Lin Fengzi felt as if she had been struck by lightning; her hands even felt a little numb.
He thought he had covered his tracks perfectly.
"But Grandpa, back then you and Father both told me to protect her at all costs..."
Mr. Lin slammed his hand on the table. “Fengzi, times have changed! Ruan Chen is very important to us, but you are also the only bloodline of the Lin family!”
Grandpa Lin patted his son on the shoulder, signaling him to calm down, then stared at his only grandson, "Don't get too involved in her affairs. Ruan Chen is a good kid, but she's also a dangerous person. I don't object to you maintaining normal contact with her, but Grandpa hopes you can find the right balance."
"Today you have lost your talent, but perhaps next time... it will be something that neither your father nor I can afford."
Lin Fengzi seemed not to understand and stood up to ask, "But Grandpa, why...why is Ruan Chen a dangerous person?"
Grandpa Lin's wise eyes seemed to see through his grandson's thoughts. "You want to ask why I praised Ruan Chen as a good child, but then said she was dangerous?"
Lin Fengzi nodded.
Master Lin sighed, "Fengzi, I should have told you about the weight of the world and the weight of people."
The old man said, "Ruan Chen's influence is too high. She is like a bright star in the night. She doesn't need to do anything. She just needs to silently and quietly hover in her own orbit, and countless little stars will revolve around her."
He looked lovingly at his only descendant and asked, "Fengzi, tell Grandpa, what is the Roche limit?"
Recalling the definition in the book, Lin Fengzi replied, "It's the shortest distance between two celestial bodies that allows them to maintain stable orbits. Beyond this distance, the smaller celestial body will be torn apart by the enormous tidal forces..."
Lin Fengzi suddenly understood.
Marshal Lin sighed, "Even if this wasn't her intention, she couldn't control the enormous tidal forces. If the stars that followed her because of her brightness didn't manage this 'degree' properly, they would eventually be torn apart."
Lin Fengzi subconsciously retorted, "But how could that be her fault?"
"Of course it's not her fault, but people like her are destined to experience more separations than others in their lives."
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Ruan Chen had been sitting in the reception room for almost two hours.
She went to school in the morning to pack a few books, ate something quick on the roadside to fill her stomach, and then went to the First Academy Research Institute.
She had already finished the workbook in her hand—although the new semester had only progressed to the third chapter.
When she came in, Secretary Liu poured her a cup of hot tea. That cup of tea was emptied several times. The sun that had been hanging in the middle of the sky when she came in was gradually setting in the west, and the bright conference room was getting dark. Gradually, it became a little difficult to read.
Ruan Chen knew that she could turn on the light switch if she got up and walked a few steps forward, but she was too lazy to move.
With a "snap," someone switched on the light. Secretary Liu looked at Ruan Chen and advised, "Ruan Chen, Nan said he wouldn't see you. Go back."
Ruan Chen pursed her lips, remained silent, twirled the pen in her hand, and flipped through the exercise book.
"Stop writing," Secretary Liu said helplessly, looking at the stubborn Ruan Chen. "What will you write for your teacher's homework when you finish writing this?"
He took Ruan Chen's workbook, glanced at it, and joked, "Oh, it seems I was too late. It's all finished."
Ruan Chen's lowered eyes seemed to hold endless grievances, but she remained silent, reaching for her cup again and taking a sip.
"Alright, alright, sit if you want. We'll all be off work soon, no one will bother you," Secretary Liu said, seeing that he couldn't persuade her. He knew Ruan Chen was incredibly stubborn. "Let me tell you, our office is haunted at night, and the power goes out. Don't be scared to tears if you're alone there."
As he spoke, he picked up the remote control from the coffee table and turned on the air conditioner for Ruan Chen.
The temperature was still a bit low on early spring evenings.
Ruan Chen rolled up the exercise book he had finished writing and stuffed it into his schoolbag. Then he took out another one, opened it, and began to scribble incoherently.
When I was about a third of the way through writing this book, there was another knock on the door.
She looked up and saw Secretary Liu sigh helplessly, beckoning her, "Have you been sitting here all this time without eating? Come here."
Ruan Chen was obedient. She got up, lowered her head, and followed behind him, keeping her eyes on the tips of her shoes as she walked forward.
She knows all too well when to play the subservient role.
Secretary Liu glanced at her, both amused and annoyed, and said in a low voice, "It was Director Nan who asked me to call you to dinner. You'd better keep this attitude. Don't act tough in front of Director Nan later."
"How could I dare?" Ruan Chen's voice was so soft it was like a mosquito's hum, and those three simple words were so aggrieved that they made one's heart tremble.
Secretary Liu couldn't bear to watch, so she offered some advice, "He's not angry with you, he's just been busy this afternoon. He knows what you asked him for, he's not ignoring you, he just needs to take care of his own business, and he's also giving you a chance to think things through, isn't he?"
Ruan Chen still said pitifully in a low voice, "I know."
Secretary Liu looked at Ruan Chen's aggrieved expression, with a sentence still on his lips but not yet spoken: "Over the years, Nan Suo has never even had a meal with a student he personally mentored, and now he's waiting to have dinner with a high school student who hasn't even been admitted to the First Academy yet."
At the entrance of the small canteen, Secretary Liu stopped. "Alright, you can go in now. I should get off work too. Our South Institute is so stingy with overtime pay that we can't even spare a penny."
Ruan Chen hesitated at the door for a long time, pondering in her heart how to talk about Yan Qian later.
Before she could figure it out, a voice came from inside, "What are you dawdling about? Do you want the food to get completely cold?"
Ruan Chen's hand, which was about to push the door open, trembled slightly at the stern rebuke.
The small canteen was simply furnished with a table and a few plates of home-style dishes.
The bowl and chopsticks in front of Nan Jing were clean, obviously untouched, and she had been waiting for Ruan Chen. When she saw Ruan Chen come in, she said indifferently, "Serve your own rice, take only what you can eat, and don't waste any."
Ruan Chen shrank his neck and behaved himself.
It wasn't until Ruan Chen sat down and picked up her chopsticks that Nan Jing picked up the first piece of food and placed it in Ruan Chen's bowl. "I know what you came here to say today. We'll talk about it after we finish eating. Also, think it over before you speak."
Ruan Chen didn't know how she finished the meal.
Nan Jing told her to think it over before speaking, so she kept seriously considering her relationship with Yan Qian.
Nan said, "I'm done eating."
Nan Jing ate very quickly, putting down her chopsticks long before Ruan Chen.
“Yan Qian said she had met you before, but we know your past very well. You and she had never met before this incident,” Nan Jing asked directly. “So Ruan Chen, I want to know what your relationship with her really is?”
Ruan Chen was slightly taken aback and asked, "Did she say that?"
“She also knows you have a sister who treats you very badly, and she knows you don’t get along well with your family,” Nan Jing suddenly remembered something and asked, “Ruan Chen, do you have claustrophobia?”
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