Chapter 6
Xie Qingyan steadied himself, his face flushed. He straightened his wrinkled clothes, looking at Jiang Ci's reddened earlobes, and the rebuttal that was on the tip of his tongue suddenly wouldn't come out. He pursed his lips, and in the end, he only responded softly, with a hint of barely perceptible obedience:
"……oh."
The sunlight was intense, falling between the two of them, and a subtle atmosphere called fluttering was permeating the air.
The heated debate in the library and the sudden hug made this noon quite different.
---
The afternoon sun became gentle, tinting the clouds with a pale golden-pink hue.
Jiang Ci took Xie Qingyan to a popular hole-in-the-wall restaurant near the library and ordered a few dishes of stir-fry.
It turned out to be just a simple stir-fry, but Xie Qingyan exclaimed that it was a delicacy. He ate enough for two people and was so full that Jiang Ci had to take him to the river to digest.
The two walked side by side along the riverbank.
The river water shimmered with tiny sparkles in the sunlight, and the outlines of the tall buildings on the opposite bank were clearly defined.
Xie Qingyan unconsciously slowed his pace, his gaze lingering on this unfamiliar world, everything about which was so new and exciting to him.
He stopped under a sycamore tree whose leaves were mostly golden, bent down to pick up a whole fallen leaf, ran his fingertips along the veins, looked up at Jiang Ci who was patiently waiting for him beside him, and asked with pure curiosity: "Jiang, what is the name of this tree? Its leaves are large and the veins are clear. In autumn, the color is like real gold. It is very beautiful."
Jiang Ci, with his hands in his school uniform pockets, glanced at Xie Qingyan upon hearing this. He didn't look down on Xie Qingyan's ignorance and casually said, "French plane tree." He paused, seemingly feeling it was too brief, and then added, unusually, "A very common tree."
“France…” Xie Qingyan repeated the unfamiliar country name in a low voice, carefully tucking the leaf into her notebook. “This leaf can be used as a bookmark, worthy of its beauty.”
Continuing on, the musical fountain in the square not far away suddenly started, water jets soaring into the air in rhythm, changing into dazzling colors under the lights. Xie Qingyan abruptly stopped, her eyes widening slightly as she stared at the musical fountain, a creation of water and light that seemed to possess a life of its own, momentarily lost in thought.
"This thing can actually move in sync with the music?" he muttered to himself, as if he had seen some incredible mechanical device.
Jiang Ci looked at him, the habitual "I've never seen this before" swirling around in his throat, but he swallowed it back. He stood beside him and calmly explained, "A musical fountain. Just computer-controlled water pumps and lights."
"Computer..." Xie Qingyan repeated the new word, her gaze still following the leaping water, seemingly understanding but not quite, but the amazement in her eyes did not diminish.
After passing the fountain square, a brightly decorated dessert shop came into view. Jiang Ci stopped, his gaze falling on the tempting ice cream image on the shop's signboard. He hesitated for a moment, then turned to Xie Qingyan and asked, "Want some ice cream?"
Xie Qingyan followed his gaze and saw the milky white, nut-decorated spherical object. She honestly shook her head: "I've never tried it."
Jiang Ci looked at Xie Qingyan with a hint of pity in his eyes.
They've never even eaten ice cream; either their family is poor or their parents are overly controlling.
"Wait here." Jiang Ci said, then turned and went into the store. When he came out, he was holding an ice cream cone with a round scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, sprinkled with colorful sprinkles.
"Here you go." He handed it over, his expression unchanged.
Xie Qingyan curiously took it and, imitating the child next to him, tentatively licked it. Instantly, a cool yet extremely sweet and smooth sensation exploded on his tongue, making him involuntarily hiss softly, but his eyes lit up immediately.
"So icy!" he exclaimed softly, but couldn't resist taking a second bite immediately. He savored the rich milky aroma and wonderful sweetness, his eyebrows curving up involuntarily, revealing a pure, almost childlike satisfaction and surprise.
He carefully held the ice cream cone, his brows furrowing slightly from the cold, yet he couldn't help but take bite after bite. His focused and enjoyable demeanor was completely different from that of Xie Caizi, who could quote classical texts and calmly handle provocations in the library.
Jiang Ci stood aside, watching him quietly.
Looking at his eyes, which were slightly squinted from the cold, at the little bit of white cream that accidentally got on the corner of his mouth, and at his undisguised joy from the simple sweet treat.
Suddenly, an extremely unfamiliar emotion welled up in Jiang Ci's heart, like a pebble thrown into stagnant water, creating gentle ripples. His usually tightly pursed lips curved upwards almost imperceptibly as Xie Qingyan focused on eating ice cream.
It was a fleeting, faint smile, so brief it was like an illusion, and he himself didn't even notice it immediately.
The afternoon sun gently enveloped the two of them; one was intently savoring the sweetness of a thousand years later, while the other quietly gazed at that focused expression.
At this moment, the hard, icy shell that Jiang Ci wore, which had protected him from the world, seemed to melt away a corner of itself in the ordinary afternoon sunlight and the other person's simple joy. He was no longer that reclusive monster burdened with a heavy past and covered in thorns; he was just an ordinary boy clumsily trying to share a little sweetness with those around him.
“It’s delicious,” Xie Qingyan said, finishing the last bite of her ice cream cone. She looked at Jiang Ci with a hint of pleasure in her eyes. “Thank you.”
Jiang Ci looked away, gazing at the shimmering river surface, and uttered only a barely audible "Mmm."
The air was filled with the sweet scent of vanilla and an unspoken tranquility. Their shadows, stretched long by the sunlight, occasionally met on the leaf-strewn path.
——
The afternoon sun slanted into the library, casting warm dappled light on the desks. Jiang Ci, who had been exhausted from Xie Qingyan's wildly imaginative explanations of chemistry based on the Five Elements and the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art that morning, decisively adjusted his teaching strategy.
With a stern face, he pushed several science textbooks and English books in front of Xie Qingyan, the key points of which were clearly marked on them.
“I won’t be lecturing this afternoon,” Jiang Ci’s voice carried a calmness bordering on exhaustion, yet it exuded an undeniable authority. “Memorize all of these: formulas, theorems, definitions, vocabulary. If you can’t remember these, all your understanding will be castles in the air.”
He needs to teach his classmate, whose mind contains another universe, how to navigate this world first.
To Jiang Ci's surprise, Xie Qingyan had no objection to the arrangement, and even a hint of delight flashed in his eyes. Reciting texts? This was his forte as the top scholar, an instinct etched into his soul.
"Okay." Xie Qingyan agreed readily, taking the book with both hands as solemnly as if receiving an imperial edict.
He then adjusted his posture, straightening his back and calmly focusing his gaze on the pages of the book. The next moment, his entire demeanor changed abruptly. The lively boy who had been delighted by ice cream and curious about fountains vanished, replaced by an extreme focus and stillness.
He was like a meditating monk, his gaze fixed on the words, his eyelashes barely blinking, only his chest rising and falling with extremely slight breathing. Sunlight outlined his handsome, focused profile, making him seem like a statue carved from the finest white jade, serene, solemn, and completely isolated from the hustle and bustle of the outside world.
Jiang Ci had taken out his competition booklet, ready to practice problems, but his gaze was unconsciously drawn to the sculpture next to him.
He had seen too many people study, frustrated, painful, and scratching their heads, but he had never seen anyone turn memorization into such a ritualistic and even aesthetically pleasing act.
Time slipped away quietly in the stillness.
Less than half an hour later, Xie Qingyan gently closed the physics textbook, raised her eyes, looked at Jiang Ci, and said with her eyes still clear: "I have mastered the parts of this book that need to be memorized."
Jiang Ci paused, her pen still, and looked up abruptly, her eyes filled with disbelief. The highlighted section, though the most crucial point, covered all the concepts, formulas, and unit conversions of senior high school physics—a considerable amount of material.
"...You memorized it?" Jiang Ci's voice was dry, even though he himself didn't realize it.
“Indeed.” Xie Qingyan nodded. To prove it, he didn’t even need to look at the book before beginning to repeat, “Force is the action of one object on another… Acceleration is a physical quantity that describes how fast an object’s velocity changes, defined as the ratio of the change in velocity to the time taken for that change to occur…”
He spoke at a steady pace and with clear enunciation. He not only recited the definition word for word, but also the key formulas, symbols, and units of each physical quantity that followed were all accurate.
The shock in Jiang Ci's eyes gradually turned into a numb understanding. He recalled Xie Qingyan's stunning performance in the Chinese class, and how he effortlessly quoted classical texts when refuting Li Ming... To judge such a being with superhuman memory using common sense is foolish in itself.
He silently took the chemistry book, flipped to the pages containing the periodic table and some important reaction equations, handed it over, and said in a complicated tone, "...Continue."
Xie Qingyan readily accepted the suggestion and once again entered that confident state.
Looking at his single-minded demeanor, Jiang Ci gained a completely new understanding of the word "talent" for the first time. He had always thought of himself as intelligent, but now he realized that compared to a certain extreme talent that focuses on a single field, his intelligence seemed so ordinary.
When Xie Qingyan closed his chemistry book again, preparing to recite, Jiang Ci raised his hand to stop him.
“No need to memorize it anymore,” he said, rubbing his temples, feeling that the energy he had used up that morning had not fully recovered. “I believe you.”
He looked at Xie Qingyan, and in those usually indifferent eyes, the other's image was now clearly reflected, carrying a mixture of helplessness, frustration, and a faint glimmer of admiration for absolute power that even he himself hadn't noticed. He whispered his assessment, as if speaking to himself, yet also as if speaking to Xie Qingyan:
"Your brain is definitely designed to hold books."
Xie Qingyan was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, then a faint and genuine smile appeared on his lips. He didn't refute it, but simply felt that being praised in this way by his seemingly aloof yet strict deskmate wasn't so bad.
The afternoon study time flew by.
The library was exceptionally quiet in the twilight.
The two parted ways at the door. Xie Qingyan stopped, turned to Jiang Ci, and solemnly bowed with his hands clasped in a respectful gesture, his posture upright and his eyes sincere.
"Jiang, thank you for your guidance today. It has cleared up the fog. I will definitely memorize the key points you highlighted and live up to your expectations."
The golden glow of the setting sun fell into Xie Qingyan's clear eyes. The overly earnest gratitude made Jiang Ci turn his face away uncomfortably, only managing a low "hmm" before turning and walking in another direction.
Jiang Ci boarded the bus home, habitually putting on his headphones, trying to shut out the world. As if possessed, he opened a social media app. The next second, his breath caught in his throat.
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