Chapter 17: My enemy squats for me

Tong An’yu had once heard that if you were physiologically attracted to someone, you would think they had a unique and captivating scent.

This was already the third time she had turned her head to lightly sniff the suit on her shoulders.

It was the scent of clear spring water mixed with the smell of an unlit cigarette pack, a bit addictive.

“Lin Huaixu, when did you start smoking?”

It wasn’t that she disliked smoking, but very few people around her smoked. Her dad had even quit under her mom’s coercion.

It was unhealthy, after all. She was a little worried about his young lungs.

“About two years ago,” he said lightly.

“Why?”

She began to show her curiosity without restraint.

It seemed she knew she was wearing armor today, holding a weapon, and had the upper hand, so she pressed forward to conquer the city.

“To relieve stress.”

Lin Huaixu really did as she wished, slowly turning his head to blow the smoke away from her. Only when the smell was gone did he face her directly.

“Even a genius like you gets stressed?”

Tong An’yu was quite surprised because he clearly demonstrated a technical level that surpassed his peers. Moreover, he was always confident, his goals clear, as if every step was calculated, and the future was destined to go in the direction he predicted.

She wasn’t worried at all that he would have any tricky matters he couldn’t solve.

“You think the college entrance exam is easy?” Lin Huaixu said, amused.

At that time, he had no other choice. In the country, the college entrance exam was the only iron rule. No one would give him any preferential treatment just because he had once been admitted to Stanford.

He had received an international education since high school, following a completely different assessment system.

The college entrance exam was a complete unknown to him. He had to face the reality that he might fall from a world-class university to a third-rate one in the country.

Not only did he have to accept reality, but he also had to use all available resources to maximize his time efficiency.

He looked up the domestic college entrance exam policies and found that top universities, in order to attract science and engineering talent, had launched a “Strong Foundation Plan.” As long as one could get full marks in math and physics, they would be eligible to participate in an interview and gain early admission.

Every step was difficult, but it was a path that could be taken.

He didn’t need to study English, and his Chinese relied entirely on his middle school foundation. He skimmed through chemistry and biology.

He spent a year digesting three years’ worth of physics and math exam points, then began to do massive amounts of practice questions to increase the probability of getting full marks as much as possible.

During this period, he also had to face pressure from all sides after his family went bankrupt.

He barely had any time to sleep, and he couldn’t distinguish between day and night. In the end, he suffered from habitual neuralgia and arrhythmia, and he had to find ways to relieve the stress.

Tong An’yu thought again of what Jiang Xiaoying had said: his family went bankrupt, he had to cut off his studies and return to the country, and retake the college entrance exam. Because his father had once owned a company, his mother, who remained abroad, couldn’t apply for a scholarship.

It was probably because Lin Huaixu appeared so emotionally stable that she had never carefully considered how difficult it all was.

Thinking about it this way, his life had actually been delayed by three years because of this.

And with one misstep, he could have missed out on T University. In that case, the delay might not have been just three years, but his entire life.

Tong An’yu felt a belated sense of thrill. He barely had any time to stop and digest his grief. He had to save himself from dire straits without a moment’s rest.

“Then when will you stop smoking?” Tong An’yu asked.

Or rather, when would he consider himself to have escaped the dire straits?

“You don’t like it?”

Lin Huaixu studied her worried and searching eyes in the orange light, and began to consider the importance of smoking.

He couldn’t afford high-end cigarettes now, and the smell was probably not very pleasant.

Someone like her probably hadn’t had the chance to smell this kind of smoke in her seventeen years of life.

“No, I just feel like your body is a bit weak.”
He caught colds so easily, didn’t pay attention to buying a few thick clothes, and spun like a high-speed top every day. Who knew where the money he earned from part-time jobs went? He had simply collected all the necessary conditions for an early death.

“My, body, is a bit, weak?”

Lin Huaixu’s volume rose slightly, his eyes sharp and cold.

“…”

‘Of course, he’s unwilling to admit it.’
Tong An’yu decided not to argue with him.

“It’s because I don’t like it,” she admitted against her will.

This cold and aloof face was also particularly handsome at this moment. The lines of his face were so smooth that even Michelangelo wouldn’t dare to sculpt it this way. Moreover, Tong An’yu couldn’t think of any male celebrity he resembled. He was a unique, high-class kind of handsome.

Lin Huaixu could see she was obviously faking it; she simply thought he was frail and sickly.

‘Forget it, there will always be opportunities to let her try in the future.’

“After I finish one thing, I’ll stop smoking.”

He glanced towards the brightly lit office building to the right of the exhibition hall, his voice a little low.

The office buildings in the international trade area were extremely expensive, and Quantum Particle happened to be located in that building.

“Do you go to the library so often just to work on this?”

“Occasionally.”

Most of the time, he was making money. He had to at least survive.

“Is it that you won’t even consider being in a relationship until this is done?”

Tong An’yu’s eyes and the corners of her mouth slowly drooped at an imperceptible speed.

She could already feel it. He was still under a lot of pressure, which was why he relied on cigarettes. With this goal in front of him, he couldn’t possibly—

Lin Huaixu didn’t answer.

In that instant just now, when she held up the lighter and leaned in, the back of her hand lightly bumping against his palm, it brought a tremor to his chest.

The question lingered.

“Within a year.”

He hadn’t told his father, Lin De, nor had he told Yuan Qing and the others, yet he told her, an unrelated person.

He probably really wanted to give her a definite deadline.

“You already have a plan?”

Tong An’yu suddenly looked up, her eyes shining with hope again.

“Mhm.”

Tong An’yu said seriously, “Then can you CC me a notification when the time comes? I don’t want to be intercepted by someone else.”

“…”

Lin Huaixu: “Should I synchronize the progress with you and align the granularity at any time?”

‘How on earth is her brain wired?’

‘Does she think he’s a flash sale item?’

“Achoo!”

Tong An’yu rubbed her nose and wrapped his suit tighter around her. The originally fresh and lovely gown only revealed the puffy tulle underneath.

High heels were so hard and tiring. The balls of her feet were already numb. And being outside with her legs exposed on this day was still a bit chilly. She wondered if the thermal expansion and contraction would make her legs look thinner.

The guests in the exhibition hall hadn’t all left yet, but she was the only super VIP left. Now, there were some media reporters inside, who were there to take photos for the brand’s press releases.

Lin Huaixu couldn’t leave just yet, and she didn’t want to leave.

“Go back into the exhibition hall and find a chair to sit on.”

Lin Huaixu stubbed out his cigarette, but he didn’t say she could leave.

“Where do you work?” she asked.

“The backstage control room.”

“Then take me to see it.”

The high heels were a full seven centimeters high. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her body swaying precariously, her calves taut.

“There’s no space. You go to the exhibition hall.”

Lin Huaixu glanced at her knees, which were red from the cold, and frowned in refusal.

The control room was temporarily cleared out, and there was still a lot of clutter inside. It was messy, cramped, had no windows, and no ventilation.

“No, I’m not interested in modern art. I want to see the programs you guys wrote.”

‘She didn’t come here to see the exhibition in the first place, so how could she abandon the main goal for a secondary one, ignoring the person right in front of her.’

Few people had ever directly rejected a solution he offered. Lin Huaixu narrowed his eyes, meeting her gaze which clearly had other intentions.

‘Forget it.’

‘It’s not like he didn’t want her to follow him.’

The senior schoolmate watched with wide eyes as Lin Huaixu led the SVIP little princess in through the side door to their cramped and pitiful control room.

“Huaixu, this is…”

The schoolmate followed, glancing at the gorgeously dressed, pure and elegant Tong An’yu, then at Lin Huaixu in his simple shirt with his hands casually in his pockets.

“Our schoolmate, from the math department…” Lin Huaixu’s words got stuck, his face stiffened, and then he said with a wooden expression, “A senior, third-year.”

“So you’re from the same school!”

That schoolmate was also enthusiastic and quickly came forward to shake Tong An’yu’s hand. “Hello, hello, senior. Senior, you look so young. I’m a sophomore in computer science.”

Tong An’yu tried hard to suppress her laughter, feeling immensely proud.
Back then, a certain someone had said so seriously, “Can you not call me junior?” Now, he had to respect reality and introduce her as his senior.

“Hello, junior.”

Tong An’yu firmly shook the hand of the computer science schoolmate, then raised her chin at Lin Huaixu.

Lin Huaixu looked at her colorful facial expressions and let out a soft, amused chuckle.

‘As expected of a little princess whose EQ points are all spent on her IQ.’
‘How does she get so proud so easily?’

Lin Huaixu walked to a corner on his own, pulled out a barstool from behind a table, and placed it next to Tong An’yu. “Sit.”

This kind of chair had a low back, a narrow seat, and was quite tall. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it looked elegant and was very suitable for displaying one’s leg shape and posture.

The control room only had this type of chair, probably moved over from the neighboring shopping mall.

Tong An’yu, after all, had not been trained and lacked the hardworking spirit of a female celebrity. She couldn’t stand any longer and hastily sat down on the chair, not caring about the value of this dress.

The room was very warm, but she was reluctant to return the suit to Lin Huaixu.

“Senior, are you here specifically to see the new spring/summer collection or are you interested in the theme of the exhibition?”
The schoolmate was a straight-laced guy who didn’t understand girls’ thoughts. After following this project, he really didn’t understand what was so attractive about luxury goods.

“Um…”

Tong An’yu rubbed her calves, her eyes darting around.

‘She was neither. She was here to create a chance encounter.’

Lin Huaixu watched her, wanting to see how she would answer.

“I came to see a handsome guy who’s really good-looking but isn’t in a relationship yet. Although I haven’t caught him yet, we’ve preliminarily aligned our granularity.”

After saying that, she glanced at Lin Huaixu.

‘Lin Huaixu wanted to ask her if she could be shy for even ten minutes.’

‘The person who was trembling and blushing while holding the lighter just now seems to have gone offline.’

The schoolmate was also simple-minded.

“Who is it? A celebrity?”

“Celebrities are not as hard to chase as him. I’m almost more familiar with the teachers in the physics department than he is,” Tong An’yu muttered under her breath, complaining, but not obviously.

Lin Huaixu: “…”

The schoolmate finally understood, his gaze shifting between the two of them. “Ah… haha, brother, you’ve got this.”

He patted Lin Huaixu’s shoulder, found an excuse to slip out, and didn’t disturb Tong An’yu’s arduous pursuit.

Only two people were left in the control room.

Tong An’yu bobbed her head like a nodding dog, not sitting still even while seated. The high heels were truly exquisite instruments of torture, constraining her bones into an extremely difficult posture. She didn’t know why only pain could display beauty.

But she was reluctant to leave Lin Huaixu and escape completely to her car.

‘It hurts, it hurts, it seems like the area below my ankle is chafed. I was too excited just now to notice.’

‘But this chair is so high, it’s not convenient to take a look.’

Just as she was about to change her sitting position, Lin Huaixu suddenly squatted down.

‘Hmm?’

‘What’s wrong with him? Why did he squat down? Did I get something dirty on me or is my nail polish not nice?’

No one could stand this kind of close scrutiny from their crush. Tong An’yu held her breath, subconsciously wanting to hide.

“Don’t move.”

He suddenly reached out and grabbed her cold ankle.

‘As expected of someone who’s 187cm tall, his hands are really slender and can hold her perfectly.’

Tong An’yu felt that patch of skin being electrified, numbed, and tingling. In an instant, it no longer listened to the commands of her cerebral cortex, only the instructions in his mouth.

Although he was squatting, his posture was very relaxed and natural, without the slightest hint of servility. Instead, it was as if he was still in control of everything.

Then, as if he had a talent for it, he quickly figured out her complicated high heels and easily undid the buckle.

Suddenly, the restraint was gone, and she was relaxed and liberated.

‘No, not completely liberated. Her ankle was still held in his hand.’

The high heel fell to the ground, revealing a red patch of skin that seemed to have been chafed.

Lin Huaixu pressed it with his thumb, and Tong An’yu tensed her toes nervously.

The light from the incandescent lamp leaked down from the ceiling, falling on her delicate skin. She had obviously never suffered any hardship, and a slight chafe was enough to hurt her.

‘And she had stood like this all night.’

Lin Huaixu quickly released his fingers and, following the same method, took off the other high heel.

Then he stood up, put the high heels aside, and asked, “Did you bring a spare pair of shoes?”

Tong An’yu shrank her legs back. “No.”

“Where’s your car?”

Tong An’yu’s eyes widened, like some innocent little animal. “What car? There’s no car.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Huaixu raised his eyebrows slightly, looked at her for a long time, and then let out a soft laugh. “Then you can just hang there.”

It wasn’t like he hadn’t attended this kind of event before. Before walking the red carpet, guests usually waited in their cars, either their own nanny vans or ones arranged by the organizer. There were companies that specialized in transportation and security.

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t…”

In her urgency, she grabbed Lin Huaixu’s sleeve. Her leg dropped, and her toes touched his clean white shoes. “Let me put it down, just for a moment.”

This action of hers made Lin Huaixu clearly pause.

Her pinkish toes rested on the tip of his shoe, not with much force, like the wintersweet blossoms of Yilan Hall falling onto the ice. Then, the spring river warmed, and from then on, it possessed a weightless strength.

“Tong An’yu,” he called her name.

She was very self-aware and lifted her leg again. “I know, I know, it won’t happen again.”

‘If she couldn’t put it down, she would just alternate resting it on the instep of her other foot. There were always more solutions than difficulties.’

Lin Huaixu looked at the abruptly withdrawn toes, a scorching fire rising in his heart. The insatiable desire spread like spring water, gradually losing control.

Under the surveillance of his rationality, he indulged his desire and pressed her knee down again.

“No need. From now on, there will be no more ‘it won’t happen again’.”