Chapter 27: Boring Experiment

The next morning, a stack of fashion magazines was delivered to the villa. They were new overseas issues that Zhuo Manyi had previously ordered. However, now that she had left, these magazines had to be placed in the magazine cabinet on one side of the living room.

That same morning, two more people decided to leave the villa. One was Shi Yu, and the other was Lu Xu.

Compared to Shi Yu's reluctance, Lu Xu seemed incredibly happy, his boastful demeanor so intense that Zhou Yun couldn't help but punch him, remarking that he looked like someone who had just been released from prison. Lu Xu didn't seem to care at all, and before leaving, he even patted Jiang Song's shoulder with a rather complacent look and said, "See you on your birthday then."

He counted on his fingers again, "Including today, it only takes five days to leave here. Come on, come on."

Jiang Song stared at him gloomily, and then Lu Xu dragged his luggage away.

There was no doubt that Mr. Mizuno had called Lu Xu to the study to plan this very thing. As for Shi Yu, his departure was nominally because his grandfather had asked him to return home, but everyone else knew the real reason.

After the two left, the rest of the people seemed to become even more bored. Only Lin Jiaci seemed to be very interested, drinking milk tea with a smile on his face.

Everyone stayed in the living room, perhaps for the same reason as the day they first arrived, because Jiang Song stayed in the living room playing games.

Xia Cun went to the magazine cabinet and curiously pulled out the magazine Zhuo Manyi had subscribed to. Zhou Yun followed suit, but just flipped through it idly. Xia Cun looked at him, feeling as if he was enduring immense torment, as if he hadn't been the one laughing uncontrollably on the beach yesterday.

She thought, maybe what Xiaolan said was also applicable in this situation -

All emotions are fleeting. They can feel interesting in one moment, and then disappear in the next, leaving them bored. Even dreams are fleeting. She can't live forever surrounded by the piano music of Jiang Song, or receive shells forever. She'd be so bored.

He Shizhao and Jiang Song sat on the same sofa, holding tablets and gently moving their pens across them, as if they were doing homework.

He was always studying, and everyone else had long since taken it for granted. However, Xia Cun suddenly realized this, something that everyone thought was commonplace, the moment she closed the magazine. She suddenly looked at him and asked, "What are you studying?"

He Shizhao turned to look at her, and after a few moments of silence, he smiled in front of everyone. Only then did he look more like He Shiyan.

"Do you have something to say now?"

He asked her back, as if no one else was around. Suddenly, everyone else's gazes fell on the two of them. Something seemed to stir in the boring living room.

Xia Cun nodded, and then listened to He Shizhao's response.

"I'm learning calculus."

"Why should I learn it?"

She asked this, as if she didn't think this was a private question that posed a prying nature. This was probably related to He Shizhao's attitude: he never considered studying a private matter and never avoided other people's gazes.

If being born into a prominent family can feel unfair, then He Shizhao's ambition seems to have resolved some of that injustice. He's like the boat at the front of a sailing race, seemingly always able to sail with the wind, always straight and firm. The boats behind him don't even think of themselves as competing with the first-place boat, but rather that the first-place boat is leading the way for them.

No one ever asked him why he wanted to study, because the answer was obvious. With such a family business, the He family needed a capable successor, and since he had a young and promising brother, he certainly couldn't fall behind.

But Xia Cun asked this question. Wouldn't this guy understand such a thing? Would He Shizhao answer her? How would he answer her?

"Because I need to have enough ability to do what I want to do most." He Shizhao responded frankly.

When asked about what he wanted to do, Xia Cun's answers were confusing, contradictory, and not important at all. Jiang Song's answer was "I can't think of anything." What about He Shizhao?

"So what do you want to do?"

"I think this is a very personal question, don't you?"

He Shizhao finally had a moment when he wanted to hide, and Xia Cun seemed to be stumped by his question, and was silent and thoughtful.

Perhaps, this thing he wants to do is He Shizhao's secret.

At this time, the chattering of games on the side died down. Jiang Song seemed to be tired of playing games and said, "I really want to go to the screening room to watch cartoons."

The topic jumped from studying to cartoons, like returning from reality to a dream.

Like everyone else, Xia Cun's attention also turned to Jiang Song, but she was snatched away by him because of another thing she wanted to do.

Is Jiang Song’s skill Copy? Then why doesn’t he copy something that seems more important?

"Childish, I refuse." Zhou Yun was speechless and ruthless.

"But you like SpongeBob."

"Who likes it!" Even if he liked it, it was before he was ten years old.

"All right."

The compromise came so quickly that Zhou Yun was a little caught off guard. Seeing that Jiang Song really had no intention of mentioning this again, he picked up the magazine and flipped through it aimlessly.

As he flipped through the pages, he realized he was actually so bored that he wanted to watch SpongeBob SquarePants, and even so madly that he wanted to study. Just when he felt like he couldn't stand it anymore, a message from Mr. Mizuno came to his phone...

-

The next morning, Miao Wen and Tong Anyu also left the villa together.

No one found it strange.

Xia Cun learned about this from Miao Wen as early as yesterday afternoon because Mr. Mizuno talked to her and Tong Anyu.

As for Jiang Song, he seemed to have figured out Mizuno's plan. Mr. Spy seemed to be conducting a strange experiment on him. It seemed interesting, but also annoying.

Instead of staying in the living room as he had yesterday, he went back upstairs.

When Mizuno pushed the door open, Jiang Song was sitting in his office, holding the remote control and casually adjusting the surveillance screen.

On the table in front of him were some contents that could perhaps be called "observation notes", which were written by Mizuno, but he was not worried that Jiang Song would peek, so he just calmly sat down opposite him.

"It's already the fourth day." Jiang Song said to him as he threw down the remote control.

"The fourth day has just begun."

"Then when do you plan to let the others leave?" Jiang Song directly exposed Mizuno.

If that strange experiment was meant to make him feel like being abandoned, shouldn't they have been allowed to leave together?

Perhaps wanting to observe him more closely, Mizuno took the glasses case from the table and put on his black-framed glasses. He was rarely seen wearing glasses, but in front of Jiang Song, he was very comfortable.

"Do you think they left because I asked them to?"

"You're no different from mom and dad anyway."

His words cast him as an accomplice of Ms. Tanaka and Mr. Jiang, and that the others left because of their pressure.

Mizuno corrected his thoughts: "Except for Master Shiyu, I did not use any coercive means. They left voluntarily."

He just booked a flight to Switzerland, and Master Lu Xu wanted to go skiing there voluntarily.

He just persuaded Miao Feng to give Miss Miao some time to relax and enjoy herself, and it was also voluntary for Miss Miao Wen to return to H City to participate in the comic exhibition.

As for Miss Tong, if part of the reason she came here was that she didn't want to see her father, he wouldn't mind helping her mother end this marriage that was discrediting her as soon as possible.

Although there was some element of inducement, it was definitely not coercion, and their departure was voluntary.

Jiang Song didn't say anything.

Mizuno pushed up his glasses and continued, "As for the others, at least I'm sure there are still some who don't want to abandon you."

Jiang Song then looked up at him.

"Maybe you don't care, but I can tell you who they are."

After finishing the conversation with Lu Xu, Mizuno had another guest - Ban Li, the youngest son of the Ban family.

Ban Sheng has his sights set on his youngest son, hoping to leverage the Jiang family's influence to allow Ban Sheng Chemical to enter the international supply chain. Therefore, Ban Li has been following his father's instructions and circling around Jiang Song for the entire semester. However, despite such enticement, Ban Li decides to stay here and begs him not to let his father know.

Perhaps he was smarter than his father, or perhaps he simply wanted to stay here. Mizuno was a little confused, but he reluctantly considered this as someone staying for Jiang Song's sake.

Zhou Yun also chose to stay. In Mizuno's opinion, Zhou Yun and Jiang Song had a strange similarity.

He seemed to be the most selfless of all the teenagers. Rather than following Jiang Song, He Shizhao, or Zhuo Manyi here, it was more accurate to say that he was always seeking inspiration from others. Therefore, it could be said that he had the purest motivation of all the teenagers, as he had no motivation at all, and this aimlessness was the similarity between him and Jiang Song.

When he found him yesterday, he just asked him if he wanted to join this plan that might make Jiang Song unhappy and might also help him get rid of boredom. Zhou Yun's answer was forget it.

Mizuno reaffirmed that Zhou Yun and Jiang Song share a commonality in gentleness. Despite his feud with Shi Yu and his often sharp tongue, this only served to highlight his gentle nature. He always believed that Shi Yu was corrupting the naive Lin Jiaci, but who was the true naive Lin Jiaci?

Mizuno certainly didn't tell Jiang Song everything, but he let him know the choices of the two. Jiang Song didn't seem to care, and just asked him casually: "What about her?"

"Do you care?"

"No."

"Then her choice doesn't matter."

Jiang Song kept silent again, but his eyes were fixed on the surveillance screen, showing the girl sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room.

Why is she always looking at the pool?

Will she abandon him?

Mizuno was also thinking about the last question. When he found Xia Cun again, Xia Cun was sitting on the floor of the rest area on the third floor, and a pile of homework was spread on the sofa in front of her.

"How rare." He began to speak.

Xia Cun turned her head and saw Mizuno emerging from the stairs. Knowing he was referring to the rare occasion he saw her studying, she replied, "Because it's so boring here."

"Wouldn't it be boring somewhere else?"

No?

Mizuno didn't wait for her to answer and continued, "Boredom is the norm in life."

"Is that why you let Jiang Song endure the boredom?"

Mizuno smiled and said, "Why would I do that?"

"You should have told me."

She spoke seriously, while Mizuno sat down casually beside her and rudely picked up her homework that was on the sofa and looked at it, saying, "Before I tell you the answer, can I ask a question first?"

"What's the problem?"

"Do you want to leave him alone and let him suffer boredom?"

Xia Cun tilted his head: "But I like classmate Jiang Song."

He is indeed a frank person. Mizuno then asked: "Why?"

Xia Cun was a little confused.

No one had ever asked her why she liked Jiang Song, not Xia Lan, Ren Yi, or Miao Wen. Was it because liking Jiang Song was natural?

Why?

"Because he has beautiful hair."

Her answer sounded like nonsense, and Mizuno didn't seem to take it seriously, but he didn't ignore it either. This answer would also be recorded in his observation notes, becoming a crucial reference for his analysis of adolescent psychology. Although he didn't have the qualification of a "certified psychologist" in Japan, Mizuno boasted that few psychologists could surpass him in the field of adolescent psychology, unless they also worked as Jiang Song's assistant for five years.

"So, you won't abandon him even if it's boring?"

"Um."

Because summer is short.

Since they would be separated sooner or later, why should she leave him early?

"Wouldn't he make you angry?"

"You've asked me a lot of questions."

What this means is that Mizuno should first answer the question he promised to answer - why should he let Jiang Song endure boredom?

"Well, if I must say it, I'm a little mad at him, just like Xiao Xia."

"I'm not angry anymore." Xia Cun denied it, and then realized that she had answered Mizuno's previous question in disguise, so he asked again, "Why are you so angry with Jiang Song?"

"You'll understand when you grow up."

"Understand what?"

"Understand that work is hard work." Mizuno put her homework back on the sofa and continued, "So, in order to avoid hardship, you can start moving forward early."

At least, he ran forward for many years to get to where he is now.

Xia Cun looked confused. Mr. Mizuno always seemed to say something profound.

Mizuno smiled at her again, stood up and said, "I'll tell Miss Xia Lan that you're studying very hard."

"You don't have to tell her."

It was a rare occasion when Mizuno was puzzled, and from his observation, she should really want her aunt to be pleased with her.

"Why?"

because……

Because Shinji Mizuno looks like a mix of He Shiyan and Li Sui, she hates him appearing in front of Xiaolan.

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The author has something to say: interesting, boring, liked, hated...

The secret is emerging [spreading hands]

The second volume is finally coming to an end! Is the end still far away? Let me write a dreamy ending (thinking)