When You've Asked, How Could I Refuse?

"Boss, how much are these apples per pound?"

Mi Xia's mind was completely occupied by calculus problems. Hearing the voice, she blurted out instinctively.

"When n approaches infinity, what is the limit of the sequence sum n+1/1+n+2/1+?+2n/1..."

The moment the words left her mouth, Mi Xia cried out inwardly, Oh no.

Someone was just buying apples, and she had responded with a limit summation formula from calculus. Didn't that make her look completely insane?

She hurriedly looked up, ready to apologize.

However...

"ln2."

Li Dong was a little speechless. I'm just buying apples, and you're giving me calculus code words?

When Mi Xia saw that it was actually Li Dong, her face instantly reddened all the way to her ears.

"Ah... sorry, I got distracted solving problems just now. My mom went to the restroom in the back, so I'm watching the stall for her."

Mi Xia quickly stood up and explained.

"The apples... the apples are two-fifty per pound."

Li Dong nodded. As he picked through the Fuji Apples, he casually asked,

"Huh? School isn't out yet, is it? Why aren't you at school?"

Mi Xia hesitated before answering.

"There's something going on at home, so I took leave."

In truth, there was nothing wrong at home.

Ever since Li Dong had provoked her last time, she had been desperately staying up late every night to grind through problems.

Especially in math and physics, she had practically devoured every competition prep book available on the market.

The intense mental strain, coupled with severe sleep deprivation, had caused her to faint in the classroom during morning self-study today. Her teacher had then forced her to go home and rest.

But of course, she would never tell Li Dong any of that.

In her heart, Li Dong was now the mountain she had to climb. How could she show weakness before her opponent?

Li Dong nodded and didn't ask any further questions. After picking out several good-looking apples, he handed them over to be weighed.

After paying, Li Dong picked up the plastic bag and prepared to leave.

"Li Dong!"

At that moment, Mi Xia suddenly called out to him.

Li Dong turned back, looking at her in confusion.

"What is it?"

Mi Xia took a deep breath and asked in a quiet but resolute voice,

"Could you... could you tutor me in math?"

The lingering rays of the setting sun fell across Mi Xia's cheeks, making her already striking features seem even softer.

Those usually cool, calm eyes were now filled with a thirst for knowledge.

To be fair, Mi Xia really was beautiful—the kind of girl who would be regarded as every high school's unattainable first love.

Li Dong stared at her in a daze, then nodded and said,

"No."

Mi Xia froze.

Somewhat unwilling to accept it, she asked,

"Why?"

Li Dong thought that was a pretty silly question.

"I don't have time. Every night, I still need to study biology, Chinese, and English. Where would I find the time to tutor you?"

Only then did Mi Xia realize that Li Dong's math and physics grades had already reached a terrifying level.

But... there was indeed still room for improvement in his other subjects.

During the last monthly exam, his Chinese score seemed to have been only ninety-eight, while his English had barely reached one hundred and ten.

As for biology and chemistry, while they weren't bad, they definitely weren't top-tier either.

Looking at Li Dong's matter-of-fact expression, Mi Xia wasn't discouraged by the rejection. Instead, she became even more determined to surpass him.

Even people better than me are still working this hard. What right do I have to take sick leave?

Mi Xia didn't press the issue. Lowering her head, she said to Li Dong apologetically,

"Sorry. I was being too selfish."

"I was even thinking of paying you to tutor me..."

Before Mi Xia could finish, Li Dong, who had already turned away, somehow came back.

There was a smile on his face, so bright that Mi Xia found it a little dazzling.

"I might only be able to spare time on weekend afternoons to tutor you."

Li Dong looked at her seriously.

Mi Xia asked blankly,

"But... don't you still have so many subjects to study?"

Li Dong shook his head.

"Studying is important, of course, but I think the purest kind of relationship in this world is the one between classmates."

"Once we enter society, we may never encounter such a pure relationship again."

"So now that you, my classmate, have asked, what reason do I have to refuse?"

His eyes were crystal clear.

You should've said you were paying for tutoring earlier. I thought you wanted it for free.

After they briefly agreed on a time for weekend tutoring, Li Dong left in high spirits, carrying the apples and humming a tune.

Chengnan Industrial Park, Jiangcheng.

Li Dong's uncle, Liu Yang, rented two small factory units here and did rough hardware processing work.

Because Liu Yang had helped Li Dong's family repay their debts years ago, his wife had divorced him as well. He had never remarried and remained alone to this day.

To save money, he hadn't even rented a place to live. Instead, he lived directly in a temporary color-steel shack built beside the factory.

Carrying the apples, Li Dong pushed open the shack's door with practiced familiarity.

Li Qin was stir-frying dishes on a simple induction cooker, and the smell of cooking fumes lingered in the room.

Meanwhile, Liu Yang sat at his desk, biting the end of a pen as he frowned at a ledger book.

"Mom, Uncle," Li Dong called.

Hearing him, Liu Yang quickly looked up and saw the plastic bag in Li Dong's hand.

"Xiaodong, you're here? You're still in school. Why buy anything? Who taught you all this pointless politeness? Wouldn't it be better to save the money for study materials?"

Li Qin stirred the twice-cooked pork in the wok and scolded him with a smile.

"Your nephew bought you some fruit, and you're still unhappy about it?"

Liu Yang sighed.

"It's not that I'm unhappy. I just think there's no need to waste money like this."

He put down his pen and pulled over a stool for Li Dong.

"By the way, I heard you went to the provincial capital for some competition. How did it go?"

Li Dong set down the apples and nodded.

"It was all right. I performed pretty well."

He didn't explain the prestige of the Huaxuan Cup in detail to his uncle. After all, Liu Yang had entered the workforce right after middle school. It was already impressive enough that he could tell physics from geography.

Li Qin placed the finished dishes on the small coffee table and casually complained,

"Don't go entering those random competitions next time. They waste time and don't help with the Gaokao at all."

"You're in your final year now. The proper thing is to study steadily and get into a good university."

Li Dong took a mouthful of rice and silently argued back.

It might not help with the Gaokao, but it can make money! The scholarship is twenty thousand yuan! If I get first prize, it'll be thirty thousand!

But before the prize money was actually in hand, he didn't plan to tell his mother. He still wanted to give her a surprise.

While they ate, Li Qin looked at the mountain of account books piled on Liu Yang's desk and couldn't help complaining.

"Li Yang, don't blame your sister for nagging."

"Shouldn't your factory get some kind of inventory management system? Like the ones we use in supermarkets—scan something with a barcode scanner, and every item entering or leaving the warehouse is clearly recorded. The system might lag sometimes, but it's still better than calculating everything by hand, isn't it?"

Liu Yang gave a bitter smile.

"Sis, do you think I don't want one? I went to ask at the computer market last month."

"They said that if I wanted a custom hardware inventory system with barcode scanning and a database, even the cheapest software and hardware package would cost over ten thousand yuan a year."

"You know my factory has only just gotten on its feet. I took on several big orders, but the manufacturers still haven't settled their payments. I even have to advance the workers' wages. Where would I get that kind of spare cash?"

Hearing that, Li Qin put down her bowl and chopsticks.

"You're short ten thousand, right? I'll withdraw my fixed deposit tomorrow..."

"Don't!" Liu Yang immediately waved his hands.

"Sis, it wasn't easy for you to save that little money."

"Xiaodong is in his final year now. This is exactly when he needs money."

"Buying supplements, hiring a tutor for weekend lessons—what doesn't cost money?"

"Neither the Liu family nor the Li family has produced a proper college student in three generations. We absolutely can't let my little problems make the child suffer."

Li Qin nodded and didn't insist further.

Listening to their conversation, something suddenly occurred to Li Dong.

He put down his chopsticks and turned to Liu Yang.

"Uncle, what functions does this inventory system of yours actually need? What exactly does it have to manage?"

Liu Yang paused, then smiled and rubbed Li Dong's head.

"Why are you, a kid, asking about adult matters? Focus on your studies."

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just asking to broaden my knowledge."

Li Dong casually made up an excuse.

Liu Yang didn't think much of it. Assuming his nephew was simply curious, he explained casually.

"It's actually not that complicated. We do hardware processing, and there are especially many specifications for parts."

"M4 screws, M6 washers—there are thousands of variations just from different materials and lengths alone."

"I just want a system that can record how much raw material comes in each day, how many finished products are processed, how many defective products are scrapped, and which clients the outgoing goods are sent to."

"And preferably, it should have an alert threshold. If stock drops below one thousand units, it should remind me to restock."

As he listened, Li Dong silently committed those requirements to memory.

His current physics and math level was already enough to dominate the Gaokao, and in chemistry, the bearded man had given him Chemical Intuition.

He could completely master high school chemistry within a week. Even tackling some college inorganic chemistry wouldn't be impossible.

With his passive memory, he could also reliably score highly in biology.

Other than Chinese, where he needed to memorize more classical poetry and essay material, he actually had a great deal of free time at his disposal.

In that case, why not teach himself programming?

Then he could directly write his uncle a lightweight inventory management system!

Li Dong hadn't forgotten that the Azure Dragon Study Group had not only masters of physics and mathematics, but also the founding fathers of computer science!

[Alan Turing] and [John von Neumann].

If he caught them chatting in the group, perhaps he could pick up some computer science knowledge from them.

After dinner, Li Dong helped clean up the dishes, then took the bus home with his mother.

The bus swayed through the night.

Outside the window, Jiangcheng's neon lights continuously slipped backward.

Li Qin looked out the window and suddenly sighed.

"Xiaodong, you always used to think your uncle was unrealistic and unreliable. Actually, you misunderstood him."

"He's the only man in our family. He's always wanted to make something of himself out there, so our family wouldn't be bullied by others."

Li Dong looked at his mother and nodded.

"Mom, I know."

After returning home, Li Dong washed up and lay on his bed, his mother's words still replaying in his mind.

His uncle truly hadn't had it easy.

Li Dong felt that he needed to do something.

So without hesitation, he took out his phone and opened the Azure Dragon Study Group.

He had originally planned to scroll through the chat history and see whether Turing or John von Neumann had shown up, making it easier for him to strike up a conversation.

However, the moment he opened the group chat, he discovered that there was no sign of the computer science masters at all.

Instead, the tension throughout the group was so thick it practically spilled out of the screen!

The reason was simple: [Niels Bohr] had come online.