A Young Woman's Heart

"Impressive... Or perhaps you didn't go to the band room much for the next month, which is why you managed to catch up on your grades?"

"No—! I was just a little more serious!" Mo Xueyao tried her best to explain. "Going to the band room won't affect my grades much."

"What's wrong? I'm not going to stop you from continuing in the band," Xuan Anyi said with a light laugh, covering her mouth. "I'm not your mother, I wouldn't say that to you."

"Tch, I'm just stating the facts..." Mo Xueyao curled her lip and looked away.

It seemed that as soon as Mo Xueyao and her group arrived, the others followed suit, as if they had caught wind of it. Those who arrived early were mostly girls—except for Mr. Xue and Duanmu Ji.

Duanmu Ji ranked fifteenth in the class this time, which is not bad. After all, the overall performance of Class Two is quite good, and this ranking is not too low in the grade.

"Awen, Awen, Awen!" Hua Yinyin was the most excited. "Look, I'm in the top ten! Exactly tenth! I can go, right?!"

"Yes, yes, yes..." Ye Wen shook her head helplessly, "But this time you actually made up for the scores in the other subjects, which is a bit unexpected."

"What can we go to?" Cha Li asked curiously.

"Weren't we notified?"

"No—" All the other students shook their heads in unison, except for Mr. Xue.

"Did you only inform Xiaoxue and the class monitor that day, and forget about the others?" Ye Wen smoothed her hair and cleared her throat awkwardly. "It's the top ten this time. They can participate in the summer teaching program. Only people from our class can go. I got it through my efforts."

"Um, Wen, I don't have time during summer vacation," Mo Xiaoxiao said with a somewhat embarrassed smile, standing next to her younger sister.

"It's okay, it's all voluntary. If there aren't enough people, we'll divide them up further, but the maximum is fifteen. If that's still not enough, we'll have to let students from other classes come."

Where can I find opportunities to teach in rural areas?

"The seaside."

"Of course we're going!" Cha Li nodded vigorously, and then pulled Xuan Anyi along, "Auntie, why don't you come too?"

“Sure,” Xuan Anyi replied readily.

"Those who want to participate, stay behind. I'll give you the textbooks later. There are textbooks for grades one through six. Since all the children of all ages will be in the same class, the teaching methods will be a bit different from what we're doing now. We'll talk about that when we get there. You'll know what to do after you experience it." Ye Wen flipped through the roster and ticked off Mo Xueyao and the others' names.

……

Chapter Six: Subject Allocation

At noon, the sun became even more intense.

The classroom curtains were all drawn, because Ye Wen didn't choose to let everyone go to the band room, fearing that students would come to pick up their report cards and she wouldn't be there, so she stayed here instead.

Qiu Yi helped buy boxed lunches, which were left here for the students who were preparing for the meeting to attend the volunteer teaching program.

Students usually don't come around at this time, so Ye Wen gathered everyone together for a meeting while eating.

The scene looked somewhat comical.

In the morning, the top ten students all came to pick up their report cards, but not all of them stayed to participate in the teaching activities a few days later.

Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan are definitely there, and Hua Yinyin will certainly not be left out either.

Wang Jiale originally wanted to participate, but unfortunately her total score only reached fourteenth place. Although her English score was good, it was not much higher than the students ranked higher—in fact, her English score was only the same as Mo Xueyao's.

Besides, if we break the rules for her sake, wouldn't that be unfair to others?

For her, being unable to join in the excitement was incredibly frustrating.

Mo Xueyao also felt a little regretful, but she couldn't say much—she was the last to leave, and her back looked somewhat lonely as she walked away.

The others who remained here were Mr. Xue, Xuan Anyi, and Cha Li.

This is also one of the reasons why Ye Wen disagreed – the teaching staff was already full, and it was even a little difficult to allocate the subjects to be taught.

That's why the order couldn't be arranged so that the top fifteen students could also participate.

Duanmu Ji, who ranked fifteenth, was also rejected.

"Chinese, English, and Math—these three main subjects... are generally allocated to the top three students." Ye Wen swallowed her food, muttering with a headache, "But that makes things a bit troublesome..."

"Hey, Wen! Can we take the same subject together?" Hua Yinyin asked, raising her hand high.

"This might seem a bit chaotic—but it's okay, since there are students from different grades. They can be taught at different times in the same class, and they can help each other. After all, none of you have been teachers before, so having a partner is good."

"Teacher Ye," Mr. Xue asked with a smile, "Are there any physical education classes?"

"some."

"Then I'll go to PE class."

"Oh? Hmm...that's good, and so are art and music."

“I can teach both of these subjects!” Hua Yinyin’s eyes lit up.

"How can you possibly do it all? Wouldn't that leave no room for others?"

"You can do it part-time," Hua Yinyin said with a feigned shy smile, actually showing off how much she knew.

This left Mo Xueyao speechless.

Ye Wen rolled her eyes at her: "No, we can only choose one for now. If there are any teaching assistant positions available, we can assign them to students who want to participate but can't, like Wang Jiale."

“Yes, that’s right! We can save a spot for Lele to come along.” Mo Xueyao quickly nodded. Wang Jiale had begged for so long; if she were Ye Wen, she would have softened long ago.

However, this hope is very slim.

Otherwise, Ye Wen should have said earlier that she would check the arrangements and let her come if there was an opening.

"Then I'll...play music?"

"I thought you would choose Chinese literature." Mo Xueyao was a little surprised.

"We'll leave the Chinese language class to Yaoyao!"

"Hmm, Xiaoyao, Chinese, class monitor, math, is that okay?"

"Ok."

"Anyway, it's just a small trial, and there will be real teachers like us going, so you don't need to worry."

"Don't worry, don't worry, how could I not teach elementary school content well!" Hua Yinyin seemed to have a lot of confidence in Mo Xueyao.

However, Mo Xueyao was unimpressed: "Don't be so sure of yourself..."

"English, is tea alright?"

“Of course, no problem.” Cha Li suddenly raised her voice a little. “By the way, let Lele come along too. Her English is better than mine.”

"Hmm... I'll think about it when I get back. Let's get the assignments done for now." Ye Wen seemed a little hesitant, perhaps because there were some restrictions on this activity in other places.

"Then I can also help Xiaoyao with her classes part-time!" Hua Yinyin's thoughts are always at their most active at times like this.

Ye Wen glanced at her with droopy eyelids, then continued, "The last one is art. Can Xuan Anyi teach it?"

"Art...? I'm definitely not as good as Hua Yinyin."

"It's okay. This art course includes some handicrafts, such as cross-stitch and flower basket weaving. I can teach you anything you know. Art is just one part of it, and elementary school art isn't difficult at all."

"Ah."

"Then you'll be in charge of the art? If there's anything you're not really good at, then ask Hua Yinyin."

"Good."

"Hmph." Hua Yinyin raised her chin smugly, "I am the legendary omnipotent person~!"

This adjective was used by Qiu Yi when explaining Leonardo da Vinci's life in art class.

The subject assignments were now complete, and Ye Wen distributed the teaching materials, which were actually less than she had imagined.

One book per grade, and none of them are very thick.

"It's similar to what we used in elementary school." Mo Xueyao opened a Chinese textbook and started reading. "I thought it would be simpler."

"The content of the exam papers is the same for the middle school and college entrance exams." Ye Wen threw the finished lunchbox into the trash bag, unscrewed the thermos and took a sip of warm water—in the middle of summer, she was actually drinking goji berry and chrysanthemum tea.

"Meet at the school gate at 8:00 AM on July 5th. Bring your bedding, a change of clothes, and anything else you need, like mosquito repellent. But it's okay if you don't bring these; I usually bring them. Don't worry about not having enough space for your luggage. We'll take the RV." Ye Wen blinked and patted Qiu Yi next to her hard. "Hey, this guy's driving. Okay, now you can go home!"

Qiu Yi nodded vigorously and quickly added, "Also, your parents must agree. Of course, we will contact your parents in advance to confirm that they can come."

"Oh right, I almost forgot about this..."

That means we're leaving the day after tomorrow.

She had been really looking forward to it before, but with only five days left before departure, Mo Xueyao felt a little nervous.

Although they were all elementary school students, she was still unsure whether she could be a good teacher.

You should know that she doesn't have much patience for children, unless they are particularly well-behaved.

However, at this age, let alone boys, even girls are probably incredibly mischievous, right?

Those children are not like the daughters of my godfather, who have received a good upbringing. They will probably have all sorts of problems.

Hua Yinyin seemed to be the most confident. The way she walked out of the classroom with her chest out looked just like a rooster crowing on a wall.

After everyone else left, the classroom fell silent again.

Ye Wen, resting her chin on her hand, poked Qiu Yi, who was reading a novel, and asked in a coquettish tone, "Oh dear, what should we do?"

"Two more shouldn't matter, right?"

“It’s fine if their grades are good, but the problem is that their current grades aren’t that great… What if we waste their summer vacation and prevent them from improving their grades? That would be terrible.”

"Hahaha... Pshaw, have you forgotten what happened during our summer vacation? We were just playing around. Unless our parents secretly signed us up for some teacher's class, we definitely wouldn't go to study anything."

"Cough...yes."

"Besides, my family wouldn't agree if I actually hired a tutor or enrolled in extracurricular classes."

"That's right!"

Qiu Yi ruffled her hair: "Tsk tsk, why are you getting dumber and dumber lately?"

"What do you mean you're getting dumber! Don't mess up my hair! I'm just too busy!" Ye Wen playfully punched Qiu Yi's chest, who exaggeratedly covered his chest, his expression as if he had been punched by a heavyweight boxer.

“Wang Jiale can teach English; her English is indeed quite good. Coincidentally, Qianyu also likes her as a student. Hmm… what about Duanmu Ji…”

"A PE teacher, fifty students isn't a lot in class, but if they get rowdy on the playground, fifty can be quite a lot."

"Yes, that's good. We can also have Xiaoxue teach the children some history and broaden their horizons."