CH 17

The next day, Master Fried Hair walked into Old Lin’s classroom with a yawn and he sat down in his chair. “Water.”

Am I your maid?

“Water.”

Zhu Yun handed a bottle of water over to him. After Li Xun had some water to replenish his mind, he turned on his computer.

“I want a few days off,” Zhu Yun said.

“For what?”

“I have some things to take care of.”

“What things?”

“None of your business.”

Li Xun looked her over, and then he asked, “Is it your time of month?”

“……”

Li Xun magnanimously told her, “Okay, I’ll give you a payed holiday.” The conversation seemed to have gotten along smoothly.

That evening, while Zhu Yun was studying the Treasure project in her room, she received a call from Li Xun.

Zhu Yun had discovered this particularity about Top Score Li while participating in the seminar. When he contacted people, he rarely texted them or used chatting apps. He felt that they lowered efficiency. So, instead, he would directly call anyone he needed to get in touch with. If you didn’t answer his call, then you could start planning your funeral.

Zhu Yun took a sip of water to wet her throat. “Hello?”

“Meet me,” he said in a low voice.

“Right now?” Zhu Yun looked outside. “It’s late.”

“I’m at your dorm. You have one minute.” Then, he hung up.

I have to change. One minute? Are you telling me to jump down to meet you?

Zhu Yun considered for a few seconds whether to change her clothes or make the meeting time. She ended up heading downstairs in her pajamas.

Li Xun was waiting at the milk tea place next to her dorm.

It was already dark out, and the dim light from the milk tea shop was insufficient to dispel Li Xun’s low-pressure system. Zhu Yun walked over to him. She was still five meters away when Boss Li started talking, “Did your brain get smushed?” (t/n: A low pressure system is associated with cyclones, i.e. powerful, imposing, etc. I guess.)

“……”

Can’t you speak properly?

The yellow haired demon and the girl in pajamas were attracting a lot of attention. Zhu Yun couldn’t bear the stares from her classmates, so she whispered to Li Xun, “Go. Let’s move to the side.”

Li Xun followed her over to the bushes. There were no lamps there, only the moonlight. And some fire… Li Xun’s cigarette glowed orange in the darkness.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said.

The round moon in the sky shined silver; it was beautiful. But not bright enough.

“You’re laughing?” Li Xun glared at her. Zhu Yun quickly shook her head and put on a serious expression.

After he’d scolded her sufficiently, he got to the point. “Did Zhang Xiaobei ask you to do something?” Zhu Yun nodded, but before she could respond, Li Xun cut her off.

“Withdraw.”

“…I’ve alrady signed the agreement.”

“I told you to withdraw!” He was being impatient, but she wouldn’t give in.

“I can’t.”

“You dare disobey me?”

“……” Zhu Yun paused a moment, and then she said, “Li Xun.”

“Mmh?”

“I think that maybe you’ve misunderstood something…”

“What have I misunderstood?”

She kindly explained to him. “You and I… We’re classmates. You’re not my boss and I’m not your subordinate.” Zhu Yun spoke calmly. “While I respect you as the head of the seminar, we’ve neither made any verbal agreement nor signed any kind of labor contract. To be honest, I don’t think that you have adequate reason—” She looked at him. “To make me listen to you.”

Quiet.

Silence.

More quiet.

Continued silence.

After awhile, Li Xun hooked his hands on his waist and said, “So we’re equals?”

Zhu Yun nodded.

That’s right. We’re equals. Long live equality.

…But can you stop advancing.

Li Xun wore a fitted black sports shirt. The collar on his shirt was up, like a knife’s blade. An apprehensive feeling overcame Zhu Yun, who felt stark naked in her soft, yellow pajamas, standing in front of him, unable to attack.

He walked forward casually, but Zhu Yun found she could only retreat, until she was pressed against the roadside trees. The branches poked into her back, like an army of soldiers were pressing their weapons to her.

He lowered his head and asked again, “We’re equals, you said?”

He was so close that he blocked out the moonlight.

Okay…

Okay, okay.

I admit that you’re…just a little bit…taller than me…

After admitting defeat, she cursed him silently. People who used their sex and height to act superior were simply too disgraceful.

Li Xun had more to say, but in that moment, Zhu Yun saw someone passing by acoss the way. She didn’t give Li Xun the chance to speak again, as she speedily shouted to the passing figure, “Juliet!”

The people around them, “……”

Zhu Yun pushed Li Xun away and said, “Look. Juliet. Your Juliet finished class.” She pointed behind him, but Li Xun looked on at her, expressionless.

Zhu Yun didn’t know what Li Xun’s new girlfriend’s name was. The biggest impression she’d made for Zhu Yun had been while she was practicing her lines.

But this girl was something. After hearing “Juliet,” she immediately knew she was being called. She jogged over.

“Li Xun!”

While Li Xun turned back to look, Zhu Yun slipped away from him.

“Will you help me practice my lines some more?” Juliet grabbed onto Li Xun’s arm and complained, “The Romeo my teacher paired me with is too short. I can’t express the feeling!”

Zhu Yun spoke up from the side, “Um, you two should go practice. I’m heading back too.”

Li Xun smiled insincerely.

Juliet hugged him and said, “Okay? Let’s go.”

Zhu Yun added, “Have fun.”

She walked back to the milk tea place, and then she turned around.

Their backs melted into the night, gently and lightly.

How did the lines go?

So, excuse me. It was the dark night that leaked out my deepest secret. Do not take my promise to be unashamed frivolousness.

—

The first time that Zhu Yun visited Zhang Xiaobei’s lab, she felt like she’d entered a sweatshop.

As long as Han Jiakang and the rest of her research group weren’t completing a special task—for example, buying things for Zhang Xiaobei, picking up packages, and things like that—everyone was to remain in the lab room from 8am to… some time in the evening. It was a very fixed pattern, more stable than people at an office job.

The “great project that was favorable to one’s future prospects” that Zhang Xiaobei spoke so highly of was a project for the city’s Finance Bureau, creating a system reporting fixed assets.

When Zhang Xiaobei wasn’t around, Han Jiakang secretly told Zhu Yun that this project was easy as pie. The system had already been halfway developed. The engineer at Treasure who was in charge of the project had been transferred, and no one else wanted to pick it up.

Han Jiakang contemptuously told her, “A government project like this is basically a ploy to fish for the public’s money. Whether or not it ends up being successful depends on whether or not the project lead has been bribed well.

He told Zhu Yun, “And it’s not that the programmers over there are too busy. It’s just that, after the first round of inspection, after they pocketed the money, the people at Treasure had no more interest in the project. And since Zhang Xiaobei is always trying to cling onto Treasure, at their command, she was left to clean up their mess.

After looking over the last programmer’s code, Zhu Yun felt that this project wouldn’t be too bad. Although it wasn’t as perfect as Li Xun’s code, it was still easily understandable and of decent quality.

Wait… Zhu Yun cut short her own thoughts. When had his abilities become the standard that she measured others to?

After two days, Zhu Yun finished combing through and working out the previous programmer’s code.

Zhang Xiaobei pulled some time out of her busy schedule to check on her progress. “Let’s see your progress.”

Right now?

Before Zhu Yun realized, Zhang Xiaobei had already reached over and started the program. Then, a serious expression crossed her face. “Why are there more than ten errors and more than thirty warnings?”

Zhu Yun was originally going to say something, but after spotting Han Jiakang signaling to her, she shut her mouth.

“Your progress isn’t good enough. Work faster. Fix your errors and warnings. We’ll talk again when you get your program running.” Then, she left like the wind.

In the afternoon, she had English. Before class started, Zhu Yun was scribbling on a sheet of paper.

“Seriously fucking sad to see.”

Zhu Yun looked up and saw that Master Li had sat down beside her.

Up until then, the two had only sat next to each other in Old Lin’s class. What was the occasion?

Zhu Yun closed her notebook just as the professor entered the room.

Li Xun had zero intent on listening to the lecture. Zhu Yun could understood that. On the first day that she walked into the project base, she saw a pile of thick, worn English programming books sitting on top of his desk. And whenever he had an exam for math or English, he always scored full points.

Zhu Yun silently lamented at how unfair god was. At the same time, Li Xun asked, “What’s the matter?”

“What do you mean?”

“Will you die if you don’t pretend to be a fool?”

“……”

Zhu Yun pursed her lips as Li Xun whispered, “How is it?”

“It’s fine.”

He frowned. Zhu Yun felt that something was bothering him. If he weren’t in class right now, he would probably have pulled out a smoke by now.

“If you’re having any problems, just tell me.”

“There are no problems.”

“Do you need any help?”

“No.”

Li Xun looked at her and Zhu Yun raised a brow. For some reason, he scoffed and then smiled as he said, “Geezus…”

Seems like you have lots of thoughts going through your mind as well, Zhu Yun thought.

Zhu Yun wasn’t trying to bite off more than she could chew. She really didn’t need any help with the project because she never had any plans on finishing that freakin’ thing.

After she asked Zhang Xiaobei some questions and confirmed that she didn’t understand a thing about the project, Zhu Yun felt like a horse running free in the grass as she joyously started coding.

Han Jiakang had told her that Zhang Xiaobei hated laziness. When she checked on their progress, there was one particular thing she looked out for—the more lines you had, the happier she was. That was what she liked. And so, with the speed of a rocket, Zhu Yun started submitting file after file, pulling down the once-stable system with the strength of a baby pulling on a teat.

She coded with utterly cumbersome logic and made use of the most horrific template. Three days later, the system had become a minefield. It appeared to run properly, but it was filled with traps and pits. The code had no readability and no scalability.

When Zhu Yun looked at it, she wanted to vomit. But Zhang Xiaobei was happy. Zhu Yun was working fast enough. She was writing enough lines. And the program functioned. It was just perfect.

After a few days of perfection, disaster hit. One day, when Zhu Yun arrived at the lab, she sensed that something wasn’t quite right. Everyone was bent over lower than usual, their heads buried deeper than usual. The room was stiller than a morgue.

Han Jiakang passed by Zhu Yun and whispered, “Zhang Xiaobei was scolded by Treasure. You—” The clicking of high heels sounded from the hall. Han Jiakang’s face paled. Before he even finished speaking, he returned to his spot.

Zhang Xiaobei pushed open the lab door and walked up to Zhu Yun. She shoved a pile of materials for some project or another at her. She pointed at Zhu Yun’s nose and, in front of the entire room, she shrieked, “Tell me what the hell you wrote!”