X
Join our Discord server and get release updates for every novel you follow.
Join the Server“What?”
Cheng Yiyi felt her worldview take a direct hit.
If a girl doesn’t like boys… then what does she like?
Another girl?
“Sister!” Shen Anyue had crept up beside Cheng Yiyi at some point and dragged her backward, her delicate face full of mortification. “How can you ask someone a question like that?!”
“I-I’m sorry… I didn’t know, okay?” Cheng Yiyi was kicking herself too. She’d just thought Tang Xingluo seemed pretty easy-going, and a girl like that normally wouldn’t be short on admirers, right? Asking for love-life advice… who knows, it might come in handy someday.
Shen Anyue seemed to realize something and quickly whispered, “Tang Xingluo… he…”
“He’s a boy…”
“Huh?!” Cheng Yiyi stared in total disbelief.
She’d only thought Tang Xingluo’s chest was a bit flat. It never crossed her mind that he was actually a guy!
Did the Tang family just have such perfect bone structure? Had Nuwa muddled some details when she created people?!
“It’s partly my fault for not making it clear…” Shen Anyue let out a sigh. “You probably didn’t catch it earlier. I told you from the start that he was the Tang family’s young master.”
Right then, Cheng Yiyi thought she finally understood what Turing’s Curse was all about.
This… this was exactly it.
Still, Cheng Yiyi couldn’t help being curious.
“Um…”
“Anyue…”
“Does Tang Xingluo have a boyfriend?”
“Sister, that’s enough!” Shen Anyue sounded like she was watching a lost cause. “He already said his orientation is normal! So of course he doesn’t!”
“Oh… okay.”
After that little episode, Cheng Yiyi apologized.
Tang Xingluo didn’t mind at all. He hadn’t actually been offended. Just a bit embarrassed to be blindsided by that type of question.
Building a computer wasn’t a job that could be finished in a blink.
Besides, when a top-of-the-line setup appeared out of nowhere, even bystanders passing by couldn’t resist stopping to stare.
“Holy crap! Straight to a 5090 Golden Night God?! How many tens of thousands was that per card?”
“Don’t just stare at the GPU. Look at this motherboard! WRX90E! No way, an actual Mandel supercomputing board?!”
“A custom EK split liquid cooling system! That could give the CPU frostbite!”
“Eight sticks of RAM?!”
“No joke, I see them too! 256 GB a stick! Those aren’t memory modules, they’re gold bars!”
“Two TB in eight-channel mode? What’s he thinking?”
“Holy crap, eight drives as well. Eight TB each!”
“Wait, the GPUs are stacking up too? Two of those absurdly expensive cards? Is he insane?”
“My wallet nearly fainted just from watching.”
“In games, the anti-cheat will probably lose its way scanning around in there.”
As the assembly finished, people couldn’t help edging nearer to look.
Yet each person hung at a polite distance. Because they knew… if they broke something, they genuinely couldn’t pay to replace it.
When the computer booted, it was as if a work of art slowly opened its eyes. The fans running inside the case were near-silent, yet the power surging through the machine was plainly visible.
Then there was the RGB. The lighting could shift to whatever color you liked. Pure aesthetics, dialed to max.
As for the monitor, he naturally went with the most expensive 4K flat screen in the shop.
Tang Xingluo didn’t pick a curved one for Cheng Yiyi. That kind of screen was a little anti-human, and she had mentioned she could never get used to it.
The entire setup, once finished, cost more than half a home.
Tang Xingluo linked the monitor to the tower, made sure it all ran smoothly, then took it all apart again.
He swept a glance over the crowd, then directed his words at Shen Anyue, who had tucked herself into a corner with her social anxiety fully activated: “You two should get going.”
He continued toward Cheng Yiyi. “If you run into any trouble while setting up the OS, just ask me. I’m still quite good with computers.”
“And… and…” Tang Xingluo opened his QQ QR code. A light flush crept up his face, and he let his eyes drift elsewhere.
“This is my contact info. If there’s anything you can’t work out, we can do a video call.”
“I’m free these days. I’ll have time.”
“Wow! Thanks!” Cheng Yiyi immediately added his contact without waiting.
An anime profile picture greeted her.
“Turing’s Curse never lies…” Cheng Yiyi had taken the chance earlier to search up the relevant lore, and sure enough, Tang Xingluo was a textbook model.
“Now take your little sister back.” Tang Xingluo pointed at the corner where Shen Anyue sat facing away from everyone, eyes locked onto her phone. “At this rate, she’s going to get depressed.”
“Mm.” Cheng Yiyi hurried over, took Shen Anyue’s hand, and pulled her into a hug. “Okay, you’re so scared. Let’s go home and practice manners, no more wandering around outside.”
“Too many people on weekends. It’s not a good day for you to go out.”
“But… don’t I need actual practice?” Shen Anyue followed Cheng Yiyi out of the shop.
“Don’t worry, I think it’s actually pretty simple. You’ve basically got it down today.”
“We still have days before the banquet. Trust me~”
As she said that, a spark of slyness flashed through Cheng Yiyi’s eyes. She wrapped her arms around Shen Anyue, cheek pressed to cheek. “And I really didn’t expect you to be so afraid of strangers~”
“You really have none of the look of a headstrong young miss.”
“I just…” Shen Anyue’s protest went halfway and then softened. “I just feel really uncomfortable when people stare at me…”
“It’s fine. From now on, if anyone stares at you while I’m there, I’ll just stand in between. I’ve never cared about other people’s eyes, and I haven’t since I was little.”
Cheng Yiyi wasn’t exaggerating. At some point, she’d stopped being bothered by others’ opinions of her, the way most girls her age were.
Her family circumstances had meant she’d never come in contact with expensive brand-name clothing, not from childhood up.
During summer and winter breaks, after finishing part-time work, she would occasionally run into classmates on her way home. And those kids couldn’t keep their mouths shut, so everything about her had long since stopped being a secret.
Over time, Cheng Yiyi simply desensitized.
That kind of psychology had its advantages and its costs.
Outsiders would sneer at her cheap clothes, whisper that her parents were low earners, that her family was poor. Cheng Yiyi never became self-conscious about any of it.
The downside? Every time she took first place and walked up on stage to receive an award, she could hardly feel the pride.
She didn’t think of herself as remarkable. Only when she got home and met her parents’ approving eyes did warmth rise in her chest.
Right now, wrapped in Cheng Yiyi’s arms, with words that sounded like a promise ringing in her ears, Shen Anyue felt a strange, foreign sensation flutter up in her chest.
It was something she had never encountered in her entire life. Her heart was racing, her skin felt warm, and her brain was turning fuzzy.
Loving this chapter? You'll be hooked on How a Reincarnated Villain Wins the Audition! Click to explore more!
Read : How a Reincarnated Villain Wins the Audition
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂