Chapter 75

Running is the most convenient time for contemplation.

On the playground, the figure of a young girl running casts a long shadow behind her.

In Su Xiaoqi's mind, there seemed to be memories of crowded Japanese subways and the scenery of Kiyomizu Temple, as if she had truly been there.

However, this feeling slowly faded away as she ran and contemplated.

This kind of experience felt somewhat like a dream. When waking up in the morning, sometimes things would feel particularly clear, but after an hour, it seemed like nothing was remembered.

Fortunately, this was from a book on everyday Japanese travel phrases. If it were from a horror or detective novel, she wouldn't actually see any dead people or ghosts, Su Xiaoqi thought and shivered.

But she also felt that it probably wouldn't happen. It was as if her own perception of those scenes was gradually fading, while the dialogues from the textbook were becoming more deeply imprinted. However, she had only learned the Japanese hiragana characters, which was equivalent to learning phonetics. Even though she had a vivid memory of those dialogues, she couldn't actually use them without studying and understanding them.

In any case, this experiential reading made a profound impression, but it was ultimately just an experience.

The gains after the experience were not the same for everyone.

Su Xiaoqi felt that she should seize the opportunity to consolidate her knowledge.

She thought while running, her steps brushing against the ground, her face flushed and healthy under the evening sun.

When she finished running and reached thirty thousand steps, she was exhausted, but she felt comfortable overall. The experiential reading had a good effect, but she also felt some after-effects. She always felt a bit dissociated. Now that she finished running, she felt much better. She was still Su Xiaoqi, sixteen years old this year.

Her clothes were soaked after the run, so she slowly made her way back and took a shower.

Auntie prepared porridge, steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and some greens for dinner when she saw Su Xiaoqi showering. She just needed to stir-fry the greens after Su Xiaoqi finished showering.

After dinner, Auntie went swimming, while Su Xiaoqi began planning her evening study session.

Now she had an additional Japanese lesson, so she felt the need to coordinate her schedule. Luckily, Japanese and English were both language-related, but they were not easily confused.

She started with calligraphy, calming her mind. She had bought a brush and ink from the bookstore and practiced for half an hour.

Then she began transcribing the texts from the fourth volume of "New Concept English" and the hiragana characters.

After finishing these tasks, she went outside to review her lessons. She was still reviewing the texts from the fourth volume of "New Concept English." There were only ten lessons left. If someone had told her before that she could finish studying "New Concept English" in a month, she would have thought it was bragging and completely impossible.

However, this time she had experienced it firsthand. Of course, she had six years of English learning foundations and some buffs. She had truly dedicated a significant amount of time to studying every day and had a genuine desire to learn.

If she had this kind of determination before the college entrance examination, the results probably wouldn't have been so unstable.

Su Xiaoqi felt a bit regretful, but it was never too late to start striving.

She recited three lessons and it was getting late, so she prepared to wash up and go to bed. Before sleeping, she reviewed the hiragana characters once again.

It was a tiring yet fulfilling day.

The second day was Tuesday. Yesterday, Su Xiaoqi learned Japanese with Guan Jingzhi, but today she was going to teach her English. Su Xiaoqi went to the library early in the morning to research and prepare for the lesson. She spent the whole morning, and although she invested more time and effort, she didn't feel like it was wasted. On the contrary, it made learning English easier for her and helped her understand things that she previously didn't comprehend.

Teaching and learning go hand in hand.

The teaching went very smoothly. Liang Jiajia was curious about Su Xiaoqi's experience learning Japanese, but when she saw the chart of hiragana and katakana, she lost interest. She only thought that Japanese manga was interesting but had no enthusiasm for learning the language.

After the lesson, Su Xiaoqi and Guan Jingzhi made plans to continue learning Japanese at the Culture Palace the next day.

Because she had to teach, Su Xiaoqi scheduled her swimming session for the evening. Fortunately, swimming counted as steps, otherwise, she wouldn't have reached her goal of thirty thousand steps for the day.

By the time she went to bed, Su Xiaoqi saw that she had accumulated one hundred and fifty thousand coins in the game. It was already the thirteenth day, time really flew by.

Meanwhile, Liang Jiajia was already in the middle of the night. Her mother had sent her back to bed, and she had also been visited by her mother once again. She successfully pretended to be asleep and fooled her mother, then earnestly resumed making Douyin videos.

Her Douyin account was gaining popularity, and she even received offers for advertisements, but she ignored all of them.

She didn't lack money. At only twelve years old, the satisfaction of having fun and achieving success was her greatest motivation.

Every time she edited the content of Su Xiaoqi's tutoring sessions, she received over ten thousand likes, which was quite impressive.

The last video of the teacher singing an English song had already received over six hundred thousand likes, but unfortunately, Su Xiaoqi didn't use Douyin.

It was past one o'clock, and Liang Jiajia was really tired. She climbed into bed and fell asleep as soon as she covered herself with the blanket, snoring softly.

Early the next morning.

Su Xiaoqi was waiting at the entrance of the Culture Palace as usual, and this time she saw a white car coming to pick her up.

Guan Jingzhi was wearing a white dress with a vivid floral pattern on the hem. It was something Su Xiaoqi rarely saw people wearing on the street.

As for Su Xiaoqi, she only had two new outfits, a dress and a doll shirt with jeans. Normally, she wasn't used to wearing dresses, so today she changed back into her usual T-shirt and sport pants.

In comparison, her clothes looked a bit worn, especially her T-shirt, which had faded due to frequent washing.

Of course, Guan Jingzhi liked her tutoring teacher very much. Even though she dressed plainly, she still stood out and could be seen from a distance.

Su Xiaoqi's teacher appeared to be around 1.67 meters tall, slim and tall, but not fragile. Guan Jingzhi envied her teacher's height. No matter how she measured, she couldn't reach 1.6 meters. She could only claim to be 1.58 meters tall.

The two greeted each other and went inside together.

Zhou Meiling had been waiting early on. Although she was considered a small leader at the Culture Palace, there wasn't much to do. However, when she saw Su Xiaoqi's appearance today, she was momentarily stunned.

But it only lasted a moment, and she quickly regained her composure.

Guan Jingzhi's mother works for the Publicity Department of the Municipal Party Committee, which can be considered as their direct superior department. Her father is from the Military Region and holds a high rank. Zhou Meiling definitely wants to please them. However, she originally thought that the friend Guan Jingzhi brought along would also be from a high-ranking leader's family. Judging by her demeanor, she seemed to come from such a background. But today, Zhou Meiling looked at the clothes she was wearing and felt deceived. These people may be low-key, but they shouldn't be so plain.

Of course, no one initially mentioned anything. It was a bunch of assumptions she made in her own mind. But now she realized something was off and instantly felt displeased. She felt that the other party did it intentionally. She never expected that at her age, she would be fooled by an underage girl.

She asked Su Xiaoqi where she was from.

Xiaoqi replied, "I'm from Gumula Village."

Zhou Meiling: ...

She managed to keep her emotions in check and maintained a gentle smile on her face. She casually chatted about the scenery in Gumula Village.

In reality, she only knew about Gumula Village because it was mentioned in the introduction of Lvshan City. It was described as a village deep in the mountains, particularly poor and with inconvenient transportation.

Who knows where that is.

After a few moments of conversation, they started the class. Today, Zhou Meiling didn't mention accommodating Su Xiaoqi further. Instead, she continued teaching the fifty sounds chart and said, "Today, let's start teaching some simple everyday phrases. Xiaoqi has just finished learning the fifty sounds."

Su Xiaoqi had no objections. She came here to audit classes with Guan Jingzhi, and after completing her studies, she specifically searched online. This Teacher Zhou was indeed proficient in both Japanese and Korean. At least compared to those language training centers, there weren't many experienced teachers.

Lvshan City was too small, and someone like Teacher Zhou who chose to stay and become a civil servant was an exception. It was normal for her to know Japanese since there weren't many good job opportunities related to it in Lvshan City. Such a waste.

Guan Jingzhi didn't think much about it. The people she interacted with mostly revolved around her, and she rarely had to be cautious.

That's how Zhou Meiling began teaching everyday phrases, and the pace unconsciously became faster. Self-introduction, asking for directions, and casual conversations—she deliberately did this today. Normally, these topics would require a few more lessons before being taught. However, she just didn't want to see Su Xiaoqi. She always felt embarrassed being fooled by a girl from the countryside.

When Su Xiaoqi used the experiential reading card, she didn't have any special feelings. She just thought it left a deeper impression than usual. But now, during Teacher Zhou's class, she noticed something different. Whatever Teacher Zhou taught, she immediately found it etched in her memory with a deep impression. She could even remember the intonation and tone of those spoken phrases.

It was as if she had truly lived in Japan before, speaking fluently with an authentic and standard accent.

Originally, the book she found had a Japanese person as the narrator, but the character was a Chinese tourist visiting Japan. When Xiaoqi read it yesterday, it was like swallowing it whole without much understanding. But now, as the teacher taught these contents, she happened to review them again, and she instantly recalled everything.

Zhou Meiling, on the other hand, was increasingly astonished by the progress. She had thought Guan Jingzhi was already quite intelligent, but she hadn't expected this countryside girl to be even more formidable, surpassing her by far. Meiling recalled her own attempt to study the Japanese syllabary, spending over half a month on it before she could barely make the grade. Eventually, she had to attend a preparatory course in Japan.

However, this young girl, on only her second attempt at learning, was able to speak fluent Japanese effortlessly.

Meiling couldn't help but marvel and asked her how she had come to know Guan Jingzhi. Jingzhi replied, "Xiaoqi is my English tutor."

Meiling: ...