Chapter 14: The old enemy begins to cross the line (revised)

“Sigh, what should I do.”

Tong An’yu collapsed onto her chair, listless, a red mark blooming on her chin from the chair back.

“What’s wrong, to make you so worried?”

Zhu Yan walked by, holding a cup of hot dragon fruit tea.

Tong An’yu twisted around, the corners of her eyes drooping, her gaze trembling as it lifted, like a pitiful little puppy.

“Lin Huaixu.”

Zhu Yan’s teacup swayed, her expression a little hard to describe.

“You’re still chasing him?”

Tong An’yu nodded.

Zhu Yan: “Is it because he’s too cold to you? Don’t be sad, he’s like that with everyone.”

Tong An’yu rubbed her chin and switched to using her arm as a pillow.

“I’m used to him being so sparing with his words, but I asked him to teach me Python, originally thinking I could have more contact with him. But in the end, he only gave me three lessons. Then, with nothing better to do and idle hands, I taught myself a whole book. Who knew I’d finish the entire winter break assignment he gave me in just five days? How was I supposed to know making a blog website was so simple!”

“…”

Zhu Yan suddenly felt the weight of the world on her shoulders.

“Classmate Tong An’yu, do you have any f*cking clue about your own learning ability?”

“Wait.”
Sun Han tore off her face mask and leaned over, her face dripping wet.

“You’re saying you finished the webpage that quickly? Does that mean you can help me with my big project? D*mn, I’ve been so busy with a competition lately.”

“No, is the webpage the point? The point is that Lin Huaixu is tutoring Little Yu!” Zhu Yan suddenly reacted, slammed her teacup down, and grabbed Tong An’yu’s shoulders with both hands. “Is he starting to like you a little?”

Jiang Xiaoying heard this and took off her headphones. While twisting her still-damp, freshly washed hair, she looked towards Tong An’yu.

“Really?”

Tong An’yu shook her head decisively.

“No.”

She was sure Lin Huaixu had never said those words, or she would have gone crazy with joy long ago.

“Then why was he willing to tutor you? That doesn’t fit his persona,” Zhu Yan was confused.

Speaking of this, Tong An’yu was quite proud.

“He may not like me, but he likes my cat.”

Just three days ago, they had gone to the pet hospital together to pick up Cooper. As busy as Lin Huaixu was, only this cat could lure him out of the study room.

The little cat had completely recovered and had a very lively personality, darting back and forth in its carrier, occasionally sticking a paw out to hook Tong An’yu’s scarf.

Lin Huaixu would then pinch its paw until it was willing to retract it with a placating meow.

Tong An’yu bought a large bag of pet supplies from the hospital, settled the bill, and waited for her family’s driver to pick them up.

To play with the cat, Lin Huaixu willingly waited with her, enduring the crosswind on Chengfu Road.

While waiting, Tong An’yu spoke again,

“Teacher Lin, what exactly is your hourly rate? I absolutely have to give it to you.”

Lin Huaixu glanced at her, then poured some cat food into his palm and fed it to Cooper’s mouth.

“Consider it child support. I’m the one who found him, after all.”

Tong An’yu sighed with emotion.

“I didn’t expect him to like cats so much. Even though he’s given him to me to raise, he’s still willing to pay to claim the title of cat dad.”

Zhu Yan scratched her head, feeling that something was off, yet it seemed irrefutable.

“Is that so? Then he’s quite a loving person.”

Exam week passed in a flash.

After the last elective exam, Tong An’yu poked the back of her head with her pen and leaned her body against her arm.
“Sigh, sigh, this is so hard. I still don’t quite get it.”

“What don’t you get?”

Lin Huaixu’s throat was a bit dry from talking. He went to the side to drink some water. It was rare for him to say so much at once; Tong An’yu had an exceptional number of questions.

Tong An’yu pointed at the laptop screen, lifting her eyelids to quickly scan Lin Huaixu.

“I can’t figure out how to use this Flask framework.”

“This is the simplest framework, suitable for developing small websites. But it usually takes about two weeks to get the hang of it, so you don’t need to rush.”

“Oh.”

Tong An’yu seemed comforted. While clutching her arm, she feigned a casual question, “So can I still ask you on WeChat during the break? The homework you assigned is pretty hard.”

Lin Huaixu felt that she had a lot of small movements today. When asking questions, she would always use her peripheral vision to glance at his expression.

“You can,” he said.

Although his expression was serious, he still agreed.

The next day, Lin Huaixu sold his professional books from the semester to a second-hand bookstore and then knocked on the door of a computer science professor.

He had previously contacted a practical project listed on the school’s official website. If his GPA for the semester was within expectations, he planned to transfer to the computer science department.

If the practical project could prove his ability, he wouldn’t have to drop a grade to transfer departments.

When he entered, two professors were chatting. One said, “I estimate quite a few students will be transferring to your computer science department this year. The internet industry is getting better and better.”

“Ah, but it’s still not as good as your civil engineering, it’s the most popular after all.”

“That’s true, but I don’t want students to flock over in a swarm. It’s best if they are truly talented, not just looking at the money.”

Lin Huaixu knocked on the door again, not loudly.

One of the professors finally noticed him and recalled his name.

“Oh… Lin Huaixu.”

Then he said to the civil engineering professor, “This student wants to transfer from the physics department to computer science. He’s going to try out my project over the winter break.”

“Hello, professors,” Lin Huaixu was very humble.

“You said you don’t want to drop a grade to transfer, but you have to be prepared. The credits are not that easy to make up. You must learn both quickly and well.”

Before Lin Huaixu could speak, he turned his head to his colleague again. “I happen to know a girl from the Gifted Program who, after less than two weeks of contact with Python, can already build a blog website. That kind of student is suitable for transferring.”

The civil engineering professor: “Yo, that’s some strong practical ability. No wonder she caught your attention.”

Gifted Program, Python, blog website.
Lin Huaixu’s eyelid twitched.

“She’s the roommate of a student working on my thesis. I took a look at that website, it’s pretty well done. Python is really not what it used to be. Computer science is developing by the day.”

Lin Huaixu suddenly spoke up, “Professor, could I take a look?”

The professor was a bit surprised but still said, “I’ll find it for you.”

The website opened. The page was very simple, but the environment setup and database modeling were well done. The functions for adding, deleting, modifying, and querying articles were also implemented. At most, the UI beautification needed improvement, but for a beginner who had studied for less than two weeks, to achieve this level was already quite exaggerated.

The blog was named — “Tong An’yu’s Love Homework.”

Lin Huaixu straightened up, desperately wanting to light a cigarette right then and there.

The civil engineering professor: “Oh my, ‘Love Homework’ eh? I wonder who assigned it to her.”

The professor said to him, “It has its shortcomings, but it’s impressive overall. You should study it.”

Lin Huaixu smiled.

“Okay.”

Tong An’yu hadn’t received a message from Lin Huaixu for eight consecutive hours, even after she sent him a rare cat picture of Cooper.

‘So cold and ruthless.’

This was her last day at school. Her family was going to Hawaii for vacation this winter break. The flight was tomorrow night, and she wouldn’t be back until after the New Year.

After tossing and turning for most of the day, she finally made it to the study session at the library. She eagerly hugged her computer and pushed a piece of core code to him.

“I’ve finished the environment setup now, but I’m stuck on the routing design. Can you help me see what the problem is?”

Lin Huaixu had just finished dinner. At this moment, he was sitting in his chair, sipping water while scanning her already-implemented code.

He screwed the cap back on the bottle and asked nonchalantly, “Are you really stuck?”

“Of course!”

“Think carefully before you speak again.”
Lin Huaixu withdrew his gaze, left her there, and opened his computer to start working.

The person beside him fell silent out of fear.

After ten minutes, she asked cautiously, “Lin Huaixu, do you have some kind of technique to hack into my computer?”

Lin Huaixu leaned back in his chair, a slight curl on his lips. He chose to ignore her and continue working.

Tong An’yu’s heart was itching and scratching. She just couldn’t read Lin Huaixu’s expression. Was he angry or not? And how did he know she was lying?

She had hidden it so well… Could it be that a master was truly a master?

But as her chest burned with anxiety, Lin Huaixu just made her stand there holding her computer as punishment, not saying a single word.

‘So domineering.’

‘What right does he have to be so domineering.’

‘Is it just because she lied first?’
‘Alright, she did lie to him.’

“Actually…”

The sound of typing stopped. Lin Huaixu wanted to see what she was going to say.

“Actually, I lied. I already finished the website. I didn’t expect it to be so simple, I learned it just like that.”

Lin Huaixu: …

“You’re not mad, are you? I’m going to Hawaii tomorrow, and you don’t like replying to my WeChat. The winter break is so long, Lin Huaixu.”

After saying this, Tong An’yu was about to cook from embarrassment. The humanities and social science books on the shelves were all watching her, cheering and adding fuel to the fire.

She had never even admitted fault to her brother.

Lin Huaixu found it hard to imagine that the four words ‘the winter break is so long’ could have such power.

The library windows were very old, with wind seeping in through the cracks. The yellowish walls were peeling, and the radiator was only as warm as a palm.

The students had all left, leaving only a few people in the entire building, making the solitary desk lamp seem particularly lonely.

But at this moment, there was no chill, only the crisp, sweet fragrance of little bear cookies.

Whether intentionally or not, she was very good at acting spoiled, and he was truly powerless against it.

Lin Huaixu finally looked up, gazing deeply into her eyes.

“Don’t let it happen again.”

After a pause, he felt it wasn’t enough, and so he made a boundary-crossing request—
“Come back early.”