Just as Deng Shasha expected, this year's final exam was not easy.
After finishing her last exam, Deng Shasha was almost dead. She walked back to her dorm with a shaky step, collapsed on the bed, and lamented, "I couldn't understand several questions on the Mathematical Analysis paper. How did you do?"
Lin Zhixia had just bought a bottle of strawberry yogurt from the supermarket. She took a sip of the yogurt and turned to look at Feng Yuan.
In order not to hurt Deng Shasha's fragile heart, Feng Yuan lied sincerely: "Mathematical Analysis is so difficult!"
Lin Zhixia immediately agreed: "It's so difficult!"
Deng Shasha questioned, "God Xia, you said it's difficult, so I'm doomed, right?"
Lin Zhixia looked at her hesitantly, wanting to say something.
"Mathematical Analysis" seems to be a very scary course, even Lin Zhixia can't describe it in words.
Deng Shasha felt like she was in an ice cellar. Her hopes were dashed, and she felt betrayed by mathematics. Her heart was filled with bitterness, sadness, sorrow, and helplessness—just like Wang Baochuan who had waited in the cold kiln for eighteen years only to find out that Xue Pinggui had married another woman.
Deng Shasha was devastated and said to herself, "I have been studying mathematics every day for more than a month... What if I fail Mathematical Analysis?"
Lin Zhixia comforted her: "You won't fail. I've helped you review. I guarantee you'll pass!"
Feng Yuan said casually: "Don't think too much."
Only Yuan Wei took out a copy of the "Working Procedures for Undergraduate Students to Retake a Course" and handed it to Deng Shasha solemnly. Deng Shasha read it through with tears in her eyes and was mentally prepared to retake the course.
When the test results came out, both Deng Shasha and Yuan Wei were surprised. Their final scores were much better than they expected, and Deng Shasha didn't have to retake Mathematical Analysis.
Deng Shasha took out her phone, opened the address book, found "Lin Zhixia", and changed her note to "Goddess Xia". If Lin Zhixia wasn't so low-key, Deng Shasha would have wanted to worship her.
A few days later, the name "Xia Shen" spread in the QQ group of the major. Lin Zhixia and several other top students all got full marks in all subjects. For them, their average score was the full GPA of the college exam.
Lin Zhixia still held back her edge. She believed that freshman subjects were relatively basic, and that no exam questions could fully demonstrate a person's mathematical research skills. She encouraged Deng Shasha to look at the two things of "being able to do scientific research" and "being able to solve problems" from different perspectives.
Lin Zhixia and her three roommates are studying in the Department of Information Science of the School of Mathematics, a major that aims to cultivate talents with cross-application skills in mathematics and computers.
Shasha Deng made it clear that she would give up mathematical theory sooner or later and turn to computer and software engineering. She believed that no matter how difficult programming was, it was not as difficult as "Mathematical Analysis" and no matter how difficult coding was, it was not as difficult as "Analytical Geometry".
Lin Zhixia did not comment, but encouraged Deng Shasha to move forward and stick to her own choice.
Lin Zhixia was very modest in front of her classmates, but as soon as she saw her mother, she couldn't wait to say, "Mom, Mom, I did really well on the final exam."
Winter vacation was coming, and Lin Zhixia's mother came to Beijing to pick her up. The mother and daughter bought two sleeper train tickets, took a suitcase, and set off on the road back to the provincial capital.
Lin Zhixia was very happy. She could finally go home.
She boarded the train happily, pulled the little penguin out of her schoolbag, and sat in the lower compartment of the carriage holding the little penguin.
The wheels of the train moved along the rails, hitting each other with a rhythmic clang. The strong aroma of instant noodles filled the entire carriage, just like the lingering clang of the train.
It was almost noon, and a flight attendant came with a dining cart to sell boxed lunches. The boxed lunch cost 20 yuan each and came with a few side dishes on top of the white rice, both meat and vegetables, and was steaming hot.
Lin Zhixia looked at the dining car quietly, and her mother said, "Have one."
The flight attendant asked, "Just one serving?"
Mom handed over a 20-yuan bill and said to Lin Zhixia, "Mom is not hungry. Xia Xia, eat first."
Lin Zhixia tilted her head. She also took out a 20 yuan note and called the flight attendant: "Hello, please give me another lunch box, thank you."
My mother tucked her hair around her ears and said in a hoarse voice, "Xia Xia, don't spend money carelessly. There's too much rice and not enough vegetables. You can't finish it all by yourself."
"Then I don't want you to eat my leftovers either." Lin Zhixia said directly. She easily saw through her mother's thoughts and felt a little embarrassed.
The lunch box costs 20 yuan each, and my mother only buys one. She wants Lin Zhixia to finish first, and then she can eat the remaining rice - with vegetable oil and soup, she can probably fill her stomach.
After the train attendant walked away, Lin Zhixia couldn't help but whispered: "Why? Why does mom still want to save money like this? I gave almost all the scholarships I earned to my family. I only kept less than 10,000 yuan for myself. I will continue to make money. My senior can make 156,000 yuan a year. I will not be worse than him. You should wait for me for another two years, until I am older, sell patents, and produce academic results..."
There were two lunch boxes on the table, but no one was eating. Mom sighed and said, "Xia Xia, the money you gave me was saved for you. The money you earned is yours, and no one can take it away, not even your brother. You are still young, and Mom has to plan for you. Which city do you want to go to in the future, where do you want to buy a house, and what if you stay in Beijing? How high is the cost of living in Beijing?"
The housing prices in Beijing are much more expensive than those in provincial capitals.
Lin Zhixia never considered the issue of settling down and building a family.
She thought for a moment and then said boldly, "I will definitely be a professor in the future. When I become a professor, I can live in the staff dormitory arranged by the school. The money I earn... can be used for many purposes. I want to travel around the world with my best friend."
"Xia Xia, you have to have a family," her mother said to her again, "and you have to get married..."
Lin Zhixia interrupted, "No, these are not the necessary paths in life. For me, scientific research is the necessary path."
Mom unpacked a pair of bamboo chopsticks: "Eat quickly, the food is getting cold. Mom shouldn't tell you this, Xia Xia is still young."
Lin Zhixia lifted the lid of her lunch box with a sense of ceremony, and all the negative emotions were swept away. She slowly savored today's lunch, and was still thinking about her money-making plan. She had excellent performance in school this semester, and she was sure to get a considerable scholarship. She also had a paper related to quantum computing that she was revising repeatedly. If she could publish this paper this year, she would get an additional reward.
In short, Lin Zhixia will never be short of money.
She was confident.
The train arrived in the provincial capital early the next morning.
Lin Zeqiu and his father came to the train station to pick people up.
The family of four reunited after being separated for half a year. Dad's eyes were slightly red. He kept saying that Lin Zhixia had become thinner. Was it because the food in the cafeteria was not good? Did she often feel hungry in college?
Lin Zhixia listed a list of dishes. She analyzed in detail: "There are many kinds of dishes in our university cafeteria. I like Hainanese chicken rice and three-color fish rice. Our dormitory will have dinner outside every month."
"How do your roommates treat you?" This is the question that Lin Zeqiu cares about most.
"That's great," Lin Zhixia said. "They will take care of me."
Lin Zeqiu held Lin Zhixia's schoolbag in his left hand and carried Lin Zhixia's suitcase in his right hand. He was a mobile luggage rack, and he didn't let his parents and sister carry anything heavy. On the way home, Lin Zeqiu was silent and far from the enthusiasm that Lin Zhixia had imagined.
Lin Zhixia couldn't guess what Lin Zeqiu was thinking.
Lin Zeqiu is a senior high school student. He is already 18 years old and has officially entered the adult world. He and Lin Zhixia have not seen each other for more than four months - since Lin Zhixia was born, she has never been separated from Lin Zeqiu for such a long time.
When Lin Zhixia was at home, Lin Zeqiu often found her annoying.
Lin Zhixia suspected that during the four months she went to Beijing to attend university, Lin Zeqiu would miss her at first, but later, he was happy to be free and carefree, not to mention not having to help her with housework. When Lin Zhixia came home, Lin Zeqiu's good days were over, so he was reluctant to talk to her.
It doesn’t matter, Lin Zhixia thought, she understood her brother’s territorial awareness.
After entering the house, Lin Zhixia jumped into her bedroom like a little rabbit. Her room was tidy, and the sheets, quilt covers, and pillowcases were all washed last night and dried this morning. They were her favorite pink strawberry pure cotton style.
Everything in the bedroom was intact, even the placement of items had not changed.
"Brother, have you helped me tidy up the room?" Lin Zhixia asked.
Lin Zeqiu stood at the door of her bedroom and still did not answer. After a full minute, Lin Zeqiu said, "It seems like a dream. You are home."
Lin Zhixia jumped in front of him and said, "Brother, have you ever dreamed of me?"
"I've dreamt of this many times," Lin Zeqiu said impatiently, "You caught me writing a test paper in my dream."
Lin Zhixia boasted to herself, "I'm so responsible that I urge you to study even in my dreams."
"That's not a good thing." Lin Zeqiu commented coldly.
"How is it not a good thing?" Lin Zhixia argued with him, "Have you heard of the Hawthorne effect? When a person receives extra attention, he will unconsciously work harder and his grades will improve."
Lin Zeqiu hadn't argued with his sister for a long time. He missed every quarrel between the siblings from childhood to adulthood. Although he couldn't remember the content of the quarrel, he remembered what Lin Zhixia looked like when she was a child. She was like a snow-white glutinous rice ball, small and looked obedient and soft.
Lin Zeqiu stood by the door, his arm pressed against the door frame. He looked at Lin Zhixia and said to himself, "You've grown taller."
"I'm 1.63 meters tall now." Lin Zhixia said proudly. She took the initiative to ask him, "How tall is my brother?"
Lin Zeqiu replied expressionlessly: "1.87 meters."
Lin Zhixia clapped: "Brother is so tall."
Lin Zeqiu touched her head and said, "Okay, I'm going to study. You can take a nap. We'll have shrimp dumplings and strawberries for lunch. Dad will make beef sliced noodles tomorrow. The beef has been bought..."
"That's great," Lin Zhixia thought. "By the way, brother, I'm going to attend my friend's uncle's wedding the day after tomorrow. I can't eat at home the day after tomorrow. If they give out red eggs and brown sugar steamed buns at the wedding, I'll bring some back for you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com