It was hot in the morning, the sun finally unleashed its power, scorching the whole world.

Lin Chaoxi knelt on the bed and packed her schoolbag for a while, but she didn't need to bring anything for the exam. So in the end, she stuffed three bags of Little Raccoon crispy noodles into her schoolbag and went downstairs with satisfaction.

Pei Zhi sat in his own exclusive seat. For more than ten days, he always sat on the left side of the sofa near the door and always got up earlier than all of them, which made people wonder about his sleep time.

Lin Chaoxi glanced at the living room and found that almost all the children were there.

Most of them gathered in front of the Lego table, studying a yellow Lego tractor.

Plastic building blocks are stacked from bottom to top to form a complete and exquisite model. The sun is warm and bright. Young Anakin sits in the driver's seat of the tractor. It seems that his career change is going well.

She stared at the tractor, and the more she looked at it, the more familiar it looked. It seemed that Pei Zhi had been obsessed with tractor models for a while and couldn't extricate himself... Thinking of this, she couldn't help but look at the little boy on the sofa.

You took it?

Pei Zhi raised his index finger and quietly gestured to her,

Of course, the Lego tractor has no special magic to relieve stress, it is just an ordinary toy. But even if Pei Zhidu can't sleep and has to get up early to build Lego to relieve stress, the situation of other children will definitely not be better.

——

"Affected by the subtropical high pressure, the highest temperature in our city will still reach around 37 degrees Celsius, and it will be sunny during the day. Please pay attention to heatstroke prevention and cooling down..."

Elementary school, junior high school, high school group...

All the students waiting for the summer camp midterm exam were already standing outside the exam room. The sound of weather forecasts could be heard from somewhere, along with the sounds of cicadas and math formulas being recited, making the atmosphere before the exam extremely tense.

"This test will be very difficult. I think I will definitely leave."

"I left my notebook of wrong answers in my dormitory. There is a question I don't understand, so I want to go back and get it."

"Shut up, are you annoying?"

A roar erupted from the older child, and the place suddenly became dead silent.

Lu Zhihao was sweating profusely and kept loosening the collar of his T-shirt. He was so scared that he burped and his face turned even paler.

Many children were silent and tried to stay away from those violent high school students.

Only Pei Zhi acted as if nothing had happened. He slowly unfolded the exercise book he had brought with him and handed it over.

"Fan it." His voice rang out, breaking the gloomy atmosphere.

The sun was particularly glaring. Lin Chaoxi also reacted and took out a napkin and handed it to Lu Zhihao, then distributed it to other people around him, just like handing out flyers, stuffing it into everyone's hands.

"Aren't you nervous?" Lu Zhihao asked after wiping his face.

Lin Zhaoxi and Pei Zhi looked at each other, and before they could speak, Huajuan interrupted them.

"Don't ask, they will definitely say it's a perfect score anyway, why should we be nervous!"

"I... I'm still nervous!" Lin Chaoxi quickly raised his hand.

"Why?" Hanamaki asked in surprise.

“What if I don’t get a perfect score?”

Before she could finish her words, she was naturally surrounded by her friends.

——

The noise came from the bottom to the top, and was not very clear when it reached the higher floors.

Someone was standing at the office window.

"I didn't get goosebumps like this before my son's college entrance exam."

The high school teacher said this while looking down at the students who were like a swarm of anxious ants.

"Because your son was admitted to Baicao University." Another teacher mocked him.

"Don't say that."

He turned around with a smile and saw Vice Principal Zhang walking into the office with the test paper bag.

All the teachers fell silent immediately and returned to their seats, pretending to be fully prepared for the exam.

Zhang Shuping sat down, briefly described the examination process, and distributed the examination paper bags one by one.

“Maintaining the fairness of the examination is the top priority.”

"I hope all teachers will strictly observe discipline in the examination room."

"Cheating is strictly prohibited."

These were the last three words he said. After he finished, he heard the noisy sounds of children fighting downstairs. He could clearly hear Lin Chaoxi's voice, the little girl was laughing and wailing for mercy.

"These kids..."

"Not nervous at all!"

The teachers took the test paper bags of their classes and were quite angry.

"Let's adjourn the meeting," he said.

The sun was scorching outside the window, the laughter downstairs gradually faded away, and the teachers in the office had almost all left.

"What's the matter?" Chang Shu Ping raised his head.

Xie Ran was standing beside the table, holding the test paper bag, very close to him. They were the only two people in the office.

Xie Ran asked, "Do you still insist? If the average score of the 12 children in our class is not the first, we will be eliminated?"

"Of course."

"After the midterm exam, I want to resign."

"Sure." said William Chang.

——

"But we have never surpassed the average score of Zhang Liang's group."

Before entering the examination room, I don’t know if it was Lu Zhihao or An Beibei, but one of them brought up the topic again, saying that those who failed to pass the first group would be eliminated.

Lin Chaoxi was tearing open a bag of dry crispy noodles and almost spit out tears: "Why are you talking about Zhang Liang again? Can you change the subject and talk about why I got another xx!"

"You told me to open it!" Huajuan snatched the card, sighed, and wished he could open the crispy noodles again.

Lin Chaoxi stared at him without letting go, but listened closely to the children's discussion.

"Why do you want to stay here so much? Is William Chang more attractive than our teacher Lin?" After listening for a while, she asked unconvinced.

"No, no, it seems to be because..." Anbe paused.

"Because of what?"

"It's embarrassing?"

"Yes, it's so embarrassing to be eliminated like this!" said Lu Zhihao.

"Then study hard on the exam!" Lin Chaoxi.

Huajuan took out a large piece of dry crispy noodles, chewed them and said, "How about this, if our grades are still not as good as Zhang Liang's in the end, we can beat him up before we leave?"

He still had a lot of chicken soup in his mind, but he was blocked by these little brats and couldn't say anything. Lin Chaoxi simply suspected that their nervousness was all pretended.

The topic soon turned to discussing how to go to Zhang Shuping's room in the middle of the night to scare people. The children's faces were full of happiness. They were obviously nervous and scared the moment before, but the next moment they wanted to deliberately do worse in the exam so that they could do something bad.

They were so excited chatting that when Lin Chaoxi put her pencil, ruler and eraser on the desk, she realized that she had sat in the examination room without realizing it, and it seemed that no one had even encouraged each other. In short, the examination process was different from what she had imagined.

The familiar classroom, the familiar lake breeze, the electric fan whirring overhead, all the anxiety and irritation were blocked out.

The 45 students in the junior high group were divided into two examination rooms. There were no members of the same group in the examination room where she was, but Zhang Liang and she happened to be sitting diagonally opposite each other in the same examination room.

When she was looking at Zhang Liang, Zhang Liang was also looking at her.

The sinister young boy sat in the shadow of the back door. He did not provoke anyone. Although he tried hard to put on a cold look as if he was doomed to fail, his tightly pursed lips still betrayed him.

Even Zhang Liang was nervous.

When Lin Chaoxi noticed this, she pointed at the test paper on the podium, then pointed at herself, made a 100-point gesture, then smiled at Zhang Liang and turned around.

It was very strange that at that moment, Lin Chaoxi neither felt that Zhang Liang was hateful, nor did he seem to dislike Zhang Shuping anymore, as if he had no emotions at all.

The invigilator was dividing the test papers at the podium into one stack for the test papers, one stack for the answer sheets, and a piece of goose-yellow scratch paper.

The lake breeze blowing through the hall blew up the test papers one by one, and two of them fell to the ground. A burst of gasps like low gasps came from the classroom. The teacher quickly pressed down those on the table and bent down to pick them up.

In the time it took to go back and forth like this, the clock struck 9:00 and 5 minutes to 9, and the bell rang, indicating that it was time to distribute the papers.

The surroundings were very quiet, like the empty universe, or a forest covered with snow in winter. Test papers were handed down one after another, flying onto every desk like snowflakes.

She bent down and tested the pencil. The tip was not broken and the eraser was still there. There was nothing wrong. Then she spread out the test paper.

10 questions, 6 multiple-choice questions and 4 fill-in-the-blank questions, standard test paper for the Jin Cup competition.

This time, Chang Shuping did not come up with any weird exam process or strange question types. They were just normal Olympiad math questions. Lin Chaoxi was a little surprised as he read through the questions one by one.

The difficulty level was evenly distributed, the test points were clear, and students of different ability levels could be distinguished. She could almost know the answers to the simple questions at a glance, but she was not sure about the most difficult question for a while.

This is a very solid test paper, Lin Chaoxi secretly evaluated it in his heart.

The exam bell rang, and twenty children raised their pencils at the same time. Soon the classroom was filled with the sound of pens rustling, like spring silkworms gnawing on mulberry leaves.

Lin Chaoxi also picked up the pen at the same time, and instead of looking at the last question, he started from the beginning.

Mathematics itself is still mathematics.

It was like a clear stream in a winter forest, with nimble fish swimming in the stream, and she was like a nimble hunter, waiting for an opportunity to spear the fish.

d/a/c/b……

She had no problem with the first nine questions, but her pen stopped at the tenth question.

There are 9 teams of runners, each with 3 runners, each team is numbered 1-9 and distinguished by 9 colors. But at the finish line, their positions and graphic structure change as follows...

Please find the structure of the graph formed by the athletes at the end point.

At first glance, this question seems to be a logical reasoning problem, but it also involves sequence, so it is definitely not that simple.

This is the deciding question.

She is very aware of this.

After looking at it for a while, she vaguely remembered seeing the answer when she was preparing for an IQ competition in college, but now she couldn't remember it at all. It would be a lie to say that she didn't feel regretful for a few seconds.

But it was useless to recall the answers at this time. Previously, she could rely on the experience of adults, but facing this test that actually tested her ability and intelligence, any previous advantages no longer existed. She was on the same starting line as all the other students. There was no shortcut except to try her best to answer the questions.

Lin Chaoxi focused her attention on the question and picked up the pen again. Recalling the problem of thinking that Lao Lin had emphasized many times, she wrote down her ideas step by step on the paper and began to try.

If one exploration didn't work, she would try another. She filled up a sheet of paper and began to write a rough draft behind the test paper. Time passed by, she was completely immersed in it, and she didn't even hear the teacher reminding her that there were still 15 minutes left before the end of the test.

But she kept hitting a wall, like a wall across a valley. She tried the last solution and found that she couldn't find any correct idea except brute force.

The exam will end in 10 minutes. But if she takes this route, she may only try a small solution in 10 minutes. She needs a little patience and luck.

——Anything in this world can happen to anyone, it’s no big deal.

Lin Chaoxi took a deep breath, thought of this sentence for no reason, and began to write.

——

When walking out of the examination room, Lin Chaoxi still had a feeling of uncertainty and trance.

The scorching heat hits us in the face, the sun shines brightly, and the gaps between the leaves are filled with dazzling sunlight like diamonds.

All around him were the voices of students. Lin Chaoxi could not hear clearly what they were saying, but he felt that it was like a happy or unhappy piece of music. He could not tell the tonality, but it was very clear anyway.

She looked at the black pencil marks on the edges of her palms. She had not yet finished the last test question. When she stepped down the stairs, someone patted her on the shoulder.

Pei Zhizheng put on his cap and looked at her.

Lin Chaoxi hurriedly asked: "What's the answer to the last question?"

"There is only one correct answer." Pei Zhi said.

Lin Chaoxi thought about it, and suddenly felt relieved. They smiled at each other and nodded.

Not only she, but every student who walked out of the examination room had a similar feeling of trance. The high-pressure study life for many days, the feeling of trying their best not to be eliminated, suddenly disappeared at the moment of the exam.

It’s hard to describe the feeling. There will be many more exams in their lives, but this time it seems very different.

It seems like I have never worked so hard, and I have never wanted to lose so badly.

Before they knew it, the 12 of them were patting each other on the shoulders and greeting each other and gathered together again.

Lao Lin stood outside the woods in the distance with his hands in his pockets. He leaned against a tree with flowers that looked like wind chimes. The dense and thick white flowers were tied in strings, making people look down on him.

Of course, it's also possible that the sun's rays were too bright, but Lin Chaoxi knew that it was her father.

She jumped up and waved at him. But Lao Lin did not raise his hand, but just looked at her from a distance. He seemed to be doing nothing, and also seemed to be waiting for something.

Probably waiting for her to finish and then go to the appraisal institute to get the report.

Lin Chaoxi took two steps towards Old Lin, and someone called her from behind.

"Let's go back to the classroom." Lu Zhihao shouted.

——

It is a custom in summer camp to release the results immediately after the exam. It is also a custom that the more important the exam, the faster the results will be released.

45 students returned to the classroom collectively, and about half of them left after about half an hour.

They only stayed here for ten days, but perhaps the experience during these ten days was so unforgettable that even the words "Zhang Shuping, a bad guy" written on the desks exuded a lingering aura.

Outside the window was still the big lake. In just ten days, the wild ducks on the lake had not grown fat.

The children started to discuss their answers in low voices, but as they talked, they realized that the results would be out soon and there was no point in talking about this.

Lin Chaoxi took out the last bag of dry crispy noodles and threw it to Huajuan.

Huajuan pressed the mouth of the bag: "Which card do you need?"

"Gao Qiu."

"Shit, I've never opened this card before. It doesn't even exist."

"I... our school sells a Gao Qiu for 300!"

When An Beibei heard about collecting cards, she came over excitedly and said that 300 yuan was not a small amount in those days, which was enough to show how rare the non-existent Gao Qiu cards were.

"Brother Juan, can you please? If not, don't waste my last pack of Raccoons." Lin Chaoxi lay on the table and tried to grab it.

Huajuan quickly took the dry crispy noodles under the table and stopped her from touching them: "Let me try, let me try."

"If we could really draw Gao Qiu, we might actually get first place..." Lu Zhihao muttered to the side.

"Really?"

“Quick, quick, quick.

The children's eyes immediately lit up, and they almost wanted to worship her pack of teddy bears. Superstitious activities are popular no matter what time and space they are in.

Huajuan held the crispy noodles high and pinched the bag with both hands. Just as he was about to open it, a hand suddenly popped out and took the crispy noodles away from the bottom.

With a swish sound, Pei Zhi directly tore open the packaging bag.

When Xie Ran walked into the classroom, the entire senior class erupted in cheers like a tsunami.

"Wow! It's really Gao Qiu!"

"300 bucks, 300 bucks!"

"Show me, show me!"

Almost all the boys gathered at the back door. Heads were moving and countless little hands were reaching out as if trying to grab something.

Xie Ran stood on the podium for a long time, but no one paid any attention to him. He looked down at the test paper and the thin report card, and began to doubt his life.

Finally he cleared his throat and asked, "What baby?"

At first, it was quiet, and all the children seemed to be under a spell. Then someone slowly turned around and saw him. Someone looked at him and said, "Teacher Jie!"

With a loud bang, like a broken bird's nest, the children finally reacted and flew back to their seats.

More than ten days ago, when the results of the first summer camp exam were reported, they were still talking about this and that, but this time, after everyone sat back in their seats, no one said a word.

The classroom was silent, except for the sound of wild ducks by the lake, which sounded particularly lonely and loud.

"The results are out." Xie Ran said.

45 little faces were tense, and Xie Ran was also a little nervous for a moment. He wanted to say something, but found that no words to ease the atmosphere were appropriate.

"Then I'll just report my grades directly," he said.

There was still no response from the audience.

Xie Ran lowered his head, holding the report card, half-raised. The report card he had just filled out was wet with ink, and the wind blew the paper slightly.

Xie Ran steadied his breath and read out, "Group One has four people. Zhang Liang, 90 points; Wang Feng, 80 points; Lu Ming, 80 points; Xu Zhao, 90 points. The average score of the midterm exam is 85 points."

The classroom was still quiet. This group's score was already very high, but the brief celebrations after each score came out stopped. The children stared with bated breath, waiting for the next group's score.

Xie Ran looked at the group of boys and girls in the corner, lowered his head, and read out: "An Beibei, 80; Hua Juan, 70; Chen Chengcheng, 90; Lu Zhihao, 90..."

As the grades were read out one after another, the classroom became quieter and quieter. Lin Chaoxi quickly calculated the average score, his mood fluctuating like a roller coaster.

Jie Ran reported very slowly.

After the results of the top 10, their total score was 840, with an average score of 84, which was 1 point away from the average score of the first group.

If the last two are both 90, they will tie with the first group, unless...

Unless she and Pei Zhi both get full marks.

Not only them, but the rest of the class was waiting.

At this moment, Xie Ran stopped.

The young college student was finally no longer the nauseous look he used to be. It was as if something in his body had changed since a certain moment many days ago.

Maybe even Jie Ran himself doesn't know it, but a serious look can never deceive people.

Xie Ran put down the paper in his hand and said, "For so many days, although I am your teacher, I am actually just a college student. I am also in a period of confusion and at a loss in life. What exactly is mathematics and why should I learn it? I suddenly don’t understand it very well..."

He seemed to be mumbling to himself, or to be speaking to them: "But after teaching you for so many days, I seem to see again those things that I was once familiar with but later forgot, but are actually very, very wonderful. I can't really explain what they are, but if I have to summarize them, I think it is the talent, hard work, and determination that you have shown in the process of learning mathematics..."

"It may sound corny, but I hope you can applaud yourselves for your talent and perseverance, for your occasional flashes of wisdom and your hard work..."

At first, the children didn’t understand what he was talking about and felt confused, but gradually, they probably recalled their daily studies, the days and nights they spent struggling with difficulties, and the ecstatic feeling they felt when they solved a problem.

The applause from the whole class gradually rose, getting louder and louder, like a downpour that made your body boil.

Amidst the applause, Lin Zhaoxi heard Jie Ran say, "Lin Zhaoxi, 100 points; Pei Zhi, 100 points. The average score of Group 2 is 86.7 points."

When he heard the results, Lin Chaoxi felt it was unreal, perhaps because it was still hot near the lake.

But someone was pushing her, someone was patting her, and someone was whistling at her. This noisy feeling made her feel like there was a thin film between her and the world.

She looked down at the Gao Qiu card on the table. The film on the card was reflective, so the person's face and most of the clothes were not clear.

She touched the card, and perhaps it was the stimulation of the money that made her feel a little more real.

Did she do the right thing?

She did the right thing!

They won?

They won!

When I looked up again, the diaphragm disappeared and the surrounding sounds were completely filled in.

The children were completely excited, some even clapped their hands on the table in celebration, and even those who were not members of their group seemed to be infected by the excitement and gave them a fist pump.

On the podium, Jie Ran looked very relieved, yet also a little regretful.

The classroom gradually became quiet.

Zhang Liang had been looking down with his fists clenched tightly. The moment he looked up and saw Jie Ran's expression, he suddenly seemed to grasp some hope and raised his hand and shouted, "Teacher, what is the average score of their first 10 exams?"

"78 points." Xie Ran said calmly

"What about us?"

"83.5."

That day, the words that Chang Shuping said when he stood on the podium echoed in my mind again - the usual score accounts for 30%, the test score on July 15 accounts for 70%, and the final elimination is based on the average score of the group calculated based on the total score.

Zhang Liang slammed the table and stood up, pointing at them and shouting loudly, pretending to be very righteous: "Your total score is only 84.1, and ours is 84.55. You lost, and we are the first!"

After Zhang Liang finished shouting, they all started celebrating loudly.

They shouted twice, and the whole classroom was quiet. The children looked at them with questioning eyes, and they stopped awkwardly.

Lin Chaoxi calculated and found that Zhang Liang's calculation was indeed correct. They were just 0.5 points short of the total score.

"So what?" she asked very calmly.

The proud little boy, who was as peacock-like, had wandering eyes and obviously shrank.

"Our overall score is higher," said Zhang Liang.

"So what!" This is Hanamaki.

"Isn't it because you replaced the group with someone with better grades in the end?" This is the little girl from Group 6.

"In the end, we are taller than you!" This is An Beibei.

"We will be better than you in the future!"

"We will be better than you!"

The children were talking to each other, their faces were red but their eyes were bright, showing their determination to never give up.

Yes, they have tried their best and the result is good. They can shout at people who like or dislike them with a clear conscience!

Zhang Liang has something else to say.

At this time, Chen Chengcheng's voice rang out.

"Even if we are eliminated, we will continue to learn," he said.

This is a very ordinary sentence. The little boy who has always been like seaweed raised his head and said to the person who always bullied him.

There was still a lot of noise all around, but compared to what was going on just now, the noise now seemed very real.

Good results come after hard work, which is probably something that only exists in novels or hot-blooded comics. The real world is always neither good nor bad, but it may not give you the ending you want most.

Is this the end?

Lin Chaoxi was very uncertain.

Countless scenes flashed through her mind, and she was very clear-headed. What she understood most clearly was what William Chang said, because they would always give up, sooner or later.

But they didn't make excuses, nor did they give up. They had already won, but the difference was less than 0.5 points...

Lin Chaoxi clenched his fists. Was he going to leave? A poor student surpassed the best student. Leaving like this was already glorious enough, but was that all?

Everyone has done their best.

But has she really done all she can?

Lin Chaoxi looked up at the ceiling, looking at a place that was higher than the ceiling.

Finally, she held on to the desk and stood up!

Xie Ran was stunned, and the whole class looked at her with confusion.

Lin Chaoxi rushed out of the classroom without hesitation, turned left, went up the stairs, and started running.

The wind blew past her ears, and she felt the blood in her body was burning.

The most difficult moment is this moment, when all the signs are telling you that it is enough, just leave and give up, there is no point in persisting, and you don’t even know what you are persisting in.

But she was still climbing, and the aimless stairs in front of her seemed to have no end, but this was wrong, she still felt regretful, she still felt regretful for everyone.

This is not what she wants, and she doesn't want to give up yet.

Standing in front of the familiar ochre-red wooden door, Lin Chaoxi had difficulty breathing, but she still raised her heavy arms and knocked hard three times.

"Come in."

Pushing open the door, dazzling sunlight suddenly poured in. The middle-aged principal was sitting in front of the French window. Only his outline could be seen clearly, deep, dark, and majestic.

"What's the matter?" asked William Chang.

Lin Chaoxi was breathing heavily. She knew that Zhang Shuping had scolded her and even looked down on her such persistent efforts.

But she still walked towards him step by step.

She was close enough to Zhang Shuping, yet very far away. She looked at him, staring into his deep eyes that knew no joy.

It was at that moment that she realized that this was not a dragon, but a mountain.

But even if it is a mountain, people can still move it before they die. Even if they die, their descendants can still work hard to move it.

As is true of man to man, so is it of man to mathematics.

All efforts of the human world are aimed at continuously moving that mountain away.

Lin Zhaoxi said: "Our midterm exam scores were higher than Zhang Liang's group."

"I know."

“But the overall score was less than 0.5 points.”

"I know that, too."

“But you’re still wrong.”

"Where did I go wrong?"

"We work hard enough and are good enough. The grades you use to measure us are only a small part of us. There are many, many things that you cannot measure that determine that we are qualified to stay!"

Zhang Shuping looked at her with a searching and meaningful gaze. Lin Chaoxi didn't know if it was a mockery.

"So, even though you hate me so much, you still come upstairs to beg me?"

"I'm not begging you, but if we leave like this, doesn't that mean we've given up, just as you said? In any case, to prove that I won't give up, I'm going to try again."

"I see." Zhang Shuping looked at him and stood up. He stuffed all the things he had just sorted out on his desk into his bag. "So, you win."

——

When going downstairs, Lin Chaoxi was still confused.

After stepping down the last few steps, he saw the dark face of Comrade Lao Lin.

My father was holding a piece of Guangming ice cream in his hand. The ice cream looked soft, but it still had a white and delicious sweetness.

Lin Chaoxi did three steps at a time, stepped off the last step, rushed up, and hugged Lao Lin tightly.

"Wait, wait, the ice cream is dripping down." Lao Lin struggled.

Lin Zhaoxi pulled him, forcing him to look at her at eye level. She took a bite of the ice cube and said, "Master..."

"Call me daddy."

Lin Chaoxi was already in a daze. When she heard these words, she was stunned for several seconds. It felt like her ears were stuffed with wet cotton and her voice lost its shape.

"You went to the appraisal office secretly?"

"No, but there is still something in this world called a telephone."

Lao Lin's face was dark, and apart from some redness in the corners of his eyes, there was almost no emotion visible on his face.

"Why aren't you excited at all?" Lin Chaoxi asked.

The white ice cream flowed on her hands. She tried hard to discern the emotion on her father's face, but she found that it should be happiness, an unreal feeling like waking up from a dream.

"There will be a burden in the future, why should we get excited?"

Lin Chaoxi was stunned, thinking that the feeling of waking up from a dream and the joy must have been an illusion, but the next moment, Old Lin pressed the back of her head hard and held her tightly in his arms.

It was not until the ice cream melted into cream and dripped onto her hand, turning his entire shoulder white, that she heard Lao Lin whisper, "I'm sorry."

What are you sorry for?

"I will take good care of you."

Lao Lin did not answer, but just said this.

It was still the scorching summer wind, hot and dry, with a determination to melt everything, making one's skin warm and blood boiling.

The chirping of cicadas fills the space at noon in summer.

Lin Chaoxi put her arms around her father's shoulders and rubbed his forehead.

Don't be sorry, Lao Lin.

I have received your love and care for many years, and it is my turn to take care of you in the future.

And in this world, your daughter, she really needs you.

She is me, and she is not me.

She may still be a child, but I am probably grown up.