"You got one too?!" Lu Mingfei replied immediately.
"Yeah. Direct recruitment. Pretty impressive, right? A hot girl in a red Ferrari personally delivered the interview notice and even gave me a Nokia N96!"
"Impressive. I got an N96 too. Is the hot girl the blonde you've been dreaming about?"
"No. Dark red hair, Chinese, about 170 cm, roughly 48 kg."
"You even detailed the lie properly," Lu Mingfei clearly didn't believe him. "So you're interviewing the day after tomorrow too?"
"Yeah. The day after tomorrow. Regent Hotel. We'll meet at the entrance."
"Two people 'meeting'? That sounds more like a secret rendezvous!"
"A secret rendezvous implies doing something bad. It has a negative meaning. A rendezvous can also mean two parties with unwavering noble beliefs gathering for the same sublime goal!"
"My Chinese isn't great. Don't trick me!" Lu Mingfei sent an emoticon of a small yellow-suited figure.
"Relax, Sir Lu. When have I ever lied to you?"
"I feel like you're insulting me!"
"Replace 'feel' with 'know,' please."
"But I'm still nervous. What if it's an English interview?"
"Isn't your English okay?"
"I can write. I can't speak!"
"Then rest in peace."
"You can't just watch me die! [Crying]"
"Relax. It should be a Chinese interview. [Green helmet smoking]"
"Holy crap, seriously? An American university interviewing in Chinese? [Wide-eyed] [Wide-eyed]"
"The hot girl told me."
"So there really is a hot girl?"
"Wait. You didn't believe me from the start? Boring. Friendship over. Delete me."
"No, wait! Since that's the case, big brother, did the hot girl leak any interview questions?"
"I sacrificed half a day of my life for that single piece of info, and you want the questions for free?"
"..." Lu Mingfei paused, then typed a row of ellipses. "You're acting weird!"
"I'm perfectly normal. You're the weird one. [Hammer] [Hammer]"
Morin sent another line.
"Also, what are you planning to do?"
"What am I planning to do?" Lu Mingfei sat in front of his computer and scratched his head. The hum of the PC tower matched his mood perfectly. His body squirmed in the chair. He couldn't sit still.
"Your favorite, Chen Wenwen. You're not planning to confess before graduation sends everyone their separate ways?"
Morin's words froze him.
Lu Mingfei switched tabs. Chen Wenwen's avatar showed a girl in a baseball cap. Still gray. He clicked it. The content hadn't changed-the same message he'd agonized over for hours. Scrolling up, three out of every ten messages were the same line.
Are you going to the Literature Club activity?
The message had been sent eleven hours ago. She still hadn't come online. Or maybe she had and just hadn't replied.
He'd thought about the possibility that she saw it and ignored it. But that felt impossible. This was Chen Wenwen. The one who personally pulled him into the club.
Di-di.
The sound dragged him back. He switched back to Morin's chat and typed carefully.
"I don't like Chen Wenwen!"
"I could tell the first day I arrived," Morin replied. The exasperation felt audible.
"No, I don't!" Lu Mingfei shrank back and replied.
This time, Morin didn't respond for a long while.
Lu Mingfei leaned closer. Morin's avatar had turned gray.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair, eyes empty, not sure whether he was annoyed or something else.
Great. He logged off out of anger.
Confession.
Lu Mingfei had thought about it many times. Very seriously. He'd even imagined marriage and kids after a successful confession.
But if he failed, they wouldn't even be friends. He might not even have the right to secretly check her social media. He was self-aware. He couldn't beat Morin in looks. He couldn't beat Zhao Menghua in money. He couldn't beat anyone in talent. He was the one dragging down the class average.
He honestly couldn't think of a single reason Chen Wenwen would agree if he confessed.
The computer tower's hum grew unbearable. Just as he steeled himself to press the power button-
Di-di.
His eyes snapped to Chen Wenwen's avatar.
Still gray.
Then he glanced at Morin's avatar.
It was lit again.
"Do you know why I didn't sit next to Chen Wenwen when I first joined your class, and instead dragged a chair over to sit next to you?"
"Because you have zero interest in anyone who isn't blonde?" Lu Mingfei fired back instinctively.
"Bullshit. I'm interested in all beautiful girls of legal age. Blonde, black-haired, white-haired. All fine. Except tanned ones."
"Then... because you were afraid of becoming a target for the guys in class?"
"I could drag any girl straight to the principal and say we're dating. The principal would smile and congratulate us on a hundred years of harmony. You believe me?"
"Then why?"
"To be precise. Because of you."
"Brother, your words are giving me goosebumps."
"In the whole class-no, the whole school-only you are special."
"Because I can single-handedly lower the class average?"
"Because of your uniqueness."
"If you mean trash talk, StarCraft, and catastrophic grades, sure."
"I'm not joking. You just haven't realized it yet. I have a special sensitivity to numbers. I once built a model to analyze human behavior. It never failed. But after meeting you, it's never been correct again."
"There's only one possibility."
"I'm beyond saving?"
"You're not human."
"Hey. Jokes are jokes. Insults cross the line."
"You are my kind. In my model, only my kind creates anomalies."
"Brother, you're insulting yourself while insulting me. Also, does 'our kind' mean the StarCraft pro race?"
Lu Mingfei firmly believed Morin was roleplaying through text.
"You wear a mask. You endure. You act cowardly. That's your mask. You've worn it so long you think it's your real face."
"Brother, you sound exactly like a cult leader right now. I'm almost moved. Is the next step paying ten bucks so you can open my meridians and unlock some domineering 'save the world' mode?"
"You can keep hiding. You can keep thinking the mask is your original face. But a mask is still a mask. One day, because of certain things, certain people, it will come off."
"When that happens, everything you've suppressed will explode."
"That will be a raging Siberian tiger."
"Very passionate. I suggest you go write novels. Guaranteed bestsellers. Remember to give me a cool role. Also, why a Siberian tiger? Shouldn't it be a lion?"
"Because I like tigers."
That was Morin's last message.
His avatar turned gray again.
No matter how many messages Lu Mingfei sent, there was no reply.
In Lu Mingfei's view, this was clearly because Morin realized his trick hadn't worked and was too embarrassed to continue.
Understanding Comrade Lu Mingfei promptly went to find another American friend, Old Tang, to ask about English interviews. Being prepared never hurt.
Besides, an American university interviewing in Chinese?
Impossible.
...
"What's that model of yours based on? Do you have a program copy?"
On Morin's side, right after setting his status to invisible, Nono's big-faced cat avatar flashed.
"You really don't hide the fact that you're monitoring my life," Morin replied coldly.
"Why should I hide it?"
"Is this a Cassell College feature? Monitoring students' daily lives?"
"You haven't entered Cassell College yet. I have the authority to let Norma monitor you."
"So even after enrolling, I'll still be monitored. Just by someone higher up."
"So? The model."
"I'll forgive your stiff subject change. What model?"
"The one you told Lu Mingfei. The one that calculates human behavior."
"I made it up."
"What?"
Nono stopped drying her hair. She was wrapped in a towel. Dark red hair dripped down, outlining her slender figure.
"I made it up. Obviously. How could something like that exist? If it did, I'd be able to build a self-aware AI. I just wanted to give him a push."
Nono angrily tossed the towel aside and started typing manually.
"Then how did you know he wasn't ordinary?"
"Anyone going to Cassell College for an interview isn't ordinary."
"What if I told you there are others? And they're all your classmates?"
"Do you really need that many for cover?" Morin replied quickly. "[Sigh] [Sigh] So this interview is just for Lu Mingfei? What's his ability? Must be incredible. Also, is this leaking secrets?"
"Of course it is. Armed men will be at your door soon to silence you. [Cleaver] [Cleaver]"
Nono puffed her cheeks.
Her profiling ability was useless against Morin. Something that had never happened before. According to Professor Guderian, possessors of Spirit: Predictive Logic had absolute control over their brains. When activated, their thinking could reach supercomputer levels.
Used properly, they could navigate human society effortlessly. Schemes, data, verbal traps-child's play.
Accepting that someone like this saw everything was reasonable. He could imagine all possibilities, eliminate them one by one through tiny details, and arrive at the answer.
Mostly correct.
Compared to that, Nono's profiling was nothing. That night at the food stalls, she'd profiled Morin for an hour and produced over three hundred personality variants. Almost every sentence he spoke sounded like a different person.
The "Little Witch" had no room to act in front of this "Human Supercomputer."
Nono rarely felt this stifled.
Looks like she'd met her natural enemy.
"I don't know about armed men, but a hot girl in a Ferrari is definitely coming to pick me up. [Grin]"
"Too bad. That hot girl has to chat with her boyfriend."
Another avatar flashed.
Nickname: Sonic.
"Then I'll go to an internet cafe and try coding that model."
"Dammit!" Nono grabbed her keys, then froze and tossed them back. "Wait. The Ferrari girl is coming!"
After replying to Morin, she finally answered Sonic with a simple message.
"Be good. I have something to do. Go play on your own."
Then she changed clothes, grabbed her keys, and left.
"Sonic"-a man lounging by a luxury pool-sat up.
Golden hair. A face like a Greek statue. Rare ice-blue eyes. His bare upper body flexed as he moved, muscles sharp and dazzling.
Right now, this proud lion was rolling his eyes.
What was with that tone?
Like comforting a toddler.
...
"Professor, I'm making a huge sacrifice here!"
"I know, I know. You're just picking someone up," Professor Guderian muttered.
"How is that the same? My boyfriend is already complaining!" Nono argued from the driver's seat of the red Ferrari. "Given how much effort and risk I'm taking, I want double credits!"
"Hello? Hello? Signal's bad. I'm hanging up."
Di-di.
Nono clicked her tongue, tossed the phone aside, and floored the accelerator.
The engine roared like a beast.
Di-di-di-di!
The QQ alert snapped Lu Mingfei's attention back. He instinctively checked Chen Wenwen's avatar.
It was lit.
He clicked it immediately.
"Go ahead. See you the day after tomorrow."
Eight words.
He'd waited nearly nineteen hours for them.
All the anxiety about tomorrow's interview. All the doubts Morin had planted. Even the thought that he might one day label himself "troubled by love."
Gone.
Lu Mingfei leapt onto his bed, whistling, twisting his waist, smiling brightly.
He looked exactly like a dog that had just been praised by its owner.
The kind that would happily chain itself and wag its tail while chasing after them.
If Morin saw this, he'd probably explode.
But for now, he had to deal with the Ferrari girl.
Those lingering regrets from the past would be settled this time.
As long as he earned the experience.