Sure enough.
When the father and son returned home, Zheng Xia had already arranged the dishes on the table. She didn't ask anything, only smiled and beckoned them to have dinner.
At the dinner table, the three of them ate happily together. If it weren't for the fact that Lin Beichen and Lin Xiangdong had changed their clothes and their hair was still wet, it would seem as if nothing had happened.
"Dad, Mom, I'm full. You two continue eating slowly."
After speaking, Lin Beichen got up and walked towards his bedroom, thinking about revisiting his insights on thunder.
Zheng Xia looked at his back with a gentle and loving smile and softly said, "Alright, you should also get some good rest."
She kept watching Lin Beichen enter his bedroom.
Her expression changed swiftly, like a face-changing act in Sichuan opera, and she turned to Lin Xiangdong with a questioning look.
"Old Lin, what's wrong with you? I asked you to bring our son back home, and you instead went out in the rain with him without saying anything. What if the neighbors saw..."
"Honey, let's put aside scolding me for now. We need to talk about Chenchen's situation."
Lin Xiangdong waved his hand to interrupt Zheng Xia's nagging, looking very serious and solemn.
Seeing his expression, Zheng Xia's heart skipped a beat and she anxiously asked, "Chenchen's situation? What's going on? What did you two talk about outside?"
"I feel this college entrance exam hit Chenchen hard."
Lin Xiangdong sighed, continuing with deep concern, "Just now, outside, he came to his senses and told me he wasn't standing in the rain because he did poorly on the exam, but because he wanted to study the thunder in the sky and control it. What kind of talk is that? I'm thinking we might need to take him to the hospital?"
"This... this..."
For a moment, Zheng Xia was lost in panic, but she quickly sorted out her chaotic thoughts. She glanced at Lin Beichen's tightly closed room door, as if it symbolized his closed heart, and lowered her voice, whispering, "Old Lin, let's delay taking Chenchen to the hospital for a day or two, not to agitate him. Let him adjust himself first. What we need to do is closely monitor his every move in the coming days to prevent him from doing anything out of the ordinary."
"Okay, I got it."
"..."
While the parents outside the door were worrying about Lin Beichen, inside, Lin Beichen was already sitting at his desk, sighing deeply.
"I have no clue!"
Lin Beichen was trying to get back to that feeling by relying on his memory but couldn't do it anymore. It was as if he had never experienced that feeling before, which frustrated him greatly.
"How should I continue?"
"Could it be that my heaven-defying comprehension can't figure out the Cultivation Method?"
"But what was that feeling before?"
"There must be something wrong with the method I'm using!"
"..."
Lin Beichen's brain was running fast. Suddenly, it was as if he had an epiphany; he found the "bright spot."
As the saying goes, a high building starts from the ground!
If he wanted to create a Cultivation Method...
Shouldn't he start with the most basic things?
Enlightenment step by step with accumulation?
Instead of trying to achieve it all at once!
...
Suddenly, Lin Beichen's thoughts broadened. When he entered that feeling state before, it seemed he saw the process from the origin to the demise of a lightning bolt. In other words, the life of a lightning. Since this is the case, shouldn't the first step be to understand the essence of lightning?
He quickly turned on his computer and searched for the word "lightning."
Immediately!
Countless entries appeared on the computer screen.
[Lightning is a type of discharge phenomenon between clouds, between a cloud and the ground, or within parts of a cloud. Usually, it is caused by charged rain clouds, with the base having negative charges and the top having positive charges. Positive and negative charges attract each other, and when they get close enough, electric sparks appear.]
Lin Beichen nodded thoughtfully; this mostly matched what he saw before the lightning formed. This meant what he saw wasn't an imaginary scene in that feeling state but real clouds in the sky!
[When the gathered electric sparks reach a certain amount, a strong electric field forms between different parts of the cloud or between the cloud and the ground.]
So far, it was still the buildup before the lightning formed!
Previously, he saw those scenes like watching a silent movie; he only roughly understood its meaning. But now, by checking these materials, it was like adding subtitles to that silent movie.
Understanding increased exponentially!
[Driven by the strong electric field, free charges in the cloud quickly move toward the ground. During the movement, electrons collide with air molecules, causing mild ionization of the air and emitting a faint glow. This is also called a discharge pulse.]
[The process of lightning is actually a series of discharge pulses.]
[The intervals between these pulses are very short, only a few hundredths of a second. One pulse follows another, with the later pulses traveling along the path of the first one, cyclically, repeatedly.]
[Since each discharge pulse consumes a large amount of the accumulated charge in the thundercloud, the main discharge process becomes weaker until the charge in the thundercloud is exhausted, thus ending a lightning event.]
So that's how it is!
After understanding the process from the formation to the demise of lightning, Lin Beichen had a strange feeling. It wasn't like he was entering that state of feeling again, but it was as if he was about to figure something out.
Hard to explain, difficult to describe!
"Hmm, lightning news?"
At that moment, looking at the related search entries, he couldn't help but click.
[Six bolts of lightning strike the same spot near the White House, causing 3 deaths and 1 injury.]
[Struck by lightning seven times and survived! Roy Cleveland Sullivan, a forester in Shenandoah National Park from 1942 to 1977, was struck by lightning seven times and survived each time. People call him a "human lightning rod"!]
[A man in Sampford was struck by lightning three times in his life. Twice while alive, surviving both times. Even his grave was not spared from lightning after his death!]
[...]
Seeing these entries, the strange feeling in Lin Beichen grew stronger. It felt like he was about to grasp something!
Why would multiple bolts of lightning strike the same spot one after another?
Among so many people in the world...
Why are some people struck by lightning multiple times, and even someone who couldn't escape being struck posthumously?
...
Lin Beichen was lost in thought, with question marks swirling in his mind. He habitually crossed his arms.
And just as his fingertips brushed against his clothes.
"Zzzz--!"
Hardly noticeable electric sparks flickered, static electricity was generated!
The tingling at his fingertips jolted Lin Beichen, clearing his foggy mind instantly. It seemed like his Ren and Du Meridians were suddenly connected, and the question marks in his mind shattered and reorganized into two words—
Charges!