The word "Chang Suan" comes from the Eastern Han Dynasty's "Book of Han: The Biography of the End of the Army", which refers to "the power to defeat the enemy". Lu You, a scholar in the Song Dynasty, also wrote in his poem "Reading Military Books at Night": "If Chang Suan can really be requested, I will not hesitate to mount my horse."
If you are really good at riding, don't hesitate to get on the horse. Jiang Yubai likes this sentence very much.
He and Lin Zhixia have known each other for more than ten years and are each other's best friend, partner, and lover. He named his daughter "Chang Zhuan", implicitly expressing his wish to go forward hand in hand with her. Although he does not have a daughter yet, he can imagine it. He held Lin Zhixia's hand steadily, and seemed to be able to feel her pulse beating.
She said nothing and leaned her head on his shoulder.
Outside the car window, the night was flowing, pedestrians were bustling on both sides of the wide streets, skyscrapers were lined up, and the lights of thousands of houses were shining. Lin Zhixia felt comfortable and calm. She gently touched the back of Jiang Yubai's hand, and finally intertwined her fingers with his. Even though they didn't talk out loud, the warmth in their pulses was unspoken.
Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia returned to the Jiang family manor, making a special trip to visit their cousin who was about to turn one month old.
My cousin was just one month old, still a tiny baby. She lay on a bed surrounded by rails, sleeping peacefully. Lin Zhixia stood far away and watched her, not daring to take a step forward, for fear of disturbing her sweet dream.
"So cute." Lin Zhixia commented from the bottom of her heart.
Jiang Yubai hooked his fingers around hers. The room was dimly lit and silent. She turned to look at him, her eyes clear and sparkling. She said in a very soft voice, "In a few years, we'll have a baby too."
"As cute as you." Jiang Yubai predicted.
He led Lin Zhixia out of the room. His uncle and aunt were chatting outside the door.
The uncle's face was full of joy as a father for the first time. He put his arm around Jiang Yubai's shoulders and selflessly taught his nephew the secret of "how to be a good father". He also instructed: "Set a date as soon as possible. Your aunt and I are looking forward to your wedding."
Jiang Yubai took the opportunity to discuss the wedding arrangements with Lin Zhixia in detail that night. Lin Zhixia and her family all liked islands, so Jiang Yubai decided to hold the wedding in Hainan. He opened a perpetual calendar and turned to the page of August 2018, and Lin Zhixia immediately came over.
The halo of the lamp spread out, and her thick eyelashes blinked twice, like the wings of a black butterfly. She held her chin with her left hand and pointed her finger on the perpetual calendar with her right hand: "August 24th is a good day for traveling and getting married. This day is good. After the wedding, in a few days, I can celebrate your birthday."
Jiang Yubai circled "August 24" in red pen and wrote next to it: "Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia's wedding."
Lin Zhixia suddenly had an idea and called him coquettishly, "Husband."
Jiang Yubai had never heard her use this tone before. He was distracted for a moment, his strokes were long and drawn, his expression was still calm: "Which relatives and friends do you want to invite? Make a list, I will send out the invitations."
Lin Zhixia just smiled and said, "Hubby, look at me."
Jiang Yubai remained unmoved: "Finish the work first."
Jiang Yubai knew that the more Lin Zhixia reacted to the word "husband", the more interesting it was to her. She had always been like this since she was a child, with a strong curiosity and a strong desire to explore. When she was a child, she would keep calling "Little Jiang Zong, Little Jiang Zong", and now, she said, "Husband?"
Jiang Yubai closed the perpetual calendar, opened a work notebook, looked through the project plan for next year, and said, "In late August, we will take a half-month vacation."
Jiang Yubai held his temper and waited for Lin Zhixia to come and pester him.
Sure enough, Lin Zhixia pushed his notebook away and moved her chair closer to him.
Before she uttered a word, he grasped her wrist, bent slightly, and kissed her lips smoothly, sucking her lip gloss to quench his thirst. He also repeated her nickname in a very gentle voice. Lin Zhixia's heart suddenly boiled, waves rolled, and the burning heat melted her ears.
Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia decided on the wedding date and notified their families.
Lin Zhixia's parents were happy for their daughter, but also a little worried and reluctant. For this reason, the Lin family held a family meeting to discuss the details of the wedding.
Mom sat on the sofa in the living room, holding Lin Zhixia's hand and said, "Xia Xia will only be 24 years old next year and will get married..."
Lin Zeqiu interrupted and said, "Jiang Yubai can't wait to get married."
Dad seemed to have changed sides: "Qiuqiu, your sister and brother-in-law have a good relationship. Don't always find fault with your brother-in-law. It's not easy for him either. He is a very sensible child."
Lin Zeqiu looked at his father without saying a word. His father continued to chatter on: "After Xia Xia and Xiao Jiang got married, they lived in the community across the street, not far from us. Xia Xia would come home every week to live. Your mother and I were satisfied."
Mom suddenly said, "Qiuqiu, you are a few years older than your sister. Your sister is about to get married, but you still don't have a girlfriend? Are there any suitable girls in the company? Otherwise, Mom can introduce you to a girl."
Lin Zeqiu was eating an apple. He almost choked on the fruit pulp. He quickly looked at Lin Zhixia, signaling his sister to say a few words to help him out - with his sister's language ability, it would be a piece of cake to fool his parents.
However, Lin Zhixia took a sip of strawberry yogurt and looked at Lin Zeqiu quietly. Lin Zeqiu knew that this sister was not reliable at all, so he could only bring up the company's hard rules: "Our company does not allow office romances. If you don't believe me, ask Lin Zhixia."
Lin Zhixia nodded: "Brother is right."
"Where are your classmates?" Mom asked, "Do your friends or your sister know any single girls? You should ask, Qiuqiu, and let them introduce you to some."
Lin Zeqiu wiped his hair. He had short black hair, which was dark and lush. He looked handsome, 1.87 meters tall, had a good job and education, was honest, and had a very good sister. With such conditions for choosing a spouse, he should be fine, but why can't he find a girlfriend? - Mom sighed and said, "I'm not urging you, and your father and I are not in a hurry to have a grandson. Your sister has started a family, and Mom is afraid that you will be lonely in the future."
"Being married doesn't necessarily mean you're not lonely," Lin Zeqiu retorted, "When I have nothing to do, I go out and drink with friends, play ball, watch games, and it's very enjoyable. Once you get married, you'll be constrained and it's troublesome."
Lin Zeqiu leaned back against the sofa, stretched out his legs, and rested his arms on the back of his head. His lazy and leisurely demeanor and his attitude of not having any hope for marriage at all made his father worried.
His father asked him, "Qiu, you are in your twenties now, and you still only play with boys?"
Lin Zhixia winked at Lin Zeqiu, but Lin Zeqiu's reaction was not as fast as Lin Zhixia's. He did not understand what his father said for a moment, so he answered truthfully: "Yes, what's wrong?"
Dad put down the teacup in his hand and said: "When Dad was your age, Xia Xia could already make soy sauce."
Lin Zhixia pointed out a mistake: "I didn't beat the soy sauce."
Dad was stunned for a moment, and Lin Zhixia spoke up for her brother again: "Lin Zeqiu is an adult, let him choose what kind of life he wants to live. No matter what, I stand on my brother's side."
Lin Zeqiu stretched out a hand with his palm facing up, and Lin Zhixia high-fived him. The two siblings seemed to have a perfect understanding.
Mom and Dad stopped urging Lin Zeqiu to find a girlfriend. As parents, they didn't want to upset their son, nor did they want to argue with their daughter. In addition, their son and daughter were very busy at work, and the family rarely had time to get together and chat, so they had to put aside their relationship issues for the time being.
Dad took the initiative to ask about Lin Zhixia's situation at school. He heard that Lin Zhixia was the deputy leader of the four-school joint research group, with a heavy workload and her own foundation project. He didn't know if she could handle it.
"I can do it," Lin Zhixia described to her parents. "I work in the lab, and before I know it, the morning has passed. After lunch, I continue to work in the afternoon. Day after day, time flies by. Because I am doing something I like, I don't feel tired."
Mom peeled open an orange and ate a slice of the flesh herself. After confirming that the orange was sweet, she passed it to Lin Zhixia: "Xia Xia, listen to mommy, take it easy at school, don't get too tired, your health is the most important thing, mommy and daddy both love you."
"Yeah," Lin Zhixia said vaguely while eating an orange, "I know."
Oranges have a mellow taste, sweet with a hint of fragrance, this is the taste of home.
Since the establishment of the "Four-school Joint Research Group", Lin Zhixia's research progress has accelerated a lot. Her colleagues are all elites from all over the country, and the students under them have their own strengths. After a short period of adjustment, everyone's cooperation has become smoother.
Lin Zhixia and Tan Qianche are both core members of the research group. Their research groups have attracted much attention, and invisible competitive pressure has fallen on the two groups of students. Although Lin Zhixia is still gentle to her students, Tan Qianche emphasizes the "goals and plans of graduate students" every week and also prepares a "weekly self-evaluation form" for the students.
Tan Qianche reminded Lin Zhixia of her Indian senior at Cambridge countless times. According to Lin Zhixia's personal experience, the Indian senior's strict teaching style could also successfully motivate some students. She had no right to interfere with Tan Qianche's teaching methods, and Tan Qianche often held group meetings with her.
At present, the focus of their joint research group of four universities is to develop quantum chips, which is an extremely difficult and complex problem. Lin Zhixia's ideas are also very bold. She completely subverted the previous operation mode of quantum bits and proposed a novel reform method. A small number of colleagues in the group disagreed with her, but Tan Qianche and Gu Likai were quite supportive.
In order to make a prototype of the chip as quickly as possible, Tan Qianche divided the tasks into smaller parts, assigned them to his students, and continued to push them.
The week before the winter break, Tan Qianche spoke at a joint meeting of the two groups: "There are some things that your teacher Lin will not say, so I will say them for her. Your teacher Lin's quantum technology company has created a new graph theory that combines classical computers and quantum algorithms, greatly improving the security of network information transmission. The government and enterprises have cooperated with her. However, this does not mean that a real quantum computer has been launched..."
He looked at Xu Lingbo, as if he was telling him this specifically: "Quantum computers have three core requirements: algorithms, coding, and chips. Chips are the top priority and are currently under development. If you go home during the winter break this year, you will miss this opportunity to participate."
The atmosphere in the huge conference room was extremely tense, but Tan Qianche smiled and said, "Let me give you an example. A went home, but B did not. A was relaxing and playing at home, while B was learning new knowledge and attending academic conferences. After a month's winter vacation, how big is the gap between A and B?"
There was silence.
Tan Qianche added: "This year, you all should not go home, but stay in the laboratory to work."
He stood at the end of the long table, holding the table with both hands, and asked, "Who is in favor and who is against?"
Xu Lingbo whispered: "Teacher Tan is not a human being because he exploits students."
However, Tan Qianche's next words were: "1,000 yuan labor fee per person, I'll pay for it."
Tan Qianche is a professor who is the focus of the school's training. He has many projects and earns a considerable income. As early as the end of last year, he changed his car to a Mercedes-Benz sedan and wore a Lange watch on his wrist, which made him look like a successful person.
Fang Yiwen dared to expose the situation in public. She raised her hand and said, "Teacher, your assumption just now is wrong."
Tan Qianche asked her, "What's wrong?"
Fang Yiwen stood up and explained: "If A who went home to play was Teacher Lin Zhixia, and B who stayed in the laboratory was classmate Xu Lingbo, after the winter vacation, A would still be much more powerful than B, what do you think?"
Tan Qianche was not angry at all. Instead, he laughed even more happily: "This fully proves that you can't go home during the winter vacation. You have to catch up with Teacher Lin's level. Teacher Lin completed her undergraduate studies in three years. During the three winter and summer vacations, she never went home. You should learn from her."
"Wait a minute," Lin Zhixia interrupted him, "Students, you are all adults and can make your own choice. It is completely voluntary to stay on campus or not. Teacher Tan will give each of you 1,000 yuan in labor fees, and I will add another 1,000 yuan. If any student wants to go home for the Spring Festival, you can do so. Don't feel psychologically pressured. Just send me an email tonight to let me know whether you will stay on campus or not."
The Spring Festival is an annual traditional festival.
In Lin Zhixia's imagination, the perfect Spring Festival is a round table and a pot of goose hot pot. The table is filled with beef and mutton rolls, fish balls and shrimp dumplings, scallops and crab sticks, mushrooms and vegetables. The steaming white mist is floating everywhere. Dad, mom, brother and Jiang Yubai are sitting around the table. They are eating together in a lively and noisy family. The TV is playing the Spring Festival Gala, and colorful fireworks are blooming in the night sky.
Lin Zhixia put herself in other people's shoes and thought that her students would also go home.
However, that night, Lin Zhixia received an email showing that none of the 24 people in Lin Zhixia and Tan Qianche's group, including Xu Lingbo, went home for the New Year. They all chose to stay in school and continue their experiments. Because each of them received 2,000 yuan in labor fees, Lin Zhixia and Tan Qianche were widely praised in the school forum and were praised as "good instructors with conscience and willing to spend money", which surprised Lin Zhixia a little.
She repeatedly confirmed the wishes of the students in this group, and they were all very determined, as if they were deeply influenced by Tan Qianche's words.
Lin Zhixia thought for a long time and asked the students about their schedules for New Year's Eve. Then, she ordered a New Year's Eve dinner in the school's luxurious cafeteria and paid nearly 2,000 yuan. She sent the New Year's Eve dinner menu to the WeChat group of the research group, and the students cheered as if they were celebrating the Spring Festival.
A few minutes later, Xu Lingbo sent her a private message: "Happy Chinese New Year in advance, teacher!"
Lin Zhixia replied immediately: "I wish you happiness too! Come on!"
Xu Lingbo is frantically writing his thesis.
From October last year to now, he has experienced the most tiring period of his life. Every time he opened his eyes, he would think about the thesis and experimental methods in his head - thinking about it when he took a shower, when he ate, and all the time. He finally understood the deep meaning of the topic that Lin Zhixia gave him a year ago, which papers could be connected to each other, and which arguments could be further improved. While he was grateful that he finally had a real harvest, he secretly hated himself for not opening up earlier, wasting many opportunities for no reason, and suffering many humiliations.
He posted a message on WeChat Moments: "I wasted 25 years of my life."
He forgot to block Lin Zhixia.
Lin Zhixia was the first person to reply to him. She said: "It's not in vain. Everything you've been through has made you who you are today..."
Xu Lingbo's eyes were filled with tears, but Lin Zhixia's next words were: "Finish the paper and send it to me as soon as possible."
Xu Lingbo wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and quickly added Lin Zhixia to the list of "don't let him see my circle of friends".
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