The next day, after school, at the Service Club.
Looking at Yukinoshita Yukino, who, as always, had arrived earlier than him, Tanaka Masao couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
"Is this a game refresh mechanic? After school, Yukinoshita Yukino instantly appears in the Service Club."
"Good afternoon, Xuezhixia Classmate."
"Good afternoon."
Yukinoshita Yukino nodded in response and took out a piece of paper from her bag.
"This is a test paper I prepared for you. There are three questions for each subject, and you have one hour to answer them."
Tanaka Masao took the test paper; the questions on it were all written by Yukinoshita Yukino herself.
Looking at the delicate handwriting, Tanaka Masao's mind conjured an image of Yukinoshita Yukino staying up late last night, flipping through books, diligently preparing questions for him.
Thinking this way, he felt a pang of guilt for playing games with Kashi yesterday, getting carried away, and almost not finishing his homework.
Yukinoshita Yukino was very skilled at creating questions, with three for each subject.
The first question was the simplest, what teachers often called a 'gift question.'
If one couldn't even score on a gift question, there was no point in studying.
The second question was slightly more difficult, but as long as one had studied, they would generally know it.
Answering these questions correctly would ensure a passing grade.
As for the last question, it would be a bit harder, requiring consistent diligence, suitable for a good score of seventy or eighty percent.
As for the highest difficulty, Yukinoshita Yukino did not include such questions; she didn't expect Tanaka Masao to be able to answer them.
…
An hour later.
Yukinoshita Yukino held Tanaka Masao's test paper, her brow furrowing involuntarily.
Tanaka Masao's answers couldn't be called bad; they were just a bit peculiar.
For subjects like mathematics, English, physics, chemistry, and biology, he answered all three questions, which was quite excellent.
However, for subjects like Chinese, history, and civics (politics), his performance was a complete mess.
Holding a Chinese reading comprehension question, she complained,
"Tanaka-kin, can you explain to me why you interpreted the sentence 'The moonlight is beautiful' as expressing the author's homesickness?"
"Uh, is that not right?"
Tanaka Masao stated that the moon, after all, is something that expresses longing, isn't it?
"Then could it be that it expresses the author's sorrow for his country and people, his indignation at not being recognized for his talent? Or perhaps it's a reflection on current society?"
He pulled out another all-purpose formula; this time, it must be correct, right?
Looking at the self-assured Tanaka Masao, Yukinoshita Yukino sighed.
"Tanaka-kin, what on earth is going on in your brain?
This passage describes what the male protagonist says when he and the female protagonist are taking a walk at night, admiring the moon.
Why would you think he's homesick? And what's with the sorrow for his country and people? Why would he think of such things in this atmosphere?"
She didn't even know why such words appeared in Tanaka Masao's mind.
"The male protagonist saying 'The moonlight is beautiful' is him confessing to the female protagonist."
Tanaka Masao blinked, "Why?"
In his previous life, when he did such reading comprehension, he could always link it to national or social issues.
As for such subtle expressions of love, it's not that they didn't exist, but rather that they were almost never seen.
"This is a subtle way of expressing oneself. Compared to directly stating one's affection, such an expression is more beautiful and romantic."
Hearing Yukinoshita Yukino's explanation, Tanaka Masao still didn't quite understand why praising the moonlight would be linked to a confession.
"What if the female protagonist doesn't understand, doesn't grasp what the male protagonist means? If she just says, 'It is quite pretty,' how should the male protagonist respond?"
"You don't need to worry about that, Tanaka-kin. The female protagonist's brain cells aren't as peculiar as yours; she will understand what the male protagonist means."
Yukinoshita Yukino no longer held any expectations for Tanaka Masao's reading comprehension.
"However, what I didn't expect is that your classical Chinese is very good."
Classical Chinese, or ancient Chinese literary language, is also studied here.
Not only that, but they also learn classical poetry, especially Bai Juyi's poems.
This part was categorized by Yukinoshita Yukino as the most difficult, yet Tanaka Masao answered all of it correctly.
Hearing Yukinoshita Yukino's praise, Tanaka Masao felt a bit smug.
"Just a little, just a little."
In his previous life, he had studied classical Chinese for many years, so this level of difficulty was nothing to him now.
"Although your reading comprehension level isn't great, with classical Chinese and other subjects, passing shouldn't be a problem, but…."
Yukinoshita Yukino pointed to the next question and spoke.
"Can you explain this question to me?"
Question: "Please write about a famous general you admire, the reason, and his achievements."
It is well known that Japan highly reveres its Sengoku period.
For example, samurai and generals like Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu are highly admired.
This question could be said to be quite open-ended; just writing anything would be fine.
Logically speaking, this question was no different from a gift question.
But it was this gift question that gave Yukinoshita Yukino a headache.
Because Tanaka Masao's answer was:
"Tetsuya Yamagami.
Reason: He took the enemy general's head from amidst a myriad of troops, the recognized top marksman of the Japanese server.
Achievements: Successfully assassinated the former prime minister."
Tanaka Masao blinked, thinking his answer was excellent.
"What, are his achievements not enough?"
What the heck do you mean his achievements aren't enough?
Does he need to go 8-0 and get a godlike streak for it to count?
Yukinoshita Yukino took a deep breath to maintain her cool and aloof persona.
"Tanaka-kin, if you dared to write something like this on an exam, failing or being called in by the teacher would be minor issues.
In severe cases, you could be expelled or even imprisoned.
Although I don't particularly like the current social system either, such things are best discussed privately; don't bring them out into the open."
"Oh, oh."
Tanaka Masao nodded, indicating that he understood.
"I didn't expect Xuezhixia Classmate's idol to be Tetsuya Yamagami, just like mine."
Yukinoshita Yukino gave Tanaka Masao a glare.
"I really shouldn't trust your reading comprehension ability. How on earth did you come to that conclusion?"
Yukinoshita Yukino believed that even if Tanaka Masao had some emotional intelligence issues and couldn't understand beautiful and romantic words, his mind was definitely not problematic.
His behavior was most likely him being mischievous and joking around.
Yukinoshita Yukino's guess was not wrong.
Tanaka Masao writing about Tetsuya Yamagami indeed had an element of mischief.
Another part of the reason was that he felt those generals and famous commanders in Japanese history were nothing special.
The so-called Sengoku period, to put it plainly, was just one village fighting another.
After all, such a small area was divided into over sixty countries.
A country being able to muster a thousand soldiers could already be considered militarily strong.
It was only after Toyotomi and Tokugawa carried out large-scale unification in the later period that battles on the scale of tens of thousands of people appeared.
However, this scale was dwarfed by Liu Bang attacking Xiang Yu in Xuzhou back then; it was like comparing a small witch to a great one.