Li Zheng and Shi Yang washed their hands and went out, only then did they glance at each other.
Despite having chatted eagerly in the restroom, upon seeing each other in person, they both beca shy again.
It was even more awkward than eting a friend from the internet.
Shi Yang looked pretty much how Li Zheng had imagined.
Standing at one seventy-five ters, moderately overweight, with buzzed hair and glasses, he truly was a Plus-sized version of a model student.
The enhanced aspect was mainly his face, which was bigger, and even when he kept a straight face, he seed to smile—not a cunning kind of smile, but one that suggested he was always up to no good.
Especially those eyes, whether naturally or artificially developed, were always gleeful, slightly possessing a demonic nature.
To sum up, he was shy, mischievously playful, subtle, but with a spirit about him.
On the other hand, Li Zheng, as seen through Shi Yang’s eyes, was far from what he had envisioned.
He neither wore glasses nor was he unattractive, and he was also good at making conversation...
Shi Yang cursed inwardly.
This isn’t fair!
Damn this unjust world.
Li Zheng, this guy.
Definitely has a girlfriend.
It’s so unfair!
The two walked back to the main street in silence.
All along the way, Shi Yang’s mind was full of thoughts about won.
He just wanted to find out if Li Zheng had a girlfriend, what it felt like to have one, and if a girl’s tongue was indeed cool.
But facing such shaful questions on a first eting, he felt uneasy to ask directly.
As for Li Zheng, his mind was filled with thoughts of bombs, but considering Shi Yang was known as the Cobalt God, an ultimate scholar, he likely had chemical formulas running through his head; Li Zheng thought it might not be nice to ask such indecent questions on their first eting.
After all, they had been giving each other cheers of "All Hail" online, speaking freely in the public restroom.
But without the internet and the stall dividing them, they felt more distant than ever.
As they rounded a corner, Li Zheng finally couldn’t help himself. He chose a hypocritical topic to break the ice, and said tentatively, "Brother Shi... that difficult problem you posted was really sothing. I was so confused I couldn’t understand it."
"Not at all..." Shi Yang said with a goofy smile and scratching his face, becoming even shier, "I just happened to read a paper and had so thoughts. Didn’t I post it in the group? What part don’t you understand?"
"Mainly... I’ll think about it so more..." Li Zheng regretted bringing up the topic.
At that mont, Shi Yang steeled himself and asked while persistently staring at the ground, "Brother Li, looking at you... I guess you probably have a girlfriend, right?"
"How could I?" As Li Zheng saw Shi Yang’s defensive look, his expression twitched, "Are you looking down on or what?"
"Ah? No, not at all…" Shi Yang was utterly baffled.
"You’re not looking down on ?" Li Zheng pondered deeply, "When I went to the Chem Competitions, people treated just like you do, not willing to interact with . Isn’t that them looking down on ?"
"Definitely not, buddy..." Shi Yang giggled, "It’s just that your style stands out too much. You seem on a different level, not that approachable."
"Oh." Li Zheng exclaid, "So I misunderstood everyone?"
"You misunderstood, indeed." Shi Yang raised his eyebrows and asked, "So, you really don’t have a girlfriend?"
"That’s for after college. What are you thinking about?" Li Zheng felt sowhat aggrieved.
"Then, I’m relieved..." Shi Yang finally relaxed and reached out his right hand with a laugh, "Fellow enthusiast, fellow enthusiast."
Li Zheng also reached out his right hand with a smile.
But just as their hands were about to touch.
They both withdrew slightly and looked around.
This ti, it wasn’t out of shyness.
Rather, Li Zheng always felt like the other person hadn’t washed thoroughly.
Seeing that Cobalt God was quite easy to talk to, Li Zheng also asked, "Brother Shi, there’s sothing I’ve been holding in for a long ti, about... the exploding poop thing, is it true?"
"Man!" Shi Yang clapped his hands together, suddenly animated, and his smile also beca enigmatic, "You should have said earlier. I was starting to think you were all serious and stuff."
Li Zheng just urged, "Co on, co on, hurry up, I can’t wait."
"Hey, that actually got twisted," Shi Yang licked his lips, rolled up his sleeves, and began to gesture, "That was back in my sixth grade of elentary school..."
Through Shi Yang’s explanation, Li Zheng finally learned the whole story.
Even better than the internet version.
Turns out, Shi Yang’s dad, Father Shi, was a middle school chemistry teacher.
Shi Yang, when in elentary school, would finish school quite early, so he’d go hang out at his dad’s school every day after class.
Whenever Shi Yang arrived, Father Shi would take him to the chemistry lab, give him so safe chemical toys to play with, and then sit beside him grading papers or working on teaching plans and whatnot.
Occasionally, when he finished work ahead of schedule, he would do a visually striking experint to show Shi Yang.
And so Shi Yang beca fascinated and would pester his dad to do experints every day.
On the other hand, he pestered his mom to buy a large amount of experintal equipnt and materials.
Not only experinting at school but also at ho, doing things like creating fire out of thin air with potassium permanganate and glycerin, or accidentally making too much chlorine gas and almost poisoning himself when a bottle cap exploded — he had done them all.
Every ti he caused a disaster of that level, Father Shi would undoubtedly give him a good thrashing, then throw out all the chemistry stuff.
But every ti after cooling off for about half a month, Mother Shi couldn’t stand her son’s begging and would set him up with a new set again.
Then another accident, another thrashing, and the cycle repeated.
When a naughty kid gets his hands on chemistry, it’s bound to be a disaster.
Honestly, it’s been no small feat for this family to have survived to this day.
By the ti Shi Yang’s second sester of sixth grade ca around, his experints were becoming quite thodical. Maybe because he had gone through all sorts of mishaps, he knew very well how to avoid dangers. He did his experints so flawlessly that even Father Shi couldn’t point out any mistakes, and hence started to relax his supervision.
It was precisely because of this that Shi Yang saw his opportunity.
In the past, when he was with his dad in the chemistry lab, his dad had to keep an eye on him, afraid that he would up to no good.
But that day, Father Shi finished grading howork early and noticed that Shi Yang had beco quite skilled, so he laid his head down on the desk and dozed off for a while.
It was during this while that Shi Yang stole a fist-sized sodium block and stuffed it into his pocket.
Sodium is a rather interesting tal with very active chemical properties that react violently with water.
Under Father Shi’s supervision, Shi Yang had done an experint where he dropped a small piece of sodium into phenolphthalein water.
The sodium would first float on the surface, then lt into a shiny little ball that moved around, hissing, turning the solution red.
In short, it was the process of sodium reacting with water, forming sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas.
This simple experint should have ended there.
But the trouble was his dad talked too much.
"During the experint, you can only use a very, very small piece of sodium; use a bit more and it would explode," he said.
That one sentence stirred sothing in Shi Yang.
Exploding in water without any fuel? Just tal?
Shi Yang, in the sixth grade, just didn’t believe it.
Finally, on that day, he had managed to get his hands on such a big chunk of sodium, tucked into his pocket.
He planned to find a chance one day, throw it into a pond or a small lake, and see if it would really explode.
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