"Wait, what did you say again?"
In the courtyard of No. 284 Zhuanzhu Lane, Lao Lin stopped picking vegetables and scratched his ears, feeling very surprised.
"Lu Zhihao and Huajuan said they would come to our house to eat hotpot to celebrate?"
"No, no, the previous sentence."
"Then Teacher Ma agreed to let us take the selection exam for the Mathematics League..."
"You said - 'you' used 21 points to wreak havoc in Class 1, and persuaded Mr. Ma of Class 1 to agree to let 'you' take the Mathematical Union selection exam?" Lao Lin repeated slowly.
"Yeah... Dad, do you think there might be a conspiracy here?"
"I think you are the one who is plotting something." Lao Lin held up a string bean and pointed at her, shaking it. "Who is that 'we'?"
Lao Lin was too sharp. Their plan to "give Dad/Master a surprise" was exposed after only two and a half minutes.
Lin Zhaoxi struggled desperately: "I just said 'we' casually..."
"You can't." Comrade Lao Lin said earnestly, "All gambling is a game of probability. Because there are probabilities, there is only one kind of person who can be invincible and ignore probabilities." Lao Lin held up a string bean, very serious.
"Someone who is good at math?" Lin Chaoxi asked tentatively.
"How stupid!" Lao Lin patted the stone table. "Of course it's the cheater!"
Lin Zhaoxi: “…”
Lao Lin didn't know why he was so angry. He put down the green beans, rummaged in his apron pocket, and finally handed her a hundred-dollar bill in angrily.
Lin Chaoxi looked at the money in his hand and didn't understand: "Are you going to compensate me for the mental damage I suffer from cheating every day?"
"What are you thinking about? Aren't they here to eat hotpot? If there's no vegetables, they can just drink soup. Go buy some quickly." Old Lin was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, waving his hand to chase them away.
Lin Chaoxi said "Oh", turned around and walked two steps with the money in her hand. When she was almost at the door, she picked up the basket and suddenly turned around: "How did you cheat?"
"Of course we rely on our brains," Lao Lin replied.
Lin Chaoxi felt that she shouldn't ask this question.
——
Walking out to the alley entrance, the setting sun was just right, and Lin Chaoxi saw Pei Zhi again. The young man was carrying a schoolbag, looking up slightly, looking at the billboard at the alley entrance.
She carried her basket and patted his shoulder: "Why don't you come in?"
"You said you wanted to give Master a surprise." Pei Zhi's eyes moved over, lowered his head slightly to look at her face, and said, "But Master should have guessed it."
You two really have a tacit understanding...
"Then go knock on the door and see if he'll be startled when he opens it?" Lin Zhaoxi waved at him, "I'm going to buy some groceries first."
Pei Zhi stood there without moving. Lin Chaoxi looked over and saw a promotional poster next to the boy's clean-cut profile.
The poster was very cartoony, with strong color contrast. She made it for a community mental arithmetic activity. When she saw the content on it, Lin Chaoxi couldn't help but blush.
Looking around, most of the posters were dominated by the theme of trees and boys. There was a blackboard under the tree, and a middle-aged man who didn't look like a good person was lying under the tree. It was exactly the scene when she and Pei Zhi first met in the cheese world.
Although the theme fits the theme of "mental arithmetic", it's also a bit obvious...
Lin Chaoxi felt guilty, and quickly stepped forward to pull Pei Zhi away and lead him out of the alley.
"Didn't you ask me to knock on the door?" Pei Zhi turned around and asked.
"Come on, let's go buy some groceries."
This was a pure nonsense excuse, so when she really took Pei Zhi to the market, she was in trouble again.
The environment of the Laojie vegetable market was very poor, with rotten vegetable leaves all over the ground, and from time to time I would be startled by the vegetable snakes in the baskets at my feet. Pei Zhi finally came back, and bringing people to such a place was really not a good way to entertain guests.
"Oh, I forgot to ask my dad what to buy. Would you like to ask for me?" Lin Chaoxi held him back.
"After asking, I still have to come in and tell you." Pei Zhi saw through her thoughts at a glance.
Lin Chaoxi covered his face with one hand, feeling so stupid.
"And no need to ask." Pei Zhi started to move forward.
"ah?"
“Just buy what I like to eat.”
He said.
Lin Chaoxi thought Pei Zhi was just trying to comfort her, but she didn't expect that Master Pei was ordering the dishes seriously.
Semi-finished products are put on the stall.
Pei ordered one pound of pork belly and lamb rolls, and a whole bag of various frozen meatballs. Of all the meats, he only didn't eat beef because he got tired of it when he was abroad.
The stall owner was very happy to see the pretty boy and packed up everything he asked.
"Pork belly is 12, mutton rolls are 18, and the frozen meatballs have to be weighed according to their types." The stall owner put the frozen meatballs on the scale, "This one is 15 per catty, 1 catty 7 taels; this one is 18, 9 taels..."
After they weighed everything, the stall owner took out a calculator and calculated the total for them.
Lin Chaoxi took out the bill and handed it over, calculating rapidly in his mind, but Pei Zhi counted faster: "Seventy-three dollars and four cents."
The stall owner paused while pressing the calculator and said in surprise, "Wow, it's so fast!"
"It's pretty fast." Lin Chaoxi finally came up with the same number and smiled helplessly.
"Children nowadays are so smart." The stall owner put down the calculator, wiped her wet hands on her clothes, happily took the money, gave her the change according to the number calculated by Pei Zhi, and also gave them a box of egg dumplings, but she never pressed the calculator to confirm from beginning to end.
Pei Zhi took the two heavy bags of hot pot ingredients and said, "Thank you."
"You are so smart. You should study hard." After saying that, the auntie turned around with a smile to greet the next customer.
——
"Don't let your aunt fool you. She's not impressed by your intelligence. She's simply attracted by your good looks."
Seeing Pei Zhi carrying a lot of bags, Lin Chaoxi felt embarrassed to be empty-handed, so she bought some sugar-roasted chestnuts and ate them while walking. "I always calculated before, but she always had to press the calculator to confirm it again."
"Um."
"But next time we eat hotpot, you should buy the food. Maybe you can cheat someone else."
"good."
"In fact, I tried, and no matter how hard I practiced, it always took me time to do mental arithmetic. It seems like you can get the answer directly."
She threw the chestnut shells into the plastic bag and peeled another one. "I just revealed my secret because Comrade Lao Lin said it was impossible when he heard that I was killing everyone in Class 1."
"Why?"
"He said that there is only one kind of person who can truly ignore probability—"
"The cheater?" Pei Zhi continued.
Lin Zhaoxi hissed, "How do you know?"
"I played blackjack with my teacher in elementary school. In the end, my teacher threw away all the cards and scolded me for cheating." Pei Zhi felt a little helpless.
Lin Chaoxi almost laughed out loud: "Comrade Lin is so narrow-minded!"
"Is this cheating?" Pei Zhi asked seriously.
"Why not? For ordinary players, the probability of defeating the dealer after mastering the basic strategy is 49%, but if you just sit there, the probability of winning may be 80%?" She paused, "Isn't 80% a little low?"
"Actually... as long as I play enough games, I should be able to win some money."
“How much should this be?”
"99.5%."
"This is too unfair." Lin Zhaoxi raised his chestnut to protest, "Oh my God, this is too unfair. This is not considered cheating. We ordinary people can never reach this probability even if we are extremely poor. What is this person thinking?"
"It should be achievable." Pei Zhi said.
"How?"
"I don't know." Pei Zhi said, "But if you know the answer one day, please tell me."
——
As the sun was setting, more and more people came. Lin Chaoxi was squeezed to the side of Pei Zhi. Pei Zhi asked her to walk inside so that she could buy vegetables more conveniently and have more room to move.
She kept thinking about Pei Zhi's last words, but she found that there might be no answer to this question.
It was obviously a very noisy environment, but because of the hustle and bustle of people and the sounds of bargaining, under the light of the setting sun, it exuded the most authentic atmosphere of fireworks in the world.
"What else do you want to eat?" Lin Chaoxi decided not to think about it, and instead looked up and asked Pei Zhi.
The boy lowered his head and leaned in to answer, "Cabbage, mushrooms, vermicelli, potatoes..."
Lin Zhaoxi: "Tell me less. The money is not enough."
“That’s enough.”
"You don't know, vegetable prices have risen sharply recently." Lin Zhaoxi trembled as he held the only 12 yuan left.
"There is a column showing today's vegetable prices at the entrance of the market. I took a look." Pei Zhi said seriously.
Lin Chaoxi was stunned at that moment. You didn’t just read it. You just remembered it casually after reading it.
"You cheaters."
She smiled almost helplessly.
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