Chapter 14: In the past ten years, every step of his growth has been intertwined with the person of Shen Ke.

With Shen Ke's professional tutoring overnight, little Lin Jian was a revelation in English class the next day.

Even Vivian couldn't hide her surprise as she quipped, "Man! This is a surprise, it's great!"

After Lin Jian finished reciting and sat down, Zhang Yang next to him looked very ugly, and when Vivian was not paying attention, she inclined her head and said in an evil voice: "I can't see it, are you hiring a private tutor?"

I thought Lin Jian would ignore it like he was provoked before, but I didn't expect that this time he turned his head slightly and actually hooked the corner of his mouth, drawing a thin arc.

The most silent taunts and comebacks that don't even need to waste words.

Shen Ke still had a busy schedule after his return to China, but as he said, he could at least come back five days a week, and one morning three days later, when Lin Jian finished washing up and ate breakfast, Shen Ke handed him a folder, a blue ordinary style, which Lin Jian took with suspicion, and froze when he opened it.

It's a summarized parsing resource of organized English words.

Shen Ke put down his coffee cup and said casually, "To learn English well, words are the foundation, if you have enough vocabulary, the foundation will be firm, on the contrary, the further you learn, the more the ground will be shaken, so when you have nothing to do, memorize more words, it won't do any harm."

Lin Jian blinked at the handwritten words on the piece of A4 paper in front of him and asked incredulously, "Did you write all this ...... this?"

A stack of paper that thick, at least a hundred sheets.

Shen Ke smiled, "I just don't happen to be too busy these days, so I'm writing for fun."

In fact, it is possible to buy him a book like "The Complete Word Book", but Shen Ke browsed through several online bookstores and found that the vocabulary tools on the market cover too broad a range of topics, mostly for exam preparation, and vocabulary books for elementary school students are not applicable. After all, Lin Jian is now attending a private school, which is not quite the same as the general public school curriculum.

So Mr. Shen was so blessed that he personally wrote this "word dictionary" which is in line with Lin Jian's current course content.

Shen Ke said, "There are 5,000 words in total, starting from the basics toward the beginning and gradually escalating in difficulty, so if you memorize all of these, it's enough to see you through to the end of sixth grade."

Lin Jian stared fearfully at the thick pile of paper in his hands, and suddenly felt some weight in his arms.

He then slowly stood up, cradled the folder in his arms, and bowed solemnly to Shen Ke's astonished gaze.

"Thanks, I'll study hard and won't let you down."

The child's voice was still low-pitched, but the words were resonant.

Shen Ke didn't expect such a "gift" from him, and froze for a long moment before beckoning him to sit down and laughing: "Not really, but I have to correct you on that--"

Lin Jian sat obediently in his chair and listened to him quietly.

"Learning is your own business, so whether it's good or bad, and never mind if others are disappointed or not, it's enough that you take responsibility for the results yourself."

Shen Ke looked at little Lin Jian across the table and slowly said, "Children, there is a lot of unfairness in this world, everyone's origin, the environment in which they grew up, these external factors are decided at the beginning, you don't have the ability to choose, but there are ways to change - want to live a different life, there is no shortcut, but there are ways."

Lin Jian asks, "Is it studying?"

Shen Ke : "From what I've seen so far, it's the fairest track, work hard and you'll reap the rewards, slack off and you'll be left behind, whether the finish line you reach in the future is flowery or sluggish depends on your present."

"It's up to you what kind of life you want to live and what kind of future you want to have."

Lin Jian dropped his eyes when he heard this and didn't speak for a long time.

He couldn't help but recall the small mountain village where he had lived for eight years before, withering and decrepit, with its yellow soil and cold mountains.

In those days at school, one of the most common things teachers said was, "Study hard so you can get out of here."

Lin Jian slowly let out a breath and firmly said, "I understand, I rely on myself, and I am only responsible for my own life."

Perhaps the look in the boy's eyes was too grave, Shen Ke gave a "tsk", waved his hand, and said carelessly, "Though the reasoning is like this, there is no need to be too obsessive."

The turnaround was a bit quick, and Lin Jian couldn't help but cast a puzzled look.

Shen Ke laughed, his tone still diffident: "Life is long, who says you can only set one goal? This road does not work immediately reroute, and do not have to be so dead-eyed - you must work hard, but do not have to be successful."

Lin Jian seemed to understand.

Shen Ke glanced at his wristwatch, the driver was already waiting outside the gates, and got up to close the case: "If you like to do something, do it, if you don't like it, change it, the result is not important, the process is valuable."

Lin Jian was completely baffled.

He took the trench coat jacket Pei handed up and pulled it up at the elbow and headed out the door, smiling, "Guess a charade, I'll give you a day, come home in the evening and tell me the answer."

Lin Jian raised his voice at his back and asked, "What crossword puzzle?"

"One heart under the tree, day after day."

Although Shen Ke was temporarily caught up in business that night and was unable to return, Lin Jian remembered the words he spoke early that morning for a long, long time.

From the age of eight to eighteen, from a young child to a young man, every step of his development was intertwined with Shen Ke, the man of the decade.

The flowers and the sunset, the traveling thoughts and the sitting memories. Those truths that no one had ever taught him, those life experiences that he could never have experienced in his entire life, colorful, dreamy, and sparkling, were all given to him by Shen Ke.

This young man led him out of that small mountain village, holding a splendid and grand world in front of him, but also told him to learn from the past and end the ritual, know shame and then courage, sure and sober to take him through every watershed engraved in the youthful years.

Even if he smells the flowers, he commands him to be drunk with them.

Teach him to recognize gold and jade, and also teach him to be indifferent to glory and profit.

But from that day on, Lin Jian became a regular visitor to Shen Ke's study.

Whether Shen Ke is at home or not, he comes to the study every day after doing his homework.

Shen Ke's study has a vast collection of books, comparable to a private library, and the books in Nahan are of various kinds, including ancient and modern historical biographies, folklore, Chinese and foreign classics, as well as some specialized reading materials.

Shen Ke has never restricted the types of books he can read, and basically, he has a free-range attitude towards the matter of what books he can read, as there is a dome in the book, and all the ink and ink can be valuable.

After a few days, Lin Jian simply came to the study room to do his homework, and every night after dinner and a bath, he came over to rub the floor with his homework in his arms. Shen Ke didn't stop him when he found out about it, and instead asked him if he liked it here.

Lin Jian replied yes, and when he came back the next day, he was rewarded with a short stool.

A low stool replaced the lazy sofa that had been placed behind the long case, Shen Ke said, adding that children need to keep their backs straight when they do their homework.

After reading books together for more days, Lin Jian found out that apart from reading some financial and commercial books, Shen Ke's favorite books are actually some professional books on gardening and landscaping.

Garden Metallurgy, Survey of Landscape Design, and Plants and Flowers of the World's Gardens are books that Shen Ke often turns to.

In fact, even when Shen Ke is back from the office, he doesn't do nothing. Sometimes he's out on a video conference, sometimes he's working on business until late at night, but when he has a free moment, most of the time he comes in to find a book to read.

Every time, it was the same loose and uninhibited look, took the book and nestled on the sofa, even the posture of turning the pages was laziness.

Lin Jian followed suit and read books at a random angle, Shen Ke saw more often, and at first would remind him that this angle is not good for the eyes.

Lin Jian swept him off his feet and returned in a muffled voice, "Don't you do the same?"

Shen Ke just laughed and said, "I'm an adult, and the chances of being nearsighted are basically dead."

Lin Jian pursed the corners of his lips as he listened, and sat upright slightly, but it wasn't long before he was crooked back again.

Shen Ke later told another story, when Lin Jian was holding a book of barnyard history, immersive reading experience was suddenly interrupted, the child frowned and muttered "don't make a sound", and then rolled over and ignored him.

Why do you still dislike it? Shen Ke froze, but in the end, he could only laugh helplessly: "No big, no small."

The two of them each read their own books, each tasting pleasure, reading books obviously do not interfere with each other, but also rarely talk to each other, but inexplicably derived a sense of natural fit.

That was the first image of "companionship" in young Lin Jian's thin and barren childhood memories.