The car turned at the third traffic light intersection, and Yu Ranjie suddenly called out for the driver to stop.
He instructed, “Stop at that gold shop up ahead, you can get off work now. Ah Yang and I will walk home.”
For the past two years, Yu Ranjie had spent most of his time at social events and on business trips.
The time the two of them saw each other each day was always rushed, and it was rare for him to have any leisure time to go for a walk with his son.
Yu Ranjie came out of the gold shop with a full set of gold jewelry, put his arm around Yu Jinyang’s neck, and the two strolled home at a leisurely pace.
Two bodyguards followed behind at a distance that was neither too close nor too far.
The second floor of the gold shop happened to be the dance studio where Yu Jinyang usually practiced. Yu Ranjie looked down at his son, who had grown a bit taller again, and said, “It’s been a while since Dad watched you dance. Your mom told me you’ve been practicing a super cool dance lately.”
Yu Jinyang shot him a sidelong glance, “Dad, if you have something to say, just say it.”
Yu Ranjie pinched the bag of jewelry.
Because the packaging was too flashy, and he didn’t want everyone to know it was gold jewellery, he refused the fancy box and asked them to put it in a black plastic bag.
Yu Ranjie looked like he’d just come back from the market with a fish.
Walking side by side with his son, he massaged the back of the boy’s neck with his other hand, and for once, spoke in a rare, earnest tone: “Alright then, tell Dad, what were you thinking? Why did you hide the threatening letter from me and your mom? I remember I stressed to you that if something like this happened, even if you were in class, you should immediately have the teacher inform us. Do you really like hanging out with Li Yingqiao and the others? If that’s the case, you should still tell us first. We could think of a solution together, or worst case, invite them to our house for tutoring. Or do you think Mom and Dad are so unreasonable that we wouldn’t care about your feelings and would just forcefully separate you from your friends?”
“It’s not that,” Yu Jinyang’s shoulders slumped, as if all the strength he’d been holding up these past days finally drained away.
He looked up at the heavy night sky and the rows upon rows of neon signs all around, sighed, and said, “I was planning to stop going after this tutoring session anyway. The high school entrance exam is coming up, and I don’t want to be distracted anymore.”
Yu Ranjie clicked his tongue and raised his eyebrows in surprise, “I thought you really liked hanging out with them?”
“Not that much.”
Getting smacked on the back of the head every day—how could anyone like that?
It’s not like I’m a masochist.
“Isn’t Little Yuan Dian fun? Such a tall guy, but he’s so timid. That day I offered him a ride home, and he ran off faster than a chicken, like I’d scattered rice on the ground—he just pecked his way out of there like he’d seen a ghost.”
Thinking of that scene, Yu Ranjie laughed heartily again, “When he ran, I could practically see his chicken wings flapping—”
“Gao Dian doesn’t take black cars.”
Yu Ranjie’s smile froze at the corner of his mouth, and he suddenly remembered—this kid had been kidnapped by human traffickers when he was little.
The streetlights cast a dim yellow glow over the commercial street in the heart of the old city.
In recent years, the new district had developed rapidly, skyscrapers rising one after another, with internet cafes, gyms, and cinemas lit up all night, drawing young people to the new district.
The old district was much quieter; aside from the gold shop and barbershop, which still had regular customers, the other stores were all trying to move their business to the new area.
Even right after dinner, the street was almost empty, but there were plenty of bikes and e-bikes scattered haphazardly across the tactile paving.
In the past, whenever Yu Ranjie finished a social event at the state-run restaurant and walked home, if he had time, he’d clear the bikes off the tactile path himself, and if he didn’t, he’d just curse his way through.
Today, with his son there, he naturally directed him to do the work.
He leaned against a streetlamp, watching the young but diligent figure.
Under the streetlights, the boy’s frame had already broken free of its youthful awkwardness, like a freshly fired porcelain blank—still faintly steamy, the glaze not yet fully set, but already showing a bright and clear promise.
New snow always outshines the old.
Who hasn’t been a noble, cold youth once?
Yu Ranjie sighed to himself that his son had finally grown up quietly, becoming a man.
So, determined to get to the bottom of things, he crossed his arms and continued to tease his son: “What about Zheng Miao Jia? Would Zheng Miao Jia ride in a black Maybach?”
Yu Jinyang finished clearing almost half the street of bikes, methodically moving one after another, and shot another sideways glance at his dad.
Still, he satisfied his father’s curiosity: “I don’t know. But she’s really good at drawing—her Chinese textbook’s Li Bai and Du Fu are both wearing sneakers.”
“Amazing,” Yu Ranjie praised, his smile especially kind and meaningful.
“Son, you see, you remember these things pretty clearly. And you say you don’t care about being friends with them—who are you fooling?”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want to be friends with them. I was talking about Li Yingqiao,” Yu Jinyang shrugged his shoulders up, his spine taut like a bowstring.
The look in his eyes as he glanced at his dad was a mixture of resignation and helplessness, and as he moved the bikes aside, he muttered, “She’s just too annoying.”
Yu Ranjie drew out a long “Ah—” that went on and on, until his son had finished clearing the whole tactile path, then teased him with a wicked grin: “Had a fight with that little rascal again?”
“Yup, broke off the friendship again.”
“My son is so dramatic.”
“It’s all your fault, made me bleed so much. Mom definitely won’t sleep well tonight, I’ll have to buy her some gold to calm her nerves.”
“I’ll deduct it from your New Year’s money this year.”
“…No way. Fine, I’ll pay you back when I grow up and make money, but I need my New Year’s money this year.”
Yu Jinyang stretched his backpack strap and swung his bag onto his dad’s back in protest.
“What do you need it for, to chase girls?”
“You’re sick. Anyway, I need it for something.”
It was only now that Yu Ranjie belatedly hefted his son’s backpack, and caught sight of the red marks on Yu Jinyang’s shoulder from the straps.
“Good grief, how heavy is your bag? Why is it so heavy? Growing up means you’re getting tough, huh? Carrying such a heavy bag, why didn’t you say anything before? But when it comes to moving bikes, you don’t mind asking for help, huh? What’s wrong with asking your dad for help—”
“Eee—ee—ee—ee—” Yu Jinyang quickly strode ahead, not wanting to be nagged by his dad.
“Hey, I raised a cicada,” Yu Ranjie called from behind.
“Cicadas go like this—ji—ji—li—li—ji—ji—li—li—”
“Where did you learn that?”
“Li Yingqiao just caught one on a tree a couple of days ago. Teacher Liang smacked her butt till it bloomed.”
Yu Jinyang hooked one hand through his backpack strap, the other casually stuck in his pocket, walking backward as he talked to his dad.
Halfway through, he burst out laughing, and the bag strap bit so deeply into his T-shirt collar that it sagged crookedly off one shoulder.
“Serves her right.”
***
In the past few days, the three-person tutoring group felt empty, and unusually quiet.
Even the dung beetle rolling its ball on the balcony could be heard going “ka wa ka zi.”
“Strange, Shan Kui wasn’t that talkative to begin with, so how come it’s gotten so much quieter since he’s gone?”
Gao Dian commented.
Seeing no one responded, he folded his Chinese test paper into a paper airplane, tossed it gently, and it traced a perfect, smooth arc—landing squarely on Liang Mei’s head.
Liang Mei had just led the new math teacher into the room, and the plane hit him right on the forehead.
“Gao Dian!”
Liang Mei bellowed.
Gao Dian scrambled over, rubbing the other’s head, “Sorry! Sorry, really sorry—”
When the other person raised his face, Gao Dian was instantly dumbfounded, “You, you, you…damn! You! It’s that guy!”
Zheng Miao Jia, who was busy drawing muscles on Bai Juyi, also froze, “Yo,” she exclaimed, dropping her eraser, which rolled over to Li Yingqiao’s side.
Only then did Li Yingqiao, who’d been so stimulated lately she’d sworn to study math hard, finally look up from the math paper she’d been wrestling with for days. She stared blankly at the doorway and was stunned as well.
Th-this—this—isn’t that crazy guy from Little Painting City?
Liang Mei didn’t bother with extra words; knowing they wouldn’t understand anyway, he simply introduced, “His name is Zhu Xiaoliang. You can call him Teacher Zhu. He used to be a math teacher at your Experimental Middle School.”
The room fell silent.
No one dared question it.
With a math teacher like this, if he said pi equals tomato fried with potatoes, the three of them would only dare to ask if he wanted some scallions sprinkled on top.
Zhu Xiaoliang really was a math teacher, but every time Li Yingqiao listened to him lecture, she’d picture him rummaging through trash in the alley.
Eventually, she couldn’t hold back her exploding curiosity, propped her chin, and asked, “Teacher Zhu, can you really eat goldfish raw? Does it taste the same as salmon?”
This only earned her a slap to the back of her head from Liang Mei.
Li Yingqiao sighed and had to put her attention back on her test, muttering, “Just curious, that’s all.”
But Zhu Xiaoliang was great at teaching.
He made math far more lively and interesting than the math teacher in Gao Dian’s class.
For example, when Liang Mei ordered a pizza for the starving trio, Zhu Xiaoliang would grin innocently, slowly cut the pizza into two slices, then pick the most irregular, hardest-to-calculate piece—let Gao Dian and Zheng Miao Jia each take a bite, and have Li Yingqiao calculate the area of the remaining pizza.
But if anyone took too big a bite and the area was less than his required ratio, even if Li Yingqiao got the answer right, she wouldn’t get to eat any pizza.
And so on, with the three of them rotating roles.
This little pizza game, in less than a week, had already given the three a glimpse into the subtlety of human nature, as they each gradually slid toward total collapse.
Every time it came to the pizza-eating segment, it was like five hundred ducks all quacking at once—noisy beyond belief.
Li Yingqiao gritted her teeth, “Gao Dian, we’re breaking up too! How dare you tell me the area is zero…”
After she finished, she turned to Zheng Miao Jia, signaling her to take a stand too.
Zheng Miao Jia said nothing, focusing on drawing pancakes to stave off her hunger.
Li Yingqiao looked up at the sky and sighed—looks like a person really does need a skill.
At this point, they finally understood why this teacher got fired.
Zhu Xiaoliang really was a math maniac.
He could see abstract formulas and theorems in any ordinary object in life—
For example, when Gao Dian went through a phase of idolizing Kobe, he’d wad up a tissue, do a fadeaway jump shot with terrible form, and throw it into the trash can along a perfect parabola.
The next second, Zhu Xiaoliang would make him calculate the equation for that parabola—or else have Li Yingqiao stuff his head into the trash can.
Li Yingqiao couldn’t wait a second: “Three—okay, Teacher Zhu, if he can’t answer, let him have it!”
Zhu Xiaoliang ignored them and turned to have Zheng Miao Jia use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the wifi signal strength.
As for Li Yingqiao, under Zhu Xiaoliang’s twisted training, she could already use the Fibonacci sequence to greet her recently estranged childhood friend.
It had to be said, after all this chaos and madness from Zhu Xiaoliang, the three of them had improved their math scores remarkably—an average of thirty points higher than the last mock exam.
With just one week left until the high school entrance exam, Li Yingqiao couldn’t hold back anymore and asked Li Shuli for her phone.
Li Shuli hardly drove her truck these days.
She sold some grain, oil, rice, and flour at the farmer’s market during the day, and on weekends helped out at a beauty salon with cleaning.
Just a couple of days ago, the salon owner asked if she wanted to learn facial massage techniques, which would definitely pay more than cleaning.
So now, with a beauty mask stuck to her face, Li Shuli was pondering how such a thin piece of paper could cost twenty yuan a sheet, and handed her phone to Li Yingqiao without a second thought.
Li Yingqiao turned and went to her room, found Miao Jia’s number in her mom’s contacts, and as soon as she got Yu Jinyang’s number from her, immediately dialed.
…No answer.
…Five seconds later, she called again.
Still no answer.
She remembered Miao Jia said Yu Jinyang never picked up calls from unfamiliar numbers, so she searched for him.
Li Yingqiao snorted, then her fingers danced across the screen, unleashing a barrage of texts—
The first message: blank.
“Pfft.”
“Hey.”
“Lin Yingqiao.”
“I’m Li Yingqiao.”
“Why aren’t you answering your phone?”
“When are you giving me back my Detective Conan?”
“Don’t ignore me—I’m talking to you in Fibonacci sequence, don’t you dare not appreciate it!”