Chapter 134 - 95: Tutoring
The living room wasn't large, and the furniture was all old, worn from several years of use.
"So, Chen Zhuo, you've just been relaxing at home these past few days?"
Chen Jianqiang set down his water cup and started to make conversation.
"Yeah."
Chen Zhuo responded.
"I saw it in our factory's newspaper yesterday—front-page headline!"
Chen Jianqiang slapped his thigh, his voice suddenly jumping an octave, his expression exaggerated and a little unnatural.
"Dual national first place! The Huake University Youth Class! My God, when I saw your name, I couldn't believe it. I even told all the guys in my workshop, 'See that? That's my nephew!' You've really made our Chen Family proud!"
Chen Zhuo looked at him but didn't reply.
Just as he'd expected.
Done praising Chen Zhuo, Chen Jianqiang changed his tune, his gaze falling on Taozi, who was standing to the side.
The smile on Chen Jianqiang's face vanished, replaced by a look of bitter disappointment.
He reached out and gave Taozi a hard slap on the back.
"Look at your cousin! Now look at you!" Chen Jianqiang scolded.
The slap sent Taozi stumbling. He pressed his lips together, but still didn't say a word.
"This kid, he's going into eighth grade when school starts, and his grades... I'm too embarrassed to even tell people.
"On his final exams, he got a thirty-eight in math and a twenty-five in English. His homeroom teacher calls me to school to get an earful every single day. I work myself half to death at the factory, and then I still have to go to school and get chewed out for him!"
The more Chen Jianqiang spoke, the angrier he got, pointing a finger at Taozi's nose.
"You're as dumb as a pig! We all eat the same food, so how come you didn't grow a brain?!"
Taozi hung his head even lower, the back of his neck flushing red.
After chewing out his son, Chen Jianqiang turned back to Chen Zhuo, his face once again fixed in a fawning smile.
"Ah, Chen Zhuo."
Chen Jianqiang leaned in a little, resting his hands on his knees.
"Your uncle brought him over today hoping you could lend a hand."
Chen Jianqiang pointed to the milk and apples on the coffee table.
"You see, you're about to head off to a great university in the big city of Huizhou, and you don't have much to do at home for the next few days."
"So, your uncle was thinking, maybe we could have Taozi stay here with you for a few days."
Chen Jianqiang had finally gotten to the point.
"Don't worry about a bed; he can just make a pallet on the living room floor. And he's not picky about food; he'll eat whatever you guys are eating."
"I was just thinking, if he spends a few days with you, you could help him with his schoolwork, maybe give him a few pointers."
Chen Jianqiang looked at Chen Zhuo, his eyes full of a desperate, almost superstitious hope.
"You're so smart, you must have some special study methods. If you just teach him a thing or two... even if he just absorbs a little of your Wenqu Star aura, it's got to be better than him fumbling around on his own. Just do your uncle a favor, how about it?"
The living room fell silent.
There was only the whir of the electric fan and the sound from the television.
Chen Zhuo sat on the small stool, looking at Chen Jianqiang.
He didn't feel angry, just found the situation absurd.
Before Chen Zhuo could say anything,
Taozi, who had been standing silently to the side, tore his eyes from the TV and let them fall on a corner of the coffee table.
A few books were sitting there.
They were the textbooks Chen Zhuo had been sorting through for the past few days. The book on top was a thick, original English edition of Thomas' Calculus.
The cover was printed with complex geometric shapes and English letters.
Curious, Taozi reached out and picked up the book.
It was heavy.
He opened it to the first page.
Taozi's eyes instantly went wide.
The page was densely packed with English letters, without a single Chinese character.
Mixed in with the paragraphs of English were many strange symbols he had never seen before.
A symbol that looked like a stretched-out S.
All sorts of letter combinations with superscripts and subscripts.
And some Greek letters that looked like illegible scribbles.
Taozi flipped through a few more pages. Every single one was the same.
Complex formulas, calculus derivations, proofs of limits.
The hand Taozi used to hold the book froze in mid-air.
He looked up, staring at Chen Zhuo on the stool as if he were an alien.
He had delicate features and was wearing a simple tank top. Just a moment ago, he had been playing Tetris.
But Taozi suddenly felt that this cousin, four years his junior, wasn't even the same species.
The massive intellectual chasm between them had just materialized in his hands as this heavy, all-English calculus textbook.
Taozi slammed the book shut as if it had burned his hand and quickly placed it back on the coffee table.
"Dad."
Taozi finally spoke, his voice trembling slightly, thick with resistance.
"I'm not staying here, and I don't need him to tutor me."
Taozi looked at Chen Jianqiang.
"I can't even read a single word of what he's reading. How is he supposed to tutor me? I won't understand a thing."
Chen Jianqiang hadn't looked at the book.
The moment he heard his son trying to back out again, his temper flared.
"What do you know?! If you don't know the words, can't you just learn them? Your cousin can understand it, so why can't you?!"
Chen Jianqiang stood up, pointing at Taozi.
"I'm telling you right now, you are staying here for the next few days, and you're not allowed to go anywhere!"
"No!" Taozi's stubborn streak flared up. He stiffened his neck. "If you try to leave me here, I'll just walk home by myself tonight."
"You dare!"
Chen Jianqiang raised his hand, on the verge of striking him.
"Uncle."
Chen Zhuo's calm voice interrupted the father and son's argument.
Chen Jianqiang's hand froze in mid-air.
Chen Zhuo stood up from the stool.
He glanced at the calculus textbook on the coffee table that Taozi had been flipping through.