My College Teacher is My Children's Mom-Chapter 644: Practice Calligraphy Well!

After Xiaobao finished filming her movie, various businesses came to her for endorsements. Their calculations were more or less the same. They estimated that after the movie’s release, Xiaobao’s value would skyrocket, and by then, they probably couldn’t afford her.

Xiaobao was the spokesperson for the Lin family’s children’s clothing brand, and its sales had soared over the years. Therefore, Lin Feng would not let Xiaobao endorse other children’s clothing brands. She was also the spokesperson for the Second Treasure’s jewelry brand’s children’s line, and its sales had multiplied several times in the last few months. Xiaobao also endorsed other products like dairy products, backpacks, and school supplies. As her manager, Lin Feng controlled these endorsements one by one, ensuring the quality was up to standard before proceeding. He had to be responsible for his own child and for the parents of the children who bought the products.

Xiaobao didn’t concern herself with these matters; she was busy catching up on the schoolwork she had fallen behind on. It was only the first grade, so the curriculum wasn’t that heavy, and the children still loved to play. As a public figure, Xiaobao received a lot of attention, and naturally, so did her academic performance. Since her older siblings were all academic aces, everyone assumed that Xiaobao was one, too.

Thanks to the Second Treasure, the fact that Xiaobao was an academic slacker became widely known. Now, at school, the news had already spread.

Just today, Teacher Zhao was distributing the math test papers. The majority of the scores were between ninety and one hundred, and the lowest score heard so far was eighty-five. The papers were handed out one by one, and Xiaobao wasn’t really concerned about her test score. However, as she waited and waited, her paper never came. She couldn’t help but peer at the stack of papers in the teacher’s hand. In the end, only Xiaobao’s test was left.

Teacher Zhao smiled faintly. "Xiaobao did quite well this time. Don’t leave after class; I have a favor to ask of you."

Everyone took her word for it. Even Xiaobao believed she had done quite well.

After the last class of the day ended, Teacher Zhao waited until the students had all left one after another before pulling out Xiaobao’s test paper, which had a score of sixty-five.

Xiaobao was quite shocked. She thought she had done really well and felt she had performed decently.

"Look at this picture," Teacher Zhao said, pointing. "Here are three monkeys, plus two monkeys, and then one monkey walks away! Why did you write 5 - 2 + 1?"

"Teacher, look," Xiaobao said, blinking her big eyes. "These two monkeys’ eyes are looking the other way, which means they’re about to leave! And this monkey’s eyes are looking toward the three monkeys in the middle, which means it’s coming to join them."

The picture was simple. There was a small hill with three monkeys standing on it. To the left were two monkeys holding a vine, and to the right was a single monkey. The only thing was, the monkeys’ gazes were drawn differently.

Xiaobao’s answer was clearly not what Teacher Zhao had expected, and she paused for a moment. Then, she stared at the drawing on the test paper, looking from left to right, and began to doubt herself. According to Xiaobao’s interpretation, the drawing could indeed have that meaning. Based on their eyes, those two little monkeys do look like they’re leaving the original group. If that’s the case, it would be 5 - 2...

Teacher Zhao nodded. "Hmm, now that you mention it, that does seem right! I’ll change your score." Then she added, "Now, solve this problem for me again."

Only then did Xiaobao realize she had calculated it wrong.

"Go home and write this problem out ten times," Teacher Zhao instructed her. She pointed to another question. "Xiao Ming is nine years old today. How old will he be in three years? Why did you write fifteen?"

"Well, three years from now, Xiao Ming could be fifteen!" Xiaobao said matter-of-factly. "He could even be twenty."

Teacher Zhao was a bit confused. She reread the question and noticed the key word was "after." Three years *after* he is nine, Xiao Ming’s age should be greater than twelve. Any number after that is theoretically possible. If the question had been "Xiao Ming is nine years old today, how old will he be three years *from today*?" it would be different. But first graders weren’t known for being sticklers for precise language. Teacher Zhao didn’t know whether to call Xiaobao smart or dense.

Apart from these two major questions, the rest of her mistakes were due to carelessness.

The Second Treasure waited outside the school for a while before finally seeing Xiaobao come out. "Why are you so late? I was just about to call the teacher."

Xiaobao hung her head, dejected. "My test score wasn’t very good today. Teacher Zhao made me stay behind to correct my paper."

The Second Treasure patted her little hair bun and said with a smile, "Don’t worry about it. Grades don’t define you!"

After being comforted for a bit, the little girl didn’t take her grades to heart and went home cheerfully for dinner.

As soon as Xiaobao left, the teachers who had finished their meals in the office returned one after another. Teacher Zhao told them about Xiaobao’s test paper.

"Wow, that little girl has quite a nimble mind. Her thinking is very unique."

"Based on what you’re saying, 5 - 2 + 1 does seem justifiable... no problem there!"

"The kid is just a bit careless. Otherwise, she’s actually quite bright."

"If she can get rid of that bad habit of being careless, she should improve a lot."

Meanwhile, the language arts teacher was grading papers. She taught two classes and had just gotten to Xiaobao’s test. She exclaimed, "Good heavens! I don’t even need to see the name. I know whose paper this is just by the handwriting!"

Another teacher leaned over and burst into laughter. "This is definitely Xiaobao’s paper."

Not only did Xiaobao have messy handwriting, but she also had a bad habit she couldn’t break. She would use a pencil until it was completely blunt but would never sharpen it. At home, she relied on her family; at school, she depended on her deskmate to sharpen her pencils. Her pencil case had over a dozen pencils, and she had worn every single one down to a nub.

The character-writing grids were huge, yet they still couldn’t contain her writing. The language arts teacher felt a knot in her stomach just looking at it. Technically, she should deduct points for sloppiness, but the characters themselves weren’t wrong. In the end, she deducted one point. Then there was the sentence-composition section. One of her sentences sprawled all the way to the other side of the page, taking up far too much space!

The language arts teacher’s expression was a sight to behold. "Look at this. I don’t even know if I should laugh."

Xiaobao certainly brought a lot of entertainment to the teachers’ office. A few of them gathered around, just in time to see a spot where Xiaobao had apparently erased so hard she had torn the paper. She had found another piece of paper, written the answer on it, and neatly taped it over the hole. The teachers couldn’t help but laugh.

Xiaobao was better at language arts than math, but her handwriting was atrocious. For characters with many strokes, she would write them so broken and disjointed they looked like they were falling apart. For others, she’d cram the strokes so tightly together that they looked right at a glance, but on closer inspection, they were all wrong. Characters with fewer strokes were more legible, but that didn’t stop them from being ugly.

The final question was a picture composition. Xiaobao had written just one sentence: "Today, I took my little dog out to chase butterflies and have a race, and we had a lot of fun!" A long row of empty text boxes followed, waiting to be filled. The language arts teacher thought it over and gave her eight points.

Finally, after finishing with Xiaobao’s test, the language arts teacher leaned back heavily in her chair. She was a new teacher and had heard from Teacher Zhao that the four Treasures were all academic geniuses, so she assumed Xiaobao would be no different. She had thought Xiaobao would be a student she wouldn’t have to worry about. But as it turned out...

She picked up the next test paper. It was pristine, the handwriting was neat, and the picture composition was completely filled out.

In the afternoon, the language arts tests were handed back. The teacher told Xiaobao that for the next picture composition, she couldn’t just write one sentence. The time, characters, and location all had to be clearly described.

The language arts teacher pursed her lips. "And your handwriting, Xiaobao... could you please practice it a little and make it prettier?" Her tone was practically begging.

This made Xiaobao feel quite embarrassed. And so, she made a decision: she would practice her handwriting!

Having made up her mind, she went straight to Lin Feng when she got home that afternoon and proactively asked to enroll in a class. Lin Feng was surprised and wanted to know what had happened that day to cause such a momentous decision.

Xiaobao rested her chin in her hands and perfectly mimicked her language arts teacher’s pleading tone. "Xiaobao, you should really work on your handwriting!"

Lin Feng chuckled at her adorable impression. He sat down and asked, "So, do you really want to write better, or are you only doing this because your teacher asked you to?"

Xiaobao thought for a moment. "Both."

Lin Feng smiled slightly. "Alright. Since you’ve made your decision, Dad will find you a teacher."

First-grade homework was minimal, and she usually finished it in the classroom before school ended. With several hours left before bedtime, Lin Feng, after making some inquiries, found a first-grade calligraphy copybook for Xiaobao.

Xiaobao took out her pencil and began tracing the characters at the dining table.