Chapter 35: Tutoring
In the end, Gu Qinghuan still shared a bit of the weekend gossip with Qin Yue.
Qin Yue devoured it with great relish, repeatedly saying that if there was a next time, she should bring him along.
If not, he could at least listen in on a “live broadcast” like Jiang Chuchu did.
As for the fundraising proposal Qin Yue had mentioned, Jiang Chuchu wasn’t particularly interested.
The Jiang family had its own charity foundation, and from a young age she had accompanied her mother, Zhu Qinglan, to meet many impoverished families. Every year, she would also set aside a portion of her pocket money for charitable aid.
Since she didn’t know the person, her plan was just to glance at the bulletin board later, and maybe donate a little depending on the situation — nothing more.
In Mingde High, there were a fair number of students like Jiang Chuchu. As long as the illness didn’t require long-term hospitalization, a simple fundraising campaign was usually enough to gather sufficient donations and get through the crisis.
Compared to her, Yu Xin and Gu Qinghuan took more interest.
Yu Xin had gone through hardship herself, so when she saw others in pain, she felt it deeply.
Gu Qinghuan, on the other hand, was just curious.
Her own life had been ordinary and stable; the worst thing she had experienced was that car accident. This was the first time she had encountered a real-life fundraiser for a fellow student, so of course curiosity outweighed sympathy for now.
When morning reading ended, Qin Yue took Gu Qinghuan and Yu Xin to the bulletin board, pointed at the proposal, and said: “Here, this one.”
The person in need was Su Lin, a student from Class 2, Grade 1.
Reading the introduction, Gu Qinghuan clicked her tongue: “Top scorer in the city’s high school entrance exam. Her father went missing shortly after she was born, her mother raised her alone, and just recently she was in a car accident and fell into a coma. The fundraising is to cover a craniotomy for hematoma removal…”
“Counting the surgery costs plus recovery expenses, the fundraising goal is a hundred thousand yuan,” Yu Xin finished after looking at the details.
When Gu Qinghuan heard the amount, her feelings were complicated: she had just received a hundred thousand yuan — and here was someone raising exactly the same amount. What a coincidence.
The system suddenly chimed in: [Nothing to do with me — it’s just a coincidence.]
Gu Qinghuan curled her lip inwardly: [I didn’t say it was you.]
That made the system anxious: [It really is a coincidence! The actual amount she needs is more than this, but she deducted the cost of a caregiver because she wanted to shoulder it herself — she didn’t want to trouble others too much.]
Gu Qinghuan nodded in satisfaction — not bad, she had managed to get a bit of extra intel out of her usually tight-lipped system.
She guessed the system knew a lot, maybe was even “omniscient” to some degree.
But to avoid interfering with her missions, it usually revealed very little.
Gu Qinghuan had no intention of using the system to cheat, but the coincidence had been interesting enough to make her test its attitude.
From the result, the system seemed to value her — which put her more at ease.
She turned to Yu Xin. “Xin Bao, if you hadn’t been affected during your high school entrance exam, could you have been the top scorer?”
Yu Xin hesitated, then shook her head frankly. “No.”
Whether it was the quality of teachers and teaching at her original junior high, or her personal learning environment and conditions, it simply wasn’t enough to support her becoming the top scorer.
Given her circumstances, getting the grades she had now was already quite an achievement.
“Su Lin’s situation was a bit better than yours,” Gu Qinghuan said. “Not perfect, but at least she didn’t have her legs pulled out from under her. For her to still become top scorer under those circumstances says a lot about her learning ability.”
Gu Qinghuan rubbed her chin, thought for a moment, then looked up at Yu Xin. “Let’s use this hundred thousand to hire a tutor.”
Yu Xin hadn’t reacted yet, but Qin Yue jumped in: “You mean you’re going to donate the money to Su Lin and then hire her to tutor Yu Xin?”
Gu Qinghuan nodded. “Exactly.”
From what the system had told her, Su Lin was clearly very proud and strong-willed. Gu Qinghuan had reason to believe that in the future, Su Lin would want to repay her benefactor somehow.
If that was the case, wasn’t it better to start now? This way they’d reduce Su Lin’s sense of psychological debt and help Yu Xin improve her grades.
Yu Xin had told Gu Qinghuan to take the hundred thousand yuan, but would Gu Qinghuan actually keep it?
Of course not. She’d said before — the money should be spent on Yu Xin.
Now that Qin Yue had voiced it, Yu Xin also thought it was a good idea — though it would depend on Su Lin’s willingness.
The group were all action-oriented. During the morning break, Gu Qinghuan took Yu Xin straight to the next class over to find Su Lin.
Su Lin’s hair was cut short, just to her ears, with no bangs — simply parted in the middle and clipped back on both sides with two black hairpins. Her smooth forehead and long eyebrows were fully visible.
She was slim but tall — for a first-year girl, about 1.7 meters. In front of her, both Gu Qinghuan and Yu Xin had to look upward.
Her expression was cool, and her first words carried a tone that kept strangers at a distance: “I don’t know you. What do you want?”
Gu Qinghuan kept her smile. “We saw the fundraising proposal.”
Su Lin pressed her lips together. “If you’re donating, then thank—”
“Wait!” Gu Qinghuan quickly interrupted. “Don’t thank us yet! We’re not simply donating — we want to make a deal.”
“A deal?” Su Lin looked surprised.
“Yes. You’re the top scorer in the entrance exam. We want to hire you for tutoring,” Gu Qinghuan said, with an uncharacteristically firm tone. “In return, we’ll make a one-time donation of a hundred thousand yuan to you as payment.”
Su Lin thought for a moment before asking, “With that amount, you could hire a more suitable tutor. Why me?”
“Because the person who needs the tutoring can’t openly hire one,” Gu Qinghuan replied.
She was sure that if Yu Xin brought a tutor home, Yu Yuan and Yu Jinxin would definitely try something — maybe accuse her of dating the tutor, hire someone with poor character to undermine her, or even give her the test answers in advance just to frame her for cheating…
The system couldn’t help but comment: [Where do you even get these ideas?]
[Novels] Gu Qinghuan replied.
[That explains it. Stop reading them next time.]
[No way — my book membership hasn’t expired yet. Can’t waste it.]
While she was trading nonsense with the system, Su Lin seemed to have made up her mind. “Who needs the tutoring?”
Yu Xin stepped forward nervously but met Su Lin’s gaze. “Me.”
“How many points did you get on the entrance exam?” Su Lin asked.
Yu Xin gave a number — and Gu Qinghuan felt like she’d just been kicked in the ribs by a passing academic ace.
The next kick came immediately after — Su Lin nodded. “Yeah, you could use some tutoring.”
Gu Qinghuan regretted not bringing Jiang Chuchu and Qin Yue along — why should she be the only one hurt like this?
“You’re agreeing to tutor me?” Yu Xin asked happily.
“Mm.” Su Lin’s tone remained calm.
Gu Qinghuan was just thinking the task was done when — unexpectedly — came a third blow.
Yu Xin asked, “Aside from me, can my friends sit in on the lessons too?”
Gu Qinghuan’s eyes went wide in horror. No! I am not going to tutoring class!
