Lin Zhixia wore a moon-white long-sleeved dress today, with a skirt flaring like lotus leaves and a collar fastened with petal-shaped buttons. The style was fresh and elegant, perfectly complementing her temperament.
She had also taken special care with her hairstyle. Taking a strand of hair from each side of her temples, she braided them into a single plait, gently secured it at the back of her head, and tied it with a dark blue satin bow. Her hair was thick and smooth, gleaming jet-black under the sunlight.
With her fair complexion and delicate features, Lin Zhixia looked exceptionally beautiful and pure. She stood by the roadside for a while, often drawing second glances from passersby, but she paid no mind, her thoughts entirely occupied with quantum error correction stabilizer codes and surface codes. Stabilizer codes are limited by a simple structure similar to "classical linear codes" and require high-precision quantum logic gates[1], whereas surface codes have lower precision requirements than stabilizer codes, making them arguably the optimal direction for the current evolution of quantum computing.
A few sturdy plane trees grew along the roadside, their shadows swaying in the wind. Lin Zhixia stepped on the shadows, pacing back and forth a few steps, when suddenly she heard someone say to her, "Hey? Hello, mind if we become friends?"
Lin Zhixia turned around and saw a boy with relatively dark skin. He appeared to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing the uniform of an international high school. His hair was piled high on top, styled with gel, and he exuded a cologne scent reminiscent of gin.
He stood too close, and Lin Zhixia sneezed from the overwhelming fragrance.
He smiled and said, "My name is Liu Pu, like the 'pu' in dandelion."
Two other male classmates stood behind Liu Pu. They called out to him, but Liu Pu waved them off: "Can't you see I'm talking here?"
Lin Zhixia frowned. "I don't know you."
Students were streaming out of the school gate, and the nearby area buzzed with noisy conversations in English, Korean, Thai, and Chinese. Liu Pu glanced around, took a step back, rubbed his hands together, and asked, "Are you waiting for someone? Do you go to our school? How come I've never seen you before?"
Liu Pu secretly guessed that Lin Zhixia was a new student who had recently enrolled. Her Mandarin was very standard, without a trace of local accent, likely indicating she was from out of town. Slipping one hand into his uniform pants pocket, he offered kindly, "You just transferred, right? Leave me your phone number. If you need anything, just call..."
Before Liu Pu could finish, Jiang Yubai's voice came from behind him: "Liu Pu."
Liu Pu was wearing a school uniform shirt, with his jacket originally draped over his arm. When he saw Jiang Yubai, he instinctively stepped aside and draped the jacket over his shoulder. He asked, "You know each other?"
Jiang Yubai walked right past him.
It was somewhat embarrassing—Liu Pu was two years older than Jiang Yubai, but he couldn't match Jiang Yubai in height. Jiang Yubai stood at 181 cm, while Liu Pu was around 168 cm. Stubbornly lifting his chin, Liu Pu silently looked up at Jiang Yubai.
Jiang Yubai told Lin Zhixia, "Liu Pu is a student from the class next to mine."
Lin Zhixia showed no reaction.
Liu Pu spoke up and asked, "Is she a relative of yours? She's so beautiful. Does she study at our school?"
Jiang Yubai's expression remained calm, but his tone was impatient: "She's the same age as me, just turned fourteen. Show some respect and don't get any ideas."Liu Pu showed a surprised expression: "Fourteen years old? Your cousin?" Then he chuckled lightly, "A formal introduction?"
Jiang Yubai suddenly moved closer to Liu Pu, leaving only twenty centimeters between them. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Was what I just said not clear enough?"
Anyone with ears could detect the underlying threat in every word Jiang Yubai uttered.
Liu Pu let out an awkward "ha" and took a step back, hooking his thumbs into the edges of his pants pockets. After a brief stare-down with Jiang Yubai, he retreated another step.
Lin Zhixia watched their standoff with curiosity. She noticed Liu Pu lacked any fighting spirit whatsoever. Gradually, he blended into the bustling crowd, throwing his arms around two male classmates' shoulders as the trio walked away laughing and chatting.
At that moment, Jiang Yubai tugged at Lin Zhixia's backpack strap for less than two seconds before releasing it, murmuring, "Come with me."
Lin Zhixia followed him cheerfully. She tugged at his sleeve once, but he didn't turn around. Finding it amusing, she tugged again. He finally spoke: "The driver called. The car's parked across the street. Let's cross first."
"Can't you look at me?" she asked. "Do I look pretty today?"
Just as she expected, Jiang Yubai remained silent.
Lin Zhixia continued, "I spent half an hour braiding my hair this morning."
With his back to her, she couldn't see his expression. She could only deduce his thoughts from subtle clues—for instance, his hands had been completely relaxed earlier, but now his fingers curled loosely into palms, veins prominent on the back of his hands.
Lin Zhixia lowered her head to examine his left hand.
Almost involuntarily, she reached out and pressed her fingertip against the prominent knuckle on his fist.
This time, Jiang Yubai broke his silence. He pulled his sleeve down to cover the back of his hand before saying, "Lin Zhixia..."
"What about me?" she demanded confidently.
It seemed Jiang Yubai had just overcome some internal barrier. Defying all restraint, he bravely declared, "You look beautiful."
Lin Zhixia froze for a second. Staring at the ground with flushed cheeks, her mind went blank. Trying to calm herself, she attempted to contemplate quantum field theory, but Jiang Yubai's voice echoing "You look beautiful" kept floating through her thoughts, making it impossible to escape his words.
Jiang Yubai reminded her, "The light's green. Let's go."
They crossed the street along the zebra crossing and got into the same car. The driver greeted Lin Zhixia: "Hello, Lin."
Lin Zhixia placed her backpack on her lap, hugging it tightly as she responded, "Hello, Uncle Driver."
Gripping the steering wheel, the driver focused on his work.
The car sped steadily along the broad road until they reached the vicinity of Beijing's Palace Museum—Lin Zhixia's first time seeing the famous Forbidden City in person. Gazing at the majestic palace complex with its towering red walls and golden roofs, magnificent and grand, she urged excitedly, "Hurry, let's get out! I want to go inside."
Jiang Yubai produced two tickets, handing one to Lin Zhixia.Lin Zhixia immediately said, "I brought some change. Wait a moment, let me pay you back for the ticket."
Lin Zhixia showed Jiang Yubai her pink plastic wallet. On the side of the wallet were printed two strawberries, vibrant in color and plump in shape, still bearing their green calyxes. Jiang Yubai asked her, "Just how much do you like strawberries?"
Lin Zhixia summarized briefly, "Very, very much."
Jiang Yubai dug deeper into her preference: "Why?"
Before she could answer, Jiang Yubai offered a reason for her: "Strawberries taste pretty good."
"Maybe it's not just that," Lin Zhixia pondered. "When I was four or five, Mom and Dad were working their hardest. Our family supermarket sold fruits... Sometimes, Mom would stock extra and set up a stall at the entrance of our neighborhood to sell them faster. If business was particularly good that day and Mom earned a bit more, she would buy strawberries for me."
Jiang Yubai looked at her: "So that's how it was."
Lin Zhixia reminisced: "Mom would wash the strawberries thoroughly, remove the calyx from each one, and then serve me a whole plate. Brother always said he hated strawberries. I didn't understand back then, but later I realized that, ever since we were little, he had always given way to me. Whatever I liked, he would pretend not to like."
In Jiang Yubai's eyes, Lin Zeqiu's image improved slightly—but only slightly, as most of it remained negative. After all, Lin Zeqiu couldn't control his temper; his personality wasn't mature or steady enough, and he might shout at Lin Zhixia at home.
Jiang Yubai could even imagine a scene: a four-year-old Lin Zhixia holding a plate of strawberries, finding Lin Zeqiu, and asking in a childish voice, "Brother, want some strawberries?" only for Lin Zeqiu to snap at her gruffly: "I don't want any! Get lost! I hate strawberries!"
Something along those lines.
Jiang Yubai was moved. Without thinking, he said, "From now on, I'll cover all your strawberries."
Lin Zhixia was somewhat surprised: "You'll cover all of them?"
Jiang Yubai had spoken his mind without much thought. He felt it was somewhat inappropriate, even abrupt and offensive, but he was even more unwilling to take it back... So he simply found a reason: "I'm your forever best friend. Treating you to some fruit is perfectly normal." Then, he gave a similar example: "If I visited your home, you'd serve me a bowl of fruit."
Lin Zhixia wasn't swayed by his reasoning. She said, "I feel like something's not quite right here."
Jiang Yubai changed the subject: "Let's go, we should enter the Forbidden City first."
Lin Zhixia hadn't forgotten about repaying the money. The Forbidden City ticket in her hand was marked "60 yuan," so she handed Jiang Yubai a 60-yuan bill, but he refused to accept it. He said, "Friends don't need to talk about money."
Lin Zhixia, however, insisted, "Even brothers should keep clear accounts."
Lin Zhixia felt she had taken advantage of Jiang Yubai many times. She spoke her mind directly: "When I go out with you, you never let me spend money. That's not good... Of course, I'm not saying you're not good—you're really great. You're much richer than me, and you've never looked down on me for being poor..."
Jiang Yubai interjected, "You're much smarter than me, and you've never looked down on me for being dumb."
Lin Zhixia suddenly realized that Jiang Yubai was actually quick-witted and eloquent. So, under what circumstances would Jiang Yubai remain silent?——When he was feeling shy.
Lin Zhixia laughed heartily, "You're really amusing."
At that moment, crowds of visitors bustled about, creating a lively atmosphere.
In the distance, white clouds tinged the blue sky, which enveloped the magnificent palace. Lin Zhixia said cheerfully, "I've watched many documentaries about the Forbidden City. Today, I'll be your tour guide and show you around."
Jiang Yubai played along, calling out, "Guide Lin."
Guide Lin clapped her hands together, "I don't know how to describe it to you. My mind contains every frame from those documentaries, and now I'm framing the scenes with my own eyes—the two images can overlap perfectly."
Jiang Yubai fully immersed himself in the role, "Guide Lin is quite professional, remembering the layout of the Forbidden City so clearly."
Lin Zhixia tugged at Jiang Yubai's sleeve, "Yes, I'm starting my work now, and you're my only visitor."
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