Jiang Qiaoxi is a very self-centered person. Almost everyone who has met or come into contact with him says so.
He can't tolerate anyone's shadow in his eyes. No matter whether it's his parents or good friends he grew up with, they can only see his cold face.
He left home early and came back late every day, sitting in his father's special car, with a driver to pick him up. He never spoke a word to the driver. When he went to class and came home, Cen Xiaoman and Feilinger were by his side, and he rarely paid attention to their greetings. He was either reading mathematics, studying new questions, or looking up at the birds that stopped briefly on the trees outside the window, and being in a daze for a while.
He has been like this since he was a child, and most people around him are used to it. In the experimental high school, in the small white building filled with contestants, sometimes students get tired of studying and discuss the movie they recently watched in the corridor, arguing about the setting and refusing to give in to each other; sometimes a group of people gather around the blackboard to "compete", they give each other questions to play, each with a new idea, and the arguments are so intense that everyone gathers around to watch.
Jiang Qiaoxi sat alone at his desk in the corner, as if isolated from the world, without even raising his head. When he was studying, he would not be able to hear even if the sky fell.
So every time when Cen Xiaoman’s friends asked her, “Xiaoman, why does Jiang Qiaoxi ignore everyone? I think he ignores you too.”
Cen Xiaoman would always explain for him: "Jiang Qiaoxi is very focused when studying, all geniuses are like this."
Jiang Qiaoxi's daily routine is very regular, and it can be said that he has been doing it for fifteen years. He comes to school early every day, enters the study room of the Little White Building on time, sits down to study, do exercises, and read books. The sky outside the window gradually brightens, but Jiang Qiaoxi is unaware. The professor in charge of him has given him a schedule, and when he needs to, he goes back to class, and then goes back to the Little White Building to study after class. He eats here at noon, and then takes a nap on the study desk, and no one can disturb him.
He didn't have any special entertainment, he didn't play games, he seldom read books, and he rarely watched TV, variety shows, cartoons, football games, and other things that ordinary freshmen like to watch. Feilinger and Cen Xiaoman didn't take the initiative to talk to him about it. If he wasn't seen in the study room of the Little White Building, he would probably go to the rooftop.
Ten minutes later, he came back with a faint smell of cigarettes on his school uniform, and sat down to continue studying.
It is hard to say whether Jiang Qiaoxi really loves mathematics so much and is fully focused on it, or whether he has placed too high a stakes in the mathematics competition. He not only wants to win, he also wants to get the "first place". He wants to prove that "Jiang Qiaoxi" is unique and that even his biological brother cannot be compared with him.
Felinger always felt that Jiang Qiaoxi could win the competition without studying so hard. Because Jiang Qiaoxi was so smart that it was unreasonable. He was clearly studying mathematics all day long, and his weakness was fatal, but he could catch up with the progress of other subjects by going to class. In the midterm exam of the first year of high school, the ranking list of the whole grade was released, and Jiang Qiaoxi was the first in the grade again, which was unreasonable.
Jiang Qiaoxi didn't care about his grade ranking. He just glanced at his score and went back to the Little White Building to study. When school was almost over, Felinger was indignant and said to others in the study room: "Damn it, I did so well in the exam, but I was surpassed by a country bumpkin!"
"What country bumpkin? Who are you talking about, Felinger?"
"Lin Qile, the 36th in the grade," Felinger cursed. He thought he could get into the top 30 in the grade, so his parents would take him to Hawaii for the winter vacation. Felinger pressed the ballpoint pen unhappily, opened the book, looked back at what Jiang Qiaoxi was doing, and found that Jiang Qiaoxi was not disturbed. Felinger whispered, "How shameless! You actually came to the experimental high school, and you are as sticky as a piece of gum, and you keep isolating people."
Cen Xiaoman came to the Little White Building after school to find Jiang Qiaoxi and Felinger. Jiang Qiaoxi sat in his seat packing his schoolbag, which he carried in a black square leather bag. He took a few papers, handouts for the evening class, and a few pens.
"Do you have a ranking list for this exam?"
The car that came to pick up the three of them for dinner and night classes was driven by Felinger's father. Father Felinger was driving in the front, comforting his beloved son. He patted Felinger's head and said that 37th place was not bad either, and Hawaii was the place to go.
Jiang Qiaoxi was sitting in the back seat of the car and suddenly asked Cen Xiaoman in a low voice.
Cen Xiaoman glanced at him. She probably didn't expect him to ask her. She took out the ranking list from her schoolbag and said, "You got first place in the grade again."
It was getting dark, and Jiang Qiaoxi unfolded the ranking list in his hand which was filled with densely written small characters. He was sitting by the car window, and with the remaining light of the setting sun, he could clearly see the three small characters "Lin Qile" on the paper, just a dozen centimeters below "Jiang Qiaoxi".
As the car moved forward, the three words "Lin Qile" kept flashing in his eyes.
Jiang Qiaoxi stood on the edge of the rooftop of the Little White Building and looked down. It was autumn, and the wind was strong upstairs, so his school uniform was blown around his waist and shoulders.
Jiang Qiaoxi sometimes felt that it was the hands of his real "mother" hugging him.
But what is the real "mother" and where is his "mother"
Is it the wind that wraps around him and hugs him, is it the clouds that shroud his head and gather and disperse from time to time, or is it the earth and mountains, is it the ethereal air - after death, people will always turn into soil, and all people have a common home of life.
From this perspective, he is equal to others.
Jiang Qiaoxi sometimes couldn’t understand why someone who was clearly dead was still alive.
Some people are worse off dead than alive.
Jiang Qiaoxi sat in the car seat behind Liang Hongfei. Jiang Zheng had bought a new car, and there was a smell of formaldehyde in the car. Jiang Qiaoxi opened the window a little, holding a pen in his hand. In order not to listen to Liang Hongfei, he always pretended to read and study.
Where is the South Campus
Jiang Qiaoxi raised his head and looked out of the car window.
During the break, Cen Xiaoman left her female friends and came to Jiang Qiaoxi's desk. Everyone around them looked at them.
It was clearly just a boy and a girl talking together, but once Jiang Qiaoxi was involved, it seemed like they were in a "premature love relationship".
Cen Xiaoman also blushed a little. She asked Jiang Qiaoxi: "Do you still remember the country girl who wrote to you in junior high school?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said, "Who is it?"
Cen Xiaoman looked back at her friends, shook her head and said, "You definitely can't remember it, forget it, it's okay."
No matter what you say to Cen Xiaoman or Feilinger, it seems to spread quickly to the ears of all kinds of people.
Maybe everyone thought Jiang Qiaoxi was focused on studying, so he didn't know anything. The legend about the top student in the grade, "Jiang Qiaoxi", evolved in the whispers of many corners of the school.
Cen Xiaoman asked Jiang Qiaoxi to recommend a popular science book to her. Jiang Qiaoxi lent her "From One to Infinity" which was a gift from someone else and which he had not yet read.
The next week, Jiang Qiaoxi's class was going to the chemistry laboratory for class. He stood in line in the corridor and saw girls from the next class coming out of the laboratory in front of him. Many of them were holding this book in their hands, like they were holding admission tickets.
The scene was really strange. Jiang Qiaoxi noticed that they were looking at him, and he lowered his eyes.
Because he was studying Mathematical Olympiad, Jiang Qiaoxi rarely participated in class activities. He didn't need to fill out a note for absence. He stayed in the Little White Building, which was the quietest before dawn. He liked to be alone at his desk and in his study room, without any noise or arguments that would upset him.
He listened to the TOEFL listening test with headphones in his ears. Sometimes when he felt tired, he would press the button on his iPod to switch songs.
It is a song by the new female singer who debuted in 2000.
"Jiang Qiaoxi..."
She seemed to appear out of thin air behind him, in Jiang Qiaoxi's numb life that repeated day after day. She looked thinner than before, with a round little face and a small chin, and her eyes looked bigger as she looked at him. She was carrying a schoolbag and wearing a red and white school uniform that fit her wrists and ankles, looking very cute.
But there was no smile on her face. She looked at him with confused, fearful and uneasy eyes. Her eyes were erratic and everyone was unfriendly. The prison next to Jiang Qiaoxi scared her away.
Jiang Qiaoxi stood between Cen Xiaoman and Feilinger. He watched Yu Qiao and Du Shang catch up with them. It was as if something was torn out of his heart, and he could only stand there motionless.
Cen Xiaoman said: "Let's go quickly, Aunt Liang is watching us over there..."
Sometimes, Jiang Qiaoxi would run into Cai Fangyuan, Yu Qiao, and Du Shang in the corridor of Experimental High School. He was not in the same class with them, and even if they made eye contact, he would not talk to them.
Cai Fangyuan would occasionally send him text messages, and they kept in touch. Du Shang didn't like him, and Yu Qiao, let alone any interaction.
Liang Hongfei would sometimes ask, "Do those kids from Qunshan still come to see you?"
Jiang Zheng corrected him: "They are all children from the headquarters, not the mountains."
Liang Hongfei had something else in her words. She said to Jiang Qiaoxi, "Do you still want it?"
Liang Hongfei was afraid of everything related to the mountains, just like she was afraid of germs. Her excellent son, her "Mengchu", must not be exposed to anything that would lead him astray, such as "premature love". In Liang Hongfei's eyes, any rebelliousness and non-cooperation that Jiang Qiaoxi had shown was a sin belonging to the "mountains" and the little girl named "Lin Qile".
Jiang Qiaoxi later received Lin Qile's second letter.
She said in the letter that she did not write him a love letter.
"I'm not the person they say I am. I don't like you, and I'm not pestering you. Jiang Yuyu has nothing to do with you. I just drew it for you to see."
"I didn't go to the provincial capital to look for you, I just happened to run into you. I won't write to you or call you anymore..."
Jiang Qiaoxi finished reading the letter under Felinger's gaze. He crumpled the letter and held it in his palm, as if he was holding a ball of meaningless waste paper that he was about to throw away.
He had no strength at all, just sitting there.
My cousin called regularly, as if he was afraid that if he didn't call regularly, he would never be able to get through to his little cousin Jiang Qiaoxi again.
"Is Sister Xiaolin coming here for you?" the cousin asked teasingly.
Jiang Qiaoxi couldn't laugh.
"Probably not," he said.
My cousin was silent for a while: "We still have the chance to go to the same school and be good friends."
What a fucking good friend.
Jiang Qiaoxi thought.
If there was anything good about that time, it was that Lin Qile did not actually appear in front of Liang Hongfei.
"Qiao Xi," said my cousin, "You are thinking too much. Can't you tell me what you are thinking about?"
Jiang Qiaoxi squatted on the rooftop of the Little White Building. He looked at the sky that was getting closer above his head. He wanted to walk out of the school gate right now and take a taxi to the South Campus. He wanted to see Lin Qile.
"I have a crazy mother," said Jiang Qiaoxi.
The cousin said helplessly: "Qiao Xi."
Jiang Qiaoxi pushed open the door to the rooftop and saw Cen Xiaoman standing behind the door, talking to a senior high school student who was selling cigarettes.
Cen Xiaoman turned around and said with a smile, "You are calling Hong Kong again."
She was just an ignorant little girl who thought she cared about him.
Jiang Qiaoxi passed her and went downstairs.
The school radio station sometimes played Stefanie Sun's songs. Jiang Qiaoxi followed suit, raised his head, and listened for a while.
He walked down the stairs and heard someone say that Jiang Qiaoxi liked girls with short hair: "Like Stefanie Sun."
No one understood. No one.
Jiang Qiaoxi lives in a world full of misunderstandings and self-righteousness, where everyone interprets everything in his own way.
Students in the competition class asked, Jiang Qiaoxi, how do you manage to study every day and treat doing exercises as a pastime
Jiang Qiaoxi thought, it might be because he found it difficult to feel happy.
Felinger immediately answered for him: "For Jiang Qiaoxi, solving problems is much more fun than doing anything else!" He turned around and asked with a smile: "Isn't it!"
Jiang Qiaoxi did not deny it either.
But he did not think that solving a math problem was the happiest thing in Jiang Qiaoxi's life.
As the end of the semester approached, a message was posted in the commendation column of Experimental High School.
More than 100 students from our school passed the provincial selection and officially entered the semi-finals of the mathematics competition. Among them, Jiang Qiaoxi, a student from Class 21 of Senior 1, and 11 others won the provincial first prize and received special commendation.
Jiang Qiaoxi stood with several seniors who were awarded provincial honors, standing in front of the principal's desk. He heard the principal talking on the phone with the principal of the South Campus, sharing the good news. The principal said on the phone: "Okay, okay, I saw the list of students who applied to transfer from the second year of high school."
Jiang Qiaoxi didn't have any hope.
On the day of the final exam, Jiang Qiaoxi took his admission ticket and walked into the disrupted examination room.
He sat down, put down his pen, and wanted to get some sleep before the exam.
Someone called him from the back row.
"Jiang Qiaoxi!" It was Cai Fangyuan.
Jiang Qiaoxi turned around and saw that the entire examination room was filled with strangers. He heard Cai Fangyuan say, "Lin Yingtao is transferring to our school!"
"Let's have dinner together after the exam. Will you come?"
Jiang Qiaoxi got into Liang Hongfei's car as usual and went to tutoring. It was late at night, and thousands of families gathered at the dinner table to enjoy dinner. Jiang Qiaoxi sat next to Cen Xiaoman. He couldn't listen to a minute of the class, but he pretended to be indifferent. Although he hadn't seen her yet, he could already imagine what she looked like.
He is a prison escapee and he doesn't know what he will face when he returns.