Chapter 20: My enemy embraced me

Later, Lin Huaixu went aside to take a call. Tong An’yu and Kong Jiashu ate snacks while searching for lunch on a food delivery website.

While he was away, Tong An’yu asked in a low voice, “Does that Feng Junda not like him? Is there a conflict between them?”
She was really too curious about his affairs.

Kong Jiashu already considered her one of his own. He even felt that this top student didn’t put on any airs and was easier to get along with than Lin Huaixu, so he told her everything he knew.

“The two of them used to be very good. When we were little, the four of us would play wildly outside. Xu-ge’s foot got cut by a piece of glass, and blood was gushing out. Yuan Qing and I were scared silly, we didn’t even know to find our parents. It was Feng-ge who carried him to the hospital.”

“Lin Huaixu played wildly?” Tong An’yu found it hard to believe.
She had thought Lin Huaixu had been a serious study fiend since he was young, the type who had to improve a little every day.

Kong Jiashu scratched his head, “Before he was six, Xu-ge lived with his maternal grandparents and was quite lively. Not so much afterwards. I heard it from my mom.”

He was also young back then, following behind Lin Huaixu like a little tag-along. Lin Huaixu never found him a burden and took him wherever he went to play.

He used to be the most attached to Lin Huaixu, but later… his memory also became blurry.

“Then why did he and Feng Junda become not so good now?” Tong An’yu asked.

Kong Jiashu: “Did their argument scare you?”

Tong An’yu: “No.”

Kong Jiashu buried his head in his phone, “It’s not a big deal.”

Tong An’yu: “Is it because of the bankruptcy?”

“You even know about the bankruptcy?” Kong Jiashu was stunned. This was truly one of his own. Xu-ge had even told her this.

This wasn’t what Lin Huaixu had said, but what Tong An’yu’s roommate had found out.
“Actually, I’ve seen Lin Huaixu’s… father come to the school to see him. Their relationship isn’t good either.”

After saying this, Tong An’yu frowned, looking very worried.

“You’ve even seen Uncle Lin?” Kong Jiashu was even more surprised. When Lin Huaixu and Lin De met, they definitely didn’t want anyone watching, because it would most likely not be very pleasant.

But Tong An’yu was there.

“It’s not that their relationship is bad, it’s all because of Auntie Ming. My dad said Auntie Ming snobbishly looks down on the poor and fawns on the rich, but Xu-ge sides with Auntie Ming.”

“Then is there any way for them to reconcile? Will it be difficult for Lin Huaixu to see his mother in the future?”
After all, she was on the other side of the ocean.

Kong Jiashu said, “Anyway, he definitely can’t see her now. He can’t even afford a plane ticket. But Xu-ge and my dad are thinking of a way. Maybe after they defeat the enemy, everything will be fine.”

“Who is the enemy?”
“The enemy is—”

Just as Kong Jiashu was about to blurt it out, his counselor’s phone rang like a summons of death. It was clear that his skipping class had been discovered.

As they say, third-rate schools are strict with discipline, and a useless counselor always has to find something to do.

Kong Jiashu was extremely annoyed and ran off to the side to make up an excuse, cursing under his breath.

Tong An’yu turned her head to look at Lin Huaixu’s back. He was still a stalk of bamboo that would rather break than bend. He stood there, unhurriedly dealing with something.

‘Why are they so harsh on him when it was the elders who went bankrupt?’
‘He’s so good.’

In the blink of an eye, it was April Fool’s Day. The team was formed, the list was submitted, and the professor who had led Lin Huaixu on the art exhibition project was chosen as the advisor.

When that professor heard that the team also included the self-taught Python genius Tong An’yu, he readily agreed and once again reminded Lin Huaixu to learn from her properly.

After Tong An’yu shared the whole story with her roommates, she was met with Jiang Xiaoying’s helpless sigh, “Little Yu, you’re too naive. Just you wait and see, you’ll regret it sooner or later.”

Tong An’yu burrowed into her quilt and covered her ears.

‘Then she’d rather be a not-so-smart person.’

Tong An’yu never regretted fighting side by side with Lin Huaixu, but when they actually started working together, she discovered that it was a completely different matter from chasing someone.

There was no team without any conflicts, and the chaser and the chased were no exception.

On T University’s Zihua sports field, a large crowd of students were night running, group after group like an eagle catching chicks. In the center of the field, souls who loved freedom were sitting in groups of three and two.

On the left, an opera club member, with their face covered and eyes closed, faced the high sky, faced the grass, and sang with a loud, melodious voice that pierced the ears.

On the right, a young couple in love had spread a blanket and were lying on the ground, looking at the dark, cloud-filled night sky with not a single star, talking about everything from life ideals to spicy hot pot.

And right in the center, Tong An’yu sat cross-legged on the grass. She raised her hand to open the brightly lit computer screen, displaying her design to Lin Huaixu with the air of a general.

Lin Huaixu stood, looking down at her power consumption model, his eyebrows rising higher and higher, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter. After a moment, he said, “Explain.”

“P equals idle power consumption plus encryption operation power consumption times the proportion of encryption tasks. Get the hardware parameters of the chip used, plug it into the tool, and it’s OK.”

Lin Huaixu was not so easily convinced.
“Have you considered the influence of time?”

Tong An’yu: “It’s possible, but there’s a problem with the encryption algorithm, so it’s temporarily not considered.”

Lin Huaixu: “All these encryption algorithms have theoretical cracking complexities, I don’t need to calculate them again. I’m currently building a function for the risk of data leakage.”

Tong An’yu frowned, “Wait a minute, what do you mean by theoretical cracking complexity?”

Lin Huaixu: “It means if you know the elliptic curve discrete logarithm, you can quantify the difficulty of cracking.”

Tong An’yu: “Then why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Didn’t I tell you to consider the time factor?”

Tong An’yu: “I’m not a network security major. You need to align some basic knowledge with me, otherwise I wouldn’t have been delayed at this step.”

Lin Huaixu didn’t want to spend energy on emotions, so he decisively skipped this part and continued, “Take a look at the function for the probability of data being eavesdropped on and the reduction in unencrypted loss and encrypted loss.”

Tong An’yu blinked. Had they finished talking about that topic?

But she had indeed been led astray by Lin Huaixu, or rather, the function was more attractive to her.

“No,” she said.

“Why?” Lin Huaixu asked.

“It doesn’t feel right.”

“…”

Lin Huaixu moved his gaze to her face, wanting to confirm if she was deliberately messing with him.

Tong An’yu: “I’m serious. A function that I feel is wrong must have a problem. It’s been like this since I was little, just like ordinary humans have a feel for language when they learn it.”

‘Ordinary humans.’

Lin Huaixu took a deep breath, really wanting to light a cigarette. The opera club member next to them started singing “The Story of the Western Wing” as if cheering him on—

“If you do not go, his glistening autumn waters will be stared through, his faint spring mountains will be furrowed…”

The singing became louder and louder, as if it were a beacon in this sea of night runners. Every time the students running in circles reached this position, they would turn their heads to look for a moment, paying tribute to the extremely “e” phenomenon of contemporary university students.

However, there were two people who were unromantic.

Lin Huaixu didn’t even turn his head once, still looking at Tong An’yu, “So?”

Tong An’yu spread her hands and admitted reluctantly, “I don’t understand encryption algorithms.”

Lin Huaixu’s brow twitched, and he almost laughed out of anger, “You say there’s a problem when you don’t even understand it?”

Tong An’yu: “Give me time to understand it, and I’ll definitely tell you where the problem is.”

Lin Huaixu: “Then why don’t I just go and learn probability theory again.”

One of Tong An’yu’s virtues—honesty.
“But you might not learn as fast as me. To save time, I should be the one to work on the encryption algorithms.”

Lin Huaixu really laughed. He suddenly squatted down and sat next to Tong An’yu, his two long legs in faded jeans shamelessly propped up on either side of her body.

He was close, very close. The night light couldn’t illuminate his silhouette. He narrowed his dark, deep eyes and stared at her serious face.

“Are we working together, or are we having a speed race?”

When he spoke, his breath was cool and heavy, smelling of black coffee. The light was dim, prolonging the ambiguity.

Tong An’yu was unable to move. The skin on her face was tingling and itching, and the fine hairs on her ears were getting hot.

The surrounding romance and sentimental music already seemed to be in another dimension. Her throat tightened, and she said in a small voice, “Working together.”

‘Too close, too close. As long as she leaned forward, Lin Huaixu would have no time to dodge, and she would bump into his lips.’

‘In the dark, even the surveillance cameras wouldn’t be able to bear witness for him.’

‘With this kind of posture, how could she peacefully engage in academics?’

Lin Huaixu didn’t speak for a long time, only breathed, then looked at her, his eyelashes occasionally twitching imperceptibly.

So Tong An’yu didn’t move either. She didn’t know that her hair was being lifted by the wind, faintly brushing against his collarbone, nor did she know how charming a pursuer’s gaze could be in the spring night.

Next to them, “The Story of the Western Wing” was singing again: “Her dancing waist is delicate and soft, a thousand kinds of grace, ten thousand kinds of charm, like a willow in the late evening wind…”

Her legs were numb from being crossed.
This was fatal.

She tried to shift her bottom to promote blood circulation, but as soon as she moved, her back bumped into his knee.

Even though there were clothes between them, Tong An’yu’s senses were like a radar, as if she could even feel the hardness and temperature.

‘What would it feel like to lie on his lap?’

Lin Huaixu spoke slowly, “I will explain the encryption algorithms to you. You try to understand. Remember, we are not opponents, we are one.”

‘Huh?’

‘One?’

‘One what?’

‘My legs are so numb…’

Tong An’yu fiddled with her legs, inching forward to try and stand up. Then Lin Huaixu’s two long legs were like gongs, being bumped by her front and back, making her dizzy and lightheaded.
“Okay, you explain to me…”

She planned to rest for a while. Her limbs were only numb, with no feeling.

Who knew that just as she trustingly put her weight on her legs, these two things gave way, and then she knelt down and lunged at Lin Huaixu.

Lin Huaixu didn’t know what she was wriggling about. He had been watching with raised eyebrows until Tong An’yu came crashing towards him without warning.

It was too late to dodge. Lin Huaixu subconsciously reached out and wrapped his arms around her, letting her crash firmly into his chest. Then, under the effect of inertia, she pressed him onto the dry lawn.

His lips brushed past her earlobe, like a dream, slightly cool, and then fell into endless warmth.

Fortunately, he was there to cushion her. Tong An’yu didn’t end up face-planting into the grass, but her current state wasn’t much better. Her hands were propped on Lin Huaixu’s ribs, her chest pressed tightly against his pectoral muscles. The thin spring jacket couldn’t block the sensation. She could feel the hardness, so he could also feel the softness.

The intoxicated and loud “The Story of the Western Wing” next to them stopped. They glanced at them and couldn’t help but complain, “My god, this is too open.”

‘Your howling like a 120 emergency call isn’t open?!’
Tong An’yu turned completely red, ready to compete with a tomato.

Lin Huaixu’s body still had that pleasant scent of clear spring water, and this time, being close to his neck, there seemed to be the aftershave fragrance of ancient tea.

‘Does this count as a hug?’

‘She could feel Lin Huaixu’s hands around her back, although it wasn’t his initiative.’

After the initial shock, Lin Huaixu realized he was already holding her in his arms.

She looked to have a good figure, but she wasn’t light when she was pressing down on him. Her soft, dark hair flowed over his neck like water, and her two hot palms were pressed firmly against his ribs.

He took a deep breath, not knowing if it was from being pressed or from the heat.
“Tong An’yu, get up.”

Tong An’yu closed her eyes, “Little Tong’s legs are numb, I can’t move.”

‘Play dead…’

‘I can hug him a little longer.’

‘There won’t be such a good opportunity in the future. He didn’t even think of hugging her when she was dressed her best.’

The young couple watching the stars on the right said, “Brother, look, they’ve already kissed.”

“We don’t kiss outside, that’s bad manners, be good.”

‘Good your big head!’

‘Is it good manners for you two to lie together and gossip about people?’

Tong An’yu didn’t like to be at a disadvantage, so she said in a feigned voice, “Brother, look, let’s lie down and look at the pitch-black clouds and talk about spicy hot pot too.”

The young couple next to them immediately glared at her fiercely.

Lin Huaixu’s shoulders trembled slightly, as if he was holding back laughter. He rarely had moments like this, but this reaction was too clear to Tong An’yu, who was still lying on top of him.

‘What was he laughing about?’

‘Was it because others misunderstood that they had kissed, or was it because of her retort?’

‘No matter which one it was, he didn’t seem to be angry?’

Tong An’yu’s mind was in a storm, deep in thought. Suddenly, she felt the hand on her back press down a little harder. Then, with a turn to the left, she rolled along Lin Huaixu’s arm onto the grass. The tender blades of grass brushed against her cheek, and she smelled the surging fragrance.

Tong An’yu propped up her neck, blinked hard, and stared at Lin Huaixu.

But Lin Huaixu pressed her head back down with his hand.

“What are you doing?” Tong An’yu asked, resting her head on the grass.

‘Are we not talking about functions anymore? Not talking about models anymore? Not talking about encryption algorithms anymore?’

Lin Huaixu maintained his posture without moving, his arm spread out to protect her head. His Adam’s apple bobbed in the night. “Didn’t you want to lie down and look at the clouds? Then let’s look.”

‘But that’s what couples do. Little Lin probably didn’t realize this.’

Tong An’yu’s lips curved up in a lucky smile, and she really began to admire the layered night sky.

Lin Huaixu turned his head and saw her blinking her bright black eyes, seriously observing the night sky. Her head was nestled in the lawn, and she hadn’t yet realized she needed something to rest it on.

‘Her emotional intelligence… she can still get someone.’