Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"I see. I think he looks like a fraud too. Great, now we've been conned," Yang Ce said with a laugh.

"Heh." Zhou Yanning found Yang Juehuan's expression a little amusing. "If you really want to learn hacking, I could get the King of Hackers to take you on as a disciple."

"Seriously?" Yang Ce's eyes went wide. "You have that kind of pull? Hey, Jiajia, tell me—what's your handle in the hacker world? Are you famous too?"

"Me? Not telling." Zhou Yanning smiled slyly. "You'll find out soon enough."

Yang Yuting nodded and asked no more. Once they entered the teaching building they could no longer talk loudly; following the notice's instructions, they made their way to Room 413 upstairs, the registration point for Computer Science Classes One and Two.

Their counselor Xie Yongqiang was sitting at the lectern, registering the students as they arrived. Catching sight of Zhou Yanning, he promptly waved her over to help.

Zhou Yanning's hospitalization after the injury had been kept very quiet, and Xie Yongqiang had not been informed, so he had no idea how much had happened to her over the holiday. His expression was perfectly normal, nothing amiss.

To be continued.

1056. Graduate School Classmates

Some people came; some could never come again. Wang Lin was one of them. Among Songjiang University's freshmen, that one person was gone forever.

What puzzled Yang Ce most was that Wang Lin's corpse had never been found—though on reflection it was hardly surprising. Wang Xue had killed him rather far from shore to begin with, and if a shark or something of the sort had come along midway, it would have picked him clean down to the bone.

Yang Ce found a seat and sat down—the one he usually took. What startled him was that before long Tian Yan and Wang Xue, that adulterous pair, walked into the classroom arm in arm, came straight over, and sat down right beside Yang Juehuan.

"I say, shouldn't you be reporting to your own department? What are you doing in our class?" Yang Ce looked at Tian Yan, who had plunked himself down at his side, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

"Forget all that. I don't know a soul in that class—what the hell would I go there for?" Tian Yan said carelessly. "Anyway, my department's counselors and everyone all know me; they know perfectly well why I came to this school, and none of them bother with me."

Yang Ce shook his head and said no more. Tian Yan, that young master, had bought his way in, so the school hardly bothered to discipline him. Let him do as he pleased.

Wang Xue had no idea Zhou Yanning was already awake. Seeing her standing over by the lectern helping Xie Yongqiang with registration, perfectly unharmed, she gaped in astonishment. "Jiajia, you—"

"I'm fine now." Zhou Yanning smiled faintly. "I'll talk to you in a bit—it's crowded right now."

"Oh—all right." Wang Xue came back to herself, and an expression of apology and embarrassment spread over her face. Zhou Yanning's injury was, in no small part, Wang Xue's responsibility; Wang Lin had been her half-brother, after all. Though in the end Wang Lin had died at her hands, seeing Zhou Yanning still left her feeling guilty.

"How was your holiday?" Tian Yan asked Yang Ce, drinking his beverage with careless ease.

"One word: busy." Yang Ce sighed. "I barely got a moment's rest the whole holiday."

"Hey, whose fault is that? You've got so many girlfriends," Tian Yan said with a laugh. "Look at me—just the one, and I'm bored to death every day."

"How are things between you and Wang Xue?" Yang Yanchuan asked. Naturally, he meant the matter of Wang Lin.

"Not bad, I suppose. Wang Xue has repented too," Tian Yan said. "Lately she's been walking on eggshells, terrified of displeasing me. Honestly, my main worry is that seeing her makes you uncomfortable."

"It doesn't bother me. Don't worry about me." Yang Ce patted Tian Yan's shoulder. "It's all in the past. Wang Xue had her reasons—she had no choice. My only worry is that Jiajia won't be able to let it go."

Tian Yan nodded silently in understanding. He hesitated, then gritted his teeth. "If Zhou Yanning really can't forgive her, then I'll have no choice but to break up with her."

"It won't come to that. I'll talk to Jiajia. You two stop being so awkward about it, or we'll all end up feeling like criminals," Yang Hengye said.

Tian Yan smiled gratefully—he did not want to break up with Wang Xue, after all. Tian Yan was a sentimental man; if he were going to break up, he would have done it long ago rather than dragging it out this far. Besides, the fellow was a born romantic—hadn't he gotten into that fight after transferring schools over a girl?

Xiao Qing had been called away on short notice the night before: a new batch of computers had arrived at the department, and she had to personally oversee the teachers assembling and testing them, working well past midnight. So the plan to go to Liu Yan's place with Yan that day had fallen through.

It did, however, give Yang Ce and Wang Yanqiu another night of fooling around. With the term just starting, Xiao Qing couldn't be sure how much free time she'd have, so they could only arrange things by phone.

This semester, besides her regular courses, Xiao Qing was teaching an elective in advanced computerized accounting, aimed at graduate students in the economics department. What amused her was that Sun Jie had actually enrolled as her student.

Looking at the eldest daughter of the Sun family sitting quietly in the classroom, Xiao Qing could barely suppress a smile.

"Hello, I'm Zhao Ying." Zhao Ying held out her hand amiably to her new deskmate, stealing glances at the girl beside her—flawless features and a sexy figure, except that her breasts seemed a bit large, almost like two big papayas. "Sun Jie. Nice to meet you." Sun Jie smiled faintly and held out her hand in return, shaking Zhao Ying's. "You're very pretty."

Had a man said that to Zhao Ying, she wouldn't have thought much of it—she was used to it by now. But hearing it from a woman's mouth made her a little embarrassed. "You're pretty too."

Sun Jie smiled slyly. "Look—lots of people are jealous of us."

"Jealous of us? Why?" Zhao Ying was baffled, but when she looked up, she did indeed see many pairs of eyes fixed hungrily on them. A university that was mostly science and engineering already had far more wolves than meat; in a graduate class it was even worse—a pretty girl was rare, and even a homely auntie was hard to come by.

And for two women like Sun Jie and Zhao Ying, beauties of the rarest kind, to be gathered in one place at the same time—it would have been hard not to draw attention.

"Jealous that I'm at the same desk as you, and jealous that you're at the same desk as me," Sun Jie said with a giggle, lowering her voice. It was rare to meet a girl in graduate school who was easy on the eyes and not conceited, and Sun Jie wanted to become proper friends with her.

In her undergraduate years, Sun Jie had been essentially alone. Though she had Xiao Qing for company, their relationship had been a strange, ambiguous half-lovers' affair, only gradually becoming normal in recent times.

Now that she was a graduate student, her class consisted of little besides a few boys eager to curry favor and a handful of bookworm girls—Sun Jie had no one to talk to.

Now she had met Zhao Ying, who was not only clean and pretty but had greeted her first, and who seemed to harbor no ill intentions—so Sun Jie had taken a strong liking to her.

"Ah." Zhao Ying blinked, then understood what Sun Jie meant, and smiled a little sheepishly. "Let them be jealous."

"What, you don't care a fig for the boys' attentions?" Sun Jie looked at Zhao Ying with an ambiguous smile. "Let me guess—there must be something off about your sexual orientation."

"Ah—me?" Zhao Ying was flustered; she hadn't expected Sun Jie to say that. Her face flushed, and she hurriedly denied it. "There's nothing wrong with me!"