Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Handwriting

These few days, Gu Xiqiao had been maintaining a precarious balance of peace with the Gu family, and she was quite satisfied with the current state.

The aloof deskmate Xiao Yun had become closer to her too, sometimes asking her maths questions humbly. The girl that sat behind her would give her bacon and biscuits from time to time, and even the other students in class became more familiar with her.

Gu Xiqiao yawned.

The daily missions issued by the system were all simple and easy to too, and even though these missions were all very small and only earned her one or two points, she was satisfied with the slow pace of things.

She had also had a burst of popularity in the class from her excellent performance in class, and the class teacher put her in charge of explaining questions that the others had trouble with, The more they asked, the more they realized that her temperament was impeccable—She always explained the questions slowly and steadily, and wouldn’t get impatient no matter how many times she was asked to repeat, a complete contrast from the proud students from the rockets class.

And so, the affection of everyone in class towards her increased exponentially, to a point where her status rivaled even Old Ban.

Gu Xiqiao: “…”

Once the bell rang, he leaned back on the podium and took out his teaching plans, starting revision smoothly and quickly.

“Gu Xiqiao, do you have any other advice?” After writing down the solution for an analytical geometry question on the blackboard, he knocked on the table, waking up Gu Xiqiao who was going to fall asleep.

Gu Xiqiao shook awake and stared at the blackboard for a short while, before starting, “Well, in my opinion, we can start with the Hesse Normal Form to prove the line QR, hence solving the first question. Then, we can find the equation of the line AF by using the point P which is on the same points. For the last question, does everyone remember the Lagrange Mean Value Theorem I talked about? We can just use it and substitute the two values in the question to find the answer.”

As Gu Xiqiao explained, Old Ban wrote out the solutions according to what she had described.

Using her method, they wouldn’t have to find the equation for hyperbola, so the solution was more concise, and didn’t use a lot of space on the blackboard. The calculations involved were much less, so it would definitely save a lot of time if the students used it in their exams.

Old Ban waved for Gu Xiqiao to sit down, before knocking on the table and telling the students to do the calculations for themselves. “Jot down the formulas and theorems that Student Gu explains as they are all very useful. Don’t think that you don’t need to learn them because they’re university-level equations. After all, once you learn how to apply them properly, the national finals are going to be a breeze. The method I used earlier was the model answer, but as everyone saw, it was long and had lots of calculations, so it’s easy to mess up. In this last period before the exams, Student Gu here is going to write down some useful equations every day, so take notes!”

Gu Xiqiao couldn’t help but hold her head. When did she agree to this again?

And so, the daily task of compiling the past year questions of the national exams and picking out useful equations from it was added to Gu Xiqiao’s daily schedule.

But other than that, she had spent her days leisurely.

For the past few days, Wu Hongwen kept on visiting her class, bringing her bottles of milk or chocolates every day.

Gu Xiqiao completely ignored him, handing the food that he placed on her desk to the girl behind her.

Wu Hongwen was at the age where he acted on his urges and couldn’t stand being ignored or losing, so on Friday he finally got enough of Gu Xiqiao’s cold attitude, blocking her at the entrance again and ignoring Old Ban’s reminders from earlier.

The only people left in class saw that it was Wu Hongwen and left the class quickly, giving the two protagonists of the school gossip some space.

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“Look, this is the letter that you gave me a while ago. I know I did wrong, can you forgive me?” Wu Hongwen looked down at Gu Xiqiao earnestly.

He was a head taller than Gu Xiqiao, so this angle was just right.

In the evening sun, the girl’s face seemed like the beautiful sunset, indescribable beauty and elegance that made her even more beautiful. She was slightly tilting her head up, showing her pale and slender neck and coupled with the calm aura of a tranquil summer’s day, Wu Hongwen was completely dazed.

Because of their close proximity, Wu Hongwen could even get faint whiffs of a fresh, sweet scent, which made him blush so brightly that even his ears became red.

Gu Xiqiao didn’t notice this and reached for the pink letter that he held in his hands.

This was a bold and corny love letter.

The handwriting on the paper was neat, but on close scrutiny, it was clear that the writing was somewhat forced. It didn’t seem like a love letter written down by a girl deep in love, but more like a rushed mimicry.

With a single glance, Gu Xiqiao knew that this wasn’t written by her.

The handwriting on this letter was copied from her old way of writing, but after a long period of practice and training in the virtual space, her handwriting had completely changed.

Gu Xiqiao had been learning Yan Script and the Lantingji Xu, the Preface of Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion which was a legendary piece of calligraphic work, and had started to have her distinct style of writing. Wang Xizhi’s writing was elegant and fluent with a coherent spirit, and his force in writing imposed a lasting image in the reader’s mind. Meanwhile, Yan Zhenqing was known as the calligraphy sage, his writing strong, bold, and grand, bringing with it a heavy aura along with liveliness and passion.

Learning how to write calligraphy wasn’t something that could be done in a short time, but Gu Xiqiao had her little success in learning.

Her words were neat but bold, strong but natural and reserved, learning the strong points of each master of calligraphy and integrating it into her style.

Their Chinese teacher had praised her handwriting in front of the whole class the other day, saying that with her handwriting, she would be able to get good marks on her essay section even if her essay was completely off-topic.

And now, her effort came into use once again.

“Please stop this, you’re giving me trouble, don’t you understand? My teacher is going to nag at me, and I’m probably going to get chewed out when I get home. You can throw that love letter into the trash since it’s not written by me in the first place.” Gu Xiqiao took out a paper that she had just finished and handed it together with the love letter to Wu Hongwen. “Here, these are the papers that I finished earlier. Compare between them and you can tell that I can’t and won’t write such ugly handwriting.”

The handwriting on the papers was flawless, and even if it were someone that was completely blind to calligraphy, they would be able to tell that the person that wrote it had lots of practice under their belt. Meanwhile, the words on the love letter were dainty but somewhat forced, and the comparison made the fact plenty clear.

With a single glance, Wu Hongwen knew Gu Xiqiao was speaking the truth.

Seeing him go mute, Gu Xiqiao took out the milk he gifted her and stuffed it into his arms. “I only saved you that day on a whim. I would have done it even if it weren’t you and just a random beggar, so don’t go thinking that you’re special. Here, take this bottle of milk, and don’t come looking for me again. I forgive you, so let’s not get involved any further. Any complaints?”

Wu Hongwen looked down at the ground, his eyelashes fluttering slightly.

Even though it was just a girl that he had just got to know, her words impaled him like a stake to the heart.

Complaints? Of course he had complaints!

When he opened his mouth, any words that he wanted to say were stuck in his throat, while his legs were rooted to the classroom floor. It was only until the shadow in front of him disappeared could he finally breathe.