Besides He Yi, he had also been surrounded and attacked by a group of ‘old folks’. Deng Wenchang dared not flare up at them. He could only cast malicious stares at Qiao Nan. So many people were biased toward her. It seemed that, aside from him, Qiao Nan had given everyone else benefits behind his back!
Qiao Nan, who was once again ‘shot’ without even doing a thing, sneered. She threw another set of materials to Deng Wenchang. “Comrade Deng, this is my assignment. Do you want to take a look at it together?”
“It’s the same one?” When Deng Wenchang took it and read it, he realized that Qiao Nan’s content was similar to his.
Qiao Nan put down her pen and drank some water to hydrate herself. “Yes, the task yesterday was not that important and the workload was not heavy, so both of us were given the same one. If you are interested, we can look at it together, in case you feel unconvinced in both your heart and mind such that your hands become so limp that you can’t even hold your pen properly.”
When Qiao Nan wanted him to read it, Deng Wenchang did not want to. “What’s there to read? These were obtained through some lowly means. Is it meaningful? There are a few rare words in this material that are seldom used. Also, they are adapted from the Latin language. You must have got it right after someone taught you this. What’s there to be smug about?” If someone were to teach him, wouldn’t he be ‘all red’ indeed?
Qiao Nan shook her head and passed Deng Wenchang a book. “I have not studied abroad and am not very knowledgeable, so I am not sure about the teaching materials for overseas students like you. This book is one of the textbooks of an elective subject in the local foreign language faculty. It’s not very popular and a little unorthodox. However, the term that you referred to earlier is taught in this book. This is not considered private coaching but mass teaching. One classroom of people attended the lesson.”
Deng Wenchang did not believe Qiao Nan. He took the book and flipped it to verify himself.
It was quite easy to find the term. Qiao Nan had specially placed a bookmark on the page where the term appeared. She was afraid that Deng Wenchang would call her a liar if he could not find it.
When he flipped Qiao Nan’s book, everyone was dazzled by what was before their eyes. That book was originally not thin but it had become extremely thick after Qiao Nan used it. She had pasted little pieces of adhesive notes on those special, uncommon, rare, or interesting phrases, words, sentences, and grammar in the book.
The handwritten notes on the little pieces of paper had three colors: red, blue, and black. Besides this three-colored handwriting, different highlighters were also used to highlight and differentiate the main points.
There were so many colorful little pieces of notes that one could not help feeling dazed as they were not used to it.
Deng Wenchang’s expression changed from a mocking and scornful one to a more serious one. Both had been students before. Judging from Qiao Nan’s book, which had gained a lot of weight, Qiao Nan’s learning attitude as a student deserved affirmation. These notes were taken by Qiao Nan when she listened to professors during the lessons.
There were also some notes where Qiao Nan did more research on her own as she was not satisfied with the brief elaboration by the professors. She was thorough in seeking information. With such hard work, of course, Qiao Nan would have a more thorough knowledge of the same content. It was so thorough that even an overseas student like Deng Wenchang could not help feeling ashamed.
It was not because of other reasons. Deng Wenchang knew some of the contents written on the little pieces of notes. There were also some that he had never heard of. In normal circumstances, as long as he was aware of the existence of the term and its general meaning and usage, that would do.
For example, gunpowder was one of the four great inventions of China. As a Chinese, it would do as long as Deng Wenchang had a little knowledge of this history. When others brought up this question, he could chat with them a little about it.
Qiao Nan was extremely different. She not only grasped this basic knowledge but also specially researched the background and circumstances where gunpowder first appeared, how it was invented, evolved, and even daringly bought enough materials to conduct an ‘experiment’ on her own.
This process might seem simple but it made a huge difference in an individual English term. The evolution of a word was not accomplished in one stroke but step-by-step. Like recognizing Chinese words, Deng Wenchang only learned all the simplified language. Qiao Nan had a thirst for learning. She learned both the simplified and traditional way of writing, Khitan scripts, and writing systems of the Qin and Zhao dynasties.
As such, Qiao Nan could recognize the same word in the different ways that it was written. Similarly, the same-meaning word, regardless of the stage of change that it was at, Qiao Nan would not be misled by the slight differences. On the contrary, she could accurately express the meaning of the word and its usage.
Qiao Nan could not be misled as she had widened her knowledge thoroughly. Deng Wenchang could not achieve something that Qiao Nan could!
As he read, word-by-word, the historical evolution of the word that he had made a mistake on, Deng Wenchang was ghastly pale and he felt like spewing expletives. Where did Qiao Nan, this monster, come from? Damn! Who would have so much spare time to do so much research on just one rare word?
He dared to say that, based on the research of that one word alone, Qiao Nan had definitely read a foreign history book that was as thick as a dictionary. Perhaps she even read more than one of such book.
Damn!
Was she studying foreign languages or foreign histories?
According to these handwritten notes, Qiao Nan was not only proficient in English. She also had some research and knowledge on other foreign languages such as French and Latin. Was this human? Darn, this was clearly a pervert!
If it was possible, Deng Wenchang really wanted to use his stationary to hammer Qiao Nan, this bane, to death. Having been a student for so many years, he had seen many students, but this was his first time encountering a type like Qiao Nan. She really had a huge hole in her brains. There were definitely holes in Qiao Nan’s brains. Then, how could people like them who had no holes in the brain win against Qiao Nan?
This was the first time that Deng Wenchang had to face Qiao Nan’s capability and ability directly. Although he did not think that Qiao Nan was smarter than him, he could tell and had to admit that, based on these little note pieces, he could not win in terms of seriousness in learning.
It seemed that Qiao Nan was not just a useless eye-candy.
It was no wonder that He Yi always praised Qiao Nan for doing well after every task. So, it was not just because she was He Yi’s little lover. Clearly, Qiao Nan had some capability. That was why He Yi daringly and openly ‘endorsed’ Qiao Nan in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and let everyone affirm her existence such that she was competing for a position with him.
“This learning attitude of Xiao Qiao is very good. No wonder the teachers in your school were willing to nominate you for the sponsorship for overseas studies. However, it’s fine even if you don’t go. Given your learning attitude, there is really not much difference whether you go or not.” Those who were in the know held onto her book like it was a rare gem and could not stop staring at it.
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