When the last period of the class had ended, the students in class left one after another.

 

Xie Liao Liao stayed back with another girl to finish their class duties.

 

Since they had just changed their classes this morning, there was quite an amount of rubbish on the floor. By the time Xie Liao Liao had swept the floor and arranged the desks, an hour had passed.

 

Almost all students had left the school compound, and only the lights of the third grade classes were on. As the students of the third grade had to stay back for tuition and revision.

 

After rearranging her stuff, Xie Liao Liao waited for the girl she was on duty with; to come back from disposing of the rubbish before they left the classroom.

 

The corridor was empty and silent.

 

She was in no haste, her slow footsteps echoed down the corridor.

 

Just as she had thought, the students of grade one had all left the school. Then, she saw the lights of the Science Elite class next door still open, and a boy was sitting by the window.

 

The boy had a pair of white earphones on and he was looking at a sheet of English Test Questions; his figure upright.

 

She stepped further, to get a close look at the boy, it was He Lin.

 

He Lin was twirling a black pen in his fingers, with a frown on his face. He seemed to have met with a problem which made him unable to write another word.

 

Xie Liao Liao was shocked about the fact he was still here, she paused for a moment. She wanted to just leave, but she remembered that he gave her a ride to school last Monday and she hadn’t since had a chance to say thank you. After a short while, she finally walked up to him and asked, “Why are you still here?”

 

He Lin raised his head up as he heard the voice.

 

He didn’t seem surprised when he saw her. He raised an eyebrow and pulled off his earphones, waving the test paper in his hands. “It’s a listening test.” He said.

 

Xie Liao Liao looked towards the direction he pointed, and realised that the test paper he had in hand was from an English class test.

 

Her English teacher had discussed this paper not long ago. Xie Liao Liao had made diligent notes about it, yet she still did not understand everything thoroughly. She asked, “Your English isn’t very good either?”

 

Her tone seemed to be very emphatic.

 

He Lin lowered his head as he smiled, without admitting or denying. He simply straightened his back and leaned back on his chair. “My audio clip doesn’t seem to be functioning very well, I can’t hear this part clearly, can you read it out for me?”

 

He looked at her helplessly, his fingers pointing to the original text of the listening test.

 

Xie Liao Liao kept silent.

 

How could she say she sucked at English too?

 

Her gaze fell on that sentence, the sentence structure was not complicated, but it was filled with unfamiliar phrases.

 

Xie Liao Liao wanted to refuse, but she couldn't say a word looking back at He Lin’s expectant eyes.

 

“I’ll try” she said, after some hesitation.

 

He Lin handed her the test paper.

 

Xie Liao Liao took it, but she was stuck right as she had started reading the intro:

 

“Joe Sestak, the navy admi…”

 

The young girl’s voice was light and soft, as if it was coated with a thick layer of sugar, the prolonged ending of her tone kept the sweetness in the air for a long time.

 

She wasn’t very good in English, however her pronunciation was quite accurate. Her voice was obviously not in high spirits, and then she paused to ask him, “How do I pronounce this phrase?”

 

He Lin took a peek, his pronunciation was accurate and pure as he replied. “Admiral.”

 

Xie Liao Liao nodded, then continued “... admiral and…” she paused and asked again, “What about this one?”

 

He Lin replied, “Congressman; a member of the congress.”

 

“Oh… and this…”

 

“Convene, it means gather.”

 

…

 

Without realising, Xie Liao Liao went on asking the phrases word by word, and finally succeeded in reading that complicated and obscure sentence.

 

He Lin took back the test paper and thanked her. Before saying goodbye, he made an invitation all of a sudden, “I’m practicing English tomorrow morning downstairs in the residential area, do you want to come along?”

 

Xie Liao Liao was shocked, the pace of her footsteps stopped unconsciously. She asked, “What?”

 

He Lin replied promptly, “I need someone to accompany me to practice listening. If you read It to me, I will learn faster.”

 

Xie Liao Liao didn’t understand. “Don’t you have your English recordings?” Each set of textbooks issued by the school can be equipped with audio recordings for practice.

 

He Lin answered, “Their pronunciation isn’t very accurate, it’s different from our pronunciation.”

 

The pronunciation of the textbook is not standardized, but her pronunciation is?

 

Xie Liao Liao couldn't understand, nor could she grasp the meaning of He Lin's words. She was simply unable to help him practice English. Plus, she didn’t even think she knew him well enough. Without much consideration, she refused, "I don't have time. You should find someone else."

 

But He Lin wasn’t even anxious, “Did your mom know about the class arrangements?”

 

Xie Liao Liao opened her eyes wide.

 

He continued, “She doesn’t mind that you’re not in the elite class, right?”

 

He Lin was right.

 

Although Xie Liao Liao’s parents were not strict with her, they still cared about her academic performance. They didn't say a thing, but Xie Liao Liao knew they very much hoped that she could get into the elite class this time.

 

Xie Liao Liao asked: “Why are you asking about this?”

 

 

He Lin was very frank, he smiled brightly and said, "You help me practice listening, and I’ll help you memorize English vocabulary. And at the next final exam, I’ll make sure you’re in the first forty scorers."

 

Xie Liao Liao was slightly touched, but she still asked, “Can’t I learn English by myself?”

 

He Lin, “And get 35 marks to show for it?”

 

Xie Liao Liao, “...”

 

How did he know???

 

After giving it great thought, there wasn’t  really any disadvantage about it. If she could really get into the elite class, she won't have to listen to Xu Nian nagging in her ears all day.

 

After thinking for a long time, Xie Liao Liao nodded firmly.

 

“Alright.”

 

The smile on He Lin’s face grew, he looked down and idly scratched his eyebrow as he said, “Then, tomorrow morning at seven, wait for me in the flower garden of the residential area.”

 

Xie Liao Liao said okay, then left after confirming with him about what to bring tomorrow.

 

She didn’t know whether it was an illusion or not, but before she left, Xie Liao Liao seemed to catch a glimpse of the English test paper on He Lin’s desk.

 

In the blank space at the upper left corner , the red marking stood out prominently-

 

130.

 

***

 

Xie Liao Liao woke up extra early on Saturday morning.

 

After washing up and changing, she sat in front of her desk and started writing a Mathematics test paper. At 7 a.m, she went down punctually.

 

At this time, the people in the residential area were just waking up, the only people around were those who liked to exercise early.

 

The flower garden mentioned by He Lin was on the west side of the residential area. There was a large pavilion located there with some small fitness equipment beside it. People would often exercise there. Because it just rained last night, it was a misty morning and there was fresh dew on leaves.

 

When Xie Liao Liao arrived, He Lin was holding on to a horizontal bar doing morning exercise.

 

He was a tall person, and the way he stretched his upper limbs made his body look even longer and taller.

 

He held the crossbar tightly with both hands, his spine contracted the traction force and moved upwards effortlessly.

 

When he did about fifteen reps, he released his hand from the pole and jumped down. He approached Xie Liao Liao as she walked towards him “You’re here.”

 

Xie Liao Liao nodded.

 

He Lin asked, “Have you had breakfast?”

 

“Yes” her mother would wake up at 6 every morning to make breakfast.

 

He Lin nodded in assurance as he took out a small booklet from his back pocket and gave it to her, “Then, read the first article for me.”

 

That fast? Xie Liao Liao couldn’t catch up that fast, “Right here?”

 

“Yes” He Lin’s lips curved, his handsome face was covered with a sense of casualness and laziness from waking up early, “It’s quiet here.”

 

Xie Liao Liao looked around- it was true.

 

Besides adults who were doing fitness workouts together, there were aunties who twisted their waist to dance in the plaza near them.

 

She didn’t say a word and took the booklet from He Lin’s hands.

 

This exercise book was different from what the school distributed, it had no publication company nor an author, it had a simple binding with staples. She flipped through to find Pages of printed English articles inside. It was a huge range of articles classified by their level of difficulty.

 

It’s like he had made it himself.

 

But since he wanted to learn English, he really might’ve put the effort in making it himself.

 

She thought to herself.

 

Xie Liao Liao flipped to page one, it was an article about a research study on dolphins, the introduction described the dolphin’s characteristics and habits. She read it silently in her head, it didn’t seem very hard.

 

So she started reading, “In the 1960s, a group of researchers…”

 

However, she lacked vocabulary, and she’d always encounter words that she didn’t understand until she was halfway through.

 

“Immerse” He Lin reminded with a low voice.

 

“... immerse him completely…”

 

Whenever Xie Liao Liao paused, He Lin would always know where she did not know.

 

As if he had already memorized the whole article.

 

“Extraordinary.”

 

“Margaret, it’s a name.”

 

…

 

And so it continued with his reminders and Xie Liao Liao’s stumbling reading.

 

By the time Xie Liao Liao had finished reading the whole article, more people were milling about the living area.

 

He Lin pulled up the zipper of his clothes and asked her, “Are you done memorizing?”

 

Xie Liao Liao was muddled, but she still nodded her head.

 

“Alright.” He Lin said, “I’ll go running first. When I come back, I’ll ask you the meaning of these phrases one by one.”

 

“...”

 

“???”

 

Without waiting for Xie Liao Liao’s reaction, He Lin pulled on his cap and began running.

 

Leaving Xie Liao Liao behind, looking at his figure, drowning herself deep into suspicion.

 

So who was the one mentoring the other now???