Volume 1: Elementary school 2004-2005 (9)
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, this is Jiang Yubai.”
Lin Zhixia pulled up the phone line, held the landline, and walked to the bedroom door. She opened the bedroom door a crack and looked out. 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 home 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 echoed, “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 her lunch box, searched through the boxes and cabinets, and found a book called “Michelin Restaurant Top Recipes.” Before going to bed that night, Lin Zhixia sat at the table and studied the recipes in this book.
This led to a problem: Lin Zhixia forgot to do her homework. She has a good memory, and as long as she thinks seriously, she can basically remember it. However, this weekend, Lin Zhixia forgot about her homework, and she didn’t think of this big thing until six o’clock on Monday morning.
She ran to wash up quickly, took a piece of bread from the refrigerator, and carried her school bag 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, what are you in a hurry for?”
Lin Zhixia said confidently, “I want to go to school!”
Lin Zeqiu asked suspiciously, “You will arrive at school before seven o’clock today?”
“Don’t worry about it!” Lin Zhixia rushed out of the house.
She trotted all the way to school. After arriving at the classroom of Grade 4 (1), Lin Zhixia ran 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 maths exercises.
The weekly diary and English reflection only needed 200 words each, and Lin Zhixia finished them very quickly. Then she opened the maths exercise book, which was full of multiple-choice questions. She finished one question per second and completed 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 brave, upright, honest, and a 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 external manifestation of trust in me? I couldn’t help but feel a little confused. My intuition tells me—although I am not a staunch supporter of transcendentalism, if my intuition is correct, maybe after I graduate from elementary school, Jiang Yubai will still be my best friend…”
Lin Zhixia stopped writing here because Jiang Yubai stepped into the classroom. He 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 hand on the table. He sat down slowly, forbearing for a while, thinking secretly: My competition with her will never stop.
Lin Zhixia then said to him: “Strawberries are sweet, osmanthus cake is delicious, and the fountain pen is also very easy to use. Thank you!”
Jiang Yubai replied directly: “Can I see your diary?”
“Of course.” Lin Zhixia pushed the diary in front of him. Her move was beyond Jiang Yubai’s expectations; she was a little too frank.
Jiang Yubai took Lin Zhixia’s notebook and turned to today’s page. He saw that she had written, “Jiang Yubai is a brave, upright, honest person who never abandons his companions.” He also saw another line: “If my intuition is correct, 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, “As I understand it, it means that a person uses intuition to feel the world, ignores the pleasure brought by material things, and attaches importance to the spirit 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 Thoreau’s Walden.”
Lin Zhixia turned and faced him: “I have also read Thoreau’s Walden. He wrote, ‘I am willing to dive deeply into life, suck out the marrow of life, live a solid and simple life, and remove 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 to. Do you understand?”
Jiang Yubai was confused: “Not quite.”
Lin Zhixia explained: “When you recite, you have to spend time to memorize. 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 a little progress… I forgot to do my homework last weekend.”
Jiang Yubai asked her: “The ability to forget? What’s good about forgetfulness?”
Lin Zhixia shook her head: “Some things are not worth remembering. If I quarrel with my brother, I don’t want to remember it.”
“You have a brother?” Jiang Yubai dug deep into the family information of his competitor, “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, resting her chin in her hand, replied, “I argue with him a lot. What about you? Do you ever argue with your parents?”
Jiang Yubai pulled out his homework from his schoolbag and answered, “My parents are really busy with work. They don’t even have time to argue with me.”
Lin Zhixia nodded repeatedly, then took out a brand-new notebook. Holding the fountain pen Jiang Yubai had given her, she wrote on the title page: Time gifted to Jiang Yubai from Lin Zhixia.
Jiang Yubai found it strange. What does it mean to gift someone time? Can time be given away?
He saw Lin Zhixia creating a catalogue in the notebook: History, Geography, Astronomy… Before she could finish writing, Jiang Yubai took his pencil and placed a checkmark next to “History.”
After pausing to think, Lin Zhixia wrote: African History, Asian History, European History, American History…
Jiang Yubai immediately checked “African History.”
Lin Zhixia asked, “Do you always pick the first option?”
Jiang Yubai urged her, “Keep writing.”
Lin Zhixia continued, “Egypt in North Africa has the earliest historical written records in Africa. At least 10,000 years ago, Egyptians settled along the banks of the Nile. ‘Rah’ is considered the most important god of the ancient Egyptians. It is said that the sun god ‘Rah’ would board the treasure ship before dawn and pull the sun across the sky, with the goddess of truth guiding him. Research shows that the ancient Egyptians used toothpaste and soap to clean their bodies…”
Jiang Yubai drew a line under the word “soap” and asked, “Did ancient Egyptians really have soap?”
“Yes, they did! It’s said that a chef in the Egyptian palace invented soap.” Lin Zhixia answered with excitement.
In the blank space on the page, she sketched an oddly-shaped box with a pharaoh statue wearing an Atef crown. Beside it, she wrote in small characters: The soapbox of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh.
Jiang Yubai asked, “You even remember pictures you’ve seen?”
“Of course,” Lin Zhixia replied, “I saw this soapbox in a book from the Provincial Library, The Ancient Egyptian Empire.”
Jiang Yubai grew more interested, as he particularly enjoyed reading books like Unsolved Mysteries of the World, Exploring Ancient Civilizations, and Complete Historical Records. These real yet enigmatic puzzles from history always had an ancient, mysterious charm.
Switching to a fountain pen, Jiang Yubai 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 the pyramid were aligned with the cardinal directions of east, south, west, and north—because the Pyramid of Khufu’s corners were aligned with these directions, with an error margin of less than 0.167 degrees.
Jiang Yubai asked, “The Pyramid of Khufu was built more than 2,000 years before Christ, and its total weight is over 6 million tons. How did the ancient Egyptians manage to build something so huge with such a small margin of error?”
Lin Zhixia replied, “The Egyptian pyramid complex, including the Pyramid of Khufu…”
She sketched three stars from the Orion constellation and aligned three pyramids beneath them. “Jiang Yubai, have you heard of Orion? It’s a constellation in the universe, with its northern part positioned within the Milky Way. The three great pyramids of Egypt are considered reflections of the stars of Orion on the ground, with very small margins of error. This idea led to an alternative hypothesis, known as the Orion Correlation Theory, which suggests a link between the Egyptian pyramids and the stars of Orion. And I have a serious guess.”
Jiang Yubai listened carefully, intrigued. “What’s your guess?”
Lin Zhixia began drawing again: “Larson’s three laws tell us that molecular clouds are close to a state of micro-equilibrium. The molecular cloud core in Orion is a high-density area with very strong gravity! But I think, according to my speculation, that the collapse of the cloud core into a star isn’t due to its own gravity, but rather the magnetic field and other star systems…”
Jiang Yubai gently pressed his fingertips against the tip of Lin Zhixia’s pen.
She turned her head, looking at him intently.
He said, “I’ll draw something too.”
Jiang Yubai grabbed the notebook and drew a figure—barely recognizable as human. This person had a ponytail and wore a small skirt. He wrote next to it: “Lin Zhixia.”
Lin Zhixia asked, “Why did you draw me like this? Am I really that ugly?”
Jiang Yubai drew an even uglier person beside her and labelled it: “Jiang Yubai.”
Lin Zhixia’s anger subsided: “I’m still better looking than you.”
Jiang Yubai then used a large bracket to enclose everything Lin Zhixia had written earlier, and drew an arrow pointing to the heads of the two little characters. He made Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai the protagonists of his own comic.
He wrote carefully: “In 2004 AD, Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai wandered to Orion in the universe…”
“Why are we wandering?” Lin Zhixia asked, puzzled.
Jiang Yubai thought for a moment but hadn’t come up with a reason. Before he could reply, Lin Zhixia excitedly suggested: “Because we’re exploring the universe!”
Jiang Yubai named his comic “Exploring the Universe,” and the title of the first chapter was “Wandering in Orion.”
When Ding Yan and Dong Sunqi came over to play with Jiang Yubai, they saw him deeply absorbed in his drawing of the comic “Exploring the Universe.”
Ding Yan rushed over to take a look and immediately said, “Jiang Yubai, buddy! Give me a character too! This time I want to team up with you!”
Jiang Yubai smoothly drew another figure and noted beside it: “Ding Yan, male, 9 years old, one of Jiang Yubai’s companions. Wanders through Orion with Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia.”
“I want one too!” Dong Sunqi volunteered. “Make me the villain! I want to be the big villain!”
Remembering something Lin Zhixia had once said to him, Jiang Yubai wrote Dong Sunqi’s bio on the spot: “Dong Sunqi, male, 9 years old, controller of the magnetic field, capable of controlling the collapse of the cloud core in Orion.”
“Whoa!” Dong Sunqi exclaimed, “I’m so cool!”
Although he didn’t quite understand the character setting, he still felt it was awesome. He asked, “Hey, where are your and Lin Zhixia’s biographies?”
Jiang Yubai turned back a page and wrote under “Lin Zhixia”: “Lin Zhixia, 9 years old, a genius, god of truth, navigator of the nebula.”
Ding Yan was confused. Jiang Yubai had once said he saw Lin Zhixia as a rival, but in the comic, Lin Zhixia’s character was described as a “genius,” “god of truth,” and “nebula navigator”… That’s way too strong!
Ding Yan, who had watched plenty of TV dramas like Iron Teeth, Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan, The Emperor of Han Dynasty, and The Qianlong Dynasty, had learned that the strongest character was usually the protagonist.
So Ding Yan astutely pointed out, “Jiang Yubai! Lin Zhixia is the heroine in your comic! You’re the hero, and Lin Zhixia is the heroine!”
“We’re 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’ll always be companions!”
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