Chapter 13 (continued)

Sure enough, reports were everywhere online. Ming Chunxi was the first Chinese person to win the prestigious award, as well as the youngest recipient in its history. On top of that, he was exceptionally good-looking, and the internet had exploded over it.

Qing Mengzhu found Ming Chunxi's acceptance speech online. Ming Chunxi had spoken modestly and graciously, with the bearing of a young scholar.

Many netizens had left comments praising him, while quite a few others explained how prestigious the award was.

Some people had also dug up videos of Ming Chunxi's past talks and the like.

Qing Mengzhu looked through them and clicked on the one with the most discussion.

It was a presentation hosted by an internationally renowned platform. Even Qing Mengzhu, who paid little attention to academic matters, had heard of it.

Ming Chunxi was giving a presentation on artificial neural networks. He spoke entirely in English, at an unhurried pace, and his words were concise and direct.

Qing Mengzhu's English was average, and he didn't understand many of the technical terms. Even so, he understood most of it. Perhaps because Ming Chunxi explained complex ideas simply and presented them with exceptional logic, he found it easy to remember the material and follow along.

After listening to the presentation, which was over ten minutes long, Qing Mengzhu scrolled down to read the comments from people in the field.

Because Ming Chunxi had won an international award, there were many new comments under the presentation.

[This guy is amazing, and he's pretty down-to-earth too. He shared so many details about his project. I learned a lot from listening. If only every expert's presentations were this clear.]

[Great God Ming really seems to love his work. You can hear his dedication and drive in everything he says. Being able to realize his own value through his work—I'm honestly a little envious.]

[We all work in artificial intelligence, but this expert is a little different from the others. He already has a system of his own. I don't envy him for anything else, but that really makes me jealous.]

[An expert with maxed-out technical skills and professional competence. Truly impressive.]

Compared with the evaluations of his technical skills, there were more comments about Ming Chunxi's looks, demeanor, and romantic history.

Qing Mengzhu made a point of skipping over that part, but he still saw quite a few rumors. The women he was rumored to be involved with were all highly accomplished or very wealthy, and reading about them left Qing Mengzhu feeling uncomfortable.

At noon, Qing Mengzhu sent Zhao Hexi a message, telling him to come back from fishing for lunch.

Zhao Hexi sensed that Qing Mengzhu was in low spirits and didn't dare ask too many questions.

There were three dishes and a soup on the table: spicy stir-fried small fish, shredded chicken salad, water spinach with minced garlic, and chicken soup. Every dish was delicious.

The spicy stir-fried small fish in particular was fresh and fragrant, with the garlic greens and chilies providing the finishing touch.

Zhao Hexi's eyes lit up as he ate. "These are local river fish, right?"

Qing Mengzhu corrected him. "Pond fish. They're little fish from my pond, raised on lotus leaves and stems."

Zhao Hexi said, "Then the fish around here really are better. I'll go fishing again this afternoon. Oh, this chicken soup is delicious too. I meant to say it last time-soup made with free-range chicken really is different. You're living the life of an immortal."

Without looking up, Qing Mengzhu said, "If you like it, rent a room in the village. You can live the same immortal life."

Zhao Hexi grinned. "I'll pass. I don't have much talent for farming."

After lunch, Zhao Hexi rushed to wash the dishes. Without taking a nap, he picked up his fishing rod and bait and went straight back to fishing, saying as he left that he was getting the hang of it and would definitely catch plenty of big fish that afternoon.

Qing Mengzhu took it with a grain of salt. Every fisherman who came home empty-handed said he would catch a big one someday.

Qing Mengzhu had always been in the habit of taking an afternoon nap, but today, lying in bed, he couldn't quite fall asleep.

He looked through his phone again and again, and before he knew it, he had opened his contacts and was looking at Ming Chunxi's name.

Soon, he tapped "send message," wanting to send Ming Chunxi something.

Ming Chunxi had won a major award, so it was only proper to congratulate him.

He opened the message screen several times, only to close it again. Mostly, he didn't know what to say. Countless people had surely congratulated Ming Chunxi over the past two days, and dealing with them all was probably quite tiresome.

Qing Mengzhu closed the message screen and went to look at Moments.

Ming Chunxi had posted something on Moments yesterday. Qing Mengzhu didn't usually look at that sort of thing, so he only saw it when he went to check today. While he was there, he gave the post a like.

His like was buried among a great many others, all from relatives, friends, and classmates they both knew. Ming Chunxi probably had even more friends of his own, so Qing Mengzhu's like was inconspicuous among the crowd.

Their lives had long since ceased to be as closely connected as they had been in their youth.

The weather was hot, though not hot enough to need air conditioning.

Qing Mengzhu felt that perhaps his mind was too restless. He rolled around in bed but couldn't fall asleep no matter what he did.

He simply opened the Interstellar Mall and continued looking at fertilizer.

After exploring the Interstellar Mall for a while, Qing Mengzhu had discovered that its prize draws were divided into many categories. One was a dedicated farming and livestock draw, which awarded agricultural and livestock products, including fertilizers and treatments.

Qing Mengzhu quite wanted to try it, but this kind of specialized draw was expensive, costing 10 Star Coins each time, and the most common prize was forage grass.

He felt that, with his luck, he probably wouldn't draw the fertilizer he wanted.

Just as Qing Mengzhu was browsing the Interstellar Mall, his phone rang.

He thought it was a nuisance call and was about to hang up, but when he glanced at the screen, he saw that it was Ming Chunxi calling.

It was actually Ming Chunxi!

Qing Mengzhu sat up at once and stared at his phone. After hesitating for a moment, he answered.

"Ming Chunxi," Qing Mengzhu said, addressing him by his full name. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon," Ming Chunxi said on the other end. "I just had lunch with my mom. She saw your like and asked how you've been."

Qing Mengzhu's voice tightened. "Auntie was there too?!"

Ming Chunxi's voice seemed tinged with amusement. "She's gone home. I only called you after she left."

Qing Mengzhu said, "I see. Congratulations on winning the award."

"Thank you," Ming Chunxi said. "What are you doing?"

Qing Mengzhu replied without thinking, "Looking at an online prize draw."

"You still enter prize draws?" Ming Chunxi asked. "Has your luck gotten any better?"

Hearing Ming Chunxi's teasing, Qing Mengzhu found himself thinking of the same incident from the past.

When he was in high school, one of his classmates had been very lucky. The classmate bought scratch-off tickets every few days and often won small amounts, ten or twenty yuan at a time.

Back then, Qing Mengzhu had gotten along reasonably well with the others. When they went out together and his classmates bought scratch-offs, he did too. But while the others won at least a little, he had never won anything.

It had frustrated Qing Mengzhu so much that he complained to his family when he got home.

At the time, Qing Mengzhu's father and Ming Chunxi's mother had not yet divorced. They all lived together and knew about it.

Ming Lexin had found Qing Mengzhu's sulky expression especially amusing and had even given him some spending money to make up for his losses.

Talking about their youth, Qing Mengzhu's voice softened a little. "I was lucky you helped me scratch those tickets back then."

Ming Chunxi's luck had been much better than Qing Mengzhu's. Qing Mengzhu could only win when he handed his scratch-off tickets to Ming Chunxi, so he often asked him to scratch them for him.

Ming Chunxi had apparently thought of that time too. "Do you want me to help you draw now?" he asked.

Qing Mengzhu said, "How would you help with this?"

Ming Chunxi's voice held a smile. "You start the draw, and stop when I say stop."

Qing Mengzhu agreed. "Let's see if your luck is still as good as it used to be."

As he spoke, Qing Mengzhu opened the Interstellar Mall and went straight to the prize-draw page. "All right."

Ming Chunxi asked, "Has it started?"

"Hold on, I'll click it," Qing Mengzhu said. "Okay, it's started."

Both of them waited for the draw without speaking, leaving only the sound of their breathing in each other's ears.

A moment later, Ming Chunxi said, "Stop."

Qing Mengzhu immediately hit pause.

The draw stopped on fertilizer fermentation powder.

Author's note:

See you tomorrow!