My IQ has been increasing year by year.

Ever since Liu Xiuying set that strict rule, the wooden door to the Chen family's living room has never been opened during the day.

The security door was closed, and the wooden door was locked from the inside, keeping out the drafts in the hallway and the sight of people outside.

It was a bit stuffy inside.

The electric fan was turned on its highest setting, spinning its head and swirling the hot air around the living room.

Around 10 a.m., Chen Jianguo and Liu Xiuying went to work at the factory.

Chen Zhuo was home alone.

Wearing a slightly faded vest and a pair of loose blue athletic shorts, she was barefoot on the floor.

The floor is cooler than the sofa.

Chen Zhuo leaned back against the sofa leg, holding a yellow Tetris game console in his hand.

The plastic casing of the game console was worn shiny, and the black cubes on the screen were falling down at an extremely fast speed.

His two thumbs pressed the buttons rapidly, making a crisp clicking sound.

The TV was on, but the volume was turned down low.

Inside, a rerun of "My Fair Princess" was playing, with Little Swallow jumping around on the screen, but Chen Zhuo didn't glance at it at all, his eyes glued to the small screen in his hand.

drop drop drop

A rapid electronic sound rang out, the blocks on the screen piled up to the top, and the game ended.

Chen Zhuo let out a long sigh, tossed the game console onto the coffee table, grabbed a nearby cup, and gulped down half a cup of water. Then he grabbed an old-fashioned popsicle from the freezer and popped it into his mouth.

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door.

The footsteps stopped outside the door, followed by two not-so-loud knocks.

Chen Zhuo bit into his popsicle, glanced at the tightly closed wooden door, and remained silent and still.

Liu Xiuying had instructed that no matter who knocked on the door, if they were strangers or had not given prior notice, they should not be opened.

The person outside waited for a while, and seeing no response, knocked twice more.

"Jianguo? Sister-in-law Xiuying? Are you home?"

A man's voice came through the door, sounding somewhat ingratiating and a little hesitant.

Chen Zhuo heard the voice and felt it sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was for a moment. He walked to the door with his popsicle in his mouth, and peered through the peephole at the dim light in the hallway.

A middle-aged man stood outside the door, wearing a wrinkled short-sleeved shirt with the collar open, revealing his tanned skin underneath. He carried two red cardboard boxes in one hand and a plastic bag full of apples in the other.

Behind the man stood a boy.

He was a head taller than Chen Zhuo, wearing an ill-fitting oversized T-shirt, and kept his head down, looking at his toes, looking dejected.

Chen Zhuo recognized the middle-aged man.

Chen Jianqiang.

Chen Jianguo's distant cousin, Chen Zhuo usually has to call him "uncle" according to seniority.

The two families live quite far apart and rarely visit each other. They only see each other briefly when they go back to their hometown to pay respects to their ancestors during the Lunar New Year, and they barely exchange a few words.

Chen Zhuo didn't open the door directly, but asked a question through the door panel.

"Who?"

Hearing the sound, Chen Jianqiang outside the door lit up and quickly moved closer to the door.

"Is this Chen Zhuo? I'm your Uncle Jianqiang! I came from the south of the city."

Chen Zhuo turned off the deadbolt knob.

With a click, the wooden door opened a crack.

The heat from outside seeped in through the crack in the door.

Chen Zhuo looked at Chen Jianqiang standing outside the security door, and the boy behind him with his head down.

"Uncle".

Chen Zhuo called out, his tone very calm.

"My parents both work in a factory and don't come home for lunch, so I'm home alone."

The implication is obvious.

The adults are not here, so it is inconvenient to receive guests.

But Chen Jianqiang seemed not to understand, or perhaps he pretended not to understand.

He lifted the plastic bag in his hand, his face beaming with smiles.

"It's alright, it's alright, I won't look for your parents. Your uncle came here today specifically to see you. Open the door quickly, the corridor outside is as hot as a steamer." Chen Jianqiang said, while reaching out to tug at the arm of the boy behind him.

"Taozi, greet him. This is your cousin, Chen Zhuo."

The boy named Taozi reluctantly raised his head, glanced at Chen Zhuo, and then quickly lowered his head again.

"Cousin."

Taozi's voice was like the buzzing of a mosquito.

Chen Zhuo looked at the obviously purposeful smile on Chen Jianqiang's face, and then glanced at the things he was carrying.

It seems we have no choice but to open the door today.

After all, they were relatives, and they hadn't had any major disagreements yet. It wouldn't be right to lock them out when Chen Jianguo returned. Chen Zhuo threw the popsicle stick in his hand into the nearby trash can and reached out to open the security door.

"Come in, no need to change your shoes."

Chen Jianqiang quickly pulled Taozi inside.

As soon as he entered the house, Chen Jianqiang put the things he was carrying on the coffee table.

The two red boxes were some kind of milk from an unknown brand; the packaging was faded, and it was unclear how long they had been on the convenience store shelf. The bag of apples, however, was quite large.

"My uncle just bought it casually; he doesn't have anything fancy at home."

Chen Jianqiang rubbed his hands together and sat down on the old sofa.

Taozi didn't sit down, but stood awkwardly beside the coffee table, his eyes secretly glancing at the television that was playing.

Chen Zhuo went to the kitchen, took two clean glasses, poured two glasses of warm water, and placed them on the coffee table.

"Drink water."

After Chen Zhuo finished speaking, he walked to a small stool and sat down.

Chen Jianqiang picked up his water glass and took a sip. He looked around the room, but couldn't see anything different from his own home. The living room wasn't big, and the furniture was all old stuff that had been used for several years.

"Chen Zhuo, have you been resting at home these past few days?"

Chen Jianqiang put down his water glass and started looking for topics to talk about.

"Um."

Chen Zhuo responded.

"I saw it in our factory's newspaper yesterday, on the front page!"

Chen Jianqiang slapped his thigh, his voice suddenly rising eight octaves, and his facial expression became exaggerated and somewhat unnatural.

"First in the country in two categories! Huazhong University of Science and Technology's Junior Class! My God, when I saw your name, I couldn't believe it. I even told the people in my workshop, 'Look, this is my nephew!' He really brought honor to our Chen family!"

Chen Zhuo looked at him but didn't reply.

really.

After praising Chen Zhuo, Chen Jianqiang changed the subject and turned his gaze to Taozi, who was standing next to him.

The smile on Chen Jianqiang's face disappeared, replaced by an expression of disappointment and frustration.

He reached out and slapped Taozi hard on the back.

"Look at your cousin! And look at yourself!" Chen Jianqiang said, cursing.

Taozi stumbled from the slap, pursed his lips, but remained silent.

"This kid will be in the second year of junior high school when school starts, and his grades are so bad that I'm embarrassed to even mention them."

I got 38 in math and 25 in English on the final exams. My homeroom teacher calls me to school every day to lecture me. I'm exhausted after a day's work at the factory, and I still have to go to school and be his lackey!

Chen Jianqiang became increasingly angry as he spoke, pointing his finger at Taozi's nose.

"You're as stupid as a pig! We were raised on the same rice and flour, how come you don't have a brain?!"

Taozi lowered his head even further, and the base of his neck turned red.

After scolding his son, Chen Jianqiang turned around, put on his ingratiating smile again, and looked at Chen Zhuo.

"Chen Zhuo."

Chen Jianqiang leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees.

"My uncle brought him here today because he wants you to help him out."

Chen Jianqiang pointed to the milk and apples on the coffee table.

"Look, you're about to go to a good university in Huizhou, a big city, and you haven't had much to do at home these past few days."

"My uncle was thinking, could Taozi stay at your house for the next few days?"

Chen Jianqiang finally got to the point.

"Don't worry about the bed, just let him sleep on a makeshift bed on the floor in the living room. He doesn't need to be picky about food either; he can eat whatever you eat."

"I was thinking of letting him stay with you for a few days, so you can help him with his studies and give him some pointers."

Chen Jianqiang looked at Chen Zhuo with a superstitious longing in his eyes.

"You're so smart, you must have some special learning methods. Just teach him a couple of tricks, even if it's just to absorb some of your literary aura, it'll be better than him just blindly studying on his own. Just do your uncle a favor, okay?"

The living room fell silent.

The only sounds were the fan turning and the television.

Chen Zhuo sat on a small stool, looking at Chen Jianqiang.

He wasn't angry; he just found it somewhat absurd.

Before Chen Zhuo could even speak...

Taozi, who had been standing silently to the side, shifted his gaze from the television to a corner of the coffee table.

There were a few books there.

Those were the textbooks Chen Zhuo had been tidying up these past few days. The top one was a thick original English edition of "Thomas' Calculus." The cover was printed with intricate geometric shapes and English letters.

Taozi curiously reached out and picked up the book.

The book is heavy.

He turned to the first page.

Taozi's eyes widened instantly.

The pages of the book are covered with English letters; there is not a single Chinese character.

Interspersed among those long passages of English were many strange symbols he had never seen before.

A symbol that looks like an elongated S.

Various combinations of letters with superscripts and subscripts.

There are also some Greek letters that look like scribbles.

Taozi flipped through several pages, and every single one was the same.

Those complex formulas, the derivation of calculus, and the proof of limits.

Taozi's hand holding the book froze in mid-air.

He looked up at Chen Zhuo, who was sitting on the bench, as if he were looking at an alien.

She has a rather delicate appearance, wearing a tank top, and she was just playing Tetris.

But Taozi suddenly realized that his cousin, who was four years younger than him, was not even the same species as him.

That enormous intellectual gap was, at that moment, embodied in the heavy, all-English calculus textbook in my hand.

Taozi slammed the book shut as if he had burned his hand, and quickly put it back on the coffee table.

"dad."

Taozi finally spoke, his voice trembling slightly, with obvious resistance.

"I don't live here, and I don't need his tutoring."

Taozi looked at Chen Jianqiang.

"I don't recognize a single word of what he's looking at. How can he tutor me? I can't understand it."

Chen Jianqiang did not read that book.

When he heard his son backing out again, he immediately became furious.

"What do you know! Can't you learn to read? Your cousin can understand it, so why can't you!"

Chen Jianqiang stood up and pointed at Taozi.

"I'm telling you this now, you're staying here for the next few days, and you're not going anywhere!"

"No!" Taozi's stubbornness flared up, his neck stiffening. "If you leave me here, I'll walk home by myself tonight." "You dare!"

Chen Jianqiang raised his hand, about to strike.

"Uncle".

Chen Zhuo's calm voice interrupted the argument between the father and son.

Chen Jianqiang's hand froze in mid-air.

Chen Zhuo stood up from the bench.

He glanced at the calculus textbook on the coffee table that Taozi had flipped through.

"He's right, he can't understand what I'm looking at."

Chen Zhuo looked at Chen Jianqiang, his tone completely calm, simply stating a fact.

"I don't have any learning methods, and I don't know how to teach a junior high school student."

Chen Zhuo pointed to the two boxes of milk.

"Take your things back; I can't tutor him."

When Chen Jianqiang heard Chen Zhuo's decisive refusal, his expression immediately turned somewhat unpleasant.

The smile on his face vanished, replaced by a hint of embarrassment and annoyance.

"Chen Zhuo, you're being too polite. We're family, blood is thicker than water. Now that you've gotten into university and are doing well, what's wrong with helping your own brother out?"

Chen Jianqiang began to use family ties to blackmail him.

"My uncle doesn't need you to teach him anything too advanced. Just let him follow you and watch how you read books and do exercises. Is that alright?" "No."

Chen Zhuo answered very decisively.

He didn't go on to explain why it wouldn't work.

Explaining the difference in IQ and cognition to this kind of person is a complete waste of time.

Chen Jianqiang wanted to say something more.

Just then.

The door was pushed open.

Chen Jianguo, dressed in a blue work uniform and carrying a black plastic bag, walked in. He had returned early today because of equipment maintenance at the factory.

When Chen Jianguo entered the house, he was stunned to see the three people standing in the living room.

Then, he saw Chen Jianqiang standing to the side.

Chen Jianguo frowned slightly.

He knew all too well what kind of person his distant cousin was.

Normally, they wouldn't come to our door unless they had a reason, so why did they suddenly show up with something today, especially after Chen Zhuo's name was in the newspaper? It's obvious what they wanted.

"Jianqiang? What brings you here?"

Chen Jianguo changed into slippers and placed the plastic bag he was carrying on the shoe cabinet by the door.

When Chen Jianqiang saw Chen Jianguo return, it was as if he had seen a savior.

He quickly went to meet him.

"Oh, Jianguo, you're finally back!"

Chen Jianqiang grabbed Chen Jianguo's arm.

"Well, I read in the newspaper yesterday that our Chen Zhuo has made something of himself, so I brought Taozi over today to meet him and let him see his cousin." Chen Jianqiang pointed to the things on the coffee table and then to Chen Zhuo.

"I'm discussing it with Chen Zhuo. We're thinking of having Taozi stay at your house for the next few days so Chen Zhuo can give him some tutoring."

Chen Jianqiang looked at Chen Jianguo, lowered his voice, and said with a hint of complaint.

"But Chen Zhuo has quite a temper. He said he didn't care and even chased us away. Jianguo, tell me, we're all family, this..." Chen Jianguo didn't continue Chen Jianqiang's sentence.

He walked over to the coffee table.

I glanced at the two cartons of milk and the bag of apples.

She glanced again at Taozi, who was standing beside her, head down, looking very uncomfortable.

Finally, Chen Jianguo turned his attention to Chen Zhuo.

Chen Zhuo looked at him without saying a word.

Chen Jianguo turned his head and looked at Chen Jianqiang.

The composure and unquestionable aura he usually exuded when mentoring apprentices in the workshop were revealed at this moment.

"Build strength."

Chen Jianguo spoke up.

"Chen Zhuo is right."

Chen Jianqiang was stunned for a moment.

"Jianguo, what you're saying...?"

Chen Jianguo walked to the sofa but did not sit down.

He picked up the two cartons of milk and apples from the coffee table and shoved them back into Chen Jianqiang's hands.

"The child is going to Huizhou in a few days."

Chen Jianguo looked at Chen Jianqiang, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.

"He can't even read all the books he owns, how can he have time to tutor others?"

Chen Jianguo pointed at Chen Zhuo.

"Besides, Chen Zhuo is only ten years old this year. He's still a child himself, while Taozi is fourteen and in the second year of junior high school."

"Is it reasonable to have a ten-year-old teach a fourteen-year-old middle school student?"

Chen Jianguo ruthlessly shattered Chen Jianqiang's illusions.

"Taozi's poor grades are the school teachers' problem, and it's your problem as his father. You should go to the school more often and take charge of him. What kind of nonsense is it to just dump him here with me?"

Chen Jianguo's words were very harsh, showing no respect whatsoever to his distant cousin.

Chen Jianqiang carried the things that had been shoved back at him, his face flushing red and then turning pale.

He worked in the workshop and was used to putting on an act and passing the buck among relatives. He thought that as long as he begged shamelessly, Chen Jianguo would definitely agree because he couldn't refuse.

But he didn't expect Chen Jianguo to be so tough today, completely blocking the way.

"Jianguo...you...you're looking down on our poor relatives."

Chen Jianqiang gritted his teeth and squeezed out a sentence.

"Don't try to shut me up with that."

Chen Jianguo wasn't buying it at all.

He pointed to the gate.

"My Chen Zhuo isn't some kind of genius; he's just a bit smarter. He can't help your Taozi."

"Take your things back. We have things to do at home, so we won't keep you for dinner."

This is a blatant order to leave.

Chen Jianqiang stood still and took two deep breaths.

He turned his head and glared fiercely at Taozi.

"You good-for-nothing! Get out of here!"

Chen Jianqiang carried the two boxes of cheap milk and apples and walked towards the gate without looking back.

Taozi felt as if he had been granted a pardon and quickly followed behind, walking out of the security door.

Chen Jianguo walked over, closed the security door, and then closed the other wooden door.

Relock.

The living room returned to silence.

On TV, "Princess Pearl" has already finished airing sometime ago, and now they're showing a picture of a laundry detergent bottle.

Chen Jianguo walked to the coffee table, picked up the glass of water that Chen Zhuo had just poured, and drank it all in one gulp.

He let out a long sigh of relief.

Turning his head, he looked at Chen Zhuo, who had sat back down on the sofa and picked up a game console.

"Are you alright?" Chen Jianguo asked.

"fine."

Chen Zhuo stared at the squares on the screen, his thumb flying across the keys.

"These people just love to watch the drama unfold. They really think that getting first place in an exam can cure all ills."

Chen Jianguo shook his head and sat down on the small stool next to him.

He took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it.

I took a puff.

"If someone like that comes knocking on the door again, that's another one." Chen Jianguo said to Chen Zhuo.

"Ignore them, don't open the door."

"understood."

Chen Zhuo responded.

Chen Jianguo smoked a cigarette while watching TV.

The cool breeze from the electric fan dissipated much of the heat I had brought back from the workshop.