Next Time

"I really hadn't expected Mrs. Dent to be so enthusiastic," Link said to Lena as he was leaving.

They had gone a little wild this time, and he had not thought to keep Lena quiet. He had never expected Lena's mother to hear the commotion and even take the initiative to bring her daughter protective equipment:

"It's getting rather late, and I need to go home for dinner. Otherwise, we could study a little longer, and I could show you the deeper truths of science," Link said, looking refreshed.

"Maybe you could stay here tonight. I'll have Mom prepare an extra dinner," Lena said, leaning against the doorway as though she barely had any strength left.

Yet she was in excellent spirits, her face flushed. She now regretted not following Link into the Hall of Knowledge sooner. That feeling was intoxicating. Perhaps no one else would ever be able to give her such a profound understanding again.

For a moment, Link wanted to agree. What had just happened had only been a small test of his abilities. But after thinking it over, he shook his head. "Forget it. I have something to do tonight. Besides, if I stay over tonight, I'm sure you'll have to take tomorrow off."

Having personally experienced Link's capabilities, Lena knew he was not exaggerating. But after just deeply experiencing the charm of science, she found herself unable to stop. After thinking for a moment, she said:

"Tomorrow is Friday, and there'll be a party at Steve Schuler's house that night. It'll be really lively. Are you coming?"

"Sure." Link nodded.

"Then it's settled!" Having received an affirmative answer, Lena's eyes lit up even more, and she seemed even more alluring. Still, it did not change Link's mind.

Because he had spent longer tutoring at Lena's house this time, dinner was already ready by the time Link got home, and everyone had been waiting for him for quite a while.

When Link finally returned, Bianca could not help complaining, "Why are you so late today?"

"Sorry, I spent more time tutoring Lena," Link said. "I'll pay attention next time."

"How could that Lena possibly be interested in studying? Don't tell me you were charmed by her, which is why you came back so late."

"I was only tutoring her. Although it delayed me by half an hour, Mrs. Dent said she'd pay me for an extra hour today."

Link acted naturally, but inwardly, he truly admired Mrs. Dent's strong nerves. He had never expected her to be willing to pay him an extra hour of part-time wages.

He felt that he truly could not understand what she was thinking. All he could say was that the United States was so large that there were all kinds of strange parents—and that this meal tasted especially good.

"Is that so? Then that doesn't sound bad. What I didn't expect was that your hourly pay has already surpassed mine," Robert said from the side. "But hurry up and put your things down so you can come eat dinner."

"Okay."

Not long after dinner, Peggy came over to Link's place as usual. But after seeing Link and sitting beside him, she quickly leaned close and sniffed him a few times before suddenly saying:

"You seem to smell like perfume, and it's women's perfume. I've smelled it among Mom's perfumes before."

"Really?" Link sniffed himself and only then noticed a faint scent. He guessed it was probably Lena's perfume and immediately said, "Maybe some got on me while I was tutoring at a classmate's house tonight."

"No, this scent is pretty strong," Peggy said. "That isn't something you could pick up from ordinary contact."

Seeing Peggy's suspicious expression, Link simply placed a hand on her head and rubbed it. "That's just your imagination. All right, I have something I need your help with today.

That Sheldon I told you about recently has been using math to help his father, Coach George, train the Football Team. Over the past month, the school's Football Team has kept winning.

After Coach Danny found out, he wanted me to contribute to the baseball team in the same way.

But you know, this is on a completely different level from merely calculating an opponent's batting and pitching angles like I did before, so I want you to help me design a set of formulas..."

Link tried to change the subject, but Peggy was unmoved. Staring at him, she said, "You must be hiding something. Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No, I don't have any plans to get a girlfriend!" Link answered decisively.

In truth, Lena had never been among Link's options for a girlfriend. They were merely taking what they needed from each other, and that was not uncommon in the United States. Naturally, though, he would not discuss such things with Peggy, who was only a little over nine years old.

"You should help me think of a suitable calculation method. If it works, I'll take you out for ice cream this weekend."

Peggy was finally distracted. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Three servings."

"Three is too much. If you upset your stomach, Aunt Linda will kill me. At most, two servings, and you can't eat them all at once."

"Deal!"

Link did not actually care that much about calculating things for the baseball team. He mostly wanted to use the process to improve his mathematical skills.

Peggy was not familiar with baseball before, so Link had to explain the basic rules to her. At the same time, he needed to take her to watch games so she could gain an intuitive understanding of it.

After realizing that this would not be easy, Peggy began bargaining with Link again. In the end, she got him to agree to take her out according to her preferences every weekend for the next four weeks.

Besides asking Peggy for help, Link also consulted Sheldon at the library the next day about how he calculated the Football Team's various data, so he could use it for reference.

The two were chatting when Dan arrived at the library looking especially energized and said to Sheldon, "Hey, do you know how popular we are now?"

Sheldon looked up and asked, "We?"

"Yes. I spread the word that I helped you calculate the Football Team's data. Since I'm in the Math Olympiad Class and I'm Asian, they believed it."

With a sigh, Sheldon said, "I'm glad you're enjoying it."

Seeing that Sheldon was not very enthusiastic, Dan asked, "You don't like this feeling?"

Sheldon sighed. "I was touched eighty-two times today."

"What do you mean, touched?"

"Those people were very enthusiastic. One cheerleader even pressed me into her chest."

"That sounds awesome!"

Dan said this as he reached out to high-five Sheldon, but Sheldon shook his head. "I don't want to high-five. I don't want to keep washing my hands!"

For Sheldon, who had a severe obsession with cleanliness and even needed to wear gloves to shake hands, this kind of popularity was indeed extremely troubling. Thinking of this, Sheldon looked at Link again:

"Come to think of it, Link, you seem very interested in calculating football data too. And although you're not as smart as I am, your mathematical ability is barely enough to complete the calculations. Why don't you take over calculating this data for me from now on?"

"No, I only wanted to learn from your experience. Actually, Coach Danny also wants me to help calculate data for the baseball team. Given my current level, even completing that will be difficult enough. There's no way I can handle both."

"Ah! I suppose there's no helping it."

After talking with Sheldon, Link could not help sighing as well. Even though he had already crossed the threshold into genius territory, there was still an enormous gap between his calculation ability and Sheldon's.

Just as they were speaking, Kevin ran over and said, "Link, I heard you're going to the Schuler Family's party tonight. Can you take me with you?"

Dan, who was beside them, immediately said when he heard that, "You're going to the Schuler Family's party? Take me too."

"Hey, I said it first."

"But Link hasn't agreed yet, has he?"

"All right." Link interrupted their argument and asked Kevin, "How did you know I was going to the Schuler Family's party?"

"I accidentally overheard Lena, the Youth Diva, discussing it with Dana. Lena turned down her boyfriend Tommy's invitation and planned to attend the party with you."

"Wow, Link, I thought you and Lena were just ordinary friends."

"We've always been just ordinary friends," Link emphasized. Then he added, "If you want to attend the party, you can just ask Schuler directly."

"That's impossible. Schuler would only mock us and then refuse to let us in."

"All right. If you're interested, you can come along. But once we get to the party, you'll have to do your own thing. I don't want to be your babysitter."

"No problem!"

"Thank you so much, Link!"