In the common understanding, Earth is the only known and observed civilization in the Triad.
Of course, Ruan Chen couldn't tell Ruan Wenlou that there were even more advanced civilizations in this galaxy monitoring them, and that the "beautiful civilization" he spoke of was a malignant tumor that the entire universe wanted to get rid of, a slow-developing and useless low-level civilization.
Today's trip to the countryside was arranged by Fu Jianzhi. He was worried that Ruan Chen was still entangled in Feng Yuankai's affairs, so he used winning an award as an excuse to invite Ruan Chen to the countryside to relax.
Ruan Wenlou picked up a hoe to tend the garden and continued, "Actually, on a smaller scale, I just don't want this garden to be desolate a thousand years from now."
He laughed, “I’ve put a lot of effort into taking care of this. Maybe a hundred years from now, five hundred years from now, or even a thousand years from now, even if this yard no longer exists and this flowerbed disappears with time, the seeds of these flowers that I’ve taken care of will continue to multiply from generation to generation, and who knows, they might even grow in places I’ve never been before.”
Ruan Chen squinted, as if listening but also as if she were drowsy, her murmured voice like a dream, "Grandpa, you are so poetic."
Before it got dark, Ruan Chen and Fu Jianzhi left. Before leaving, Ruan Chen casually put two begonia seeds in his pocket.
She picked it up in the flowerbed.
The next day, Ruan Chen attended classes as usual.
From afar, she sensed something was off about No. 1 Middle School today—there were many cars parked at the entrance, a situation that often occurs when the school holds major academic conferences.
This means that there are so many guests that the on-campus parking lot and underground parking lot are full before people park on the roadside.
She recalled Nan Jing's phone call late yesterday, saying that he couldn't come to see Ruan Chen off today because he had a meeting tomorrow and Secretary Liu would be going with him on business.
Ruan Chen hadn't asked Cheng Lu to take her for a long time, and she was too lazy to drag him out of bed early in the morning, so she took a taxi to school by herself.
"Dude, the road is really congested, how about..." the driver said anxiously.
"Alright, I'll go down and walk a bit. I've paid the money, driver." Ruan Chen waved her phone.
She walked along the curb by the roadside, memorizing license plates as she went—this was a little game she liked to play with herself.
When he got to the thirteenth license plate, he stopped in his tracks.
That was Duan Jingfu's car.
Several cars parked in front belonged to Beijing University of Science and Technology.
She was a little puzzled. No matter how famous No. 1 High School was, it was still just a high school. What ability did it have to hold a meeting that required the participation of Duan Jingfu and other academic giants from Beijing University of Science and Technology who were on par with him?
However, Ruan Chen was just daydreaming and continued walking forward while munching on her jianbing guozi (Chinese crepe).
Then she and her group blocked their way.
"Hey, isn't this the gold medal winner? So low-key, yet he actually came to school in person?"
"Tsk tsk tsk, a stolen gold medal, not exactly low-key at all."
Someone said sarcastically, "I really can't believe it. You're good-looking and your grades aren't bad either, but you actually went so far as to cheat Principal Feng's only granddaughter just to get a spot in the summer camp."
Immediately, a chorus of voices chimed in, "To be fair, Principal Feng has been good to you. How can you be so shameless? Feng Shuang's father and grandfather have both passed away. You bully an orphan like her and even tamper with a competition result."
"Yeah, aren't you shameless?"
"She looks so innocent. If we didn't know how much effort Feng Shuang put into this competition, and if we didn't know her true strength, we would have been fooled by you, you slut."
"With such poor morals, you can expect to be expelled from school."
The group became increasingly absurd, and they even reached out to shove Ruan Chen.
Throughout the entire process, Ruan Chen's expression remained unchanged, and she ate her jianbing guozi with great relish.
This group of people were all from other classes participating in the competition—Feng Shuang wasn't stupid either. Everyone in the Rocket Class knew that Ruan Chen's first place was well-deserved, and they also thought that Feng Shuang and Ruan Chen had long since reconciled.
The two of them had great chemistry when acting in front of others.
Feng Shuang could only approach the issue from the outside, by recruiting contestants from other classes.
It was peak time for students to go to school, and there were many people coming and going. Many people noticed the commotion and gradually gathered around.
People started asking, "What's going on?"
"Isn't this the gold medal winner from yesterday?"
"I don't know, I just arrived, and all I heard was about plagiarism and stuff."
Ruan Chen glanced at her watch. "I'm in a hurry. I have ten minutes before class. Could you please let me pass? Thank you."
She stuffed the last bite of her jianbing (Chinese crepe) into her mouth, crumpled the trash in her hand, stuffed it into her pocket, and hurried away.
But these people blocked his way and gave him a push, "Still pretending? Feng Shuang already told us that you've been cheating for years, never listen in class, and often skip classes. You're still in a hurry to attend morning reading?"
Ruan Chen glanced indifferently at the hand pressing against her shoulder. "How long have you known Feng Shuang? Do you have any other sources of information about what she told you?"
Perhaps it was because her voice was too faint and cold that the noise subsided for a moment.
"Or you can guess why Feng Shuang doesn't go to the teams in our Rocket Class that participate in the competition to talk about these things, but instead goes to all this trouble to try and build a relationship with you guys?"
When Ruan Chen asked her second question, the silence deepened.
"Or do you think that because my behavior and character are so unruly, Principal Feng can still tolerate his granddaughter being in the same group as me? With Principal Feng's abilities, what difference would it make if he just expelled me?"
Ruan Chen asked three soul-searching questions in a straightforward tone, tightened his backpack strap, and lifted his foot.
The boy who had reached out twice earlier withdrew his hand somewhat sheepishly.
The crowd parted to make way, and as Ruan Chen was about to walk out of the crowd, she turned her head slightly to the side. Her beautiful, delicate, and aloof profile glistened in the morning light. "I'm telling you, everyone who got into No. 1 High School must have some brains. People should have their own opinions and not just believe everything they hear."
Her words were not harsh, and her tone was, as always, devoid of any extra emotion.
Ruan Chen left the crowd behind and suddenly thought of the past—when she first entered school, if she had encountered something like this, she would have been forced to send a slap in the face to the trending topics and be expelled.
She now only feels bored and ridiculous, and is even a little worried.
She subconsciously looked up at the distant sky and smiled bitterly. If there really was an invisible net there, could people like this really resist a civilization that was not even on the same level as humans?
Ruan Chen sat down in class, took out her phone, and was immediately drawn to a series of messages that popped up on her phone, so much so that she didn't see the schedule for the day written on the blackboard.
It was a message from Hsu Hsiao-lan, seven or eight messages in a row.
[Principal Feng's technological research began thirteen years ago. He developed it independently, and it was registered with the military. The level of secrecy was very high; even the military did not know the specific details.]
In other words, theoretically only Principal Feng and those he trusts completely would know about this.
[Before you provided the clues about Feng Shuang, we also investigated Principal Feng's social connections. He hadn't mentioned it to anyone, which led to a dead end in our investigation.]
[But Ruan Chen, you guessed right. Feng Shuang did indeed mention the technical term "fixed-point jump technology" to someone online.]
[It happened three days ago on a chat app.]
We are urgently searching for this person's information, but there are no results yet. Please be patient.
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