Chapter One: Every Lie Has a Root

Now they avoided him because they feared he might split open a harmless “I’m fine.” His deskmate, Zhou Mo, stood across the cafeteria for a long time before finally sitting opposite him. “I didn’t help you this morning,” Zhou Mo said. “Not because I doubted you. I was afraid of Chen Hao.” No equation appeared. For the first time, Lin Yan discovered that truth made the world quiet in an almost gentle way. “Okay,” he said, and kept eating. “You looked like a monster back there,” Zhou Mo added. Still no equation. Lin Yan tugged one corner of his mouth upward. It probably counted as a smile. Beyond the rain, a giant rooftop screen advertised the Linchuan Youth Mathematics Selection.