Chapter 290: Chapter 300: Damn It, I’m Used to Grading Papers Now

He glanced at the red pen and exams laid out on the table, then at his wife’s earnestly inviting gaze. Scholar Quincy took a deep breath and, a few seconds later, resigned himself to his fate, sitting down on the sofa to grade the papers.

’Damn it, I’m used to this by now.’

To use Holly Winslow’s phrase: when one person becomes a teacher, the whole family gets roped into grading papers.

Holly Winslow snuck a peek at him and let out a shameless laugh. She then tried to soothe his wounded, disgruntled heart. "Be a good boy, honey. Finish grading the papers, and there will be plenty of rewards."

Hearing "plenty of rewards," Mortimer Quincy arched an eyebrow. The red pen in his hand started to move faster, as if he didn’t even need to read the questions carefully.

Holly Winslow: "..." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

She was suddenly reminded of something Gabe Chaucer used to say: "In class, a gust of wind could knock them over; after class, not even a dog could catch them."

’As for how that applies here... ahem, you get the idea.’

She tapped the exam under his hand with her red pen. "Quincy the Puppy, grade these seriously. Be careful you don’t break the fragile hearts of our nation’s budding flowers."

Mortimer Quincy tilted his head to look at her and said with a meaningful tone, "Teacher Winslow, don’t question my abilities. Your husband is *very* capable."

Holly Winslow: "..."

She bared her teeth. "Rogue."

Mortimer Quincy said innocently, "Honey, you’re the one with the dirty mind."

In response to Quincy the Rogue turning the accusation back on her, Holly Winslow scoffed, showing her "disdain."

After they had graded four or five exams, Holly Winslow suddenly heard the distinctive, magnetic voice of Mortimer Quincy beside her. "Hm. This one has the same natural talent my wife had back in the day."

Hearing this, Holly Winslow didn’t immediately register what he meant. She leaned over curiously to take a look.

The entire test page had only a single red checkmark.

But the student had shown great effort. They had answered every single question, filling the page with neat handwriting.

If you were grading on presentation alone, ignoring whether the answers were correct, it would have been a perfect score.

"..."

She gritted her teeth. "Quincy the Puppy, what’s that supposed to mean? If you look down on my student, you’re looking down on me."

Mortimer Quincy was so amused his shoulders trembled. He said with a straight face, "I’m complimenting my wife."

"Your pen moves as if guided by a ’spirit’."

Holly Winslow: "..."

She bared her teeth. "Well, I’m far more ’divine’ than you’ll ever be. Don’t be too jealous. I’m a goddess wife, completely out of your league."

"Mm, a goddess wife," Mortimer Quincy nodded, trying to hold back his laughter as he placated his ruffled ’goddess wife’.

’My wife is so weirdly adorable,’ he thought. ’She always says the most astonishing things.’

’Yep, that’s Teacher Winslow for you.’

Holly Winslow, the ’goddess wife’, shamelessly accepted his praise. She chattered on while grading exams, "Quincy the Puppy, my students have already improved a little bit..."

Once the exams were graded, Holly Winslow gathered them into a pile. She began going through them one by one, analyzing her students’ mistakes so she could focus on those key points when she went over the test in class.

The more she looked, the angrier she became. She pinched the bridge of her nose and looked helplessly at Mortimer Quincy. "Honey, I’ve already gone over this question three times."

She circled it in red, resolving to explain it one more time tomorrow.

Seeing her pitiful expression, Mortimer Quincy gave her a "comforting" kiss. "Don’t give up now."

Holly Winslow: "..."

A moment later, her voice was filled with exasperation. "Honey, look at this. The square root of two times the square root of two equals the square root of four."

"Tomorrow, I’ll have to review the rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing square roots."

"Now I completely understand how all my old teachers must have felt looking at my tests."

Listening to his wife’s daily "venting," Mortimer Quincy let out a series of low chuckles. He then lifted his wrist to check his watch. It was already twelve thirty.

’It wasn’t that late, really. As a teacher, Holly Winslow often prepped for her classes this late into the night.’

He said leisurely, "Honey, it’s time for our honeymoon in the bathroom."

Hearing the word "honeymoon," Holly Winslow stared at him. "..."

’Honeymoon, my ass.’

She shook her head. "I’m not interested in any ’honeymoon.’ You can go by yourself. I’ll just go tomorrow morning."

Mortimer Quincy arched an eyebrow. Without wasting any more words, he bent down and swept her up into his arms with practiced ease. "I don’t feel like sleeping with the smell of hot pot all night," he said mildly.

Holly Winslow didn’t resist. She just scoffed, her eyes crinkling into a smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She asked with mock seriousness, "So if I were a piece of shit, you’d find me disgusting?"

Mortimer Quincy: "..."

He chuckled. "Well, that’s certainly an acquired taste."

Before Holly Winslow could respond, he added, "But I happen to love acquired tastes. I’m sure it would be an extraordinary experience."

"Here, let me have a taste."

He lowered his head and kissed her on the lips. "This shit is actually pretty fragrant."

Holly Winslow: "..."

She stared at him with a deadpan expression. "Quincy the Puppy, our marriage is over. It has reached a point of no return."

Mortimer Quincy arched an eyebrow and mimicked her expression, baring his teeth. "I’m at the end of the road, too. So it doesn’t really matter if you turn back or not."

He paused, then added, "Honey, your husband is going to have to ’teach you a lesson’ now. We can settle all our ’new and old scores’ at once."

Holly Winslow: "..."

She huffed. "Just let him try and teach me a lesson. I’ll pluck him clean, and then he’ll be nothing but a featherless rooster."

"Go on, pluck away. Be thorough about it." Mortimer Quincy was utterly unafraid. In fact, he seemed to be looking forward to this ’plucking’ session.

Holly Winslow: "..."

’In the end, there was just no winning against this rogue.’

...

「The next morning」 Holly Winslow had class during fourth and fifth periods.

She handed back the graded exams and said with a faint smile, "Overall, these are much better than last time. That’s very encouraging."

"Don’t be discouraged when you see your scores, everyone. I can see that you’ve put in the effort. Learning is a gradual process, so just keep making steady, step-by-step progress."

Her gaze swept over a girl in the middle of the room. She was the spitting image of the "her" Mortimer Quincy had been talking about—the type who didn’t know the answers but filled the page anyway.

She smiled and decided to use herself as an example. "When I was a freshman in high school, my grades were terrible. I’d be lucky to break 300 points on an exam. That’s much worse than all of you—many of you were already scoring around 400."

"At the time, my husband... ahem, the top student in our class—and I mean a *real* top student, the kind who scored in the 740s on every single test—looked at my paper and told me, ’You know, Holly Winslow, you’re not half bad.’"

"I was so smug when he said that, but my smile vanished the moment I saw his own perfect score. ’Talk about demoralizing,’ I thought at the time."

The tense atmosphere that had filled the classroom as the exams were handed out began to dissipate, and the students all started to laugh.

Holly Winslow smiled and continued, "Everyone has a competitive streak. After that, I started studying hard and really paying attention in class, always wondering when I’d finally be able to surpass him."

"As it turned out, the top student in our class never gave me the chance."

The class broke into laughter again.

Holly Winslow quickly added, "But I wasn’t so bad myself. I managed to squeak by and rank just one spot below him."

"The reason I’m telling you this is to show you that consistent hard work will always pay off. The progress might feel slow, but you just have to be patient and keep trying."

"A temporary setback doesn’t mean anything. When you’re lagging behind, you have to learn how to push forward."

She elaborated a bit more, "Before my senior year of high school, I was at a regular high school in my home county. For my senior year, I transferred to the county’s top high school as a visiting student."

"This past summer, I went to reunions for both of those classes. In my old class from the regular high school, the vast majority of my classmates are already working, most of them in physically demanding jobs."

"Every single one of them was complaining about how they wished they could go back and retake the college entrance exam."

"But in my class at the top high school? Basically, every single student is doing well for themselves. I mean, *really* well. That top student I mentioned earlier? He ended up being the top science-track scorer in the entire city that year."

"He’s at B University now, and he’s ranked first in his department every single semester."

"He gets a scholarship every semester—he’s already earned tens of thousands by now. And since he’s a senior this year, the department has already guaranteed him a spot in their graduate program."