With meals taken care of, Cen Jin’s holiday anxiety eased, allowing her to settle into being a homebody advertising professional. Li Wu’s days were equally fulfilling – beyond his daily routines, cooking, and studying, he set aside two hours of free time to assemble the Lego set Cen Jin had given him.
Every afternoon from two to four, like clockwork, the young man would set aside his schoolwork and sit on the study room floor, focused entirely on following the instruction manual. By New Year’s Eve, the intricate castle had taken shape, lacking only a few minor details.
When Cen Jin woke up and passed by the study, she caught a glimpse of the grand fairy-tale castle on the cabinet, as if Disney World had been magically miniaturized and brought home. She instantly became alert, walking closer to admire it from all angles, even taking a photo to document it.
But more than the finished product itself, she was amazed by Li Wu’s frightening efficiency, asking if he had secretly worked on it overnight.
The youth, sitting at his desk twirling a pen, denied it: “No, once I looked at the instructions and pieces, I had the structure in my mind, so assembly was quite fast.”
Leaning against the doorframe, Cen Jin’s tone wavered between praise and mockery: “Who knew you were such a prodigy.”
Li Wu: “…”
He exceeded expectations in many ways, and Cen Jin felt an inexplicable sense of threat.
Unwilling to be outdone, she crossed her arms and immediately reclaimed her authority and confidence from her area of expertise: “How is it that you put so much effort into English yet still fall just short?”
Li Wu was silent for two seconds: “I don’t know.”
Cen Jin asked: “Did you bring your final exam papers back?”
Li Wu said: “Yes.”
Cen Jin walked in, dragging a chair to sit at an angle from him: “Let me see.”
Li Wu looked at her: “Aren’t you going to have breakfast first?”
“Later, I’m not hungry.”
Li Wu pulled out the final exam papers from his backpack and placed them on the desk.
Cen Jin glanced at them – the stack of test papers still had that “Li Wu style,” consistently neat and orderly as always, secured with a black binder clip.
Li Wu removed the clip and quickly found the English test paper and answer sheet.
Cen Jin watched his movements while resting her chin on her hand, adding another request: “Let me see your science answer sheet too.”
Li Wu raised his eyebrows, somewhat surprised.
“Wasn’t it a perfect score? I want to worship it properly,” her word choice was amusing, not an attempt to hide her sudden interest.
“…Mm.” Li Wu pulled it out and handed both it and the English papers to Cen Jin.
Cen Jin first looked at his science answer sheet.
As an art student who had long bid farewell to high school, the solution steps looked like hieroglyphics to her, but she could confirm that the young man’s writing was crisp and flowing, without a single correction, clearly showing his confidence level.
Cen Jin asked curiously: “Did you check it after finishing?”
Li Wu replied: “Yes.”
Cen Jin asked: “Not a single doubt?”
Li Wu said: “Not a single mistake.”
“Oh…” Knowing he was stating facts rather than boasting didn’t make it any less jarring. Cen Jin twirled her hair near her ear and returned the answer sheet to him, offering dry praise: “Pretty impressive.”
She sat up straight, returning to the main topic, analyzing his English test papers.
“Just three points higher than last time,” Cen Jin frowned slightly, flipping through the pages: “Cloze seems to be your weak point, and the composition too – just stacking fixed phrases doesn’t make a good essay.”
She scanned roughly, returning to the first page: “Your listening is quite good though, looks like the MP3 I gave you earlier did help.”
“Mm.”
“If you want to improve further, mere memorization might not help much anymore,” Cen Jin offered advice: “Starting tomorrow, try watching some American and British TV shows without subtitles. ‘The Big Bang Theory’ should suit a science kid like you.”
Li Wu seemed like an ancient person: “Without subtitles?”
Cen Jin sighed inwardly, explaining: “It means foreign shows without Chinese subtitles. You have to try understanding the meaning of each line yourself.”
As a warrior who had fought her way through the IELTS battlefield, Cen Jin’s English training methods weren’t limited to just this. They needed to permeate every aspect of daily life: “We can occasionally use English for conversation at home. You don’t need to respond fluently, just organize your thoughts and express them clearly to me.”
Li Wu was dumbfounded.
Cen Jin kept her eyes fixed on him, her gaze conveying a kind of warm encouragement: “Try it now, say something to me in English.”
Li Wu felt his scalp tingle and his ears burn under her stare.
“Don’t be afraid, look at me,” thinking he was nervous, Cen Jin maintained her smile, like a patient instructor: “Be confident, just like when you solve physics problems.”
Li Wu hardly dared to look directly at her, feeling only a violent force pulling and pushing into his chest, making it almost impossible to speak. But Cen Jin was still waiting, so he forced himself to stay calm, his knuckles cracking slightly under the desk before he managed to squeeze out a fairly complete short sentence: “Could you please go for breakfast?”
He was still thinking about that, Cen Jin admitted defeat inwardly and smiled helplessly: “OK, fine, as you wish.”
—
Because Yi City had a Spring Festival custom of not washing clothes until after the fifth day of the lunar new year, that afternoon, Cen Jin, finding nothing else to do, gathered several sweaters she’d only worn once from her bedroom coat rack and put them all in the laundry basket, carrying them to the washing machine on the balcony.
Li Wu’s two-hour Lego time became a TV series time.
The sitcom Cen Jin recommended was indeed interesting, but the main characters spoke extremely fast and occasionally used specialized terms, forcing him to pause frequently to look up words and understand their meaning.
But what made him most uncomfortable were the repeated risqué dialogues in the show.
After encountering the word “coitus” for the third time, Li Wu couldn’t bear it anymore and stopped watching.
He checked the time and decided to get some air on the terrace.