The number of students asking questions was increasing, Pei Zhi went to the front of the blackboard, wrote down the answer then wiped out, the dust from the chalk felt down just like snow.
When it was Lin Zhao Xi’s turn, she did not feel as excited as when she first arrived.
At Pei Zhi’s calm stare, she simply presented the reason she came.
“The question is…?” Pei Zhi asked.
Her heart skipped a beat. His voice was so alluring that she wanted to cover her ears.
She suppressed her eagerness and gave him the piece of question from her bag.
Pei Zhi’s delicate yet firm fingers pressed on the piece of paper; he glanced over, put down the paper, backed down half a step; three fingers held the chalk pen, inquisitively looked at her, and wrote down a number on the blackboard – 16.
What 3 seconds 5 seconds, this is less than a second!
Lin Zhao Xi was utterly shocked, while Pei Zhi still kept his questioning look. Not until then did she realize he was asking if the answer was correct, thus she hurriedly nodded her head.
Having seen so, Pei Zhi casually wiped the answer on the blackboard, genuinely said: “For people who study maths for a long time, this question is not difficult, but it tests one’s ideas and analytical skills; for people who barely study math, it’s really interesting.”
“Therefore, is it suitable?”
Pei Zhi nodded.
Lin Zhao Xi was immensely happy. Although the answer was brief, it was the result of him thinking carefully. Pei Zhi was an extremely serious man.
It started to get windy, she said thanks to Pei Zhi and tucked her flying hair behind her ears. There was not a reason for her to linger, so she turned to leave.
People from Student Unions all stayed at the back of the classroom.
Lin Zhao Xi went over and got interrogated.
She retold everything that had happened.
Someone quickly reacted: “What Pei Zhi just wrote on the blackboard was the answer?”
“Yes.”
“He is not human!”
Lin Zhao Xi agreed.
They all stayed in the back discussing and deciding the gist of the intellectual test.
Lin Zhao Xi used this opportunity to watch Pei Zhi.
She watched Pei Zhi’s attentive expression, watched his revealed wrist when he wrote on the blackboard; she watched the sparkling eyes of the girls admiring him, watched this outstanding classmate of hers…
But the longer she watched, the more explicit she realized that she and Pei Zhi were not from the same world.
Even though from the beginning, Pei Zhi kept his demeanor and never acted arrogantly, her maiden heart couldn’t help turning empty.
She suddenly saw the uncross-able gap* between her and Pei Zhi (鸿沟). That gap came from one side had industriously accumulated knowledge every day for over ten years; while the other side for the same amount of time had wasted time doing nothing.
It was not enough to make her embarrassed, but it certainly made her feel lost.
Red clouds on the skyline had begun to fade away, the number of people standing at the queue asking questions was almost reduced by none.
Pei Zhi held the jacket at the corner of pulpit and started to gather his belongings.
“Let’s go then.” Su Xiao Ming said.
Lin Zhao Xi nodded, she had already talked with Pei Zhi, and she even watched him for a while, there was no reasons for her to stay.
As if she had completed her wish.
She looked at the cement floor, started to walk a few steps; while in her head was the scenes from shoujo manga anime: she suddenly turned around and declared: “Pei Zhi, I have loved you for ten years!”
However, she didn’t do that, because she lacked the courage.
There were more and more people leaving, both at the front door and the back door.
The sound of fabrics being rubbed made it feel livelier.
Suddenly, there was someone speaking: “Brother* Pei Zhi, can we… ask you… a personal question?” (it was a pronoun for male upperclassman, but to call him male upperclassman Pei Zhi is too weird).
As if she was rescued, Lin Zhao Xi turned her head to see.
Meanwhile, Pei Zhi was still being fair and straightforward: “Yes, nonetheless, if it was too personal, I might refuse to answer.”
One of his hands was in his pocket, another hold paper and tests, which was fluttering with the wind.
“Are you going to leave?” The little underclass girl asked, “What I mean is… to study abroad?”
Having heard so, all the girls in the classroom cried out “Ah”, partly because they were surprised, partly because this was a great chance to gossip.
“Yes.” Pei Zhi plainly answered.
“Which school?”
“CHU.”
Lin Zhao Xi felt perplexed, if it hadn’t been for her, Old Lin would have gone to this very university, what a coincidence.
The girls sighed defeatedly. They couldn’t tell the reason either, they just felt like that was a pity.
That was why someone asked: “Will you still go to San Wei after this?”
“Why not?”
“But recently you barely come.”
“I will come here even less frequently from now on.”
“…”
“Then, will you still lead the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) team this year?”
“Yes.”
“Can we enroll?”
“Of course.” Pei Zhi patiently added “If you are interested in more details for rules of enrolling and picking the teammates, feel free to check the official website of our university.”
The “asking a personal question” event turned into an advisory congress, the students started to discuss this matter.
“We saw it!”
“But it was insanely difficult!”
“Brother* don’t fool us, there’s no details or rules, there’s only one question!” (pronoun for male upperclassman)
“What’s the problem?”
After Pei Zhi asked, he unexpectedly went to the blackboard, picked up half of the chalk, and quickly wrote down the question.
He wrote in a casual way, but Lin Zhao Xi surprisingly found him very gentle.
“We can’t solve it!”
“It’s too difficult!”
Before he finished writing, a lot of people had started to complain.
But for Lin Zhao Xi, from the moment Pei Zhi started to write the first stroke, she couldn’t hear her surroundings anymore. Even Pei Zhi’s figure disappeared from her eyes, she could only stare at the question being written on the blackboard.
It was awfully long and difficult, she could understand parts of it, but other parts were completely strange to her.
She immersed herself in it, felt it hard to comprehend yet interesting and challenging, she instinctively overlooked her documents, took her pen from her bag, and copied the question.
The more she wrote, the more bizarre ideas she had, she couldn’t help but write down everything she came up with.
“Ah, Miss Lin, are you solving this question?”
Suddenly someone next to Lin Zhao Xi shouted out, making her taken aback.
An Xiao Xiao’s voice was loud and clear, just in an instance, the whole classroom turned to her.
Pei Zhi had already reached the door, also stopped to look at her.
Lin Zhao Xi’s first reaction was embarrassment, what was she doing?
The girl student from Philosophy faculty tried to solve the question by the hot boy of the university in a Mathematics classroom, what a scene.
She shyly looked at Pei Zhi.
Pei Zhi’s eyes were still as tranquil and clear.
There were always people who made you admire and wanted to become.
Lin Zhao Xi quickly regained her composure, what’s so terrifying?
“I copied the question.” Lin Zhao Xi told An Xiao Xiao.
“You want to join Pei Zhi’s team?” An Xiao Xiao looked at Mr. Male god standing at the door “No wonder you volunteered to ask Pei Zhi…”
“The studious have to always ask you know.”
“No no no, I don’t think so, aren’t you from Philosophy faculty?” An Xiao Xiao stopped a little and smirked, “You are so eager to solve mathematics questions, does that means you have a crush on Pei Zhi?”
To say she was insane was an understatement. Students around the classroom had started to look at her with sympathy.
Lin Zhao Xi really did not care about An Xiao Xiao’s provocation, but at that very moment, under that circumstances, far away was Pei Zhi’s handsome figure bathed in the ethereal sunset light.
All of the sudden, she turned to An Xiao Xiao, smiled and asked: “Ah, how do you know?”
Silence, in the beginning it was discomfort silence, students looked at each other, they couldn’t predict that they were able to see a bold confession when they attended this class. After that, someone snickered and laughed out loud, making the whole classroom filled with joyous laughter.
An Xiao Xiao was satisfied at first, but she came to realize no students were making fun of the confession. The students were ecstatic, there were some clapping their hands, there were people whistled as a congratulation.
Lin Zhao Xi was not embarrassed, she smiled happily.
At this moment, Pei Zhi moved. One of his hands was in his pocket, his jacket was swinging on his arm, he walked from the door and instantly stood in front of them.
The entire classroom turned quiet again.
Lin Zhao Xi stared at Pei Zhi’s attractive face, felt utterly shocked, what do you want?
Pei Zhi himself didn’t feel his actions were misleading, he casually asked: “Are you solving this question?”
“I… just write down my ideas.”
There was someone gasped in the classroom.
Lin Zhao Xi realized her answers were anything but humble, hastily fixed: “I copied the question to research further later.”
“Can I have a look?” Pei Zhi asked.
Lin Zhao Xi’s heart couldn’t help skipping a beat, but Pei Zhi still showed his calm demeanor and acted naturally, as if he did not hear her public confession. Nevertheless, it was understandable, her confession sounded like a joke, of course the male god wouldn’t bother.
She felt more easygoing and gave him her paper.
Pei Zhi’s slender fingers received it, Lin Zhao Xi could clearly see the shadow under his long eyelashes. The next second, Pei Zhi really did carefully read her ideas for the task that she randomly wrote on the paper.
Not long after, Pei Zhi raised his head and asked her: “Fisher’s linear discriminant?”
“Ah?”
“Perturbation theory*?” (ok I don’t know if it’s correct because this was merely my google results, the original was 完全解的分类)
She shook her head.
“Not bad already.”
Pei Zhi returned her paper, nodded his head, then put his hand on the pocket again, he turned around to leave.
The entire scene was extremely fast, Lin Zhao Xi couldn’t make out the situation, but everyone had started to ask her:
“Sister* you are so good, male god said it was pretty good, can I see your ideas?”
“What did Pei Zhi tell you?”
“Sister* are you really from Philosophy faculty?” (pronoun for female upperclassman)
Lin Zhao Xi almost couldn’t hear whatever sound surrounding her. She stopped looking at Pei Zhi and started looking at her paper.
After she regained her consciousness, she affirmed, Pei Zhi’s ephemeral expression she saw in his eyes was regret. What “discriminant” what “theory”, he might as well have helped her solving the question. But she couldn’t even repeat what he just had said.
Not bad… already…
It was not bad for a philosophy student only.
Lin Zhao Xi started feeling miserable, because at that very moment she realized, the gap between her and this question was similar to the gap between her and Pei Zhi.
In other words, it looked like a millimeter near, but in fact unreachable far.
She was unable to stay. After having given her paper to the student asked for it, said goodbye to Su Xiao Ming, she left at the back door, went to the opposite direction to the wave of people.
When she arrived at the end of the corridor, she breathed in, turned her head to see Pei Zhi one last time.
In her eyes were the people in youthful and colorful clothes, but at that glance, what she saw the clearest was the dust from the chalk on Pei Zhi’s fingers and clothes.
The final lucid ray of sunlight illuminated him.
That was good.
Lin Zhao Xi turned around and look at the distant sky.
The original storyline wouldn’t change because of an unexpected event.
In the end, they would be like now, going further from each other, no longer fated to cross the other’s long life.
The number of students asking questions was increasing, Pei Zhi went to the front of the blackboard, wrote down the answer then wiped out, the dust from the chalk felt down just like snow.
When it was Lin Zhao Xi’s turn, she did not feel as excited as when she first arrived.
At Pei Zhi’s calm stare, she simply presented the reason she came.
“The question is…?” Pei Zhi asked.
Her heart skipped a beat. His voice was so alluring that she wanted to cover her ears.
She suppressed her eagerness and gave him the piece of question from her bag.
Pei Zhi’s delicate yet firm fingers pressed on the piece of paper; he glanced over, put down the paper, backed down half a step; three fingers held the chalk pen, inquisitively looked at her, and wrote down a number on the blackboard – 16.
What 3 seconds 5 seconds, this is less than a second!
Lin Zhao Xi was utterly shocked, while Pei Zhi still kept his questioning look. Not until then did she realize he was asking if the answer was correct, thus she hurriedly nodded her head.
Having seen so, Pei Zhi casually wiped the answer on the blackboard, genuinely said: “For people who study maths for a long time, this question is not difficult, but it tests one’s ideas and analytical skills; for people who barely study math, it’s really interesting.”
“Therefore, is it suitable?”
Pei Zhi nodded.
Lin Zhao Xi was immensely happy. Although the answer was brief, it was the result of him thinking carefully. Pei Zhi was an extremely serious man.
It started to get windy, she said thanks to Pei Zhi and tucked her flying hair behind her ears. There was not a reason for her to linger, so she turned to leave.
People from Student Unions all stayed at the back of the classroom.
Lin Zhao Xi went over and got interrogated.
She retold everything that had happened.
Someone quickly reacted: “What Pei Zhi just wrote on the blackboard was the answer?”
“Yes.”
“He is not human!”
Lin Zhao Xi agreed.
They all stayed in the back discussing and deciding the gist of the intellectual test.
Lin Zhao Xi used this opportunity to watch Pei Zhi.
She watched Pei Zhi’s attentive expression, watched his revealed wrist when he wrote on the blackboard; she watched the sparkling eyes of the girls admiring him, watched this outstanding classmate of hers…
But the longer she watched, the more explicit she realized that she and Pei Zhi were not from the same world.
Even though from the beginning, Pei Zhi kept his demeanor and never acted arrogantly, her maiden heart couldn’t help turning empty.
She suddenly saw the uncross-able gap* between her and Pei Zhi (鸿沟). That gap came from one side had industriously accumulated knowledge every day for over ten years; while the other side for the same amount of time had wasted time doing nothing.
It was not enough to make her embarrassed, but it certainly made her feel lost.
Red clouds on the skyline had begun to fade away, the number of people standing at the queue asking questions was almost reduced by none.
Pei Zhi held the jacket at the corner of pulpit and started to gather his belongings.
“Let’s go then.” Su Xiao Ming said.
Lin Zhao Xi nodded, she had already talked with Pei Zhi, and she even watched him for a while, there was no reasons for her to stay.
As if she had completed her wish.
She looked at the cement floor, started to walk a few steps; while in her head was the scenes from shoujo manga anime: she suddenly turned around and declared: “Pei Zhi, I have loved you for ten years!”
However, she didn’t do that, because she lacked the courage.
There were more and more people leaving, both at the front door and the back door.
The sound of fabrics being rubbed made it feel livelier.
Suddenly, there was someone speaking: “Brother* Pei Zhi, can we… ask you… a personal question?” (it was a pronoun for male upperclassman, but to call him male upperclassman Pei Zhi is too weird).
As if she was rescued, Lin Zhao Xi turned her head to see.
Meanwhile, Pei Zhi was still being fair and straightforward: “Yes, nonetheless, if it was too personal, I might refuse to answer.”
One of his hands was in his pocket, another hold paper and tests, which was fluttering with the wind.
“Are you going to leave?” The little underclass girl asked, “What I mean is… to study abroad?”
Having heard so, all the girls in the classroom cried out “Ah”, partly because they were surprised, partly because this was a great chance to gossip.
“Yes.” Pei Zhi plainly answered.
“Which school?”
“CHU.”
Lin Zhao Xi felt perplexed, if it hadn’t been for her, Old Lin would have gone to this very university, what a coincidence.
The girls sighed defeatedly. They couldn’t tell the reason either, they just felt like that was a pity.
That was why someone asked: “Will you still go to San Wei after this?”
“Why not?”
“But recently you barely come.”
“I will come here even less frequently from now on.”
“…”
“Then, will you still lead the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) team this year?”
“Yes.”
“Can we enroll?”
“Of course.” Pei Zhi patiently added “If you are interested in more details for rules of enrolling and picking the teammates, feel free to check the official website of our university.”
The “asking a personal question” event turned into an advisory congress, the students started to discuss this matter.
“We saw it!”
“But it was insanely difficult!”
“Brother* don’t fool us, there’s no details or rules, there’s only one question!” (pronoun for male upperclassman)
“What’s the problem?”
After Pei Zhi asked, he unexpectedly went to the blackboard, picked up half of the chalk, and quickly wrote down the question.
He wrote in a casual way, but Lin Zhao Xi surprisingly found him very gentle.
“We can’t solve it!”
“It’s too difficult!”
Before he finished writing, a lot of people had started to complain.
But for Lin Zhao Xi, from the moment Pei Zhi started to write the first stroke, she couldn’t hear her surroundings anymore. Even Pei Zhi’s figure disappeared from her eyes, she could only stare at the question being written on the blackboard.
It was awfully long and difficult, she could understand parts of it, but other parts were completely strange to her.
She immersed herself in it, felt it hard to comprehend yet interesting and challenging, she instinctively overlooked her documents, took her pen from her bag, and copied the question.
The more she wrote, the more bizarre ideas she had, she couldn’t help but write down everything she came up with.
“Ah, Miss Lin, are you solving this question?”
Suddenly someone next to Lin Zhao Xi shouted out, making her taken aback.
An Xiao Xiao’s voice was loud and clear, just in an instance, the whole classroom turned to her.
Pei Zhi had already reached the door, also stopped to look at her.
Lin Zhao Xi’s first reaction was embarrassment, what was she doing?
The girl student from Philosophy faculty tried to solve the question by the hot boy of the university in a Mathematics classroom, what a scene.
She shyly looked at Pei Zhi.
Pei Zhi’s eyes were still as tranquil and clear.
There were always people who made you admire and wanted to become.
Lin Zhao Xi quickly regained her composure, what’s so terrifying?
“I copied the question.” Lin Zhao Xi told An Xiao Xiao.
“You want to join Pei Zhi’s team?” An Xiao Xiao looked at Mr. Male god standing at the door “No wonder you volunteered to ask Pei Zhi…”
“The studious have to always ask you know.”
“No no no, I don’t think so, aren’t you from Philosophy faculty?” An Xiao Xiao stopped a little and smirked, “You are so eager to solve mathematics questions, does that means you have a crush on Pei Zhi?”
To say she was insane was an understatement. Students around the classroom had started to look at her with sympathy.
Lin Zhao Xi really did not care about An Xiao Xiao’s provocation, but at that very moment, under that circumstances, far away was Pei Zhi’s handsome figure bathed in the ethereal sunset light.
All of the sudden, she turned to An Xiao Xiao, smiled and asked: “Ah, how do you know?”
Silence, in the beginning it was discomfort silence, students looked at each other, they couldn’t predict that they were able to see a bold confession when they attended this class. After that, someone snickered and laughed out loud, making the whole classroom filled with joyous laughter.
An Xiao Xiao was satisfied at first, but she came to realize no students were making fun of the confession. The students were ecstatic, there were some clapping their hands, there were people whistled as a congratulation.
Lin Zhao Xi was not embarrassed, she smiled happily.
At this moment, Pei Zhi moved. One of his hands was in his pocket, his jacket was swinging on his arm, he walked from the door and instantly stood in front of them.
The entire classroom turned quiet again.
Lin Zhao Xi stared at Pei Zhi’s attractive face, felt utterly shocked, what do you want?
Pei Zhi himself didn’t feel his actions were misleading, he casually asked: “Are you solving this question?”
“I… just write down my ideas.”
There was someone gasped in the classroom.
Lin Zhao Xi realized her answers were anything but humble, hastily fixed: “I copied the question to research further later.”
“Can I have a look?” Pei Zhi asked.
Lin Zhao Xi’s heart couldn’t help skipping a beat, but Pei Zhi still showed his calm demeanor and acted naturally, as if he did not hear her public confession. Nevertheless, it was understandable, her confession sounded like a joke, of course the male god wouldn’t bother.
She felt more easygoing and gave him her paper.
Pei Zhi’s slender fingers received it, Lin Zhao Xi could clearly see the shadow under his long eyelashes. The next second, Pei Zhi really did carefully read her ideas for the task that she randomly wrote on the paper.
Not long after, Pei Zhi raised his head and asked her: “Fisher’s linear discriminant?”
“Ah?”
“Perturbation theory*?” (ok I don’t know if it’s correct because this was merely my google results, the original was 完全解的分类)
She shook her head.
“Not bad already.”
Pei Zhi returned her paper, nodded his head, then put his hand on the pocket again, he turned around to leave.
The entire scene was extremely fast, Lin Zhao Xi couldn’t make out the situation, but everyone had started to ask her:
“Sister* you are so good, male god said it was pretty good, can I see your ideas?”
“What did Pei Zhi tell you?”
“Sister* are you really from Philosophy faculty?” (pronoun for female upperclassman)
Lin Zhao Xi almost couldn’t hear whatever sound surrounding her. She stopped looking at Pei Zhi and started looking at her paper.
After she regained her consciousness, she affirmed, Pei Zhi’s ephemeral expression she saw in his eyes was regret. What “discriminant” what “theory”, he might as well have helped her solving the question. But she couldn’t even repeat what he just had said.
Not bad… already…
It was not bad for a philosophy student only.
Lin Zhao Xi started feeling miserable, because at that very moment she realized, the gap between her and this question was similar to the gap between her and Pei Zhi.
In other words, it looked like a millimeter near, but in fact unreachable far.
She was unable to stay. After having given her paper to the student asked for it, said goodbye to Su Xiao Ming, she left at the back door, went to the opposite direction to the wave of people.
When she arrived at the end of the corridor, she breathed in, turned her head to see Pei Zhi one last time.
In her eyes were the people in youthful and colorful clothes, but at that glance, what she saw the clearest was the dust from the chalk on Pei Zhi’s fingers and clothes.
The final lucid ray of sunlight illuminated him.
That was good.
Lin Zhao Xi turned around and look at the distant sky.
The original storyline wouldn’t change because of an unexpected event.
In the end, they would be like now, going further from each other, no longer fated to cross the other’s long life.
