Proud senior schoolgirl was tender and sweet, we fell in love

"Whether it's friendship, or... love."

Xie Xiao was still digesting these words even as he sat in the car on his way home.

Luo Yanran could tell that her thoughts were not strange, because her feelings had been very obvious.

Anyone not deliberately avoiding it would have seen it.

But Xie Xiao had not expected her to bring up the topic so openly.

"Xie Xiao, if I have misunderstood, then pretend I never said anything. But if I haven't misunderstood, then my stance is clear, we'll take it slow."

As soon as Luo Yanran finished speaking, the car arrived, and she looked at Xie Xiao, "Go back."

Xie Xiao, who hadn't snapped back to reality, boarded the car just like that.

By the time he had fully processed Luo Yanran's words, he felt explosively good.

Take it slow then, she didn't mean to refuse!

Xie Xiao couldn't help but curl his lips up into a smile, took out his phone, opened the cat avatar, and texted, "I know you're different, you've always been different, after all, you're the one and only Miss Luo."

"We have plenty of time ahead, so let's take it slow, but I hope Miss Luo can continue to tutor me."

In the end, he even sent a humble-looking student emoji.

The reply from the other side was still cool, just an "Hmm."

"If you don't understand something, you can ask, and I will respond when I have time."

Very good, the Miss Luo from just before had disappeared, turning into the insincere little girl Ranran.

How can someone be so adorable.

Xie Xiao felt utterly delighted, the word cute had already worn out its welcome.

With Luo Yanran's clear stance, Xie Xiao felt not the slightest bit in doubt.

He started to estimate in his mind how much time was left until college entrance exams.

Miss Luo had good grades, so he had to make a bit more of an effort, aiming not to be in a long-distance relationship for college, optimally attending the same university.

Another reason to study hard!

Seeing Xie Xiao returning with a pile of exercise books, Xie Qingxiao was somewhat surprised, "That many?"

He flipped through and saw that two were for consolidating basics, knowing that his son's foundation was quite solid, so why buy these?

"What do you need the basic ones for?"

Looking at the puzzled elder Xie, Xie Xiao found it hard to explain. He used to not need them indeed, but now he did. He sighed, "I felt that after taking a mock exam, I realized my foundation was not solid enough, so I decided to review it all."

Xie Qingxiao disagreed somewhat, although he never interfered in his son's life, he still couldn't help saying, "It feels like a waste of time, after all, your foundation is quite good."

Although he also didn't know why this time the results were so... unsatisfactory.

But Xie Qingxiao still felt it was just a temporary lapse, Xie Xiao's fundamentals were still there.

Xie Xiao had his own difficulties that he couldn't express, he no longer had any foundation, nothing at all.

Fortunately, Yang Lan patted Xie Qingxiao, "Let the child study how he wants, didn't we agree not to interfere?"

"I was just suggesting..." Facing his wife, Xie Qingxiao always lacked a temper, "He can simply choose not to accept it, right~"

And so, the subject was changed.

It also let Xie Xiao breathe a sigh of relief.

That evening, the family of three had a relaxed dinner without talking about work or study.

Xie Xiao's mood was good too. After dinner, he even sat with Yang Lan to watch TV for a while before finally saying he was going back to take a shower and do his exercises.

After closing the door, the sound from the living room became very faint; Xie Xiao knew that his parents had turned down the volume and probably even lowered their voices unconsciously.

He put his phone aside to charge, then went to take a shower.

When he came out, he glanced at his phone, hm, there were messages, but none from Teacher Luo Yan.

He looked at the bookstore bag on his desk, then went over to take out the exercise books, arranged them, took a photo, and sent it to Luo Yanran, "Teacher Luo, which book are you doing today?"

Apart from those few basic books, they had at least four exercise books in common.

Xie Xiao randomly pulled one out; it was the one that Luo Yanran had been working on at the bookstore at noon.

Just as he opened it, his phone vibrated. A photo was sent over, showing a desk with an exercise book spread open on it. The title on the top of the page clearly read "***** Huanggang Exercise Book" Volume Eight.

The same as the one in his hand.

Xie Xiao chuckled softly, also took a photo and sent it over, "Great minds think alike~"

When Luo Yanran saw that phrase about great minds, she flipped her phone shut.

If she continued, she wouldn't finish this set of problems tonight.

Her mind was full of Xie Xiao.

She reached out to touch her hot ears, a trace of a smile curling up at the corners of her mouth, and she picked up her pen to start working on the last two major questions.

Xie Xiao was pretty certain that his casual flirtation would result in Teacher Luo ignoring him.

He set his phone to the side and started working through the problems too.

Time flies when you're working on problems.

Xie Xiao was once a top student in high school, the kind who always monopolized the scholarship.

But then, after the college entrance exams, the former top student had been paralyzed for three years.

Now the once top student had become someone with decent basics, not quite a poor student, maybe just slightly below average?

Xie Xiao looked at the exercise paper he was stuck on the second major question, unable to proceed, and sighed.

"They say high schoolers are amazing, knowledgeable about astronomy and geography, masterful in chemistry and physics. I used to think that was an exaggeration, but now I feel like I became useless after high school..."

As he was muttering, there was a knock at the door and the voice of Yang Lan came through, "Xiao Xiao, do you want some fruit?"

Xie Xiao glanced at the time; it was half past nine at night.

He responded, "Mom, no thanks, I ate plenty tonight."

Yang Lan acknowledged, gave him a couple of reminders through the door, and then went to sleep with Mr. Xie.

Xie Xiao listened to the living room quieting down before looking at the exercise paper again and tutted.

He picked up his phone, the screen still on his chat with Luo Yanran; he scrolled, accidentally opening the photo she had just sent.

Xie Xiao, initially intending to exit the photo, suddenly stopped in his action.

Probably to capture the book's title and volume, the first page of what she sent was full of multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions.

Luo Yanran's handwriting was beautiful, even just in the options and fill-in-the-blank questions.

Unlike Xie Xiao's habit of scribbling conditions on the paper and performing calculations at will, her paper was very clean.

There was practically no trace of corrections.

Which is why the somewhat messy lines drawn over one of the multiple-choice questions stood out starkly against the clean white paper.

Xie Xiao was just bored, thinking of relaxing a bit, the more he looked the more it seemed like a character, he decided to zoom in and take a closer look.

Luo Yanran's phone must have been the latest model, because the photo was very clear, even if a bit blurry when zoomed in, but Xie Xiao could still make out the crossed-out character 'Xiao'.

He couldn't help but laugh, feeling as if he had discovered a little secret of Teacher Luo.