Ronnie came home from his first day of school with a bruise on his face, and when he returned to the Umbrella House, Alice was shocked: "Ronnie, who beat you up and why do you look like that?"
"Sis, don't ask me, I'm bored!" Ronnie stammered, not wanting to talk. He found a place to sit down and then buried his head between his legs, not saying a word. Alice shook her head helplessly. For the next few days, she went fishing every day, she also opened Nine Stars Payment and used the money she earned to buy a table and two chairs, she also bought a pot and other utensils, she returned the original pot she borrowed from Penny, and their lives gradually got better. Ronnie went to school every day, even on holidays. In the eyes of elementary school students, he was a monster, and in the eyes of middle school students, he became a brat. No one is his friend. He went to the library every day with a backpack to read. If he did not understand something, he would go and ask the teacher. That day, he had just arrived at school when he was tapped on the shoulder. "Ronnie, why are you walking alone, no one to keep you company?"
Ronnie turned his head to see that it was Michiko and said in exasperation, "I don't need company, you better leave me alone."
"Little Ronnie is getting more and more personal, I haven't seen you in a few days, how are you?" Michiko asked with a smile.
"Every day is pretty much the same. It's boring," Ronnie said and walked away without looking back.
Michiko looked at his back and muttered to herself, "What's wrong with that kid? he's gotten weird."
When Ronnie walked into the public classroom in Area A, there were already hundreds of students sitting in it, almost all of the middle school freshmen were here, their faces filled with youthful vigor, a stark contrast to Ronnie. He hadn't wanted to come, he usually went to the library to study on his own, but the teacher had informed everyone that they had to come this time, and he squeezed through the crowd and found an empty seat.
Then a voice rang in his ear, "Ronnie, you haven't been to class in a few days, something going on at home?"
Ronnie didn't have to turn around to know it was Vinique, the only girl in this school who would talk to him. But he didn't bother to open his mouth, he felt it would be too much trouble to explain, so he decided to remain silent.
"Silence everyone, today we are honored to have Professor De Silva, he is the recipient of the New World 'Order of the Holy Virgin Third Class' and at the same time he is our mentor, now please ask him to say a few words..." the new teacher who came to the podium shouted excitedly.
Ronnie raised his eyes and after a while he knew what the "Third Class Order of the Virgin" meant. He was immediately interested in the professor. Prof. De Silva was a short, balding old man with a large black mole between his eyes. After everyone had calmed down, he walked over to the podium and said: "Hello everyone, I am very happy to meet you, every year I will recruit some talented students in the 'Free World' to study in the City-state Genius Class, in a moment I will come up with twenty questions, whichever student can answer all of them correctly within ten minutes can enter the second round of exams.I will now ask my assistant to distribute the test papers to you.”
The professor's assistant was a girl in her twenties who wore glasses. She took the test papers out of a briefcase and handed them out. Ronnie got a copy too, glanced at it, put it aside, and plopped down on his desk to sleep. The other students had long since begun answering the questions in earnest, all hoping to make a clean sweep and go straight to the City-state.Twenty minutes passed quickly, and the exam was over. Unfortunately, only five people finished the exam, most of them didn't even finish half of the questions, and Ronnie, of course, handed in a blank paper. The assistant saw his paper and asked, "Why aren't you writing? can't you do any of them?"
"I don't want to write, too easy," Ronnie said lazily.
Professor De Silva overheard the duo's conversation and walked over, "Salina, what's wrong?"
"The boy handed in a blank paper," Salina replied, turning her head.
De Silva looked at Ronnie and asked, "Why didn't you write? was it too hard?"
"It wasn't too hard, it was too easy," Ronnie answered truthfully.
As soon as he finished speaking, De Silva laughed, he could meet this kind of arrogant student every year and didn't care, "You are so confident, then I will give you another chance, but the time you have is only three minutes, if you can answer it, it will be considered a success.”
"Is there a reward for getting it right?" Ronnie asked sharply, still holding a grudge from the last bet.
"What reward do you want?"
Ronnie scratched his head in anticipation, "I want a 'Bira Coin'."
De Silva frowned slightly, he didn't have any Bira coins with him and could only ask the assistant next to him, "Salina, do you have one? I remember that you had one before.”
Salina hesitated for half a day before she reluctantly took out a small and delicate box and handed it over, she was heartbroken, the Bira coin in the box was from her collection, it was hard for her to get them, and she only had this one. The professor took the Bira coin out of the box and waved it in front of Ronnie's eyes before he said, "Can I ask you a question now?"
"Yes, come out with it!" Ronnie was a little impatient.
De Silva thought, I should come up with a difficult question, he found a senior exam paper and gave it to Ronnie, Ronnie took the exam paper, looked at it for a few moments and was overjoyed in his heart, it can't run away, this "Bira Coin" is mine. He pretended to think, he was afraid that if he found the questions too easy, the professor wouldn't give him the Bira Coin. He secretly counted the time, not wanting to go too fast, and finished the paper within the three minutes. De Silva checked the answers and, very surprised, asked three questions in a row: "What is your name? how old are you this year? who else is in your family?"
"My name is Ronnie, I'm nine years old, and I have an older sister at home," Ronnie answered one by one.
De Silva listened in disbelief, "You're Ronnie, my ..." He didn't finish his sentence before he sighed again, "Do you want to join the gifted program at City-state?"
"What about my sister? can she join?" Ronnie asked, eyes wide.
"How old is your sister?"
"She's fourteen!"
"As smart as you?"
"No. She took the entrance exams with me this time, but she didn't get in, not too bright. If she can't go, I won't go." Ronnie's eyes were fixed on the 'Bira coin' in De Silva's hand as he spoke and he wondered, "Are you backing down? why don't you give it to me yet? "
Seeing his anxiety, De Silva smiled and handed over the coin. At the same time he said regretfully, "That's too bad, I hope we can meet again in the future.”
Ronnie was so excited to receive the coin that he forgot to say thank you. De Silva stroked his head and turned to leave. He wanted to let the other five students take the second round of exams, but unfortunately none of them passed, he felt more and more that Ronnie was valuable and jumped to mobilize him again, but after searching for a long time, there was no Ronnie. At this time, Ronnie had arrived at the library, although he would like to go back to the Umbrella House to show his success to his sister, but he knows that his sister must still be working. He could only wait until five o'clock in the afternoon to return to the Umbrella House. As soon as he arrived at the door, he saw Alice standing straight in the doorway, "Sis, what's wrong?" he asked.
"Look at our house."
Ronnie went up to see, only to find the "Umbrella House" in a mess, the new table and chairs burned to charcoal. Even the new pots and pans and dishes were smashed.
"Who did this?"
"It must have been Dorsom, I can't imagine he would dare take revenge, I'll go and settle the score with him," Alice said angrily. Then she turned and left, Ronnie hurriedly following her, and within a few steps she saw Michiko running head on towards them. Panting and sweating, her voice shaking slightly, she said, "My brother was killed by Dorsom.”
"What?" Alice almost dropped her jaw in shock, "Who did you hear that from? Why was he killed by Dorsom?"
Ronnie was also incredulous, he had seen Hasegawa yesterday, and today he was beaten to death. This was really unacceptable to him.