Lin Zhixia heard two "beep" sounds. After the call connected, she spoke: "Hello, this is Lin Zhixia."
Jiang Yubai replied from the other end: "Hello, this is Jiang Yubai."
Lin Zhixia tugged the telephone cord, carrying the landline receiver as she walked to her bedroom door. She cracked the door open and peered out—sure enough, Dad had picked up the living room telephone receiver and was monitoring Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai's conversation.
Lin Zhixia took a deep breath and said calmly: "Hello, Jiang Yubai, I've already returned home. We all had a wonderful time at your house today. Thank you very much for your hospitality."
Jiang Yubai was even more polite than her: "You're welcome. It's only right to host classmates."
Lin Zhixia agreed: "Alright, see you tomorrow."
Jiang Yubai also said: "See you tomorrow."
Lin Zhixia immediately hung up. After washing her hands, she ceremoniously opened the lunch box and tasted a piece of Osmanthus cake... It was truly delicious. She froze for a moment before coming back to her senses.
Putting down the lunch box, she rummaged through her belongings until she found a copy of "Michelin Restaurant Top Recipes."
That night before bed, Lin Zhixia sat at her desk studying the recipes from this book.
This led to a problem.
Lin Zhixia forgot to do her homework.
Her memory was excellent—if she concentrated, she could recall almost anything.
However, this weekend Lin Zhixia completely forgot about her homework. It wasn't until six o'clock on Monday morning that she remembered this important matter. She quickly went to wash up, grabbed a piece of bread from the refrigerator, slung her backpack over her shoulder and prepared to leave.
Lin Zeqiu had just finished showering. While drying his hair with a towel, he noticed his sister's frantic state and asked curiously: "Lin Zhixia, why are you in such a hurry?"
Lin Zhixia declared righteously: "I need to go to school!"
Lin Zeqiu asked suspiciously: "Do you need to arrive before seven today?"
"None of your business!" Lin Zhixia dashed out of the house.
She jogged all the way to school.
After arriving at the fourth grade (1) classroom, Lin Zhixia rushed to her seat, pulled out her homework, and began writing furiously. She needed to complete a weekly journal, an English reading reflection, and one unit of math exercises.
The weekly journal and English reflection only required 200 characters each, which Lin Zhixia finished rapidly. Then she opened the math exercise book—all multiple choice questions. She solved one per second, finishing in less than a minute.
After completing her homework, Lin Zhixia took out her notebook and continued recording her "Human Observation Diary."
Lin Zhixia wrote in her diary: Yesterday I accepted an invitation to visit classmate Jiang Yubai's home. I played Bubble ball battle with many friends at Jiang Yubai's house. My observation of Jiang Yubai is that he is brave, upright, honest, and doesn't abandon his companions. I lost to Nie Tianqing in the "rock, paper, scissors" game. Jiang Yubai made an astonished expression. He didn't believe I could fail too. Is this an external manifestation of his trust in me? I can't help but feel somewhat puzzled. My intuition tells me—although I'm not a staunch supporter of transcendentalism, if my intuition isn't mistaken, perhaps even after I graduate from elementary school, Jiang Yubai will still be my best friend...
She stopped writing here.
Because Jiang Yubai had entered the classroom.
Today Jiang Yubai arrived at school earlier than usual.As soon as Jiang Yubai appeared, Dong Sunqi greeted him with immense enthusiasm: "Jiang Yubai! Good morning!"
"Good morning," Jiang Yubai replied. He walked to his seat, set down his backpack, and happened to see the book "Human Observation Diary" in front of Lin Zhixia.
He couldn't help but rest his hand on the desk. Slowly sitting down, he restrained himself for a moment, secretly pondering: The competition between her and me will never cease.
Yet Lin Zhixia said to him, "The strawberries are sweet, the Osmanthus cake is delicious, and the fountain pen works very well. Thank you!"
Jiang Yubai asked directly, "Can I read your diary?"
"Of course," Lin Zhixia pushed the diary toward him.
This action of Lin Zhixia's took Jiang Yubai by surprise. She was being a bit too straightforward.
Jiang Yubai took Lin Zhixia's notebook, flipped to today's page, and saw that Lin Zhixia had written, "Jiang Yubai is a brave, upright, honest person who never abandons his companions." His gaze swept over another line: "If my intuition isn't mistaken, perhaps even after I graduate from elementary school, Jiang Yubai will still be my best friend." He immediately closed Lin Zhixia's notebook and stuffed it back into her desk drawer.
Then he asked, "What is transcendentalism?"
Lin Zhixia explained, "In my understanding, it's when a person uses intuition to perceive the world, disregards the pleasures brought by material things, and values the spirit and the inner self."
Jiang Yubai thought for a moment: "Like Thoreau?"
Lin Zhixia asked delightedly, "You know Thoreau? Thoreau is a famous writer and philosopher."
Jiang Yubai said, "I've read Thoreau's 'Walden.'"
Lin Zhixia turned to face him: "I've also read Thoreau's 'Walden.' Thoreau wrote in the book, 'I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life...' That sentence should also summarize transcendentalism."
Hearing her recite the book's content word for word, Jiang Yubai couldn't help but ask, "Lin Zhixia, can you memorize the entire text of 'Walden'?"
"Yes," Lin Zhixia nodded. "I didn't do it on purpose. Do you understand?"
Jiang Yubai felt puzzled: "Not really."
Lin Zhixia explained, "When you memorize things, you spend time committing them to memory. I'm the opposite. I need to expend effort to forget something. I've been training myself to improve my ability to forget. Now I've made a small achievement... Last weekend, I forgot to do my homework."
Jiang Yubai asked her, "The ability to forget? What's so good about having a poor memory?"
Lin Zhixia shook her head: "Some things aren't worth remembering. If I argue with my Brother, I don't want to remember it."
"You have a Brother?" Jiang Yubai probed further into his competitor's family information. "A biological Brother?"
"Yes. He's three years older than me and in seventh grade this year," Lin Zhixia answered honestly.
Jiang Yubai asked again, "Do you often argue with him?"
Lin Zhixia rested her chin on her hand: "We often have disagreements. What about you? Do you ever argue with your Mom and Dad at home?"
Jiang Yubai pulled his homework notebook from his backpack: "My Mom and Dad are very busy with work. They don't even have time to argue with me."Lin Zhixia nodded repeatedly. She took out a brand new notebook, holding the pen Jiang Yubai had given her, and wrote on the title page: Time Gifted to Jiang Yubai by Lin Zhixia.
Jiang Yubai found it strange. What did "time gifted to me" mean? Could something like time even be given to someone?
He watched as Lin Zhixia created a table of contents in the notebook: History, Geography, Astronomy... Before she could finish writing, Jiang Yubai used a pencil to checkmark the word "History."
After a moment's thought, Lin Zhixia picked up her pen again and wrote: African History, Asian History, European History, American History...
Jiang Yubai immediately checked "African History."
Lin Zhixia asked him, "Do you always choose the first option?"
Jiang Yubai urged her, "Keep writing."
Lin Zhixia continued writing: Egypt in North Africa has the earliest historical written records in Africa. At least ten thousand years ago, Egyptians settled along the Nile River. "Rah" was considered the most important deity of ancient Egyptians. It is said that the sun god "Rah" would board a sacred boat before dawn to pull the sun, with the goddess of truth navigating for him. Research shows that ancient Egyptians used toothpaste and soap to clean themselves...
"Did ancient Egypt have soap?" Jiang Yubai drew a line under the word "soap."
"Yes, it's said that a cook in the ancient Egyptian palace was the one who invented soap," Lin Zhixia answered enthusiastically.
In the margin of the page, she drew a strangely shaped box with a pharaoh statue wearing an Atef crown attached to the front. Beside the statue were small characters: Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh's Soap Box.
Jiang Yubai asked her, "You even remember pictures you've seen?"
"Of course," Lin Zhixia described, "I saw this ancient Egyptian soap box in 'The Ancient Egyptian Empire' from the provincial library."
Jiang Yubai was very interested. He particularly enjoyed reading books like "Unsolved Mysteries of the World," "Visiting Ancient Civilizations," and "Complete Historical Records" - the real and dangerous puzzles of history always held an ancient and mysterious attraction.
Jiang Yubai switched to a fountain pen and also wrote in Lin Zhixia's notebook: Have you heard of the Pyramid of Khufu?
"Of course," Lin Zhixia immediately drew a perspective view of a large pyramid. The four corners of this pyramid precisely faced the four cardinal directions - because the four corners of the Pyramid of Khufu indeed face east, west, north, and south, with an error of less than 0.167 degrees[1].
Jiang Yubai asked her, "The Pyramid of Khufu was built over 4,000 years ago with a total weight of more than six million tons. How could ancient Egyptians make the error of such a massive structure so small?"
Lin Zhixia answered, "The Egyptian pyramid complex, including the Pyramid of Khufu..."
She drew three stars of the Orion constellation in her notebook and arranged three pyramids beneath them: "Jiang Yubai, have you heard of 'Orion'? 'Orion' is a constellation in the Universe, its northern part falls within the Milky Way. The three great pyramids of Egypt are ground mappings of Orion's stars, with very small errors. This gave rise to an alternative hypothesis called the Orion Correlation Theory[1], specifically referring to the connection between Egyptian pyramids and Orion. I have a serious conjecture."Jiang Yubai listened attentively. "What conjecture?"
Lin Zhixia started drawing again. "Larson's three laws tell us that molecular clouds are approximately in a state of micro-equilibrium. The molecular cloud core in Orion is a high-density region with extremely strong gravity! But I think, according to my speculation, the collapse of the cloud core into a star isn't due to its own gravitational force, but rather the magnetic field and other stellar systems..."
Jiang Yubai's fingertip pressed against the tip of Lin Zhixia's pen.
She tilted her head, staring intently at him.
He said, "Let me draw one too."
Jiang Yubai pulled over the notebook and drew a human figure on the page—barely recognizable as human shape. This figure had a ponytail and wore a small dress. Next to it, he wrote three characters: Lin Zhixia.
Lin Zhixia questioned, "Why did you draw me like this? Am I really that ugly?"
Jiang Yubai drew an even uglier figure and labeled it: Jiang Yubai.
Lin Zhixia's anger subsided. "I'm a bit better looking than you."
Jiang Yubai used a large bracket to enclose all the content Lin Zhixia had previously written, then drew an arrow pointing to the two little figures' heads. He made Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai the main characters, creating a comic for these two.
He wrote seriously: In the year 2004 AD, Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai wandered to the Orion in the universe...
"Why would we two be wandering?" Lin Zhixia asked in confusion.
Jiang Yubai said, "Because..."
Before he could think of a reason, Lin Zhixia happily suggested, "Because we want to explore the universe!"
Jiang Yubai named his self-made comic "Exploring the Universe," with the first chapter titled "Orion Wandering."
When Ding Yan and Dong Sunqi came to play with Jiang Yubai, they happened to see the comic "Exploring the Universe" that Jiang Yubai was diligently drawing.
Ding Yan rushed over to look and immediately said, "Jiang Yubai, buddy! Give me a role too! This time I want to be in your group!"
Jiang Yubai obligingly drew a human figure and noted beside it: Ding Yan, male, 9 years old, one of Jiang Yubai's companions. Wandering in Orion together with Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia.
"Me too!" Dong Sunqi volunteered. "Let me be the villain! I want to be the big villain!"
Remembering what Lin Zhixia had told him, Jiang Yubai immediately composed Dong Sunqi's biography: Dong Sunqi, male, 9 years old, Controller of the magnetic field, capable of manipulating the collapse of Orion's cloud core.
"Wow!" Dong Sunqi exclaimed in delight. "I'm so awesome!"
Though he didn't understand the setting, he felt very powerful. He also asked, "Hey, where are your and Lin Zhixia's biographies?"
Jiang Yubai flipped back to the previous page and wrote below the three characters "Lin Zhixia": Lin Zhixia, 9 years old, is a genius, God of Truth, Navigator of the nebula.
Ding Yan felt quite puzzled. Jiang Yubai claimed to see Lin Zhixia as a competitor, but looking at how he set up the "Lin Zhixia" character in the comic—"genius," "God of Truth," and even "Navigator of the nebula"... this was way too powerful!
Ding Yan had watched many TV series, like "Iron Teeth Bronze Tooth Ji Xiaolan," "The Great Han Emperor," and "The Qianlong Era." Generally speaking, the strongest character must be the protagonist.Then, Ding Yan keenly observed: "Jiang Yubai! Lin Zhixia is the heroine in your comic, isn't she! You're the male lead yourself! Lin Zhixia is definitely the heroine!"
"We are companions," Jiang Yubai declared, "just like the Fellowship of the Ring in The Lord of the Rings."
Lin Zhixia clapped her hands together, leaping with joy: "Yes! We'll always be companions!"
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