Trajectory 2: entangled curves

Zhuge Qinuo knew that her mathematical ability was thanks to the solid foundation laid by Huang Cangran.

When he was doing homework with Huang Cangran, he often showed off and explained to her the junior high school questions he had done when he was in school, and even left her some secrets - the papers he had done when he was reviewing in the third year of junior high school.

It's not much to say, but those papers helped her a lot. After all, the junior high school he attended was the best in the city, and it had a clear advantage in teachers compared to the schools in the town. Some of the problem-solving ideas in them were clearer and more concise than the relatively simple methods she was learning in school. In terms of the difficulty and depth of some questions, the ones in Huang Cangran's school were indeed more specific and detailed.

Because the participants in each competition are different, the people attending the school's additional training courses are also different, so the seats are not fixed.

This difference also made Zhuge Qinuo notice a person, Zhuge Yihua.

She had spotted him as early as the first competition training. But the two of them were just like strangers, not even saying hello. When they met again in the next two competitions, occasionally, if their eyes met, they would greet each other with their eyes and extremely subtle nods and smiles.

Until the first class of the last type of training, Mathematical Olympiad training, Zhuge Qinuo was 10 minutes late because he had to be on duty. These ten minutes were very precious. The 45-minute training time every night was allocated according to the first 25 minutes of practice and the last 20 minutes of explanation.

When she went there, her classmates were busy calculating, and she was too embarrassed to squeeze into the empty seats in the middle to disturb others; under the teacher's "attention", she was also too embarrassed to waste time running to the last row. She could only choose the only empty and closest seat in the first row at the entrance of the classroom.

And her deskmate today is Zhuge Yihua.

There was no time to worry about anything. She put down her schoolbag, went to the podium to get the questions, and returned to her seat to pick up the pen and write furiously. When the class was over, the homework paper had not been explained yet, and Zhuge Qinuo happened to have one last question to do, so she simply stayed to finish it before leaving. The teacher also gave her the task of closing the door and turning off the lights.

There was nothing wrong with it, except that her "temporary desk mate" also stayed with her.

Zhuge Yihua, he didn't leave, nor did he do anything else, just watched her do the questions, which made her feel very uncomfortable. After all, he had a "little braid" in someone else's hand, so Zhuge Qinuo chose to swallow his anger.

Her mind was in a mess, and she was thinking, "He won't take this opportunity to blackmail me, will he?", "I don't have anything to blackmail you about.", "He's a man and he doesn't leave, and he's still looking at me like this, he won't have any bad intentions, will he?"

Finally, she couldn't hold on any longer, so she put down her pen and collected the papers.

"You're not going to do it anymore?" Zhuge Yihua asked, "You don't know how to do it?"

"Oh, no, I'll do it when I get home. Don't you want to go home early?" Zhuge Qinuo really wanted to say, why don't you go home early to take a shower and go to bed, why do you watch her do homework.

"My pen!" Zhuge Yihua pointed at the pen in Zhuge Qinuo's hand.

Zhuge Qinuo was just stuffing the test paper into his schoolbag when he saw her pencil case lying quietly inside.

He wasn't waiting for her, he was waiting for the pen.

It's so embarrassing.

"Oh, sorry, uh, thank you." Zhuge Qinuo was so flustered that he spoke incoherently. When he returned the pen, his hand slipped and it fell on the table.

"Sorry or thank you?" Zhuge Yihua picked up the pen and asked with a smile.

Zhuge Qinuo: “All of them!”

Zhuge Yihua: "Let's go, it's too late."

"Ok!"

As the two of them walked out of the teaching building, Zhuge Qinuo suddenly remembered that he still had something to do: "Um, you go first, I have something else to do."

"Okay!" Surprisingly, Zhuge Yihua didn't ask any more questions.

Zhuge Qinuo's first reaction was that he knew what she was going to do, but she couldn't care less. She returned to the classroom, took the milk and put it in Yan Zhengping's drawer.

When I went downstairs, Zhuge Yihua was still there.

"It's too late now." Zhuge Yihua answered before Zhuge Qinuo could ask. The two of them tacitly didn't say much. As usual, they left the school together. This time, they didn't go their separate ways right away.

"It's getting late now, shall I take you home?" Zhuge Yihua was very gentlemanly.

"No need! I can do it!" Zhuge Qinuo refused.

"Then tell me when you get home. This is my number." Zhuge Yihua said, handing her a small note. "Don't be surprised. I wrote this when you stayed to do your homework."

Perhaps the feeling of being controlled had become accustomed to him, Zhuge Qinuo did not refuse, and even without hesitation, he reached out to take it.

As soon as she said "goodbye" and turned around, she regretted it. After she got home, she realized even more that someone had known her cell phone number.

"I'm home, thank you." After all, they would meet each other sooner or later, so Zhuge Qinuo sent the text message as agreed.

Zhuge Yihua replied: "Okay. Go to bed early!"

Zhuge Qinuo: "I want to ask, how do you know I have my own number?"

Zhuge Yihua: "I guessed it blindly!"

"Oh! Apologize and thank you again! Good night!" Zhuge Qinuo didn't believe that he was guessing, but he didn't want to delve into it.

Zhuge Yihua put down his phone and recalled how Zhuge Qinuo rushed into the classroom, how he took his pen naturally and swiftly, how awkward he felt when being stared at while doing his homework, and how he looked when collecting the notes.

She is especially real today.

In his mind, her appearance became more three-dimensional.

He knew that the last time he told Zhuge Qinuo in person was five years ago, and this time getting her number was already the limit of what he could and dared to do.

"The night is dark, but dawn will eventually come. Fall asleep with hope, and there will be new sunshine tomorrow. Good night!" Zhuge Yihua replied.

Zhuge Qinuo received the text message and read the words on it, feeling a sense of familiarity. However, she defined it as the warmth brought by chicken soup for the soul. She did not reply, nor did she care more.

With the end of the math competition, the school-level subject competitions finally came to an end. Zhuge Qinuo's results were as expected, and he won school-level awards in every competition.

But her competition journey is not over yet. She will represent the school in the city's Chinese, English and Mathematics competitions. In the city competition, only the top five students in each grade can participate in each subject. Zhuge Qinuo and her deskmate Wang Yan both participated in many competitions, and of course her temporary deskmate, Zhuge Yihua.

Later in class, she discovered that Wang Yan actually knew Zhuge Yihua. Every time she went home from school, Zhuge Yihua would send a text message to ask if she was safe, and then they would exchange a few poems and songs and say goodnight to each other.

The quietly flowing time is just the surface; hidden beneath it is a turbulent undercurrent.