Sword & Spear - A Sushang Fanfic

6: Exemplary grades, Poor timing - Reader's side

Chapter art by 这样: https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/8515696

"Ah, you made another spelling error here." I pointed out a sentence as I corrected an error Sushang had made while writing. "It should be 'its' and not 'it's' with the apostrophe when describing a thing." Sushang squinted as she tried to make sense of what I had just said, then looked up at me with helplessness in her eyes. Smiling patiently, I continued explaining to her where she had made mistakes in her sentences.

After what seemed to be an hour of corrections and explanations, Sushang sighed as she placed her arms on the table and buried her face into them.

"It's over, I'm done for." She spoke tiredly, her voice muffled. "How am I supposed to write to my parents and tell them I passed the Lyceum Language Test?"

A few days prior to these events, Sushang came knocking on my bunk's door. She approached me sheepishly and explained how she had written a letter to her parents, talking about her growth in the Luofu, how her mastery of the sword had gotten better and the friends she had made, particularly about me.

She showed me her parents' reply. The letter started rather positively, about how they missed her along with the assurance that they were doing just fine, then took on a more concerned tone as they told her to practice some discernment about who she made friends with. The next part was concerning how the lyceum assessments period was coming up, along with some subtle pressure that they were 'eager to hear how she would fare' and the various events of how she had slept through one of her language tests in the past, resulting in her flunking. The letter then slowly descended into nagging and a line at the bottom bringing up how there were still writing errors in her letter.

"And so I was thinking... perhaps you'd help if I asked you to tutor me?" She looked at me with puppy eyes and she twiddled her thumbs as she pleaded for my help, grinning nervously. Seeing how she was going out of her way to even act a little cuter to get my help, I found myself agreeing to help without much resistance.

And so began our tutoring sessions, where once a week when we had free time together, we would go to a small library close to the Divination Commission that I had used to study for my lyceum tests, which brings us back to the events of the present. It was there I found out that Sushang was studying for the Language Proficiency Lyceum Assessment meant for people quite a few years younger than her.

"Well, we still have a while before the assessment period. Let's just keep at it for a little while more, shall we?" I encouraged and gave her a pat on the back. She took a deep breath to steel herself once more as she continued practising.

This cycle continued a few more times in the next hour as she agonized over learning the language - how so many words sounded the same in her head, but with a single letter or apostrophe added caused the intention to change or have a completely different meaning, or why some words stayed the same despite being in different tenses. After completing a few exercises, it seemed that her brain had sustained an information overload, causing her to become rather catatonic for the rest of the day.

A week passed and it was once more time for our usual tutoring sessions. It seemed Sushang had been studying hard as the assessment date began to draw close, and her proficiency had indeed risen by a great amount compared to when we had first started our tutoring sessions, though she did seem a little more worn out than usual. After our tutoring session that day, once again going into a semi-catatonic state, she rested her head on the table and dozed off.

"Didn't get enough sleep again? You really have to start taking care of yourself." I sighed worriedly as I began to tidy up the table. Sushang had been working very hard, but almost anyone could feel she was burning herself out from how hard she was working to balance both her Cloud Knight Patrols and her studies.

Her expression was one at peace. Seeing how peaceful she was, I could not help but reach out and poke her cheek gently with a finger. Her cheek was not fat but had some substance to them, making them firm yet squishy to the touch, and bounced back to their original form when I removed my finger. I continued to observe her face lovingly, noticing her subtle facial features - how fair her skin was, her thin and tidy eyebrows, how long her eyelashes were, her dainty nose and her slightly parted lips.

I reached out once more and placed a finger on her thin, peachy lips. They were unchapped, luscious and felt delicate to the touch. As if to display how tired she was, a tiny glob of drool had formed at the edge of her mouth. I slid my finger across her lips and wiped it off and as I did invasive, perverted thoughts crossed my mind for a second before I held myself back and cleaned it off with a small piece of tissue. While my pure, innocent love for her urged me to protect her, but seeing her sleeping in such a comfortable and defenceless state stirred the carnal desires in my heart as a man. I sighed disappointingly at myself as I suppressed the desire for the latter.

The day of the assessment had come. Sushang insisted I accompany her to the venue, saying she required my 'moral support' or she would be too nervous to focus, seeing as she was perhaps the oldest candidate taking the assessment. The assessment lasted a couple of hours, and she came out with a look of relief on her face. But her worries were not over, as with the speed and power of the jade abacus, results could be announced just hours after the assessment was concluded.

The two of us sat in the results waiting room, her contagious nervousness causing me to feel the same. Perhaps she wanted some form of assurance, but when I held her hand, she grasped it back firmly, causing me to recall the night after the time spent at Golden Willow Week, making me feel a little embarrassed.

"Li Sushang." A voice announced. She took a deep breath and approached the counter. She took the envelope that held her results, took my hand and walked out of the results hall and brought me to a quiet secluded corner, with the reasoning that she did not want anyone else seeing her cry should she have failed the test once more. She braced herself, opened the envelope and slipped out the piece of paper which was her result sheet. Her eyes widened and a bright smile formed on her face, and in the spur of the moment, in all her excitement and happiness, she threw her arms around me and pulled me into a big embrace.

"I passed! I passed! I passed!" She happily cried I held her in my arms. I could her voice choking up and felt a tear of joy trickling down her cheek. But that joy would be short-lived as the lack of rest on top of the feeling of sudden relief rushed over her like a tsunami, causing her legs to give way.

Catching her in my arms I yelled as she slipped into unconsciousness, "Sushang? Sushang!" As I began to worry about what to do, it seemed that my yelling had caught the attention of someone passing by, and as they approached what followed was a mixture of relief that help had arrived and dread, for the help that had arrived meant only a few implications.

"Ten-Lords Commission. Take her and follow me."