Chapter 238: The Hot Search Poised To Explode
On the green path beside the teaching building, a young boy and girl were walking side by side. In the quiet evening light, it felt just like a scene from a youth novel.
The girl was wearing a slightly plain white t-shirt and jeans, her hair tied into a simple braid, with her bangs a bit messy.
The boy’s outfit was similarly simple and casual, but this didn’t detract from the handsomeness of their two young faces.
From a distance, it was a beautiful profile of campus youth—passersby might misunderstand their relationship, but Wang Heng and Feng Jia Miaomiao knew very well that their topic was really only about studying.
“I mean, your high grades aren’t something to hide. I’m the one covering my paper so others can’t see.”
Feng Jia Miaomiao gazed at the distant dormitory building, her expression somewhat melancholy. This expression seemed uncommon on the face of this girl who was usually energetic and hasty.
Wang Heng: “What’s your score?”
Feng Jia Miaomiao: “Eighteen.”
Wang Heng was stunned: “You’re…”
Feng Jia Miaomiao: “Right, I’m the one with the lowest score.”
Her frank admission left Wang Heng at a loss for words.
Without much hesitation, the girl continued: “At this rate, I’ll definitely have to retake the course next semester. So I wanted to chat with you—could you tutor me?”
One-on-one tutoring again?
Thinking of Ye Xun’s precedent from the first playthrough, Wang Heng immediately became vigilant.
But Feng Jia Miaomiao hadn’t been involved in the asura field of the first playthrough after all, and upon careful consideration, there were no signs of her developing feelings either?
Still, Wang Heng stayed cautious and asked: “Why me?”
Feng Jia Miaomiao raised her eyebrows, somewhat surprised as she countered: “You’re the best scorer among the people I know. Who else would I ask? This isn’t high school where I can go find tutors or cram schools everywhere.”
Wang Heng: “I know it’s hard to find professional tutoring in university, but…”
“But I also know asking you like this is a bit much,” Feng Jia Miaomiao said boldly, patting his shoulder, “If there’s anything you want me to help with, just make your request!”
Wang Heng: “I don’t have any particular demands…”
Feng Jia Miaomiao slapped her forehead: “Wait, do you usually play together? I’m Diamond 1, almost reached Master last season—how about I carry you to higher rank?”
Wang Heng was slightly surprised: “You’re Diamond 1? That strong?”
In his impression, Fu Hanwen, who often bragged about his match record in the dorm, had probably only reached Diamond 3 at best, and mostly stayed at Platinum?
Feng Jia Miaomiao nodded proudly: “That’s right. You tutor me, I carry you up—fair deal, right?”
Wang Heng was silent for two seconds, then said: “I think I kinda get why you scored 18 now…”
“Hey, don’t be so harsh!” The girl patted his shoulder like a bro again. “And I’ve decided to play less games this semester.”
Wang Heng shook his head and reminded her: “In our school, if you want to avoid failing a course, just playing less this semester isn’t enough. As a Silver-level noob, I roughly know the difficulty of Diamond 1. Games update every year, heroes’ skills and numerical values get adjusted—amateur players can’t stay at that level without constantly studying it. Where does your study time come from? In our major, math alone goes from calculus and linear algebra to discrete mathematics, physics is tough too, plus data structures, operating systems, databases, and various languages…”
Feng Jia Miaomiao: “Wait, stop—I already feel a headache coming on.”
Wang Heng spread his hands and summed up: “So study hard, girl. Games can wait. For discrete mathematics, ask me anything you don’t get—no need for payback, just classmates helping each other.”
“You’re such a good guy…” Feng Jia Miaomiao was a bit touched, but suddenly realized something off. “But I noticed you skipped a lot of classes, including discrete mathematics and many others, plus you had lots of off-campus activities. Where does your study time come from?”
Wang Heng: “I’m just good at time management…”
————
When Wang Heng returned to the dorm, he sensed something was off.
His three roommates, hearing him enter, all stood up together and blocked him.
“What do you want?” Wang Heng said warily. “I declare first—the vice class monitor just wanted help with studying, nothing else…”
“Come on, who cares about the vice class monitor!” Fu Hanwen pointed at the computer screen behind him and shouted, “Your sister is on TV!”
Wang Heng: “?”
Tang Hexing: “It’s that Pei Ningle. She’s on CCTV’s talent show—you didn’t know?”
Wang Heng calmly replied: “I know, so I’m not surprised at all.”
Fu Hanwen: “But we didn’t! You didn’t share such an awesome thing with us!”
Wang Heng recalled. In his impression, the episode where Pei Ningle was eliminated aired tonight. What his roommates were talking about now was probably nearly a month ago, her first blind audition episode.
Wang Ke added: “I just saw the online ad saying Pei Ningle appears tonight, then we realized she’s already blowing up… Teacher Wang, you sure can keep a secret!”
Wang Heng touched his nose and smiled: “The competition results weren’t out yet, so I thought it best not to hype it too much. These past two days after she came back, I’ve been busy reviewing discrete mathematics—no time for anything else.”
Fu Hanwen: “Now that you mention it, I remember—my grades are bottom again…”
Wang Heng: “It’s fine, you’re not the bottom in class, and your score’s a bit above the average, right? That’s good enough.”
“Alright, Xiao Fu, go review by yourself. The focus now is little Le sister,” Wang Ke hurriedly said. “Teacher Wang, so your trip was to accompany her for the competition? Is it the new episode you recorded? How’d it go?”
Wang Heng sighed, a bit regretful: “She got eliminated.”
Wang Ke’s face immediately showed deep regret: “Is little Le sister super down then? Does she need…”
“No need,” Wang Heng interrupted. “And is ‘little Le sister’ a name you get to use?”
Tang Hexing quickly chimed in: “Yeah, Xiao Ke, step aside! She’s an adult girl, not your type—don’t mess around. Little Le sister is for us to call! Right, big brother-in-law?”
Wang Heng: “…You get lost too, go pet your cat.”
Amid the joking, Wang Heng realized an issue: since the new episode airs tonight, the hot search arranged by the program group would hit at latest tomorrow?
After that, would Pei Ningle truly blow up?
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Extra chapters starting from May Day, and… well, classmates in the group get it.
