Her brother was already a seventh-grade student, wearing a set of middle school uniforms. His height exceeded 1.8 meters, much taller than Lin Zhixia. Lin Zhixia liked his name—Lin Zeqiu, Lin Zeqiu, the benevolence of autumn nourishing all things, seemingly having a unique artistic conception.
As for Lin Zeqiu himself…
Lin Zhixia didn’t have a very good relationship with him.
Lin Zeqiu rode his bicycle back to the front door. He carried his bicycle into the supermarket and locked it in the warehouse at the back. Their mother was still watching the store, while their father had prepared dinner and called for his son and daughter.
The dishes were placed on a round table with only three chairs around it. There were four people in the family, but someone always had to go out to watch the store.
The living room space was narrow, with just a sofa, a round table, and a television on a wooden cabinet. The television was a twenty-eight-inch color TV, as wide on the side as on the front, with a very long antenna for receiving signals.
Lin Zhixia held the remote control, switched to CCTV-1, and contentedly waited for the “Big Windmill” program to begin.
Soon, music came from the television. Lin Zhixia stood up and sang the theme song of “Big Windmill”: “The big windmill turns squeakily, the scenery here is so beautiful, the sky is beautiful, the ground is beautiful… and there’s a group of happy little friends!”
Lin Zeqiu took a deep breath: “So noisy! Lin Zhixia! Can you eat quietly? If not, get out!”
Their father hit Lin Zeqiu on the head with his chopsticks: “How dare you speak to your sister like that? Is this how you act as a brother, so fierce? Is she your sister or your enemy?”
Lin Zeqiu angrily picked up some food and put it in Lin Zhixia’s bowl: “I’m sorry!” He apologized to his sister, enunciating each word through gritted teeth.
Lin Zhixia smiled brightly: “It’s okay! Don’t be angry, brother!” Then she added: “With your moral character, being able to say ‘sorry’ to me is already the limit of your social abilities!”
Their father slammed his chopsticks on the table: “Lin Zhixia!”
He admonished: “Lin Zhixia! You say such harsh words to your brother? Are you your parents’ daughter? Which family’s girl is like you, unable to suffer even a little loss?”
“Why should I suffer any loss?” Lin Zhixia scolded, “I’m not a fool! Lin Zeqiu is the fool!”
Lin Zeqiu slammed his bowl: “I’m not eating anymore!”
“Lin Zeqiu! Who are you trying to intimidate?” Their father was fuming, “Starve you for three days and you’d eat a toad! You’re throwing a tantrum at me now, but when your mother comes, no one can save you!”
At the mention of “mother,” Lin Zeqiu became a bit afraid. He reluctantly regained his composure and took some spinach from the plate, placing it on top of the rice in his bowl.
Lin Zeqiu lowered his head to eat, with a high bridge of his nose and deep-set eyes. Even though he was only twelve years old, one could tell he would be a handsome man when he grew up.
Looking at Lin Zhixia, she also had extremely delicate features, every inch a beauty in the making. In ten years, she would surely be a very beautiful young woman.
Heaven had bestowed such a precious pair of children on the Lin family. Both children had inherited the Lin family’s excellent genes, and both had very good academic performances—especially Lin Zhixia, whose performance could no longer be simply described as “good”…
Lin Zhixia’s father suddenly felt, he was asking too much from life. Was he being a bit too ungrateful? Was he being too strict with the children? His anger gradually subsided. He shone like a benevolent father and gently advised: “Lin Zhixia, Lin Zeqiu, you are siblings. Siblings should help each other, not always blame each other. Listen to Dad, okay?”
Lin Zhixia, with a chicken leg in her mouth, repeatedly agreed.
Lin Zeqiu also said: “Fine then.”
Their father was very satisfied. He picked up his rice bowl again and asked with concern: “Xia Xia, did you have any new insights at school today?”
“Yes,” Lin Zhixia finished chewing and, while watching cartoons, narrated: “Today at school, I was thinking about the quantum Monte Carlo method. Traditional Monte Carlo algorithms consume substantial computational power when calculating probability distributions for bosons and fermions, while quantum Monte Carlo can’t integrate. Do you know about Bose-Einstein condensates? What I mean is, when particles are divided into bosons and fermions, boson atoms will present gaseous and superfluid states in an environment close to absolute zero [1]…”
“Please stop talking,” Lin Zeqiu interrupted.
Lin Zhixia lowered her head slightly.
The incandescent light was bright. Lin Zeqiu gripped his chopsticks and looked at his sister: “If you keep talking like this all day, you won’t have any friends at school.”
“I don’t talk about it with others,” Lin Zhixia defended, “At school, I only talk about it with my deskmate.”
“You have a deskmate now?” Her father and brother asked in unison.
Her brother’s face showed disbelief, while her father’s face showed joy.
When Lin Zhixia first started elementary school, she often said “strange things” to her then-deskmates, making both boys and girls cry. The homeroom teacher asked Lin Zhixia’s former deskmates: What exactly did Lin Zhixia say to you?
Not a single child could articulate clearly.
They all exhibited the same symptoms—blank eyes, absent-mindedness, stuttering speech, with their mouths spouting all sorts of jumbled terms like “galactic collapse,” “id, ego, and superego,” “De Broglie hypothesis,”… and other chaotic things.
Homeroom Teacher Wu had said to Lin Zhixia: “Lin Zhixia, have you read many books? Reading is good, but you can’t influence others negatively, right? You’re a good child, the teacher won’t criticize you. Teacher hopes you can continue to improve and have a positive influence on your classmates, okay?”
So, starting from second grade, Lin Zhixia had no deskmate.
She learned to behave like a normal person in class.
But now, Jiang Yubai had become her new deskmate.
Lin Zhixia happily told her father and brother: “My new deskmate, his name is Jiang Yubai, he’s very nice! Jiang Yubai is my good friend. He likes to hear me talk about physics, and every day he asks me to tell him more.”
Lin Zeqiu questioned: “Does he understand what you’re saying?”
Lin Zhixia was very certain: “He doesn’t understand a single word.”
“And yet he still asks you to talk to him about physics,” Lin Zeqiu marveled, “At such a young age, he’s already so hard on himself.”