Lin Zhixia heard two beeps. After the call was connected, she said, "Hello, this is Lin Zhixia."
Jiang Yubai answered on the other end of the phone: "Hello, I'm Jiang Yubai."
Lin Zhixia pulled up the telephone line, held the landline, and walked to the bedroom door. She opened the bedroom door a crack and looked outside. Sure enough, her father picked up the landline receiver in the living room and was monitoring the conversation between Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai.
Lin Zhixia took a deep breath and said calmly: "Hello, Jiang Yubai, I'm home. We all had a lot of fun at your house today. Thank you very much for your hospitality."
Jiang Yubai was more polite than her: "You're welcome. It's my duty to entertain my classmates."
Lin Zhixia agreed: "Okay, see you tomorrow."
Jiang Yubai also said: "See you tomorrow."
Lin Zhixia hung up the phone immediately. She washed her hands, opened the lunch box with a sense of ritual, and tasted a bite of osmanthus cake... It was really delicious. She was stunned for a while before she reacted.
She put down the lunch box, rummaged through the drawers and found a book called "Michelin Restaurant Top Recipes".
Before going to bed that night, Lin Zhixia sat at the table, studying the recipes in this book.
This leads to a problem.
Lin Zhixia forgot to do her homework.
She has a good memory and can basically remember anything as long as she thinks about it carefully.
However, this weekend, Lin Zhixia forgot about her homework until six o'clock on Monday morning, when she remembered this important matter. She quickly ran to wash up, took a piece of bread from the refrigerator, put on her schoolbag and prepared to go out.
Lin Zeqiu had just taken a shower. He was wiping his hair with a towel. Seeing his sister's anxious look, he asked curiously, "Lin Zhixia, why are you in such a hurry?"
Lin Zhixia said confidently: "I want to go to school!"
Lin Zeqiu asked suspiciously: "You guys will be at school before 7 o'clock today?"
"It's none of your business!" Lin Zhixia rushed out of the house.
She trotted all the way to school.
After arriving at the fourth grade (one) classroom, Lin Zhixia rushed to her seat, took out her homework, and began to write furiously. She had to finish a weekly diary, an English reading reflection, and a unit of math exercises.
The weekly diary and English reflections only needed 200 words each, and Lin Zhixia finished them very quickly. Then she opened the math workbook, which was full of multiple-choice questions. She finished one question per second and finished it in less than a minute.
After finishing her homework, Lin Zhixia took out her notebook and continued to record the "Human Observation Diary".
Lin Zhixia wrote in her diary: Yesterday I accepted an invitation and visited Jiang Yubai's home. I played Bubble Ball Battle with many friends at Jiang Yubai's home. I observed that Jiang Yubai was a brave, upright, honest person who would not abandon his companions. I lost to Nie Tianqing in the game of "Rock, Scissors, Paper". Jiang Yubai made a surprised expression. He didn't believe that I would fail. Is this an outward manifestation of trust in me? I couldn't help but feel a little confused. My intuition told me that although I am not a firm supporter of transcendentalism, if my intuition is not wrong, maybe after I graduate from elementary school, Jiang Yubai will still be my best friend...
Having written this, Lin Zhixia stopped writing.
Because Jiang Yubai stepped into the classroom.
Jiang Yubai arrived at school earlier than usual today.
As soon as Jiang Yubai appeared, Dong Sunqi greeted him enthusiastically: "Jiang Yubai! Good morning!"
"Good morning." Jiang Yubai responded. He walked to his seat, put down his schoolbag, and happened to see the "Human Observation Diary" in front of Lin Zhixia.
He couldn't help but put his hands on the table. He sat down slowly, forbearing for a while, thinking secretly: The competition between her and me will never stop.
Lin Zhixia said to him: "The strawberries are sweet, the osmanthus cake is delicious, and the pen is also very useful. Thank you!"
Jiang Yubai asked directly: "Can I read your diary?"
"Of course." Lin Zhixia pushed the diary in front of him.
Lin Zhixia's action was beyond Jiang Yubai's expectation. She was a little too frank.
Jiang Yubai took Lin Zhixia's notebook and turned to today's page. Lin Zhixia wrote, "Jiang Yubai is a brave, upright, honest person who never abandons his companions." He glanced and saw another line, "If my intuition is not wrong, maybe 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 answered: "According to my understanding, it means that a person uses intuition to feel the world, ignores the pleasures brought by material things, and attaches importance to the spiritual and inner self."
Jiang Yubai thought for a moment: "Like Thoreau?"
Lin Zhixia asked in surprise: "Do you know Thoreau? Thoreau is a famous writer and philosopher."
Jiang Yubai said: "I have read Walden written by Thoreau."
Lin Zhixia turned around and faced him: "I have also read Thoreau's Walden. Thoreau wrote in the book, 'I am willing to dive deeply into life, suck out the marrow of life, live a solid and simple life, and eliminate everything that does not belong to life neatly'... This sentence should also be a summary of transcendentalism."
Jiang Yubai listened to her reciting the contents of the book word for word, and couldn't help asking, "Lin Zhixia, can you recite the entire text of Walden?"
"Yes," Lin Zhixia nodded, "I didn't mean it. Do you understand?"
Jiang Yubai was confused: "I don't quite understand."
Lin Zhixia explained, "When you recite something, you have to spend time to memorize it. I am the opposite of you. I need to spend energy when I want to forget something. I have been training myself to improve my ability to forget. Now I have made a small progress... I forgot to do my homework last weekend."
Jiang Yubai asked her: "The ability to forget? What's good about having a bad memory?"
Lin Zhixia shook her head: "Some things are not worth remembering. If I had a quarrel with my brother, I don't want to remember it."
"You have a brother?" Jiang Yubai dug deeper into his competitor's family information. "Your biological brother?"
"Yes. He is three years older than me and is in the first grade of junior high school this year." Lin Zhixia answered honestly.
Jiang Yubai asked again: "Do you often quarrel with him?"
Lin Zhixia held her chin with one hand: "I often quarrel with him. How about you? Do you quarrel with your parents at home?"
Jiang Yubai took out his homework book from his schoolbag: "My parents are very busy at work. They don't have time to argue with me."
Lin Zhixia nodded repeatedly. She took out a brand new notebook, held the pen Jiang Yubai gave her, and wrote on the title page: Lin Zhixia gave Jiang Yubai time.
Jiang Yubai felt very strange. What did "time gifted to me" mean? Could time be given to others as a gift
He saw Lin Zhixia making a catalogue in the notebook: history, geography, astronomy… Before Lin Zhixia finished writing, Jiang Yubai put a check mark on the word "History" with a pencil.
Lin Zhixia thought for a moment, then picked up his pen 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 one?"
Jiang Yubai urged her: "Keep writing."
Lin Zhixia continued to write: Egypt in North Africa has the earliest historical records in Africa. At least 10,000 years ago, Egyptians settled on the banks of the Nile. "Rah" was considered the most important god of the ancient Egyptians. It was said that the sun god "Rah" would board the treasure ship before dawn and pull the sun, and the goddess of truth would guide the sun god. Studies have shown that the ancient Egyptians used toothpaste and soap to clean their bodies...
"Did people in ancient Egypt have soap?" Jiang Yubai drew a horizontal line under the word "soap".
"Yes, it is said that a chef in the ancient Egyptian palace was the one who invented soap." Lin Zhixia answered enthusiastically.
She drew a strangely shaped box on the blank space of the paper. In front of the box was a statue of a pharaoh wearing an Ateph crown. Next to the statue was a line of small words: Soap box of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh.
Jiang Yubai asked her: "Do you even remember the pictures you saw?"
"I remember," Lin Zhixia described, "I got this ancient Egyptian soap box from the book Ancient Egyptian Empire in the Provincial Library."
Jiang Yubai was very interested. He particularly liked to read books like "Unsolved Mysteries of the World", "Exploring Ancient Civilizations" and "Full Historical Records" - real and dangerous historical puzzles always have an ancient and mysterious appeal.
Jiang Yubai changed a pen and wrote on 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 were exactly facing the four directions of east, south, west, and north—because the four corners of the Pyramid of Khufu were facing the four directions, and the error was less than 0.167 degrees [1].
Jiang Yubai asked her: "The Pyramid of Khufu was built more than 2,000 years before Christ, and its total weight is more than 6 million tons. How could the ancient Egyptians make such a huge structure so accurate?"
Lin Zhixia replied: "The pyramids in Egypt, including the Pyramid of Khufu..."
She drew three stars of the Orion constellation on the notebook and arranged three pyramids below the stars: "Jiang Yubai, have you heard of 'Orion'? 'Orion' is a constellation in the universe, and its northern part is included in the Milky Way. The three great pyramids in Egypt are the reflections of the stars of Orion on the ground, with very small errors. Therefore, an alternative hypothesis was generated, called the Orion Correlation Theory [1] in English, which specifically refers to the connection between the Egyptian pyramids and Orion. I have a serious conjecture."
Jiang Yubai listened attentively: "What's your guess?"
Lin Zhixia started drawing again: "Larson's three laws tell us that molecular clouds are close to a state of microscopic equilibrium. The molecular cloud core of Orion is a high-density area with very strong gravity! But I think, according to my speculation, the collapse of the cloud core into a star is not due to its own gravity, but from the magnetic field and other star systems..."
Jiang Yubai's fingertips pressed against the tip of Lin Zhixia's pen.
She tilted her head and looked at him intently.
He said, “I’ll draw one too.”
Jiang Yubai grabbed the notebook and drew a human figure on it—it was barely recognizable as a human figure. This person had a ponytail and was wearing a small skirt. He wrote three words next to it: Lin Zhixia.
Lin Zhixia asked: "Why did you draw me like this? Am I that ugly?"
Jiang Yubai drew an uglier person and wrote next to it: Jiang Yubai.
Lin Zhixia calmed down: "I am better looking than you."
Jiang Yubai used a big bracket to enclose all the content that Lin Zhixia had written before, and then used an arrow to point to the heads of the two villains. He took Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai as the protagonists and created comics for them.
He wrote earnestly: In 2004, Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai wandered to the Orion constellation in the universe...
"Why are the two of us wandering?" Lin Zhixia asked in confusion.
Jiang Yubai said: "Because..."
Before he could figure out the reason, Lin Zhixia happily suggested, "Because we want to explore the universe!"
Jiang Yubai named his self-made comic "Exploring the Universe", and the title of the first chapter is "Wandering in Orion".
When Ding Yan and Dong Sunqi came to play with Jiang Yubai, they happened to see the comic "Exploring the Universe" that Jiang Yubai had carefully drawn.
Ding Yan rushed over to take a look and immediately said, "Jiang Yubai, buddy! Give me a role too! I want to be in the same group with you this time!"
Jiang Yubai followed suit and drew a human figure, and wrote on the side: Ding Yan, male, 9 years old, one of Jiang Yubai's companions. Wandering on the Orion constellation with Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia.
"I want one too!" Dong Sunqi volunteered, "Let me be the villain! I want to be the big villain!"
Jiang Yubai remembered what Lin Zhixia had said to him, and wrote a biography of Dong Sunqi on the spot: Dong Sunqi, male, 9 years old, controller of the magnetic field, can control the collapse of the cloud core of Orion.
"Holy crap!" Dong Sunqi exclaimed in surprise, "I'm so awesome!"
Although he didn't understand the setting, he felt that he was very good. He also asked: "Hey, where is the biography of you and Lin Zhixia?"
Jiang Yubai turned back to the previous page and wrote under the three words "Lin Zhixia": Lin Zhixia, 9 years old, is a genius, the god of truth, and the navigator on the nebula.
Ding Yan felt very puzzled. Jiang Yubai said that he regarded Lin Zhixia as a competitor, but looking at the setting of the character "Lin Zhixia" in the comics, he was a "genius", "God of Truth", and "Navigator on the Nebula"... This is too strong!
Ding Yan has watched many TV series, such as "Iron Teeth and Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan", "The Emperor of Han Dynasty" and "The Qianlong Dynasty". Generally speaking, the strongest character must be the protagonist.
So, Ding Yan keenly noticed: "Jiang Yubai! Lin Zhixia is the heroine in your comic! You are the hero! Lin Zhixia is 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 and jumped for joy: "Yes! We will always be companions!"