"...... Don't be sad, Uncle Junior."

In mid-July, Lin Jian took the midterm. The results came out two weeks later, and he won the city's top prize that year without a doubt.

The weather in early August was hot and sunny. On the day of the results, when all the graduating students returned to school, a banner with gold letters on a red background was hung at the main entrance of the annexed middle school - Congratulations to our student Lin Jian for winning the first place in the city's middle school exams!

Lin Jian swept a glance, his expression not much fluctuating.

After two steps, a man suddenly appeared behind him and fell on Lin Jian's back, Lin Jian's quick eyes and hands pulled his arm in a flash and twisted it--

"Hey crikey crikey crikey God Lin let go! Me me me me!" Qin Le didn't expect Lin Jian to react so strongly, the sneak attack didn't work and he got screwed instead, for a moment he almost knelt down to that banner.

Lin Jian let go of his arm and frowned, "Is everything okay?"

"It's okay, it's okay ......" Qin Le rubbed his wrist and hissed and inhaled, "No ...... what kind of stress reaction are you having, it's good that I'm thick, or else the Bones must be misaligned."

"It's not that dramatic." Lin Jian walked with him to school, "I didn't even push."

"Ooh! What would you do if you pushed it harder, pulling down a willow?"

Lin Jian glanced at him, his voice carrying a bit of a smile, "I can't say for sure, why don't you give it a try, Mr. Qin Yangliu?"

Yang Qin Le Liu arched his hand and clasped his fist, indicating that he is not about to.

"But to say ruthless or you are ruthless ......" Qin Le said as she walked, full of envy, "Saying that the test is the first in the city is the first, not even a little accident."

"This can be what accident." Lin Jian tone calm, "Every year the top student in the midterm is basically in the annexed middle school, not me will also be someone else, who scored high counting who, nothing new."

"Hey right right ......" A footstep behind him followed, it was Zhu Ran, "It's this kind of faint, unconcerned bull, God Lin completely take it!"

Lin Jian laughed lightly, ignoring their gags.

When they were about to reach the school building, Liu Cong, the class president, ran over from the administration building, panting and waving at them, "Lin Jian, Lin Jian wait!"

A few people stood still, waiting for Liu Cong to run close, a hand pulled Lin Jian's wrist to drag to the administrative building: "Why did you come at this hour? Hurry up, the principal and teachers have been waiting for you for half a day, and there are a bunch of reporters!"

Lin Jian, in shock, drew his hand back, turned his wrist, and asked, "What reporter?"

"It's the TV reporter!" Liu Cong was quite surprised, "Every year, the principal personally sends out the letter of acceptance to the top student in the midterm exam, and there are TV reporters to videotape the whole process, and after that, there seems to be an interview, which is equivalent to the kind of speech that wins the championship, you don't know that ah?"

Lin Jian was more surprised than he was, frowning and shaking his head.

"Oops, it's too late, let's go over there first!" Liu Cong was an acute person, but he didn't have much eyesight, after saying that, he went to pull Lin Jian again, but he gently dodged away.

Lin Cong's grasping empty hand paused for a moment and asked blankly, "What's wrong?"

"Walk by yourself." Lin Jian said briefly, "Hot."

"Come, come, come, class president, to open your eyes." Qin Le raised his still red wrist to Liu Cong's face and shook it softly, "See, just now I pounced on God Lin for a moment, and this is the direct effect, a lesson learned from the past, I advise you to use your mouth and not your hands."

Liu Cong ate shocked: "This ...... What's going on here?"

"Off the bone." Lin Jian in front of the salty back, "still not go, not in a hurry?"

"Ooooh! Coming coming!"

The principal's office is on the second floor of the administration building, and Lin Jian walks up the second-floor stairs and turns her head to look behind her-it's nice and empty.

I don't know where the people who were so anxious to jump over the wall are now.

Before he could reach the door, he heard a burst of chatter coming from the principal's office, Lin Jian frowned slightly and approached only to realize that the door was open, and before his fingers fell on the door as he knocked, the people in the room were the first to see him.

"Lin Jian, come here!" The class teacher, Qi Yang, is a gentle female teacher, although Lin Jian has skipped a grade and is only in her third year of junior high school, Qi Yang still takes good care of him, for one thing, Lin Jian is a year younger than all the students in the class, and for another, he is too reticent, Qi Yang is always worried that he will not get along with his classmates.

Lin Jian walked in the door, first shouted "Mr. Qi", and wanted to turn his head and greet several other teachers, but fixed his eyes to see the principal, vice principal, director of the teaching affairs office, grade director ......

Lin Jian: "......"

Forget it.

The principal held Lin Jian's acceptance letter with a huge hard suede case over it, and his never-smiling face showed a joyful smile under the flashing light: "Lin Jian, congratulations, once you were proud of the Annexed Middle School, now the Annexed Middle School is proud of you!"

"......" Lin Jian accepted the notice and whispered, "Thank you, Principal."

Lin Jian The fingers that rested on the casing of the notice were slightly hard, and the result was that one, two ...... times did not move.

Lin Jian glanced suspiciously at the principal, who always kept his eight teeth out in a ceremonial standard smile, and heard the principal say to him in an airy tone that only two people could hear, "...... Look at the camera."

Lin Jian: "......"

After taking photos, the next link is really an interview, Lin Jian simply listen to the TV education channel reporter introduced the content, nothing more than the need to Lin Jian sitting on the sofa, the red notice revealed in front of the body, and then the true feelings from the bottom of his heart to thank the school to thank the teacher to thank the family to thank their parents, and then finally and the lower grades to share their own learning experience and the journey to achieve the top of the secondary school exams. Finally, share with the lower classmates about their own learning experience and the journey to get the top spot in the midterm, the whole process is about half an hour, it can be.

The reporter Lin Jian was talking to was so professional that he didn't realize that the expression on the boy's face was getting lighter and lighter.

When he had finished, Lin Jian spat out one word clearly, "No."

The reporter was baffled, and the principal director teacher was baffled for a moment, and another reporter asked, "Lin students, you said ...... not what?"

Lin Jian's patience is about to run out and a slight frown creases his brow, "No interviews, and I don't want to share my upbringing education experience and journey."

The surrounding reporters and cameramen looked at each other in dismay, "But ...... every year the top students of the middle and high school entrance exams are ......"

"That's someone else." Lin Jian took the acceptance letter and turned to bow to the direction where the teachers of the school stood before heading straight for the door.

Suddenly stopping as he walked to the door, he turned back to the group of reporter friends, his voice faint, his tone not too high adding, "I forgot to say, three years after the end of the college entrance exam, I will likewise not accept interviews."

Arrogance is calm.

Knowing that today is the day Lin Jian returned to school to get his acceptance letter, Song Zhi drove home in the evening, saying he wanted to pick him up and take him back to the Shen family mansion for dinner.

The Shen family mansion is about forty minutes away from the garden house where Shen Ke lives, and after learning about Lin Jian's midterm scores, Song Zhi didn't stop along the way, saying nice things, and then finally forced to tune out after Lin Jian's sentence of "Uncle Song".

When Lin Jian arrived at the mansion, Shen Ke hadn't yet arrived, or rather, he didn't even know if Shen Ke would come.

Shen Zhangqian Summer has been recuperating for so many years, the group affairs are no longer asked, more and more hale and hearty in the past two years, but the person is still sitting in a wheelchair, not good at traveling.

Lin Jian, Shen Zhangqian and Cong Wan treat Lin Jian as if he were their own child. Lin Jian sits on the sofa with his favorite nuts and snacks on the coffee table in front of him, and when he can't put them down in his hand, Cong Wan even grabs a handful of them for him from time to time.

Lin Jian showed them the admission notice and transcripts, and they were all smiles, praising him for his future success.

Shen Ke didn't arrive until the meal was ready.

Not only Shen Ke's parents, but also a few relatives of the Shen family were at the family dinner, probably due to the family style, most of the Shen family members are knowledgeable and relaxed, and I don't know which line Shen Ke's cold and hard in front of people, but also afterward, he is a loose spirit.

During the meeting, we laughed and laughed, besides Shen Ke and Lin Jian, even Cong Wan accompanied Shen Zhangqian and his family members to drink two glasses of dry red. When Shen Zhangqian put down his glass of wine, he suddenly said to Shen Ke, "Several directors of the group have recently approached me to be their lobbyist again, and after so many years, it is time for you to change your title of 'Mr. Shen'."

At these words, the originally heated atmosphere at the table suddenly fell silent.

When Shen Zhangqian had an accident, Shen Ke was forced to terminate his studies and return to China to take over the affairs of the group, and he has been a powerful man of Shen's for many years, both internally and externally. However, no matter in the title of the board of directors, or the administrative department record, the personal position is always "Mr. Shen" instead of "Chairman Shen", therefore, the position of chairman of Shen Group has actually been vacant for a long time.

The people at the table were silent, all surreptitiously gauging Shen Ke's demeanor, while Shen Ke sniffed, only slightly paused with his hand holding the spoon, and casually said, "Let's talk about it."

"You've been 'talking about it' for seven years now, how much longer do you want to put it off?" Shen Zhangqian spoke at length, then sighed deeply and said silently, "I know what's hanging around in your heart, but Xiao Ke, there are some things that can't be changed since they've started, and there's no turning back."

Shen Ke is silent.

Shen Zhangqian added: "Your mother and I are getting old, and the weather in the north is not suitable for retirement, we always think of going to the south or abroad for a long time recently, but you ...... can't put my mind at ease."

After a long time, Shen Ke's shoulders relaxed slightly, as if he had made a choice between obstinacy and abandonment, and finally opened his mouth and whispered "yes".

It was already past nine o'clock when they left the mansion, and Lin Jian could tell that Cong Wan had wanted to keep them at home for the night, but after the incident at the dinner table, the words of retention were not uttered.

Shen Ke didn't let the driver take him, but drove himself on the way back. Lin Jian sat in the back seat and followed him in silence.

When Lin Jian got out of the car at the entrance of the hospital, Shen Ke didn't move, but said to him, "If you do so well in the exams, there will be time to take you for a horseback ride before the start of the school year."

Lin Jian nodded and asked, "Aren't you going in?"

"It's been a long time since I've been to the mountains, I'm going to take a turn." Shen Ke's tone was relaxed, no ripples could be heard, "Finally the exams are over, you also give yourself a few days off, don't read or practice, go to bed early, do you hear me?"

Lin Jian nodded his head and watched Shen Ke raise the window of the car, and the black sedan sped away towards the back of the mountain in the middle of the night.

However, Lin Jian tossed and turned that night, but could not sleep no matter what.

At eleven o'clock, there was still no movement outside the door. After twelve o'clock, Lin Jian couldn't lie down any longer and got up with a cold face to change his clothes and opened the door to look for someone in the back of the mountain.

After about half an hour or so, Lin Jian really saw Shen Ke's car at the foot of the mountain, which meant that the people had not left and were still on the mountain.

There is a special stone path from the foot of the mountain to the "Lok Chun Yuen", so it is not difficult for Lin Jian to go up the mountain.

After entering the garden, the surroundings were quiet and tranquil, and the moonlight made the surrounding area full of shadows. Lin Jian first went to the four-sided hall, no one, then to the small spring in the patio, still no one, and finally even looked for the two greenhouses, but still did not see Shen Ke's shadow.

That leaves only one place.

In the first-floor hall of the side building, Shen Ke reclines on his back in a rocking chair, a giant drawing on the floor at his side.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, Shen Ke looked up in surprise and was stunned for a long time before asking, "Why are you here in the middle of the night?"

The tone wasn't exactly gentle, like he was scolding him for not going out alone late at night.

Lin Jian ignored his slightly lower tone and walked straight over to the rocking chair, watching him quietly for a moment, pointing to the design on the floor and asking, "What is this?"

Shen Ke With a faint glance at his fingertips, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he said, "It's my graduate student's biography from Penn back in the day."

Shen Ke's degree from Penn didn't go so well. He was forced to take a break from his studies and return to China, and in the intervening two years, he had to apply to the college for deferment again and again, but even then, he didn't want to just give up. Finally, two years later, when all the business of taking over the business was on track and settled down, Shen Ke took the time to fly back to Philadelphia, where he stayed for more than three months and got his graduate degree.

Like a way to give yourself an explanation and save a little hope.

His beginning-to-end, unchanged dream was to become a world-class master gardener.

Yet today, it still came to this.

Lin Jian quietly looked at the piece of design on the floor and suddenly felt a pang of annoyance.

In the middle of the day, he slowly walked around the drawings, went to Shen Ke and crouched down on his knees, slowly lifted his hand and took one of his fingers that was hanging over the edge of the recliner.

The young man tilted his head slightly, his moonlight-drenched eyes bright and fixed, and wiggled his fingers lightly as he said--

"...... Little Uncle, don't be sad."