Jiang Yubai would not allow Lin Zhixia to call him “Young Master Jiang.”
He stated that Lin Zhixia’s behavior violated the “Rules of Friendly Deskmate Relations.”
He repeatedly declared that mutual respect was the foundation of friendly deskmate relations.
Lin Zhixia showed a bewildered expression: “Calling you Young Master Jiang means I don’t respect you? Why?”
Jiang Yubai liked hearing Lin Zhixia ask “why”—clearly, this meant Lin Zhixia was also seeking his guidance on questions. He explained with neither arrogance nor humility: “You and I are classmates. You call me Young Master Jiang, but are you my employee? Have I ever paid you a salary? My name is Jiang Yubai, you should call me Jiang Yubai.”
Lin Zhixia nodded: “Jiang Yubai.”
Jiang Yubai sat up straight, maintaining even greater composure: “Lin Zhixia.”
Lin Zhixia called out again: “Jiang Yubai!”
Jiang Yubai responded once more: “Lin Zhixia.”
Lin Zhixia used a breathy voice, squeezing out from her throat: “Jiang Yubai…”
Jiang Yubai lowered his voice: “Lin Zhixia…”
Lin Zhixia rocked back and forth, laughing heartily: “Jiang-Jiang-Jiang-Jiang Yubai!”
Jiang Yubai said: “You’re crazy.”
“You don’t respect me!” Lin Zhixia turned the tables on him, “You’re violating the Rules of Friendly Deskmate Relations!”
Jiang Yubai couldn’t out-argue Lin Zhixia. His ears turned red. He took out his math notebook again and browsed through complex number operations. He looked at line after line of sample problems, pretending to be immersed in mathematics, unable to hear Lin Zhixia’s voice.
Strangely, Lin Zhixia fell silent and remained quiet.
She was also reading a book.
Jiang Yubai secretly turned his face sideways. He discovered that the book in Lin Zhixia’s hands was titled “Quantum Mechanics in Atomic and Molecular Research.” She had just opened to a page that was densely packed with formulas, with a single formula derivation covering half a page.
Lin Zhixia was taking notes in the book with a pencil. Her notes were also very strange, messy, and disorganized, possibly not even in Chinese.
Jiang Yubai asked her: “Are you writing in Chinese?”
“This is a language I created myself,” Lin Zhixia answered honestly, “Do you want to learn it? Do you want me to teach you? This language is based on elementary physics language. It can’t be used for communication yet, it’s just used to simplify my learning process.”
A self-created language?
What was that?
Jiang Yubai was once again struck a blow.
Previously, Jiang Yubai firmly believed he was a smart child. Now, his belief was somewhat shaken.
Jiang Yubai gripped a stack of draft paper, his knuckles turning white. He calmly refused: “No need. I won’t learn it. I don’t like simplifying the learning process. I like complex things, you wouldn’t understand.”
Lin Zhixia was very confused: “Why?”
Finally, Jiang Yubai heard Lin Zhixia ask “why” again.
Jiang Yubai’s answer was profound: “If I could solve all your problems, I should be a grown-up adult.”
“Many adults are very strange,” Lin Zhixia sat up straight and stated with conviction, “Adults can’t accept when we discover they’ve made mistakes, it makes them lose face. Face is more important than truth. I hate that kind of adult.”
Jiang Yubai agreed: “And there are many children who deliberately act stupid in front of adults.”
Lin Zhixia agreed: “Yes! They know, but pretend not to know. They don’t know, but pretend to know.”
After saying this, she moved closer to Jiang Yubai: “What about you? Jiang Yubai, do you know about physics? Have you studied molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons, and electrons?”
Outside the window, the sky was clear, with clouds like cotton wool.
The summer heat was fading, autumn was gradually deepening. On such a beautiful sunny day, Jiang Yubai felt as if he’d fallen into an ice cave. He didn’t want to admit that he knew nothing about physics. He didn’t understand where Lin Zhixia had learned so many strange terms… Were they all taught by the teachers at school? Had domestic education already reached such a high level?
Jiang Yubai deeply regretted wasting three precious years in Singapore.
He lowered his head slightly and remained silent for a long time.
This class was English.
The English teacher was a young female teacher who had just graduated from university. Her surname was Zheng, and the classmates all called her “Teacher Zheng.” Today, Teacher Zheng wanted to teach a situational dialogue set in a park—with deskmates as units, she would select one pair of deskmates from each large group to demonstrate in front of the class.
Teacher Zheng said: “Dear students, today I to give directions.”
Then, she explained herself: “Dear students, today, the teacher will lead everyone to learn how to ask for directions and how to give directions to others. Our story is set in a park. First, I’ll teach everyone a few sentence patterns, and we’ll read through this text with the tape recorder. I will… select one pair of deskmates from each large group to demonstrate for the whole class. Don’t doze off in class, everyone pay attention.”
Teacher Zheng grabbed chalk and wrote sentence patterns on the blackboard.
The entire text had eight commonly tested words and four standard sentence patterns.
Most students in the class were listening attentively. Jiang Yubai was absent-minded, while Lin Zhixia looked out the window. She spotted a sparrow hopping about on a branch. The locust tree was in bloom, its flowers not yet withered, and the sparrow was moving between the gaps of petals and leaves. She couldn’t help wondering, what differences were there between the sparrow, the locust tree, and the world as she saw it?
Lin Zhixia thought: Yes, I know that the world I see isn’t the world as it truly is—my eyes can only discern limited colors, my olfactory cells are far inferior to a rat’s, my ears can’t hear infrasonic or ultrasonic waves. But those things objectively exist. In this vast universe, my consciousness…
She tilted her head and began to ponder “consciousness.”
“You’re daydreaming,” Jiang Yubai reminded her.
Lin Zhixia nodded: “Yes, I am daydreaming.”
Jiang Yubai immediately asked her: “What are you thinking about now?”
Lin Zhixia leaned on the desk and suggested: “Close your eyes, and I’ll tell you.”