The theories swam before my eyes like the enemy troops that had retreated into the fog. I blinked hard, trying to make sense of it all, and my brain felt like it was stuffed with cotton. You know, the kind we use to pack wounds during military campaigns? Yes...that... except this time the wound was my pride, and the infection that caused it in the first place? "BASIC SCIENCE!!!!!" written in Mandarin of all things considered!! Across the table, my partner, Hongbing, sat still as if he were a Buddha meditating relentlessly, aiming for nirvana. The pencil in his grip had snapped hours back (much to our old man's dismay), and now he was using the splintered remains to stab at his textbook as if it had personally offended his beloved ancestors.
"Explain. This. Again." He growled, jabbing at the diagram representing something called an 'atom'
" If these electrons don't think for themselves and revolve around this so-called 'atom'.... thingy, how do they know where to stand?"
Maruyama looked like he'd aged another decade in three consecutive weeks. His coffee mug had been empty since breakfast.
His eyes twitched as he explained yet again with more emphasis," They don't go anywhere, Hongbing, they are electrons, a non-living being, not foot soldiers!" I felt a headache inching its way into my skull, so I lay down to take a break. My head hit the chemistry textbook with a dull thud. Somewhere beyond that fog of consciousness, I overheard him grilling our new chemistry teacher relentlessly as if Maruyama were a war prisoner.
His reply sounded frayed at the edges " They are not chariots in a battlefield, neither are they soldiers who have a mind of their own and Jincheng, sleeping through the third chapter won't make them disappear!!!!"
I jerked upright, blinking the crust from my eyes. The drawings on the page seemed blurry, and it took some time for my eyes to clear before I could focus on anything else.
" I was not sleeping..." I said, rubbing my face," Just contemplating about gravity" The words were sluggish on my tongue.
"Which was two chapters back..." Maruyama retorted, shifting in his seat with an exasperated sigh that made his glasses slide down his nose.
Hongbing, who was next to me, snorted under his breath, "You were drooling over potential energy like a dog eyeing meat buns."
My head snapped around so fast my neck cracked. "Says the man who still thinks electrons are foot soldiers marching in formation!" I shot back, poking his shoulder. "At least I don't picture atomic models as tiny armies doing drills."
"Do you?" Maruyama looks at me, raising his eyebrows.
"I .....uh... well..." I floundered while he was busy teaching us, my eyes wandered first to the clouds drifting past the window (that one had looked exactly like General Cao's unfortunate beard), then to counting dust motes dancing in the sunlight (247 by the time Maruyama cleared his throat). My fingers drummed an uneven rhythm on the desk as I scrambled for any remembered fragment of the lesson. "They're...cloudy? But not actual clouds! More like...angry bees? Happy bees?" My voice trailed off weakly as Hongbing's smirk widened into something downright predatory.
Hearing my answer, our old man exhaled heavily through his nose, " Let me make this clear one last time." He flipped to a fresh page of his notebook, a little yellow due to usage. " If you walk into a university classroom believing that the sun revolves around the Earth and electrons as foot soldiers, then....."
"Why the heck do we need this in the first place?" I groaned, interrupting his lecture. This was getting quite annoying!. I gestured towards the carnage that was before us, stacks of textbooks formed precarious fortifications across the table, modern world history, Basic Biology, and mathematics for beginners sat scattered, and very well be written in Sanskrit for all I care. " Back home, I commanded ten thousand men and can recite Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' backwards without a single mistake. Now you want me, ME!! A prince to care about plants eating what... light?, and also something called atoms that is minuscule to the human eye?!"
Maruyama's chair screeched as he leaned forward in the dim glow of the desk lamp a shadow fell over him and that face was carved from stone as he made his statement in cold blood " Let me yet again make this veeeery clear" His voice dropped to something menacing that raised the hairs of my neck. " Right now, both of you are undocumented immigrants, time travellers with the cultural awareness of a concussed badger. If anybody in this entire world figures out that you don't know that the earth revolves around the sun and is not controlled by the imperial mandate....." he tapped the textbook "mental institution. If you are not from this century? Instant lab dissection and trust me," His smile didn't reach his eyes "Modern scalpels and knives are very sharp!"
The silence was thicker than the smog in the northern plains. We sat still, two warlords in the modern world struggling over children's books while an old rich man played schoolmaster.
Seeing this, our old man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, " You know what? Let's try this again.... imagine this, an atom...." He draws the diagram again. " It's like... how do I explain this....." He stopped for a few seconds before his eyes lit up " like a palace!!!"
"A palace...?" I perked up slightly. Now this was something I could work with.
"Yes! a palace! Or the whole country!" Maruyama gestured grandly. "The nucleus is the emperor, seated on his throne."
"So the nucleus is a king?" Hongbing frowned, still lost.
"And the electrons are servants scurrying along the outer walls," Maruyama continued, warming to his metaphor. "Small, overlooked...but without them..."
"The empire crumbles!" I cut in, smacking my palm on the desk. "Why didn't you explain it like this from the start?!"
"Because most people don't need imperial court drama to grasp basic atomic theory!" Maruyama snapped.
"Wait, hold on—why are electrons servants?" Hongbing looked utterly bewildered now.
I sighed. "What Maruyama's saying is, the nucleus is His Majesty. The servants, maids, eunuchs, ministers, and even we are the electrons. We orbit the throne but never cross paths because of the hierarchy. Remember? You couldn't just kill me back then because I was a prince."
"I'd have found a way," Hongbing grumbled, scowling.
"Anyway," I pushed on, "just like we're the foundation of the kingdom, electrons hold the atom together. If all the subjects abandon the emperor, what happens?"
"The country falls..."
"And in an atom?" I prompted.
"It... collapses inward?" Realisation flickered across his face.
"Exactly! That's what Maruyama meant! electrons stick to the atom like loyal subjects to a king."
"But can't electrons be soldiers too?" Hongbing pressed, stubbornly hopeful. "They follow orders, stay united, but if their commander falls, wouldn't they break apart?"
"Huh. Maybe?" Maruyama shrugged. "Not sure, but it's an interesting twist."
"Then what about those quantum orbitals you mentioned earlier? And neutrons?"
He now looked exhausted "Let's shelf that for tomorrow. Why don't you both get some rest, how about that?"
For the rest of the evening, Hongbing volunteered to clean the dishes and tidy up the table. The manor was quite safe for the hum of the icebox... ahem! Refrigerators, a sound I still couldn't get used to, as if a ghost was breathing down my neck. I sat cross-legged on my cushion on the floor with the Biology book in my hand, trying my level hardest to read and understand its contents so that I won't make a fool of myself the very next day. Science had never been my strength; I have to admit I would take war tactics over this any day, but desperation, I found out, was a harsh tutor. The clatter from the kitchen made me turn around. My partner stood over the sink washing dishes methodically with his expert hands, the rhythmic CLACK-CLACK filled the space.
"You should sleep...." I said
His hands didn't pause for a second, " You first"
I snorted, "What afraid I will vanish the moment you close your eyes?"
The saucer stilled. His reflection met mine on the kitchen window ", Wouldnt be the first impossible thing that can happen this week"
A beat passed, then, to my surprise, he put the dishes down neatly on the silver racks before pulling something out of his pant pocket and tossing it in my direction. I caught it. It was a paper packet, a little smaller than my calloused hands.
Maruyama gave me this, called it 'instant coffee,' tastes like dirt but keeps you awake for longer hours than necessary"
I tore open the small packet with my teeth since it refused to open when I tried to pry it open with my fingertips. The granules smelled acrid, like charred beans, nothing like the freshly ground ones at home.
"Let me guess....You're sharing it because...?"
Hongbing shrugged, now moving onto the glasses. "Can't have you falling asleep during tomorrow's lessons on ' different types of bacteria' would be embarrassing for us both!"
I barked a laugh, then nearly choked as I took a sip from that bitter concoction I made by dumping those cursed granules directly into cold wate.r
" Oh God, this tastes worse than my grandmother's grass cookies....." I spat out the rest while his shoulder shook silently, that bastard was laughing at me!!!
"Come on!!!, give me a hand here at least!" I whined as he laughed louder.
"Okay....okay He said to dunk it in hot water or milk and add lots of sugar!"
"Thank you..." I said gratefully as I took another one from the shelves that contained an entire box of you guessed it, instant coffee!. Hongbing went to boil the milk just the way our old man taught us.
After a few minutes, I sat in front of my books again with a steaming mug of coffee right beside me, resting snugly on the saucer. I sipped bit by bit as I skimmed through the pages, calculating and assessing how many pages we have for each chapter in total. The coffee was still awful, but it was much bearable than what I made a few minutes back.
"Alrighty then, let's do this!!!!" I took a deep breath, then started to read the first chapter.