Chapter 08
Daniel Collins was very efficient and wanted to start tutoring me on the spot.
I asked curiously: “Bro, don’t you need to review first?”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a mocking arc.
“You think I need to study this elementary one plus one equals two stuff? I might as well drop dead. Stop dawdling, let’s start!”
I pouted and took out the math that had always given me headaches.
I have a good memory and learn subjects that require pure memorization like.
history and politics very quickly, but I’m hopeless at anything that requires logical
thinking.
Daniel Collins didn’t beat around the bush and started tutoring me from the first year of high school material.
“Do this question first and let me see how you approach it,” he said. “I want to assess your foundation.”
I took one look and saw it was a geometry problem. The spatial perspective diagrams made my eyes go blurry. Forget about solving the question, I couldn’t even understand what it was asking. Points A, B, C… my brain hurt just looking at
them.
Seeing Daniel’s impatient expression, I cautiously said, “Bro, I don’t know how to
do this.”
“You don’t know?” He frowned. “Which part don’t you understand?”
I timidly replied, “I don’t understand any of it. I can’t even comprehend the question.”
Daniel’s face grew increasingly serious. He felt my forehead and pondered for a
moment..
After a while, he said earnestly, “Emily Anderson, maybe you’re mentally disabled? I mean, perhaps you were born with intellectual deficiencies. Have you ever been
tested?”
Angrily, I slammed the book into his face. “I’m going to tell your mom!” “Okay, okay,” he said, taking the book off his face and opening it again. “Just my
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luck!”
“Look here, this is point A. Connect a line to point C…” He drew a line in the book
with his pen.
“Now, what shape does this become?”
I studied it for a second, then ventured uncertainly, “An equilateral triangle?” “Correct! Seems like you’re not mentally disabled after all.”
I had assumed a genius like Daniel Collins would gloss over explanations, since for people like him, the answers are obvious at a glance without needing to go
through many steps.
But to my surprise, he was extremely thorough and explained every single point to
me in detail.
Following his train of thought, I gradually began to understand bit by bit, although there were still times I couldn’t quite grasp the concepts. However, Daniel would break it down and explain it to me piece by piece.
“So, what’s the answer to this question?” After a while, he put down his pen and
leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs and looking at me.
I ventured a guess. “The shaded area is twice the size of the given shape?”
“Bingo!” He snapped his fingers. “Your brain works decently, but your foundation is too weak. Tonight, memorize all the formulas in this book. I’ll test you on them
tomorrow.”
He leaned in close to me and threatened, “If you can’t recite them, I’ll beat you to
death!”
Seeing him up close, I noticed for the first time how long his eyelashes were. They fluttered like the wings of a butterfly.
He was so handsome. How could someone be this good–looking and also so brilliant academically? What door did God close on him?
He still hasn’t dated anyone so far. Could it be that he’s gay?
While I was lost in thought, Daniel had already stood up.
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“Starting tomorrow, tell Auntie Zhang to excuse you from evening self–study. I’ll
tutor you at home instead.”
With that, he tossed the book aside and left.
When my mom found out he was going to tutor me, she hurried over, wiping her
hands.
“Daniel, why are you leaving so soon? Stay and have dinner with us!”
Daniel waved his hand. “Auntie, my mom already prepared dinner at home. I’ll come another time. Don’t see me out, hurry back inside. I’ll be back tomorrow.” My mom watched wistfully as he left, only turning to me once he had disappeared
into the elevator.
“Emily, it’s such a waste for your big brother Daniel to tutor you. You must study hard, understand?”
I nodded, picking up the book to study some more. The problem–solving approach from earlier was quite interesting and I wanted to test it out again.
The next day, I arrived at school early. There was one point in the solution that I didn’t quite understand. I wanted to ask Daniel but was afraid he would scold me, so I thought about asking the teacher instead.
But I was also a bit apprehensive. A poor student like me never went to the faculty office except when my parents were called in. Would the teacher think I was being.
disruptive?
Hesitantly, I stepped into the office. The math teacher was drinking tea. He was a middle–aged man who loved smoking and drinking tea in his spare time and had a sharp tongue when scolding students.
I regretted my decision and was about to leave when he spotted me.
“Emily Anderson, who are you looking for?”
I bit my lip and said softly, “Teacher… I have a question about a math problem.” I stood there stiffly. To tell the truth, the faculty office had an inherently intimidating aura for underachievers like us. I started feeling nervous the moment
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I walked in.
The math teacher set down his thermos and naturally extended his hand to me. “Let’s see the question then.”
1 respectfully handed over the book with both hands. “Question 7. I didn’t quite understand the solution. Why do we need to connect points B and E?”
The teacher examined it carefully. “Look, this line is parallel to AC, allowing us to construct an isosceles triangle. With geometry problems, you first need to consider these special auxiliary lines…”
He took out a ruler and drew lines to show me, explaining it point by point. “…Do you understand now?”
Realization dawned on me. “I get it! It makes sense now.”
The teacher smiled. “I heard you’ve recently started applying yourself. Seems like. dating isn’t always a bad thing after all.”
“You have the brains but just didn’t like to study before. Go on now. Come ask me. again if there’s anything else you don’t understand.”
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I thanked him and quickly ran out.
It seemed things weren’t as daunting as I had imagined. Perhaps I had previously made studying out to be more difficult than it really was.
In fact, as long as I was willing to put in the effort, these hurdles weren’t that insurmountable after all.
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