12: Chapter 12 Genius Girl or Terrifying Nursery Rhyme?

"What nonsense are you talking!" The man's face flushed red, his eyes glaring at Jiang Feng from behind his gold-rimmed glasses. "Best Actress? You're saying a five-year-old child is acting?"

He pushed his daughter forward. "Xiaoman, recite it for him! 'Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng'!"

It was as if a switch had been flipped.

Lin Xiaoman's smile remained frozen as her lips moved rapidly, a string of difficult classical prose flowing out at a steady pace, devoid of emotion.

"Yuzhang, an ancient prefecture, now the new government of Hongdu. Where the stars are divided by the constellations of Yi and Zhen, and the land connects the peaks of Heng and Lu. It is girt by three rivers and five lakes, controlling the Man and Jing regions while leading the Ou and Yue..."

She stared straight ahead, her eyes unfocused, as her mouth continuously spat out syllables that were meaningless to a five-year-old.

The surrounding parents let out a chorus of gasps.

"My god, she's reciting the entire thing?"

"That's incredible. My kid can't even finish reciting 'Quiet Night Thought'."

The man straightened his back and lifted his chin, looking at Jiang Feng. "Did you hear that? This is the 'Best Actress' you were talking about? This is 'pretending'?"

Jiang Feng listened, and just as the girl reached the line "Sunset clouds and a lone duck fly together," he reached out a finger and tapped her between the eyebrows.

"Stop."

The girl's voice ceased.

She swayed slightly, a flicker of confusion passing through her eyes.

"She doesn't know what she's reciting," Jiang Feng said, looking at the man. "She has simply carved these sounds into her mind, like a tape recorder."

"So what? Being able to memorize it is a talent in itself!" the man countered.

"It is a talent, but at what cost?" Jiang Feng pointed at the girl's hand. "Look at her index finger."

Everyone's gaze shifted downward.

The girl's hands were clenched tightly together in front of her. The nails of her index fingers and thumbs were bitten down to the quick, and the skin around the edges was raw and bloodshot.

"This is anxiety," Jiang Feng said.

The man's expression changed, and he tried to hide his daughter's hands.

"And her occipital bone," Jiang Feng continued. "The back of her head is flat, and her brow bone presses on her eyes. In Physiognomy, a child with this bone structure is sensitive, suspicious, and desperately craves validation."

Jiang Feng stood up and crouched down in front of the girl.

His gaze was level with hers.

"Little girl, when you looked at your father just now, I didn't see love in your eyes," Jiang Feng said softly.

"I only saw fear."

"You're afraid that if you get one word wrong, you won't be allowed to sleep tonight. You're afraid that if you get one math problem wrong, you'll be locked in that windowless study."

The girl's body began to tremble.

The standard smile on her face began to twist.

The man panicked. "Shut up! You're manipulating the child! I'm calling the police to have you arrested!"

He reached out to pull his daughter away. "Xiaoman, let's go! Don't listen to this madman's nonsense!"

The man's hand had just touched the girl's shoulder.

"Ah—!"

A scream tore through the air.

The previously quiet Lin Xiaoman suddenly exploded.

She flung off her father's hand, clutched her head with both hands, and curled into a ball.

"Fishermen's boats sing at dusk... echoing to the shores of Lake Pengli... Wild geese cry in the cold... their voices breaking at the banks of Hengyang..."

She was reciting the classical prose even as she sobbed.

Tears and snot smeared her face, and the sentences coming from her mouth became faster and more chaotic.

"I won't recite anymore! I won't recite anymore! Daddy, don't hit me! Waaa... Layered peaks tower in emerald... rising high into the heavens..."

The surrounding parents backed away repeatedly, and some children were even frightened into tears.

The man's hand froze in mid-air, his face deathly pale.

"I... I didn't hit..." He tried to explain, but couldn't go on.

The girl's breakdown was real, and that bone-deep fear was also real.

She wasn't performing as a genius; she was performing survival.

To avoid disappointing her father and to escape punishment, she had forced herself to become a machine.

Jiang Feng stood up and brushed the dust off his trousers.

"Take her to see a psychologist," Jiang Feng said, looking at the man. "It's not too late yet. In another two years, when that string finally snaps, she won't be a genius—she'll be a seedling for a high-IQ antisocial personality."

"When that time comes, the one she destroys won't just be herself; it might be you as well."

The man stood frozen on the spot. He looked at his daughter wailing on the ground—the 'masterpiece' he was always so proud of was now shattered into a total mess.

Trembling, he crouched down. For the first time, he didn't give an order, but instead clumsily gathered his daughter into his arms.

"No more reciting... no more... Daddy was wrong..."

The man picked up the still-twitching child, forgot his bag on the ground, and stumbled toward the Audi parked at the roadside.

The car door slammed shut, and the vehicle sped away as if fleeing for its life.

[Ding! Effective fortune-telling count: 2/3]

The system's voice rang out again.

Jiang Feng let out a breath.

The scene fell into a dead silence.

Everyone stared at the young man sitting on the small folding stool.

After a moment of quiet, the crowd erupted into a commotion.

"Master! Look at my son! My son might be slow, but he's very obedient!"

"Master! I'll pay a hundred thousand! I don't need to cut the line, I just want a number!"

"Don't push! I'm the Vice President of Tiansheng Group! Let me go first!"

Luxury cars blocked the traffic, and billionaires were shoving each other like old ladies at a wet market.

Jiang Feng frowned.

He glanced at his phone.

16:55.

Five minutes left.

Just then.

A low engine rumble drowned out the noisy voices of the crowd.

It wasn't the roar of a sports car, but the steady, deep sound unique to a large-displacement executive sedan.

The crowd suddenly went quiet.

The flow of cars on the roadside automatically parted to create a path.

A stretched black Lincoln slowly approached and pulled over at the curb.

The driver got out, wearing white gloves, and respectfully opened the rear door.

A foot wearing a black cloth shoe stepped onto the ground.

Immediately following that, a Dragon-head Cane thudded onto the pavement.

A silver-haired old lady stepped out.

She wore a grey, button-down Tang Suit, without any jewelry or accessories except for a string of Agarwood Prayer Beads on her wrist.

The wealthy businessmen and socialites present were all hushed in fear upon seeing this old lady.

Several men who had just been shouting about being Vice Presidents of certain groups immediately bowed their heads, not daring to even breathe loudly.

She was the founder of the city's commercial empire, the Matriarch of the Shen Family.

Leaning on her cane, the old lady walked slowly but firmly toward Jiang Feng's small stall.

The crowded throng automatically retreated to both sides, clearing a path.

Jiang Feng stopped packing his things.

He looked at the elderly woman walking toward him.

In his vision, the fortune above the old lady's head was flourishing with a golden light, yet beneath that gold, there was a trace of a grey, deathly aura.

The old lady walked up to Jiang Feng and stood still.

Her eyes calmly sized him up.

"Young man," the old lady spoke, her voice slightly raspy but full of vigor. "One fortune left?"

"One left," Jiang Feng replied. "What would you like to ask?"