Nie Tianqing remained silent.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the main entrance of the amusement park, and a doorbell rang. Jiang Yubai immediately responded: “Please come in.”
The main door opened wide.
The butler entered with two uniformed staff members. The three of them pushed a stainless steel food cart loaded with snacks, fruits, bread, and hot drinks.
Jiang Yubai tidied his clothes and led his classmates to the door. He said: “Usually when I get tired playing here, my mother sends me food.”
Lin Zhixia happily exclaimed: “Strawberries!”
She took a sip of hot milk and then ate a strawberry.
Everyone gathered around the food cart, sitting on the floor, and only then realized how quickly time had passed.
This afternoon’s battle between Group A and Group B had drained the classmates’ energy. Ding Yan devoured a slice of ham sandwich, drank a glass of juice, and contentedly lay down on the floor.
“The sun is setting,” Nie Tianqing looked outside, “time to go home.”
Jiang Yubai had originally wanted to play the piano for Lin Zhixia, show her his family’s garden and private museum, but now it was clear there wasn’t enough time.
Then again, it was probably better they didn’t go. Jiang Yubai occasionally got lost in his own family’s garden. If he got lost while leading Lin Zhixia around, wouldn’t that be embarrassing? Understanding this point, Jiang Yubai walked to the door and politely said: “I’ll have the driver take you all home. After you get home, give me a call or send a message.”
Ding Yan pointed at Jiang Yubai: “Jiang Yubai, you’re very different now compared to before.”
Lin Zhixia asked him: “How is Jiang Yubai different?”
Ding Yan put both hands behind his head, resting on the soft carpet. Not knowing how to describe it, he said: “Just a feeling. Jiang Yubai is different in front of adults.”
Before the classmates left, Jiang Yubai gave everyone a tote bag.
“There are gifts inside,” Jiang Yubai said.
Dong Sunqi opened his bag on the spot and found a set of compasses and a fountain pen. He immediately hugged Jiang Yubai: “Thanks, buddy! So formal! Just in time, my compass broke.”
The others all received the same gifts.
But Lin Zhixia’s gift was different. Lin Zhixia felt her bag was very heavy, definitely more than just a fountain pen and a set of compasses. She stood on the marble steps, making eye contact with Jiang Yubai for a moment.
The sunset was sinking, its remaining light dyeing the lawn red.
Jiang Yubai waved to her: “See you tomorrow.”
Lin Zhixia nodded and also said: “See you tomorrow.”
*
Near evening, Lin Zhixia returned home.
She stepped out of a black Porsche and quickly ran into Ancheng Residential Complex. She could smell the aroma of food, hear the sound of spatulas stirring in pots, and every household had its lights on. She hugged the tote bag Jiang Yubai had given her, wondering what he had sent.
What did he send?
She pondered and speculated.
“Lin Zhixia!” Her father’s voice suddenly reached her ears.
Lin Zhixia stood at the entrance of her family’s supermarket and called out: “Dad.”
There were still customers in the supermarket. Her father couldn’t get angry in front of others, so he called Lin Zhixia into the back room. Lin Zhixia noticed her mother sitting next to the cash register with a stern face, also looking angry.
In the Lin family’s living room—if such a narrow area could be called a living room—Lin Zhixia’s father sat on a plastic chair. Her brother stood nearby with his arms crossed.
A one-meter-long incandescent light hung on the wall, its bright light shining directly on her father’s head. Her father questioned: “Where did you go today?”
Lin Zhixia obediently answered: “I went to a classmate’s home. I told you beforehand.”
“Lin Zhixia, don’t lie to me,” her brother admonished, “this afternoon, someone came to our house and told Dad that you got into someone’s car at the entrance of the complex? Do you know how dangerous that is? Do you have a brain, Lin Zhixia!”
Lin Zhixia immediately defended herself: “That was my classmate’s family car, I triple-checked. Lin Zeqiu, don’t scold me for not having a brain, I’ll get angry!”
Lin Zeqiu slammed the table, burning with anger: “You’re arguing back? You’re my sister, what’s wrong with me saying a few words? You’re only 9 years old, do you think you’re 29 and can go wherever you want? You don’t have a brain!”
“You can go to other people’s homes to play, why can’t I?” Lin Zhixia angrily questioned, “I never went to kindergarten and had no friends. Finally, in elementary school, no one wanted to be my deskmate. Now I have a deskmate and friends, is it wrong for me to visit a friend’s home?”
Lin Zhixia indeed had never gone to kindergarten.
She grew up under the watchful eyes of her father, mother, and brother.
The nearest kindergarten charged exorbitant fees. Moreover, the teachers there might not be able to take care of every child. So, before Lin Zhixia turned six, she had never been to school. She always stayed at home. She learned things quickly.
The Lin family’s supermarket had a bookshelf where they collected second-hand books to resell to other customers. Lin Zhixia’s early education came from books found on that shelf. Before she was even as tall as the bookshelf, she learned to move a stool by herself, stand on it, and pick things from the shelf.
She could read ten lines at a glance and had a photographic memory.
She was like a hard sponge, and external knowledge was like dew. She absorbed desperately, still not quenching her thirst. College entrance exam study materials left behind by students had already been read repeatedly by her. Today, even university-level mathematics and physics textbooks no longer puzzled her.
She loved staying in libraries. She also used her father’s library card to regularly borrow books from the provincial library, always reaching the maximum borrowing limit.
Her parents had long discovered Lin Zhixia’s uniqueness but didn’t know how to guide her.
Lin Zhixia’s father had even specifically checked their family genealogy—their Lin family had been farmers who faced the yellow earth for eighteen generations, let alone geniuses, they hadn’t even produced a single scholar.
Lin Zhixia’s birth was an unexpected joy, and even more like incense smoke from the ancestral grave.
Her father spoke gently to his daughter: “Xiaxia, you don’t know how worried your father, mother, and brother were this afternoon. Your mother and I thought you went to Gan Shuli’s home. We called Gan Shuli’s mother and only then learned you went to Jiang…”
“Jiang Yubai,” Lin Zeqiu reminded.
Her father continued: “Yes, went to Jiang Yubai’s home. Didn’t Dad say not to play with boys? You should know this world is very dangerous, very cruel, very unsafe, especially for a little girl like you who has been especially beautiful since childhood…”
“I know,” Lin Zhixia coldly interrupted her father.
She said: “I understand what you mean. I also understand biology, and I’ve studied criminal psychology too. If you want me to develop in one direction, you should also give me some freedom, this is called the epsilon greedy algorithm strategy.”
Her father sighed: “You understand so much, but do you understand a parent’s heart?”
Lin Zeqiu was still scolding from the side: “She doesn’t understand a thing! She thinks she’s so smart, fears nothing! I just read in the newspaper yesterday about a girl who was put in a sack, thrown into a car, and sold deep in the mountains to be a child bride for an old man, only rescued ten years later!”
After speaking, Lin Zeqiu took a deep breath: “This afternoon, because of Lin Zhixia’s situation, I was terrified.”
Lin Zhixia asked back: “Then why can you go to other people’s homes, but I can’t?”
Lin Zeqiu was about to explode with anger: “I’m a boy, you’re a girl, why do you think you can’t? There are so many bad people in this world! Why don’t you understand what I mean?”
Lin Zhixia placed one hand on the wall, stood on tiptoe, attempting to reach her brother’s height. She looked up at Lin Zeqiu and told him: “Brother, you’re so naive, do you think boys don’t encounter bad people? You’re the one who truly doesn’t understand anything.”
She picked up her tote bag and ran into her bedroom, shutting the door with a “bang.”
The tote bag was thrown on the floor.
Two glass food containers rolled out from the bag.
Lin Zhixia squatted beside the containers, seeing one filled with strawberries and the other with osmanthus cake that she hadn’t tasted last time. She continued emptying the tote bag and also found an exquisitely crafted wooden box. Opening it, she found a deep blue fountain pen lying on pure black velvet.
Lin Zhixia paused in thought, immediately using her room’s landline to dial Jiang Yubai’s cell phone number. She planned to thank him and then consider how to achieve the “reciprocity” expected between classmates and friends.