One Life, One Incarnation, Beautiful Bones

33

"That's great," she agreed quietly. "With these types of subjects, the further you pursue your studies, the more blurry the boundaries become between the individual fields and disciplines. Maybe one day you can even be better than your big brother."

"It's not possible. I cannot possibly exceed him." Xiao Ren laughed, and, in a seldom seen moment, he was somewhat shy as he explained, "He's a genius. At age twelve, he was receiving invitations from universities. Age fourteen, he entered university. Age nineteen, he received his PhD in chemical engineering. I'm already fourteen, but I still have not entered university."

She had heard these words before, spoken from the mouth of Zhou Wenchuan.

But when Xiao Ren said them, he truly was extremely proud of these facts, and there was even an obvious sense of worship in his tone.

"Oh, is that so?" Shi Yi deliberately pretended that she had just learned this information, and in accordance with the act, she gasped in surprise, "That's amazing."

"He is very amazing." Xiao Ren looked at her. "Otherwise, why would my second sister-in-law still love him?"

"Second sister-in-law?"

"Tong Jiaren."

"Oh," she smiled. "I heard they used to be engaged."

"Yes." Xiao Ren did not attempt to conceal this. "Tong Jiaren is also the older sister of my birth mother. Anyway, the relationships are very complicated. At the time, because my birth mother married Fath-... Uncle... she took it upon herself to break off the engagement."

She had been the one to do it of her own accord?

Shi Yi gave another "oh" in response.

"But this is all just what I heard. I hadn't been born at the time yet."

Perhaps because their topic involved Zhousheng Chen, this was actually a rare moment in which Xiao Ren had much to say.

Shi Yi chatted with him for a while and also carefully browsed through his book, but she could not really understand what was written. In some ways, this boy appeared to be very similar to Zhousheng Chen. She pondered, if Xiao Ren had the chance to study under Zhousheng Chen, the arrogance and finickiness that had been produced as a result of his family's coddling could be completely polished away.

After the two of them had talked for some time, Shi Yi gave Mei Lin an excuse and first took Xiao Ren out for dinner by herself.

This was the last night of the contest finals, and by tomorrow afternoon, everyone would be leaving this place, returning to their own respective cities. It was unavoidable, therefore, that Shi Yi would need to spend some time with the group, drinking tea and carrying out casual dialogue.

Xiao Ren insisted on staying with Shi Yi. He did not say much and would occasionally answer with a word or two when faced with Hong Xiaoyu's curiosity as she tried to strike up a conversation with him.

Later, when the older voice actors had all retired for the day and only the younger people remained, everyone began discussing what they could do to entertain themselves. Somehow, their topic turned to pai gow [Chinese dominoes][1].

"I didn't bring anything for that," Mei Lin laughed as she curbed their enthusiasm. "I'm afraid we won't have enough time to go out and buy a set now, right?"

"It doesn't need to be so serious. We can just find something here to use as a substitute."

Everyone was in high spirits. Shi Yi did not really understand the game, so she simply listened and observed.

Xiao Ren, on the other hand, in a low voice summoned a girl who was standing not far away and quietly gave her a few instructions. The girl, who was one of his accompanying attendants, quickly left, and when she returned, she was holding a long box.