CH 1

The building covers a ground of 100,000 square meters with a century of history and a collection of tens of millions of books. As the most impressive university library in City A, its usual popularity goes without saying. Even with a relatively perfect reservation system, the highly coveted seats of the reading room and the self-study room still cannot meet the demand of the visitors. Especially the secluded treasure spot of the main building that is near the windows, with outlets, and not exposed to direct sunlight. The effort that students use to snatch a seat there could almost compete with the top experts of a large hospital. 

In addition, the canteen is far away, takeouts cannot be brought in, the supermarket only has a small stock of convenience food, and the library proclaims that students should not be away from their seats for more than 30 minutes. With all the kinds of difficulties added up, calling Library A at lunchtime a rat’s nest would not be an exaggeration.

However! When there are difficulties, there are also business opportunities!

On this day, Li Ting came to the small open space behind Block C of the West Building, which is the main building in Library A. When he arrived carrying 3 layers of giant thermal containers in his hands, it was already filled with refugees-, no, students waiting under the tree that had received the text message in advance. As soon as they saw him, every one of them had eyes that glowed green as if they were wolves who smelled meat.

Under enthusiastic gazes, Li Ting calmly opened the lids of the containers with one hand and pulled up the payment QR code from the phone with the other. He stepped forward…scanned one, gave a rice bowl, scanned another one, gave another rice bowl, until the cheerful beeping sounds that came one after another mixed in with the stertorous sounds of people gobbling up and wolfing down food. 

“Hey…this bowl doesn’t seem right, I ordered the three-fresh rice bowl. This is chicken? It’s five yuan more expensive.” One of the students questioned the lunchbox he had just received.

The mechanic-like meal handling process was not interrupted by this small complaint, in fact, Li Ting did not even turn his head.

“No more three-fresh, only chicken, give it back if you’re not eating it.”

The complainer shut their mouth decisively.

“Um…bro,” When the last rice bowl was distributed, a boy with a bowl cut said to Li Ting, “Are you free this afternoon? Can you save a seat for me on the seventh floor? My girlfriend will be coming over later to study, I already told her ok.”

Li Ting didn’t say a word, he lowered his body and packed the bags on the ground.

“The usual price.” The boy was anxious.

Li Ting closed the empty thermal containers. 

“Plus ten?”

Li Ting looked around.

“Plus another five?”

Li Ting looked at his watch. 

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The boy’s face twitched a few times. He saw that quite a lot of people had already finished their meals and were returning together like a school of fishes, he bit his teeth.

“Fine, eighty, giving you fifty as a deposit first, transferring it now!” 

Li Ting finally nodded slightly when he heard the melodious “ding-ding” from his phone.

He turned around, lifted the containers and stuffed them into a large bush, then walked straight into the elevator of the building and pressed 7F.

Most of the books on information science, engineering, and law are on the sixth to ninth floors of Library A. This is usually one of the areas of major outbreaks, let alone this period of time like the end of June. Li Ting, who is not wearing any takeout delivery uniform, blends perfectly into the students of University A with his refreshing T-shirt and jeans. In fact, he looks more outstanding than many of the other boys.

He came to the hall on the seventh floor with familiarity but did not rush into the reading room. Instead, he silently stood by the door and glanced inside. Since it was lunchtime, there were still a few seats left in Area A, but there were more or less some personal items placed on them, showing that the owner is only temporarily away and will soon return. 

Third from the left, fifth from the right, second from the front, eighth from the back… Li Ting counted four seats. He took out his flip phone that only has a 4-inch screen and took a few pictures. After confirming that although the picture is blurry, the general content can be seen clearly, Li Ting opened the door and walked in.

He knocked on the information desk, the administrator who was busy dealing with affairs looked up and couldn’t hold back but rolled his eyes immediately after seeing him. He cursed quietly: “You’re here again…playing with illegal profits, you really aren’t afraid that the securities will throw you out.”

Li Ting is completely immune to such impolite personal attacks, and nodded without changing his expression: “Illegal profiting is indeed not good, but compared to some people’s embezzlement and theft, I don’t know who would be easier to get thrown…”

The rest of the sentence was interrupted by the person who jumped up and tried to cover his mouth: “I-, I didn’t…” 

“You didn’t succeed because you were found out by me…” Li Ting swiftly dodged past those salty trotter hands as he impatiently exposed the other, and then knocked on his watch to signal that he was in a hurry.

The face of the threatened administrator turned ten times darker than the guy with the bowl cut just downstairs. He concealed his writhing anger and unwillingness, said: “Even if I want to help you, I can’t just randomly cancel other people’s reservations anymore. Recently, people from the Computer Science and Technology department came to upgrade the system again. Work-study students like me don’t have permission to enter deep into the server-side, and suspicious operations would also get screened by the system.”

Seeing that Li Ting was silent, the other party continued to emphasize because he was afraid that Li Ting did not believe him.

“It’s true, the old version of the reservation system was so wasted that it always dropped reservations by itself, which is just perfect for us to mess with, but now this new system has a very high safety factor. Just to confirm something, you will have to log in, again and again. Not only can we not mess with it, but also annoying to death, the designer definitely has…” 

Just when he was getting enthusiastic about the complaints, his voice stopped abruptly.

Li Ting seemed to have felt something, he slowly turned his head to follow the other’s condensed gaze. He saw a tall boy who appeared during who-knows-when and is currently watching them in silence.

The administrator suddenly became very nervous when he saw him, he stumbled and asked: “Fang…Fang XueZhang, why are you here? Is…Is there a problem in the library?”

The boy being called “Fang XueZhang” cast his eyes down, took a glance when he swiped his eyes over. That glance actually didn’t have much weight behind it, but perhaps because of the advantages of his height and appearance, it inexplicably made his gaze feel more oppressive. 

However, Li Ting was still expressionless, he watched as the other passed by him and walked to the information desk.

“It’s nothing. Self-service machines are crowded. Can I ask you to help me find out if these books can still be borrowed?” Fang XueZhang said as he took out a piece of paper that had many book titles written on it, and pushed it over.

“Oh yes, please wait,” The administrator hurriedly typed away on the keyboard, while glancing at the person in front of him from the corner of his eye, he squeezed out a smile, “Um, actually… just now, we were saying that the current system in the library… mn… although it’s a bit complicated to log in repeatedly, the speed is much faster, the searching and borrowing functions are both very convenient and accurate… everyone thinks it’s way better than the old system… the school changed it just in time, the designer is also very considerate… haha.”

Fang XueZhang did not even lift his eyelashes when he heard this and said “Oh” motionlessly. 

After dragging on for a while, the administrator felt so awkward that he finally stood up with his pig-liver face and said: “…Aft-, After checking, Fang XueZhang, out of the seven books you have here, all of them have been borrowed except one. It’s uncertain if they will be returned before the break, the last one can only be read here and cannot be borrowed. If Fang XueZhang needs it, I-, I can bring this book to you, it’s just that you might have to wait a bit, the reading room also has no seats now…”

Fang XueZhang looked around, frowned his brows slightly, a little troubled.

At this time, a girl who had just entered the door happened to see him and walked over quickly in surprise.

“Fang Huaining? You’re also here to read?” 

This is a beauty with a dazzling appearance who’s ought to make a person feel delighted, but the boy named Fang Huaining’s expression did not change when faced with this beautiful woman. With one hand on the table and another that settled unshakably in his pocket, only his upper body politely half-turned towards her.

“Mn, checking some information.” He responded with a voice that did not fluctuate.

“It’s crowded during this time, did you find a spot already? My classmate and I occupied two but she isn’t coming in the afternoon, I’ll let you have it.” The girl did not mind his indifference, after she intelligently observed his situation, she enthusiastically made an invitation while keeping her eyes firmly stuck on Fang Huaining’s perfect face.

Fang Huaining did not answer, he seemed to be thinking while pursing his mouth. 

The girl continued to say: “It’s no problem, there really isn’t anyone else sitting there and it would be a waste to let it stay empty, why let this be a trip for nothing when you’re so busy. ”

The guilty administrator with has already swiftly run to the bookshelf in Area C and brought back that book that couldn’t be borrowed and handed it over.

“Fang XueZhang?”

Fang Huaining took a look at that book, then it seemed like he was successfully persuaded. 

He expressed his gratitude while taking the book. Fang Huaining turned around and was about to leave when he suddenly turned back, his eyes fluttering past Li Ting and landed on the administrator.

“The old system did indeed have a lot of operational issues, however, any violations on the server-side will also be recorded. When updating the new version, I also backed up those old records. If it’s needed, I can check them in detail anytime…”

After he finished speaking, he turned around and left.

Li Ting stood there, squinted at how the administrator’s face turned pale before turning his eyes away. He quickly followed and overtook the man and woman walking in front of him. 

Fang Huaining and the girl only felt a figure flashed by in front of them, when they looked over again, one of the two empty seats in front of them had been occupied.

“Hey… student, this is our seat.” The girl naturally stepped forward to stop him, incidentally pointing to the notebooks she had placed on the table as evidence.

“Oh,” Li Ting answered, but his butt didn’t even move at all, “I’m sorry, it’s mine now.”

To show his sincerity, Li Ting turned on his phone and put it in front of the girl. On the screen are pictures of a few empty seats he just took, including the two occupied by the girl, with the time being half an hour ago. After showing, Li Ting pointed to the library rules on the wall, as if he is also helpless and is only acting in compliance. 

Even fools could see his obvious well-prepared appearance, thinking of the hard-to-come-by Fang Huaining beside her, the girl was quite upset. Even so, she tried to hold back her temper and begged: “Student… we have two people, only the seats here are connected, there is another solo seat over there that is about to pass the half hour mark, you only have one person, is it okay…” The meaning is that she wants Li Ting to help fulfill her cherished hopes.

“Well, it’s not impossible to do,” Li Ting nodded after hearing this.

The girl thought there was a chance, she was about to put on a thankful smile when she heard Li Ting say faintly: “It depends on whether your boyfriend is generous or not…”

Originally, the word “boyfriend” would’ve made the girl very happy, but her gaze shifted towards Li Ting’s finger that was tapping on the desk. Beside his fingers was the screen that had already been switched to a certain payment app, she couldn’t help but freeze. 

What… is the meaning of this?

It can’t be what she’s thinking right?!

It’s just a library seat. In this era, in this kind of place, there are still these kinds of… shameless people?

Even tv dramas don’t film this kind of plot anymore? 

In this awkward standoff, Fang Huaining broke the silence. He said, “There’s no need, sitting separately is the same. You sit here and I’ll go over there.”

After speaking, without giving the girl time to object, Fang Huaining swept across Li Ting coldly before walking towards another area with the book in his hand.

Looking at the back that showed no sentimental yearning to stay, and then at the girl who is crying without tears while wanting to stab herself a few times but also feels so embarrassed that she has to leave in anger. Li Ting shook his head, sighed as he talked to himself: “Seems to be an ungenerous boyfriend…”

Regardless of the scorn glances from people around him because they have witnessed the whole process, Li Ting slowly took out the piece of paper that came from the information desk. He looked at the titles of the books copied by a sharp pen, then he crumbled and tossed the ball of paper, which steadily fell into the wastebasket not far away. 

Another business order is done!