ten in English. Yet, Zhao Yi managed to correctly answer all ten multiple-choice questions at an astonishing speed.

Speed is one thing.

On the other hand, having 100% accuracy is quite remarkable. Some English multiple-choice questions can be quite tricky. Apart from a substantial base of knowledge, linguistic intuition seems more important. Even if she attempted these questions, she couldn't guarantee she would get them all right.

Shen Yan puts down Zhao Yi's test paper and continues pacing around the classroom. As she returns to where she started, she can't help but stop and quietly asks him, "How did you choose the answer for this question?"

She answered this question incorrectly.

Zhao Yi lowers his head to glance at the question and casually says, "I just randomly wrote it down! I don't even know."

As he has studied for a while in university and uses it at work, his English is slightly better than it was in high school, but grammar still poses a great challenge.

Shen Yan misinterprets his remark, "By intuition?" She suddenly holds Zhao Yi in higher regard.

When discussing English grammar and word usage, the high-level logic puzzles that can come up are essentially language-based problems. In reality, English is a language where habit is much more important than logic.

Some multiple-choice fill-in-the-blank questions, when presented to native English speakers who may not understand grammar, can be quickly answered correctly. This is because they are accustomed to using the language in certain ways and don't need any logical or semantic reasoning to support their choice.

Being able to answer correctly due to intuition signifies the highest level of language learning.

When the exam time ends and Shen Yan returns to the podium to discuss the questions with the students, she explains three questions. When she reaches the fourth question, which many got wrong, she immediately asks Zhao Yi to help explain it.

Zhao Yi stands up and says, "Teacher Shen, I think the answer should be C, because it... feels right."

Shen Yan is not satisfied, "Then explain the fifth question!"

"This question…Does 'Take' mean to leave or remove? It can also be used for bathing…"

Zhao Yi tries to explain.

Shen Yan interrupts with stern eyebrows. "Explain the last question!"

"This, that…"

Zhao Yi opens his mouth but says nothing.

He doesn't understand two of the words in the last question; he just can't comprehend it.

After waiting for a bit, Shen Yan gets somewhat angry. "You won't explain any of the questions? Are you doing this on purpose?"

"No, it's not like that…"

Zhao Yi feels a little wronged.

"Then how did you get them all right? All by intuition? Is English your mother tongue?" Shen Yan questions strictly.

The others can't help but turn to look in surprise.

Lin Xiaoqing turns her head over and whispers. "Are you really this good at English? During the last exam, you only scored fifty, didn't you?"

"Cough, cough…Luck! It's all luck!"

Zhao Yi loud answer is both a response to Teacher Shen and to Lin Xiaoqing.

Lin Xiaoqing gives him a puzzled look. She recalls Zhao Yi's previous mathematics paper, where he guessed all his multiple-choice questions correctly. Is this another guess?

How did he do it?

She never considered that Zhao Yi might have answered based on his own ability.

English multiple-choice questions are different from mathematics; even if you study well, you can't be sure to get all the answers right. Her English scores were among the top two in the entire school, but she still occasionally gets a couple wrong.

Zhao Yi?

A student who solely depends on guessing during exams!

Shen Yan's thoughts differ from Lin Xiaoqing's. Shen Yan believes Zhao Yi must know the answers and is just deliberately not providing any explanations, simply because he thinks she is easy to take advantage of being new to the school?

A bit frustrated, Shen Yan steps down from the podium and asks sternly, "Did you guess all of them? And got them all correct?"

"Yes...yes! Is that not allowed?" Zhao Yi sounds somewhat uneasy.

Shen Yan laughs it off in annoyance, "You're quite good at guessing answers, aren't you?"

Zhao Yi is confused.

"Well then, okay, okay!"

Shen Yan forcefully breaks a piece of chalk into her right hand. "Now guess, how many pieces of chalk is in my right hand?"

Zhao Yi is dumbfounded.

He hesitantly answers, "Two pieces?"

Sun Liang gives Zhao Yi a thumbs up.

Lin Xiaoqing thinks it's not nice to laugh at the teacher, she quickly covers her mouth, but still fails to hold in her laughter.

"Pfft!"

She laughs louder than anyone else.

Instantly, Shen Yan's face turns bright red. It's unclear whether it's from anger or embarrassment for doing something foolish. What she didn't expect was that knowing full well she was picking on him, Zhao Yi actually dared to take a wild guess.

"Good, good, good! You really can guess!"

Stifling her annoyance, Shen Yan grabs several pens from Lin Xiaoqing's pencil case and hides them behind her back. "Now, guess how many pens I'm holding in my left hand? If you get it wrong, I'll report to your homeroom teacher that you're disrupting the class on purpose!" She says this quite loudly.

"Hahaha..."

The students all laugh at this clearly oppressive question.

Zhao Yi calmly set up the question--[How many pens are in teacher Shen Yan's left hand?]

[A.1; B.2; C.3; D.4.]

[Causality Law!]

[Answer: 2.]

Zhao Yi confidently said, "If I'm not mistaken, it should be two!"

"Wrong! It's one!" Shen Yan immediately stretched out her hand, holding one pen in her palm.

Zhao Yi held his forehead, reminding her, "Teacher Shen, that's your right hand!"

"Hahaha..."

Raucous laughter ensued.

This time, the one being ridiculed was Shen Yan.

Shen Yan's cheeks flushed with noticeable embarrassment, she retorted somewhat fiercely, "Then you tell me, what letter am I thinking of now? ABCD… take your pick!"

"Teacher, are you sure you've thought about it?" Zhao Yi wasn't keen on wasting energy, so he asked carefully.

"I have!"

Shen Yan indignantly nodded strongly, her voice as if being squeezed out from her gritted teeth.

Zhao Yi was silent for a few seconds, intensely looking at Shen Yan's face, then voiced his answer, "It's B."

"Wrong, I was thinking of D!"

Shen Yan said this and turned to leave, "You chose wrong. I will report it to your homeroom teacher."

"Hahaha..."

Raucous laughter ensued again.

This time, the one being laughed at was Zhao Yi, proving that students are naturally at a disadvantage when facing off against teachers.

"Women and villains are hard to raise!"

Zhao Yi sighed.

Shen Yan left the classroom.

She was completely overwhelmed by annoyance and shock during the latter half of the lesson, barely focusing on her teaching.

What irritated her was her own stupidity...

When going to school, she would often do silly things due to her clumsiness, but among classmates and teachers, a girl being a bit clumsy wasn't a big deal, it could even be somewhat adorable.

However, in front of students who were five to six years younger than her, continuously making mistakes in what she said and did was extremely awkward.

"In no time, this incident will probably spread across the whole school..."

Shen Yan thought of Zhao Yi.

How exactly did this male student guess that she was thinking of the letter B?

Strange!

Was it some psychological trick, determining the answer by observing facial expressions?

Or was there some statistic that suggested a higher probability of selecting B out of the four options A, B, C, D?

Shen Yan went back to her office in a daze.

There were two teachers' offices on the third floor. She was in a large office where over a dozen teachers sat facing each other, creating a lively atmosphere.

Shen Yan hesitated at the door, "Should I tell Teacher Sun?"

Teacher Xue walked over holding some test papers, intending to take the textbook from Shen Yan's hand, while asking, "Teacher Shen, why aren't you going in?"

"No need."

Shen Yan dodged politely and refused, revealing an awkward smile, before striding into the office.

Inside the office, the topic of discussion was also Zhao Yi.

Teacher Niu was sprawled on a chair in a dominating manner, "Today, I taught the third class. Zhao Yi was dozing off all the time. When disciplined to stand at the back, he even sneaked off to the restroom!"

Teacher Xue suddenly realised, "I was wondering why I saw Zhao Yi in the hallway during class hours. The brat even cursed at me..."

"What?"

Teacher Sun looked up.

"Nothing." Teacher Xue touched his face, too embarrassed to elaborate.

Teacher Sun turned to Shen Yan, "Teacher Shen, how was Zhao Yi's performance in your English class?"

Other teachers also looked over.

Shen Yan has just recently joined the team at High School Number 13. As a quiet and soft-spoken female teacher, she usually doesn't speak much, and doesn't stand out in teaching, so everyone was interested in her assessment of a student like Zhao Yi.

Shen Yan hesitantly replied, "Not bad, I guess. He did very well in my pop quiz. Maybe English is his strong suit."

"Pfft!"

A few teachers couldn't help but laugh.

Zhao Yi's academics weren't exactly poor, with most of his grades hovering around the passing line, but English was definitely his weakest subject. He was the kind of student who typically just guessed during exams.

Teacher Sun reminded, "Teacher Shen, you just arrived and probably don't know the situation. In the end-of-semester exam for grade 11, Zhao Yi's English grade was the worst among all his subjects."

Teacher Xue nodded in agreement, "I supervised the English exam for his class. He handed his paper in very early. He guessed all the multiple choice questions, but at least his composition was filled to the brim!"

Shen Yan's cheeks reddened slightly.

It wasn't a pleasant feeling to be laughed at by everyone in the office, but what puzzled her more was-

Zhao Yi's English is all just guessed?

Is it really?

Teacher Xue quickly came to her rescue, "It's normal for Teacher Shen not to know. It's not usual to pay attention to students who get the worst grades when you first join."

He changed the subject, "There's no doubt about Teacher Shen's teaching ability. With her help, I believe, the English grades of Zhao Yi and the students of Class 3 and Class 4 will greatly improve!"

He ended his statement with what he thought was a charming smile.

Shen Yan responded with an awkward smile.

The other teachers all turned their faces away, chuckling. Twenty-eight-year-old Teacher Xue always tried to curry favor with Shen Yan, who was new to the school. But most teachers felt that he was completely oblivious to his own situation.

The two were leagues apart.

Shen Yan was quiet, amiable, tall and well-shaped. She would definitely be considered a campus belle in college.

Horse-face Xue?

Didn't he realize after being single for twenty-eight years?