A week later, on Friday night, Zhao Nanxiao returned to his grandfather's house after school and saw Uncle Xu coming. Grandpa and he were sitting in the living room talking.

"Xiao Nan, your Uncle Xu has come to see you in person again. I don't need to be so polite to him." Grandpa said with a smile.

The day after the accident, the assistant named Duan brought a huge fruit basket and an lv packaging bag decorated with beautiful ribbons. There was a pink bag inside. The assistant said that Mr. Xu was very worried about her and could not come back for a while, so he asked himself to come to visit her first. Grandpa helped her take the fruit basket and asked the assistant to take the bag back.

Uncle Xu looked concerned and guilty: "Xiaonan, Uncle feels very sorry for you. It would be fine if Xu Shu caused you so much trouble before, but he didn't expect that this time, he actually caused you so much frightened. Uncle wanted to see you two days ago, but he couldn't get enough time. Are you scared?"

Zhao Nanxiao was indeed frightened by Xu Shu's ruthlessness, and he slapped the blood. He trembled until he returned home that night, his legs were still trembling. But these days, she was more concerned about the young man who had already had half of his face bleeding after slapping the three gangsters. He immediately shook his head: "Thank you for your concern, I'm very good. Is Xu Shu coming out? How is he doing now?"

When he mentioned his son, Uncle Xu's expression changed. It can be seen that he was trying to suppress his emotions as much as possible, but his anger could not be concealed: "This little bastard, forget it if he didn't go to school, he was still hiding it from me! He even beat people like this! Xiaonan no longer has to worry about him in the future and ask him to fend for himself. In the past, I don't need him to study anymore. I just threw him into the old forest in the northeast and let him carry wood to dig mountains and build roads!"

Zhao Nanxiao was anxious: "Uncle Xu, it was those three people who chased me first. They were not good people! Xu Shu was trying to help me! He was one against three, and if he didn't knock them down as soon as possible, he would be in danger! I told the police that night! Uncle Xu, you must help him! I will testify for him, and you can go anywhere!"

"Xiao Nan, you are so scared that you still talk to him! Don't worry, he is out." Uncle Xu hurriedly comforted her.

"Uncle asked him to stay in there for a few more days and reflect on it! Now that he came out, he was beaten up by his uncle and locked up at home and was staring at him, so he didn't let him go out for a second, so as to avoid causing trouble again!"

Zhao Nanxiao finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Xu Shu has been wild since he was a child, and now he is even wild! It is also my responsibility. I have taken care of my work but my family well, and I don't have much time to spend with him. Now I don't know what he is thinking! Professor, if Xu Shu is half as sensible as Xiaonan, I will be worry-free."

Uncle Xu frowned, sighed, and said to Zhao Nanxiao's grandfather again.

Grandpa smiled: "Zhenzhong, Xiaonan has been talking about your son in front of me these days, saying that I want to see this child. When a child grows up, he should do something wrong and punish him if he is necessary, but this is not a long-term solution. Xiaonan is just about to celebrate his birthday for a few days. Welcome him to come to me and celebrate Xiaonan's birthday together. Let him come out and have some breathing, how about it?"

Uncle Xu nodded constantly: "Okay, okay, professor, you said so, I will definitely follow your arrangements! If you don't dislike him, I will ask him to prepare when you go back and will definitely come over!"

When he saw Uncle Xu away, his grandfather said, "Xiao Nan, although Grandpa has never seen Xu Shu, he should have a stubborn temper when he heard from you and your Uncle Xu. I guess your Uncle Xu said that he was unwilling to come. Since you invite guests, you must be sincere. Moreover, he caused trouble and was injured to help you. You should go and see him and invite him to visit him in person. What do you think?"

Zhao Nanxiao immediately said: "Okay! I'll go tomorrow!"

The next day, on Saturday, Zhao Nanxiao took the fruit and found the Xu family by the address. Uncle Xu was not there, and the nanny opened the door. In the living room downstairs, Uncle Xu also called the retired special police security guard who specialized in taking care of Xu Shu. After listening to Zhao Nanxiao's self-introduction, the nanny said "ah": "You are the classmate who is going to celebrate your birthday, right?"

According to the nanny, after Uncle Xu came back last night, he asked Xu Shu to celebrate her birthday and said that he would prepare gifts for him. Unexpectedly, Xu Shu said he would not go on the spot.

"Mr. Xu was so angry that he wanted to hit him again, but he didn't hide. Mr. Xu was so heavy that he was so scared that I tried to pull it away. Mr. Xu asked someone to install an iron fence a few days ago, so he didn't allow him to go out. He is now in the room upstairs. You can go and persuade me. I'm here to do things and I'm worried all day long..."

The nanny sighed.

Zhao Nanxiao thanked him, found the room, knocked on the door, but there was no response for a while. He tried it, and felt that the door was not locked, so he gently opened the door and glanced inside.

The room was very big, and as the nanny said, the windows were closed. It was probably because he had not long since returned to China. There were not many things and it seemed a little empty. The computer was on and stopped on the interface of World of Warcraft, but he was not playing games. Zhao Nanxiao saw him lying on the bed motionless, as if he was asleep, with a mess of golden retrievers, a little pale face, and the gauze had been removed from the injured area on the forehead, but the thread had not been removed yet. The long black stitching looked as ferocious as a centipede.

Zhao Nanxiao was a little hesitant, and was thinking about waking him up and letting him continue to sleep, but suddenly he saw his eyelashes tremble and slowly opened his eyes.

"Xu Shu, are you awake? I'm sorry to wake you up." Zhao Nanxiao said hurriedly.

There was blood in his eyes and he lazily got up from the bed: "What are you doing?"

"I'm here to see you." Zhao Nanxiao hesitated for a while, walked in, stopped in front of him, and his eyes fell on his forehead.

"I'm sorry, it was all my fault that day. If it weren't for my reasons, you wouldn't have happened to you. How was your injury? Does it still hurt..."

He turned his face and stood up.

"I can't die. Stop talking about this. I'll finish reading it, go back!"

He stretched out his feet, banged, hooked the chair, sat up, slid to the computer, and then played games.

Zhao Nanxiao stood behind him and paused: "I have another thing to do when I come here. It's my birthday the day after tomorrow, and there are only two people, me and my grandfather. If you come, I will be very happy."

His eyes were fixed on the screen and continued to play the game with all his attention.

"Xu Shu, are you here or not..."

At this time the cell phone in her backpack rang.

Zhao Nanxiao hurriedly said "Sorry", took out his cell phone and took a look, answered the phone, and walked to the door.

"Brother Zhizhou! Aren't you preparing for the competition? Is there anything wrong?"

Ye Zhizhou is two years older than her, and now she is in the second year of high school. The two families are close. From childhood to adulthood, Ye Zhizhou is also the target of Zhao Nanxiao. He is very outstanding and has been awarded the junior qualification to participate in the International Olympic Mathematics Competition this year. Recently, in order to participate in the upcoming winter camp, he is undergoing closed training. Unexpectedly, he will call himself now.

"Xiao Nan, it's your birthday the day after tomorrow. I happened to take the exam and couldn't come out, so I called you early and wish you a happy birthday. When I come back, I will make up for you, okay?"

Ye Zhizhou is so busy and still remembers his birthday. Zhao Nanxiao is very happy: "It's okay! The competition is important! Brother Zhizhou, you are well prepared, I wish you good results!"

Ye Zhizhou smiled on the phone: "Okay, I can. Xiaonan, with your usual grades, you can be admitted to the best high school in advance. You can be fine as long as you pass the threshold exam. You don't have to put too much pressure on yourself, and you don't have to be too tired of studying. Go to bed early every day and let it go. Do you know?"

"I understand, thank you Brother Zhizhou. Then let's do it first."

Zhao Nanxiao hung up the phone and returned to the room. Seeing Xu Shu’s face gloomy, he slashed people in the game, and the screen was covered with flesh and blood, flying in lumps, and said, “Xu Shu, your father used to be my grandfather’s student, and my grandfather wanted to meet you too. I really hope you can come.”

He seemed to have not heard it.

Zhao Nanxiao had no choice but to say, "Then I won't disturb you anymore. You can rest and recuperate. At six o'clock the next night, my grandfather and I will wait for you to come."

Soon, her sixteenth birthday came.

That evening, she returned to her grandfather's house. The aunt who was taking care of her grandfather's daily life was cooking a big meal in the kitchen. Her grandfather also bought a birthday cake, Zhao Nanxiao washed fruits, and waited for Xu Shu to come.

It was six o'clock. Zhao Nanxiao didn't wait for the doorbell. She felt a little nervous. She waited patiently for a while, but she still didn't see him coming. So she sent him a message: "Are you here? Because you didn't tell me that day, I told my grandfather that you would come. I'll pick you up now."

This season, when it comes to this point, it is completely dark. My grandfather still lives in the academician building that he was equipped with a long time ago. There are small two-story old villas around him, with many old trees and dim light. She looked around on the brick road outside the door, and after waiting for a long time, he still disappeared.

The temperature was already very low. When she came out, she didn't wear a hat or gloves. The wind blew over and it was a little cold. She stomped her feet, covered her mouth with her hands to breathe. Suddenly, she smelled the smell of cigarettes near her. She looked over and took a few steps to turn around. She saw someone leaning against the corner of the wall, smoking.

"Xu Shu! Why are you here? I've been waiting for you for a while!"

Xu Shu threw away the cigarette, picked up a bear as big as half Zhao Nanxiao from the ground, and stuffed it into her arms: "My dad wants me to buy it! Don't think about living if I don't give it to me. Tell him, I've been here!" After that, he turned around and left.

"Did you do too many bad things and dare not go up to see my grandfather?" Zhao Nanxiao said with a face from behind the big bear.

He turned his head and said, "Zhao Nanxiao, what did you say?"

"Then let me get on!"

Zhao Nanxiao turned around and left.

Xu Shu finally stood in front of his grandfather.

Grandpa was reading a book, took off his glasses, picked him up at the door, smiled and patted him on the shoulder, nodding: "The young man is handsome, he is much more energetic than your father Xu Zhenzhong back then. If you are hungry, eat and cut the cake."

Zhao Nanxiao closed his eyes and made a wish, blowing candles, cutting cakes, and Xu Shu was still silent. After dinner, Zhao Nanxiao saw him standing in front of a wall in the living room, looking at many old photos of his grandfather hanging on the wall, and walked over, pointing to a long-standing black and white old photo protected with glass frames and said: "This is the Qiantang River Bridge when it was first built and opened to traffic in 1937. Xu Shu, have you heard of the story of this bridge? At that time, the government wanted to build a bridge here and started to invite him.

They were foreign experts who believed that geology and hydrology were not suitable and could not be built. Finally, Mr. Mao Yisheng stood up and presided over the construction successfully. This was the first modern steel bridge designed and constructed by us Chinese. Unfortunately, less than three months after opening to traffic, in order to prevent the Japanese army from attacking Hangzhou, Mr. Mao exploded it with his own hands. The person at the bridgehead was my grandfather's father. At that time, he was one of the bridge construction engineers. This is the photo my grandfather cherished the most."

Xu Shu looked at the old photos and said nothing.

Zhao Nanxiao pulled him to his grandfather's study and pointed to the display cabinet in the study: "There are all models of the bridge here. This is the Zhaozhou Bridge. This is the Golden Gate Bridge that opened to traffic in the United States in 1937. This is the Milo Bridge, which is in France, connecting Paris and the Langdoc coast. After opening, the driving time has been shortened from the original 3 hours to 10 minutes. Look, it is so beautiful, does it look like a dragon flying in a valley?"

Xu Shu still didn't say anything, his eyes wandered on the models of various bridges, and finally stopped in a grid in the middle.

In this most conspicuous position, there is an ordinary-looking iron ring with twisted patterns on it.

Grandpa also followed in. Seeing Xu Shu looking at the ring, he said to Zhao Nanxiao: "Xiao Nan, tell Xu Shu the origin of the ring."

Zhao Nanxiao knew the history of the world's bridges, so this naturally could not defeat her.

Zhao Nanxiao said: "This ring has a name, called the Ring of Engineers. Its appearance is related to a tragedy in the history of world bridges. The tragedy occurred on the Quebec Bridge. The bridge was built more than a hundred years ago and was designed and built by a very famous master named Teodoro Cooper at that time. The bridge has the longest cantilever structure in the world at that time. It is considered an immortal masterpiece of Cooper. He himself said that this design is the best and most efficient. However, the master pursued design too much in order to make the bridge.

It became the longest bridge in the world at that time. He changed the original design of 500 meters to 600 meters. In August 1907, a tragedy occurred. When the main span cantilever was about to be completed, a lower chord on the south side was suddenly crushed due to weak patchwork and other reasons. The cantilever fell into the river. Nearly 20,000 tons of steel and 86 workers working on the bridge at that time fell into the water, causing 75 deaths. Because the master was too confident and ignored the rationality of the structure, it led to this major accident in the history of the world's bridge."

"In fact, before the accident, some engineers involved in the design discovered that the design was unreasonable, but out of admiration for authority, they did not raise clear objections. What's more unfortunate is that during the reconstruction ten years later, due to the unreasonable design and insufficient connection details, the bridge collapsed again during construction, and thirteen more people died. Later, the seven engineering colleges in Canada paid together to buy the collapsed wreckage, and made the steel into a ring, and sent it to students who graduated from the engineering department every year. They wore it on their little fingers and stung their fingers when drawing pictures, so as to remind engineers that they must design the bridge with a high sense of responsibility to avoid the tragedy happening again."

"This ring was one of the raw rings at that time. It was given to my grandfather by the dean of the School of Engineering when he was in Canada's exchange activities."

The boy looked at the iron ring and felt a little fascinated by the sound.

Grandpa praised him: "What you said is OK. It can be seen that ordinary books are not in vain."

Zhao Nanxiao smiled and said, "Grandpa, you underestimate me too much! I will also become a bridge designer in the future and design the most solid and majestic bridge in the world!"

Grandpa smiled and said, "It's not that easy to be a bridge designer. It has a lot of responsibility and it's still very hard. Are you a girl, aren't you afraid?"

"Grandpa, you and your dad are not afraid, nor am I afraid."

Grandpa looked pleased and nodded, "Chairman Mao said that a bridge will fly north and south, and the natural barrier will become a thoroughfare. There are still many natural barriers in China that need bridges urgently. Xiaonan, work hard, grandpa believes that you will become an excellent bridge worker in the future."

"I know! Grandpa, I haven't heard you play the violin for a long time."

Zhao Nanxiao ran away, took the violin over, and sent it to his grandfather.

Grandpa took it with a smile, thought for a while, and made a tune.

"Praise of Love".

This is an ensemble of violin and piano.

Zhao Nanxiao immediately sat in front of the old wooden piano, opened the cover, and accompanied the sound of the violin.

The lights in the room were soft and the sound of wonderful music flowed.

Xu Shu stood alone at the door of the study, motionless.

At this time, the landline phone in the living room rang.

Grandpa put down his violin and went to answer the phone.

Xu Shu walked over slowly, picked up the violin, and touched the strings.

Zhao Nanxiao heard the harmony of the violin and turned around, a little surprised, stopped and looked at him.

Xu Shu seemed a little embarrassed, immediately put down the violin and uh, "...I learned a little when I was a child... I played the wrong one..."
To be continued...