Just as Deng Shasha had anticipated, this year's final exams were quite challenging.
After finishing the last exam, Deng Shasha was left with barely half a breath. She staggered back to the dorm and collapsed onto her bed, lamenting, "I couldn't understand several questions on the Mathematical Analysis exam. How did you all do?"
Lin Zhixia had just returned from the supermarket with a bottle of strawberry yogurt. She took a sip and turned to exchange a glance with Feng Yuan.
Not wanting to hurt Deng Shasha's fragile heart, Feng Yuan sincerely lied, "Mathematical Analysis was so hard!"
Lin Zhixia immediately chimed in, "It was really difficult!"
Deng Shasha questioned, "God of Study, if even you say it was hard, am I doomed?"
Lin Zhixia looked at her, hesitating to speak.
Mathematical Analysis seemed like a terrifying subject—so much so that even Lin Zhixia couldn't find the words to describe it.
Deng Shasha felt as if she had been plunged into an icy abyss. Her hopes were shattered, and she felt betrayed by mathematics. A bitter, desolate, sorrowful, and helpless sensation surged in her heart—like Wang Baochuan waiting faithfully in her cold hut for eighteen years, only to discover that Xue Pinggui had married another woman.
Deeply wounded, Deng Shasha muttered to herself, "I studied math every single day for over a month... What if I fail Mathematical Analysis?"
Lin Zhixia comforted her, "You won't fail. I helped you review, and I promise you'll pass!"
Feng Yuan casually remarked, "Don't overthink it."
Only Yuan Wei solemnly handed Deng Shasha a copy of the "Undergraduate Course Retake Procedures." Deng Shasha tearfully read through it, mentally preparing herself to retake the course.
On the day the results were released, both Deng Shasha and Yuan Wei were surprised. Their final grades were much better than they had expected, and Deng Shasha didn’t need to retake Mathematical Analysis after all.
Deng Shasha pulled out her phone, opened her contacts, found "Lin Zhixia," and changed her nickname to "God of Study." If not for Lin Zhixia's modesty, Deng Shasha would have enshrined her as an idol.
A few days later, the title "God of Study" spread through their major's QQ group. Lin Zhixia and a few other top students had achieved the terrifying feat of perfect GPAs in all subjects. For them, whatever the maximum GPA was for university exams, their average scores matched it exactly.
Lin Zhixia remained humble. She believed that first-year subjects were relatively basic, and no exam could fully demonstrate a person's mathematical research capabilities. She encouraged Deng Shasha to view "being good at research" and "being good at exams" from different perspectives.
Lin Zhixia and her three roommates were enrolled in the "Information Science" program of the School of Mathematics, which aimed to cultivate interdisciplinary talents in mathematics and computer science.
Deng Shasha made it clear that she would eventually abandon mathematical theory and embrace computer science and software engineering. She believed that no matter how difficult programming was, it couldn’t be worse than Mathematical Analysis, and no matter how annoying code was, it couldn’t be more frustrating than Analytic Geometry.
Lin Zhixia didn’t comment but simply encouraged Deng Shasha to move forward boldly and stick to her choices.
Though Lin Zhixia was modest in front of her classmates, the moment she saw her mom, she couldn’t wait to say, "Mom, Mom, I did really well on my finals!"The winter break was approaching, and Lin Zhixia's mom made a special trip to Beijing to pick her up. The mother and daughter bought two sleeper train tickets and, with a single suitcase, embarked on their journey back to the provincial capital.
Lin Zhixia was overjoyed. She could finally go home.
She boarded the train excitedly, even pulling out her Little Penguin from her backpack and hugging it as she sat on the lower bunk.
The train wheels rolled along the tracks, colliding with the rails to produce a rhythmic "clackety-clack" sound. The heavy aroma of instant noodles filled the entire carriage, lingering just like the train's rhythmic noise.
As noon approached, a train attendant pushed a meal cart selling boxed lunches. Each box cost 20 yuan, featuring white rice with a few side dishes—both meat and vegetables—steaming hot.
Lin Zhixia quietly watched the cart, and her mom said, "Let's get one."
The attendant asked, "Just one?"
Mom handed over a 20-yuan bill and said to Lin Zhixia, "Mom isn't hungry. Xia Xia, you eat first."
Lin Zhixia tilted her head. She also took out a 20-yuan bill and called to the attendant, "Hello, could I have another boxed lunch, please? Thank you."
Mom tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "Xia Xia, you shouldn’t spend money carelessly. There’s a lot of rice and not much food. You won’t be able to finish it all by yourself."
"Then I don’t want you eating my leftovers," Lin Zhixia said bluntly. She had easily seen through her mom’s intentions and felt somewhat embarrassed because of it.
Each boxed lunch cost 20 yuan, and Mom could only bring herself to buy one. She wanted Lin Zhixia to eat first, then she would finish the leftover rice—perhaps filling her stomach with just the oil and broth from the dishes.
After the train attendant had moved on, Lin Zhixia couldn’t help but whisper, "Why? Why does Mom still have to save money like this? I’ve given almost all my scholarship money to the family, keeping less than 10,000 yuan for myself. And I’ll keep earning more. My senior makes 156,000 yuan a year—I won’t do worse than him. Just wait two more years, until I’m older, until I sell patents, produce academic results..."
Two boxed lunches sat on the table, untouched. Mom sighed and finally said, "Xia Xia, the money you gave me, I’ve saved it for you. The money you earn is yours—no one can take it, not even your brother. You’re still young, and Mom has to plan for you. Which city do you want to live in? Where will you buy a home? What if you stay in Beijing? The cost of living there is so high."
Beijing’s housing prices were far more expensive than those in the provincial capital.
Lin Zhixia hadn’t even considered the issue of settling down and establishing a home.
After a brief thought, she declared without hesitation, "I’ll definitely become a professor in the future. Once I’m a professor, I can live in the university’s staff housing. The money I earn... will have many uses. I want to travel the world with my best friend."
"Xia Xia, you need to have a home," Mom said again. "You’ll need to get married..."
Lin Zhixia interrupted, "No, those aren’t inevitable paths in life. For me, research is the only inevitable path."
Mom unwrapped a pair of bamboo chopsticks. "Hurry and eat, the food’s getting cold. Mom shouldn’t have talked to you about these things. Xia Xia is still so young."Lin Zhixia lifted the lid of her lunchbox with a sense of ceremony, and all her negative emotions instantly vanished. She savored her meal slowly while mentally calculating her money-making plans. Her outstanding performance this semester would surely earn her a substantial scholarship. She was also repeatedly revising a paper related to Quantum Computing. If she could publish it this year, she would receive an additional bonus.
In short, Lin Zhixia wouldn’t be short on money.
She was brimming with confidence.
The train arrived in the provincial capital early the next morning.
Lin Zeqiu and Dad both came to the station to pick her up.
The family of four reunited after half a year apart, and Dad’s eyes even turned slightly red as he kept saying Lin Zhixia had lost weight—was the cafeteria food bad? Was she often going hungry at university?
Lin Zhixia listed off a series of dishes. She analyzed matter-of-factly, “Our university cafeteria has a wide variety of dishes. I like Hainanese Chicken Rice and Three-Colored Diced Fish Rice. Our dorm also goes out for meals together every month.”
“How are your roommates treating you?” Lin Zeqiu was most concerned about this.
“They’re great,” Lin Zhixia said. “They take care of me.”
Lin Zeqiu held Lin Zhixia’s backpack in his left hand and her suitcase in his right. He was a moving luggage rack, refusing to let their parents or younger sister carry anything heavy. On the way home, he remained taciturn, far from the enthusiasm Lin Zhixia had imagined.
Lin Zhixia couldn’t decipher Lin Zeqiu’s thoughts.
Lin Zeqiu was a high school senior, already eighteen and officially stepping into adulthood. It had been over four months since he last saw Lin Zhixia—since her birth, they had never been apart for so long.
When Lin Zhixia was home, Lin Zeqiu often found her annoying.
She suspected that during these four months at university in Beijing, Lin Zeqiu might have missed her at first, but later, he probably enjoyed the peace, freedom, and relaxation—not to mention not having to help with her chores. Now that she was back, his good days were over, so he wasn’t keen on talking to her.
That was fine, Lin Zhixia thought. She understood her brother’s territorial instincts.
Once inside the house, Lin Zhixia bounded into her bedroom like a little rabbit. Her room had been tidied up spotlessly—the bedsheet, quilt cover, and pillowcase were all washed the night before and dried that morning, still in her favorite pink strawberry-patterned cotton set.
Everything in the bedroom was intact, not a single item out of place.
“Did Brother tidy my room?” Lin Zhixia asked.
Lin Zeqiu stood at her bedroom door, still silent. After a full minute, he finally said, “It feels like a dream—you’re home.”
Lin Zhixia bounced over to him. “Brother, have you dreamed about me?”
“Many times,” Lin Zeqiu replied impatiently. “In my dreams, you’re always forcing me to do test papers.”
Lin Zhixia praised herself, “So I’m that responsible—even in dreams, I’m pushing you to study.”
“That’s not a good thing,” Lin Zeqiu remarked coldly.
“How is it not?” Lin Zhixia argued playfully. “Have you heard of the Hawthorne Effect? When someone receives extra attention, they unconsciously work harder, and their performance improves.”Lin Zeqiu hadn't bickered with his little sister for a long time. He missed every sibling argument they'd had growing up. Though he couldn't remember what they'd argued about, he remembered how Lin Zhixia looked as a child—like a snow-white glutinous rice ball, tiny and soft, appearing well-behaved and tender.
Lin Zeqiu stood by the door, his arm brushing against the doorframe. He studied Lin Zhixia and murmured to himself, "You've grown taller."
"I'm 163 centimeters now," Lin Zhixia declared proudly. She asked him proactively, "How tall are you, Brother?"
Lin Zeqiu answered expressionlessly, "187 centimeters."
Lin Zhixia clapped her hands. "Brother is so tall."
Lin Zeqiu patted her head. "Alright, I'm going to study. You should rest for a bit. We're having shrimp dumplings and strawberries for lunch. Dad will make beef sliced noodles tomorrow—he's already bought the beef..."
"That's great," Lin Zhixia mused. "Oh, Brother, the day after tomorrow, I'm going to attend my friend's uncle's wedding. I won't be home for dinner that day. If they give out Red Eggs and brown sugar steamed buns at the wedding, I'll bring some back for you."
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