The story is told since Thomas was a little kid.

That was a day regarded as the origin of his mind’s content. His mother gave him a geography text book. But he showed little interest in the things about the earth, but was attracted by the first page of the book: pictures of solar system, Milky Way galaxy and the universe.

As a child, he was interested in the stuff he couldn’t make out. The orbit lines of the planets, which are just imagined by scientists and drawn so as to let the readers know clearly about the solar system, became Thomas’s favorite pattern. The shapes of the Milky Way galaxy were charming. He was shocked by the location of the earth. And the pictures really reversed the sky he saw. Then, he knew this type of research was named Astronomy.

Astronomy, amazingly, gradually became one of the portions of a kid’s life. In the morning, he played videogames, which were still a type of luxury in his country then, with his grandparents, after which he ran to the table to draw his own pictures of universe; After lunch, he read books on astronomy for beginners and then learnt a lot of data about planets; Disney’s program ended after super, he put his tops on palm, imagining the toys were spacecrafts floating towards Oort Cloud. In the night, weather permitting, he would stare at a certain zone of the night sky or use his little binoculars scan the clusters.

Most people say, preschool life should be with other kids, playing. But Thomas Richmond was a special.

Special preschool life led to loneliness in school, which was realized when Richmond went to primary school.

Science class was a stage for the students. Everybody could be a volunteer to tell a story in front of the class. Students in Thomas’s country have a feature: They prefer to criticize in private with desk mates rather than to speak boldly in public. And he was a special. He stood up and walked straight to the front.

“I’d like to tell you the basic information of solar system.” He used his featured gentleness to say the words.

The expression of the audience, his classmates and teacher showed their confusion, as though saying “I've never heard as a term like ‘solar system’.”

“The sun is the major star,” He said, “Bright as you see, we only receive one out of 330,000 of all energy she gives to us.”

There was no reaction in the class. His peers still had no conception of “one out of 330,000”; of course, saying other numbers and figures was also in vein. But Thomas didn't know that. So he kept on his knowledge show.

“The distance between sun and earth is 150 million kilometers. If you take a car, rushing to sun in a speed of 100km/h, you won’t get there until you’re 150!” Thomas emphasized, spiritedly. And his audience became shocked, as they heard “150”, which means an age they can’t survive at all.

The rest of his speech was thoroughly puzzling for the classmates, the feeling was just like a case that some Japanese are listening to an industrial engineering class taught in Greek.

“The sun is far more enormous than our earth,” He continued his show, “The mass of the sun is 336,000 times of that of our planet; as for the volume, it is over 136 million times!”

The whole knowledge show came to an end with numerous numbers. Of course, science itself is based on numbers, which are systematically organized by math. And the development of science and society is just measured by how many values of the world, which were once known ambiguously, can be expressed by accurate mathematical data or formulas. However, in views of the kids, too many numbers is a symbol of strange. When he wanted to stir himself with others, he found that finding correspondent topics couldn't be got over.

But all of his knowledge couldn't win him reputation at all. The one who heaves on the top of Sears Building really can’t be seen by the passers-by on the ground.

It was a warm afternoon in May. The head teacher OF Thomas’s class was having a chat with some kids in the classroom. They were talking about who would be famous or rich in the future. That’s a bad custom in his country: Judging a kid’s future when he or she is still in primary school. Fortunately, Richmond met a good teacher: She was just listening to the kids, not saying a single word to snap the talk.

They were convinced that Kelly, who was the top one in math, would be a talent. And she was assured to be “the leader of the society”, though she hadn’t known how to figure out the distance between her home and school via the math she learnt. But she really got high marks in the tests. That was an evidence of her future, they thought.

“Marsh would be a president!” A kid said, “He’s an extraordinary monitor of the class!” The fact is: Marsh’s mother was a teacher in the school.

“I predict that Doris is a famous novelist in 2030. Her works have been praised by Oriental Weekend, the most well-known newspaper in our city!” Doris’ mother was an editor in OW then.

When it comes to Thomas Richmond, they were all in silence. “I wonder what will he be many years later.” A kid muttered, with an ironic tone, “I can’t figure out what he’s saying every time. And the way he deals with the mathematical questions can hardly be found on the textbook and understood.”

Another child added, “In the art class, what he draws is dislike anything in the realistic.”

“I assert that his Intelligence Quality is suspect.” That was their common idea.

But Thomas’s head teacher, in the ally with the math and science teacher, then often had private chat with him.

“Don’t take your classmates’ remarks in consideration.” The head teacher comforted him, “Different people have different standards. But I insist that you be bound to the one who you want to be.”

“But in math, I’m really more stupid than the peers.” Thomas complained.

“That’s a fake scene. Your cogitation is rather different with your peers.” The math teacher found it.

The chat with his teachers could always be encouraging. However, he was tracked by some ironic and long-term bad luck, which stays with him for long time, but also defines him as a successful man in the future.

“Here is a piece of good news for you, my children!” The head teacher dashed into the classroom, proudly announcing, “It is a golden opportunity for you to be famous, as little stars!”

The reaction of the class was just like being electric shocked, and they couldn't wait to know what the secret was. At a time like this, it was told like an ancient story by the teacher.

“One of the biggest commercial TV network, Famaetopes Network, select some students from our class to take part in the most famous program Kid Scientist, after which you’ll be known as little knowledgeable children, and go to many other TV programs as honored guests!”

The teacher continued, “What’s more enticing, you and your families can earn a lot!”

Few kids reject to have the dream of fame, either did little Thomas. “I know the most things about science, especially astronomy, in this class.” He thought, “There’s no doubt I can be selected.”

Then the teacher carried out an envelope from her pocket, saying, “Here is the name list sent from Famaetopes Network (FN in short). The ones who I read later will participate in the training program from tomorrow on, and in July this year you’ll go to FN for the program. Now I read.”

Under the watchful eyes of the class, she started reading, “Marsh, Doris, Kelly…”

Richmond centered his entire mind onto the names. But when the name list ended, he still hadn't heard his name. Later on, in retrospection of the whole list, he realized a more satirical fact: He was the only one in the class who was not on the list!

“Those who are not on the list should go to Class Two from tomorrow on for your classes, as all of the teachers in our class are going to assist the training in the next three months.” The teacher added. In Thomas’s thought, it should be announced like this, “The one who is not on the list…”

Later in the evening, he went back home in the sunshine in bloody red. He ran to the table, where there were astronomy book, paper and water-color brushes. Drawing the images of distant world on Pluto was really an effective way to settle his exasperated heart down. To attain displacement, he tried his best to learn some math, which was a key for him to know where those data of solar system came from.

For a kid, who only knew four fundamental operations of arithmetic and a little about equation, calculus was Greek. Thomas’s was just sitting at the table after school, opening two books: One was about astronomy, the other was about calculus. He just forced himself into the advanced math’s cosmos, as the major function of it was dragging him out of the lamentable fact. On the other hand, absurdly, he really learnt something.

Four weeks after the FN's selection, he sit at the table again. This time, he wanted to have a try using a little about calculus. Two hours later, a result of equation lay on the paper:

First Cosmic Velocity v1 = 7.8 km/s
Second Cosmic Velocity v2 = 11 km/s

Searching the accurate data on Yahoo, he found his answer was satisfying.

Apart from math, Thomas used to play the piano to try to sweep the darkness. Differently from others, he composed his own music accidentally!

Maybe math was not as useful as music in making the annoying faded. He was addicted to playing the piano without a sheet of certain music, just along with the tunes from his deepest soul. And one day, his neighbors were shocked to know that what was attracting them so many days were composed by an 11-year-old boy!

But his grandpa, who was a scout when he was young, did not favor his grandson to always keep still, either sit at the stable or in front of the piano. One day, his grandpa asked him to go to the nearest park, teaching him basic combat skills. It was a method to give vent to the anger.

So, while his classmates preparing for being famous, Thomas was busy making distract of the anger. I have a high opinion of him to regulate his emotion when he was so young. But after all, stains in childhood are always glimmering occasionally.

The commencement of Thomas’s primary school was held just one year after the activity of FN. One hundred kids was sitting on the playground, concentrating on the speech of the headmaster announcing who would be impressive in his mind. That indicated that the ones who he mentioned were going to be written on the record book of the school. Just as Thomas expected, he was the only one who wasn’t heard in the names in his class. Two months later, he was admitted in one of the most elite middle schools in his city, though be forgotten by his primary school.

However, the fate played a joke on him. Most of the class in the primary school, who had been regarded as talents and stars, were also in this elite school then. And the teaching style of the school was just conventional ways of his country, without telling the students why, but always what it is.

He hated math. Not because of the difficulty of it. Indeed he loved it. But he hated that the teacher couldn’t tell him the principle, but only the methods of solving the questions on the papers or exams. One day, he asked the teacher, why linear function’s figure was a straight line. And his teacher said impatiently: “That should be that. No reason at all!”

Then, the teacher used this rule to solve the questions. The first question was: An empty water pool can contain 300 cubic meters of water, and a tube now pump 12 cubic meters of water in each minute, and another tube transport 8 cubic meters of water out in each minute. Please figure out when will the pool be full? And in 8th minutes, how deep is the water?

When others immidiately picked up their pens and figure out it, Thomas stood up and query, “If you want to fill the pool up, why don’t you directly use a tube just injecting water in it?”

The teacher was awkward, “That is to let know how to use linear function.”

“But can a function be used in this way in the realistic?” He continued, “Besides, you just use the formula of culculating a cuboid’s volume and there is no indication in this question that the pool is a cuboid, why you use the formula?”

The teacher had no way to explain it, and he was impatient again, “If it is not a cubic one, how can we make it out?”

And when several math classes were finished, Thomas became a stranger again in the middle school. But literature was a more exasperating subject. When they were taught The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the teacher gave out a paper and there was a test question: Why the author, Mark Twin, make up a plot of Tom’s brushing wall?

And Richmond wrote: It is just a portion of the story to show that Tom is mischievous, to form the character of the hero in the novel.

But then, the mark of his teacher was: All students knew the standard answer was “To be a joint of the story, it can lead the reader know more about USA society in late 1840s…” And other explanation was wrong!

English class should have been easy, but when confronted Thomas, it changed. Every time the teacher asked the students to cook up a short dialog, Thomas was willing to make up his own rather than just be a replica. And the teacher was surely discontent with it.

Other subjects could be also miserable. For instance, in geography, the teacher asked the students to analyze a country’s geographical features. All kids except Thomas analyze USA, Russia or their own country. When Thomas introduced Iceland to the class, including the teacher was surprised, “ I've never heard a country called Iceland. Please show us a country on the planet, OK?”

Few months later, the final exam took place. And, of course, Thomas couldn't get a satisfying grades. However, he was still No.7 in the total 350 students in Grade 1 of junior high school. The teachers could not tolerant the fact, believing such a type of students had no ability to obtain this high rank. They would rather rewrite his marks so as to let him backward. And the teachers refused to give him the privilege of Honored Student. His teacher told him in the office: “I am not convinced by your grades. A student like you can’t be so pretty!”

When he came back to the classroom, he had no mind to focus on the teacher. Because he now deemed his teachers as enemies, so are his classmates. Sometimes, in class, he was in mind absence to dream that one day he is the dictator of his country and kill all of the people in the school a part from himself.

Losing the interest in normal study and the communication with classmates and teachers, he fell in love with a booming tech in his country: Internet.

Internet then in his country was still an infant industry. Blog was a still new service. Most information was in English. Once he searched Solar System in Google, he found the words and letters were also in vertigo. Then Thomas forced himself devote into English learning. Nearly all spare time, he faced the screen, looking up the strange words in his Webster Dictionary. Few weeks later, he went to an English training organization. Not to study in a class, but to have face-to-face talks with the foreign teachers in weekends’ afternoons. With his gift in language, he could use English without considerable obstacles.

At the same time, he knew his gift, and found that learning languages was actually fun for him. And Internet was an essential tool for his goal: Learn 21 languages in his whole life!

Since May of the second term in Grade 1, he started to view the websites of language learning. In addition, he began his first use of MSN, one of the most famous network communicating application then in his country, to have chats with many international pen pals. He took the languages for friends, taking the place of those real humans in school. And Internet was a safe place for him. Within two months, before the start of summer holiday, he had learned fundamental French, German and Spanish. That means that he had been able to chat with his French, German and Spanish friends frequently, both writing and speaking.

But he would rather conceal his ability, preventing his classmates and teachers to know it. Though, he still had space to show his languages off: Starting his own website!

However, roadblock was still here: To build a website can think, some programming were in need. Thomas’s idea was amazing: Both computer languages and humanist languages are languages. He could make it!

After being absorbed into foreign languages, he began to have his own research in programming. But he didn't start so hastily. He used Ask.com to find which language was more suitable for beginners. And the answer was clear: Python, a newly-recommended language.

He went to the biggest commercial city in his country, Onekinisy, to purchase the book he needed about Python. When he asked the shop assistant “Where are the books about programming?” the assistant was shocked, and many buyers passing by were looking at him strangely. Then, he selected the thinnest one, which might be the easiest one.

With the book’s assist, he created his own website in the first summer holiday in junior high school. It should be more like a blog. He wrote many articles about popularization of science, making astronomy, physics more easy to understand. The effects of the website were also apparent: The hits on his website soared swiftly, reaching 3000 per day in the end of August; meanwhile, his classmates gradually learned more about his knowledge via the website. What’s more, advertising on the website pages became his income source! On the first day of Grade 2, a check was delivered to his school, making his teacher gape at him for all day!

But the achievement on Internet was not able to reverse the situation.

In Grade 2, he was 13, starting his teenage life. In that age, it means he became more fervent to be recognized. It was more often for him to have daydream, dreaming that one day he could be the leader of a company, or a country. And he began to take more consideration on the unfair school life. More and more what he deserved were missing him. The reason was simple: No recognition from his teachers and classmates. Maybe they were evil about him, or still believed that he was strange boy with low IQ. At that time, little peers and educators knew what building a website meant to a child. They even had no conception about building a website though they viewed websites for information every day.

Then, with the growth keeping on, he became more socialized. It was a initial for him to gather his own close friends, who would like to do something he wanted. Frankly, Thomas was cordial to his friends, and he tended to get over all barriers to help with their difficulties. More importantly, he was different from other students, who kept the knowledge they knew as a secret, he did not spare what he knew. And events happened latter proved that his friends were solid.

At the beginning of Grade 2, something dramatic happened to Thomas. The head teacher, who seemed to be jealous to his gift and strange action a lot, reunited the class committee. He gathered the new members and claimed that new Class Law ought to be made up.

In Thomas’s country, class committee was just the government of the class. And the students in the committee had sufficient power to control the class and even to punish their classmates! In that culture, they admire power and government officials deeply. And it was an opportunity to vent anger onto Thomas Richmond.

“Don’t ask Thomas about science or other knowledge. And, of course, let him isolated, as he’s a danger to our class!” The head teacher said on the first meeting of the new committee.

Few days after this secret meeting in the new committee, Thomas began feeling something unlucky was approaching him. The representatives of each subject refused to hand in his homework to the teachers, or even rewrote his homework so as to let the teachers hurl to him. Though strange, however, Thomas now was wise in some situations, which was called “School Politics”, which was a feature spot in his country’s education.

Richmond was considering about a reverse; coup would be a more accurate word to describe it. He invited his firm friends to discuss it.

“Aimez-vous le professeur de mathématiques?” He asked in French, which could be understood by his friends. And the math teacher was just his evil head teacher.

“Non, absolument pas.” They knew his purpose.

“Manger son, et les Classe comité!” He said, “Ich weiß, es ist gefährlich. Aber Ich will nicht spannung!”(Now he used German)

That’s the advantage of multi-languages: When you are planning for intrigues, no one other than you knows the information. And the plan was soon finished. Everything was OK. Tout était normal!
PE lesson on Monday was a golden opportunity to deal with those “government officials”. Students had time to play freely. Five minutes after the start, six boys belonging to Thomas arrested the monitor in the toilet.

“Give up your power now.” The closest friend of Thomas, Martin, asked the timid monitor. In a society of official-power-oriented in that country, even a monitor was afraid of power-losing. “If not, we’ll deal with you now.” Another boy intimidated.

The monitor was then forced to ask for resignation. And in the rest of the PE class, a piece of news was spread: this class committee was going to be overturned!

That afternoon, the news was proven. Before the class, Thomas walked straight to the front, facing the class, including the head teacher, announced the doomsday of the class committee. The head teacher was submerged in madness. But when Thomas showed the gesture of combat, he was silent. Many of Thomas’s friends had sued the head teacher to the teaching director. The next day, he left the class forever.

But the rest of the class wasn't willing to be led by a “stupid kid” and “stranger”. In the first class of the new math teacher, they hooted upon Thomas. They shouted “He’s a monster! He should leave the class and return the power to the previous committee!” And that drove peeved Thomas to use heavy hand. He drummed out the people who didn't obey him while class going on; those who hooted at him were forced to write 5,000-word-long self-criticism every day. Sometimes, Thomas punched the heads of the protesters (Later, this job was taken over by his friends). Few weeks after the dictator’s govern, the air of the class was close to that in North Korea: All words on the paper or spoken were advocating Thomas. And the class was always quiet. After so long time’s injustice, Thomas fell in love with violence. He found violence was a universal key. However, it might be surprising to a teenager: Thomas only use violence to punish his classmates. After that, he was still a cultured and gentle boy.

In the interview, I ask Thomas, “When you found your head teacher was so feeble facing your combat and coup, did you think it’s your over-violence or he was strange?”

Thomas’s remark is: “If the leader of a group is fearful to his subordinates, it indicates that the leader has done something evil!”

But not only couldn’t his previous head teacher recognize him. Other teachers could not, either.

At the mid of Grade 2 in junior high school, the class were given a chance to take part in national math competition as a group.

“Maybe I’m not good at dealing math exams, “Thomas thought, “But I am good at making mathematical models.” He had thought he could be the major part of this group. However, on the contrary, the teacher said, “Thomas Richmond should not co-operate with us. He can’t make it. All of us will have a two months’ training. And Thomas, you’ll go to Class B for the rest of the lessons in this term.”

In Thomas’s country, if you’re selected to take part in math competition, that’s meaning that, your school life is full of math, no other classes. But, knowing so much about the disadvantages being selected, he was still mad at the unfairness: The picture of the FN activity in his childhood was retraced! And what was more serious was being a member of the competition student could be easier to be admitted into star senior high schools!

---------------------------------
I ask Thomas, “Your father was one of the most powerful officials in the local government while other students’ parents were far less than your father. But you didn't ask your father to help you via the power to own those chances, and your classmates did. Why so?”

“Would it be useful if I’d done that?” Thomas said, peacefully.
----------------------------------

Continue the story.

Just like the primary school time, he went back home and learned much knowledge by himself.

“Pourquoi ne pas étudier plus?” He set about to study more knowledge. He learned basic Dutch and Nowegian. In addition, some social science, such as economy and politics, became his favorite. In the coup, he suddenly knew that controlling the factors attached to human was his interest. That was the motivation to learn social science. And from then on, Gross Domestic Production was his focus. And he attempted to use his math ability to figure out some economy phenomena from the books. Meanwhile, he began finding the correspondence of philosophy and math. How strange!

One day, he was absentminded in Class B when math class was going on. He suddenly found some relation between math and astronomy, physics and economy, which can be worked down by math. And philosophy seemed to be on the ribbon of math. After ringing, he rushed home and wrote a line on his notebook:

“Math est la forme abstraite du science, et la philosophie est la forme abstraite des math!”

His parents could hardly believe a young schoolboy could realize it!


Thomas’s study was not just standing onto a point of theory. He loved doing in the realistic! After learning Warren Buffet’s tips, he purchased stocks for the first time. Using the money from his parents, he bought 400 dollars’ stocks. Maybe, as he thought, buying stocks could be more worthy than going to compete in math competition; because whatever you won in the competition, you could not earn money. But share market could bring you money!

The value of his stocks soared speedily in the next two months. It was already 2,000$ at the end of June, which was the time math competition taking place as scheduled.

But Thomas’s was not flooded with enjoyment. When he used Google to view the stock value of major corporations in USA every day, he was amazed that nearly all of them were rising rapidly. As a fourteen-year-old kid, he did not know much about discount rate or debt ratio. However, at least, he could tell that the symptom of overheating of economy had come out from the shelter of various economic data. It was time to sell out all his stocks. He was convinced in his judgment. By this time, he had got 1850$ net earnings.

Just a month later, the economic crisis broke off.

Grade 3 in junior high school was peace, without any annoying stuff happened. But because of missing the math competition, Thomas had no possibility to go to the famous high school in the city. So his family sent him to an international high school in Switzerland, a small country full of financial industry, mechanical manufacturing, which make the country the richest in the world. In Thomas’s class, he was the only one who was not from Swiss. Every day his morning began with a lot of teenagers with blue eyes and blonde hair, every night the last sight before sleeping was his roommate, who was also a handsome boy like that.

That boy is named Zachery Freidman, who came from USA and later his senior helper and guide in the many missions. Thomas then didn't know that Zachery was a member of a detective agency, which might be more like a spy agency sometimes. That’s a fact later on would change Thomas in the future.

Thomas had known a lot about German and English, which should thanks to those miserable days because of misfortune. But frankly, when be put into a pure exotic environment, knowing the native culture in the subjects is another thing. When western literature class came, it was a hard time for Thomas to understand the cultural elements in the literal works. Then, Thomas would turn to Zachery, who was called Zack by Thomas, for the questions such as “What is Medusa?” Every time, Thomas was rather shy to ask others for help and he just did hard work by himself.

At first, his classmates took the shy for a character of Thomas. But later on, they found that it was a mental shadow. To be honest, the unfair way from his primary school time somehow had branded self-abased onto his mind: He couldn't help considering himself foolish and stupid.

But he had his own goal to be realized. He couldn't fail the exams. So he paid 300% of his efforts into study. Being pessimistic about himself had become a habit. Every day, seeing the figure in the mirror, he thought why he could not make out the knowledge which could be easy for his peers. So he studied far more than any other one in his class.

Though his marks were not bad at all, he still believed that he would flunk the subjects if he did not work so hard. And meeting with classmates might make his embarrassed, as he though all of them were much clever and handsome than he. That made his school life simple but tiring: When class ended at 5:00 pm, he went to the canteen for a little dinner, and then came back to the dormitory to study until 1:00 am the next day! The only activity was to play tennis or soccer on weekends. He even had no chance talking with Zack; of course, he avoid that on purpose; he thought he had no enough ability to talk with such a handsome and smart boy, and he was just his roommate! And when Thomas found others who played all the time after class could also got high marks, he was more self abased on his study ability.

“Everyone says that study in Euro countries can be comfortable and easy,” He was confused, “But why it is so tough for me?”

And later, he tended to leave himself alone in group activities.

“All 23 in out class are going to have a trip next Friday!” Zachery said excitedly to Thomas, and several other boys in the rooms nearby.

“Oh, yes.” Thomas said indifferently. He was fearful to meet with his “handsome and smart” fellows. But he knew that it would be impolite if he was the only one absent. So, as his classmates did, he bought a mountain bike for this trip. As for camps, they had been prepared by some of his classmates. Though, his heart was just like stagnant for this trip.

He took part in at last. The place where they set up camps was about 20 km to Zurich. When his classmates were playing football, riding horses and boating, he would like to leave the group and rode away. He was always thinking that his class could easily ignore a stupid one among them.

Riding his mountain bike one the grassland, he was thoroughly absorbed into the painting-liked lake and the mountains as a background. When the sun hid behind the horizon, the sky on the west was a little pink, but the eastern part was even kind of green! Who clear it was!

But shortly after, the worry dragged him back onto the earth. He was still trapped in the fact he was less intelligent than his fellows. He was worrying the exams and the classes. How could he keep up with them? He was working so DEADLY! And he had no idea what he could do to raise his IQ. Thinking about that, Thomas was riding onto a road to Zurich urban dazedly. But then he didn't know he could reach Zurich along this way.

He had no sense when the dark came, as he was still painful about the hard work and his study ability. When numerous villas and houses, with warm light flickering behind the windows, were in his sight, he found himself in a town, or a city.

“Maybe I can find a hostel here.” He muttered.

But when robbers turned up, he gave up the thinking.

In the weak streetlight, Thomas could not see the faces of 3 robbers clearly. But he could know from the figures that they were all strong enough to deal with him.

“Verlor Ihre Weise, jungen Mann?” One of the robbers said grimly. From his voice, Thomas thought he was in his middle twenties. And may be the other 2 were too.

Zurich was a city speaking German. He known, as the man said, he was lost. But he did not show the truth. He said, “Ich gehe zu Hause.” And he added strongly, “Seine Sie nicht auf die Art!” He just used a kind of threatening tone to warn the robbers of getting in his way.

“Aber Du solle Ihren Fahrpreise zahlen!”The three rushed toward him on their motorbikes. When Thomas turned around to flee, he was knocked down by one of the motorbike heavily. But he did not hesitate to stand up. When a robber running toward him again, he kicked on the face of him straight, making him fall down from his ride. The robber’s fellows want to strangle Thomas, but Thomas knew how to use his combat skill properly. The tallest one among the three was beaten backward, but he used a dagger to stabbed into Thomas’ right leg, near his foot. But Thomas pushed him away at the moment. So the injure was not so serious.

Thomas was not going on. He picked up one of the three motorbikes, and then rushed along the road. Looking back through his shoulder, he found two of the three robbers were following him.

With the navigation system on his mobile phone, he found the nearest police office and dashed toward the direction. And of course, the policemen there arrested the two. And they had sent a troop to find the last one. While being praised by the officers there, he was more shocked by the people here: Zachery and other three of his classmates, Cathy, Jerry and Dominic were already waiting him in the police office.

“E’troppo pericoloso, Thomas! Non vogliamo perdere gli amici della nostra classe, compresi voi!” Dominic said to Thomas, angrily but hurt.

“What did you say…Sorry I could not make out it…” Thomas felt ashamed for what he’d done.

“Sorry. I am from the Italian zone in Swiss. I did not know you had not learnt Italian.” Dominic said, “We were just frightened. Because we heard some a piece of information that a group of robbers laid hands onto a teenage boy, who was about 17, nearby Zurich. And according to the description of the boy, we realized that it was you then!”

“Oh! You got injured!” Zack said, and walked to him to see the hurts. Thomas dropped his head, and he found the blood on his right leg disseminated the bottom of the right jeans leg, and the white sport sock on his right foot was turned red! And the blood was flowing on his right hand. And when Zachery put a hand on his left chest, he felt intensive pain. Don’t forget that he had been knocked heavily by the motorbike!

Later, with the help of the police, four classmates sent their friend, Thomas, to the nearby hospital to threat the wounds. On the way, the officer driving them there was amazed at the bravery of Thomas. “You were really bold, and you were so skillful to deal with the three strong men, the officer said, “But don’t do that again the next time. That’s too dangerous.”

Ten minutes later, they reached hospital, and Thomas was lying on the bed, with his 4 classmates sitting in the chairs nearby him. He was requested to stay here for a week, because the chest injure seemed to be serious. The rib was not broken, but a little tearing, though just a very narrow crack. And the impact of the force motorbike made his heart a little hurt-The chest muscle of the teenager is more elastic than an adult’s, so the wave of the heavy force can be delivered to his heart easily, and affect his heartbeat. The exam showed his heart was OK, but the doctor was still fearful about the potential heart arrest.

“Why not played with us in the afternoon…” Cathy muttered, “We have ordered hotel rooms in the neighborhood. And we have asked for days off to the teacher to company you. She was really sorry about you…”

“I think you should be a spy or… some sort of detective!” Dominic smiled.

“You were joking just now?” Thomas might think the joke is out of position. But Dominic and Jerry then told him the fact, “You may have not known that your roommate is a detective!”

Thomas gaped at Zachery Freidman, taking it unbelievably. But Zachery then said, “I’m just doing that as a practice. As a teenager, I can’t deal with those criminal as the professional spies or detectives do. I only do something side of the distal. The agency every year recruits some young people to serve for them, and then have the experience as a teen detective. That will be your previous experience when you grow up.

“To be a teen detective as a part time job in the agency I work for, the candidate ought to be smart, Multilingual-speaking and brave. And I consider you’re properly suited! And don’t think you’ll be isolated in the agency working group. Jerry, Dominic and Cathy are all working there. And many new friends you can find also in that new big family! They are all intelligent as you!”

That was the first time that Thomas Richmond heard someone praised him so highly! And with the persuading of his four fellows, he agreed to take a detective, which indeed also mixed with some work of spy, as his part time job!

Thomas does not want to tell me too many details about his teen detective life. He says that a book written last year is just based on his life in the agency.

“That is an interesting book. It was just written by Jerry, who is my company’s manager now. He was just saying that he wanted to write a book about a teen spy’s adventure. Then I thought that this topic could make a boom of our cyber press media selling on the internet. So I agreed. But when I received the first book after its sale, I abruptly found that it was just a small biography of me about my detective life then!” Thomas laughed, “I have been against anyone to write biography or novel centered on me. But I failed!”

I have to turn to that novel after this interview. But Thomas admits that that kind of life help him become more brave and strong in physical and mental. In school no one knows he, and his other four fellows were detective, maybe spy was a little bit more actual I think.

Some issues he suffered was really impressive, which nearly killed him by those cruel criminals. In other words, he almost sacrificed sometimes. Though Thomas understates the danger, I still feel cold about it. He retraces an issue of smuggling he investigated when he was 18. The detective agency sent those teen part-time-worker to have a practice on this issue. However, the case later on became more serious than the agency had thought. They were trapped in danger.

They were already adults and they could take a gun with them. But unless the situation forced them to do, they couldn't use their guns to shoot or even kill anyone they were going to arrest assisting the agency’s normal employees, who were professional spies and detectives.

The case was reported to be in Rome, where a criminal was found and some smuggling articles was discovered. Jerry and Cathy were sure that the spot of the criminal group was located somewhere in Rome. However, observing the goods carefully and distinguishing the accent of the man, he doubted the whole group was actually in Naples and he explained his ideas about the case.

“You’re joking, Thomas!” Jerry couldn't believe, “You know little Italian, how can you judge his root? The goods can be carried everywhere, is that the evidence of your inference?”

“You’re right, I have no detail in Italian, but I can take his Naples accent apart from other Italian accents!” Thomas insisted.

“I think we should go to Naples and have a look,” Zachery said, “Thomas’ inference is reasonable.” That night, they took a train towards Naples. And next morning, they found the group’s “ headquarter” in Naples. It was a place by the sea and close to Portici.

But when they use their transmitters to report the case to the agency, they were found by the criminals. What was worse, they shot the four teenagers with their guns! At first, none of these four kids was hurt as they ran on the zigzag alleyways through the brown and red old architectures and the huge containers owned by those criminals. As a comparatively freshman, Thomas needed his seniors to guide him in the narrow roads and told him how to escape. But eventually, they found they were beset by a wall and the cruel strong men!

“If it is possible, I think we should call for the police,” Zachery said, “Our mission is finished indeed!” And then, he took on the transmitter at his waist. But he did not take it on his hand or the criminals might see it straight and then killed them.

Two troops stood facing each others for ten minutes. The criminals carried guns towards them, and the kids were also ready to take out their weapons. But after all, teenagers are teenagers, they could not deal with the issue so easy as adults. They were too nervous! Jerry was standing next to Thomas, and Thomas could even heard the heart pounding from Jerry. Meanwhile, several men in the group were taking over something. And Cathy saw their hands holding tighter on the triggers.

“They probably think that killing some teens in this blind alley can be concealed,” Cathy whispered to Thomas, “Maybe they can removed our bodies quietly after killing us. And no one knows it!”

Just at the moment, the police cars sirening towards this blind alley. Thomas was so excited in heart, but did not showed on his face. So as his three fellows. Some commotion was in the criminal group. At last, when the policemen and policewomen came out of the cars and rushed to arrest them, one of them angrily stared at these kids, and pulled the trigger.

“Watch out!” Zachery shouted, thrusting Thomas a side. And a smear of blood splashed onto the wall behind them. The bullet, which should have hit Thomas, went through Zachery’s left lung.

Immediately, the other kids, with the policemen and policewomen, dashed to Zack. Jerry put his fingers at Zack's wrist to touch his pulse. It was weak, and irregular. His face was bloodless. Thomas shouted to Zack, “Hold on! You all be safe soon! The doctors are coming!” But everyone on the scene knew he would unconscious few minutes later and then died. Sometimes, Jerry even couldn't feel his pulse. A policewoman took out a cloth and press it onto his injury, where blood was gushing.

But he still could recognize Thomas, after a few minutes’ coma, he smiled slightly to Thomas, “You’re safe…I’m glad to see you’re…safe…” Suddenly, the shine faded out of his sapphire blue eyes. At last, the doctor sobbed, “He’s gone forever…So young a boy…”

After the mission, Thomas was shown on the newspaper in the city where his school lay. And the agency even gave him an award, which ought to be given to the employees. But all of these made no difference to him. Every evening after class, he just had little food in the canteen, and then sitting on his bed, facing the other empty bed. He could not help chocking, tears coming out continuously. And it is sure he could not so concentrate on study as before. He couldn't face the world without the closest friend.

“The bullet should have hit my chest. If time could go back, I would rather face the fate I deserved. I don’t want anyone die for me. But the impacts have really formed me a strong young man in mental.”

Thomas quitted the agency in the year he graduated from high school. He was admitted to Cambridge, with the knowledge of logic, languages and the spirit he gained from the actions as a teen detective. He could fluently use English, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch and Norwegian. And because of the love of design and the gift in math, he majored in mechanical engineering in Cambridge University.

As for the three fellows alive in the agency: Jerry went to New York University, Dominic stayed in Swiss and studied in ETH, and Cathy, the only girl among them and now Mrs Richmond, also went to Cambridge and majored in literature.

Though Thomas majored in mechanical engineering, he had acute perceptiveness in economic situation and global politics. Of course, he was good at writing those serious topics into the words easy to be understood. After joining a media office in the university. The office, which should be called a small club, consisted of only 20 students including Thomas. The director of the office allowed him to write comments on global news, for example, Diaoyu Island events between China and Japan became his first topic. Just same as most European media’s opinion, he adopted the stance on China’s side. The article was only 850 words in length, however, it made the online magazine of his office an influence in Cambridge students. Most students in the university had no interest in news, especially global news about politics. But Thomas’s words drove them keep an eye on the situation of the world. He loved to use a special perspective to analyse the events which were seen in a common direction by most people.

In the next three months, apart from studying his major in the classrooms, he made room for his writing works in the library. Not for literature, but for economy or politics. He wrote some analysis on the “British Disease”, a term to describe the economic situation that the population grows slowly and the production is stagnant. He tended to lead the readers to observe the phenomena in daily life and then dissected it to interpret the economic situation of the whole UK or the globe. The more attractive element in his article is the use of math the students were learning. Calculus was used by Thomas to examine the economic data from the media. With the popularity’s increasing, the online magazine come out by the small office became the media product owning third largest subscription scale in the university. And thousands of students knew a society observer named Thomas Richmond. And it is sure that numerous of the students’ mind on the politics has been transformed into the case that Thomas wanted.

At the end of the first term, Thomas was voted as the editor-in-chief of the media office. He wanted to accelerate the development of the small office. “In a year, our office, which is called club by some people, is going to be a considerable media group in the campus. Our products are planned to be multiple.” Thomas announced to the members at the first meeting since he succeeded the leader’s position, “Our office has the ability to affect others’ opinions on the world, and of course the aesthetics.” As he was considering, his girlfriend Cathy posted a novel she created to Thomas, asking about serializing. And the plots of the novel were all adapted from their experience in the detective agency. That was a refreshing topic in literal! It also encouraged him to publish a new magazine in literal works.

But not all members in the office stood by him. Their argument point was that the money would run out if he added a new product. It could not be denied that the all funds of the office was only £5,500, which was all come from the subscription. The magazine that Thomas used to write for was the only product of the office, which was also the only income source. Bringing out a new magazine, it could cost at least £3,000.

Though most of the people were against him, Thomas insisted on his way. He had been accustomed to decide the case by himself. He invested 3,500 pounds into the new magazine, which was named Story by Thomas. Every students working for the new magazine were all instructed directly by Thomas. As is known by many people, Thomas determined to make the thing in elaboration, without missing any details to make it a satisfying magazine. At the same time, he put up many advertisement to ask his schoolmates to contribute their self-writing stories to the new magazine via the pages on Facebook and the tweets on Twitter. Actually, Thomas also worried about Story, the new magazine. He could not guarantee that numbers of people would write for his magazine, and numbers of people would subscribe the digital magazine from the office’s website. That was the first issue he should deal with since his succeeding. But the ending of the action was an entire success: Within one week after the advertising, 500 boys and girls wrote for him, making the email of the editors full of long and short stories written by the students. What’s more, the subscription number soared to 2,300 within a month, and the purchase of each issue online could brought the office 3,000 pounds every month! At the ends of the freshman school year, the whole assets of the office had raised to 24,000 pounds! And Cathy’s adventure story was the spotlight!

However, Thomas’s ambition did not stop. Don’t forget his hobby: playing the piano and composing his own music! He was eager to mix the hobby with the office’s new product. “Steve Jobs once said that the terminal goal of music production is free!”He liked this quote most, so he led the office develop a new service: A website providing free mp3 created by the users, and allowing others to download and remix! It was like the open source software, little copyright problem involved. The first mp3 was composed by Thomas himself. Thanks to his self-teaching music composing in the miserable time in primary school, his music was popular on the website and then growing number of mp3 works were uploaded onto the website. By then, Thomas’s office had been a media mogul in campus.

After the under graduation years, Thomas contrived to apply for the offer from Yale University and he managed to be admitted. For his future enterprise, he chose to study in a business major. Several of his previous mates in the Cambridge also came to USA universities for the master’s degree. After communication, Thomas appealed them to create a small firm to continue their office in a commercial form. This time, the production converged in music and video.

That was a music website, but it was quite intelligent. The firm encouraged the users to upload their own music on the servers of the website. And others who were interested in a click and bought them, of course some of them were the record agency. The website used a mathematical model to let the server remix the music automatically: Thomas considered about the astronomy knowledge related to gravity, and it could be the same as the style of the music: The more mp3 files a music genre content, the more possible a newly-uploaded mp3 would be remixed into that genre. That was named as the “gravity of the style”. As for the distinguishing of the style, Thomas found the mathematical laws of the sound waves and rhythms of each type of music. And then he used the knowledge of math model to come out different kinds of math formula.

But he did not want to set up the firm immediately. He invited some of his friends who majored in music try the website. And the result even shocked Thomas himself: Those friends who were nobody in the music suddenly became stars in the local area! After remixing, their works were more fascinating and made them popular. Questioned about the principle of the website, Thomas said, “The combination of math and art, just like Jobs said!” In other words, the music of the singers was all figured out by math.

With the advanced technique and the mates from the Cambridge, the small firm was established. And after so long time of injustice-suffering and non-recognition since primary school, Thomas stepped into a gold time.

From then on, many young people who have gift in music and singing have been raised up as stars on the internet. Of course, Thomas’s firm helped them to hold concerts in many stadiums and halls. At the same time, Thomas expand their production range: Movie! But all based on digital technology and let the users make their own movies and sell them on the platform they provided. Many movie stars have been erupting from countless number of acting lovers in the general. Within 6 months, their firm became a large-scale cyber media group. Meanwhile, the company has its own movie shooting equipment and product their own movies as Thomas was a gifted director and scenarist as well.

However, what made the media company widely known was the global economic crisis. Thomas might have never thought that the economy he learnt when he was got out of the activities which should make him a teen star in junior high school time. He reduced the dilation of the production in advance. In addition to this conservative measure, he took the advantage of the shock market knowledge to purchase some companies’ shares which he considered safe enough. He even claim that some of the shares he bought would rise in the crisis. Though few in the company agreed that the crisis would come, Thomas determined to do so as so one had more authority than him in the company. The things afterwards was sure: the storm came and the measures Thomas took made his enterprise had an alarming development. And he used the profits to buy some other network media companies to expand their production. When the crisis limped out of the world, a new giant turned up!

At the end of the interview, I ask Thomas some questions about his views on his experiences, especially those miserables. What he says is a long passage worthy to be engraved.

“Honest speaking, those injustice makes me more wise and scholarly. If I had been selected by Famaetopes Network and participate into the activity which seemed to be attractive for children and could make them famous, I could not have known so much about advanced math, known how to compose music or learnt basic combat skills. Without the combat skills, I would not have beaten the robbers in the Swiss and then been invited into the agency as a teen detective, though a part time ‘job’. If I had been appreciated by the high school teacher and selected to take part into the national math competition and then won a medal to be named as ‘math genius’, I could not have known a single knowledge point of politics, economy and particularly the ideas to judge the share market, and my company could not have got rid of the economic crisis so successfully. And it ought to be remembered: In both of the two miserable parts of time, I learned many kinds of languages which let me have a considerable ability to communicate with people from different cultures.

“It is a matter of suffering earlier or later. You probably think that you’re so young to be well off and any other people can’t lead such a fair life like you at the age of only 26. But you have not seen the issues steering me a lot when I was rather young: I was forgotten or left out to get the things that my classmates had, they could be little stars a few years earlier than; especially I was the only one! And when I was in senior high school I took some dangerous missions with my mates, including the girl who are my wife now. My enterprise did not appeared as the lightning comes. Using the time I was left out, I learned so many skills and plenty of knowledge which were later confirmed to be treasures for my enterprise. When I created the company, I was only 24, however, I had stored useful knowledge for nearly 20 years since my first touch of astronomy, which led me to being the ‘stupid kid’.

“Comparing with me, my primary school and junior high school classmates had got tremendous childhood and a portion of boyhood. I admit that they got far more than I got when we were both children and young teenagers: The children of the whole class became children stars because of the Famaetopes Network activity apart from me; The teens of the junior high school class were turned to be a group of young ‘math genius’ because of the nation competition. However, today do you know them? Of course not. When I was studying for the knowledge at home, they were running for their fame. Nobody wants to be nobody. Youth is a golden time to learn everything but not a golden time to be a star. If you keep silence when you’re young learning useful things, you’ll be a giant when you grow up and never fall down; if you try to be a young star, your light can’t shine long enough. When the former type of people become great men, the later type fade out on the contrary.

“Some of my friends asked me to upload my own music onto the website we made when the students who majored in music became local stars and tried our service and became local music stars. They knew I was good at composing, playing the piano and the guitar and singing, and later they knew that I was also good at acting in the scene and directing a movie, so they urged me to allow the company to product my works and believed if I did so, I could be a super star. But the experiences in the primary school and junior school had formed me a person who loved quietness. That is a condition to permit me to learn more and work more. The quietness because of injustice when I was young taught me a lot. And now quietness is a circumstance made by yourself.

“Maybe one day I will choose to be a music star or movie star. That is when I retire from my company and find a bit of fun in my life!”