Yang Shuwen murmured gloomily, "Lin Zhixia's acting skills are too brilliant, showing no trace of nervousness..."
Yang Shuwen carefully recalled Lin Zhixia's strengths, silently lamenting his previous recklessness in comparing himself to her openly and covertly, trying to determine who was superior. But how could she lose? Not only was she brilliant, but she also had good luck.
Immersed in melancholy thoughts, Yang Shuwen seemed as if he had just lost a competition. Standing under a banyan tree in the courtyard with one hand behind his back, he took a few steps before recalling several undergraduates he had met days earlier—each one more formidable than the last. In his daze, he couldn't fathom what Professor Gu Likai had seen in him to take him on as a student.
Could it be his innocence and simplicity?
Or his wisdom that appeared as foolishness?
If he mustered the courage to tell his teacher that he possessed no "great wisdom," only "foolishness," would he be expelled from the physics department?
At this thought, Yang Shuwen abruptly halted, his figure freezing as he gazed into the distance.
A voice came from behind him: "Senior Yang."
He turned his head and saw Jiang Yubai.
Jiang Yubai seemed to have come prepared. He got straight to the point: "I understand you."
Yang Shuwen looked at him suspiciously.
Jiang Yubai spoke with the weathered experience of someone who had been through it all: "I once worked hard but gained nothing in return, crushed by those with talent. I lost my confidence, afraid to get up in the morning, afraid to go to school..."
"What are you doing?" Yang Shuwen interrupted Jiang Yubai.
Jiang Yubai stood tall and straight before Yang Shuwen, asking politely, "May I talk with you?"
Yang Shuwen remembered Lin Zhixia saying that Jiang Yubai was her best friend. Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia teamed up in the werewolf game, trusting each other and sharing a tacit understanding—all these phenomena indicated that Jiang Yubai could get along well with Lin Zhixia, even if he was just an ordinary high school sophomore.
Near the water's edge was a smooth-surfaced rock. Yang Shuwen lifted the hem of his trench coat and sat properly on the stone, not revealing his worries or unease. He said, "Alright, let's talk. Have a seat."
Jiang Yubai glanced over and noticed bird droppings on the rock.
Jiang Yubai often cultivated a "fearless" persona, but he actually had an aversion to dirt. He slowly took a step back before saying, "The rock isn't clean."
Yang Shuwen glanced briefly, completely unconcerned: "A few bird droppings? They're dried—won't stick to your clothes. Sit down. What did you want to say?"
Jiang Yubai insisted on standing where he was. He said succinctly, "In this world, some achieve success young, while others bloom late."
"Hey, you're quite something." Yang Shuwen sensed Jiang Yubai's sincerity. Placing his hands on his knees and rubbing them twice, he couldn't help confiding: "Lin Zhixia is your friend, right? She's given me a lot of pressure. The physics and mathematics departments are full of geniuses, but she's only fourteen."
Perhaps because Jiang Yubai seemed reliable and had no connection to Yang Shuwen's daily life, Yang Shuwen boldly spoke his mind: "I stay in the laboratory, grinding day and night, but my research isn't progressing, no results."
Jiang Yubai encouraged him from a different angle: "Lin Zhixia mentioned you to me. She said you're extremely focused in your work and have solid theoretical foundations."Yang Shuwen waved his hand dismissively. "Tan Qianche and I are collaborating on a paper. He finished my part ahead of schedule, but I still can't get it right. My experimental data is too messy. Lin Zhixia's experimental data, on the other hand... looks so perfect it almost seems fake. I'm not accusing her of fabrication, just making a comparison. She has talent and luck—even if I tried to fake data, I wouldn't dare make it that flawless."
At this point, Yang Shuwen looked up and met Jiang Yubai's gaze. "You're her close friend. Have you ever been jealous of her?"
Jiang Yubai answered honestly, "It's not jealousy, more like admiration."
"Admiration?" Yang Shuwen questioned his choice of words.
Jiang Yubai stood firm in his position. "Eventually, I came to terms with it. I may lack talent, but I have time and my own life. I used to make the mistake of measuring success by the depth and breadth of my knowledge..."
"Hey, did you get that line from some book?" Yang Shuwen suddenly interjected.
"Those are my own words," Jiang Yubai's tone grew more relaxed. "If you're interested in reading, I recommend psychologist Alfred Adler's Inferiority and Superiority . I read it twice back in the day."
By "back in the day," Jiang Yubai meant five years ago, when he was only nine years old.
Yang Shuwen, however, didn't pick up on this. Straightening his posture, he asked, "What does the book say?"
Just then, a cool breeze swept across the shore, and Lin Zhixia's voice sounded behind him. "That book is quite famous. Adler is the founder of 'Individual Psychology.' He believed that neither innate genetics nor life experiences determine your destiny—only your own thoughts can constrain you, Senior."
Yang Shuwen didn't turn around. He stood up, smiling faintly. "Alright, thank you both."
With that, he turned and walked away, his strides quick and purposeful.
Lin Zhixia watched his retreating figure and called out Jiang Yubai's name. "Jiang Yubai, have you read Inferiority and Superiority too? Do you ever feel inferior?"
Her question struck a chord deep within Jiang Yubai. He turned to face the reservoir and amended, "I don't really remember."
Lin Zhixia gave his shoulder a light pat. The gesture was bold and spirited, as if challenging him to a duel of camaraderie. She added, "It's been a long time since I wrote in my Human Observation Diary ."
Jiang Yubai asked, "Haven't you found any suitable subjects around you?"
Lin Zhixia shook her head. Her voice softened, almost to a whisper. "When I was little, I knew I was different from others. Now, I seem to gradually understand how some people think. I've grown up."
As she spoke, she carried the air of a sage. But then she suddenly bounced in place, circling around Jiang Yubai. "Still, I want to keep observing you—mainly from biological, philosophical, and psychological perspectives. Why do you blush? Why do you sometimes avoid looking at me? Hahahahaha, it's so interesting."
Jiang Yubai shoved his hands into his pockets, suddenly feeling the urge to follow Yang Shuwen's footsteps.
Lin Zhixia stepped onto a rock, trying to meet his eyes at eye level.
Jiang Yubai stepped onto another rock and asked, "How tall are you now?"
"One meter sixty-three," Lin Zhixia replied.
Jiang Yubai stated matter-of-factly, "I'm one meter eighty-one."Lin Zhixia stubbornly stood on her tiptoes. As the stones beneath her shoes slipped, she stumbled forward, but fortunately, Jiang Yubai caught her. The distance between them narrowed even further as he leaned down and said, "Write as much as you want in your Human Observation Diary . I’ve been your subject of observation since I was nine, and I’d like to know how much I’ve grown over the years... Will you continue your Ph.D. in Beijing? In a few years, if we’re apart, I’ll call you regularly to provide material for your Human Observation Diary ."
Lin Zhixia held onto his arm. The long branches of a willow swayed nearby, willow leaves shaped like eyebrows drifting in the autumn breeze. As the leaves brushed past him, her fingers tightened, clutching his sleeve, and she nodded vaguely.
After the autumn outing, most of Lin Zhixia’s classmates shifted their focus to studying.
Final exams in the School of Mathematics were notoriously brutal, having crushed the spirits of countless struggling students over the years. By December of their first semester, an invisible pressure to compete weighed heavily on many students. Some began spending their days from early morning until late at night in the library, and a few even created schedules timed down to the minute, stretching from 6 a.m. to midnight.
But Lin Zhixia remained unchanged.
By 10 p.m., she was already climbing into bed to sleep.
Her roommate Feng Yuan was much the same. As Lin Zhixia’s bunkmate, Feng Yuan kept almost identical hours, making her the ideal roommate Lin Zhixia had always dreamed of.
However, across from their beds, Yuan Wei and Deng Shasha were having a much harder time.
Deng Shasha had already failed two midterm exams. At first, she wasn’t worried at all, as she hadn’t put much effort into studying at the beginning of the semester. She was the only one in their dorm who hadn’t participated in academic competitions in high school but had still managed to test into the School of Mathematics purely on her college entrance exam scores.
Steeling her resolve, she threw herself into a frenzy of studying for half a semester.
A few days before finals, Yuan Wei and Deng Shasha returned together from the library and continued burning the midnight oil in their dorm. If all four roommates had been united in pulling all-nighters to review, it might have made for an inspiring story—unfortunately, Lin Zhixia and Feng Yuan were the type who didn’t need to study at all.
By a little after 10 p.m., the dorm lights were off. Lin Zhixia lay in bed, hugging a plush toy, fast asleep and perfectly content.
Meanwhile, Deng Shasha anxiously munched on a late-night snack while flipping through her class notes, determined to conduct a thorough review to identify and fill any gaps in her knowledge.
The results of her review had both positive and negative aspects—the good part was that she identified many gaps; the bad part was that she had no idea how to fill them.
Deng Shasha agonized over this all night.
The next morning, she desperately clung to Lin Zhixia’s leg: "God of Study! Save me! Do you have any notes?"
It was the first time Lin Zhixia had heard the title "God of Study." She tapped on Feng Yuan’s upper bunk: "Yuanyuan, do you have any notes?"
For the sake of her final exam grades, Deng Shasha had long abandoned any concern for pride. Still holding onto Lin Zhixia, she cooed sweetly and playfully toward Feng Yuan: "God Yuan, it’s 6:30, time to get up."
God Yuan did not get up. Pressed against the wall, she replied indifferently, muffled: "You were so noisy eating last night, I didn’t sleep well. I’m getting up at eight."
With exams just two days away, Feng Yuan was still this laid-back.Lin Zhixia pondered briefly before proactively suggesting, "I can tutor you! When I'm at home, I often tutor my brother. His class ranking dropped to around seventh or eighth in ninth grade, but through our joint efforts, he ranked in the top fifty citywide in the high school entrance exam."
Deng Shasha and Yuan Wei eagerly agreed. The three of them sat in a circle and began quietly discussing the class material.
Lin Zhixia employed a "catalog-style review" method to help them consolidate each knowledge point. Her mind seemed to contain an ocean of practice problems along with exceptionally clear and concise reasoning. Her patience was remarkable—no matter how many times Deng Shasha asked her questions, she was willing to meticulously unravel the meaning, breaking it down sentence by sentence and explaining it in digestible pieces.
Deng Shasha was so moved she nearly shed tears: "I deeply regret not asking you for help earlier, God of Study. If I can just pass the final exam, I'll treat you to cafeteria meals for two weeks."
Yuan Wei sighed beside her: "You were top ten in your grade during high school, and now in university, you're only aiming for a passing score..."
"Surviving is already an achievement for me!" Deng Shasha snapped at her.
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