Chapter 35: Enemy’s Dark Thoughts

Tong An’yu’s actions stunned her PhD classmates, especially those who knew about the feud between the two families.

The senior hesitated, taking a step forward to pull Tong An’yu back, but Lin Huaixu wrapped a single arm around her back.

And Tong An’yu didn’t resist at all, completely unlike the well-behaved girl from her student days whose mind was solely on eating, drinking, and studying.

She wrinkled her nose, sniffing the scent on Lin Huaixu.

She was already a bit dizzy, but her eyes kept blinking.

And Lin Huaixu, who had always been chaste for his mysterious girlfriend, was now letting her sniff and kiss his neck, like a scumbag who had completely abandoned his self-respect, propriety, righteousness, and shame.

The Lin Huaixu that the senior knew was a prominent figure at Stanford.

He had never been low-key.

In his introductory speech at the start of the semester, he had said he was a well-known white-hat hacker on the Bugcrowd (global community of security researchers) leaderboard, which was simply a dimensional reduction strike to other peers of his age.

Moreover, he wasn’t the stereotypical weak, bespectacled nerd from American TV shows.

He also liked skiing and mountain biking, and was good at both.

Paired with a handsome face that could break through the aesthetic biases of different races, he was extremely popular at the time.

But he had no intention of developing a relationship.

When someone asked him, he would say he thought it was a waste of time.

And he did indeed arrange his personal life to be very full, unable to squeeze out even a bit of time to go shopping, buy things, or talk on the phone with a girl.

The senior also agreed that once you develop a passion for a certain field, the sense of satisfaction and desire to conquer it brings is no less than entering a relationship.

And Lin Huaixu was so dedicated to network security, he must have invested a hundred percent of his energy into it.

Then, Lin Huaixu’s family suddenly cut off his funding.

He supported himself by doing part-time jobs and selling his old things for a while, and finally returned to China.

Her understanding of him ended there.

As for Tong An’yu, their small PhD group of six or seven had met in the alumni group.
They came to know each other through buying and selling furniture, and second-hand books and miscellaneous items.

But Tong An’yu didn’t need to use second-hand things.

Her family was very rich.

While others rented an apartment with several people, or even lived in a partitioned living room, she lived in a whole apartment by herself.

The reason she and the senior became acquainted was because the senior was cooking beef curry at home at the time, made too much, and asked in the alumni group if anyone was willing to pay a small fee for a meal.

No one else responded, only Tong An’yu jumped out: “I want it, I want it!”

Later, the two of them teamed up.

Tong An’yu bought the groceries, and the senior cooked.

She then got to know the others through the senior.

At their first big potluck, there was a dish of sweet and sour pork, which was ordered from a nearby Chinese restaurant.

This sweet, sour, and fragrant fried meat was loved not only by Chinese people but also by foreigners.

But the quantity was limited after all, so no one dared to eat too much.

At that time, the senior brother had silently placed his portion into the senior’s bowl.

The senior’s face instantly turned red.

The others who saw it all smiled knowingly, only Tong An’yu was wolfing down her food, completely unaware.

At that time, the senior thought, ‘She’s still young, she doesn’t have that string in her head at all.’

Later, Lu Kuang gradually became concerned about Tong An’yu.

Occasionally, when there was a limited quantity of good things, Lu Kuang would give them to her first.

But after she thanked Lu Kuang, she would turn around and enthusiastically share them with others, not stingy at all.

The senior thought again, ‘She’s unrefined and not sensitive or delicate when it comes to feelings.’

The senior had once thought of breaking the ice and setting up Lu Kuang with Tong An’yu, but Lu Kuang had already been trying for a while with no response.

Lu Kuang said, “Let’s forget it. I can see her mind is all on studying and having fun. She’s still a child.”

The senior also said, “That’s true. You’re twenty-seven, she’s only twenty. She’s definitely not in a hurry to fall in love and get married.”

Later, after graduating with her PhD, the senior referred Tong An’yu to Intel.
Tong An’yu then threw herself into learning technology, forgetting to eat and sleep.

Until she returned to China, the senior had never heard Tong An’yu express a desire for a relationship.

She guessed that this kind of young, high-IQ genius probably had different ideas.

But today, Lin Huaixu and Tong An’yu had completely overturned her perception.

“Huaixu!” the senior called out in a low voice, still a little worried.

Lin Huaixu said, “Don’t worry, I’m just taking her back. A waiter is following.”

The senior wasn’t worried about that.
“You…”

Lin Huaixu understood what she was thinking and said calmly, “I’ll explain later.”

The senior stopped her words.

She actually already had a ridiculous idea, but she still couldn’t believe it.

Was it possible?

There was a feud of family bankruptcy between the two of them, and Lin Huaixu had paid a painful price for it.

The driver promptly called a waiter, who led Lin Huaixu towards the guest rooms.

Lu Kuang frowned, just about to stop them again, when the secretary smiled and stood in his way.

“Don’t worry, our CEO Lin will not do anything inappropriate that would disregard his reputation.”

Lu Kuang didn’t back down.

“I’m concerned about my friend. She’s drunk.”

The secretary still smiled and retorted, “And how do you know that our CEO Lin and she are not friends?”

Lu Kuang: “You!”

The senior stopped him.

“A waiter is following, and PetParty is preparing to go public. Huaixu won’t do anything reckless.”

Actually, she knew…

…and Lu Kuang could see it too.

The path from the church to the guest rooms…

In the center of the flower field was a narrow stone path, and a small white pavilion.

There weren’t many lights nearby, so the lighting was relatively dim.

“Be careful of the ground. Some of the pebbles are quite large. Don’t trip,” the waiter reminded them in time.

Lin Huaixu glanced at Tong An’yu, who was walking unsteadily, and sighed.

He took off his suit jacket, draped it over Tong An’yu’s shoulders, and then with a bit of force, simply picked her up.

The secretary gasped.

It was also the first time she had seen her boss carry someone.
“CEO Lin, be careful!”

After all, Lin Huaixu had been eating liquid food for several days, had just recovered from his illness, and hadn’t regained his strength.

Lin Huaixu said, “I know my limits.”

Tong An’yu was suddenly lifted off her feet, and her head spun for a moment.

She wrinkled her face tightly, and after a long while, she slowly opened her eyes.

The suit jacket was draped over her shoulders, and her arms could feel the body heat from inside the jacket.

This silent warmth kept the night wind at bay.

In the May suburbs of Jing City, the sky was full of stars, and crickets chirped softly in the fields.

As far as the eye could see were clusters of light purple flowers.

Her eyelids trembled as she stared at Lin Huaixu’s chin.

She always felt that this night was exactly the same as the night of the Louis Vuitton art exhibition.

The evening gown, the suit, the lights, the guests, all matched up.

She suddenly stretched her neck, leaned close to Lin Huaixu’s ear, and whispered, “I’ll tell you a secret. I brought a car. My family’s driver is following behind.”

After speaking, she smiled with a bit of shy pride.

Even Lin Huaixu would need a moment to react to her chaotic train of thought.

She frowned.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Is it because I lied to you?”

“Oh… it won’t happen again.”

“No, you said there would be no more ‘it won’t happen again’.”

She slurred her words, muttering.

Her memory was like chopped vegetable leaves, a piece would occasionally jump off the cutting board.

Lin Huaixu asked, “Why did you lie to me?”

Tong An’yu closed her eyes, as if she was about to fall asleep.

Leaning in Lin Huaixu’s arms, being carried with a gentle sway, was really too comfortable.

But she still tried hard to lift her eyelids.
“…If I didn’t lie to you, how could I be with you? You wouldn’t even have let me rest my foot on your shoe.”

Whether it was the waiter or the secretary and driver, they all tacitly kept a distance, which made it impossible for them to hear Tong An’yu’s soft murmurs.

Only Lin Huaixu could hear her clearly.
He chuckled softly.

“Actually, even if you didn’t lie, I wouldn’t have been willing to let you go.”

Her in the pink and white evening gown, her nervous and eager, her with eyes only for him.

It all made him feel—

If the wasted three years were to meet her at T University, there was nothing unworthy about it.

“Ha…”

It was unknown whether she had heard him.

She directly changed the subject.

“Actually, you look better in a suit than those male celebrities. Like… like…”

She furrowed her brows and began to think of the celebrities she had chased after, but her mind was blank.

They had become vague concepts, disappearing along with her lost memories.

“It seems like you’re the only one left in my head. Why can I only remember you, and not anyone else?” she said to herself.

This time, Lin Huaixu really didn’t understand what she was talking about.

What did she mean, only he could be remembered, and not others?

With her IQ, she was close to having a photographic memory.

Was there anything she could forget?

They finally walked through the lavender field and arrived at the European-style old castle guest rooms.

The waiter got the key from the front desk.
It was a real key, wooden, the size of a palm.
The lobby on the first floor even had a burning fireplace and two vintage European cars on display.

The elevator was also antique-style, made of wood painted a brownish-brown color.
When going up, the elevator would make a creaking sound.

Through the glass, you could see the still-reveling church in the distance.

This time, the secretary and driver did not follow, but waited in the lobby on the first floor.

The waiter quite admired Lin Huaixu.
He had carried Tong An’yu for a good few hundred meters and hadn’t said a word about putting her down to rest his stiff and sore arms.

“Room 402, garden view king bed room. Insert the key for power.”

The waiter used the key to open the door, helped him insert the key into the power slot by the door, and then quietly exited the room, waiting for Lin Huaixu to settle the person down and come out.

Lin Huaixu placed Tong An’yu on the large bed.

As he released the strength from his arms, they trembled unconsciously.

It was clearly a cool May, yet he was already covered in sweat.

He had been given a hard time during his two weeks in the US, and Montemar had almost been lost.

If it weren’t for those congressmen being greedy enough, it probably wouldn’t have been solved with just five bottles of whiskey and a hospital stay for an acute illness.

He looked at Tong An’yu’s flushed face, held her fair arm, and murmured, “Once PetParty is listed, I won’t owe anyone anything anymore.”

He was just about to pull her arm away and let her rest her head on the pillow properly when Tong An’yu suddenly sat up and gave him a surprise kiss on the side of his face.

Her lips were hot, very soft, with the scent of ice wine, like a jelly bouncing on his skin.

Lin Huaixu instantly stopped moving.

Tong An’yu smiled slyly, her eyes a little out of focus, clearly already in a half-dreaming, half-awake state.

She licked her lips with satisfaction.

Lin Huaixu’s eyes deepened, taking in all of her hazy state.

He touched her lips with his knuckles, his voice slow and low.

“Still want to kiss me?”

Tong An’yu hummed softly from her nose, trying hard to trace Lin Huaixu’s outline with her eyes.

Thick eyelashes, deep brows, a straight nose, thin lips, plus a pair of extremely bewitching eyes, he really had the ability to make people’s minds go wild.

She leaned in again and kissed him on the chin.

Lin Huaixu’s breathing grew heavier.
The lights in the room were dim, their shadows cast on the wall.

The pale white window gauze was draped over their heads, and two delicate and dewy roses lay askew at the foot of the bed.

“Continue,” he coaxed.

Tong An’yu was like a little mouse that had stolen cheese again and again, leaving deep or shallow kiss marks on his body.

From his cheek, to his earlobe, to his neck, to his collarbone.

She liked the scent of spring water that emanated from him.

Rather than kissing, it was more like succumbing to a physiological attraction.

“Do you like it?” she asked in a small voice.

She used to love asking this, especially in the small, shabby rented apartment, when she would steal kisses from him while he was napping on the sofa.

“I like it.”

His hand caressed her head, he said unhurriedly.

“Hey, no, shouldn’t you not answer me?” Tong An’yu muttered, complaining, “You never say you like me.”

Lin Huaixu didn’t know how to answer.

If he didn’t say it, could she not tell?

He was willing to do for her what he had never done for anyone else.

He gave her the gazes, the playful pout and smile, the affection that he had never given anyone else, all in one go.

Later, his gaze towards her was almost on fire.

If it weren’t for her being too young, doing anything felt like bullying, he was afraid of not cherishing her enough, why would he have restrained himself?

In this brief, illusion-like, beautiful moment, her phone suddenly lit up at an inopportune time.

The vibration sounded beside her, and the faint blue light showed the caller—Ji Yuming.

Lin Huaixu’s eyes instantly darkened.
All his rising emotions sank, as if soaking in a cold, icy mire.

He looked at Tong An’yu again.
Tong An’yu didn’t notice.

So he raised his hand, covered her phone, found the power button, and mercilessly turned the screen dark.

His expression unchanged, he said to Tong An’yu, “Kiss me again. Don’t stop.”

Tong An’yu happily bit his Adam’s apple.

Lin Huaixu’s fingers threaded through her hair, caressing, controlling.

Suddenly, his ring finger touched a place that felt like a scar.

Near the ear, very faint.