Even without Jin Qiang coming to find her, Jiang Mu couldn’t possibly linger at Jin Chao’s place indefinitely. For one thing, their relationship was awkward at best, and for another, she’d be troubling San Lai—though San Lai didn’t seem bothered and was quite welcoming to her. Still, she felt guilty for making them work from dawn to dusk because of her presence.
Although she had moved her belongings back to Jin Qiang’s house, she often dropped by the auto shop after school and on weekends. As Jin Chao had said, this place was her second home, so she came and went freely.
Perhaps because she had grown up with only her mother, Jiang Yinghan, who was often busy managing the lottery store, leaving Jiang Mu alone most of the time, she had developed a fondness for the bustling atmosphere of the auto shop. Even if everyone was too busy to pay her any attention, she felt an inexplicable sense of comfort sitting in the break room, watching them work or chat through the glass.
Compared to Jin Qiang’s house, she felt a greater sense of security studying here. She didn’t have to worry about Zhao Meijuan loitering outside her room or Jin Xin suddenly barging in or running off with her test papers.
Although Zhao Meijuan had tried to speak with her after she moved back, Jiang Mu wasn’t that forgiving. Jin Xin’s situation made her feel sorry for the little girl, but regarding Zhao Meijuan’s harsh accusations that day, while she held less resentment, a barrier remained between them. So aside from sleeping at Jin Qiang’s house, she avoided spending time with them whenever possible.
Since Jin Chao’s “business trip,” Jiang Mu noticed that the object covered by the large tarpaulin had reappeared. Once, out of curiosity, she tried to sneak into the shed yard again, but the door from the repair shop was locked. She observed it several times and realized it was usually locked during the day, so she had to let go of her curiosity.
Although she claimed to come to the auto shop to study, putting on an earnest and humble attitude, San Lai teased that she was drawn by the aroma, knowing they had good food there.
San Lai wasn’t wrong. Whenever she visited, the auto shop would have extra snacks. When it came to eating, these men never held back.
Ever since Jiang Mu snagged a few beef jerky pieces from San Lai that day, she had become obsessed with beef jerky. Tossing one into her mouth while studying late into the night, she found it grew more flavorful with each chew—utterly satisfying. However, beef prices kept rising, and a small pack costing over two hundred yuan would be gone in just two days. Frustrated, she vowed to study hard, earn money in the future, and achieve “beef jerky freedom.”
Her declaration became a running joke, with Tie Gongji and San Lai teasing her about it for days. After all, among their group, only San Lai and Jin Chao had attended proper high schools—yet one never made it to university, and the other muddled through a third-rate college for two and a half years. Now that they finally had a promising youngster, they hoped Jiang Mu would get into a prestigious university so they could bask in her glory, but her ambition was fixated on beef jerky.
When Jin Chao returned from the auto parts market, the men were still chuckling over this, praising his little sister for her “impressive” aspirations. Jin Chao lowered his head, smiling without a word. After a while, he walked to the break room door, leaned against the frame, and asked, “So, the major you’ve decided on is beef jerky studies? Maybe you shouldn’t focus on physics—consider switching to biology instead.”After speaking, he took out a large bag of beef jerky from behind and placed it by her desk before leaving. Jiang Mu stared blankly at her source of happiness and called out to Jin Chao outside the glass: "My goal would scare you to death if I said it, so I won’t tell you. The beef jerky is just a smokescreen. By the time Xiao Yang and the others think I’m opening a beef jerky specialty store, I’ll already be the boss of the livestock industry, overseeing thousands of cattle and sheep. When that time comes, I’ll remember the kindness of this bag of beef jerky."
Jin Chao rummaged for parts, a smile hidden in his eyes: "How do you plan to repay me? Make me a farm owner?"
"Hmm, I’ll consider it."
Jin Chao looked up at her: "Did you figure out yesterday’s problem?"
Jiang Mu quickly lowered her head again. Shandian wagged his tail and ran out of the break room, circling around Jin Chao. As for this black dog, it was strange—some time ago, when people from Ten Thousand Records Car Shop came to cause trouble, Flathead had pointed at the fiercely cute Shandian and scolded, "What are you pretending to be, a damn Labrador?"
Perhaps it was this remark that provoked him, but over a month later, Shandian actually started looking more and more like a Labrador—with a broad forehead and ears hanging on both sides. Maybe it was because he shuttled between the pet shop and the car shop every day, scamming food and drinks, that his diet became exceptionally good. Compared to his siblings, Shandian was a full size larger. With his shiny black fur, he sat there exuding an aloof, ascetic vibe.
Although Shandian ran between the pet shop and the car shop every day, he was very clear about where his home was. Usually, after scamming some freeze-dried snacks from San Lai, he would slip back to the car shop without looking back.
However, the unsolved mystery of who Shandian’s father was found its answer in Shandian himself. San Lai suspected it was the Labrador from upstairs in the bun shop. The Labrador’s owner occasionally went on business trips and would sometimes leave the dog at San Lai’s shop. San Lai’s business charged by the day, but for large dogs like this, he usually kept them in separate cages, letting them out for walks during mealtimes.
He never expected that damn dog could still manage to mate with his Shih Tzu right under his nose. Over this incident, San Lai even took Shandian upstairs to the bun shop to meet his relatives. The Labrador’s owner repeatedly apologized for his dog’s romantic debts and promised that Shandian was always welcome to visit for a father-son reunion.
From then on, Shandian had another place to scam food and drinks besides the pet shop and the car shop, becoming the most carefree dog in the Tongren area—bar none. Every time Jiang Mu came from school or Jin Qiang’s house, she could see his flamboyant figure on the street even before entering the car shop. The nearby Poodles, Schnauzers, and Corgis were all utterly captivated by his majestic and imposing presence whenever they passed by the car shop. They would roar at him with dog-like barks and even attempted to force underage Shandian into dual cultivation.
Jin Chao seemed to disdain his overly flirtatious dog life and always remained lukewarm toward Shandian. But dogs, by nature, seem to have a special sensitivity to people’s auras. For example, Shandian sometimes ignored San Lai and other times was overly enthusiastic, pouncing on him with his dirty paws. Toward Jiang Mu, however, he was always quiet and gentle, perhaps afraid that her petite frame couldn’t handle his increasingly robust body. No matter how excited Shandian was to see Jiang Mu, he never pounced on her, at most rubbing against her legs incessantly, begging for pets and hugs.Only when facing Jin Chao would it display absolute obedience. That innate animal instinct made it naturally submit to creatures stronger than itself.
Shandian understood perfectly well the importance of currying favor with Jin Chao. So even though Jiang Mu treated him so well, whenever Jin Chao approached, he would always eagerly scamper over to lick his boots.
Jiang Mu often saw Jin Chao smoking at the auto shop entrance with Shandian sitting upright beside him, never lounging lazily like he did around her. Jin Chao's cold, stern demeanor combined with Shandian's increasingly imposing appearance created such a harmonious picture that Jiang Mu couldn't resist taking a photo with her phone and setting it as her wallpaper.
Jin Chao was very busy, not always at the shop, and even when he was, there was too much work for him to pay attention to Jiang Mu. So he never actually agreed to tutor her.
However, sometimes when Jiang Mu encountered problems she didn't understand, she would go ask him. After several such exchanges, seeing her struggle made him anxious on her behalf, so he found time to review her textbooks again and then explained how to solve the problems.
After several days of this back-and-forth, Jin Chao had almost identified all of Jiang Mu's weak areas. He began occasionally selecting specific problems for her to practice. After a few rounds, Jiang Mu noticed the questions he assigned were very targeted.
But he was busy. Even when Jiang Mu finished the problems, he might not have time to explain them. Sometimes when she came to the shop, she'd find extensive notes beside the problems he'd previously assigned - including detailed analysis of proof processes, references to specific formulas on particular textbook pages, all clearly marked. Jiang Mu would then slowly work through them based on Jin Chao's annotations.
Finally, on a Sunday afternoon, Jin Chao handed over the work to Xiao Yang and others. After lunch, he brought over a chair and began systematically helping her identify and fill knowledge gaps. He planned to spend the entire afternoon helping her understand the core concepts. If Jiang Mu could absorb the material, he didn't mind finding time later to teach her differential equations, definite integrals, limits, series, double integrals, even triple integrals. If she couldn't grasp it, he suggested she abandon her intimidating big goals, change direction early, and not waste time.
Yet Jiang Mu wondered: "Since you can self-study university courses, why not get a diploma?"
Jin Chao lowered his gaze, tapping the paper with his pen as he said calmly: "Each stage has its own priorities. Your current task is the college entrance exam. For me, there are always more pressing matters."
Jiang Mu propped her chin: "Like what?" Auto repair?
Jin Chao lifted his eyes to give her a dark look: "If you think chatting with me will miraculously improve your science scores, I can chat with you for three days and three nights."
"..." Jiang Mu obediently lowered her head to work on the problems.
She solved problems while Jin Chao helped her organize concepts and knowledge points according to question types. Partially correct answers were manageable, but what really stressed her were the problems she completely couldn't solve. With Jin Chao sitting opposite her, watching her pen, Jiang Mu felt tremendous pressure, all formulas blanking from her mind.
Especially when she looked up to see Jin Chao's indescribable expression, she started questioning her life choices. She thought he would start criticizing her, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he moved his chair beside hers and began guiding her step by step through the solutions.Fortunately, Jiang Mu soon regained her problem-solving rhythm. Probably to avoid making her feel pressured, Jin Chao stopped staring at her when she worked on problems later, instead taking out his phone and waiting until she finished before checking her answers.
Jiang Mu’s foundation wasn’t too weak, and she was fairly quick-witted. For question types Jin Chao had explained, she could basically master them after practicing two variations.
After a few hours, Jiang Mu finally understood where Jin Chao’s talent came from—he had his own precise way of expressing abstract concepts. For instance, complex ideas like sequence limits and inverse sine functions, which had taken Jiang Mu considerable time to grasp, were something Jin Chao could directly prove to strengthen her application and understanding. The tedious texts and elusive symbols she had encountered in her previous studies became concrete under his guidance. Compared to the orthodox teaching methods at school, Jin Chao’s approach was much simpler and more direct, yet highly effective for Jiang Mu.
In just a few hours, Jiang Mu could already articulate those once obscure concepts using language and symbols, establishing preliminary connections within the conceptual network—a level she had never reached in her past academic experience.
The biggest difference between her and Jin Chao’s problem-solving styles was that he often skipped cumbersome steps and went straight to the core, whereas Jiang Mu usually had to go through round after round of brute-force calculations, which kept her trapped in endless practice problems, short on time and perpetually frustrated.
For the same problem, if she needed ten lines to find the answer, Jin Chao would use only five—sometimes even half that.
It was as if they were both climbing a mountain from the base: Jin Chao could identify all possible paths and the summit’s coordinates before even starting, needing only to choose the shortest route to the top. Jiang Mu, on the other hand, was like an ox dragging a cart, huffing and puffing as she explored each path one by one.
Less than two hours in, Jiang Mu felt like offering up her knees in surrender. She realized her thought process was simply not on the same level as Jin Chao’s.
Jin Chao clearly sensed this too, but he wasn’t in a hurry. Speaking at a steady pace, he maintained a calm expression throughout.
He could gauge how much she understood from the look on her face. If she showed even a hint of confusion, he would immediately switch approaches until she grasped the concept.
Although Jiang Mu had to admit the afternoon had been highly productive, Jin Chao’s low, magnetic voice had a hypnotic effect. Just past five o’clock, she propped her chin in her hand, watching his jaw move as he spoke. The contours of his face stretched flawlessly with each word, and in her drowsy state, one thought kept surfacing: Once she left for university, would they ever cross paths again?
Noticing her distraction, Jin Chao turned to look at her and saw her eyelids fluttering, on the verge of closing. He asked softly, “Is there something on my face?”
Too sleepy to think clearly, Jiang Mu looked dazed, her soft features making her seem pitifully tired. She blinked and asked, “Can I nap for ten minutes?”
Jin Chao chuckled lightly and didn’t stop her. Jiang Mu promptly laid her head down, while Jin Chao pulled out a piece of paper to jot down the issues she still needed to work on, lest he forget them later.Jiang Mu quickly fell asleep and seemed to twitch slightly. Jin Chao glanced at her—she had curled into a small ball, looking quiet and docile with her eyes closed.
Five minutes later, perhaps because her arm had gone numb from being pressed, she shifted her head and directly pillowed it on Jin Chao’s arm. He froze, lifting his head to see San Lai standing in the repair bay, saying, “Look what you’ve done to the kid.”
Jin Chao made a shushing gesture at him and tried to gently free his arm, but Jiang Mu furrowed her brows and let out a soft, discontented whimper.
He gave San Lai a helpless look, and San Lai shrugged, signaling there was nothing he could do.
So when Jiang Mu woke up, she noticed Jin Chao’s right arm hanging limp—he even used his left hand to eat. Concerned, she asked, “What happened to your right hand?”
Jin Chao lifted his gaze and fixed her with a deep, silent stare.
After Jin Chao’s guidance, the most noticeable change for Jiang Mu was a shift in her thinking patterns. She gained new insights into many broad concepts, applying them with less awkwardness and no longer fearing massive calculations as she once had.
During that period, Jin Chao was like a god in her eyes. No matter how difficult a problem she threw at him, even if he couldn’t provide a perfect solution that day, he would always explain the reasoning in a way she could understand by the next day.
Jin Chao ignited a passion for math and science she had never felt before, giving her the drive to push toward her goals.
Until one day at the end of October, someone suddenly showed up at the auto shop.
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