After Gu Changheng finished copying, he returned the homework book to Zhou Li and said, “I discovered a really fun game these past few days and got so hooked that I probably won’t have time to do my homework tonight. I plan to borrow yours to copy. I’m telling you in advance. Please don’t refuse to lend it to me when the time comes.”
“No, I won’t.”
On the way home from school in the evening, Zhou Li pulled out the English test paper that the teacher had assigned him today.
He initially planned to do it casually like before, but thinking about how Gu Changheng wanted to copy his homework, he opened the textbook and dictionary, then started to work through the questions one by one.
He spent a long time on the math test paper, using the textbook as a reference, until he felt he had done a decent job.
When he lent his English and math homework to Gu Changheng again, Zhou Li felt a bit nervous. He just hoped that all the effort he had put into last night’s homework wouldn’t reveal his poor academic performance, just like what happened two days ago.
After Gu Changheng returned to his seat with Zhou Li’s homework, he intended to copy it but ended up checking it. He realized that Zhou Li’s work was quite good, although he still made many mistakes. The handwriting was clear, with marks in some places, which was a stark contrast to the sloppy handwriting from two days ago.
It was obvious that Zhou Li had put in a lot of effort into his homework last night.
Gu Changheng felt pleased. Even without a romantic relationship in this life, Zhou Li still cared about his opinion.
—This was, of course, part of Gu Changheng’s intention in borrowing the homework.
After being reborn, he didn’t want Zhou Li to drop out in the third year of junior high school again. He at least wanted to encourage him to take his studies seriously. Even if he didn’t get into a prestigious university, he at least could attend a decent vocational school and get a similar diploma.
Now they were only just starting the third year of junior high school, and the material wasn’t that difficult. Gu Changheng felt that Zhou Li’s grades still had a chance of improvement.
During English class, the teacher randomly checked for spelling tests. Zhou Li had never been called for so long, but today she suddenly called him, “Zhou Li, come to the blackboard and spell the words.”
Zhou Li walked to the blackboard. When he turned back to grab chalk from the teacher’s desk, he noticed Gu Changheng smiling at him. His confidence, which was already shaky, plummeted further.
The English teacher instructed, “Number each word, and circle the ones you don’t know. We’ll start the spelling now. The first word is textbook.”
Zhou Li wrote “1, O” on the blackboard.
The teacher continued, “Loudly.”
Zhou Li wrote “2, O” on the blackboard.
The teacher went on, “Express.”
Zhou Li wrote “3, O” on the blackboard.
…
The teacher read through over 30 words from the unit. Zhou Li barely recognized any of them and ended up drawing a bunch of duck eggs on the blackboard.
“1, O, 2, O, 3, O, 4, O, 5, secret, 6, O, 7, O, 8, O… 30, O!”
Out of 30 words, Zhou Li only knew “secret” because it was written on the cover of his notebook as “my-secret,” which he had seen repeatedly.
“Alright, that’s all for today’s dictation.” The English teacher glanced at the blackboard. Seeing the row of zeros with one “secret” standing out, she said with a slightly cold face, “Go back, Zhou Li. You haven’t memorized any English words at all!”
A faint laughter from students erupted from the classroom.
Zhou Li ignored the laughter and instinctively glanced at Gu Changheng. Gu Changheng’s gaze was warm and supportive, devoid of mockery, but more like one of encouragement.
Zhou Li wasn’t particularly concerned about embarrassing himself. He was more worried about looking foolish in front of Gu Changheng. He returned to his seat and was sad for the rest of the class.
When the class bell rang, Gu Changheng came over to Zhou Li and said, “You’re amazing. You can write a word that I don’t know.”
“Really?” Zhou Li’s face turned red slightly. Gu Changheng’s compliment made him feel happy. At the same time, he vowed to study hard and memorize words at home. He never wanted to let Gu Changheng see him make a fool of himself like today. He wanted to earn more of his praise.
