Zuo Baixuan thought she would have to wait until tomorrow morning at the earliest.
Luan Yenan looked at Zuo Baixuan's dimpled face as she smiled, her delicate features transforming her refined elegance into stunning beauty.
She didn't speak, she just kept watching.
Seeing this, Zuo Baixuan felt really embarrassed, so she turned back into a sweet and innocent girl and apologized softly, "This is the only sheet I could find. It's pure white on the back, so it should be usable. Just make do with it for now, and I'll change it for you tomorrow when it's dry."
Luan Yenan's eyes narrowed, but a smile crept onto his lips.
Is this little white flower starting to play tricks? Is she taking revenge for biting me in a place like this?
How childish.
She took a step forward, as if she was about to enter the room.
This action startled Zuo Baixuan, who had just relaxed, causing her to take a step back and bump into the doorknob.
The door was slammed against the wall, and the person was instantly sucked in by it. The person also tilted to the side, leaving half of their body exposed.
Zuo Baixuan quickly straightened her body to prevent Luan Yenan from walking in.
It wasn't until much later that Zuo Baixuan realized that she had stopped Luan Yenan not because she was afraid he would come in and do something inappropriate to her, but because the computer was still on the email screen.
Luan Yenan gave a half-smile, raised his chin, and reached out to pinch Zuo Baixuan's face.
"Now you're afraid of me?"
Zuo Baixuan simply slapped Luan Yennan's hand away expressionlessly and met his gaze: "You're the one who told me not to be afraid. Now you want me to be afraid? Anyway, it's already changed, what do you want?"
"I don't mean anything by it, I just want to remind you to change your clothes tomorrow, otherwise I'll sleep in your room."
Even under those circumstances, Zuo Baixuan did not waver in her resolve.
But at this moment, because of Luan Yenan's threatening tone in a low voice, a subtle atmosphere was felt in the air.
"Okay! I have to go to school early tomorrow morning. I'll make breakfast and hang the bed sheet out to dry, and I'll change it for you when I come back in the afternoon!" Zuo Baixuan unconsciously raised her voice.
Luan Yenan sensed her panic and smiled silently again. He picked up the blanket and left without saying a word.
Still suffering from a fever, Zuo Baixuan took two deep breaths, smelling the lingering vodka scent in the air.
Looking at Luan Yenan's retreating figure as she entered the room, she keenly sensed that their relationship had undergone a subtle, almost imperceptible change due to their brief exchange.
...
The next morning.
As promised to Luan Yenan, Zuo Baixuan took care of breakfast and bedding before heading to school early.
After submitting my application via email yesterday, I still need to prepare photocopies of all the materials before going to Professor Chen's office for an interview.
Professor Chen, whose full name is Chen Qian, is an academician and one of the top academic figures at Peking University. She is a well-known workaholic; there are even rumors that she divorced her husband because of her dedication to her work.
Hard work pays off; she has published so many articles that she can't count them on two hands.
She has always modestly claimed that her programming skills are not good, but she has her own ideas about basic algorithms and her research capabilities have always been among the world's best.
The results have been highly productive, incubating many projects, including some world-leading ones.
He has also trained countless top network engineers and has always held a high position in the industry.
This is why when she wanted to vouch for a confirmed collaborator and request a visiting professorship, the university quickly granted it.
Even without considering all that, undergraduates would still fight tooth and nail to get in. For them, joining the program also means a chance to be recommended for graduate school.
Aside from the School of Glandular Research, Professor Chen has the most guaranteed admission spots for graduate students.
"My God!! Zuo'er! Do you know what? Professor Chen's partner is absolutely insane! No wonder Professor Chen picked him out at first glance!"
Zuo Baixuan had just finished preparing her materials and was about to return to her dormitory to rest for a while when she heard Jiang Lingdan startle and raise a watermelon, trying to feed her.
Zuo Baixuan was used to this double entendre. She took the watermelon and took a small bite: "Crazy? What are you doing?"
"I just heard it from people in the office this morning. That genius saw the job posting and volunteered to write some code." Jiang Lingdan paused deliberately.
Zuo Baixuan pressed on, "Professor Chen received thousands of self-recommendations before, all for writing code, and she didn't accept any of them, did she? What kind of code was this time, so amazing, that it completely impressed Professor Chen?"
"Hehe, isn't Professor Chen's project about cybersecurity this time? Everyone else's code is designed with security in mind. But this genius sent over a virus!"
Zuo Baixuan was stunned.
That person really is quite unorthodox.
"Just because it's an unconventional approach, Professor Chen agreed? That can't be right, can it?"
"Of course not! I heard from people in the office that Professor Chen was really agitated at the time, and he asked the principal for the internal network administrator password. He clicked in and took a look, and all the files were hijacked, and he became a 'hostage'!"
Zuo Baixuan opened her mouth, put down the watermelon, and sat down in the chair next to Jiang Lingdan, trying to see what the original words in the chat history were.
The description is exactly the same, without the slightest exaggeration.
"Isn't this... 'expert' afraid of getting arrested?"
"That's why I said the expert is crazy! I also heard from a junior who was looking for information about the school's faculty to promote her WeChat official account that she saw a very strange blank resume file. She found it very strange, and when she asked her friends to check it together, it was all 404 on the school's intranet and external websites."
"Is this an emergency measure by the school, or a threat from a 'superstar'?"
Seeing Zuo Baixuan's interest, Jiang Lingdan said with satisfaction, as if telling a story: "I don't know, but I heard that it's because this great god sent his file in, and in order to avoid greater impact, it was urgently blocked."
"This genius created a profile for himself that says he's a visiting professor. It's hilarious! His resume is half true and half false, and it's completely integrated into the database. Now he's just going to play along. As long as he comes over, registers his identity, and submits a copy of his ID card, he'll be perfectly legitimate."
Zuo Baixuan nodded repeatedly: "This is really... crazy."
She frowned slightly, thinking of Luan Yenan, who was coming to the school to invest today.
If Luan Yenan had any brains, he would definitely choose to invest in Professor Chen's project.
It's truly unpredictable what a crazy investor and a crazy guru will bring to this project.
"Zuo'er, what are you thinking about again? You seem distracted."
"Huh? What did you say?"
“I said, ‘Snakes, insects, rats and ants’ and those four also applied to join this project. The forum post’s spread is definitely related to them. You need to be careful.”
"Snakes, insects, rats and ants".
Four men.
It consists of three Alphas and one Omega.
They are all second-rate rich kids, but among the many rich kids, they are four who are somewhat hardworking but whose methods are somewhat dirty.
The three Alphas were nicknamed Dragon, Poison Bee, and Ant.
There's also an Omega who's called a hamster because he has some buck teeth.
They're so cheesy and famous that people can't remember their real names, but they're always impressed by their nicknames.
"I'll be careful." Zuo Baixuan patted Jiang Lingdan lightly, reassuring her.
"Okay~ It's about time, let's go to Professor Chen's office." Jiang Lingdan jumped up from her seat and took Zuo Baixuan's hand.
"I'm not a child, I don't need anyone to accompany me, I can go by myself." Zuo Baixuan smiled and tried to pull her hand away.
"What are you saying? You're allowed to go for the interview, but I'm not allowed to try my luck? I thought yesterday, with so many high-tech experts like you, you must be short of someone to do odd jobs. I'm perfect for that! So I signed up too." Jiang Lingdan playfully flicked her eyebrows.
Zuo Baixuan was both amused and exasperated. But seeing her good friend so happy, she chimed in, "Yes, yes, you're perfect for it. You might just be a dark horse and break through the ranks."
Given that Professor Chen can accept a mad genius, he probably isn't a rigid person who only values programming skills.
...
"Oh, isn't this Zuo Baixuan? Ah, no, calling her by her first name is a bit disrespectful. You should call her Mrs. Luan, right? Instead of being a perfectly good wealthy wife, you want to join the project team to gain experience so you can secure your position as the 'front-end' young mistress?"
As soon as I arrived outside Chen's office, I heard some discordant noises.
I saw that there were quite a few students standing in the corridor, some distance away from the four people outside the door.
Zuo Baixuan recognized that the four people occupying the doorway were none other than "snakes, insects, rats and ants".
The one who spoke was Poison Bee.
One was thin and thin, with a face full of acne scars that resembled compound eyes, and a very sharp tongue.
Zuo Baixuan didn't bother with it.
Jiang Lingdan was so angry that she wanted to curse back, but she was pulled back.
The other students nearby remained silent.
Only one girl, emboldened by her burly boyfriend, dared to kindly remind him, "Professor Chen seems to have other matters to attend to; the office door is locked, and we can't get in."
Zuo Baixuan smiled and nodded at her, knowing it was a veiled reminder, but she still continued walking towards the snakes, insects, and rodents until she stood in front of the office door.
She kept a low profile because she didn't want to get involved with this kind of inexplicable filth.
But once she's already attached, she won't back down.
Among the four, Long Ge, dressed like a model student, wearing glasses and with a refined appearance, gave Zuo Baixuan a disdainful look, then glanced at the short boy beside him.
The tall man frowned slightly as he hugged the short boy.
These two, one a hamster and the other an ant, are a couple.
The hamster stepped out of the ant's embrace, looked at Zuo Baixuan's clothes and appearance, and then laughed mockingly.
It looks nice, but it's too cheap.
A thin shirt with barely-there stitching, paired with light-colored jeans.
The typical attire of a poor, shabby college student.
The only valuable things he owned were his tacky gold ring and gold necklace.
"It seems the rumors on the forum were true. Although Luan Yenan married you, she didn't spend any money on you at all. You know, even if she was only dating a girlfriend for three days, she would at least give her a limited edition handbag. Look at you, tsk tsk tsk, so pathetic, you don't even have a decent piece of jewelry!"
Click.
Zuo Baixuan didn't speak, but noticed that the office doorknob had turned half a circle.
The door opened inwards.
Light leaked into the room.
A familiar smiling face appeared before my eyes.
A slender, fair arm with rolled-up sleeves reached out first and pressed down on the necklace on Zuo Baixuan's chest.