After Flirting with a Pedantic Tutor

Delicate, flirtatious beauty VS genuinely old-fashioned, genuinely reserved, secretly seductive and handsome tutor She thinks she's flirting with a stuffy old sheep, but it turns out her tutor has another side. Everyone knows the tutor is old-fashioned and rigid, keeps strict rules, and cares deeply about propriety between men and women. He's also as taciturn as a closed book, and terribly dull. No wonder he's twenty-five and still all alone. Qiao An, however, thinks this handsome, honest man is just her type. During lessons, Qiao An, the only female student, is seated in a corner. While the other students are afraid of drawing the tutor's attention, Qiao An secretly hooks a finger into his coat as he passes. She watches his brow furrow and laughs like a tinkling bell. During a dictation exercise, everyone else writes furiously while Qiao An draws a little comic on her paper. Afraid the tutor won't understand, she adds a note: Care to meet for drinks at the little tavern east of town at midnight? When the grades come in, everyone else happily heads home to show their families, while Qiao An alone is kept behind. The tutor corners her with his ruler. Her big, dark eyes brim with tears as she murmurs, aggrieved, "If you don't like me, you don't have to hit me!" Hou Jian: ...Is this really about whether I like you? He takes out her test and points to the dense line of tiny writing at the bottom, his face stern. "Tell me, what is this supposed to say?" In crooked little handwriting, a poem reads: "The mountain has trees, and the trees have branches. I love you, but you don't know." At first, he thinks this student is hopelessly stupid, incorrigibly mischievous, and beyond saving. Later, all he wants is to be the ladder that lets her climb to the clouds and soar ever higher. Most importantly, she should stop writing him love poems in handwriting that looks like a line of caterpillars. He almost couldn't read the first one. Theme: The more restrained and self-disciplined a man is, the more sincere and passionate he becomes once he falls in love.