Chapter 567: Chapter 567

Time had entered early February of 2001, and right before the New Year, she received her ID card, which she had specially asked the police to mail to her. Of course, she gave them a ’tip’ of twenty yuan for their trouble. There was no need for express delivery; regular mail was fine, so it wouldn’t cost much, and as a student, twenty yuan was already quite a bit—she could at least make a profit of fifteen yuan. The reason she asked someone to mail it back to her was that she didn’t want the hassle of going back again.

Having an ID card in hand would make many things more convenient, even though it would only be a few years before she would have to replace it with a second-generation ID card. By then, she should have already entered university.

Her birthday was February 26, so by the end of this month she would turn 14 years old, growing another year older, sadly without any family to witness it, which was a bit regrettable.

Even though school had just started, the school had already notified some students with outstanding achievements in the sciences to fill out application forms for competitions in physics, chemistry, biology, and other related subjects.

Zhou Yiyi’s grades, currently second only to Zhou Mo, meant that with only two spots per class per subject, the final opportunity fell to another boy who was better at physics than Yiyi. As for chemistry and biology, Yiyi didn’t think she had any particular talent in those areas either, so she didn’t sign up. In effect, she didn’t participate in these kinds of competitions that could bring glory to the school and might even qualify for a direct admission to university.

Comparing with the final exams last semester, her composite score was high because it included average scores.

If one were to discuss individual subjects, her best was English, where she nearly achieved full marks.

The subject she felt she had improved most in was Chinese, scoring 126, the highest she had ever scored in a semester.

Other memory-intensive subjects, such as history, politics, geography, and biology, she also performed reasonably well in.

However, in subjects like physics, chemistry, and mathematics, which are typically harder for girls, she wasn’t particularly outstanding, only that if she chose arts, it would be a bit more relaxing, while sciences would require more effort to manage. Updates are released by novᴇlfire.net

Such grades, compared with Zhou Mo’s nearly perfect Academic God-level performance, seemed somewhat lacking—after all, her total score was more than ten points behind his.

Of course, no matter the class or level, the subject that typically dragged down the grades was Chinese. With essay writing, classical Chinese, and the need for regular accumulation, if one’s accumulation wasn’t enough, the scores would drop significantly.

Perhaps due to the accumulation over many lives, being an ancient person, reading ancient texts, and having looked through many books, her Chinese grades were now significantly better than when she was in university. With a full score of one hundred and fifty, she was now able to score more than one hundred and twenty, and there was still room for improvement. Surpassing one hundred and thirty was only a matter of time, so choosing between arts or sciences perhaps required further careful consideration.

This semester, the school arranged over twenty calligraphy classes for her, not with a soft brush but with a hard pen, because her hard pen writing was also very standard. Besides, with such distinguished awards and status in soft brush, she was fully qualified to teach everyone to standardize their handwriting.

So, besides her regular studies, she would also prepare seriously for the public class every Saturday afternoon. Since it was held in a lecture hall, which was quite large with a considerable distance between seats, the effects might not be ideal. Currently, the school didn’t have any projection equipment, which put some pressure on her, but since she had taken on this task, she had to ensure quality.

When the school offered her fifty yuan per class as a stipend, Yiyi refused. Other teachers only earned several yuan per class—why should she receive fifty yuan? Besides, the school had already waived her tuition fees, living expenses, and accommodation fees, so what right did she have to ask for more money? Therefore, she said she would teach as a volunteer without payment. Not only would she not accept money, but she would also be unhesitatingly present wherever the school needed her.

Teacher Meng occasionally came to the school and would also come to see her. Because of this, she received some good news—the prestigious Lanting Award was set to begin in June. The Lanting Award and the national exhibition could be considered the highest-level calls to action in the world of calligraphy. Contestants had to be members of the Hua Country Calligrapher Association to participate. This year was said to be the inaugural event, held once every three years. (Note: The first actual event was in 2002.)

That evening, she called her master, who naturally knew about this already and advised her to practice more when she had time. If she wanted to participate, she could, but she needed to prepare well because, due to her young age, her brushwork and strength were far from those of the seasoned calligraphers. She could gain experience through the competition, but thinking about winning awards was a bit of a pipe dream.

Yiyi knew all too well the principle that there is always someone better out there. She busily stated that she only wanted to accumulate experience, earning Mr. Zheng’s approval. He encouraged her to practice diligently whenever she had the time, and so each night after her roommates had fallen asleep, Yiyi began her practice writing journey once again, steadfastly writing four large characters every day come rain or shine.

Her calligraphy class was voluntary, scheduled after school on Saturday afternoons, so one could imagine the number of attendees. Originally, she thought the lecture hall, accommodating twenty to thirty people, would be impressive, but to her astonishment, the turnout exceeded her expectations, reaching fifty or sixty people, which included first-year students as well as senior schoolmates from the second and third years.

Yiyi was moved; she had feared an awkward situation due to low attendance, so seeing a whole classroom’s worth of people made her slightly nervous for a moment.

After she stepped up to the platform, she immediately saw Zhou Mo and Lin Mu sitting in the first row, along with many classmates. This made her very happy, and she winked at them before starting the lesson.

"Hello, fellow students, senior sisters, senior brothers. This is my first time teaching a class, and I’m a bit nervous. If I don’t perform well, please be patient with me."

After finishing, she gave a shy bow, and Lin Mu heckled from below, "Yiyi, you’re doing great, keep it up, we support you!"

Yiyi blushed and glared at him before finally getting into the meat of the lesson. Before starting the formal instruction, she wove her past experiences with practice writing into modern stories. No one knew about her past, so she presented them as vividly as possible.

"Many students might feel that practicing writing is just practice, and writing is just writing. When practicing, you might write each stroke very carefully, but when writing normally, you rush because you’re trying to keep up with the speed of your thoughts, unconsciously going faster. I feel this too, but maybe because of my OCD, my subconscious won’t let me do that, which is why our classmates know I write very slowly. I tend to write every character carefully and correctly, which naturally doesn’t help speed things up. I’ve developed a sort of pathology; it’s been a habit since childhood, so I can’t expect everyone to do the same."

"However, since all of you are here, you must have certain self-expectations and a desire for change. If you want to change, then you must remember the following points...."