Chapter 6: Come, Come, The Deal Is Sealed

Chapter 6: Come on, place your bets now

Seeing several stall girls and the shop owner’s wife pick up spoken English so quickly left Li Jingkun deeply impressed.

Inspired and influenced by them, he sought their advice and began to relearn English.

Of course, one reason was practical: mastering spoken English could help him sell more devices and earn more money.

In fact, once you have people to practice with and the right environment, speaking English isn’t difficult; he had previously overestimated its complexity. He had to adopt the mindset of a stall girl: selling one more device means earning a few hundred more yuan—so why not learn it?

In the following years, he consciously strengthened this skill, learning many other conversational English scenarios and even took the IELTS exam twice to test himself. The first time he scored 6.5, and two years later he improved to 7.5.

He didn’t take it again, partly because the exams were expensive—roughly 2,000 yuan each time.

...

Unexpectedly, returning to school gave him a chance to show off his English in class.

His English teacher was even more delighted and encouraged him to practice with her more often.

Actually, spoken English was a requirement for English teachers. She and her classmates used to practice dialogues frequently, and naturally now she wanted to continue whenever possible. After all, without continuous practice, skills would decline.

But since it was still class time, the teacher couldn’t chat endlessly, so their conversation ended quickly.

After class, as expected, many familiar classmates gathered around Li Jingkun’s desk, asking him all sorts of questions.

However, it was mostly limited to people close to him; most others, especially some girls, just watched from a distance.

“My method is simply listening and speaking a lot. I also often listen to English songs and sometimes go to internet cafes to watch foreign movies. Some films I’ve watched over twenty times, but I keep watching them to practice English. Later on, I watch without Chinese subtitles.”

Actually, recently he had indeed been watching—not in internet cafes, but with his eyes closed, directly in his mind. His brain held memories spanning more than ten years and 1.5 terabytes of content; by accessing parts of it, he could watch for a long time without using power—though it did require mental effort.

Most students here were diligent and rarely went to internet cafes, especially the girls—most of whom had never been. Nowadays, internet cafes were seen mostly as places for gaming; few realized they could also be used for watching movies to learn English.

Still, even in years to come, those who go to internet cafes to watch movies for English practice would be considered odd.

But since Li Jingkun was still a middle schooler without a personal computer, he had no choice but to say he watched foreign films at internet cafes.

Unexpectedly, his words sparked interest. Within two weeks, some classmates went to internet cafes to watch movies online; others even bought computers for home.

But Zhou Zhiqin was different—his family had long owned a computer.

“What movies do you watch? Recommend some,” Zhou Zhiqin approached.

Although they hadn’t talked much recently, being in the same class again meant frequent encounters and conversations.

Li Jingkun was now aware that in his previous life, Zhou Zhiqin had somewhat looked down on him—not exactly disdain, but a certain contempt for those who didn’t study hard.

No matter how close, such feelings occasionally slipped out in words and actions.

Many outstanding people share this “flaw.”

That’s why the smartest and most talented often appear arrogant or even condescending; their sense of superiority is built through constant comparison and success.

“I can’t help it, I’m always the best,” naturally breeds some disdain for others.

But it didn’t matter—they were now both striving upward, starting from a higher point than anyone else.

Look, even he’s asking me for advice now, right?

“Deep blue, add some color!”

“‘A Beautiful Mind,’ ‘Titanic’—those are fine. Classic American old films are good. And you don’t need to watch too many; pick one or two and watch them repeatedly, even twenty times.

Early on, watch with subtitles. Later, try without subtitles until you understand everything before moving on. But practicing speaking regularly is also important.”

Still, Zhou Zhiqin possessed something Li Jingkun lacked: a much stronger grammar foundation, which explained why Li Jingkun had never surpassed him in scores.

Since Zhou Zhiqin wanted to learn spoken English from Li Jingkun, he also wanted to improve his grammar.

Only by improving overall exam results could he achieve his goal of entering the city’s top high school.

His current scores were clearly just barely adequate.

So, after school, the two often practiced speaking and worked on test questions in the classroom.

This was one difference between the honors class and the regular class: after school, most students in the regular class left quickly, while most in the honors class stayed behind.

Although it was said they were practicing speaking, it wasn’t just the two of them; others joined in, though their progress was slower due to weaker foundations.

By midterms, Li Jingkun had entered the class’s top ten, ranking first in Chinese, history, and biology.

His English had improved as well, though Zhou Zhiqin still led.

“Do you believe I’ll score higher than you on the next English test?”

“No,” Zhou Zhiqin shook his head. He spent much time on English and was used to taking first place. He didn’t believe Li Jingkun could beat him.

“Wanna make it a bet?”

“Bet on what?”

“The loser treats the winner to breakfast.”

“Rice noodle rolls?”

“Deal. Rice noodle rolls for a week. The loser buys them every morning for a week.”

“Is the stake that high?”

“Is it?”

Students often bet on scores, but usually only the top performers dared to. Those with lower grades were embarrassed to compete.

Zhou Zhiqin had been betting with several classmates, both boys and girls, but rarely on English. Not because their English was worse, but because those peers didn’t like betting.

Now that Li Jingkun wanted to bet on English, Zhou Zhiqin suddenly felt some pressure—soon replaced by his usual confidence. Besides, the little wager meant nothing to him, so the bet was on.

The news spread quickly, and many were curious about the outcome.

After all, Li Jingkun was now one of the class’s popular idols.

Everyone knew he was, besides Zhou Zhiqin, the teacher’s favorite English student.

When the exam results came out, the outcome was a surprise.

Neither Zhou Zhiqin nor Li Jingkun won—they tied!

Both scored 97, while first place went to a girl who scored 98!

Li Jingkun then did something amusing: he told the girl not to eat breakfast in the mornings that week, because he and Zhou Zhiqin would take turns buying her rice noodle rolls.

The girl blushed deeply and insisted she didn’t need it.

But in the end, the two still took turns buying her breakfast for a week.

The whole class knew about it, and teachers sometimes joked about it in class.

Afterwards, gambling became even more popular in the class, with most students placing bets. Li Jingkun bet with several at once and was competing alongside Zhou Zhiqin and that girl.

Teachers didn’t forbid this and sometimes even asked about their “betting situation.”

Thus, the class’s academic atmosphere soared to unprecedented heights.

By the end of the semester, overall grades had improved.

After the second semester of ninth grade, Li Jingkun’s grades stabilized in the top three, and he had twice taken first place in English.

Before long, the high school entrance exam arrived.

(End of chapter)