Lin Zhixia’s family background was completely different from what Jiang Yubai had imagined.
Jiang Yubai once thought that Lin Zhixia also lived in a mansion, with many tutors guiding her daily. However, based on what Jiang Yubai witnessed firsthand, Lin Zhixia was born in a completely ordinary place. Lin Zhixia’s parents did not spoil or indulge her—when she wanted a strawberry-flavored lollipop, her mother mercilessly refused.
Jiang Yubai’s parents also restricted his snacks. Thinking of this, Jiang Yubai felt a kind of sympathetic pity for Lin Zhixia.
The chef in Jiang Yubai’s home excelled at making Chinese pastries. In recent days, the osmanthus trees in the garden had bloomed, and the chefs picked fresh flowers to make a steamer basket of “Crystal Osmanthus Cakes,” mainly using premium Northeast rice, Hainan coconut oil, and Tianshui honey from Gansu. These pastries were fragrant, soft, and smooth, chewy but not greasy, worth sampling.
That morning, before going to school, Jiang Yubai found a clean lunchbox and secretly packed more than a dozen osmanthus cakes to bring to school for Lin Zhixia.
Just as the morning reading class ended, Jiang Yubai placed the lunchbox in front of Lin Zhixia.
Lin Zhixia was puzzled: “What is this?”
“Osmanthus cake,” Jiang Yubai feigned nonchalance, “it’s sweet.”
Lin Zhixia opened the lunchbox, and fragrance immediately wafted out. She had never seen such beautiful pastries before and couldn’t help asking: “Where did you buy these?”
“You can’t buy them on the market,” Jiang Yubai honestly explained, “these were made by my family’s chef…”
Before he could finish, Zhou Bufeng, who sat in front of him, suddenly turned around and grabbed two cakes, stuffing them into his mouth. While seizing the opportunity, Zhou Bufeng exclaimed loudly: “Wow! These are so delicious… so delicious I might choke! Everyone come try these… brothers of Class 1, Grade 4!”
Zhou Bufeng’s desk mate was a girl named Gan Shuli. Gan Shuli had always been a quiet, introverted girl who didn’t like to talk, and she had even drawn a “38th parallel” on her desk with correction fluid to prevent Zhou Bufeng from making contact with her. Normally, when Zhou Bufeng spoke to her, she never responded.
But now, several classmates came over, all wanting to taste the osmanthus cakes Jiang Yubai had brought.
Gan Shuli hadn’t eaten breakfast today. She couldn’t resist reaching out and also grabbed a piece from the lunchbox, responding to Zhou Bufeng’s call.
The seventeen Osmanthus cakes were divided up by everyone in the blink of an eye.
Lin Zhixia didn’t even get to taste one.
Jiang Yubai felt confused. He asked Lin Zhixia: “Why did you just watch them grab them?”
Lin Zhixia said: “Once Zhou Bufeng touched them, I didn’t want to eat them anymore.”
Jiang Yubai asked again: “If I fight with Zhou Bufeng, will the classmates tell the teacher?”
“It wouldn’t matter if they did,” Lin Zhixia calmly stated, “because the teacher would take your side. But I still think you shouldn’t fight with him… fighting doesn’t solve problems. If you hit him today, he’ll always remember it.”
Jiang Yubai tried hard to suppress his anger. He threw the lunchbox into the trash can, returned to his seat, and wiped Lin Zhixia’s desk with a tissue. At this moment, Zhou Bufeng turned his head and mocked him: “Jiang Yubai, you’re Lin Zhixia’s little shadow, hehe.”
Jiang Yubai remained silent.
Zhou Bufeng pushed Jiang Yubai’s pencil case: “Jiang Shadow, Jiang Shadow, hehe.”
Jiang Yubai adjusted his breathing. His cheeks turned slightly red, and his gaze became cold and serious.
Zhou Bufeng sensed the unusual atmosphere but couldn’t help but provoke: “You’re the desk mate of a freak, Freak Shadow! Haha.”
Jiang Yubai strongly disliked it when others referred to Lin Zhixia as a “freak.” He grabbed Zhou Bufeng’s collar and lifted him from his seat. Pencils, erasers, pencil cases, and correction tape were scattered everywhere, with nearby desks and chairs becoming disarrayed. Zhou Bufeng’s face turned solemn as he countered by grabbing Jiang Yubai’s wrist and pulling it backward forcefully. Zhou Bufeng’s nostrils emitted angry muffled sounds: “What are you doing?!”
Jiang Yubai twisted one hand forward, successfully shaking off Zhou Bufeng. In the aisle formed by the desks, Jiang Yubai stepped back, suddenly raised his leg, and his knee was about to hit Zhou Bufeng’s abdomen.
Zhou Bufeng immediately collapsed, avoiding the blow, but his left leg was stepped on by Jiang Yubai.
Just at this moment, the math teacher entered the classroom.
The math teacher’s surname was Qian, about forty years old, and she was a certified “Senior Primary School Teacher.” Teacher Qian always wore gold-rimmed glasses, observing all the students through the reflective lenses.
Teacher Qian usually spoke softly, but today, as soon as she entered the door, she angrily said: “Who’s fighting in the corner? You are fourth-grade students! You’re not little children anymore! How can you still be fighting? Both of you go to the homeroom teacher’s office! Come back when the homeroom teacher lets you, and don’t enter my classroom until then, just stand in the corridor! Let the whole grade see! Who dares to fight again!”
After she finished speaking, Zhou Bufeng quickly ran out of the classroom.
Jiang Yubai still stood in place.
He had never been scolded by a teacher before. He couldn’t react for a moment.
In the spacious and clean classroom, Teacher Qian put down her ruler and compass, placed both hands on the podium, and pointedly criticized: “Some students, to save your face, I won’t call you out by name. But you know who I’m talking about… I’m telling you, don’t think that because your family is well-off, has some money, has some capital, you can run amok and throw your weight around in our school! Before being a student, you need to learn how to be a person! I don’t care if you’re from Singapore or New Guinea, as long as you use violence in the class and fight with people, you are wrong! I’m telling you, hey, do you understand? How old are you? When you encounter something, can you only solve problems with your fists? Haven’t you studied math? Don’t you understand logical thinking? Don’t fight in a place for studying! I’m warning you! I’ll criticize you every time I see it! It’s no use complaining about me to the principal! I’ve been teaching for over twenty years, and I don’t teach students who only know how to fight!”
Teacher Qian’s last sentence was resounding.
Jiang Yubai’s face burned hot, as if someone had slapped him. Especially that line “don’t fight in a place for studying,” which made him feel extremely ashamed.
He walked out of the classroom without a word, heading toward the homeroom teacher’s office.
Lin Zhixia stared blankly at his back.
This class felt exceptionally long.
Finally enduring until the bell rang, Lin Zhixia was the first to rush out of the classroom. She saw Jiang Yubai and Zhou Bufeng both standing in the corridor as punishment, with a distance of four meters between them.
“Jiang Yubai?” Lin Zhixia called him.
But he didn’t respond to her.
Lin Zhixia softly said: “Little Chairman Jiang.”
Jiang Yubai held onto the stainless steel railing: “Don’t call me Little Chairman Jiang.”
“What are you thinking about?” Lin Zhixia stood beside him and asked.
“I know Zhou Bufeng can’t beat me,” Jiang Yubai frankly admitted, “I wanted to beat him until he cried.”
Zhou Bufeng heard Jiang Yubai’s words and jumped away, running even further. More and more classmates appeared in the corridor, their shoe soles rubbing against the plastic floor, making rising and falling “shh—swish” sounds.
Jiang Yubai turned around, looked at the many classmates, and changed his words: “But I didn’t learn martial arts… to beat up classmates.”
“It’s so good that you can think this way,” Lin Zhixia responded, “when you raised your leg to strike Zhou Bufeng, I estimated your momentum would be very strong, and that’s not something to be taken lightly. I was scared, too.”
Jiang Yubai humbly asked: “What is momentum?”
“A vector that describes the cumulative effect of force over time,” Lin Zhixia explained concisely.
Jiang Yubai stood upright, nodding repeatedly.
“Did you understand?” Lin Zhixia asked, knowing the answer.
“No,” Jiang Yubai answered honestly.
Lin Zhixia was not discouraged and patiently told him, “Life is like a k-means clustering algorithm. At first, we all randomly choose reference points, not knowing where we stand. Later, as the collected data changes, our reference points also begin to update. When we stand at different reference points and observe the same things, we will reach different conclusions. People are constantly growing and adjusting their reference points… like before this class, you thought boys fighting was nothing, but after this class, you might think twice before taking action.”
Jiang Yubai looked at her: “K-means clustering algorithm. Thank you, I’ve learned it.”
Lin Zhixia smiled sweetly: “Mathematics can make people feel happy and also make us think about life.”
*
As the class Chinese representative, during this class break, Lin Zhixia needed to go to the teacher’s office to get a stack of homework books. She happily walked to the office door. The door was half-closed, and the homeroom teacher’s voice came from inside.
The homeroom teacher laughed and said, “Teacher Qian, calm down. Jiang Yubai’s father is a major taxpayer in our province; their group contributes quite a lot to GDP annually and can also attract foreign investment. The principal told me that Jiang Yubai’s family has connections in Beijing. Don’t be hard on him, he’s still a child, usually very polite.”
Teacher Qian replied: “I’m not being hard on him. I just entered the classroom and saw him knocking Zhou Bufeng down, stepping on his leg… isn’t that bullying a classmate?”
“Ah, Zhou Bufeng often causes trouble in our class,” the homeroom teacher defended Jiang Yubai. Zhou Bufeng’s parents work in Shanghai. He’s being raised by his grandparents, and he’s been stealing things for quite some time.”
Teacher Qian was somewhat surprised: “He steals things?”
The homeroom teacher described: “Last year, your office was across from here, not with me. At that time, students in our class came to complain to me, but you didn’t hear. Zhou Bufeng had stolen the class monitor’s pocket money and Gan Shuli’s fountain pen… he can’t control himself. I’ve talked to him, advised him, but it’s useless.”
Teacher Qian sighed: “Kids these days, really something.”
The homeroom teacher continued: “Jiang Yubai is better. He has good family education.”
The homeroom teacher’s defense of a student was summarized by Lin Zhixia as “Schrödinger’s defense.”
The so-called “Schrödinger’s state,” also quoted from “Quantum Mechanics,” refers to a state that seems to be and yet isn’t, both is and isn’t.
Lin Zhixia fell into her thoughts.
When she returned to her seat, Lin Zhixia called out: “Jiang Yubai.”
“What is it?” Jiang Yubai responded.
Lin Zhixia cleared away the stationery and books on the desk and sincerely confided in Jiang Yubai: “You’re the only one in class willing to listen to me talk about math and physics, even though you never understand what I’m saying…”
Jiang Yubai always displayed a serious attitude, listening to Lin Zhixia’s various thoughts, but she seemed to have known all along that he couldn’t understand at all. He sat stiffly upright and feebly defended himself: “I will gradually understand.”
But Lin Zhixia said: “By then, I’ll have graduated from elementary school! Maybe I’ll never see you again.”
The math notebook was almost worn out from Jiang Yubai’s constant flipping. He held a Parker pen and cautiously responded: “Never see me again?”
“Yes,” Lin Zhixia said sincerely, “while we’re still desk mates, I’d like to formally invite you to be my human observation subject. I’ve always wanted to understand… how ordinary people think. For example, when you see problems related to Hilbert space, what’s your first reaction? Do you get a headache? Do you feel intimidated? Hahahahaha.”
A few minutes ago, Jiang Yubai was deeply moved by Lin Zhixia’s consolation. Now, he just wanted to punch himself awake, to open his eyes wide and look at Lin Zhixia! She was still the same!
Jiang Yubai calmly inquired: “Why choose me as your human observation subject?”
Lin Zhixia was particularly honest: “I heard the homeroom teacher say that your family is a major taxpayer in our province, contributing a lot to GDP annually, and your family also has foreign-invested enterprises. Your insights must be broader than others. Studying you is like studying many people at once.”
Jiang Yubai pondered for a moment, and, enduring the humiliation, agreed: “Okay.”
“Thank you!” Lin Zhixia was overjoyed.
She softly said: “Jiang Yubai, you are my good friend.”
Jiang Yubai remained silent.
After this class, Ding Yan came to play with Jiang Yubai.
The daylight from the window fell on the paper, and Ding Yan saw Lin Zhixia write “A Preliminary Research Review on the Thinking Patterns of Ordinary Humans” in large characters on a draft paper.
Then, Lin Zhixia started a new line, wrote “Abstract,” and added two colons.
Lin Zhixia solemnly recorded: This paper further explores the thinking patterns and cognitive limitations of ordinary humans through observation of the author’s desk mate—classmate Jiang Yubai…
Ding Yan was surprised.
He put both hands in his pants pockets and called Jiang Yubai out of the classroom.
As soon as they stepped outside, Ding Yan asked: “Jiang Yubai, how can you tolerate this? Why don’t you ask Teacher Wu to change your seat?”
Jiang Yubai shook his head: “I have a battle plan, first let her taste some sweetness, let her guard down.”
Ding Yan didn’t quite understand: “You want to be nice to her?”
“No!” Jiang Yubai denied, “I’ve made her my competitor.”
Ding Yan looked perplexed: “You think you can compete with her? I heard people say she only needs to look at a book once to memorize it. It takes me thirty minutes to memorize a text, it takes her three seconds.”
She memorizes texts in three seconds.
Yes, the opponent is very strong.
Jiang Yubai slightly clenched his fist. He wouldn’t give up. He would prove himself in front of Ding Yan and Lin Zhixia, far surpassing Lin Zhixia, leaving her far behind, reclaiming that self-esteem she had crushed.
He said: “Lin Zhixia’s birthday is coming soon.”
Ding Yan looked nervous: “What are you going to do?”
Jiang Yubai stood behind a pillar, with crisscrossing light falling on him, illuminating half his face in light and half in shadow.
He was like the most handsome robber in the Hong Kong film “Young and Dangerous,” bearing a heaviness that didn’t belong to his age: “I’m going to give her a gift.”
Ding Yan shuddered.