Chapter 92: "A Wager of Secrets"

Luo Xing had not yet spoken when her phone vibrated. She glanced down at it. At the same time, Gu Shiyan's phone screen lit up. His phone was always on silent, so it made no sound. Both of them opened their phones to check.

It was a message from their team group chat. Their five-person team had a group, and besides that, there was also a seven-person group, which included their two counselors and Professor Wen, who led them. Now, Professor Wen and the counselors had sent messages, tagging them and instructing them to go to the vice principal's office early the next morning.

Qi Changbai had already been complaining about this in the group, and he hadn't expected they would be summoned before tomorrow even arrived. The vice principal was the father of Wen Fan, the leader of Team One. His favoritism was obvious from Wen Fan’s usual arrogant demeanor.

Luo Xing recalled the humiliation she endured in the lab. Her father had taught her to be astute and adaptable, especially as a girl outside the home, where physical strength was no match for boys and tact was even more important.

Faced with Team One's provocation, Luo Xing had preemptively recorded the encounter on her phone. She kept evidence. Being called in for discipline by the school leaders was something she'd prepared for long ago. Luo Xing wasn't worried about tomorrow. What she truly wanted was to become strong herself.

The school protected Team One only because they were the most decorated, the most prestigious, the team that brought the most honor to the school. If they were a strong team too, the incident of their lab equipment being taken would never have happened.

She agreed with Gu Shiyan. "What are we betting?"

Luo Xing was already prepared for him to make another unreasonable demand, as he had before.

But his slow, clear voice rang out. "Let's bet a secret."

A gentle melody floated in the air. Across the square, the 0.8x version of "Slow Down" played.

The slow, faint tune made her heart race. The evening streets were quiet; the autumn wind rustled through the chinaberry trees, creating a whispering chorus.

Luo Xing met his gaze, her heart thumping powerfully, as if someone had forcibly attached a pacemaker to it.

Gu Shiyan was silent for a moment, then spoke again. "Let's bet a secret that no one else knows, not even yourself."

Luo Xing’s breathing grew tense. Her mind flashed hot, as if she were back in high school, suddenly called upon by the teacher, her heart and mind in a flustered haze.

Her secret was Gu Shiyan.

If this had happened before, hearing about a secret only she knew, her pupils would have widened in shock.

Back in high school, she never participated in the class’s truth-or-dare games. She carried someone in her heart, someone she couldn’t confess to, someone she didn’t dare risk.

"...Alright." Her voice was dry as she exhaled.

Luo Xing lifted her head to look at him. A chinaberry leaf drifted onto Gu Shiyan's head, then slid down with the wind, settling on his shoulder.

"I accept."

The secret that had shaped her youth would, at midnight tonight, become a model displayed and then set aside in a corner. She would personally end the three years of solitary, baseless, inconclusive, hypothetical experimentation she had carried out since high school.

Gu Shiyan took her wrist and led her away.

Luo Xing did not pull her hand back. The slow melody in her ears faded away. The wind grew stronger, forcing them to bow their heads.

...

With a soft click, the door lock slid shut.

Luo Xing had just lowered her head to change her shoes when a cup of warm water was handed to her.

"Drink this and we’ll begin."

Her palm pressed against the warm glass as she raised her head and took small sips.

In autumn in the northern city, the difference between day and night was stark. In the morning, short sleeves felt hot; by night, even a jacket could not ward off the chilly wind.

Her body warmed from the cup of hot water.

Luo Xing walked to the room Gu Shiyan had arranged for her, key in hand. Gu Shiyan himself had given her this key.

She had said it wasn’t proper for a girl to live alone with him. So he gave her the key.

She opened the door and entered. Neon lights filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting subdued shadows on the floor, bed, and the scattered drafts on the desk.

Those were the discarded pages from her previous calculations, the ones she hadn’t solved. They piled up, covering the desk.

She thought to tidy up, but Gu Shiyan reached for the drafts first. "Let me check your previous derivation."

Luo Xing said nothing, pushing a chair beside him. Gu Shiyan sat down, taking up the uncapped pen she had left on the desk.

The room was silent, only the faint ticking of the clock echoing her heartbeat.

On his writing hand was a vintage wristwatch. His fingers were long and defined, and they looked elegant as he gripped the pen.

He turned over page after page. Luo Xing habitually used colored pens for key steps, so amidst the white sheets, bright yellow and blue would occasionally appear. He examined each one, then stacked them neatly aside.

He stood up and looked at Luo Xing.

She understood, took the pen from his hand, and sat down, grabbing a fresh sheet of paper.

She unlocked the tablet standing on the desk with her fingerprint.

Gu Shiyan first pointed out the errors he found in her drafts.

Luo Xing, with the drafts at hand, listened attentively.

"If you use your original method to derive it again, you'll easily fall into the same mistakes. Here, I've written out the first principles for you. Start from first principles and derive everything anew..."

"Everything from scratch?" Luo Xing repeated, "That means I’ll be sitting here till dawn."

Even Shen Que would need hours at the desk.

"You’ve already spent so much time on derivation, even used several stacks of paper. You’re re-deriving, not inventing something new. With the foundation you have, your efficiency will double."

Luo Xing grumbled softly, "That’s you." But she never expected to finish before midnight anyway, so she had no complaints and began scribbling.

As usual, she put on her headphones and played pure piano music.

"You can leave," she said, tilting her head to glance at Gu Shiyan.

He nodded and, as he left, closed the door behind him.

Luo Xing checked the time on the tablet.

Three hours. She didn't believe she could solve it in that time.

She held her pen, intending to work slowly.

Gu Shiyan's handwriting was right beside her, as if it reminded her at every moment.

She bent over her work, the piano melody still audible in her headphones at first.

Gradually, as her foundations accumulated, her thoughts became crystal clear. At each step, she could already anticipate the next.

Her hand moved faster and faster.

The only sound in the room was the sharp, decisive scratch of pen on paper.

Luo Xing’s eyes focused solely on the progress beneath her pen, her palm damp with sweat.

Her grip tightened, her heart pounding.

Just before the answer was about to emerge, she swallowed, her throat dry.

She hadn’t blinked for ages; her eyes stung, but she didn’t notice, staring at the dense letters covering the white page.

When her pen finally dropped, she habitually placed a dot after the answer.

Her heart raced. She breathed heavily, her pupils reflecting the black characters on white paper.

The tablet showed the time—12:01.

The door opened.

A stretched shadow fell across her.

"Just one minute late. I’ll count it as a win for you." That familiar, slightly raspy voice, tinged with fatigue.

The passionate piano melody in her headphones reignited, flooding her mind.

Her gaze fell on the scattered drafts across the desk.

More than a dozen sheets lay there, each one covered in black writing.

She came back to herself; three whole hours, from start to finish, and she hadn’t changed pens once.

There was none of her usual colorful flourish on the white pages, only monotonous charcoal black.

Just one minute short—did she win?

Would the experiment with no conclusion she carried in her heart ultimately be buried, destined to become a model gathering dust?