After leaving Tao Zhiyan's home and returning to the Orphanage, the difference felt painfully stark.
Feng Ze seemed to have trouble taking an interest in anything.
That lasted until a volunteer teacher came to the Orphanage.
He was a university student, visiting for the first time.
First, he taught the children a passage from their textbook. Once he finished, he started telling them stories.
The teacher talked about science fiction-intelligent AI, digital humans-and even Feng Ze took an interest for once.
"Dimensions?"
The teacher nodded, smiling at Feng Ze. "That's right. How should I explain it to you?"
"Have you watched cartoons?"
Feng Ze nodded.
He had watched one at Tao Zhiyan's house. A blue cat chased a yellow mouse and could never catch it. It was incredibly stupid, and Tao Zhiyan kept laughing along.
At the thought of Tao Zhiyan, Feng Ze's expression softened a little.
"Cartoons are flat. They're two-dimensional," the teacher said. "The world we live in has depth. It's three-dimensional."
Feng Ze asked, "What about novels?"
"Novels... technically, they're only one-dimensional." The teacher paused, then added, "But if the author pours their emotions into one, a novel can, in a sense, count as a three-dimensional space too."
Feng Ze looked thoughtful.
It was the first time Feng Ze had heard any of this. He talked with the teacher for a long time, and by the time he came back to his senses, it was already evening.
Even after the volunteer teacher left, Feng Ze was still thinking. He wandered back to his room, only noticing that the door was open when he snapped out of his thoughts.
The other children were all playing downstairs. Feng Ze was the only one who had come back.
He felt a little puzzled, then a little happy when he remembered