As the troublemaker leaves, the crowd watching excitedly at the stairwell should disperse.

But in fact, no one walked that fast.

Just when William Chang was taking his students away and everyone was still looking at Lin Chaoxi and Pei Zhi, a loud bang was heard in the distance.

There were sporadic bright lights in the sky, and all the students looked to the side.

Lin Chaoxi was handing the list back to Teacher Ma, so she was still standing at the window. There were very faint daytime fireworks, blooming brightly on her face under the blue sky.

She was startled, her pupils dilated, her hair blown by the wind, and she looked extremely beautiful.

There was another commotion coming from the small pond at the school, but Bao Xiaomeng didn't want to pay attention to it anymore. She took a step back and wanted to leave while everyone was watching the fireworks.

But she only took a step back and her wrist was grabbed.

Lin Chaoxi recovered from his shock in an instant, looked at her sincerely, and said nothing, while many people around him were looking at them. Bao Xiaomeng wanted her to leave her alone, but her throat was blocked, so she could only let her hold her hand and keep walking.

They walked along the stairs, corridors, hallways, under trees, in flower beds, and along corridors. The autumn wind blew past them, and the scenery changed constantly.

Bao Xiaomeng was led by her around the entire campus. The tears on her face were blown away by the wind, making her feel sticky and uncomfortable.

She couldn't bear it any longer and stopped Lin Chaoxi: "You've already dragged me halfway across the school..."

They stood outside the school's small pond, and the ground in the distance was a mess.

William Chang stood with his arms folded, staring coldly at his students, asking them to clean up the performance that had been placed on the ground.

As if sensing something, the teacher's cold gaze swept over, and Bao Xiaomeng shrank behind the tree, not wanting to stay there.

"Because I haven't thought of what to say, so I can only drag you away." Lin Chaoxi said righteously.

Bao Xiaomeng looked up in confusion.

"I used to be afraid of him, too." She looked at "Vice Principal Zhang" in the distance, but the moment she opened her mouth, she remembered the story about summer camp that she had told Bao Xiaomeng before.

She told Bao Xiaomeng all the twists and turns in the story, her moments of inner struggle, and all the chicken soups she advised Lu Zhihao to make.

At that time, they each held a cup of oden, walked from the school gate to home, from sunset to dawn. Bao Xiaomeng listened carefully, showing envy, but the next day, she still came in the morning to copy other people's homework, just like the day before.

"What do you want to say?" Bao Xiaomeng asked, "Comfort me? It's okay if the whole class knows about it. I only got 3 points. No need to comfort me."

"No, Xiaomeng, if you try harder..."

"Can I get 10 points if I work hard?" Bao Xiaomeng asked, "Does working hard still make sense to me?"

"I know you want to learn it, but if you can't get into a technical secondary school, it may not be possible."

"What can I do? If I can't get into a technical secondary school, I'll just go to a restaurant and work as a waiter." Bao Xiaomeng looked strange, a little sad, but also very confident. "You really don't have any pain in your back when you're standing. You're so smart, you must not know how tiring it is for people like us with poor brains to learn things. I just can't learn it even if I spend so much time on it. What can I do?"

"Then I can teach you. My father is very good..." Lin Zhaoxi said, feeling at a loss.

"Give it up!" Bao Xiaomeng shook off her hand. "Why do you ask everyone to be the same as you? That's weird." Bao Xiaomeng spoke loudly, as if her loud voice could help her believe every word she said.

Bao Xiaomeng: "You have a father, but you know, my father is dead. My mother played mahjong every day, and I grew up in the mahjong room. My teacher scolded me for being stupid since I was in elementary school. No one cared about me at home, and the teachers at school couldn't control me either. I was able to attend this school because my shabby house is in the school district. My biggest dream is to open a small jewelry store when I save money in the future, so why do you have so many requirements for me?"

"Because your family is like this, you should study harder..."

"You are there, Lin Chaoxi." Bao Xiaomeng pointed to the clouds in the sky, "You only come down occasionally to play with me for a while, and you will go back soon. And I have always been here." She pointed to the muddy ground under her feet, "Please tell me, how can I catch up with you in the sky when it is already difficult for me to walk on the ground?"

Of course Lin Chaoxi almost blurted out, You don’t have to be like me.

But how could she say that?

She finally understood that what Bao Xiaomeng wanted was to be like her, just as she imagined deep down in her heart that Lao Lin and Pei Zhi were the same.

The autumn wind blew off some leaves with yellowed edges. Lin Chaoxi was yelled at by her and strangely recalled some things in the past.

It seems that when she was in primary school, she had chased him like this before. She blocked Lu Zhihao in the men's toilet. She wanted Lu Zhihao not to lower his pursuit because of self-deception, so the young Lu Zhihao gritted his teeth and persevered.

But at this moment, Bao Xiaomeng's face was no longer red. Although there were still tears in her eyes, she was no longer sad. Lin Chaoxi knew very well that Bao Xiaomeng was not Lu Zhihao.

Their families, life experiences, and pursuits are vastly different.

In the face of the real hardships of life, every day is like a quagmire. What else can we do except live in self-deception?

And it seems that all she can do is not say those words, not tell Bao Xiaomeng: You don’t have to want so much, in fact, it would be enough if you were a little better.

But she couldn't say that, because advising Bao Xiaomeng to give up what she really wanted was the same as telling herself: You don't have to do this.

"Mind your own business."

After saying these last words, Bao Xiaomeng shook off her hand and walked away.

Lin Chaoxi stood there, feeling like a fool, and Zhang Shuping looked at her. Although the distance was far, it was so quiet around that Vice President Zhang probably heard everything.

The middle-aged man didn't say anything, but took off his glasses and wiped them with the corner of his clothes. He glanced at him, and Lin Zhaoxi instantly understood what he wanted to say.

——“You are still the same as in elementary school.”

——

That afternoon, Ma Pingping announced the list of students who passed the mathematics league selection examination.

The top 6 students in the exam were selected from the 13 classes in the whole grade, 4 of them were in Class 1 and 2 were in their class.

Pei Zhixiang was of course the first in the grade, and the next five were Zhang Liang, Chen Chengcheng, Lu Zhihao, her and another girl.

At that time, the six of them were called to the office together, and Lin Chaoxi did not check the results in advance. So when he knew that he was ranked fifth and his results were not as good as Zhang Liang and Lu Zhihao, it would be a lie to say that he did not feel disappointed for a moment.

In fact, fifth place is already quite good for her who has been reviewing intensively.

But her first reaction at that time was that she couldn't even be ranked among the best in Anning Experimental Junior High School, so she would be far from being ranked among the best in the province or even in the country.

The Department of Mathematics at Sanwei University does not only recruit students from Anning City.

It's really difficult.

She returned to the classroom with the graded test papers and compared her own paper with Pei Zhi's answer sheet. After the conversation in the small garden ended in vain, Bao Xiaomeng no longer spoke to her.

But in the math class in the afternoon, Lin Chaoxi looked at the red cross on his test paper, but he was still thinking about Bao Xiaomeng's question.

If life has a natural starting point, then she is also very clear that Bao Xiaomeng's starting point is completely different from hers.

Just like her and Pei Zhi's starting points, they were completely different.

So it came back to the question she couldn't answer that day at the vegetable market: How can an ordinary person achieve the winning probability of a genius?

The gap in reality is so deep and difficult to cross, and the courage and determination to change in an instant will definitely not be able to reverse everything.

Well, how could she tell Bao Xiaomeng if even she herself didn't find the answer?

——

In the next few days, Lin Chaoxi worked hard to prepare for the Zhongming class. She tried not to think about Bao Xiaomeng. Old Lin probably noticed that she was in an abnormal mood, but he said nothing.

In fact, Lin Chaoxi couldn't explain why she was in such a bad mood.

She came back to study, to make up for lost time and work hard to get into the mathematics department of Sanmi University.

Why waste your energy on a friendship from junior high school?

During those days, she went to Class 3 of Grade 9 to visit her best friend in junior high school.

She still remembered that the other person's name was Wang Bei. Because Wang Bei's home was also very close to her, she and she walked to and from school together every day. They should have been very close friends, but they completely lost contact later because they did not go to the same high school.

She had been back for so long and was confused and at a loss, so she thought of going to see Wang Bei.

She saw Wang Bei carefully keeping a distance from the boy sitting next to her in the classroom, and heard a girl whom she and Wang Bei once disliked secretly spreading gossip in the corridor that Wang Bei liked someone.

She even recalled that it was that girl who spread the news that she liked Pei Zhi to the whole class, and even the head teacher came to talk to her.

But she could only stand in front of her desk, shaking her head and denying that it was not the case.

When we were in middle school and high school, if boys and girls got a little closer, it would be easy to be mistaken for premature love, so everyone was very careful to keep their distance, but secretly liked each other.

Somehow, perhaps it was Bao Xiaomeng's tears, that made those blurry little scenes become clear.

Many scenes are very sad, just like youth.

Time slips by unnoticed in our hands, and people and things are a bit like salty lemon slices dipped in pure water.

Everyone has only one youth, and we carefully interact with the whole world, constantly establishing our basic views on life and the world. But often, we are always disappointed. We think that the world is like this, but it turns out not to be the case at all.

Then time passed quickly in the constant confirmation and contact.

Except her.

Lin Chaoxi thought.

This is the second time, and she should also find the answer.