NOVPUB"This class ends here. Copy the forty-eight phonetic symbols on the blackboard onto the first page of your English book and memorize them. Dismissed!" The bell signaling the end of class rang as Xu Qingfan tossed the chalk back onto the podium and said to everyone after dusting the chalk off his hands.
He didn’t care whether his classmates listened to him or not; he just thought phonetics were quite important. Back in his previous life, Xu Qingfan had never been taught English by a teacher. His elementary school teacher said the middle school teacher would teach it, but when he got to middle school, the middle school teacher claimed they should have learned it in elementary school.
As a result, whenever he encountered a word he couldn’t pronounce, he could only write the Chinese phonetic notation next to it. For instance, for the word ’voluntarily’, he could only write "wo lun che er V" next to it.
After picking up his English book, Xu Qingfan stepped down from the podium. Xia Xiaoxiao, Lin Wanning, and the other four girls immediately stood up and started clapping.
Although the rest of the class did not rise, they joined in the applause, continuing until Xu Qingfan sat back down with Group Eight, and then the clapping gradually subsided.
The five girls at their desks were busy with their own things, choosing to work on test papers they had missed last week. They were working on various subjects, but not a single one was looking at English.
"Why aren’t you listening to my lecture?" Xu Qingfan asked with amusement.
Seeing Xu Qingfan’s return, Lin Wanning handed over the math test paper she had just finished with a grin, "Brother Qingfan, help me correct this!"
"Didn’t we learn phonetics in the third grade of elementary school, Brother Fan? Why are you still teaching it in middle school?" Xiao Ruawen glanced at the content on the blackboard and said.
"Exactly, the English in seventh grade is so easy, yah, I memorized the words on it when I took the Cambridge Level 1!" Lin Wanning chimed in after hearing this.
"Even the English I learned in kindergarten is harder than the seventh grade’s." Xia Xiaoxiao rested her cheek in one hand while looking at her Chinese book and muttered disdainfully.
Xu Qingfan, having also been through middle school, remembered how tormenting it was to memorize English vocabulary. He seriously didn’t believe it was that simple.
"Modesty helps one progress, arrogance leads one to lag behind, and claiming kindergarten level is just too much!" Xu Qingfan said, raising his hand to give Xia Xiaoxiao a light pat, admonishing her.
"It’s true, if you don’t believe me, just look at the vocabulary list!" Xia Xiaoxiao glared at him, refusing to back down, and hit Xu Qingfan back twice.
"It does seem a bit too simple," Wu Lingyu put down her book and, rare for her, also voiced her opinion.
"Super simple!"
Seeing all five girls saying so, he flipped through his English book to the very last page with a puzzled look, but the words he saw stunned him.
Unlike the opening of the GRE English with ’abandon’, seventh grade’s Unit 1 started with simple words like ’good’, ’thanks’, ’hi’, and even more outrageously, ’i’ and ’you’ were counted as English vocabulary.
"Erm... maybe…" He had just been about to say that maybe only the first unit was simple and that it would get harder later on, but then Xu Qingfan casually glanced down to find that Unit 2 was just ’what’, ’is’, and ’this’... and the most challenging word was ’jacket’.
Xu Qingfan silently scoffed at his former self for a moment, not believing that he couldn’t memorize such simple words!
"It does seem pretty simple," he said after flipping through all the words and sticking out his tongue.
"Told you it’s simple!" Xia Xiaoxiao looked at him triumphantly, her victorious smile blossoming when she saw Xu Qingfan deflated.
While the six of them chatted and messed around, a girl from Group Seven sitting next to them suddenly turned around and said, "Next Chinese class, the teacher said she will randomly test us on four ancient poems, and anyone who can’t recite them will have to copy them ten times!"
The five girls were all astonished upon hearing this. How come they were only being informed of such an important matter now!
"Got it, thank you, classmate. I’m Xiao Ruawen!" Xiao Ruawen tucked her bangs behind her ear and smiled in thanks at her.
"No... no need, my name is Wu Siyu." After saying that, Wu Siyu turned back around, but then turned back again as if mustering courage and said, "Thank you all, I don’t have to cut my hair now!"
Xu Qingfan smiled and gave her an OK gesture. Wu Siyu caught his gaze, and her shy eyes quickly darted away.
Xia Xiaoxiao covertly stepped on Xu Qingfan’s foot under the table, then nonchalantly turned to page fourteen of her Chinese book to start reciting.
"It’s alright now, we need to start reciting, let’s chat another time after the next class," Lin Wanning declared territorially, leaning her body against Xu Qingfan.
"Oh... Okay," Wu Siyu turned her head away again.
As the little interlude drew to a close, the bell for the next class rang, and the Chinese teacher followed closely behind, entering the classroom.
The four ancient poems that had to be recited were Cao Cao’s "Viewing the Boundless Sea," Li Bai’s "Upon Hearing Wang Changling Has Been Demoted to Longbiao and Distantly Sending This Message," Wang Wan’s "Following the North Fortress Mountain," and Ma Zhiyuan’s "Autumn Thoughts from TianJingSha."
All four were timeless masterpieces, and as soon as Xu Qingfan saw the first line of each, the rest of the content automatically emerged in his mind, immediately transferring the pressure over to the five girls.
"Is Xu Qingfan here?" After the customary pre-class greeting, Wu Yanchun suddenly looked in the direction of Group Eight and asked.
"Teacher, I’m here." The teacher standing before them was the same person who had taught them Chinese in his previous life. Her teaching ability was not extraordinary, but her moral character was quite commendable.
"Does Kun City have delicious mushrooms?" Wu Yanchun asked, which immediately caused the whole class to erupt into laughter. Xia Xiaoxiao and the other four girls laughed along, all eyes on Xu Qingfan, curious to see how he would reply.
"They’re very tasty. I recommend everyone to visit South of the Cloud during the months of June to October, when wild mushrooms are in season," Xu Qingfan answered without a hint of stage fright, looking straight at the Chinese teacher.
