15 Chapter Fourteen
◎ Buy some gold to calm your nerves. ◎
As the car turned past the third traffic light, Yu Renjie suddenly stopped the car and instructed the driver, "Stop at that gold shop up ahead. You can go home now. Ah Yang and I will go for a walk back."
In the past two years, Yu Renjie has spent most of his time socializing and traveling for work. The two of them only have a short time together each day and rarely have time to take a walk with their son.
Yu Renjie bought a complete set of gold jewelry from the jewelry store and then put his arm around Yu Jinyang's head as they strolled home together, with two bodyguards following at a distance. The second floor of the jewelry store happened to be the dance studio where Yu Jinyang usually practiced. Yu Renjie looked down at his son, who had grown a bit taller, and said, "Dad hasn't watched you dance in a long time. Mom told me you've been practicing a super cool dance lately."
Yu Jinyang glanced at him sideways and said, "Dad, just say what you have to say."
Yu Renjie carried the bag of jewelry. Because the packaging was too conspicuous, and he was afraid that others wouldn't know it was gold jewelry, he didn't take the packaging and asked the other party for a black plastic bag instead.
Yu Renjie, looking like he'd just bought a fish from the market, walked alongside his son, his other hand stroking the back of his neck. He spoke with unusual earnestness, "Okay, then tell Dad, what are you thinking? Why did you hide the threatening letter from me and Mom? I remember emphasizing to you that even if you're in class, you should immediately have the teacher notify me and Mom. Do you really enjoy playing with Li Yingqiao and the others? If so, you should have told us first. We could have worked together to figure something out, or at least brought them to our house for tutoring. Or do you think Dad and Mom are so unreasonable, so indifferent to your feelings, and forcibly separating you from your friends?"
“No,” Yu Jinyang’s shoulders slumped, as if the strength he had been holding on for days had finally given way. He looked up at the heavy night and the rows of billboards around him, sighed and said, “I originally planned to never go again after this tutoring session. The high school entrance exam is coming up soon, and I don’t want to be distracted anymore.”
Yu Renjie clicked his tongue, raised an eyebrow in surprise, and said, "I thought you really enjoyed playing with them."
I wouldn't say I like it that much.
How could I like being hit on the back of the head every day? I'm not a masochist.
"Isn't Little Pastry a fun little guy? He's so tall, but he's incredibly timid. The other day, I asked him to get in the car so I could take him home, and he darted away faster than a chicken, like rice scattered on the ground. He just flew off, pecking and pecking, like he'd seen a ghost."
Imagining that scene, Yu Renjie burst into laughter again, "When he ran, I could see his chicken wings—"
"Gao Dian doesn't take unlicensed taxis."
Yu Renjie's smile froze instantly as he suddenly remembered something: this child had been kidnapped by human traffickers when he was a child.
"………………"
The streetlights cast a dim yellow glow on this commercial street in the heart of the old town. In recent years, the new town has developed rapidly, with high-rise buildings springing up everywhere. The neon lights of internet cafes, gyms, and cinemas are lit up all night, attracting young people to flock to the new town. The old town is deserted. Apart from the gold shops and barbershops, which still have regular customers, other shops have also moved to the new town with their signs.
Even though it was right after dinner, there were hardly any people on the street, but there were many bicycles and electric bikes parked haphazardly on the tactile paving for the visually impaired. In the past, whenever Yu Renjie finished a business dinner and walked home from the state-run restaurant, he would clear the bikes off the tactile paving one by one if he had time; otherwise, he would mutter curses as he walked.
With his son around, he naturally directed his son to do the work.
He leaned against one of the lampposts, watching the young yet hardworking and handsome figure. In the lamplight, the boy's bones had already broken free from their immature frame, like a freshly fired celadon piece, still seemingly exuding the moisture of unfired porcelain, its glaze not yet fully set, revealing its bright and clear color.
New snow always surpasses the beauty of winter plum blossoms; who hasn't once been a noble and aloof youth?
Yu Renjie sighed, relieved that his son had finally grown up quietly and was acting like a man. So, with an air of relentless inquiry, he crossed his arms and continued to pester his son: "What about Zheng Miaojia? Does Zheng Miaojia ride in the black Maybach?"
Yu Jinyang had just finished clearing half a street of bicycles, and moved them one by one without flinching. He glanced at his father again, but still satisfied his father's curiosity and told him, "I don't know, but she's very good at drawing. The Li Bai and Du Fu in her Chinese textbook are both wearing sneakers."
"..."
"Awesome," Yu Renjie praised, then his smile became particularly kind and meaningful. "Son, look, you remember it quite clearly. You said you didn't want to be friends with them, who are you trying to fool?"
“I didn’t say I didn’t want to be friends with them, I was talking about Li Yingqiao,” Yu Jinyang said, his shoulders hunching up, his back like a taut bowstring, his eyes showing a helpless resignation as he looked at his father, “She’s so annoying.”
Yu Renjie let out a drawn-out "ah," dragging it out for a long time until his son had completely cleared the tactile paving. Then, in a cheeky tone, he teased him, "You had a fight with that little brat."
"..."
"They've broken up again."
"..."
"My son is so dramatic."
"..."
"It's all your fault. You caused me to have a huge hemorrhage. Your mother definitely won't sleep well tonight. I need to buy some gold for her to calm her nerves."
"..."
"It will be deducted from your New Year's money this year."
“…No way. I’ll pay you back when I grow up and earn money. I need this year’s New Year’s money.” Yu Jinyang stretched out the shoulder strap and slung the backpack over his father’s shoulder in protest.
"What good are you? Picking up girls?"
"You're crazy, but it's still useful."
Only then did Yu Renjie belatedly weigh his son's schoolbag in his hand, his gaze catching the red marks on Yu Jinyang's shoulder blades from the straps: "Damn it, how much does your schoolbag weigh? It's so heavy! You're getting tough, aren't you? Why didn't you say anything when you were moving the car? You should have made a sound when you were moving the car. What's wrong with begging your dad—"
"Squeak squeak squeak squeak—" Yu Jinyang quickly walked to the front, not wanting to be bothered by his father.
“Hey, I’ve raised a cicada,” Yu Renjie said from behind.
"This is how cicadas make their calls: chirp—squeak—chirp—squeak—"
"Where did you learn that?"
"Li Yingqiao caught one in a tree a couple of days ago, and Teacher Liang spanked her so hard her bottom was raw." Yu Jinyang, with one hand hooked on his backpack strap and the other casually tucked into his pocket, walked backwards and told his father. As he spoke, he burst out laughing, laughing so hard that the collar of his T-shirt, which was deeply dented into his shoulder by the backpack strap, slipped loosely down one side.
"Promising."
***
The tutoring center for the three of them has been unusually quiet and empty these past few days; you can even hear the dung beetle on the balcony making a "crunching" sound as it rolls up its dung ball.
"Strange, Miaomiao isn't usually very talkative, so why is he so quiet when he's not around?" Gao Dian said, and when he didn't get a response, he folded his Chinese test paper into a paper airplane and gently tossed it into the air. The airplane drew a beautiful and smooth arc, and it flew right over Liang Mei's head.
Just as Liang Mei led her newly hired math teacher inside, her spiky hair slammed right into his forehead.
"Gao Dian!" Liang Mei shouted.
Gao Dian rushed over, scrambling and patting the other person's head, saying, "I'm so sorry, so sorry, I'm so sorry—"
When the other person looked up, Gao Dian was immediately dumbfounded. "You...you...damn! You! You're that one!"
Zheng Miaojia, who was drawing muscles on Bai Juyi's paper, was also stunned. With a "thud," the eraser fell directly onto the table and rolled over to Li Yingqiao's side. This startled Li Yingqiao, who had recently been provoked by someone and vowed to study math properly. She looked up from the math paper she had been working on for several days and stared blankly at the door, also stunned.
This...this...this—isn't this the madman from Crazy Harbor in Little Painting City?
Liang Mei didn't say anything extra, as she couldn't explain it to them clearly. She simply introduced him: "His name is Zhu Xiaoliang. You can just call him Teacher Zhu. He used to be your math teacher at Experimental Middle School."
Silence reigned.
No one dared to question this math teacher, who said that pi was equal to stir-fried potatoes with tomatoes. The three of them could only ask if they wanted some chopped green onions.
Zhu Xiaoliang really was a math teacher, but every time Li Yingqiao listened to his lectures, she would picture him rummaging through trash in the alleyways. Finally, unable to contain her overflowing curiosity, she rested her chin on her hand and asked him, "Teacher Zhu, can goldfish really be eaten raw? Do they taste the same as salmon?"
In return, Liang Mei slapped the back of the head.
Li Yingqiao sighed, then turned her gaze back to the exam paper, muttering, "Just curious."
But Zhu Xiaoliang was a great teacher; his lectures were even more vivid and interesting than those of Gao Dian's math teacher. For example, when Liang Mei ordered a pizza for the hungry wolves, Zhu Xiaoliang would grin, wearing an innocent smile, and slowly cut the pizza into two slices. He would then take out the most irregular and difficult-to-calculate slice—one for Gao Dian and one for Zheng Miaojia to take a bite of. Li Yingqiao would then be responsible for calculating the area of the remaining pizza. However, if someone took a bite that was too big, resulting in an area smaller than the proportion he specified, Li Yingqiao wouldn't get to eat the pizza, even if he calculated it correctly. This process continued, with the three of them taking turns playing their roles.
In this pizza game, in less than a week, the three of them had already glimpsed the darker side of human nature and its gradual collapse. Every time it came to eating pizza, it was like five hundred ducks all talking at once, chattering and making a huge fuss.
Li Yingqiao gritted her teeth: "Gao Dian, we're breaking off all ties. How dare you tell me the area is zero..."
After speaking, she turned to look at Zheng Miaojia, signaling her to also express her opinion. Zheng Miaojia remained silent, concentrating on drawing a picture of a cake to satisfy her hunger. Li Yingqiao sighed deeply, realizing that one still needs a skill.
Now they finally understood why the teacher had been fired. Zhu Xiaoliang was truly a math madman; he could see abstract mathematical formulas and theorems in any common object in life—
For example, Gao Dian was obsessed with Kobe for a while. He would crumple up a tissue, take a fadeaway jump shot, and throw the tissue into the trash can in a perfect parabola with a very non-standard shooting posture. Zhu Xiaoliang would immediately make him calculate the equation of that parabola, or else Li Yingqiao would shove his head into the trash can.
Li Yingqiao couldn't wait a second longer: "3—Okay, Teacher Zhu, he can't answer, he's going to die!"
Gaodian: "..."
Zhu Xiaoliang ignored them and turned to have Zheng Miaojia calculate the strength of the WIF signal using the Pythagorean theorem.
Zheng Miaojia: "..."
As for Li Yingqiao, under Zhu Xiaoliang's insane training, she was already able to greet her childhood sweetheart, whom she had just broken off with, using the Fibonacci sequence.
It must be said that, thanks to Zhu Xiaoliang's chaotic and outrageous actions, the three students' math scores improved significantly, with an average score increase of 30 points compared to the last mock exam.
***
With only a week left before the high school entrance exam, Li Yingqiao couldn't hold back any longer and asked Li Shuli for her phone.
Li Shuli rarely drives her truck anymore. During the day, she sells grains, oils, rice, and noodles at the farmers' market, and on weekends, she works as a cleaner at a beauty salon. A couple of days ago, the salon owner noticed her and asked if she would like to learn some massage and facial techniques, promising she could earn more than a cleaner. So, Li Shuli currently has a facial mask from a beauty salon on her face, wondering why such a thin sheet of paper costs twenty yuan. Without thinking, she handed her phone to Li Yingqiao.
Li Yingqiao turned around and went back to her room. She found Miao Jia's number in her mother's contacts and immediately dialed it after her mother sent her Yu Jinyang's number.
...did not answer.
Five seconds later, she dialed the number again, but it still wasn't answered.
She remembered Miao Jia saying that Yu Jinyang didn't seem to answer calls from unknown numbers, that he was being unreasonable. So Li Yingqiao snorted and started bombarding the screen with text messages—
The first line is blank.
"Meow"
"I"
"Me?"
Li Yingqiao
"I am Li Yingqiao"
Why aren't you answering the phone?
When are you finally going to give me my Conan?
"Whether you're impressive or not, I'm using the Fibonacci sequence to talk to you, so don't be ungrateful."
[Author's Note]
Here it comes!
This volume will end next week. This is not a school-themed story because I've written too many high school stories, so there won't be much of a high school section in this one.
The next volume will be for adults.
See you tomorrow, I have some things to take care of at home this weekend~ It'll probably be around 9 o'clock tomorrow too.
Two hundred red envelopes.
P.S.: The Fibonacci sequence is roughly like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21...
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