ter, it tucked the paintings away, perhaps out of fear that the jealous featherball would snatch it away.

Xixi: ’F*ck!’

"Chiiiiiiirp!" (Look at the bell the master has bought me.)

"Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!" (I believe that the master’s taste is better than that.)

Seeing the poop-colored bell hanging on Xixi’s neck, Haha in reality, was so envious that rage bubbled up within him.

Xixi: ’... That’s right, this was snatched away from the hands of a child. But why would I admit to that!?’

"Chiiiiiiirp! Chiiiiiiirp!" (You’re just jealous of me! Hmph!)

Haha was too lazy to entertain the bird now. It proceeded to lick up the water in its bowl. After all, action was louder than words, or in this case, barks.

Xixi peered at the expensive-looking bowl, then at the dull-colored bell on its neck. In an instant, something inside of it snapped.

Seeing Xixi getting so pissed off prepared Haha for a good long afternoon siesta. After all, it needed its daily dose of torture before drifting into dreamland~

Gu Xiqiao stealthily sneaked upstairs, trying to look as if she hadn’t left the second floor at all. However, the moment she arrived before the door of her room, she discovered that the door to the study room opposite of hers was wide open. Sitting comfortably on a wicker chair facing the doorway was Jiang Shuxuan, looking at her with a deadpan expression.

"Brother Jiang..." Gu Xiqiao’s body went stiff and her fingers curled up tightly.

’Didn’t he say that he would return at night last night? Liar!’

Feeling that she had been lied to, Gu Xiqiao wore a pitiful expression on her face.

Jiang Shuxuan put down his book and sighed in disappointment. "Come in. I have something to tell you. I won’t scold you, I promise." If not for that final phrase, she would not have stepped into his room.

Since he was a man of his word, Gu Xiqiao slid into the room quickly. "What’s up?"

"Do you have a more skilled computer expert at your disposal?" Jiang Shuxuan knew very well about Gu Xiqiao’s connections in that field. "We’re facing problems at the base and we need the help of such a person."

Gu Xiqiao remembered that he mentioned the same thing before but she had forgotten about it soon after. "Yes I do, but I’ll have to ask that person first. Is it a very urgent matter?"

Good thing she was still a somewhat reasonable person. She planned to ask Yu Ning about it in a "friendly" manner and if he turned her down, she would offer another new source code in exchange for his service. But, if that does not satisfy him, she’d have to resort to the caveman method—knock him unconscious and drag him home.

"If possible, I’d like to have it done in 2 days’ time. Anymore and I won’t have the time to handle this issue once I get back to the capital." There were a ton of jobs waiting for him to settle at the Imperial Capital and his stay at N City certainly meant that he had been neglecting his work. Even so, the boys in Jing Capital dared not speak up about this.

Gu Xiqiao narrowed her eyes. "Then I’ll try to ask as soon as I can. I’ll keep you updated."

Jiang Shuxuan nodded. The most suitable individual for this job was that God Lo person from the hacker forum. However, that guy was like a slimy rat; he had vanished without a trace after supposedly returning to the Imperial Capital. The entire forum scratched its head at whether he had really disappeared or whether he was just lurking around under a false identity.

He rested two of his fingers on Gu Xiqiao’s inner wrist to take her pulse.

"You should take a rest this afternoon. You’re allowed to go out tomorrow but don’t stay out too long."

Gu Xiqiao half-heartedly mumbled a response as she was more focused on looking at Jiang Shuxuan’s fingers. They looked clean and well-maintained. His fingers were long and slender, with a pronounced bone structure. Although he was no artist, he possessed the hands of a good artist.

"Hurry up and take a shower. I’ll be waiting for you downstairs with your soup." Jiang Shuxuan knocked his knuckles on her skull.

"Okay." Gu Xiqiao sighed. Soup. Soup again.

She had to down an entire bowl of soup before finishing her lunch. It was hard, but she managed to fall asleep afterward but it wasn’t long before Xixi came flying into her room. "Beauty Qiao wake up! Wake up! Wu Hongwen’s with a hot babe downstairs!"

"Scram!" Gu Xiqiao could no longer stand this annoying bird. Suddenly, a pillow came flying from the direction of her bed, slamming into Xixi’s beak.

This was proof that sleeping with the windows open posed a dangerous risk.

Yawning a few times, Gu Xiqiao got out of bed. Wu Hongwen and Xiao Yun were downstairs, and since there wasn’t anything urgent, she decided to settle the matter about Yu Ning first.

***

Yu Ning, who was in the middle of breaking a source code, almost turned his phone off when it rang nonstop. Picking it up, he realized that the caller was Gu Xiqiao and so he answered the call.

Gu Xiqiao explained to him the issue with the base and their need for an expert programmer. Who would’ve thought that Yu Ning would turn her down in an instant. Now in Nine Heaven’s computer engineering laboratory, he was like a duck in water. He was just a few steps away from literally moving into the laboratory as a permanent resident. Every day, he would spend hours at the lab, studying various programs and related documents.

How could he not do that? Everything that Gu Xiqiao brought to that lab were sensational pieces of equipment that added to his arsenal. Yu Ning was pretty much in a computer freak’s paradise now. He had barely scratched the tip of the iceberg and he was already feeling like he had reached the peak of his career. So how could he possibly be moved by the outside world anymore?

Having prepared for this outcome, Gu Xiqiao opened her mouth. "I’ll give you a plan to break the source code."

"I don’t care what you sa-" Yu Ning stopped mid sentence. "Give me five or I won’t go!"

"Two." Gu Xiqiao was prepared to haggle down to the bitter end.

"I need at least four!" Yu Ning would lose his cool every time they discussed this matter.

Gu Xiqiao poured herself a glass of water. "Best I can do is two."

historical

"Three! No less than three..."

"Bye, I’m hanging up."

"Hold up!" yelled Yu Ning. "Two is fine! Pass me his contact number right now!"

"Done deal," said Gu Xiqiao before she hung up.

Downstairs, Xiao Yun and Wu Hongwen were seating on the sofa watching television while talking to Mrs. Zhang. They were paying Gu Xiqiao a visit today and came with the intention of asking her when they should leave for the Imperial Capital.

"I’ll go before my semester starts but I don’t have a specific date in mind yet. I’ll leave it up to you both." Gu Xiqiao wasn’t overly concerned about the timing, not that it made any difference to her as long as they went.

Xiao Yun made the call for them. "Then let’s set it at three days later, on the second day of registration."

Xiao Yun’s university semester started on the same day as Gu Xiqiao, and the registration for both schools lasted for three days, so they picked the second day, which they felt was the Goldilocks’ zone.

Seeing that Gu Xiqiao had more or less recovered from her operation, it was time for the two to leave for an afternoon training session now. Wu Hongwen played dead on the sofa. "Er Qiao, I don’t wanna get beaten up by Yao Xiaomu again. When will I ever be able to beat him up?!"

"Let’s see," replied Gu Xiqiao who lifted Haha up to her lap. Her pink lips curled into a subtle smile. "Maybe in your next life?"

"..." Wu Hongwen was on the brink of forfeiting his friendship with her.

Xixi, who after a tremendous struggle, managed to crawl out from underneath the heavy pillow, started screeching wildly upon seeing Haha in Gu Xiqiao’s embrace. "Chiiiirp chiirrrp!" (Let go of my girl!!!!!!)

Haha shot it a glance before turning away.

Seeing how Haha was ignoring itself, Xixi flew circles above the dog’s head.

"What’s up with that bird?" asked Xiao Yun curiously.

Silently, Gu Xiaoqi read out the word with her lips, "He’s sick, needs medication."

Smack!"

Xixi had become so dizzy from flying circles that it dropped out of the air and onto the floorboard.

***

After receiving a special permission from Jiang Shuxuan, Gu Xiqiao left early the next morning to pay Li Yanmei a visit.

School started early for Li Yanmei. Mu Zong brought Li Yanmei to the headmaster’s office as an introduction and then proceeded to handle the standard paperwork before finally going to the hospital.

Gu Xiqiao’s unit was new. Although it was clean, there was a lot of clutter, which Li Yanmei spent her time clearing up. That resulted in her not having enough time to walk around the school and familiarise herself with the environment.

And so, she woke up extra early the next morning and after buying her lunch at a stall downstairs, she made her way to N City’s best school, which coincidentally was also her dream school. Though, the entry requirements for this establishment was high. Only those who scored top in their districts could land a place in this school.

Now that she was blessed with the chance to study here, words could not describe the joy she felt.

Taking in a deep breath, she stood in front of its pearly gates, observing the students and parents walking in and out of the school. It was only after a while when her emotions settled down that she decided to step in through the gates.

Leading into the school was an eight lane asphalt road. There were many voices around her but she discovered that they mostly spoke of the same person—the top ranker of this year’s national finals.

"Have you heard? The top ranker and runner up of this year’s national finals are students from this academy. Believe it or not, it’s because of my idol that I have decided to transfer here! Maybe I’ll even be able to get some of that magical aura!"

"Unlike you, my parents forced me to transfer to this school. First City High’s hit the jackpot haven’t they?"

"..."

A lot of them seemed to be transfer students.

Li Yanmei too, had grown a bit curious about the schools’ performance. The students’ results were posted on a nearby bulletin board so she had to squeeze through a large crowd just so she could get a good view at the digits.

As she did so, words like "national goddess", "talent" and "two academic maniacs" were being thrown around repeatedly among the students.

Finally she reached the front of the crowd. Li Yanmei sighed in relief. As she raised her head, she wasn’t looking for any particular individual but in the end, her eyes ended up looking at a large print of a girl’s photo.

Although it was the type of photo you’d get for your ID card, that face still looked as pretty as a painting. No wonder these students were all gathered around here.

Li Yanmei was awe-struck. She gulped in surprise. She knew who this person was! She was none other than Little Gu! That Little Gu with whom she had shared a meal with yesterday! The one whom she grew up with at the village!

Although, it was shocking and it was hard for her to accept. Although she knew from young that Gu Xiqiao was an intelligent girl, she simply couldn’t get used to how mystical she actually turned out to be.

Slowly panning down, Li Yanmei was astonished to find that she had managed to obtain near perfect scores for every subject she took.

There was a large number of new students who were expressing their regret for not joining the school earlier to witness the genius in real life.

There were also a bunch of other students posted at the back of the bulletin board, presumably from other classes. Apart from that, there was also the headmaster’s own words, which read: "This batch of students are definitely the most exciting ones I have ever seen in my career! Starting today, we will be abolishing the class system that differentiates students in terms of their grades! We hope that you too, will be as miraculous as these students!"

The words made an impact on Li Yanmei, who stared at the headmaster’s words for a long, long time. Although there were missed calls from Mu Zong on her phone, she was too focused on the writing that she forgot all about that matter.

Finally, her memories returned when she squeezed her way back out of the crowd. Seeing that the caller was none other than Gu Xiqiao, Li Yanmei looked back at the bulletin board.

"...what? You want to show me around the school? No way! Stand right there! I’ll come for you!"

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