Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

"The following students should come up to the stage to receive awards, first place, first grade class three, Wu Lingyu, first grade class sixteen, Xu Qingfan, first grade class sixteen, Xia Xiaoxiao; fourth place, first grade..."

In the auditorium, the mid-term ceremony for the first grade was taking place, where the names of the students with excellent test scores were being called out by the grade leader.

"Brother Fan, you’re awesome!"

"Brother Fan, treat us to some spicy sticks after school!"

Xu Qingfan waved his hand, then stood up and walked towards the stage with Xia Xiaoxiao.

In his previous life, he had studied hard for more than a decade and had never been on stage to receive an award. Having been reborn, Xu Qingfan easily achieved a wish that seemed unattainable in his past life.

He suddenly remembered an episode of Doraemon he had watched.

In it, Nobita, a fifth-grader, returned to first grade with the help of Doraemon. Originally scoring zero in everything, he quickly became a prodigy, but after methodically working his way back up to fifth grade, Nobita reverted to the poor student he once was.

However, unlike Nobita, Xu Qingfan’s advantage could at least last until high school, and even if his performance during those three years of high school became mediocre, he still had a chance to astonish everyone at the college entrance exams.

"Students in the first row, crouch down, and those in the back, speed up."

"Click!"

The camera’s flash lit up, capturing the faces of the students receiving awards on stage for the first time.

They say you have to choose between beauty and intelligence, but Xu Qingfan found this to be a myth, at least the two young girls standing on either side of him during the photo seemed both bright and beautiful.

However, it was true that in elementary and middle school, girls generally performed better than boys academically. It was not until high school that the boys began to exert effort, and the girls who consistently ranked on the honor roll typically did not look very good.

After the photo was taken, Xu Qingfan and Xia Xiaoxiao returned to their class with their shiny certificates, and then it was time for the second group of award recipients to go on stage.

Their class’s overall level was somewhat lacking, apart from Xu Qingfan and Xia Xiaoxiao both achieving first place, and Xiao Ruawen in eighteenth place, none of their classmates made it into the top sixty of the whole grade.

After all the awards were presented, the mid-term ceremony came to a successful close, and the homeroom teacher led the students back to their respective classrooms.

After the main meeting came a smaller one. Back in the classroom, Guan Biyue held the first mid-term exam review meeting for Class 16 of the first grade.

"Next, the teacher will present the improvement awards. The named students, please come up to collect your awards!"

"Zhang Yiyi, improved by eighty-eight places, let’s give a round of applause! Lin Wanning, improved by seventy-two places! Ma Feifei, improved..."

Altogether twelve people, all of whom had improved by at least ten places since the entrance ranking, Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi happily walked hand in hand to the stage to receive their certificates, beaming with joy.

"Brother Qing Fan, Wanning has a certificate too!"

"Thank you!" Zhang Yiyi also held up a little notebook and wrote thanks on it.

The remarkable achievements of the two youngsters were largely due to Xu Qingfan’s significant contributions.

Under his diligent tutoring, both Zhang Yiyi and Lin Wanning were able to score above eighty in the mid-term math exam. Yiyi scored eighty-three, while Little Wanning scored eighty-two, just one point less.

This was already a quite impressive achievement. To ensure the quality of the top twenty ranks in the grade, the Chinese and mathematics tests included over ten points’ worth of "optional" questions that were not taught during class but were assigned as optional homework.

Therefore, the ordinary limit was around eighty points. If one wanted to score higher, it required more than ten times the effort. Xu Qingfan did not want them to waste their childhoods on pointless competitive learning, so his expectation for them was simply to break eighty points in math.

The homeroom teacher probably grouped the students initially by abilities: good, average, below average. Zhang Yiyi’s math score at the entrance exam was not ideal, only fifty-two points.

However, after half a semester of interaction, Xu Qingfan realized the little girl was just hindered by her ears, unlike Lin Wanning, who was purely single-minded.

Zhang Yiyi, frankly, had a bit of a people-pleasing personality, not daring to, and also afraid of, troubling others.

When the teacher asked if she understood, she would only subconsciously nod her head. Fortunately, she encountered Xu Qingfan, a responsible group leader.

Simply explaining the problems wasn’t enough—Xu Qingfan also gave additional example problems to solve. After a while, Zhang Yiyi couldn’t pretend anymore, realizing pretending to understand would only make things more troublesome for him. The little girl gathered her strength and focused, and her grades rapidly improved.

"This is for you!" Lin Wanning handed over her freshly received gift—a homework book stamped with a red seal—to Chen Qiuyue.

Chen Qiuyue opened her mouth in surprise, pointing to herself, "No...no need..."

"It’s okay! Brother Qing Fan gave his to me, and I’m giving mine to you. This way, we all have gifts!" Lin Wanning said cheerfully, holding up a beautifully bound notebook.

"Thank you! I...I..." Chen Qiuyue suddenly stumbled over her words.

"No worries, just give it back to me after you improve on your final exam, like Brother Fan said, my potential has been fully tapped, and it will be hard for me to improve anymore!" Lin Wanning clasped her hands together, sticking out her tongue playfully in a pleading manner.

"Mm!"

[Wanning is really an angel.] Xu Qingfan thought.

Chen Qiuyue’s student number was 35. He didn’t know exactly how many points she scored on the entrance exam, but this time she indeed performed disastrously—62 points in Chinese and 18 in math.

Xu Qingfan was not one to judge by appearances and treated all three team members equally, always asking them if there was anything they didn’t understand after class.

But only Lin Wanning would ask him questions, and Zhang Yiyi would also lean over to listen. Only Chen Qiuyue would disappear as soon as class ended.

Alright, he did actually judge by faces. If it had been either Lin Wanning or Zhang Yiyi, he would have dragged them back and continued tutoring them, but studying is a personal matter after all, so he couldn’t really be blamed, right?

"Alright, quiet down, everybody. We are having a parent-teacher meeting after school this afternoon. Have you all reminded your moms and dads?"

"Teacher, my parents are busy, can my grandmother come instead?"

"Teacher, same here, my brother said he would come for me!"

"Quiet! As long as it’s a family member, it doesn’t have to be your mom and dad, but it must be an adult, got it?"

"Got it!"

Guan Biyue tapped on the desk and continued, "Secondly, class officers stay behind after school to arrange the classroom," she glanced at Xu Qingfan, who was chatting and laughing with a female team member under the podium, and Guan Biyue’s right eyelid twitched, "Xu Qingfan, you stay behind too, to help the teacher with the blackboard writing!"

"Okay, teacher!" Meeting her half-smiling gaze, he promptly nodded in agreement.

"That’s it. Those who didn’t do well should learn from their peers, and those who did well should avoid arrogance and rashness. Class dismissed! Xu Qingfan, come to my office!" Guan Biyue picked up her bag from the lectern and dragged Xu Qingfan out of the classroom.

The office was empty; Guan Biyue brought Xu Qingfan inside and then shut the door, crossing her legs and sitting at her desk.

"What’s going on?" she asked.

Xu Qingfan was puzzled as Guan Biyue looked at him straight on, her small legs clad in black boots swinging in the air.

For a moment, he thought of several similar plot movies. Xu Qingfan swallowed nervously and asked guiltily, "What’s going on, teacher? What are you talking about?"

"How come Zhang Yiyi and Lin Wanning have improved so much, but Chen Qiuyue not only hasn’t, she has regressed!" Guan Biyue leaned forward and knocked on his head.

It turned out he was overthinking. He had just been wondering, if his teacher made an advance, should he agree, or should he agree?

After all, she had graduated from college only a few years ago, still somewhat green.

"Teacher, it’s really not my fault. It’s not like Chen Qiuyue asks me questions; she disappears somewhere to play right after class. That can’t be blamed on me!" Xu Qingfan spread his hands in a helpless expression.

"Who knows about you, always sneaking into groups of pretty girls," Guan Biyue snorted dismissively.

"Come on! Don’t shoot off your mouth, teacher. They are the ones who come to me," Xu Qingfan exclaimed.

"You dare to swear in front of the teacher!" Xu Qingfan took another hit from Guan Biyue, "Not bad, no wonder you always score full marks in exams. You even know the phrase ’it matters not to me’." Guan Biyue switched from hitting Xu Qingfan’s hand to patting his head.

"It’s really not my fault, teacher. Qiuyue doesn’t come to me with questions, and as soon as class is over, she’s off playing somewhere. You can’t blame me for that!" He continued to gesture helplessly.

"Humph! Can’t you take the initiative to teach Qiuyue? The teacher trusted you by making her your teammate, but it seems you always prefer to play with the pretty girls!"

Xu Qingfan shrugged, "If you keep this up, teacher, I’ll have to report you for false accusations against a student!"

"Okay, okay, I know you’re more mature than your peers. Her mom knows the school administration, and the leaders spoke to me about this. Can you please help me out? I covered for you that time you got into trouble with soccer, Xu Qingfan. You wouldn’t refuse to help your teacher, would you?" Guan Biyue pinched Xu Qingfan’s cheek, pleading earnestly.

"Got it, got it. I’ll make sure she passes math by the end of the term, but you owe me one!"

"Hehe, I knew our Fanfan is the best!" Guan Biyue gleefully pulled him into a hug.

"Mmm~" Xu Qingfan experienced a blissful suffocation.