TGA Chapter 4

How long does it take for a newcomer to integrate into an unfamiliar group?

The answer varies from person to person. There’s an academic term for it: “breaking the ice.” But no technique could compare to Chu Qianli’s quick and effortless approach. In just one lunch break, she became acquainted with many of the girls in the class and was the center of their casual chatter.

He Shichen watched the chattering girls out of the corner of his eye, feeling a strange mix of emotions. He still needed to figure out Chu Qianli.

Social skills are also an important measure of a person’s abilities. Her background was completely different from the other students, yet she was able to quickly close the gap and build connections, proving she wasn’t someone ordinary.

The bell rang for the next class, and the girls finally dispersed. Tan Muxing picked up his textbooks for the next lesson and, feeling both impressed and a little downcast, said, “You’re really amazing, you get along with everyone so easily.”

Chu Qianli had integrated into the group by lunchtime, while Tan Muxing had remained invisible for the past two years. The comparison made him feel inferior. He thought to himself that his new deskmate probably didn’t lack friends and might soon retract her statement about wanting to be friends with him.

“Is that really impressive?” Chu Qianli followed him out of the classroom since they had a rotating schedule for afternoon classes.

“It’s impressive. Like those characters in anime, the transfer student who comes in and immediately steals the spotlight, completely different from everyone else,” Tan Muxing said with a bitter smile. “I’m probably more like a background character, someone with no standout qualities, ordinary in every way.”

Tan Muxing wanted to be someone as outstanding as He Shichen or as skilled as Chu Qianli, but he felt ordinary, unattractive, and lacking any special talents. He hardly stood out in class, and sometimes he was teased for his body shape and hobbies.

There are so many dazzling individuals in the world, yet he felt he didn’t shine at all. He had grown used to it.

Chu Qianli paused for a moment, then raised an eyebrow, reminding him, “Wake up, your family background is anything but ordinary. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be in this school. Don’t redefine ‘ordinary.’”

This private high school had steep tuition fees, definitely not a place for ordinary families.

Thinking of her own background, Tan Muxing quickly shrugged off his feelings of self-deprecation. He awkwardly scratched his face. “Ah, if you put it that way, you’re right.”

The two of them headed to the chemistry classroom, ready for the next class. Finally, Chu Qianli understood why they had to change classrooms—afternoon classes were all taught in English, and the teacher was a foreigner.

Having studied astrology, Chu Qianli’s English was quite good, but she still found the lesson incomprehensible.

The reason was simple: this class was incredibly difficult, and much harder than anything she’d learned before!

How was this something human beings could even understand?

In her previous life, Chu Qianli had managed to finish her studies just fine, but now, she was struggling to keep up. It was the classic case of “use it or lose it”—her learning speed was painfully slow.

Since afternoon classes involved moving between different classrooms, the teacher called on students in order. Chu Qianli couldn’t afford to sleep like in the morning. She stared at the question on the screen, helplessly shaking her head. “Sorry.”

The other students answered the questions smoothly, but when it came to Chu Qianli, the class came to an awkward halt, and all eyes turned to her.

He Shichen furrowed his brow slightly when he noticed.

The foreign teacher spoke to Chu Qianli in English, kindly encouraging her to give it a try, saying that the question was simple.

Tan Muxing discreetly glanced at her, wrote down the answer on a piece of paper, and silently passed it to her. However, she didn’t look down at the paper.

Chu Qianli simply repeated, “Sorry.”

The teacher looked a little regretful but didn’t press her further, instead moving on to someone else.

“Seriously? This question isn’t hard at all…” someone muttered under their breath. The foreign teacher had been very considerate of the new student, but she couldn’t even answer such a basic question.

“She’s nothing like He Shichen.”

He Shichen was a legendary figure in the grade, and yet, Chu Qianli was completely the opposite.

The students hadn’t really thought much about Chu Qianli’s differences before, but now they remembered her different background. She probably hadn’t been exposed to English-language instruction before and might not even understand the questions. No wonder she kept repeating “sorry.”

Her English skills might not be great. It was rumored that she had grown up in a village and, even more ridiculously, couldn’t read or write well.

Human imagination tends to exaggerate, and now Chu Qianli was being imagined as an illiterate.

During the break, Tan Muxing cautiously asked, “You didn’t learn this before, did you?”

He was worried he might hurt Chu Qianli’s pride. He had heard that she came from a modest background and probably didn’t have access to high-quality educational resources.

Chu Qianli blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry, I’ve misrepresented our village. The high school students there are all better than me.”

That was the harshest criticism her village had ever received. In fact, she had never been a good student at school. Now, returning to He Shichen’s family only made her feel like she was embarrassing the village.

As expected, He Shichen had similar doubts. He frowned and walked over, asking, “Can’t you understand English?”

He still remembered that Chu Qianli had attended school in the village and couldn’t even solve a single step of the problem. He probably just didn’t understand the question.

Chu Qianli froze for a moment: “No, I understand.”

He Shichen noticed her stubbornness and grew even more impatient. He said, seriously: “It’s not shameful if you don’t understand. You can switch to a Chinese-language class. Don’t suffer just to save face.”

He Shichen was worried that she was too sensitive about her pride and didn’t want to be laughed at, which was why she insisted on staying in the English class. The most important thing was to learn the knowledge, and the opinions of others didn’t matter.

Chu Qianli’s tone was sincere: “I understand…”

He Shichen’s expression darkened. He was convinced she was just stubborn, unwilling to switch classes because she didn’t want to be embarrassed, protecting her fragile sense of pride.

He Shichen: “Nonsense…” You just care about your face too much.

The next moment, Chu Qianli broke his assumptions. She stated confidently: “I really understand. I just can’t learn it!”

Chu Qianli: “You can question my intelligence, but don’t question my English.”

After all, she had strong Mercury energy, which gave her a natural aptitude for languages.

He Shichen: “…”

He Shichen was left speechless by her unexpected reply. He shook his head and decided not to waste any more time on her. He turned and left, feeling like he had done enough already.

Tan Muxing, who was accompanying Chu Qianli to change classrooms, kindly suggested, “If the next question comes up, you can look at my answer.”

Chu Qianli didn’t want to waste the whole day pretending to be lost. If the classmates thought she was uneducated, it would ruin her image in class.

Tan Muxing was worried about this. Once someone’s flaws and weaknesses are exposed, the mocking and ridicule follow quickly. He didn’t want to see Chu Qianli go down the same path he had.

Chu Qianli instinctively responded: “Isn’t that cheating?”

Tan Muxing lowered his head in embarrassment, clearly conflicted. “Ah, if you think it’s not appropriate…”

Chu Qianli: “It’s perfectly appropriate, it’s all about participation!”

Tan Muxing: “?” What a refreshingly unusual way of looking at cheating?

Their plan before class seemed fine, but things always change faster than expected. The upcoming physics class was brutal. The foreign teacher immediately assigned a difficult problem, asking the whole class to solve it within the set time.

A celestial motion problem appeared on the screen. He Shichen hesitated for a moment after reading it, then quickly started calculating on paper, trying to break down the complex problem as fast as possible.

Tan Muxing, still trying to help Chu Qianli, looked down and started his own calculations. He then noticed that his deskmate hadn’t moved an inch. He whispered, “Can you at least pretend to try?”

Chu Qianli sat there, completely still. She didn’t even reach for her paper to solve the problem—she was making it way too obvious.

Chu Qianli: “Huh? You haven’t figured it out yet? I can tell you the answer.”

Their whispering caught the teacher’s attention. The physics teacher, now looking much more serious, noticed that Chu Qianli wasn’t solving the problem and sternly asked her why.

Chu Qianli, now calm, answered casually in English: “I’ve already got the answer.”

The moment she finished speaking, the entire class gasped, and even He Shichen, who had been focused on his paper, looked up in disbelief.

Wang Zheng scoffed: “She’s just bluffing, how could she read the problem and solve it so quickly?”

This was a physics problem involving three celestial bodies, complete with a complex diagram to analyze their interactions. Just figuring out the star system in the diagram alone would take time. How could she have glanced at it and claimed to know the answer?

Chu Qianli had performed poorly in chemistry, so no one believed her.

He Shichen, still skeptical, glanced at the half-finished calculations on his paper and looked at her with a dubious expression. He was probably the fastest at calculations in the class, and only Qi Yan from the neighboring class could match him.

The physics teacher, noticing the commotion, waved for Chu Qianli to come up and solve the problem on the board.

Chu Qianli, unperturbed, confidently walked to the front, grabbed the pen, and began writing on the electronic screen, barely pausing to think, as if the answer was already deeply etched in her mind.

Her struggle in chemistry was simple—she was fast with star-related content, but absorbed other knowledge extremely slowly.

What was celestial motion?

It was just the movement of various celestial bodies in the universe. Aren’t stars just moving?

Though many modern astrologers rely on software for charting, in ancient times, astrologers had to rely on their own calculations. If they wanted to solve more complex problems, they had to have strong mathematical and logical skills.

Chu Qianli smoothly finished the problem, and the foreign teacher confirmed her answer as correct, leaving everyone in the room stunned.

Wang Zheng questioned: “She must have done this problem before!”

The foreign teacher, who had previously been displeased with Chu Qianli, now explained in a much friendlier tone: “I’ve modified the numbers in this question, so the answer should not be available online.”

Even if Chu Qianli had encountered a similar problem before, the fact that she solved it so quickly, even with the modified version, was impressive.

He Shichen stared at the scene in disbelief. He just couldn’t understand—how could someone who slept through class have such strong physics skills? Was she a genius?

The foreign teacher, not knowing her background, complimented her in English: “It seems like you learned very solidly at your previous school.”

Chu Qianli, without missing a beat, nodded shamelessly: “Yes, our village has a very strong physics education.”

The whole class was shocked. They never expected her to admit she came from a rural background, and they definitely didn’t expect her former school’s teaching level to be worse than that of a village!

Qiu Qingkong was stunned: “Which village is that? I might go there to study physics.”

He Shichen’s face tightened. He gripped his pen so hard that his knuckles turned white, feeling a sense of unprecedented crisis.

After finishing the problem, Chu Qianli calmly returned to her seat, and soon the break began.

Tan Muxing, having grown accustomed to her random remarks, knew that it had nothing to do with the village’s education. He asked curiously, “Why are you so good at physics?”

Chu Qianli: “I’m an astrologer.”

Tan Muxing looked confused: “What’s the connection? Isn’t astrology about fortune-telling?”

Tan Muxing remembered the scene where she was divining with a deck of cards, and he couldn’t understand how that had anything to do with physics.

Chu Qianli, hearing his misunderstanding, reacted strongly for the first time, looking aggrieved and saying, “It’s not just fortune-telling, astrology is scientific!”

Tan Muxing, with his gentle personality, immediately softened and muttered, “Ah, scientific… using stars to predict fate…”

Tan Muxing really wanted to support her theory unconditionally, but he clearly felt that fortune-telling didn’t fit with science—at least not with the general public’s understanding. It could at best be categorized as metaphysics.

Chu Qianli, like a child stubbornly refusing to admit defeat, tried to defend astrology. She said without thinking, “Science, of course, science! Kepler and Newton were both astrologers, so that’s why I’m so good at physics!”

Tan Muxing, hearing the names of famous scientists, weakly retorted, “Newton’s coffin lid is about to collapse from this…”

He felt like he had inadvertently touched a sensitive spot with Chu Qianli, and now she was getting really anxious.

Chu Qianli snapped, “No way! Don’t believe me? You can look it up online.”

Tan Muxing had no choice but to quietly take out his phone and search. He saw the webpage title “The Lesser-Known Astrologer, Newton,” and was immediately stunned. “It’s actually true…”

Another piece of strange knowledge added to the mix.

Seeing his surprised expression, Chu Qianli’s eyes flashed with a gleam of triumph. She was eager to change the public’s prejudice toward astrology.

Tan Muxing’s worldview had just been greatly shaken. He quickly searched for whether astrology was scientific and found that it was still a topic of debate. Both skeptics and astrologers had their own opinions, much like his and Chu Qianli’s differing views. Even within the community of astrologers, there were contradictions, with all sorts of factions.

Chu Qianli, with great conviction, argued, “There’s nothing in the world that can’t be understood, only things that haven’t been understood yet. Due to historical limitations, people’s knowledge in every era is always limited, but human understanding is constantly expanding and deepening. So, I think to insist that astrology isn’t scientific is too simplistic and dogmatic…”

“…” Tan Muxing listened to an astrologer, who used stars to predict the future, talk about Marxism. He couldn’t help but feel a bit strange. She really had a mix-and-match style.

Fortune-telling or divination might not be shocking, but what was truly surprising was that the person doing the divination also understood Marxist philosophy. Truly, she was keeping up with the times.