. Chapter 7

7

Under the hazy night sky, a guitar melody sounded. Zhu Yun was shocked at Ren Di’s improvement. The last time she’d heard Ren Di play, her level was on that of?Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But now, she could even alternate between various chords.

After she finished playing, Ren Di put her guitar down at her side and sat down next to Zhu Yun.

Zhu Yun said, “That’s amazing.” She was being quite genuine this time.

Ren Di shrugged.

After a moment, Zhu Yun suddenly said, “It’s worth it.”

Ren Di grew a bit suspicious.

Zhu Yun pointed at her guitar and said, “To be able to play that, it’s pretty worth it to skip out on study hall.”

Ren Di stared back at her blankly, and after a bit, her mouth twitched. Zhu Yun felt, during the entire time that she’d known Ren Di, this was the closest she’d seen to her “laughing.”

A piece of paper appeared in front of her face.

Zhu Yun moved over, and borrowing the dim moonlight, she saw that there was an address written on the paper.

“My office. If you’re tired of hanging out at school, come by.”

“Office?”

“It’s not far from campus.”

Zhu Yun nodded and put away the slip of paper.

Ren Di stretched her back and rubbed her eyes, expressing her weariness.

“You must be tired,” Zhu Yun remarked.

“Mmh. I have to meet with Li Xun later too.” Ren Di grabbed the bottle of water beside her for a sip. Quietly, she complained, “I’m going to have to fight with that idiot Liu Sisi again.”

“Liu Sisi?” Zhu Yun thought for a moment. “From the art school?”

“Yeah. The one who can’t take a picture without a filter.”

“....”

Liu Sisi was Li Xun’s girlfriend, with a Coke bottle body, like a mannequin.

Ren Di scoffed. “That plastic chick won’t last long with Li Xun.”

Zhu Yun recalled her earlier talk with Fang Shumiao, and she said, “Seems like Li Xun changes girlfriends pretty frequently.”

“That’s right.” Ren Di finished drinking her water and capped the bottle. “The brat, his private life’s a mess.”

Zhu Yun spoke quietly. “Then, you should be careful.”

“About what?”

Zhu Yun didn’t dare put it too explicitly, so she explained cautiously, “About.. Taking appropriate precautions..”

At first, Ren Di had a baffled expression. But after realizing what Zhu Yun was saying, she threw her head back in laughter.

“Hahaha! My god!” Ren Di was so amused that she completely forgot about appearances, and she sprawled across the floor laughing.

Zhu Yun, “..You don’t have to roll around on the ground.”

Ren Di sat back up and pat Zhu Yun strongly.

“You’re fucking hilarious!”

Zhu Yun, “....”

Ren Di pulled out her cigarettes from inside her jacket. She handed the box to Zhu Yun and asked, “Want one?”

Zhu Yun shook her head.

“No?” Ren Di stuck a cigarette in her mouth and squinted at her. In her deep and coarse voice, she said, “If you take one, I’ll tell you something fun.”

Zhu Yun silently grabbed a cigarette.

Ren Di laughed.

“Li Xun and I don’t have that kind of relationship.”

“Oh.”

Ren Di took a smoke and said, “I don’t like him, but.. Someone in our dorm room does.”

Zhu Yun choked and started coughing, as if this were her first time smoking.

Their dorm room only had three occupants, so there wasn’t even a need to eliminate anyone.

Ren Di rested her arms on her knees. With another laugh, she said, “Otherwise, why do you think she’s trying so hard to remain in the seminar? With that brain of hers, she’s going to have a lot of trouble on Li Xun’s project.”

Li Xun looked at Ren Di.

Ren Di asked, “What?”

Zhu Yun shook her head and said, “You only asked me to smoke so you could startle me?”

Ren Di laughed. When she was done, she said, “You’re so fucking funny.”

Zhu Yun sat back. In the smoke, she went back through her memory for any hints or signs. So, when Fang Shumiao had brought up Ren Di and Li Xun, was her ambiguous tone trying to mask her jealousy? She liked Li Xun.. Since when?

“She has no chance.” Ren Di exhaled a long string of smoke without any other expressions. “She won’t be able to last long. Li Xun.. Most girls won’t be able to keep up with him.”

That night, Zhu Yun made it back to the dorm just before curfew. Inside their dorm room, Fang Shumiao sat in her chair in a daze.

Zhu Yun walked over and waved a hand in front of her. “Anyone home?”

Fang Shumiao came back to her senses. When she saw Zhu Yun, the look on her face was like that of someone who’d just seen their saving rope. She grabbed tightly onto Zhu Yun’s arm.

“Zhu Yun, save me!”

Startled, Zhu Yun asked, “Wh-what is it?”

From her desk, Fang Shumiao handed over two sheets of paper for Zhu Yun to see. “This.. Do you know what to do?”

Zhu Yun took the papers and looked them over. On it was a list of functions required to build a website. Zhu Yun asked, “What is this?”

Fang Shumiao laid still on her desk. “The seminar project.”

Zhu Yun looked at the listed requirements. “You guys are going to practice developing a website?”

Fang Shumiao relied, “It’s not practice. Flip the page.”

Zhu Yun flipped to the second page and saw the inscription of a company’s name at the bottom. She glanced back over at Fang Shumiao, whose expression was one of confusion.

“Zhu Yun, he intends to sign a contract with an outside company.”

Zhu Yun was speechless. Then she looked over the first page again. “How are you guys going to split up this work?”

“If we get the contract, everyone takes one part? I’m not really sure.”

Zhu Yun nodded. Then she asked, “So what will it take to get the contract?”

“Contract, my ass!”

“....”

Fang Shumiao stood up, her brows creased on her face.

“Look at what it says on the paper. The requirements written there are obviously things that we don’t have the ability to do yet. Moreover, the other groups competing for the contract are IT professionals with a lot more experience.” At this point, Fang Shumiao couldn’t help letting out a sigh. “We have to complete the project to get course credit. It’s obvious that we can’t complete it, and yet we keep wasting our time like this.”

Zhu Yun handed the papers back to her. “Then, what are you planning on doing? Backing out?”

“Ah?” Fang Shumiao seemed stumped by the question. “Back out?” It didn’t seem that she’d considered that option. After staring at the papers in her hand for a bit, she started to zone out again.

This time, Zhu Yun didn’t disturb her. She returned to her own desk and moved the computer mouse. Since she hadn’t shut it off before leaving, the computer woke up and the screen lit up.

The bright red heart on the monitor was still pulsing?badump, badump.

The sky was dark outside the window. Was Ren Di still practicing?

After she sat awhile, Zhu Yun quietly spoke up, “Fang Shumiao, I’ll help you write the function you’re working on.”

Fang Shumiao excitedly ran over to Zhu Yun and gave her a great big hug. The two looked through the list of functions to write and ended up choosing “related product recommendations.”

Languan Foods had already been operating for tens of years, primarily producing snackfoods and nutritional supplements. But with the developments of the internet, the company felt that their traditional business model was no longer viable and decided they’d need to make a transition.

After receiving her task, Zhu Yun started sketching out ideas and searching for related materials. For days and nights on end, Zhu Yun spent a week working on the function(s). When she was finished, she packaged it up and let Fang Shumiao bring it with her to the seminar.

To be quite honest, this was her first time trying something like this, so Zhu Yun wasn’t sure whether it would even work or not.

On Saturday morning, Zhu Yun woke up very early. She climbed out of bed and sat down at her desk, chin in her hands, her mind in a bit of a daze. Her desk was covered in web development books that she’d borrowed from the library. She’d flipped through the pages so much that they were nearly ripped off.

Fang Shumiao’s schedule for the day was to go to her meeting in the morning, attend the seminar in the afternoon, and then return late at night.

Zhu Yun didn’t have much of an appetite all day long. When Fang Shumiao returned, Zhu Yun rushed to ask, “How was it?”

“What?” Fang Shumiao didn’t understand. “How was what?”

“The seminar.”

“Ah..” Fang Shumiao shrugged. “He said we can’t use it.”

Zhu Yun’s heart froze, and she even forgot to ask why it was unusable.

Then Fang Shumiao continued, “But, he said that writing a function would count as a contribution to the project, so my course credit will be okay and I won’t have to leave the seminar! Zhu Yun, you’re a genius!”

Genius, my butt.

Zhu Yun finally asked, “Why can’t it be used?”

Fang Shumiao blinked her eyes. “He didn’t say.”

Zhu Yun’s face was nearly screaming out—Then you should have asked him!

Perhaps Zhu Yun’s thoughts had been too loud, as Fang Shumiao moved her chair over and started to explain. “So, it’s like this. Although the number of students in the seminar is settling at a few more than ten, the core team only consists of a few people. Li Xun and Gao Jianhong are at the center. They’re constantly together, propelling the project and maintaining the overall framework. It might just be that the function you wrote.. doesn’t follow their thought process.”

What kind of thought process did they have?

The function was already written, so what other thought processes did they have?

Zhu Yun’s felt a pain in her chest and her breath was short. She was a bit glad that she hadn’t eaten much for dinner, otherwise she’d be having stomach pains too, for sure.

“Forget about it. Their brains are different from normal people’s. Come on! This is for you!” Fang Shumiao brought out a large bag. Inside was a small bear backpack. “I bought it at the mall a few days ago. This is to thank you.”

Zhu Yun waved away the idea. “No need for thanks. It was good practice.”

“No, you have to accept it, otherwise I’ll feel really apologetic. I’ll treat you to dinner tomorrow too.”

“It’s really unnecessary. You’re being much too polite.”

“Take it, take it. It wasn’t easy finishing things and getting to this point, so we have to celebrate. This entire week.. my mind had been a mess.”

That night, Zhu Yun had a dream. In the dream, a group of little bears trampled all over her body.

The next night, they continued to step all over her.

....

After being trampled across three nights in a row, with dark circles under her eyes, Zhu Yun grabbed her function and went off in search of Teacher Lin.

She really couldn’t accept the fact that “things were finished.”

Zhu Yun didn’t tell Teacher Lin that this had been for the seminar class. She simply said that she was practicing recently, and she wrote a function that she hoped he could look over for her.

Teaher Lin looked through the code silently, and then he looked at Zhu Yun. This was a rather familiar expression. When she’d come to his office previously, he’d been looking at Li Xun this way as they had their discussion. With such an expression, Zhu Yun couldn’t help but grow more serious.

Old Mr Lin said to her, “Zhu Yun, this function looks very short. You must have refined it many times, right?”

Zhu Yun nodded.

“Good. As the saying goes, code is like a girl’s skirt. The shorter the better.”

“....”

“But simple and uncomplicated is just one aspect to things. You’re just missing a little something. You need to work on taking your thoughts and making them more abstract and modular. On the first day of class, I said this. Don’t get too caught up in the technical details. You have to look at the big picture.” Old Lin closed the compiler and was silent for a few seconds. Then, he asked, “Do you like programming?”

The question made Zhu Yun go quiet.

Did she like it a lot? Not quite. Did she dislike it? That wasn’t quite right either.

So then, what caused her to move in this direction?

“If you’d like to get more practice, I suggest you go talk to Li Xun.”

Why?

“It will definitely be helpful.”

Oh really?

Zhu Yun left with her head low. As she exited the office, she saw another pair of shoes.

When she looked up, she saw Li Xun leaning against the window, laptop under his arm. Although it was autumn, he was still wearing short sleeves, which had been rolled up to his shoulders. His head of golden hair was messy as usual.

Against the light, Zhu Yun couldn’t make out his expression. Though, after a thought, she figured it was probably the same old mocking, sarcastic look he always had.

“Shouldn’t the class rep listen to the teacher?”

Zhu Yun didn’t have the strength to bother with him so she just turned and walked away.

After walking three meters, a clear yet lazy voice called out from behind her—

“Are you coming? If you come, I’ll welcome you.”