Simon found that Qiu Qiongzh truly loved "cyber machine love" to an extreme degree.
However, everyone has an age when they love to binge-watch shows.
When he was in elementary school, it was the heyday of wuxia dramas, and he particularly loved "The Legend of the Condor Heroes"—both the '94 and '08 versions were excellent.
At that time, there was also a very catchy song called "Jing Gege, Rong Meimei" that still feels fresh in his memory when he thinks back on it.
Besides "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," his second favorite was "The Return of the Condor Heroes."
Simon was frank; he simply loved Xiao Longnü, and both the '95 and '06 versions were beautiful.
As for the third place, that was "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils"; he envied Xuzhu, admired Qiao Feng, and as for Duan Yu, Simon's impression of him was only that he had many beautiful sisters.
In his opinion, among all wuxia dramas, those adapted from Mr. Jin Yong's novels were the best, while Mr. Gu Long's novels were best left as originals.
It was truly regrettable that adaptors found it difficult to grasp the essence of his characters and the artistic conception of his writing.
What was even more regrettable was that public aesthetics were no longer what they used to be; no one remembered the surging and heroic jianghu of the last century.
Even Simon himself could hardly explain how Jing Gege met Rong Meimei back then.
Everything fades away, and Simon accepted this with relative calm.
Who isn't an old-timer from the last century?
Simon had originally planned to visit his Great-Grandfather during the summer vacation, but he unexpectedly got invited to travel by his friends.
By the time he returned, most of the time had passed, and in the last two or three days, he lost the motivation to visit the old man, so he had to give up.
In the new semester, the four little ones indeed entered the preparatory class, and the entire class only had nine people.
Five came from Chun Sun Class, and four came from Hummingbird Class.
The new batch of junior classes welcomed a pair of mixed-race twin girls, whose long, flowing blonde hair was tied into neat little braids, always attracting attention during flag-raising ceremonies.
But that wasn't the point; the point was that Qiu Qiongzh suddenly dyed her hair—the kind of sudden change where it was normal yesterday but looked absolutely abnormal today.
Qiu Qiongzh's hair quality was very good; her strands were thick, tough, and shiny, feeling smoothly slick like seaweed to the touch.
With shoulder-length hair, she could tie many hairstyles, but the little girl's favorites, besides ponytails, were braids.
It wasn't that she lacked innovative spirit, but rather that overly unconventional hairstyles were not allowed.
Today, as soon as she arrived at school, she was stopped at the entrance.
Simon ambled to school, munching on a rice ball, only to see a blue-haired girl confronting a group of teachers.
He was initially amused, wondering who this brave soul was testing the rules, but then he glanced to the side and dropped his rice ball.
That audacious blue-haired girl was none other than Qiu Qiongzh.
The right side of her head was braided with a bunch of fine, dense little braids, which were dark blue.
The left side of her head was even more terrifying; except for her stubbornly remaining sideburns, the rest had been used as a canvas by some unknown Tony stylist.
It was unevenly shaved, scary from a distance, but upon closer inspection, it had a touch of artistry, shaved into the head of a man making a rock-and-roll hand gesture.
Simon took half a second to guess that this hairstyle was imitating a punk kid from "cyber machine love," a not-so-popular comedic character, one of the villains, who loved to sing nonsensical heavy metal rock.
He would often get beaten up by either ally or foe within three seconds of opening his mouth.
So, in fact, he was a tragic character...
No, that's not the point.
Simon hurriedly ran towards the partially surrounded Qiu Qiongzh.
Behind him, a cleaning robot silently swept away the rice ball he had dropped on the ground.
The little girl looked up, fearless, her small cheeks flushed by the cold of late autumn.
Her usually squinted eyes were now wide, her silver-red contact lenses staring at the adults' stern faces.
Her eyes had a slight, misty white haze, and her gaze was like a small pond reflecting moonlight, trembling in the bitter wind.
Simon arrived at just the right—or wrong—moment, grabbing Qiu Qiongzh's wrist and pulling her to run out.
Behind them, shouts grew louder and more urgent.
The two children ignored them, abandoning everything, and with their short legs, ran straight onto a parked bus.
Sitting down breathlessly, Qiu Qiongzh turned her head and looked at Simon with red eyes, her expression unsettled, but her tone excited, "We did it! We shook off the pursuers!"
Simon disdainfully ruffled her 'dog-chewed' head, "Why would you want this hairstyle?"
"Because I wanted to."
"Your parents don't object?"
"Dad's busy, and Mom said it's up to me."
Simon straightened his face, "What if I say no?"
Qiu Qiongzh froze, then reacted as if facing a formidable enemy, making a gun with her hand and mimicking sounds, "So you're on their side, you bad guy! Whoosh whoosh, da da da, you're dead!"
"..."
"The teachers will call your parents," Simon threatened.
"Oh."
"You might get expelled," he threatened again.
"Huh?"
"Then you can't play with us anymore," he continued to threaten.
"Why!"
"Do—you—re—gret—it?"
Qiu Qiongzh was stubborn for about three seconds, or perhaps a dozen milliseconds, then deflated, "Then what should I do!"
Simon rubbed his chin, "I'll email the teachers, and then we'll go to the mall to buy a wig first."
Qiongzhu pouted, crossed her arms, and turned her head away from Simon.
She felt her self-esteem and innovative spirit were suppressed.
The key was that she had proudly wanted to show her love for "cyber machine love," but backing down now would only make her look like a timid coward.
She tugged at the boy's sleeve, "Don't..."
Simon stopped typing, "Hmm?"
"No, I want to keep my hair. I don't want to wear a wig."
Her gaze held a rare sadness for a child.
Simon blinked, his brown-yellow pupils holding a strange cunning that made Qiu Qiongzh look away after just one glance.
She continued to plead softly, "No, I really like Spooch."
Spooch, the comedic character mentioned earlier.
Simon had no tolerance for so-called fan mentality.
He wanted to shout, "What the hell is Spooch? What do you know about liking something? And you should like the cute and well-behaved characters in that show, just like when you usually wear a dress.
That's perfectly fine, lovely and adorable; no one would think you're outrageous."
However, he couldn't say that.
Electric buses floated through the city streets; they all moved on fixed tracks, an invisible traffic network on the electronic network, with fixed speeds, fixed routes, and fixed times.
As a small-scale public transport tool, their destiny stretched from the moment the last steel plate was welded on until their design lifespan was reached or damage indicating "potential hidden dangers" appeared.
So, do the people sitting in the car also share this destiny?
Then, Qiu Qiongzh said softly, "Spooch is about to die."
Do those watching the series also share the characters' destinies?
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