My IQ has been increasing year by year.

It's 2 PM in Zeyang City in July.

The sun was blazing, and the asphalt road was so soft from the heat that it felt slightly sticky underfoot.

On the tree-lined path outside the junior high school of the city's No. 1 Middle School, the trees on both sides are covered with lush foliage, casting huge, blurred shadows on the ground.

The cicadas in the trees kept chirping.

Chen Zhuo stood at the foot of the thickest tree.

The shade of the trees blocked the direct sunlight, and an occasional breeze brought a slight coolness.

At the entrance of a small shop on the street corner, there was a freezer covered with a thick quilt.

Chen Zhuo walked over, lifted the quilt, and opened the glass door. A burst of cold white air rushed out instantly.

He rummaged around inside and took out two bottles of Coke.

He took out some change and handed it to the shopkeeper who was dozing off in the rocking chair. He then took the two bottles of Coke and walked back up and down the tree.

I alternated between holding the two bottles of chilled drinks in my hands, feeling the coolness in my palms.

He glanced at his watch.

2:15.

In the distance, at the street corner, a chubby figure appeared.

Zhang Qiang ran very fast, wearing a large basketball vest.

He ran while panting heavily, his face jiggling with each step.

Upon seeing Chen Zhuo under the tree in the distance, Zhang Qiang ran even faster.

In one of his hands, he was tightly clutching a piece of paper that was rolled up and was a little wrinkled.

"Brother Zhuo!"

Before he even got close, Zhang Qiang's booming voice, as loud as a broken gong, rang out.

He ran up the tree, stopped abruptly, put his hands on his knees, bent over, and gasped for breath.

"Brother Pi..."

Zhang Qiang was panting so hard he couldn't utter a complete sentence; his chest heaved violently.

Chen Zhuo did not urge him.

He stepped forward and handed over a bottle of Coke.

"Don't speak yet, drink some water and catch your breath."

Zhang Qiang straightened up and took the bottle of cola from him.

The cool touch made him squint his eyes comfortably.

He gripped the pull ring with one hand and pulled it upwards forcefully.

哧°

Zhang Qiang tilted his head back and aimed at the mouth of the can.

Glug, glug, glug.

He gulped down more than half the bottle in one go.

The icy soda rushed down my esophagus into my stomach, dispelling the summer heat from my long run.

Zhang Qiang put down the can and held his mouth shut for a few seconds.

Then he let out a long burp.

"Cool!"

He wiped the sweat off his face haphazardly with the back of his hand and stretched out the hand holding the exam paper to Chen Zhuo.

Because I gripped it too tightly, the edges of the exam paper were slightly torn, and a small patch of the paper was soaked with sweat from my palms.

Zhang Qiang carefully unfolded the crumpled exam paper, as if he were displaying a rare treasure.

"Brother Zhuo, look!"

Chen Zhuo lowered his head.

This is a printed transcript of the entrance exam for junior high school.

In the score column at the top of the paper, a very conspicuous number was written in red pen.

"82".

The numbers were written rather hastily, and two bright red lines were drawn next to them.

Zhang Qiang grinned, his teeth practically disappearing from his eyes.

His chubby face was filled with undisguised pride and excitement.

"Eighty, Brother Zhuo, I got eighty-two on the math exam!"

Zhang Qiang's voice was so loud that it attracted the attention of an elderly man on a bicycle who was passing by. He turned around and glanced at him.

But he didn't care at all.

"I followed the guide you gave me to avoid the pitfalls!"

Zhang Qiang excitedly pointed to the questions on the test paper with his finger.

"I glanced at the last two big questions and realized I couldn't understand them at all, so I just gave up and didn't write a single word." He pointed to the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions at the front.

"I'll just work hard on these basic questions. If I encounter one I don't know, I'll use the substitution method you taught me, trying to fit it into each answer one by one. If I can't get it right, I'll choose C!"

Zhang Qiang became more and more excited as he spoke, spittle flying everywhere.

"And that word problem, I didn't set up an equation. I just calculated it step by step, several times, and only copied it down after confirming that it was correct." He folded the test paper again, carefully put it into his pocket, and patted it.

"82 points! They've crossed the line!"

Zhang Qiang looked at Chen Zhuo with an astonishingly bright gaze.

"My dad said that just because I can score 82 in math, he'll be happy to pay that school selection fee. I can get into the top high school in the city!" He took a step forward, unable to contain his excitement.

"Brother Zhuo, when school starts, you'll be in 8th grade and I'll be in 7th grade, then we can play together again!"

Zhang Qiang patted his broad chest, exuding a heroic air.

"This is what we call a perfect partnership. You get first place in the exams, and I'll keep you in check. If anyone at the No. 1 High School dares to bully you, just tell me, and I'll use my 100-plus pounds to sit on them and kill them!"

This is Zhang Qiang's sole motivation for working day and night for the past six months on math problems he couldn't understand at all.

He's a very stubborn person.

He considered Chen Zhuo to be the brother he admired most in the world.

He has to follow along, he has to protect him.

Chen Zhuo listened quietly as Zhang Qiang animatedly planned out his next three years of junior high school life.

Looking at the fat man in front of me, who was covered in sweat.

Looking into his eyes, I saw that pure, unadulterated joy and longing.

Chen Zhuo switched the bottle of cola in his hand to his left hand.

He put his right hand into his pocket.

He took out a small, transparent plastic box.

The box's plastic shell reflected the sunlight.

Inside are two high-speed motors with purple copper coils, as well as a set of precision-made metal gears and bearings.

He handed the box to Zhang Qiang.

"For you."

Chen Zhuo's voice was very steady.

"Bought in Shanghai."

Zhang Qiang's gaze fell on the transparent box.

The moment he saw what was inside, his eyes widened, his mouth gaped open, and he even paused for a moment. "This...this is..."

Zhang Qiang shoved the Coke in his hand into Chen Zhuo's hand, wiped his sweaty hands on his pants, and then carefully took the box from him.

He held the box in his hands, his face almost pressed against the plastic casing.

"The original Tamiya purple motor! And this set of modified gears!"

Zhang Qiang's voice was trembling.

This thing is nothing short of a magic weapon for a twelve-year-old boy who is obsessed with mini 4WD cars.

In a remote small city like Zeyang, the small shops sell cheap motors that cost only a few yuan each. They get hot and smoke after just a couple of laps. As for the good ones, there aren't any in this small place. Zhang Qiang's previous one was something he had to beg his dad for several days before he agreed to get it for him.

He had only ever seen this kind of original imported product with a copper coil in a magazine.

"Holy crap..."

Zhang Qiang stared at the motor in the box and swallowed hard.

He looked up at Chen Zhuo, his eyes filled with emotion.

"Brother Zhuo...you went to Shanghai, such a far place, for the exam, and you were so nervous, yet you were still thinking about my car."

Zhang Qiang sniffed, feeling a slight soreness in his nose.

He clutched the box tightly in his hand.

"I'll install this motor on my Mega Machine when I get back. With this, I'll definitely be the fastest runner at the city's No. 1 High School after school starts. Then, we'll split the pocket money we earn from others and use it all to buy spicy snacks and soda!"

Zhang Qiang has already started imagining the scene of them dominating the racetrack at the school gate after the start of the school year.

The cicadas' chirping remained noisy all around.

A gust of wind blew by, and the leaves on the tree rustled.

Chen Zhuo looked at Zhang Qiang, who was extremely excited.

Chen Zhuo had his hands in his pockets.

Looking into Zhang Qiang's eyes, he tried to speak in the most calm and ordinary tone.

"Zhang Qiang."

"Hey! Brother Zhuo, what do you say?"

Zhang Qiang was holding a box in the sunlight, looking at the coils winding inside, when he heard the sound and immediately looked up.

"You should study hard at No. 1 High School in the city."

Chen Zhuo looked at the dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves.

"However, I won't be able to stay with you after school starts."

Zhang Qiang was stunned.

The smile on his face instantly froze.

His hand holding the box froze in mid-air.

"What do you mean?"

Zhang Qiang looked at Chen Zhuo blankly, his mind not quite processing what was happening.

Chen Zhuo looked at Zhang Qiang.

"I'm going to Huizhou next month."

Chen Zhuo paused for a moment.

"Go to Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the gifted youth program."

This was said very softly.

But to Zhang Qiang, it sounded like a muffled thunderclap.

The chirping of cicadas in the surrounding area seemed to disappear in an instant.

Zhang Qiang stared blankly at Chen Zhuo, his mouth agape.

He's not very bright; he only scored 82 points in math.

But he's not stupid.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Junior Class.

That's the kind of news that only appears in newspapers, the kind of genius myth that teachers occasionally mention with envy.

The light in Zhang Qiang's eyes dimmed little by little at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He lowered his head and glanced at Tamiya Shimada, whom he cherished like a treasure.

He then touched the crumpled report card with an 82-point score in his pocket through the fabric of his pants; it was the card he had used as a stepping stone.

That pride I felt just now, desperately trying to catch up with the other person.

Those grand pronouncements of "I'll protect you from now on."

At this moment, it seemed so ridiculous, so laughable.

He suddenly realized.

For the past six months, I've been working day and night on practice problems, fighting tooth and nail to finally get into the top high school in the city.

The person in front of him had already boarded a high-speed train whose taillights he couldn't even see, heading towards a distant place whose name he couldn't even spell out.

Physical isolation signifies a complete divergence in life trajectories.

Zhang Qiang slowly loosened his grip on the plastic box.

He took a slightly awkward half-step back, creating a small distance between himself and the outside world.

"oh."

Zhang Qiang responded in a muffled voice.

His voice became somewhat dry.

"Bang... is fine."

He looked down at his slightly dirty sneakers.

"Then...you go build rockets."

Zhang Qiang's voice grew softer and softer, carrying an undisguised sense of grievance and deep inferiority.

"Someone like me who just plays in the mud... I really can't keep up."

After saying those words, Zhang Qiang felt like a deflated balloon.

He didn't even have the courage to look up at Chen Zhuo.

In this twelve-year-old boy's worldview, he was abandoned.

He was left far behind by his best and most admired brother.

A brief silence fell under the shade of the tree.

Chen Zhuo looked at Zhang Qiang, whose head was hanging down.

He didn't go up to Zhang Qiang, pat him on the shoulder, and say some nonsense like "we'll always be brothers" or "I'll write to you when I get to Huizhou." He knew this fat man too well.

Those false words of comfort only made Zhang Qiang feel more distant and more inferior.

Fortunately, Chen Zhuo was at least a decent adult in his previous life.

His approach to handling emotions is like his approach to solving math problems: he doesn't rely on emotional outbursts, but rather directly dissects the core of the issue. "Why build a rocket?"

Chen Zhuo's voice rang out, his tone carrying a clear hint of helplessness and casualness.

"You should read less of those messy newspapers and watch less TV news."

Zhang Qiang looked up at him, somewhat bewildered.

Chen Zhuo pointed to the somewhat old teaching building of the No. 1 Middle School in the city.

"Huizhou isn't as strange as you think."

Chen Zhuo's tone was as calm as if he were talking about what he had for lunch that day.

"That university is just a bit bigger in terms of campus area, and the library is a bit taller, and the books inside are a bit thicker than those at the No. 1 High School in the city." He looked at Zhang Qiang.

"I've finished reading all the books in the archives of the No. 1 High School. If I leave them here, I'll run out of things to read, so I'm moving to another place to continue reading." Chen Zhuo sighed, his brows furrowing slightly, as if he was genuinely troubled by something.

"If I can stay at home and finish reading those books, I don't want to go."

He complained.

"Taking a green-skinned train from Zeyang to Huizhou would mean enduring a bumpy ride for over ten hours, with the carriages filled with the smell of instant noodles. Who would want to suffer like that?"

These words were spoken.

Zhang Qiang was stunned.

In Chen Zhuo's words, the Huazhong University of Science and Technology's Junior Class was lofty, sacred, and inviolable.

It had become a boring place that could only be reached by squeezing onto a slow, green train filled with the smell of instant noodles, simply because the book was a bit thick. Zhang Qiang blinked, and the string in his mind relaxed slightly.

"Just going... to read a book?"

Zhang Qiang asked uncertainly.

"Otherwise what?" Chen Zhuo retorted.

"What else could you do there?"

Before Zhang Qiang could continue to hesitate...

Chen Zhuo immediately brought up the second topic.

He turned his gaze away from the school gate and onto Zhang Qiang's broad shoulders and sturdy build.

Chen Zhuo's expression turned serious.

This is not a pretense, but a genuine entrustment.

"I went to another city, and now it's just my dad and mom at home."

Chen Zhuo spoke slowly.

"You know my dad, he's worked in a factory for half his life."

Chen Zhuo looked at Zhang Qiang.

"When we need to change a gas cylinder at home, or buy a 50-pound bag of rice from the grain and oil store and carry it up to the second floor, I can help carry it when I'm around."

He paused.

"But I'm going to Huizhou next month, which is hundreds of kilometers away by railway line. If something really happens at home, I won't be able to help at all. It's like trying to quench a thirst from afar."

Chen Zhuo stepped forward.

He reached out and gave Zhang Qiang's thick arm a firm pinch.

The muscles are very firm.

"You are strong and powerful."

Chen Zhuo stared into Zhang Qiang's eyes, his gaze steady and devoid of any hint of joking.

"The No. 1 Middle School is close to my home; just two streets away is the Sunshine Family Compound."

Chen Zhuo solemnly uttered the most important sentence.

"From now on, when you have weekends off, or when you get out of school early on weekday afternoons, come visit my house whenever you have some free time."

"I can't find anyone else to do this besides you."

Under the shade of the trees, the wind seemed to have stopped.

Zhang Qiang stood still, staring at Chen Zhuo without moving.

Boys aged twelve, thirteen, and fourteen have an almost fanatical pursuit of loyalty and responsibility.

The reason he felt lost and inferior just now was...

It was because he felt that he had become worthless in front of Chen Zhuo, and that he could no longer protect Chen Zhuo.

But now.

Chen Zhuo entrusted him with a more important task that required more effort.

To take care of the rear areas.

These jobs were beyond the capabilities of Chen Zhuo, who had gone to university in another city; only Zhang Qiang, who stayed in Zeyang, could do them.

A fire reignited in Zhang Qiang's previously dimmed eyes.

The fire was brighter and hotter than before.

He suddenly felt that the math test paper with an 82-point score in his hand and the purple motor were no longer important.

He felt a heavy weight on his shoulders.

It's a feeling of fulfillment from being absolutely trusted and deeply needed.

"Brother Zhuo..."

Zhang Qiang's voice was a little strained, and he sniffed hard.

He didn't make any promises or exaggerate his abilities.

He simply and carefully put the plastic box containing the motor into his pocket and placed it close to his body.

Then he straightened up and looked at Chen Zhuo.

"Don't worry."

Zhang Qiang nodded heavily, his chin jiggling as he did so.

"If Uncle Chen needs anything, leave it to me. If you need anything, I can carry it all up in one go without even breaking a sweat. Just call me if you need anything."

He looked at Chen Zhuo with a stubborn glint in his eyes.

"Go and read your books in another city with peace of mind. I'll take care of things at home."

Chen Zhuo looked at Zhang Qiang's serious expression, as if facing a formidable enemy.

I finally felt a little relieved.

He knew that Zhang Qiang's inner knot had been somewhat untied.

He pointed to Zhang Qiang's bulging trouser pockets.

"That purple motor is fast, but the brushes are prone to burning out, so don't mess with it when you're modifying it."

"If you encounter a part that you can't fix, don't throw it away. Put it in a box and I'll fix it for you when I come back from winter break."

He looked at Zhang Qiang.

"besides."

"The questions in junior high school are much harder than those in elementary school."

"After school starts, I'll call you from the landline in our dorm. If there's any problem you really don't understand, or if you failed an exam, just give me a call."

Chen Zhuo paused for a moment, then added the last sentence.

"but."

"It's not free, you know. It involves helping with car adjustments or explaining problems."

A smile appeared on Chen Zhuo's lips.

Two boxes of milk.

"Don't think that just because I changed schools, I can give you free tuition. Write down the debts you owe in this notebook, and we'll settle them when I come back from my vacation." Zhang Qiang finally relaxed.

He grinned, revealing a wide smile, which even made the sweat on his face seem more vivid.

"no problem!"

Zhang Qiang patted his empty wallet.

"Two cartons of milk are nothing. When I win their pocket money at the school gate with this modified car, I'll treat you to a whole case of Want Want milk!" Zhang Qiang crushed the empty can in his hand.

Throw it into the trash can next to it.

"Shall I go home?" Zhang Qiang patted the pocket containing the motor. "I'll put it in and try it out when I get back."

He turned around, just about to take a step.

"Zhang Qiang."

Chen Zhuo stood under the shade of a tree and called out to him.

Zhang Qiang stopped and turned around.

Chen Zhuo stood with his hands in his pockets, looking at the chubby boy who was covered in sweat.

"What did I promise you before the competition?"

Zhang Qiang was stunned for a moment.

He looked at Chen Zhuo, went through the thought in his mind, and suddenly remembered.

Chen Zhuo looked at him, his tone calm but with a smile.

"I told you, don't wander off after the exam, wait for me to come back."

"Let's go to the arcade together, I'll teach you Iori Yagami's infinite combo."

Chen Zhuo casually tossed the empty Coke can in his hand.

With a thud, it landed precisely in the trash can.

He stepped out of the shade of the sycamore tree and into the sunlight.

"Let's go."

Chen Zhuo looked at Zhang Qiang, who was still in a daze, and gestured with his chin toward the arcade.

"There's no time like the present, let's do it now."

Zhang Qiang opened his mouth.

His face instantly contorted into a grimace, and he burst into a wild laugh.

"Holy crap! Let's go!"

Zhang Qiang rushed back and put his arm around Chen Zhuo's shoulder. The disappointment he felt earlier because his brother was going to college was completely washed away by the promise to go right now.

The two boys walked along the tree-lined path on a summer afternoon toward the arcade.

The cicadas' chirping remained loud.

But this time, no one will be left behind.