Lin Feng cleared his throat.
"Alright, let's start with some basics," he said, his voice calm and steady. "Tingting, can you tell me - what do you find most difficult about English?"
The girl thought for a moment. "Grammar," she said. "I can never remember the rules. And my teacher always says my sentence structure is wrong."
Lin Feng nodded. "That's actually very common. A lot of students struggle with grammar because they try to memorize rules without understanding why those rules exist."
He pulled up a simple document he had prepared earlier and shared his screen.
"Let's start with something simple - subject-verb agreement. Look at this sentence: 'She go to school every day.' Can you tell me what's wrong with it?"
Tingting squinted at the screen. "It should be 'goes,' not 'go.'"
"Exactly. But why should it be 'goes'?"
The girl hesitated. "Because... it's 'she'?"
"Right. When the subject is third person singular - he, she, or it - the verb needs to change. We add an 's' or 'es' to the base verb." He typed out a few more examples. "Now, let's try a few more..."
…
The lesson continued for the next hour.
Lin Feng guided Tingting through various grammar concepts - tenses, articles, prepositions - explaining each one in simple terms and providing plenty of examples. When she got something wrong, he didn't criticize. He simply broke the concept down further and approached it from a different angle.
He was surprised by how naturally it came to him. Perhaps it was because he was mentally forty years old, or perhaps it was because he had spent so much time preparing. Either way, the words flowed smoothly, and Tingting seemed to be following along without too much difficulty.
By the time the hour was up, they had covered more ground than he had expected.
"Alright," Lin Feng said, glancing at the time. "That's the end of today's lesson. You did well, Tingting."
The girl nodded, looking slightly tired but not unhappy.
The mother, who had been silent throughout the entire session, finally spoke up.
"Tingting," she said, turning to her daughter. "What do you think of the teacher?"
Lin Feng felt his heart rate pick up.
Straight to the point, huh? Is this how rich people do things?
Tingting considered the question for a moment.
"His English is nice," she said. "He almost sounds like Dad."
The woman nodded thoughtfully.
Lin Feng blinked, unsure how to interpret that.
Is that... a good thing?
"And the teaching?" the mother pressed.
"He is a little fast…" Tingting admitted. "But I can keep up."
The mother nodded again, then turned to her daughter.
"Alright. You can go now."
Tingting stood and left the frame without another word.
Now it was just Lin Feng and the mother.
Silence hung in the air.
Lin Feng swallowed.
"So..." he began tentatively.
The woman looked at him, her expression unreadable.
Then she smiled - just slightly.
"Alright. Congratulations. You got the job."
…
Lin Feng left the cafe at about half past six.
There were many things going through his mind at the moment.
Well, he had passed the test and was told he had gotten the job. All that was left was to finalize the number of hours he'd be doing and when.
But what he was mostly thinking about was...
[Personal account has been credited with ¥60.00 from account ending in...]
[System account has been credited with ¥60.00]
Well, that.
…
A while later, Lin Feng lay on his bed, staring at the system screen.
[Infinite Money System]
[Total System Balance: ¥475.00]
[Available System Balance: ¥60.00]
[Personal Balance: ¥2,675.00]
It really worked.
He had been so excited that he had rushed back to the dorm just to check it out more calmly - to confirm he wasn't dreaming.
He quickly transferred the 60 yuan back into his personal account so it wouldn't disappear into the abyss after midnight.
He smiled.
Now he was earning 475 yuan a day. That was about 14,000 yuan a month.
And he'd be earning even more soon.
Speaking of, he took his phone out and looked at the message he had received from Madam Zhao - Tingting's mother.
She had provided him with a few options for when he would be teaching, asking him to pick. The available times ranged from 5 pm all the way to 10 pm.
He didn't want to take the late hours. The campus gates would be locked at 10, and he wouldn't be able to get back in. Spending money to stay out overnight would be such a waste.
With that in mind, he decided to take the 5 pm to 7 pm slot.
That's right. He would be teaching for two hours, so he would be making 120 yuan a day.
As for weekends, he decided not to teach during those days. He needed time to take breaks and focus on his own studies.
His eyes widened after he submitted the details.
[Personal account has been credited with ¥15.00 from account ending in...]
[System account has been credited with ¥15.00]
A message came from Madam Zhao.
She explained that she had recorded the previous session and shown it to her husband. He was quite pleased and had decided to raise Lin Feng's rate to 75 yuan per hour.
Lin Feng thanked her and asked her to pass along his gratitude to her husband as well.
She said she definitely would.
Then she added something else.
"By the way, my husband seems to have bragged about you to some of his friends. They seemed interested in your services as well. What do you think?"
Lin Feng stared at the message, deep in thought.
From her tone, she didn't seem very happy about this.
Well, he also wasn't, really.
120 yuan a day was already good. Having to add other students would be difficult. While Tingting seemed chill, he didn't know how other students would be. Having to deal with all of them could create problems.
Not to mention, they were all probably children of rich families. They might have some... strange habits.
He sighed and typed out his reply.
It was better to just focus on one student, he wrote. That way, he could teach her better with all his attention on her.
Madam Zhao quickly agreed, telling him that to be honest, she also thought the same thing.
Lin Feng just smiled.
This woman was quite entertaining.
He closed his phone and decided to go to sleep.
…
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open.
He summoned the system and quickly transferred the 15 yuan to his personal account.
He sighed in relief.
Almost forgot about that.
Then he finally closed his eyes and went to sleep.
For real this time.
...
A/N: The novel was rejected by WN lol. Idk if i should delete it. tho I kinda like it, i began writing it last month and kinda like the slow feel compared to my other novels. Maybe i'll transfer it to patreon or just nuke it 😭