The stall owner waved his hand grandly.
"Consider it a little something extra for the top scholar!"
Liu Xiuying hurried to get her money out.
"No, no, I can’t take meat without paying."
"I said take it, so take it!" The stall owner refused the money.
Several women who were shopping for vegetables gathered around.
They crowded around, pinning Liu Xiuying against the butcher’s stall.
"Ma’am, how on earth did you raise your son?"
A woman with a perm stared at Liu Xiuying as if she were some kind of marvel.
"Do you feed him stewed walnuts every day?"
"Or do you buy him that deep-sea fish oil?"
Another short-haired woman chimed in.
"I bet it was your prenatal regimen. Did you listen to symphonies every day when you were pregnant?"
"How late does he study at night? Does he burn the midnight oil?"
They all talked over each other, not giving Liu Xiuying a chance to get a word in.
The voices all blended into a buzzing din.
Liu Xiuying felt her breathing grow labored.
Those stares.
Some were fervent, some curious, and some even held a trace of jealousy and scrutiny.
With every breath, it was "prodigy."
And with the next, it was "genius."
In the noisy market, those two words sounded exceptionally grating.
Liu Xiuying forcefully stuffed the meat money under the cutting board.
Carrying her basket.
Her head lowered.
She squeezed out of the crowd without a word.
"Hey, ma’am, don’t go! Share some more of your secrets!"
The voices behind her were still shouting.
Liu Xiuying didn’t look back.
Her pace grew faster and faster.
All the way from the market back to Sunshine Family Courtyard.
Her forehead was covered in cold sweat, and the back of her shirt was soaked through.
Walking through the stairwell, she felt as if the very walls had grown eyes.
She ran up to the fourth floor in one breath.
She pulled out her key.
Her hand trembled a few times before she could align it with the keyhole.
CLICK.
The door opened.
Liu Xiuying rushed into the apartment.
She swung the heavy wooden door shut behind her.
Usually, in the summer heat, they’d leave the inner wooden door open for ventilation, closing only the outer iron security gate to let the cross-breeze from the hallway drift in.
But today.
Liu Xiuying not only shut the wooden door tight.
She also turned the deadbolt knob on it.
CLICK, CLICK.
She threw both locks.
Now there wasn’t the slightest gap to the outside, not even through the security gate.
In the living room.
Chen Zhuo was already awake.
Wearing slippers, he was standing by the coffee table pouring a glass of water.
The TV was off.
The room was a bit stuffy and hot.
Chen Zhuo took a sip of water.
He turned his head and looked at Liu Xiuying, who was leaning against the door, breathing heavily.
"Mom, why’d you lock the door up so tight?"
Chen Zhuo put down his glass.
"The fan isn’t cooling things down. We need to leave a crack open for some air."
Liu Xiuying placed the grocery basket in her hand on the floor.
Her chest was heaving violently.
Her face was a little pale.
She walked to the sofa and plopped down.
She placed her hands on her knees, her fingers still trembling slightly.
Chen Zhuo could see something was wrong.
He walked over.
And sat down next to Liu Xiuying.
"What’s wrong?"
Chen Zhuo’s voice was a little softer.
"Did someone give you trouble outside?"
Liu Xiuying shook her head.
She turned her head to look at Chen Zhuo.
Looking at her son’s calm face, which held not a trace of childishness.
"I went to the market today."
Liu Xiuying’s voice was a little hoarse.
"From the time I went downstairs until I got back from the market."
"I was stopped eight times."
Liu Xiuying held up a few fingers to show him.
"Eight people, grabbing me and asking questions."
"Asking what you eat, how you study, what time you go to bed."
"That butcher at the market, he shouted that you were a prodigy in front of dozens of people."
Liu Xiuying’s fingers twisted together forcefully, her breathing growing ragged.
"I don’t like them calling you a prodigy."
Liu Xiuying looked at Chen Zhuo, her eyes filled with a mother’s primal fear and caution.
"The way they look at you, it’s like you’re a monkey in a zoo."
"They’re all trying to find something about you that’s different from everyone else."
Liu Xiuying took a deep breath.
The air in the room had become stuffy from the tightly shut door and windows.
"Mom didn’t have much schooling."
Liu Xiuying’s tone became heavy.
"But I’ve heard storytellers on the radio."
She struggled to recall the name in her mind.
"In ancient times... in ancient times there was a child named, uh, Zhong Yong."
"He was also born clever, and could write poetry at just a few years old."
Liu Xiuying stared into Chen Zhuo’s eyes.
"His father thought he was some kind of marvel and dragged him around everywhere, showing him off to this family and that family, just to hear people praise him as a prodigy."
"And what happened in the end?"
Liu Xiuying’s voice grew louder, laced with a lingering fear.
"They ruined a perfectly good child! When he grew up, he was less capable than an ordinary person."
"Such a promising talent, completely ruined by all that praise."
She grabbed Chen Zhuo’s hand.
Her palm was cold.
"Our Chen Zhuo can’t become another Zhong Yong."
Liu Xiuying’s gaze became extremely determined.
Even holding a hint of finality.
"You’re smart, you can score first in the country, you can go to Huake University."
"But you’re still a person, a living, breathing person, not the Wenqu Star from their stories who doesn’t need to eat or sleep."
She glanced at the tightly shut wooden door.
"Some of those people might genuinely admire you."
"But there are definitely others who are green with envy behind your back."
"Who knows what’s hiding behind those malicious eyes?"
Liu Xiuying gritted her teeth.
"This is the kind of attention we can’t afford."
Chen Zhuo listened quietly.
He let Liu Xiuying grip his hand tightly.
He didn’t argue.
Nor did he mock his mother’s paranoia that saw enemies everywhere.
She didn’t understand calculus, nor did she know what a program for gifted youth was.
She only knew she couldn’t let other people ruin her son.
Chen Zhuo squeezed Liu Xiuying’s hand back.
The warmth from his hand transferred to hers.
"Mom."
Chen Zhuo’s voice was very steady.
There was none of the arrogance of a young man drunk on success, nor any trace of impatience.
"I won’t become Shang Zhongyong."
Chen Zhuo looked at her.
His tone held a natural self-confidence and a hint of teasing.
"Zhong Yong’s father dragged him everywhere."
"You’re not going to drag me everywhere."
Chen Zhuo pointed to the deadbolted wooden door.
"You’ve locked the door up tight. Who’s going to get in?"
He let go of Liu Xiuying’s hand.
Stood up.
Walked to the coffee table, picked up the glass of water, and handed it to his mom.
"If they want to call me a prodigy, let them say it out there."
"They can say what they want."
"I’ll just stay home."
Chen Zhuo walked to the TV.
He pressed the power button and changed the channel to one showing cartoons.
Tom and Jerry.
Tom Cat was being slammed against a wall by a door, flattened into a piece of paper, as exaggerated sound effects blared from the TV.
Chen Zhuo walked back to the sofa and sat down next to Liu Xiuying.
He picked up the remote and turned up the volume a little.
"If anyone knocks."
Chen Zhuo watched the TV.
"We just won’t open the door."
Liu Xiuying looked at Chen Zhuo’s nonchalant expression, then glanced at the cat and mouse chasing each other on the screen.
The nerves that had been wound so tight suddenly loosened.
’That’s right.’
’The boy is right here under my nose, watching TV.’
’The door is locked.’
’Who could snatch him away?’
Liu Xiuying let out a long breath.
She stood up.
Walked over to the grocery basket on the floor and picked it up.
"I’m going to the kitchen to wash the meat."
Liu Xiuying headed for the kitchen.
She paused at the kitchen doorway, turned her head, and glanced at the entryway.
"For the next few days."
Liu Xiuying laid down a strict rule.
"No matter how hot it gets."
"No one is to open this wooden door."
With that said.
She walked into the kitchen.
Before long, the sounds of running water and chopping vegetables came from the kitchen.
The sound of the chopping was rhythmic, one strike after another.
Chen Zhuo leaned back on the sofa.
He watched the cartoon on TV as the oscillating stand fan stopped turning and blew directly on him.
The cicadas were still chirping outside.
Sunlight shone on the closed glass windows, while a heavy wooden door separated them from the outside world.

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