Chapter 50: Sprinting Towards the Monthly Exam ②
Nie Qiu let out a chuckle, “Alright, stop joking. It’s still raining, everyone should go home early after eating their late-night snacks! Be careful not to catch a cold.” As she spoke, she packed barbecue for them.
Nie Aifang grilled two extra skewers of fish balls and chicken wings for each of them. Nie Qiu didn’t bother to calculate the exact cost of the barbecue they ordered, knowing Nie Aifang would handle it.
Indeed, after grilling for everyone, Nie Aifang only charged these classmates one hundred yuan. The vegetarian barbecue skewers cost fifty cents each, and some were one yuan each. However, the fish balls, chicken legs, and chicken wings were two to three yuan each, and some even cost five yuan per skewer. If she had charged them properly, the barbecue for over a dozen students would have been worth two hundred yuan, but Nie Aifang only charged them the cost price.
Watching Zhao Qidi and the others leave, laughing and chatting, Nie Aifang smiled kindly, “Now we can use the leftover ingredients to cook at home, and we don’t have to worry about them spoiling.”
“Mm,” Nie Qiu bent down to tuck in the honeycomb briquette stove, then got onto the tricycle. “Mom, let’s go back too! There aren’t many people at the night market now.”
Nie Aifang covered everything on the tricycle with plastic film, then put away the large umbrella. She casually wiped the tricycle’s seat with a rag, then got on the tricycle and took Nie Qiu home.
Nie Qiu and Nie Aifang returned home. After washing up, Nie Qiu went back to her room to rest. Although it rained today, it was the earliest they had ever returned home, not even ten o’clock yet.
Lying in bed, Nie Qiu took out the necklace. The jade’s luster was getting better and better, possibly because there was a living thing inside the jade. However, the chain had broken, and she couldn’t wear it around her neck. Nie Qiu sat up in bed, took out two hundred yuan from her purse, and sighed.
Where would gold shops repair such old-fashioned chains nowadays? Only people with old craftsmanship could repair such handmade chains. She didn’t know any craftsmen with old skills, nor did she want to tell Nie Aifang that the chain had broken.
The older generation had superstitious beliefs. Since Nie Aifang believed this necklace could bring peace, she would probably worry that something bad would happen if the chain broke.
Nie Qiu clenched the chain in her hand, closed her eyes, and silently thought about the necklace’s appearance. When she opened her eyes, she was indeed standing in the space.
The fluffy little white rabbit hopped in front of Nie Qiu, saying excitedly, “Nie Qiu, Nie Qiu, look, look, I’m back in my body!”
Nie Qiu squatted down and picked up the little white rabbit from the ground. “Are you Dao?”
“Mm-hmm.” Dao nestled in Nie Qiu’s arms, stretching comfortably. “Thank you, Nie Qiu.”
Nie Qiu shook her head, looking at the talking rabbit in her arms, and smiled. “I didn’t do much. Dao, congratulations. Are you feeling better?”
“Speaking of which…” The little white rabbit jumped out of Nie Qiu’s arms and looked up at Nie Qiu. “Nie Qiu, what about the vegetables in the space?”
Nie Qiu looked at the vegetables, which had apparently aged for several years. Rotting leaves nourished newly grown vegetables. She frowned. “I don’t know what to do yet. I… I don’t know how to tell my mom without making her suspicious.”
“Nie Qiu,” the little white rabbit said softly, looking at Nie Qiu, “I think you could go to the market first to see if there’s any way.”
Nie Qiu squatted down and rubbed the little white rabbit’s head. “I know. I’ll go to bed now. Dao, goodnight.”
Perhaps Dao was right. She should go to the market and see if she could find a way to sell them.
The next day at school, Nie Qiu noticed that everyone in the class looked at her differently. She smiled slightly and walked to her seat, put her schoolbag in the drawer, and took out a borrowed book to read.
“Nie, Nie… Qiu, do you know how to do this problem?” A girl holding an exam paper walked towards Nie Qiu, placed the paper on the desk, and looked at Nie Qiu with apprehension.
Nie Qiu smiled, put down the book in her hand, and picked up the exam paper to look at it. This was a basic quadratic function problem. The question was simple: What are the x-coordinates of the points where the graph of the quadratic function y=X?+X-2 intersects the x-axis?
Nie Qiu thought for a moment and smiled, “For this problem, we need to draw a parabola…”
“What’s a parabola?” Before Nie Qiu could finish, the girl interrupted her.
“You don’t know what a parabola is?” Nie Qiu’s eyes widened in surprise. Seeing the girl shake her head, she asked, “Do you know what an independent variable X and a dependent variable Y are?”
The girl still shook her head. Nie Qiu took a deep breath. “Do you know the general form, vertex form, and intercept form of a quadratic function?”
The girl still shook her head blankly. Nie Qiu couldn’t help but put her hand to her forehead. She didn’t want to appear too surprised and dampen the students’ enthusiasm, but quadratic functions were the most commonly studied topic in third-grade mathematics. If they didn’t even have the slightest understanding, they would have to start from the very basics.
This meant that if the teacher didn’t teach from the beginning, it would be difficult for the students to understand what the teacher was teaching.
Nie Qiu remembered that their morning self-study sessions never had a teacher present; it was basically self-study. Calling it self-study was more like free activity. She looked at the more than twenty students who had arrived early in the classroom, each taking out their brand-new or doodle-filled textbooks and studying them seriously. She stood up and walked to the lectern.
The girl standing in front of Nie Qiu’s desk was stunned. Knowing Nie Qiu was about to say something, she quickly sat in Nie Qiu’s seat, took out the math book from Nie Qiu’s schoolbag, and looked intently at Nie Qiu, who was standing on the lectern.
“Good morning, everyone.” Nie Qiu smiled, took a math book from the lectern, and picked up the chalk. “A student just asked me a question. I’ve written it on the blackboard. Can everyone help her solve it together?”
The classmates in the class looked at each other for a moment, then nodded at Nie Qiu. Nie Qiu turned and wrote the question on the blackboard. The students who had arrived early began to whisper among themselves.
Finally, a boy stood up and asked, “Nie, Nie… Qiu, what is a quadratic function?”
With just that one sentence, and seeing the curious looks of the other students, Nie Qiu knew that almost no one in this class had been paying attention. Even if they heard the teacher, it went in one ear and out the other, and they didn’t remember it at all.
Seeing Nie Qiu staring at him, the boy blushed slightly and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “I just feel like this thing called a quadratic function… sounds a bit familiar, like I’ve heard it somewhere before, but… I really don’t know what it is.”
Nie Qiu looked at the boy. Although she admired his honesty, if the math teacher heard this, he might be so angry he’d spit blood.
Nie Qiu opened the math book and smiled. “Everyone, please turn to page five of our math textbook. Starting today, I will review the math textbook with everyone, okay?” To preserve the students’ self-esteem, she avoided the word “teach” and instead said “review with everyone.”
“Okay!” As soon as Nie Qiu finished speaking, the students in the classroom happily responded loudly. They turned the pages of their math books along with Nie Qiu.
Another boy stood up shyly. “Nie Qiu, I… my math book doesn’t have page five.”
Nie Qiu looked at the math book on the boy’s desk. The entire textbook was more than half torn. Nie Qiu was somewhat speechless. She originally wanted to ask him to share a book with his deskmate, but she noticed his deskmate hadn’t arrived yet. So, she said, “There are still many students who haven’t arrived. See if there’s anyone else who came alone like you and has a book, and share with them!” Nie Qiu then looked at the other students. “Those who don’t have a math book can also share a desk with other students.”
After a bit of commotion, the classroom finally quieted down. Nie Qiu smiled and said, “Now, what I’m going to talk about is the most basic of basics: what is a function…”
Nie Qiu stood on the lectern with the math book, explaining functions, linear functions, and quadratic functions to the students one by one. For those with zero foundation, Nie Qiu had started explaining from the first year of junior high.
Students gradually arrived at school. When entering the classroom, they instinctively lowered their voices and treaded lightly. After returning to their seats, they took out their math books and listened to the chirping of birds in the early morning and the earnest teachings from the lectern.
