Chapter 1

'Except for work, your father stayed at home all the time, doing nothing but quietly reading some books that you couldn't understand at all. You know, those books are related to engineering, and you also know that your father graduated from a prestigious engineering school.

But he never did any engineering-related work. He would rather collect government relief and sweep the streets than look for a job.

People who knew him called him Weird Old John.

Yes, your name comes from him. You wonder why your mother didn't want you to have the same surname as your father but gave you the same name as your father, but you never asked, because you thought that such a question would only get you a scolding or even a beating.

You remember when your teacher asked you to write about your father in elementary school, you described your father in your composition as a gentleman with a good family background, good manners and knowledge. In your composition, your father is a bridge engineer who lives in a wealthy neighborhood. He loves you very much, will show you his bridge model, tell you bedtime stories, and take you camping. That is all you fantasize about your father, although your father did not do any of them.

You specifically asked your father to sign this essay, but he just signed it hastily without reading the content.

Because of this composition, you were criticized by your teacher, your classmates laughed at you for being fanciful, and your mother was furious about your composition.

You get used to all this.

You prefer to stay with your father than your mother's house. Although his house is small and messy, and there are bugs under the mattress that disturb you at night, your father will not yell at you or smash bottles when he is drunk. Here you can read books that your peers can't understand, some are mathematics, some are physics. There are countless books in your father's house, most of them are broken, and you often see some formulas that are only half of the formula and you don't know what the other half is.

Only when you read can you experience the long-lost happiness. You know that you are smarter than most people, just like your father is smarter than most people. You are the same. You feel that you understand him and he understands you.

You often think that the reason you have no friends is not because of your old clothes that have been washed so well, not because of your schoolbag picked up from the trash can, and not because of your family that relies on having children to get government subsidies, but because geniuses are always lonely.

Your father is so eccentric because he is a solitary genius.

Your father often sits alone in the room, reading a book that you find difficult to understand for an entire afternoon, and only reluctantly goes out with cleaning tools to deal with the garbage in the neighborhood when dusk approaches. He comes back at night, smelling of garbage, and finds something to eat, then continues to read his book.

The man your mother used to call a lunatic when your parents lived together answered your every question, heated up your meals in the microwave, reminded you to eat, put you to bed, and even walked you to the block when you were at school.

You like this lunatic.

You like eating with your father the most. His movements are always the most neat. Even when sitting on the ground, he always keeps his back straight. His hands are never stained with any sauce. He never makes any noise when chewing food, and he never talks to others while eating.

Whenever you lived at your father's house, he would buy you a bacon and egg sandwich after work in the morning. Although your mother would also make you a sandwich when she was in a good mood, with eggs, meat, tomatoes, lettuce and salad dressing, which was more abundant than the one your father bought, you still liked the one your father bought for you. Because you knew that your father never ate sandwiches, he bought them for you, while your mother just wanted to eat them.

You like the feeling of being unique. Even if your father doesn't like you and he buys you a sandwich just for fun, it's the only privilege you have until you are 14.

.

When you were 14, you moved out of your mother's house like your brothers and sisters.

Your departure did not cause your mother to curse or quarrel. She has found a new boyfriend and has given birth to two more children. Becoming a mother again has improved her temper a lot. She has no time to pay attention to you, and you no longer clean the house as often as you did when you were a child.

In fact, she may be eager for you to move out. With three more people in the family, the spacious home is no longer enough. Your departure can free up a room, and she does not have to bear any expenses for raising you and can still receive the allowance as usual.

Knowing that you want to move out, your sister Sunny contacted you and asked you to live with her. She is a very outstanding woman. With her own efforts, she won a full scholarship to study at the police academy. After graduation, she joined the local police station and is now a policewoman. She is also happy to take care of you, an outstanding brother.

But you refused because you wanted to live with your father.

You were surprised that your father was willing to let you live in his house. Even though he said that he had already paid child support and would not spend a penny on you, and he only provided you with a small bed, and you had to pay for everything yourself, it was still a surprise.

You think he would accept it, probably because you spend the most time with your father among his three children.

In order to make money, you started delivering milk and newspapers every morning and doing odd jobs after school. Despite this, your grades were still excellent.

Over the years, my mother has been changing boyfriends and even found a job, but my father is still the same, living alone, without friends, and stubbornly rooted like a nail in a wealthy neighborhood that does not belong to him.

A few years ago, he started writing notes, which were filled with incomprehensible formulas and sketches. His sister visited him several times, hoping that he would change his job and living environment, but each time ended in a quarrel. Since he threw away all the things his sister brought him last year, his sister has never visited him again.

You also begin to realize that you and your father are different.

You don't understand him at all and can't comprehend him, but you are so eager to understand him, which may be why you are so stubborn to live with him.

But you don’t hate him because he is the only elder who will attend your parent-teacher meetings, even though you only have two elders.

You wonder why your father never mentions his relatives. Your mother would curse her father who was abusive and drunk when she was drunk, but your father seemed to have jumped out of a crack in the stone and had no relatives or friends.

You only know that he is an immigrant, you don't even know his country of origin or his past. Sometimes you think he must have come from a wealthy family with good upbringing, and sometimes you think he grew up in a violent slum family like your mother.

He never spoke of it and just stayed alone in his little hut, cut off from the world.

He is such a weirdo.

Same as you.

.

At the age of 19, you went to work in a milk factory to raise money for college tuition.

This is a very hard job. You have to carry and empty half-person-high buckets of milk all the time and work ten hours a day. It is difficult to find a quiet place in the noisy factory, and the crude jokes between colleagues make it impossible for you to fit in with them.

You are a celebrity here because you were admitted to the University of Manchester, which is not as good as your father's alma mater, but it is enough to impress people around you. You know that your fate is about to change because of your extraordinary mind, which is the most precious thing your father has given you.

But you still can't understand the books your father reads, the notes he writes, and his image in your mind is more mysterious. He is smarter and better than you think. You find that you can't be him, so you don't apply for the bridge construction major you once wanted to study like him, but choose biology, the subject you really like.

To celebrate, you used the money you saved to buy your father a suit that you could afford and share your joy with him. Unfortunately, your father didn't like the gift. You never saw him wear the suit you carefully selected for him, and you may not even have opened the gift.

From that day on, you deeply realized that he didn't love you at all, he didn't love anyone, he had always lived in his own world. What you thought was his specialness to you was just your illusion, you were just a blood-related stranger to him.

After realizing all this, you moved out and rented an apartment with the help of Sunny, which was close to the school and had a better environment without garbage and rats. You never gave your father anything again, but just visited him occasionally like Sunny did before.

The word "parents" has finally left your life. You are no longer bound by anything. You truly begin to be yourself and experience your own life.

You start a new life.'