The Next Time

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

He had gotten a little carried away this time and hadn't paid attention to keeping Lena quiet. He hadn't expected Lena's mother to hear the commotion and actually take the initiative to help her daughter by bringing her protective gear.

"It's getting a bit late now, and I still need to go home for dinner. Otherwise, we could have studied a bit longer. I would have shown you the deeper truths of science," Link said, feeling refreshed.

"Maybe you could stay here for the night? I'll ask Mom to prepare an extra dinner," Lena leaned against the doorframe, looking as if she had no strength left in her body.

But her spirits were very high, and her face was flushed. She now regretted not entering the Hall of Knowledge with Link sooner. That feeling was intoxicating, and perhaps no one else could ever give her such a profound understanding again.

For a moment, Link wanted to agree. What had just happened was just a warm-up for him. But after thinking about it, he shook his head and said, "Let's not. I have things to do tonight, and if I stay tonight, I believe you'll have to take tomorrow off."

Having experienced Link's strength firsthand, Lena knew he wasn't exaggerating. However, having just deeply experienced the charm of science, Lena was a bit reluctant to stop. She thought for a moment and said,

"Tomorrow is Friday, and there will be a party at Steve Schuler's house in the evening. It will be very lively. Are you coming?"

"Okay!" Link nodded.

"Then it's settled!" Having received a positive answer, Lena's eyes became even brighter, and she looked even more charming. However, this still didn't make Link change his mind.

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

Seeing that Link had finally returned, Bianca couldn't help but complain, "Why are you so late today?"

"Sorry, I spent a little more time tutoring Lena," Link said. "I'll be more careful next time."

"How could that Lena be interested in studying? You weren't captivated by her, were you, which is why you came back so late?"

"I was just tutoring her. Although it took an extra half hour, Mrs. Dent said she would pay me for an extra hour today."

Link acted naturally, but in his heart, he truly admired Mrs. Dent for having such a big heart, and he hadn't expected her to actually be willing to pay him for an extra hour of part-time work.

He felt that he couldn't understand her thoughts at all. He could only say that the US is so big that there are all kinds of strange parents, and also that this job was really good.

"Is that so? That seems pretty good. What I didn't expect is that your hourly wage has already surpassed mine," Robert said from the side. "But now, hurry up and put your things down and come eat dinner."

"Okay."

Shortly after dinner, Peggy came over to Link's place as usual. However, after she saw Link and they sat together, she quickly sniffed around Link a few times and suddenly said,

"You seem to have the smell of perfume on you, and it's women's perfume. I've smelled it on Mom's perfume."

"Really?" Link sniffed himself as well and only then noticed it a little. However, he guessed that it was mostly Lena's perfume. He immediately said, "Perhaps I picked some up when I was tutoring at my classmate's house tonight."

"No, this smell is quite strong," Peggy said. "This isn't a smell you can pick up from just casual contact."

Seeing Peggy's suspicious look, Link directly placed a hand on her head, ruffled her hair, and said, "That's just your imagination. Alright, I need your help with something today.

That Sheldon I told you about recently has been helping his father, Coach George, train the football team using math. The school's football team has been winning for the past month.

My coach, Coach Danny, found out and wants me to contribute to the baseball team using the same method.

But you know, this is completely different from the difficulty level of simply calculating the opponent's hitting and pitching angles. So I want to ask you to help me design a calculation formula..."

Link tried to change the subject, but Peggy was unmoved and stared at Link, saying, "You're definitely hiding something. Do you have a girlfriend?"

"That's not the case. I have no intention of getting a girlfriend!" Link answered decisively.

In fact, Lena had never been an option for Link's girlfriend. They were just getting what they needed from each other, which was not uncommon in the US. However, he naturally wouldn't discuss these things with Peggy, who was only a little over nine years old.

"How about you 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 servings is too much. If you get a stomach ache, Aunt Linda will kill me. Two servings at most, and you can't eat them all at once."

"Deal!"

Link didn't really care too much about calculating for the baseball team. He was more interested in improving his math skills through the process.

Peggy wasn't familiar with baseball before, so Link had to explain the simple rules to her and also take her to watch games so she could get a visual understanding.

After realizing that this wasn't easy, Peggy started bargaining with Link again, and finally got Link to agree to take her out every weekend for the next four weeks according to her preferences.

Besides asking Peggy for help, Link also asked Sheldon the next day at the library how he calculated various data for the football team, so he could use it as a reference.

As the two were talking, Dan energetically walked into the library and said to Sheldon, "Hey, do you know how popular we are now?"

Sheldon looked up and asked, "We?"

"Yeah, I spread the word that I helped you calculate the football team's data. Because I'm in the Math Olympiad Class and I'm Asian, they believed it."

Sighing, Sheldon said, "I'm glad you're enjoying this feeling."

Seeing that Sheldon wasn't very enthusiastic, Dan asked, "Don't you like this feeling?"

Sheldon sighed, "Today I was touched 82 times."

"What do you mean by 'touched'?"

"Those guys were very enthusiastic, and one cheerleader even hugged me into her chest."

"That's awesome!"

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

As someone with mysophobia who even wears gloves to shake hands, being this popular was indeed extremely troublesome. Thinking of this, Sheldon looked at Link again:

"Speaking of which, Link, you seem to be very interested in calculating for the football team too. And although you're not as smart as me, your math level is barely enough to do the calculations. How about you take over calculating this data for me from now on?"

"No, I just wanted to learn from your experience. Actually, Coach Danny also wants me to help him calculate for the baseball team. Considering my current level, even completing that part is difficult, it's impossible to handle both."

"Ah! It seems there's no other way."

Talking with Sheldon, Link couldn't help but sigh. Even though he had already stepped into the threshold of genius, there was still a huge gap in calculation ability compared to Sheldon.

As they were talking, Kevin ran over and said, "Link, I heard you're going to the Schuler family party tonight. Can you take me with you?"

Dan, who was nearby, immediately said, "You're going to the Schuler family party? How about you take me too?"

"Hey, I said it first."

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

"Alright." Link interrupted their argument and asked Kevin, "How did you know I was going to the Schuler family party?"

"I overheard Lena and Dana, the Youth Divas, discussing it. Lena refused her boyfriend Tommy's invitation and plans to go to the party with you."

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

"We've always just been normal friends," Link emphasized, then continued, "If you want to go to the party, you can just ask Schuler directly."

"That's impossible. Schuler would just laugh at us and then shut us out."

"Alright, if you're interested, you can come along. But once we get to the party, you're on your own. I don't want to be your babysitter."

"No problem!"

"Thank you so much, Link!"