This humble Taoist priest wants to take the college entrance exam.

Chapter 48 Today's inspection: Nothing happened.

Morning reading session is over.

Chen Shi'an memorized a total of 538 words.

Aside from the more than 340 words he had already memorized yesterday, he memorized nearly 200 words in just the 40-minute morning reading session.

As his vocabulary rapidly increased, his method of memorizing words directly from English texts resulted in fewer and fewer unfamiliar words encountered in the articles. Taking the seventh-grade English textbook as an example, he no longer needed to use a reading pen to translate and listen to most of the words in the textbook.

Moreover, the speed of memorizing words is getting faster and faster. At the beginning, we memorized words letter by letter, but now we can memorize them in a more convenient way, such as direct spelling, word breaking, and word formation.

However, Chen Shi'an still didn't directly memorize the vocabulary list. Instead, he continued to memorize the text. For him, this was not only a process of memorizing words, but also a process of memorizing the text. Combining the grammar materials given by Wen Zhixia with memorizing the text directly would allow him to further consolidate his vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.

I doubt many people learn English in such a forceful and overwhelming way as he does.

I don't care about this or that, I'll just carry it all for you...

Thinking about what Lin Mengqiu had just said, Chen Shi'an pondered what else he could ask her about English. This problem seemed much more difficult for him than memorizing vocabulary or texts.

The main issue was that Wen Zhixia and Teacher Ye filled in the gaps in his English learning, and he didn't bother to ask her again about things he already knew...

After thinking for a long time, Chen Shi'an finally thought of a place where he could ask her for advice—

"Monitor."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Lin Mengqiu stopped writing, tilted her head slightly, and glanced at him.

"?"

"I have a question about English that I'd like to ask you."

"~~~"

Upon hearing this, the girl's icy expression began to melt. She subtly brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, revealing her delicate little ear, and looked as if she were listening attentively.

"what is the problem?"

"I saw your English test paper yesterday. Your handwriting is really good. I'd like to ask you how you write your English?"

"..."

Lin Mengqiu was stunned for a moment, hesitant to speak, yet still wanting to speak.

no……

I told you that you can ask me if you don't understand anything in English. You should bring your questions or textbook! What kind of nonsense is it to ask me how to write English words?

Or is your friend so amazing that just because you have some materials, you can master all of English? Did your friend even get a higher score than me...?

"this one?"

"Well, my English handwriting is terrible, I'd like to learn from you, class monitor."

"..."

Lin Mengqiu stared at him for a while, and seeing that he looked serious and didn't seem to be joking, the girl lost her temper.

As a foreign language, few people practice English writing as much as they do with Chinese characters.

Chen Shi'an was right. Lin Mengqiu's English handwriting was indeed very beautiful, as if it reflected her own personality. There was no unnecessary ostentation, but she had a kind of elegant and refined style. The spacing between the letters was clear, just like the sense of distance between her and others. She was gentle but had boundaries. The sharp point of the A was as neat as an icicle, and the intertwining of the f and s was as light as a wisp of silk. Especially when you look at her essay pages, the English words on that whole page were so slender and upright, which was pleasing to the eye.

It's time for the morning reading class to end, and people are starting to gather on the playground outside for morning exercises.

Lin Mengqiu was always slow to do morning exercises, and when Chen Shi'an came to ask her a question, it gave her an even more legitimate reason to procrastinate.

She took out her notebook, turned to a blank page, and placed it between the two of them on the table.

"Write down a few words for me to see."

Chen Shi'an moved the notebook over, picked up a pen, and casually wrote a phrase from the textbook: [What rules do we follow?]
To be honest, even without Lin Mengqiu saying it, Chen Shi'an knew that his writing was terrible.

His mind knew how to read, spell, and write, but his hand was unusually stiff when he put pen to paper. Those unfamiliar letters and symbols made him feel like he wasn't writing, but merely copying the images in his mind, and his writing was truly ugly.

"That's about it." Chen Shi'an moved the notebook back in front of her.

"..."

Lin Mengqiu stared at his English words, lost in thought.

It's clear that Chen Shi'an wanted to write in the printed style of a textbook, but the writing was somewhat unsatisfactory...

Your approach to learning English is completely reversed! How can a student who has memorized hundreds of words write English so stiltedly? You've never even written English before!

Lin Mengqiu picked up a pen and wrote a new line of English words below his writing.

The contrast between the two is striking, like a toad and a swan being together.

"Class monitor, your English handwriting is so beautiful, please teach me!"

"~~~" Many classmates and teachers have praised her for her beautiful English, but Lin Mengqiu still feels that it is not as pleasing as the praise from Chen Shi'an, a complete novice.

She took the draft back and brought out a new exercise book specifically for writing English, with each long line divided into four short lines, specifically for standardizing English handwriting.

"You just don't write enough."

As Lin Mengqiu spoke, she wrote in her notebook, "To write English words beautifully, you first need to master the writing of basic strokes, such as A and a..."

As she spoke, Chen Shi'an listened attentively.

The two sat in the middle of the table, each leaning towards the other.

Chen Shi'an's gaze fell on her hands, on her pen, and on the letters she wrote.

Whether it was because she was too fair-skinned or too thin, the skin on the back of her hand was so delicate that you could see the faint veins. The girl's slender fingers held the pen at a perfect height, and despite her soft little hands, the characters she wrote were exceptionally powerful, with clear and upright handwriting and a sharp and natural style.

It is indeed a pleasing thing to see people with beautiful handwriting write.

"The spacing between the letters should be even and consistent, neither too tight nor too loose. You can use reference lines to control the spacing, or if that doesn't work, use a ruler to practice against the horizontal lines..."

"so?"

"Yes, when writing lowercase 'w', you should make a slight hook motion at the beginning and end of the stroke."

Are there different fonts for English letters?

"Generally, there are handwritten fonts, as well as printed fonts, Italian italics, and Gothic fonts, which are only used in art and design."

"You know so much, class monitor."

"~~~"

Lin Mengqiu never imagined that she could find a sense of accomplishment in teaching others to write English words.

She felt relaxed and happy, and only when she came to her senses did she realize that she had unknowingly gotten very close to Chen Shi'an.

How close were they? When she was writing, she could faintly feel the warm breath of him on the back of her hand. When he spoke softly, she could almost hear the resonant sound of his throat and chest. Her elbow was almost touching his arm, and his body temperature wafted through her thin school uniform, mixed with the unique scent of grass and trees in the pine forest after the rain, lingering around her nose...

"Wouldn't this be much better?" Chen Shi'an asked naturally as he turned his head.

Lost in thought, Lin Mengqiu's pupils dilated slightly; his face was almost inches away in her vision. The morning light from the window spilled onto his face, and she could even see the iridescent colors of the mountains in the irises of his eyes.

Lin Mengqiu subtly averted her gaze, her fingertips quietly curling up, her long eyelashes drooping down to conceal the panic in her eyes.

She didn't even hear what Chen Shi'an had just said, only softly 'hmm', and used the excuse of getting a water glass to distance herself from him.

"Anyway..."

The squad leader drinks water.

"Just write and practice more, it's not difficult."

The class monitor put down his water cup and tightened the cap.

"it is good."

Chen Shi'an nodded.

A cold shout suddenly came from outside the classroom—

"Hey you two over there! What are you doing?! What time is it?! Why aren't you down here doing your exercises yet?!"

Lin Mengqiu then realized what time it was. She looked up and around, but there were no other students in the quiet classroom.

Even the corridor outside the classroom was empty, with only the grade director who was patrolling the classrooms standing at the door looking around.

The girl was very quick!

Before Chen Shi'an could even get up, she suddenly stood up and, with her slender figure, squeezed through the gap between the back of Chen Shi'an's chair and the table behind it.

The class monitor, who was always slow during exercises, showed unprecedented speed. By the time Chen Shi'an turned around, she had already run to the classroom door.

"...Oh, it's Mengqiu?"

"..."

Lin Mengqiu ignored the grade director and quickly went downstairs from the stairwell.

"And that student... wait, isn't that Master Chen?"

"I'm sorry, teacher. I was practicing calligraphy and didn't notice the time."

"It's alright, it's alright, go down quickly."

The head of the grade chuckled, his serious expression turning friendly.

Nothing happened during today's inspection.

(End of this chapter)