Chapter 6

The new girl in the group was named Ou Qian, the same girl who had accidentally bumped into Lin Shuicheng at the door.

At Star University, postgraduate students, except for first-year students who would arrive gradually before the semester started to register, had more flexible class schedules. It was common not to go home during holidays when there were significant projects. If there were no projects, supervisors generally allowed leave, letting these young scholars play as they wished.

Ou Qian was attractive, appearing gentle and polite – the kind of "good student" that everyone liked. Upon arrival, she respectfully addressed her seniors and went to report to Wang Pinyuan, quickly winning over the favor of the lab members.

"Professor, it's not even the start of the semester yet, but there are already so many people here. Am I the last first-year student of this batch to arrive?" Ou Qian asked with a smile, nervously rubbing her fingertips.

Wang Pinyuan wrote on the student list, responding, "Not at all, you're actually quite early. Not many from your batch have come yet. Are you a day student or a resident?"

"I'm a day student," said Ou Qian.

Wang Pinyuan marked the appropriate category and then a student, drenched in sweat, rushed over. "Professor! The data is ready, please take a look. If it doesn't work, we'll have to use the main machine. We can't seem to get your algorithm to work no matter how we test it."

He casually handed the form to Ou Qian and smiled warmly. "I'll head to the computing lab first. For the rest of your registration, go to Senior Xu Mengmeng. She'll guide you, and in the next few days, familiarize yourself with the environment."

"Alright, thank you, Professor," said Ou Qian.

As soon as Wang Pinyuan left, the others immediately approached, eager to ask questions.

A few overly eager boys were brushed aside by Xu Mengmeng with a wave of her hand. "Scram! Go write your reports! My junior sister is mine, don't even think about it. Come on, let me show you around."

Ou Qian blushed and giggled. She stepped forward to link arms with Xu Mengmeng and whispered, "Is it always like this during classes?"

"More or less. They're quite relaxed, but they can be serious when there's real work to do. Old Wang is really nice to us." Xu Mengmeng led her into the storage room and bent down to search for the key to the experiment bench.

Ou Qian waited patiently by the side and casually asked, "Senior, is there someone here named Lin Shuicheng?"

"Oh, do you know him?" Xu Mengmeng perked up at the mention of Lin Shuicheng. "He's such a well-behaved junior, and so handsome too. Too bad he seems to have a boyfriend already."

Ou Qian said, "I wouldn't say we know each other, just that I'm aware of him. I was just curious how he ended up here. He used to be from the Jiangnan branch, and it's not easy to transfer over from there." It was a well-known fact. The admission score for the main campus of Star University was fifty points higher than the branches, so the main campus students generally looked down on those who transferred from the branches, as it implied that the branch students hadn't performed as well in their college entrance exams. "I heard he has excellent grades," Xu Mengmeng finally fished out her keys. Taking them, Ou Qian shook her head slightly, as if she wanted to say something but held back. "Actually, that..." "Hmm?" Xu Mengmeng looked at her. "He probably had connections to get here. Before, he studied chemistry, but in just one year, he managed to switch to the math department. That's quite odd," Ou Qian whispered. "I have a friend at the Jiangnan branch too. Lin Shuicheng's boyfriend seems to be wealthy, and their relationship doesn't seem purely romantic... Anyway, it's quite famous among them." "Oh, really? I didn't see that coming," Xu Mengmeng thought for a moment, disbelief in her voice. "But he's doing pretty well with his project now. Could it really be him?" Ou Qian equivocated, "I'm not sure about that, but the story is true." Xu Mengmeng smacked her forehead. "Now that you mention it, I did handle his enrollment. He did come from the Jiangnan branch. But Little Lin, even though he's very good-looking, it's hard to believe he'd be someone's kept man, right?"

A hint of amusement shimmered in Ou Qian's eyes as she shook her head. "Who knows? Perhaps they just happen to share the same name and surname."

Xu Mengmeng gave her a tour and subsequently assigned her a desk in the office and a workspace in the laboratory.

These students usually worked in a single large lab, with first, second, and third-year graduate students sitting wherever they pleased out of personal preference. Ou Qian spotted Lin Shuicheng right away.

Lin Shuicheng sat perched on the edge of a laboratory bench by the window, engrossed in quietly flipping through documents with his head bowed. His eyelashes were lustrously dark and long, while the crimson teardrop mole on the side of his face stood out provocatively. The ambient daylight filtered in, casting a gentle glow over him, rendering his countenance so strikingly beautiful that it seemed almost surreal.

Such a person would always stand out in a crowd, even if they were hidden in a corner; no one could overlook their presence.

Upon entering, Ou Qian was escorted by Xu Mengmeng to meet everyone present.

Everyone, except for Lin Shuicheng and his small team, came over to greet her.

Stopping in her tracks, Ou Qian glanced at Lin Shuicheng's direction, feigning casual interest. "Who are those senior students?"

Lin Shuicheng was engrossed in his report, surrounded by a few male classmates engaged in a low whispering discussion.

Xu Mengmeng covered her mouth, giggling. "They're working on the military project with Old Wang. They're struggling with their thesis proposal. Apart from Little Lin, they're all straight as an arrow, and total nerds. Let's not bother them. We'll catch up during lunch."

Listening attentively, Ou Qian replied, "No problem, just a simple greeting."

Approaching them, she introduced herself politely and warmly. "Hello, seniors. I'm Ou Qian, a new first-year graduate student. I'll be relying on all of you in the future."

Lin Shuicheng and the others turned to look at her. The boys' eyes lit up upon seeing an attractive girl.

A slight blush colored her cheeks, and she smiled at Lin Shuicheng. "Oh, it's you! What a coincidence, we'll be classmates from now on."

Lin Shuicheng: "?"

He had already donned his lab coat, his indifferent gaze revealing no emotions, as if he hadn't recognized her.

Ou Qian reminded him, "We met this morning at the entrance of the math department. I accidentally bumped into you. At that time, you were..."

Before she could finish, a guy standing next to Lin Shuicheng chuckled. "Oh, a newbie? Have you played our initiation game yet?"

He turned around, revealing his name tag which read "Lv Jian," indicating he was a second-year graduate student.

The others nearby laughed too. Once the topic came up, everyone seemed to become enthusiastic, their eyes sparkling with excitement.

Confused, Ou Qian asked, "What do you mean?"

Seeing everyone gather around, smiling at her, she felt a bit flustered but managed to maintain a smile. "Is there... another test or something?"

Lv Jian clapped his hands and swiftly spun a pen in his hand before scribbling a few lines of numbers on a piece of paper. "Come on, let's play a simple cipher game to test your sensitivity to numbers. Today, Old Wang is occupied, so he might not recall."

With a snap, a sheet of paper was placed in front of her.

"Well…" Ou Qian bit her lip.

Some people around them started counting down, laughing at first, but as time passed, their laughter faded.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds...

To everyone's surprise, Ou Qian stood there, utterly flustered and unable to provide an answer, looking completely lost.

"Come on, this is quite straightforward... Isn't she a student from our department?"

Someone whispered, and the others exchanged awkward glances, feeling uneasy.

Xu Mengmeng couldn't bear to watch anymore and softly prompted, "Affine cipher. He helped you with the modular multiplicative inverse. Didn't you notice it?"

Ou Qian had no idea what Xu Mengmeng was talking about. She had switched majors to study Quantum Analysis in the Mathematics Department, attracted by the potential for significant financial gain after graduation. Although her original major was also in the Mathematics Department, it was a more challenging and abstract field of pure theory, which made it harder to find employment. With no guaranteed graduate school admission at Star University, the Mathematics Department often struggled to fill its spots due to the difficulty of the exams and high dropout rates. This year, with the expansion of the Quantum Analysis program, the admission score had dropped by forty points, allowing Ou Qian to scrape through.

Seeing that she was stumped, the boy casually tossed the notebook behind him. "Newbie over there, give it a try."

Lin Shuicheng was completely oblivious to the commotion. After inputting a function into the screen, he turned his head at the sound of someone calling him. Glancing over, he identified the problem and said, "An affine substitution with m=2, involving the Fibonacci sequence." Then, he promptly returned his focus to his work.

A boy whistled and playfully patted Lin Shuicheng's shoulder in front of Ou Qian. "What do you think? My new recruit is pretty good, right? It's okay if you can't figure it out now. The guy next to me is also a newbie, just like you. You can ask him anything you don't understand."

Ou Qian: "..."

Her face flushed, and she whispered, "I transferred from a pure theory major, so I'm not very knowledgeable about these codes..."

"No problem at all," the boy said, giving a thumbs up with a chuckle. "Lin Shuicheng also transferred in, and he used to study chemistry." He added, "Awesome, right? Junior, remember to visit often!"

Xu Mengmeng glared at the boy.

Did he still think he was smooth? This clueless straight guy had no idea how to read the atmosphere!

Lin Shuicheng spent the day busy in the lab. After school, Xu Mengmeng, Lv Jian, and their friends invited him to join them for dinner.

"I'll wait a moment, I need to make a call first," Lin Shuicheng said.

He scrolled through his contacts but couldn't find Fu Luoyin's entry at first. That's when he remembered to check his recent text messages.

He hadn't set any special label for Fu Luoyin, so he tapped into the messaging interface and dialed the number from there.

The phone rang once before disconnecting, likely because Fu Luoyin was occupied.

He sent a text: "I might be home late tonight, having a dinner gathering with classmates."

Without waiting for a response, he heaved a sigh of relief and switched off his phone.

By informing, he had already tacitly gained approval; he could act first and seek forgiveness later.

Hopefully, Fu Luoyin wouldn't return home tonight.

Every part of him still ached, and he didn't wish to see him again for the time being.

They went for hotpot.

Lin Shuicheng remained as quiet as usual, not uttering any unnecessary words. He sat quietly in a corner, attracting playful teasing from several senior female classmates. He was particularly well-behaved, answering any questions asked of him.

"Enough, enough, is this a blind date? Everyone, focus on your food, or it'll all be gone," Xu Mengmeng said.

The meat, after a quick simmer in the hotpot, was tender, spicy, and delightfully savory.

Ou Qian swiftly adapted to the group's atmosphere and teased herself with a hint of embarrassment, "I've brought shame to the Mathematics Department. I couldn't even answer that question you guys tested me on just now. Little Lin is better than me."

Lv Jian laughed heartily, reassuring her, "No worries, it's not your field anyway. Most people don't dabble in cryptography on purpose. Besides, those skilled in it can spot the answers quickly. Old Wang's annual questions aren't usually too difficult."

Upon hearing this, Ou Qian felt relieved.

"Little Lin answered so swiftly, he's amazing," Ou Qian glanced at Lin Shuicheng and said with a smile, "There's such a talented person in the Chemistry Department, and he's so good-looking. I haven't heard about him before. I did hear about a Lin Shuicheng with the same name in the Jiangnan Branch, but they can't be the same person, right?"

Lin Shuicheng finally looked up at her, "I'm not from the main department. I pursued my undergraduate degree in the branch."

"Why didn't you come to the main campus?" Ou Qian spooned a bite of steaming tofu and blew on it before suddenly remembering something and saying leisurely, "Oh, my brain. I forgot. The admission scores for our batch between the branch and the main campus... were about fifty points apart, right?"

Lin Shuicheng replied, "I don't remember the exact scores. There were some personal reasons why I stayed at the branch."

Ou Qian turned to discuss the admission scores with a few senior female students, subtly teasing the Mathematics Department of Star University for their recruitment practices. The topic transition was smooth and effortless, but some observant individuals couldn't help but be cautious.

It wasn't a secret that Lin Shuicheng came from the branch campus, and the undergraduate admission scores there were well-known. Although he had passed Wang Pinyuan's test when he transferred, his rapid ascent—first from the branch to the main campus, then directly into a second-year research project—inevitably raised suspicions.

To make matters more intriguing, he was strikingly handsome, with an appearance that appealed to both genders. Whether or not he had truly relied on connections could only be speculated.

He claimed to have stayed in the branch due to personal reasons, but who knew if he had failed the exam back then!

Star University was a renowned brand, and Quantum Analysis was the mathematics department's flagship program. Many projects for second-year postgraduates and above were directly linked to the Alliance's military with tangible rewards. The more people joined the team, the less profit each person would receive at the end of the project. This was a straightforward issue of interest, and no one could deny their involvement.

Due to this reason, Star University strictly enforced regulations and provided a channel for students to report anonymously. If someone truly hadn't met the entrance requirements, they could request an investigation from the department office. If Lin Shuicheng couldn't even pass the exam at the main campus, wouldn't there be a question about his scores for the entrance exam this time?

...

The meal was consumed with ulterior motives hidden in each participant's hearts.

Lin Shuicheng didn't notice. He seldom cared about things that didn't concern him, and his personality leaned towards being non-competitive and non-aggressive.

The only thing that caught his attention was Fu Luoyin not responding to his message. When there was still no reply even after 9 p.m., it likely meant that Fu Luoyin was still occupied with something. As a result, Lin Shuicheng could go home and have a good night's sleep.

By the time he returned, it was almost 10 p.m. Fu Luoyin, as expected, wasn't back yet.

Lin Shuicheng was slightly pleased and continued trimming the Commander's nails.

Halfway through, he suddenly received a call—it was from his mentor, Wang Pinyuan.

"Little Lin, are you there? Do you still have your high school and undergraduate academic records? If so, could you send them to me?"

Lin Shuicheng replied, "Yes, they're still available. Is it urgent, Teacher?"

"Worried about me? No, but for you, it's quite pressing. I'll help clear your name," Wang Pinyuan chuckled on the other end. "Find them as soon as possible and send me the digital copy via email. I'll be waiting for your response."

Confused but not wanting to pry, Lin Shuicheng entered his study, located a USB drive, and plugged it into his computer. A myriad of documents cluttered the screen.

Skimming past files titled "2332 Incident Coding Summary," "Linear-Nonlinear Event Correlation Study," "2332 Jiangnan Port Cargo Manifest," and "Worldwide Port Traffic Dynamic Modeling," he selected the last folder labeled "Records."

It contained his academic reports from childhood to adulthood.

After forwarding them to Wang Pinyuan, the latter called back a few minutes later. "Received. I took a look, and something occurred to me, Little Lin. Why did you give up on majoring in chemistry? Also, with these grades... you could've joined the main campus from the start, right?"

It was at this moment that Wang Pinyuan examined the background of this favorably connected candidate more closely: full marks all the way through primary and secondary school, topping the class in high school, and acing every subject in college entrance exams. Lin Shuicheng's achievements in chemistry were astonishing – a young man in his early twenties who had already worked alongside numerous industry giants, contributing to cutting-edge scientific research.

Lin Shuicheng leaned back against the desk and gently closed his eyes.

That year, someone also asked him, "Younger Junior Brother, you scored so high. Why didn't you go to the main campus?"

The man's eyes were gentle as he turned around and locked the lab door behind him. Smiling, he watched Little Lin sit in front of an alcohol stove, meticulously stirring a small bowl of cabbage with a glass rod.

He said, "All the adults in my family have passed away, and my younger brother is sick in the hospital. I need to stay here to take care of him."

The man fell silent for a long while before suddenly whispering softly, "Don't be afraid."

Raising his eyebrows, he looked at the man in confusion.

The man said, "I've locked the door. Others won't discover that we're up to no good here. Don't be afraid."

...

Holding onto his phone, Lin Shuicheng thought for a moment before telling Wang Pinyuan, "For my boyfriend."

Author has something to say: I discovered a timeline error while writing. I'll fix it tomorrow. Previously, Little Lin met Little Fu after completing his undergraduate studies, and they were together for two years before Lin Shuicheng transferred to the main campus for graduate studies. According to the timeline, he should be at least in his second year of graduate school or beyond. However, my original intention was for Little Lin to be in his first year of graduate studies. I'll revise it to say, "They were together for two years during which Lin Shuicheng prepared for a different major while staying at the branch campus as a teaching assistant. This year, he transferred to the main campus for his first year of graduate studies."