Emma's Five Students

They went to Haoran's room on the second floor—three times the size of Grandma Lin's apartment—to start studying. Emma was amazed at how luxurious was the arrangement of furniture in his room. The maid brought them lots of snacks and drinks to accompany their study.

"Alright, I want to know how good you are, so I can determine the proper way to teach you. I've prepared four tests for you; Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology." Emma took out some pieces of paper from her bag and handed them to Haoran.

The young man examined the questions on the test papers then nodded. He raised his face and asked, "Very good, when did you make these? Have you given private tutoring before?"

Emma shrugged. "Before I moved here, I have thought about doing some tutoring. I just didn't expect to find students so soon. Thank you for your help, once again."

"You're welcome. Alright, how much time will you give me to finish each test?"

"Fifteen minutes for each subject. I'll check and give you my assessment after an hour."

"Got it, let's do this!" Haoran took a sip from his glass of juice and appeared resolute in answering all the test questions Emma had given him.

Emma sat still as she finished her tea. Haoran changed positions frequently, from sitting at the desk to standing up and pacing around while thinking. Later, he stretched his back and closed his eyes for five minutes, and then went back to working on his desk. He looked super serious.

After drinking her tea, Emma walked around the spacious room to observe the various potted plants in the corners. She noticed the door to the balcony was open, and with great interest, the girl headed there.

She stroked the cypress plants outside lovingly and stood on the edge, staring at the beautiful scenery of the garden below. This massive villa had a gorgeous garden and was clearly cared for by a professional gardener.

"I'm done," said Haoran half an hour later. Emma was stunned and looked at the young man who held up his papers with a smirk.

'That was fast,' she said in her mind. The girl walked over to Haoran and checked his answers. The questions she had given Haoran earlier were all basic level and its purpose was to find out his level of understanding of the four subjects.

"The answers are all correct..." Emma raised her eyes from the small stack of paper and looked at Haoran in puzzlement. "I can't believe you've flunked your grades twice. How come?"

Haoran shrugged. "That's easy. I just left the answer sheets empty, every time. So, they have no choice but to fail me."

She gave the young man a look of disbelief. "You did what? Why?" She began to feel that her coming here was all in vain.

"I don't want to go to school. I just go to school every day because I'm forced. As you know if a child doesn't attend school, the government will punish his or her parents," Haoran replied.

Emma shook her head. "I don't understand. Then why would you give me tutoring work if you would only fail your exams later? You're wasting my time."

"You don't need to worry about that. I'll definitely be a responsible student this time. I won't intentionally fail my exam anymore." He gave her a sweet smile and added, "My father will thank you for giving his son the motivation to study."

Emma could only stare in confusion at Haoran. She did have a feeling Haoran wasn't stupid, and she was right. There must be a reason why he intentionally failed his grades to be placed in class F.

"Hmm, okay. I'll believe in you." Emma reviewed Haoran's answers once more and noticed there were no erasures of answers that meant he was confident in his answers. "It looks to me you don't really need a tutor."

Haoran shrugged. "Me? No, I don't. But my four friends in class F are stupid for real. They are willing to pay you to give them tutoring after school. But that has to wait. I need to confirm to them first that you really are a good teacher."

"Oh..." The girl was stunned. Technically, Haoran didn't lie in his SMS. "I see. What are their names?"

"I'll tell you once you tell me the truth about—why Paris?"

"Why do you want to know?" Emma narrowed her eyes at Haoran. The young man pondered a little and finally sighed.

"I was just curious. You didn't seem anxious when I first saw you, but that became the case when you heard about the trip, so my curiosity was piqued. But it's alright if you don't want to tell me." In truth, he didn't want to tell her that everything about her fascinated him, and he wanted to know her more.

Seeing his sincere concern, the girl pondered for a moment. From the first time Haoran had grabbed her attention, the young man had been treating her well. He seemed to always be trying to help. Not to mention, he was also the first person she liked as a friend. Finally, she nodded.

Taking a seat next to Haoran, she spoke in a solemn tone. "I want to look for my parents."

The young man was stunned by her answer. He had guessed that there was something behind Emma's determination to go to Paris. Yet, he did not expect that it was to find her parents.

"You... you're not with your parents?" asked the young man cautiously. "Are you... alright?"

Emma looked down. She had kept her thoughts and sorrow to herself for so long without being able to share it with others. Ms. Mabel had isolated her from her peers in the orphanage, so she had no friends throughout her eleven years of stay there, and never once did anyone ask her in such a caring tone about how she was doing, like what Haoran did just now.

Involuntarily, two drops of tears streamed down from her topaz-colored eyes. "I... was left in front of the orphanage when I was almost four years old," Emma said softly. "I don't know why my parents did that, but I remember their devastated faces."

Haoran felt guilty for making her reveal something too personal. Emma cried. He could also feel this girl had kept to herself for a long time while she vented her sadness.

"I'm sorry for being insensitive. I didn't mean to make you sad." Haoran touched Emma's hand and patted it softly. "You don't need to tell me anything more. I understand."

He actually wanted to ask more about Emma's parents, but he didn't want to further make the girl sad. Emma's sudden tears shocked him.

He didn't expect that the strong, beautiful girl who threw him to the ground, the girl who had the look of indifference, turned out to be carrying such a heavy burden in her chest.

'Never judge a book by its cover.' Haoran couldn't help but remember the saying.

He waited for the girl to calm down and then handed her a piece of paper with four names on it. "These are the names of the four students from class 2F who need your tutoring. They are willing to pay you good money. You can teach them here together, like in a study group, if you want. I think it's more practical that way. They will have peers to study together and will save you time."

She looked at him gratefully. She didn't know how she could be so lucky to have befriended such a nice young man. "David Wijaya, Dinh Nguyen, Eric Velasquez, and Alex Chu. All boys?"

"Yes, don't worry they're good people. They're my boys. If I'll be switching to class A next semester, they have to be there."

"What?" Emma didn't understand what Haoran just said. "Why?"

"I'm starting to feel bored in class F. I intentionally failed my exam two years in a row because I wanted to embarrass my father. But I think he's been embarrassed enough. Now, I want to move to class A, so I could be in the same class as you. Hehe..."

Emma rolled her eyes. She had briefly assessed what Haoran's capable of using his brain, he wasn't that stupid. But was he intelligent enough to move him to class A?

At the end of each semester, all students on each level would be ranked based on their collective test scores in all subjects. The top 30 students would enter class A, the next 30 students would be in class B, and so on. Since Haoran and his friends were ranked between 150 – 180, to be able to move to class A, they would have to beat the rest of the 150 students above them in exam scores.

Ugh... All of a sudden, Emma felt like she would have to work harder than expected to make that 2,000 dollars.