Chapter 14: 008 Vine Emperor_2
"Academic transition from humanities to science? No wonder the handwriting is so neat, it's even better looking than print," the physics teacher had just been preparing for class and hadn't heard the conversation between Lu Lingxi and Bai Lian, "It looks even more pleasant than Ren Wanxuan's test papers."
He also found it strange that the transfer student had switched from humanities to science.
Although the test itself was simple, covering mostly basic knowledge, and she didn't do many of the major questions, in fact, whenever she did answer...
Everything was correct, especially in physics.
"She used authentic 'guange' style," as a language arts teacher, Lu Lingxi did consider her to be a good student, with handwriting so well-behaved: "In the past, scholars who took the imperial examinations would use this type of font."
Previous top scholars knew several styles of calligraphy, but would all use 'guange' style during the palace examination.
Lu Lingxi had never considered that Bai Lian knew several styles of handwriting; nowadays, it was remarkable for young kids to learn even one style properly.
But now, very few people learn 'guange' style anymore, as they prefer 'Liang' style.
"Lu teacher, don't worry too much," the physics teacher unscrewed the tea cup, "Since she wants to study science, she'll definitely be diligent. Don't look at her score of just 85 now, I see that she's not completely lacking in insight. Just you watch, by next year's college entrance exam, she should be able to raise her score to 170, and with some effort, reaching the second tier of universities is quite possible."
He decided to pay more attention to this transfer student.
Of course, they did not know.
Making the transition from humanities to science, scoring 85 on a test of moderate difficulty, indeed also indicated some talent.
In their minds, the biggest challenge for Bai Lian would just be the transition from humanities to science, as it was already difficult enough to score well legitimately, let alone considering—
That these 85 points were entirely the result of five days of study by Bai Lian!
And as for the many questions she hadn't answered... it was simply because she hadn't started learning that material yet.
**
Bai Lian, relying on her own efforts, had carved out a territory for herself on the Xiangcheng Middle School forum.
Today, of ten posts on the number one middle school's board, eight are about Bai Lian, the 'empress'.
Bai Lian herself was not aware of these discussions; although she was good-looking, she emanated an aura that made her difficult to approach.
Like her deskmate Yang Lin, she was either reading or solving problems, appearing very much like a top student.
Carrying the aura of a top student naturally, other students didn't dare to strike up a conversation.
After school in the afternoon.
Bai Lian had just been measured for size; her school uniform would not be issued for another two days. Among the sea of uniforms, she was the only one in her own clothes, a bit taller than the average girl, clean and strikingly beautiful, standing out like a crane amongst chickens.
Jiang He was squatting on the street corner opposite, and he spotted Bai Lian, shining brightly amidst the crowd, in a glance.
"Why are you alone?" Bai Lian didn't see the others who had been following Jiang He around, so she took him to the milk tea shop around the corner.
"My brother is picking me up later."
The milk tea shop was crowded just after school let out, but they waited a few minutes for people to leave.
Bai Lian found a quiet table and sat down with Jiang He.
"Bai student," the clerk served Bai Lian two cups of Cherry Fruit Tea, "your milk tea is ready, straws are on the left, help yourself."
Bai Lian recognized that this was her deskmate, Yang Lin.
Bai Lian looked at the milk tea which clearly had more fruit pieces than others and smiled with her eyes, the expression shining and vibrant: "Thank you."
She took out two straws, while Yu Guang noticed that Yang Lin's exposed arm seemed to have a purple bruise.
"What's that?" Bai Lian took her eyes off it and went back to handing Jiang He his milk tea.
The other person took out a colorful spherical object.
Jiang He took a sip lightly: "A seven-layered, five-colored magic cube."
He had already managed to restore the center colors but was not familiar with the rest. Last night, after watching Jiang Fulai's speed cubing restoration formulas, he was trying hard to replicate them.
Bai Lian opened her backpack and took out a large lump, having never seen a Rubik's Cube before, "Are you restoring the colors of this sphere?"
Jiang He nodded, discontent with his own speed: "My brother can solve it very quickly, but I need two hours."
"Pfft—"
A guy who had just come in with a basketball spat out his lemon tea.
"No way, little bro," the guy spun on his foot and turned sideways, wearing the school uniform, his features handsome and sunny, and kindly suggested to him in a heartfelt tone, "Don't talk about it so calmly, have some sympathy for the average high school student."
Jiang He glanced at him and said nothing.
Boy: "..."
What's with that look?
What look?
"Hey," the boy got choked up for a moment but then greeted Bai Lian, introducing himself, "Bai classmate, I am your..."
"Zhang Shize." Bai Lian recognized him; he was the guy who sat behind her.
She had remembered everyone who introduced themselves to her.
Zhang Shize scratched his head, "Oh, so you did hear us talking. Lu Ma said that if you ever need anything, just ask me—I'm the sports committee member!"
They called Lu Lingxi 'Lu Ma' in their class.
As Zhang Shize was talking, he saw the object that Bai Lian took out—
It looked like a motor?
Bai Lian inserted the straw with one hand and played with the coils of the motor with the other, "What's wrong?"
Zhang Shize: "..."
Who carries this kind of stuff in their backpack?
He said goodbye to Bai Lian with an incredulous face and left the milk tea shop.
The group of boys waiting for him outside asked if he got the new transfer student's contact info, implying that the new student was so pretty that they could only admire her from afar.
"I'll ask tomorrow," Zhang Shize put his arm around his buddy's shoulder, exclaiming with a sense of brotherhood, "With you guys in the world, I can rest easy."
The brothers were just about to be moved.
Zhang Shize: "Hehe, it's great to have more than one useless person."
"..."
**
As darkness gradually fell, at the school gate.
Students who had been staying late for the honor student training had just finished their classes.
Ren Wanxuan was picked up and dropped off by a personal driver every day; she was on the phone with the driver, "I've finished my tutoring class, come to..."
Her eyes caught sight of a girl sitting under the streetlight at the corner of the crossroad, apparently waiting for something.
How come she kept running into Bai Lian at this huge school?
Could it really be such a coincidence?
Ren Wanxuan suddenly felt an irritation; observing the other's silhouette, she pondered for a while and then instructed her driver, "Take the car to the back gate; I'll wait for you there."
"What's wrong?" the boy next to her asked her.
"Nothing," Ren Wanxuan shook her head, not wanting to mention Bai Lian at all, "Let's go to the back gate."
She turned coldly, re-entering through the school gate.
The boy, after a thoughtful nod, glanced faintly at the corner of the crossroad and said, "Then I'll have my driver wait for me at the back gate as well."
Meanwhile, at the crossroad.
"When is your brother coming?" Bai Lian sat beside Jiang He by the roadside, watching the passing traffic.
The streetlights lit up one by one.
Jiang He reluctantly lit up his watch, "Another ten minutes."
"Okay." Bai Lian leaned lazily against the lamp post, taking out the coils again to play with.
When Jiang Fulai came to pick up Jiang He, what he saw was this scene—
The girl sat casually by the roadside; her ink-black hair was casually held up by a brown wooden hairpin. She elegantly manipulated the motor in her hands, making the rough motor seem more like a piece of art.
Her facial features were strikingly attractive, and her droopy eyes conveyed a lazy demeanor.
For a moment, it was as if the moonlight too favored her, casting a hazy glow as if moisturized by the moon's radiance.
Suddenly, he thought of a phrase—
Tender yet lethal.
Chapter 15: 009 monopolizes the moonlight, Backter Street_1
Dusk descended on the long street, which monopolized seven shades of the moonlight.
"I kept you waiting," Jiang Fulai came back to his senses. He suppressed his gaze and introduced himself to Bai Lian, "Hello, Bai Lian, I am Jiang He's brother, Jiang Fulai."
He stepped out of the car enveloped in a cold frost, his voice slightly lowered, naturally chilly.
Bai Lian looked up and inadvertently collided with a pair of light-colored eyes that reflected no light like a cold pool.
Deep and cold.
She glanced at Jiang Fulai, who wore a black shirt. His face was stunningly cold, his slightly lighter hair blending with the light.
Their first gaze, or perhaps another glance.
It was surely quiet and lonely.
Yet it felt deafening.
After a moment, Bai Lian slowly spoke, "Give me a reason not to 'shark' you."
Jiang Fulai rarely showed his true emotions in front of others, this was the first time he was caught off guard in public.
Jiang He looked up, contemptuous, "Her name is Bai Lian."
Jiang Fulai, "..."
Firstly, do you want to see what you noted down?
"Sorry," realizing what had happened, Jiang Fulai lightly chuckled, a rare smile tinged his usually indifferent and ice-cold phoenix eyes, "Jiang He is sensitive to numbers, but he never went to kindergarten, so..."
He paused, then simply assessed, "He is semi-illiterate."
Bai Lian swept a cold glance toward Jiang He.
Jiang He, who had an autism spectrum disorder and exhibited extraordinary intelligence only in numbers and geometry, "..."
Expressionless, he withdrew his gaze and fluidly covered his wristwatch.
"Is that from a fan you dismantled?" Jiang Fulai's other hand held a book, rolled up like a tube, as he squatted beside Bai Lian and casually took her electric motor, looking down with serious attention, "It's probably a capacitor issue, use a multimeter to check which wire has no resistance, and fix it."
It was a hand like an artwork, with the glossy white of jade, long joints, and lines that flowed between proportion and smoothness, exuding a faint, crisp air.
"Multimeter?" Bai Lian withdrew her death stare from Jiang He and rested her chin on her knees, tilting her head lazily, "I thought about buying one, but my grandfather wouldn't let me dismantle the house. I stole this one from his room."
There was no other emotion on her face, her black pupils reflecting the streetlight above, lazy and beautiful.
She just wanted to stealthily dismantle an electric fan.
One could imagine her cutely stealing and dismantling her family's things, and perhaps the elder would helplessly indulge her, turning a blind eye.
"I have one, I'll bring it to you in a few days," the mere thought of the scene made Jiang Fulai feel like a big cat was stretching out lazily to scratch him, "I have a physics lab. It's well-equipped for experiments, very convenient."
Jiang He rarely felt close to people, even going silent for seven days at a time.
Bai Lian was a peculiar existence to Jiang He.
Now seeing her in the flesh, he thought he might understand why Jiang He wanted to go home with her.
Bai Lian blinked.
A large lab, there must be a particle collider there...
The glances from the people around grew more intense. Jiang Fulai casually picked up Jiang He by his collar and stood up, "Get in the car first. I'll drive you home."
There were few streetlights on Purest Street.
Bai Lian had Jiang Fulai's car stop at the intersection.
"This is the book you wanted," Jiang Fulai got out of the car with her and handed her the book in his hand. In the twilight, his eyes and brows seemed to soften as if steeped in ice and snow, "Physics is not difficult, it's interesting. You can ask me if you have any questions."
"Thank you," Bai Lian took the book.
This was a book that she couldn't find anywhere.
"I should be thanking you," Jiang Fulai looked towards Jiang He and said softly, "Jiang He always thinks he's an alien, wanting to return to his own planet. You're his first human friend."
But Bai Lian simply said, "He's cute."
Jiang Fulai turned to look at her for a moment and chuckled lightly, "Yeah."
Bai Lian waved at him and left.
Jiang Fulai watched her enter a small store, with a police patrol not far away.
His slightly furrowed brow relaxed a little as he got back into the car.
"This place hasn't been demolished?" Ming Dongheng sat in the driver's seat, surprised at the sight of the low and somewhat aged buildings, "Right across from it is Backter Street, where my master is."
Backter Street was where Ming Dongheng often went, a street at the border of two countries.
He just hadn't expected that Backter Street and Purest Street were only a kilometer apart, facing each other across the river.
Jiang Fulai looked at the lone few streetlights, slowly rolling up the car window, "Let's go back."
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