Yang Ming and Chen Mengyan came out of the police station. By this point, they were pretty familiar with Xiao Qing.
“Both of you, thank you so much!” Xiao Qing said it sincerely this time. “There was a passport that I had just obtained in my bag. It would have been really troublesome if it had been stolen!”
“Passport?” Yang Ming remembered seeing her pick up a few books on the Korean language in the bookstore before and he asked, “Are you going to Korea?”
“Yeah, in a few days, I will be attending the International Korean Chinese University Student Networking Event. Hehe, so I thought about sharpening up my Korean language.” Xiao Qing smiled.
“University student networking event? Elder sister, are you a university student? Oh, you must be a PhD student!” Chen Mengyan asked curiously. However, considering Xiao Qing’s age, she should be a PhD student!
“Me? PhD student? Hehe, do I look that young? I am the teacher who’s leading the team!” Xiao Qing gave Yang Ming a glare, obviously still annoyed at being called a “big mama”.
Yang Ming decided to pretend that he didn’t hear it and didn’t bother her about it. Instead, Chen Mengyan chatted a little longer with her and then they parted ways.
Xiao Qing dared not take the bus anymore, therefore, she hailed a taxi and departed. However, Yang Ming and Chen Mengyan went back to the bus stop and waited for the next bus.
At night, Yang Ming took out the books he bought during the day. The books about sign language were temporarily placed on the bookshelf. He took out one of the books about lip-reading and started reading it.
Since the learning materials were at a beginner’s level, all the content inside was about the shape of the mouth. It didn’t take long for Yang Ming to read through all of them. Those that he couldn’t understand at the start, he could understand it easily just by looking at the mirror and shaping his mouth.
Actually, the toughest part about lip-reading was eyesight. If his eyes were not able to capture the image quick enough, regardless of how prevalent the knowledge of lip shape he possessed, it wouldn’t be practical at all! However, for Yang Ming, it was nice that he had really good eyesight. Regardless of how far away the speaker was, as long as he wanted to look at the mouth, he could see it clearly.
The learning materials weren’t thick and there wasn’t anything too deep inside. It was just basically a few mouth shapes about different pronunciations! Even though the Chinese language is broad and profound, the pronunciation is formed with twenty-six phonetic alphabets which combined into about four hundred pronunciations!
Therefore, as long as that was memorized, all that was left was just the practical experience.
Memorization wasn’t a challenge for Yang Ming. He naturally had a good memory, moreover, now it was something that he was interested in. How could he not learn it quickly?
In about an hour, Yang Ming had finished reading the first chapter. He found out that the learning materials also had practice questions, so he went to get the DVD immediately.
However, once he took it in his hand and looked at it in detail, he was disheartened. Damn! It’s a computer CD! On the top of the CD, there was fine print: For Windows XP/Vista!
Yang Ming’s living condition at home wasn’t that good so he never bought a computer. It looks like he encountered a bottleneck! Actually, Yang Ming had wanted to buy a computer for a while. It was just that previously he had poor exam results. His parents were afraid that if he bought a computer and got indulged in playing games then he wouldn’t study much! This time, since he had pretty good exam results, his parents most likely would agree to it.
As he thought about this, he came to the living room. Both of his parents were watching television. When they saw Yang Ming come, Father Yang said immediately, “Big Ming, how’s everything? You must be quite tired from studying. Come out and relax!”
Yang Ming felt some remorse. Even though he was learning something just now, he wasn’t studying for his examination.
“Dad, I want a computer.” Yang Ming hesitated a while and said, “This way I could go online to understand the latest tips about our exam, and I could also download some other state’s model questions!”
Once he said this, he suddenly felt like some of his dignity was gone. The real reason he wanted to buy a computer was to learn about lip-reading in addition to picking up girls online.
However, Father Yang thought that whatever that he said was true! In this period of time, all of his improvements were seen in Father Yang’s eyes. Therefore, once Yang Ming voiced out his request, Father Yang nodded his head without hesitation. “Sure, I agree! Since I have also gotten my lottery reward, I will take you to buy one this weekend!”
Looking at how supportive Father Yang was to him, Yang Ming didn’t really know what to say! If Father Yang knew that he bought the computer for another purpose, Yang Ming wasn’t sure whether his father would hurt him or not. However, Yang Ming didn’t have any other choice. He needed to learn lip-reading as soon as he could. Last time, Wang Zhitao was able to take advantage of him because he did not know how to read lips.
Yang Ming no longer wanted to make the same mistake. Therefore, he could only make up a lie which went against his conscience. However, Yang Ming also swore that he would enter Song Jiang City Industry University and make his parents proud.
After the exam results were announced, everyone who knew Yang Ming was astonished. Even Yang Ming himself was surprised! Did he cheat a bit too much? It seemed like he should have kept a lower profile.
With a total score of 703, he was ranked number nine in the whole school! Chen Mengyan only got a total score of 692! Zhao Ying looked at Yang Ming’s result and didn’t really know what to say! Although during this time period she had seen Yang Ming’s effort, didn’t this form of achievement seem a bit out of proportion?
There were so many others who worked harder than Yang Ming, but none of them had the progress as prominent as his.
“Yang Ming, come to my office for a bit!” Class Teacher Li said to Yang Ming.
Therefore, Yang Ming left the classroom surrounded by some false praise. There were some students who were jealous; some were in awe, but of course, many of them doubted it! Yang Ming’s original results were seen by everyone before. This time, though, he had suddenly turned into a top student. How could the others not be doubtful?
“Yang Ming, did your universe explode? From a C grade to a B grade?” Zhang Bing showed an unbelievable expression. “How did you copy it? Teach me next time!”
“Go to hell! Don’t you see that I have the highest exam result in the whole class? Who did I copy it from?” Even though Yang Ming copied from others, he couldn’t just share how he did it!
Of course, there was still someone who was genuinely happy and wanted to congratulate him. This person was Chen Mengyan.
Chen Mengyan’s mood was a bit more complicated. At the moment she saw his result, the first thought that came into her mind was Yang Ming’s “number one pursuer”. Only the second thought was happiness for Yang Ming.
Since when had she started to notice these kinds of things? Chen Mengyan sighed and shook her head.