Chapter 18: My enemy sent me home

The suit Tong An’yu had been wearing for a long time was taken back because, as it turned out, he had rented it!

‘If you rented it, how dare you wear something so good-looking?’

She gritted her teeth, tugged on a sleeve, and secretly pulled, “In… in consideration of you letting me rest my feet, can’t I just buy it for you!”

Lin Huaixu, calm and composed, pried open her reluctant fingers, “The shop only rents, it doesn’t sell.”

‘What kind of shop doesn’t know how to do business?’

Tong An’yu watched with wide eyes as he pulled the suit back. The taxi dropped her off at the entrance of the villa community. A black car had been following behind them pitifully the whole time; it was her family’s driver.

“Then I’ll pay the taxi fare.”

Tong An’yu bent down to scan the taxi’s QR code, but Lin Huaixu stopped her.

“The school will reimburse it.”

“…”

Before leaving, Lin Huaixu glanced at this community one more time. She had said her home wasn’t far from the entrance, and the security here was very strict, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

Getting into the taxi again, Lin Huaixu said to the driver, “To the south gate of T University.”

The driver said, “Yo, that’s quite far. You’re taking a big detour.”

The car turned around and went back the way it came. The black car behind them finally stopped following and instead drove through the main gate into the villa community.

The driver said, “Holy c*w, I didn’t even dare to tell you guys, there was a car following us. Scared the crap out of me. Good thing it stopped following.”

Lin Huaixu: “That’s her family’s car, escorting her back.”

The driver didn’t understand, “Ah, then why didn’t you two just take her family’s car?”

Lin Huaixu smiled but didn’t answer.

About an hour later, they finally arrived at T University. The driver said, “Your top university is really something else, even reimbursing students for taxis.”

Lin Huaixu scanned the code to pay and said nonchalantly, “There’s no reimbursement.”

The school had indeed arranged for a car to pick up and drop off him and another schoolmate, but the car’s route was fixed. After dropping Tong An’yu home, he obviously couldn’t take that car anymore.

He didn’t have the driver take him all the way to the dormitory, but got out at the school gate and walked back along the small path.

The grass was growing, and the warblers were flying; the scent of spring on campus was getting stronger.

On the way, he received a message from Yuan Qing’s side: “I’ve compiled the survey and sent it to you. There’s no more money in the account.”

“Got it.”

He clicked to receive the file and transferred another fifty thousand yuan to Yuan Qing.

“Ah Xu, can you really make money doing this? Won’t all the money you’ve invested go down the drain? I think it’s better to be a bit more stable. You should finish your studies at T University first, then you’ll definitely be able to find a high-paying job…”

“If it was just for a job, why didn’t I just finish my studies at Stanford?” Lin Huaixu retorted.

Yuan Qing was silent for a long time before asking in a low voice, “Do you regret giving up the opportunity to study abroad for—”

“No, don’t overthink it.”

Lin Huaixu interrupted her, his tone overly calm. “I’m optimistic about the domestic market, so I need to come back early to build my network.”

“Mhm.”

Yuan Qing choked back a sob, and fearing she would lose her composure, she hastily hung up the phone.

She thought of how hysterical she had been back then, thought of how she had been rushed to the hospital for respiratory poisoning and saw the haggard, worried faces of her parents.

At that time, several families were in the hospital room. After Colin Interactive Entertainment went bankrupt, they had become a complete community of interests.

She stared at the ceiling and cried silently, saying nothing. She couldn’t let go of her life studying abroad, her circle of friends, and she couldn’t accept reality.

She knew that she and the person she liked stood on opposite ends of a scale, one’s gain was the other’s loss.

For a long time, she had been deceiving herself. She had only remained silent, she had not forced him to give up. This could not be considered her fault.

But when Lin Huaixu said with a calm face, “Let her continue her studies in the US, I’ll come back and take the college entrance exam,” she had truly let out a sigh of relief.

To this day, Lin Huaixu was still willing to use a white lie to ease her psychological burden.

How could she not like such a good person?

After hanging up the phone, Lin Huaixu held his phone, his gaze falling on the suit jacket she had been wearing all this time.

At this moment, the clothes no longer had any smell of tobacco, but were instead stained with the scent of her Un Jardin sur le Nil, the final note long and warm.

Bewitched by the quiet spring night, he decisively contacted the seller on the online shopping platform, reported it as damaged, and then bought the suit.

Returning to school on Monday, Tong An’yu resumed her usual attire.

In the morning, she patted her face with some essence water, and without even having time to comb her hair, she sat down on her chair, waiting for the academic affairs system to open so she could snatch up any microelectronics elective courses that others had dropped or cancelled.

Since she had promised her dad she would study chips, she couldn’t just apply for a Ph.D. with empty hands. At the very least, she needed to have the foundational knowledge and get a strong letter of recommendation from the course professor.

As for papers, she could only work hard in her last year and a half.

While she was refreshing the page, Zhu Yan came in from outside, yawning, holding a pile of dried clothes.

“How’s it going? Any progress in chasing your man?”

Tong An’yu worked hard to make Lin Huaixu know.

Tong An’yu: “It’s important.”

Zhu Yan’s eyes lit up. “Is there such a good thing?”

Tong An’yu puffed out her chest proudly,

“He even replies to my WeChat messages now!”

Zhu Yan smiled, “Go home.”

Sun Han flipped over and got out of bed.

“Little Yu, I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”

“Good news?”

“I showed the blog website you made with Python to my advisor before. My advisor said you have foresight, and that Python is the future trend.”

Tong An’yu cupped her cheeks shyly, “It’s not all my credit.”

“The bad news is, Lin Huaixu worked on a project with my advisor over the winter break. My advisor showed him your work and told him to study hard. He agreed.”

Tong An’yu: “…”

‘Great, case closed.’

She finally knew how Lin Huaixu had seen through her lies.

Jiang Xiaoying was already planning to go to the cafeteria for breakfast. After hesitating for a long time, she still put down her car keys, sighed, and turned her head, “Little Yu, I advise you not to blindly like him.”

Several people looked at her at the same time, and Tong An’yu looked confused.

Sun Han smirked, “Don’t tell me you’re still hung up on Lin Huaixu and don’t want Little Yu to get him.”

“I’m not that bored.”

Jiang Xiaoying rolled her eyes. “Didn’t I sign up for ‘Introduction to Frontiers in Physics’ last semester? I never left the class group chat, and then a few days ago, I saw a message in the group. Do you guys know that registration for the Qinglan Cup competition has started this year? The preliminary round topic given by the officials is [Modeling for Encrypted Power Consumption Optimization of IoT Chips Based on Hardware Security].”

“The Qinglan Cup, that’s the competition held by that multinational giant, right? I heard the first prize is one hundred thousand,” Zhu Yan said.

Sun Han, being a computer science major herself, was also involved in the registration issue. “I know, what’s wrong? Anyone who wants to participate should have already formed a team by now.”

She didn’t need to participate for now. Firstly, this topic had little to do with the direction she wanted to pursue in the future, and secondly, she had already won a gold medal in ACM in her sophomore year.

Jiang Xiaoying nodded, then looked at the completely clueless Tong An’yu. “This year’s competition requires a team of at least five people. Although the rules say there are no restrictions on schools and majors, in previous years, even if they weren’t in the same major, the teams were basically from the same school. Lin Huaixu posted a team formation message in the group, wanting to find someone from the physics department to join.”

Zhu Yan: “This topic has nothing to do with the physics department, right?”

Of course, there were still many masters in the physics department who were willing to train in various competitions.

Jiang Xiaoying: “That’s right, so it’s very strange that he posted it in the physics department group.”

Sun Han: “With his ability, it shouldn’t be difficult for him to lead a team to compete in the preliminary round, right?”

“Let me finish.”

Jiang Xiaoying raised her chin. “I was very confused after seeing it, so I went to ask him. He said he didn’t expect to find a very capable helper in the physics department, but just to make up the numbers.”

“So arrogant.”

Sun Han quite admired this kind of arrogant person. You need to have the confidence to be arrogant.

Jiang Xiaoying smiled, “Do you know who the other teammates he found are? One is a freshman from Fuller Technology Institute, one is a master’s student in game design from Kanggouzi University, and there’s also an international student from Ohio State.”

“I’ve never even heard of the first two schools. I thought they were some diploma mills he made up. With this lineup, it’s like he’s just playing around. Who would be willing to team up with him?”

Zhu Yan frowned, “This is too ridiculous. Even if he can’t find someone from our school, P University or R University nearby would be fine too.”

Jiang Xiaoying: “I tactfully expressed my incomprehension of his team building, but he insisted on bringing these few people, saying he would bear the vast majority of the work.”

Tong An’yu quickly made the connection and raised her hand, “The three you mentioned seem to be his childhood friends.”

Jiang Xiaoying: “Little Yu, no matter who it is, don’t you think he doesn’t separate public and private matters? Taking a few useless people to a competition, does he see the Qinglan Cup as child’s play? Anyone who sees this would find it absurd.”

Sun Han guessed, “Perhaps these few are geniuses who are severely specialized? Asperger’s?”

Jiang Xiaoying: “Come on, truly capable people wouldn’t fall to these schools no matter how bad they are. Even if there were, would he run into two or three of them at once?”

Tong An’yu slowly lowered her arm.

Jiang Xiaoying sighed, “Little Yu, I’m especially glad that I cut my losses in time now. His family went bankrupt, he’s working part-time everywhere, and he still has to drag along a bunch of burdens. This shows that his family not only owes financial debts but also human debts. This person is obviously a huge red flag.”

Tong An’yu lowered her eyes and picked at her nails. “He’s not a red flag…”

Jiang Xiaoying’s voice was very cold, “I advise you to cut your losses in time too. The internet boom has already passed. This person looks arrogant now, but with no family assets or connections, he’ll just be a cog in the machine in the future. What great prospects can he have? He might even need your help to find a job.”

Tong An’yu frowned, “Xiaoying, we’re only in university. Why do you judge a person’s entire life after just a few meetings?”

She didn’t understand. She had just gone to the art exhibition yesterday to see the digital display Lin Huaixu had made. He said he had a goal he was working hard towards, and there would be results within a year.

She felt that he was a person with a plan and strong execution ability, and he had never thought of taking advantage of her. Even if she couldn’t catch him in the end, she still recognized that he was a rare and outstanding person.

Jiang Xiaoying: “Fine, even if he gets lucky and has some prospects, didn’t you see there’s a girl among his childhood friends?

They’ve known each other for over ten years, and he still takes care of her even when she’s overseas. What are you? Is he that good to you? Has he ever said he’d take you to win an award? You’ve chased him to so many evening study sessions, I bet he never even told you about registering for this competition.”

Tong An’yu was at a loss for how to refute for a moment. She moved her lips, but not a single sound came out.

He indeed hadn’t mentioned the Qinglan Cup. If Jiang Xiaoying hadn’t brought it up, she probably wouldn’t have known even after the competition ended. After all, Lin Huaixu would never tell her what he was busy with.

Actually, she didn’t need him to take her to win an award at all. She had the ability to solve difficult problems with him and compete for the gold medal.

But not thinking to tell her, wasn’t it because she was just an outsider?

Jiang Xiaoying: “Little Yu, you’re too naive. You can’t play with him. You should think about it carefully. I’m going to eat first.”