Chapter 19
“So many…” Jiang Yingting swallowed hard, unable to believe it. “Forget about reviewing—just writing all that would break your hand. Are you sure you can make it through all the exams?”
Of course.
Shi Yu didn’t answer, but his calm expression said it all.
For many people, just passing the complex major courses requires all their effort. But Shi Yu, who maxed out his elective courses and had an explosion of exams, still managed to keep a GPA of 4.9…
It was nothing short of a miracle reserved for a study god.
Teacher Wang from the School of Information was chatting and laughing with a colleague as they pushed open the office door. Seeing Shi Yu, he paused and pointed at him: “This is the student Shi Yu I told you about earlier. He developed a shopping platform himself. His idea is to use AI to help users find the items they want, which is different from big data’s ‘recommended for you’—it uses text descriptions and AI networking to make users’ needs more specific.”
“For example, on most platforms, users want to buy something, but they can only search by photo recognition or keywords. Sometimes users only have a specific use or concept for the item, without a complete concrete object to search for. This AI addition allows users to find what they really want and need within the huge database.”
“Oh? That’s an interesting idea. So users can just describe what they want and freely choose what to buy, which would greatly increase the fun of shopping.” The other teacher with glasses looked him up and down. “He’s not from the School of Information, right? I don’t recall.”
“Of course not, he’s from Economics,” Teacher Wang said proudly. “It’s just an elective for him.”
“Both the idea and practical application are impressive. He’s not from the School of Information? I’ve seen the source code of that platform, anyone who didn’t know would think it was a graduate student’s work. How old is he?”
“Second year in college,” Shi Yu answered respectfully.
“So young. If you’re interested, you can apply to transfer to my group and I’ll reserve a place for you to do a combined master’s and PhD.”
“Hmph.” Teacher Wang stroked his beard, displeased. “I already reserved a good candidate, why are you trying to steal him?”
“Alright, if you need anything, you can always come to the third floor of the School of Information and find me. My surname is Zou.”
Teacher Wang snorted: “What for? I already postponed the exam schedule.”
“Sorry, teacher, my exam schedule this semester is fully booked until the very last day. If possible, I hope you could reschedule my makeup exams to the beginning of next semester,” Shi Yu said sincerely.
“What?” Both teachers asked in disbelief, then fell into thought as they looked at his packed exam timetable.
It was as if they were lost in a memory. Together they said, “The last time we had such an extreme student was that one who got admitted early to Stanford…”
—
Jiangcheng, a VIP private club.
Under dazzling lights, the faces of men and women were blurred with colorful filters, their expressions softened in the midst of clinking glasses and casual drinking.
Shen Luo stretched both arms, leaning back on the sofa, casually crossing his legs, and clinked glasses with Jiang Shangwan. “Hey, I heard at the recent investment promotion meeting you brought along a little brother?”
He leaned in with meaning: “Which little brother…? Is he a younger brother, or just… a ‘bro, bro’…?”
Jiang Shangwan ruthlessly pushed his head away. “Younger brother, someone younger than me. A student I sponsored before.”
“Oh—” Shen Luo clicked his tongue twice and casually said, “Speaking of students, I met a university student working part-time at a business KTV during a recent trip—turns out he’s from Peking University.”
“Students these days really play flashy. Even Peking University students are working as hostesses now?”
“How do you know he’s really from Peking University?” Jiang Shangwan said expressionlessly. “Prestigious school graduate, young model influencer, alcoholic dad, sick mom, younger brother in school? Which family doesn’t have at least two of these problems?”
Shen Luo chuckled, “True, it’s all the same story anyway.”
“I heard that little brother isn’t from the Lin family?” Qiao Yuqing said.
“Not wrong. His roommate is that Lin family kid, Lin Chuan. Lin Chuan didn’t want to come, so he sent him instead.”
“Oh, so now we’re playing the switcheroo game.”
Jiang Shangwan rubbed her fingertip on the table surface, and her peripheral vision caught sight of Qiao Yuqing’s silver phone vibrating repeatedly with incoming messages on the table.
She casually opened WeChat, seeing a large cluster of unread notifications. She tapped on a voice message at the very bottom, and a sticky voice floated softly from the receiver: “Sister Qing, when do you have time to go eat with me?”
Qiao Yuqing replied, “I’ll come find you tonight.”
“That’s Ji Zhao,” Jiang Shangwan said, recognizing the voice almost immediately.
“He’s pretty clingy,” Qiao Yuqing said, lightly pouring out the remaining half glass of red wine. “If I don’t reply within a few minutes, he keeps sending messages. He keeps messaging me himself, and I always feel bad rejecting him.”
This kind of thing, happening with mutual consent, isn’t even a ‘hidden rule.’
Jiang Shangwan made no comment. In their circle, toys that come knocking at your door like that are like gifts from a powerful ally crossing the river—rather than pretending to be aloof and dignified, being straightforward about your attitude often works better to achieve your goals.
It’s just an exchange of interests. Jiang Shangwan had to admit that people like Ji Zhao, who had developed so smoothly during his recent years of career transformation after returning home, owed much to his skill in ingratiating himself.
Suddenly, she thought of Shi Yu, somewhat out of place. Since their ambiguous night last time, he hadn’t teased her again, nor sent her many messages. Occasionally, he would send her some daily life updates to show his status, but Jiang Shangwan rarely replied.
Not long ago, during his final exams, he sent her photos of his study sessions—a picture of him sitting at a desk studying.
His arm rested on the glossy black tabletop, revealing the smooth muscle lines of his forearm. The table was covered with dense materials, and on one side lay messy draft papers filled with tightly packed calculation marks.
His handwriting was beautiful, even on the draft paper, the upward strokes revealed strong pen pressure, with ink marks that flicked slightly at the end, clear and elegant, yet full of strength and character.
The handwriting reflected the person.
Without showing his face, Jiang Shangwan unusually stared at that photo repeatedly. In the corner of the draft paper, some blurry characters were scribbled—she could recognize her name hidden there.
At the bottom of the photo, a small glimpse of his legs under the desk appeared. He wore simple black sports pants, and only a tiny part accidentally entered the frame, yet Jiang Shangwan’s gaze was irresistibly drawn to the bulge between his legs…
Such simple pants could look so provocative on him.
With a flicker of thought, Jiang Shangwan reached out and touched her flushed cheek. She gently swirled the wine in her glass.
She seemed a little tipsy.
Qiao Yuqing lowered her voice and sent a voice message, as if soothing the person on the other end: “I’m chatting with friends here, be good, okay? We’ll go eat tonight, alright?”
Shen Luo listened and teased, “So cheesy.”
“Don’t talk,” Qiao Yuqing rolled her eyes at him. Hearing the man’s voice was recorded, she had to cancel sending and re-record the message.
“Talking business, be good, we’ll eat later.”
“You play by yourself first.”
Jiang Shangwan’s hand rested on her phone, her fingers lightly tapping the screen as her gaze lingered on the plain black profile picture.
She opened his Moments, which showed three empty days—nothing at all. Fueled by the wine, she suddenly felt a small urge to contact him. After some thought, she typed a few words and sent: Hanging out with friends, I’m drunk.
He replied almost instantly.
Shi Yu: Where?
“Hey hey hey, why do both of you have to find someone to chat with while drinking? What are you talking about?” Shen Luo stood up and refilled their glasses.
Jiang Shangwan typed slowly, deleting and rewriting several times.
Qiao Yuqing’s eyes shifted from Shen Luo to Jiang Shangwan’s phone screen and said softly, “Drinking isn’t the time for flirting, it’s no fun.”
Ambiguity is the push and pull between two people, silent probing and teasing. Compared to the certainty that comes after falling in love, ambiguity’s vagueness and unpredictability are the most intoxicating and heady feelings.
So after hearing this, Jiang Shangwan impulsively sent him an address.
“Yo, who are you sending that to? You even shared your location.”
“Huh? Shared my location?”
Jiang Shangwan quietly turned off her phone screen.
She admitted it was a sudden impulse. Right now, they were drinking privately with friends, and sending a location was an obvious silent hint—come pick me up.
But what kind of status would he come with? Would he even come at all?
Obviously, asking him to come was more for fun and teasing him, not a serious invitation.
Seeing this, Qiao Yuqing also casually sent her location to Ji Zhao.
“Then let’s all call them over to hang out together.”
“Hey, yeah? Okay, I’ll call two of my girls too.”
Jiang Shangwan lowered her eyes, staring at the pitch-black phone screen with no message notifications, feeling inexplicably nervous.
Would he really come?
Shen Luo raised his eyebrows: “Let’s make a bet — whoever we call gets here first wins. The last one to arrive drinks three shots.”
“Alright.” Qiao Yuqing tilted her head and sent a voice message: “Hurry up and come, if you’re late, you drink!”
Jiang Shangwan still didn’t move.
But soon, two curly-haired beauties in fur coats and boots pushed open the banquet hall doors, fluttering over to Shen Luo with sweet smiles: “Boss Xiao Shen, it’s been so long since you called us out to play.”
“Come sit down, drinks are poured full.”
Ji Zhao arrived quickly too, but he was fully covered up, wearing a mask and a hat carefully, as if afraid of being photographed by passersby. He was surprised and said, “Sister Wan, you’re here too?”
He had just taken off his mask when the two beauties opposite smiled brightly and approached him: “Aren’t you the main dancer of the Doimi group? You’re even more handsome in person than in the videos.”
“Can we have your autograph?”
“My friend went to your concert, you know.”
Shen Luo had already filled three glasses with wine and clicked his tongue: “The people you invited aren’t much better either. Pretty slow.”
Just as he finished speaking, the late-arriving Shi Yu pushed the door open. Before anyone could see his face clearly, the first thing that caught their eyes was his long, upright legs and slender figure. Unlike the others who came empty-handed, he was carrying a big bag.
“Sorry.”
His voice was low but clear and pleasant, like a fresh, clear spring.
His eyes met Jiang Shangwan’s from across the room. He said softly, “The subway got caught in the evening rush hour, so I’m late.”