In the living room, Cheng Xing handed his mother's towel to Jiang Luxi.
"Your face and hair are dripping wet. Use this towel to dry off first," he said.
Jiang Luxi shook her head, replying indifferently, "No need. Let's start tutoring."
Cheng Xing frowned slightly. "If you get sick, does that count as a work injury? Should we cover your medical expenses? And if you fall ill, I'll have to find another tutor. Do you think I have time for that?"
He glanced at her soaked hair and added, "Besides, your hair's dripping everywhere. How do you expect to tutor me without getting the books drenched?"
Jiang Luxi pursed her lips but remained silent.
"Relax. It's my mom's towel—the one she uses for her face," Cheng Xing reassured her.
Finally, she accepted the towel, using it to wipe the rainwater from her hair and face.
Luckily, the distance from First High to Cheng Xing's house wasn't far. Most of the route was lined with restaurants and supermarkets with awnings, so her clothes weren't too wet. She'd been clever enough to stay under cover, knowing that even a few minutes of biking in the rain would've left her completely soaked.
After drying herself off, her long black hair was still damp but no longer dripping. However, her bangs, plastered to her pale forehead, made Cheng Xing struggle to keep a straight face.
With her wet hair no longer covering her eyes, her delicate features were fully revealed. Cheng Xing stole a quick glance but immediately looked away when she caught him.
Jiang Luxi handed the towel back, her tone cold. "Can we start now?"
Though he shifted his gaze quickly, she had noticed where he'd been looking.
"Yes, we can start," he said, checking the time. It was almost 8 p.m.
"Do you have your final exam papers from last semester?" she asked.
"Nope," Cheng Xing answered.
Jiang Luxi frowned. She had planned to review his past tests to pinpoint his weaknesses and tailor the lessons accordingly.
"Which subject are you weakest in?" she asked again.
"Chinese is fine. Other than that, I need help with everything."
"Let's start with math. What specific topics are you struggling with?"
"Um… all of them," Cheng Xing admitted sheepishly. Then, with a teasing grin, he added, "Wait, aren't you our class monitor? How do you not know my academic situation? You're not doing your job very well."
Jiang Luxi remained silent.
He assumed everyone in Class Three knew his grades. Apart from Chinese, where he barely managed to pass, and English, where luck sometimes pushed him to a 50, none of his other subjects ever broke 50 points.
Jiang Luxi knew Cheng Xing's grades were bad—he was among the worst in their class—but she hadn't realized how terrible they were. She rarely paid attention to others' scores, focusing solely on her own.
As class monitor, Jiang Luxi's duties were minimal. Though she was responsible for maintaining discipline and overseeing academics in Class Three, most students didn't require supervision—except for a few like Cheng Xing and Zhou Yuan.
During self-study periods, the classroom was always quiet. Yet when Cheng Xing and Zhou Yuan skipped to play basketball, even the teachers struggled to rein them in.
When Teacher Zheng Hua asked Jiang Luxi to fetch them from the court, she often made a token effort. On the day Cheng Xing had been reborn, she ran into him at the court on one of these retrieval missions.
"Let's start with first-year high school math," Jiang Luxi suggested. "Take out your textbook."
Cheng Xing pulled out a fifth-grade math book instead.
"I think we should start with this."
Jiang Luxi stared, stunned. "You don't even understand fifth-grade math?"
"Not exactly. I can handle basic arithmetic—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. But equations? I get lost."
No wonder his family insisted on tutoring. He had gaps from fifth grade all the way to senior high.
"How did you even get into First High?" she asked, bewildered. Math was crucial in entrance exams. Even stellar scores in other subjects shouldn't have balanced out such poor math. And if his math was this weak, his physics and chemistry likely weren't any better.
Cheng Xing's face flushed. "Let's not talk about that."
Jiang Luxi, aware of her family's financial struggles, understood how the world worked. Power, money, and connections often distorted fairness.
If life were fair, why did some have loving parents while hers left for distant Haicheng when she was a child?
Jiang Luxi saw the world clearly. Complaining wouldn't change it.
The world was unfair. All she could do was work hard, hoping her efforts might level the playing field.