It was very necessary!

  “Teacher, didn’t you set a paper for my daughter? How much did Jiajia score?” It was better not to confuse her like that. It would be better to prove her words with some results.

  The tutor handed Jiajia’s paper over to Zhai Hua. “Here’s the composition that the student wrote. I wasn’t particularly lenient when marking this, but there weren’t many points of criticism. There weren’t any grammatical mistakes and the student also used good vocabulary. She only made some careless mistakes here.”

  “Ninety-nine?” Zhai Hua blinked. If she had not heard the tutor’s analysis, she would have suspected that there was something wrong with her eyes and that she would have to make a visit to the hospital. “Did you grade it wrongly?” Thinking about how Jiajia had only scored sixty-six marks for her term test but had scored ninety-nine in less than a month’s time, she couldn’t believe the situation.

  “No, I graded it properly.”

  \r \r \r

  Zhai Hua told the tutor after some thought. “Alright, you’re the teacher and you know more about this than me. Since you said that my daughter has already mastered the content taught in the first year, you can return tomorrow to start on the content taught in the second year. I’ll send you out.”

  After politely sending the tutor off, Zhai Hua flared up at Jiajia the moment she returned home. “Wei Jiajia, are you trying to fool me? Did you purposely do badly on your test and score sixty-six marks just because you hated the teacher?”

  Zhai Hua didn’t believe that Jiajia’s English results could have improved so drastically in such a short span of time. The only explanation was that Jiajia had always had it in her to score ninety-nine. It was just that she had purposely done badly in that test. Zhai Hua would much rather think that Jiajia had not learned well than Jiajia treated her results and future as a joke simply because she did not like her teacher.

  Jiajia had initially been rather happy about having scored ninety-nine marks, proving her abilities. But she was infuriated now that Zhai Hua was saying such things about her. “You’re doing this again! How could you doubt me? I’m a student. Do you think I don’t want to do well in exams and be a good student? Mom, you’re my biological mother! Shouldn’t you be happy about my improvement? How could you suspect that I purposely did badly on my test? Mom, are you going through menopause? You’d better buy some medicine for yourself. It’s really frustrating for me now that you’re acting this way!”

  Her aunt wasn’t young either. But why was her aunt so gentle and nice while her mom was like a tigress, always flaring up? Her mom hadn’t even tried to understand the situation before pinning the blame on her!

  If not for the fact that her aunt had already counseled her, she would definitely have gotten into a fight with her mom again. While she understood that her mom was stressed because of her divorce from her dad, it wasn’t right for her mom to vent her anger out on her! Ever since she started living with her mom and stopped seeing her paternal grandma’s family, she had not gotten into any trouble. What was her mom worried and anxious about?

  Zhai Hua was worried about her daughter, while Jiajia was a strong and fiercely independent young lady. When the mother and daughter started raising their voices, it was as though Mars had knocked into the Earth.

  Jiajia thought for a while before saying, “Do you really think I only had fun with my aunt in those ten days in the capital? My aunt is a much better teacher than those teachers in school. That tutor is clearly not as good as my aunt either. I think it’s bullshit that the state is talking about making learning fun. It’s all rote learning! My aunt’s too busy to be a teacher, but if she wanted to, she would be the best!”

  Jiajia raised her thumb. “I’m not lying to you. If my aunt becomes an English teacher in my school, the students would be over the moon. I said that it was fun, but I didn’t mean that we only had fun. I just meant that it wasn’t stressful but relaxing. Auntie was able to make a boring subject come to life. I was able to absorb whatever she taught me immediately. Mom, you should discuss it with my uncle to see if my aunt is willing to take on students.”

  “You’re saying that it’s entirely your aunt’s credit that you managed to score ninety-nine marks? Is your aunt really that good?” She didn’t really believe it. It was not as though she didn’t know about Qiao Nan’s qualifications. As her sister-in-law, she had never looked down on Qiao Nan. But now, she was looking at Qiao Nan as her daughter’s teacher. Qiao Nan’s qualifications couldn’t even compare to her daughter’s, so how could she possibly teach Jiajia English? It seemed like nonsense to her.

  Jiajia rolled her eyes and took some fruits out from the fridge. “See, I was right. I knew that you looked down on my aunt.”

  “Nonsense!” Zhai Hua hit Jiajia on the head. “What are you talking about? This has got nothing to do with looking down on her. I’ve never thought of it as her fault. It’s not as if she chose to grow up in that environment. She was just down on luck, having parents like that. So, do you know how lucky you are for having me as a mom? Then again, your aunt did have good results while she was still in junior high school. If your aunt had gotten the chance to study, she would probably have done better than you.”

  Hearing how Zhai Hua was still trying to praise herself in such a situation, Jiajia was at a loss for words. “That’s exactly what you meant. Anyway, all you have to know is that my aunt is really brilliant. You don’t have to worry about my English for now. I’m not sure what will happen in the future.”

  Zhai Hua couldn’t help but pinch her daughter’s face. “Look at how affectionate you are when you talk about your aunt! You’re not even this affectionate when you call me!”

  Knowing that Zhai Hua was only joking, Jiajia made a face at her. “Humph! You don’t treat me as well as Auntie does. You don’t even believe me and you’re even suspecting me now. Do you think you’re really my biological mother? I think you might have gotten me as a free gift!”

  She was still upset. She might not have spent a long time with her aunt, but she had paid close attention during her aunt’s lessons. Jiajia was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to be a good role model to her three siblings if she didn’t study well. Then, her aunt might not even let her play with them anymore. Her mom didn’t matter. Her aunt and her three younger siblings were more important.

  To Jiajia, her mom, Zhai Hua, was nowhere as important as the triplets. As a result, Jiajia was more willing to listen to Qiao Nan than Zhai Hua.