CH 20

As if he didn’t anticipate this person to appear in front of him suddenly, Li Han was taken aback for a moment before he said: “Senior Fang?”

Since they met each other head-on, Fang Huaining certainly couldn’t pretend not to see, so he politely nodded to him. He was planning to leave at that when Li Han asked again, “You haven’t left yet?”

Fang Huaining replied, “There are some problems that have yet to be resolved.”

This seemed to poke a sore spot in Li Han’s heart; he agreed with a bitter face. “Me too. It’s a huge problem that I can’t solve even if I lose all my hair…”

Looking at the untidy hair on the other person’s head and then looking at the screen in front of him, Fang Huaining’s footsteps turned back, and finally returned to the room.

He approached and questioned, “What’s the problem?”

Li Han was stunned for a moment and then quickly responded: “Oh, yes… It’s a problem with this data; it always displays an error. I restarted the database but to no avail. I have been checking it all afternoon. It’s …”

After speaking, he felt Fang Huaining leaning over, propping one hand on the table and operating the mouse with the other. A particularly pleasant smell wafted along his body — a grassy and slightly lemony scent.

But before Li Han could identify the smell, Fang Huaining had already straightened up.

“Try to change the character settings of the field; this over here.” Fang Huaining pointed to the screen and said.    

Li Han didn’t move and did not return to his senses until Fang Huaining repeated himself, “Oh… oh, okay.”

After tapping on the keyboard, Fang Huaining said again. “Restart.”

After listening to him, Li Han stood up from the chair and moved two steps back before stooping to press the reset button beneath the table. Restarting the system fixed the issue successfully, as expected.

Li Han blushed and jumped up happily, “Yes, it’s fine now! Thank you, thank you, Senior Fang! You are too good.”

He couldn’t solve the problem by himself, and those with the ability to solve it were too impatient to look at it. Several classmates accompanied him and tried various methods for a while, but then they were too lazy to continue, so Li Han had to work on it by himself. Only Fang Huaining hit the mark with a simple and straightforward method; the Ace was indeed the top card of their department after all.

Just when Li Han was about to pour out all the compliments and praises he could come up with, Fang Huaining stared at the area under the table with a surprised expression.

When Li Han turned around, he saw that the corner was piled high with the books that Li Ting had given him that afternoon.

“You borrowed these?” Fang Huaining asked abruptly.

Li Han was at a loss, “Ah? No, I’m just keeping them here for someone.”

He was very sensitive to the fact that Fang Huaining’s originally cold eyes warmed up when he saw those books, and Li Han hurriedly asked, ” Senior Fang, do you want these books?”

Fang Huaining nodded without hesitation, “I’ve been looking for these books for a long time. I didn’t expect it to be in the research institute.”

“That’s, uh…” Li Han took out his mobile phone. “Wait a minute, I’ll ask for you.”

He sent a message to his brother, asking Li Ting if he needed the books urgently, and since someone at the institute wanted them, could they be given out?

Li Ting was probably not busy, so he responded quickly, which was unusual.

Li Ting: Who wants it?

Li Han: Senior Fang. Do you remember Senior Fang? It was the handsome guy who previously sent you to the hospital before and came with us to see you. When he was helping me today, he saw these books and said he had wanted to read them for a long time, so I asked you.

It took Li Ting a long time to reply this time as if he was thinking it over.

The answer was beyond Li Han’s expectations.

Li Ting: Give it to him.

Li Ting: Don’t say I borrowed it; I was using someone else’s card. It’s due in a month, so make sure he gets it back on time.

Li Han found it odd, given that Li Ting had clearly brought the books over in a hurry and needed them right away. But now he’s just given them all out?

Initially, he only intended to ask him for one or two copies, but who would have thought that his brother, who was always stingy, would be so generous? 

But then he thought that Li Ting might also remember how Senior Fang had helped him before, so perhaps it was a rare instance of leniency?

Li Han: Okay. Thank you, brother.

After hanging up the phone, Li Han squatted down and carefully placed all the books on the table. He happily said to Fang Huaining, “Senior Fang, I will give you all these books. He agreed.”

The books were even more surprising when they were all placed in front of him. They were all the original versions that he had been trying to borrow for a long time, and he had even gone back and forth to Library A several times, yet always unsuccessful to borrow them.

Fang Huaining took one up and flipped through it, asking suspiciously, “Who borrowed this?”

Li Han was stunned: “Ah? Uh… It’s my classmate, one named Wang Qin. You probably don’t know him, Senior Fang.”

Fang Huaining frowned and questioned, “Did he borrow it recently?”

Li Han replied, “Yes, h-he used someone else’s library card.”

Fang Huaining didn’t speak.

Li Han looked at him and said, “It’s really okay. You can take it if you need it.”

Fang Huaining didn’t know what to make of this situation, and looked at the book in his hand for a while. “Okay, I will return it after I read it. Thank you, and thank your classmate for me.”

“You’re welcome; I also want to thank you for helping me.” Li Han smiled shyly, “That…”

He still had something to say, but he was interrupted by a phone ringing before he could open his mouth.

Wang Fuliang, who had been waiting for him for quite some time, had no choice but to give him a quick call.

Fang Huaining was right outside the lab, so he didn’t answer the call. When he hung up, he realized several missed calls were displayed on his mobile phone’s communication records. They were from an unfamiliar number sometime in the afternoon.

Fang Huaining was puzzled. When he called back, no one answered, even after calling for quite a long time.

He didn’t care much for it, thinking it must have been an advertisement or something.

He turned around and nodded politely to Li Han before heading to the inner laboratory to save Wang Fuliang’s life.

Li Han looked at his back with a disappointed look on his face.

**********

When Li Han contacted Li Ting, the latter was shopping in the supermarket, and along the way, he’d sent his broken scooter, which had been parked uselessly in front of his store for several weeks, to be repaired.

After closing off the phone, Li Ting remained shocked for a moment before going up to pay the bill.

In a few weeks, the school would begin. On the way back, Li Ting noticed that many of the stores in front of University A had posted job openings. He examined them and wrote them down one by one.

When he got home, he opened the hard-cover notebook to maintain accounts as usual, but as he started writing, he remembered the new accounting software he’d downloaded, so Li Ting took out his phone and clicked on the logo.

Perhaps his phone was too old, or maybe there was something wrong with his method of installation, but it took a long time just to turn on the app and get it running. 

However, the screen that popped up after a while was surprisingly simple, not fancy or crude like the other apps Li Ting had used previously.

Li Ting didn’t think much and continued to scroll down. After a brief period of buffering, the main directory appeared on the home page, divided into categories such as ‘Daily life routine’, ‘Learning applications’, ‘Games and entertainment,’ and so on.

There were also sub-directories under the main directory, thin rows full of trivial items, and Li Ting became even more confused after exploring for a while.

Just when he was wondering if he had downloaded the wrong software, he saw the words “Account-keeping” in the first row of subdirectories.

Upon checking it out, he found that it was a bit complicated to use. But Li Ting did not give up and took out the courage he had used when installing the software; after trying it out bit by bit, he finally verified that the software was indeed usable and it should be pretty convenient to use once the correct method was learned. Only then did he feel the weight of his heart lift.

After establishing a sense of satisfaction, Li Ting finally opened the recording ledger in the app and recorded a detailed list of today’s expenses in detail to save.

It was okay. It worked well.

Li Ting reviewed the software in his heart.

…

Fang Huaining had a small apartment in the city center that his mother had left to him before she went abroad. The bus and subway stations were easily accessible, and it was very close to University A, so he could reach there in about ten minutes.

It was almost twelve o’clock when he finished taking a shower, but the night had only begun in his line of work.

While wiping his hair, he looked at the stack of books on the table. The longer he thought about it, the more he realized how strange it was.

Not considering one or two books, all five books were exactly the ones he wanted to borrow, except for the one book that wasn’t available for lending in Library A.

Who would believe that it was just a coincidence? 

Fang Huaining has been outstanding since he was a child, so naturally, he has long been used to various methods of the people chasing after him, things such as imitating his hobbies, finding ways to meet him by chance, or asking about his personal situation to find ways to provide convenience, but this time it would be far too much.

Perhaps, the books he wanted to borrow, except for Fang Huaining himself, it was difficult for even the administrator of Library A to remember clearly.

Was it really a coincidence?

Recently, there had been so many coincidences around him that Fang Huaining had nearly started to doubt his own life.

But since he had absolutely no clues, he could only sit at the table to work first.

Forget it, at least the books are innocent, and since he had wanted them for a long time, why not just read them first after getting them? As it stood, there were quite a few problems that needed to be solved with references from them.

While flipping through the books, Fang Huaining opened ‘Little Field’ on the computer. ‘Little Field’ was the name given to a program by Fang Huaining, and its main function was to field test his codes, some of which had already begun to take shape, while others were still a mass of data.

Ones that cannot be sold, ones that can be sold, advanced applications, or elementary-level ones. In short, all kinds of weird ideas and messy application prototypes were generated and tested in ‘Little Field’, even the accounting software he’d written before. To be able to modify things at any time, Fang Huaining specially built a mobile phone version for it. The mobile version was simple to operate, and the logo was a very eye-catching big grapefruit.

This thing has been in use since Fang Huaining first entered university, continuously adding more and more features on it over years of painstaking efforts, but today when he went to the control panel, he found that another unfamiliar IP address invaded this private territory that should be accessible to no one but himself.

Mister Fang, who had always been calm and composed, couldn’t help being stunned.

Who is this? ? ! !

Csycrus: Looks like FH was the ‘customer’ from last chap…?

And, guess what? New proofreader to the team: Shigo!

Shigo: Happy to be part of the team!