Just then, with a soft *clink*, a sharply sharpened HB pencil rolled precisely to Hawk's shoe.
A hand, with distinct knuckles and delicate skin, reached out to pick it up.
"Sorry." The voice was cool and clear, with a slight Asian accent.
The owner of the hand stood up.
It was an Asian girl.
Her long, jet-black hair cascaded like a waterfall to her waist, framing a face as delicate as porcelain.
Her figure was perfectly proportioned, wrapped in a well-tailored, dark emerald knit dress that showcased her smooth, understated curves. It was neither ostentatious nor lacking in a subtle yet deadly allure.
Her eyes were large, with a slight upward tilt at the corners, and her pupils were a deep amber. At this moment, they were focused intently on Hawk, her long eyelashes resting like butterfly wings, conveying a breathtaking innocence and curiosity.
"No problem." Hawk's gaze lingered on her face for a moment, then he gentlemanly stepped aside slightly, allowing her to pass through the narrow aisle first.
The girl nodded slightly, a barely perceptible curve gracing her lips: "My name is Miyu, Kobayashi Miyu. I'm new here."
Her voice remained cool and clear, but her intonation carried a hint of an almost imperceptible hook.
As she bent to pick up the pencil, her soft hair cascaded like silk, and a faint, elusive fragrance subtly wafted to Hawk's nostrils.
The sweet scent of gardenias.
"Hello, Miyu, welcome to Columbia!" Hawk offered a polite smile.
"Hello, Hawk. Could you perhaps take a look at this model for me? I think your understanding of liquidity is super cool."
Kobayashi Miyu picked up her pencil, her hands restlessly rubbing together in front of her, seemingly a little nervous.
Her eyes held just the right amount of intellectual curiosity and a trace of subtle probing.
Hawk raised an eyebrow at her: "'Super cool'? That's a fresh assessment, but liquidity itself isn't cool. The key is how you make it 'flow' for you."
He smiled, then began explaining, looking at an economic model on Miyu's laptop screen.
For the rest of the afternoon, Hawk felt like he'd fallen into a garden of "campus beauties."
Around a corner in the hallway, he "accidentally" ran into Samantha, a Black girl with healthy, wheat-colored skin and a figure as fiery as a Victoria's Secret Angel. She looked up, her features too refined to be typically Black, and her smile was incredibly infectious.
She boldly engaged Hawk in a discussion about the potential of emerging markets, and Hawk responded patiently, but his continued aloofness left Samantha somewhat disappointed.
Beautiful, yes, but unfortunately, not many Black girls could truly capture Hawk's attention, unless he had no other choice.
On the stone steps, a tall, red-haired girl in tight jeans and knee-high boots was struggling to carry a heavy box full of thick economics textbooks up the stairs.
The exaggerated curves outlined by her taut jeans and her ample bosom, which seemed ready to burst her shirt buttons, jiggled with her "strenuous" movements, exuding an undisguised, primal allure.
This was Abby, the red-haired girl with stunning curves and a sweet smile.
Ever helpful, Hawk naturally assisted Abby in carrying her heavy box of books to her dorm and then spent two hours explaining classical German economics to her.
As he left, Abby, with a flushed face, gave Hawk a parting remark: "Hawk… classical economics… you really delve deep…"
Avoiding everyone, he left the girls' dorm building and passed an outdoor cafe seating area nearby.
A mature woman with a sharp-cut trench coat and a mysterious aura cast an ambiguous glance at him over her coffee cup, a look filled with scrutiny and interest.
She was entirely enveloped in a perfectly tailored black trench coat, revealing only a sliver of slender, pale ankle.
Her deep chestnut curly hair casually draped over her shoulders, obscuring half her face, leaving only the perfect lines of her jaw and a pair of cold, ice-lake gray-blue eyes.
She held a slender cigarette between her fingers, and the swirling smoke blurred her silhouette, adding to her mysterious and dangerous aura.
As Hawk passed, her ice-lake eyes lazily lifted: "Hawk?"
Hawk stopped, turning to meet her gaze.
As their eyes met, he was somewhat startled. Wasn't this Mera, the Sea Queen?
The one who… defecated in bed?
"Hello, may I ask who you are?"
Hawk's mind was filled with suspicion, but his demeanor remained impeccably polite.
"Vivian, the new actuarial science teacher. You're the most famous student in the economics department, even at Columbia, so of course, I had to pay you a visit."
Vivian offered a charming smile.
"Wow, actuarial science?" Hawk exclaimed, though internally, he was thinking: *Wow, a teacher?*
*Whose brilliant arrangement from a secret agency is this? They know me too well!*
Hawk subtly appraised Vivian, who claimed to be the "actuarial science teacher."
She exuded a lazy yet dangerous charisma.
Hawk chuckled, "I thought your first stop would be the department head's office."
Vivian exhaled a wisp of smoke, her gray-blue eyes faintly visible behind the swirling mist: "The department head is too boring. I was more interested in meeting… the 'legend' himself."
She paused, tapping her finger lightly on her coffee cup. "Especially the person who, in less than a month, turned Bates Capital from a 'financial giant' into a 'bankruptcy liquidation case.'"
Hawk shrugged: "The market is never short of surprises. I just happened to be on the right side."
"Right?" Vivian chuckled softly, her voice low and magnetic. "Or perhaps… you used some special methods?"
The air instantly froze for a second.
Hawk's expression remained unperturbed. He leaned slightly forward, lowering his voice: "Teacher Vivian, if that's a professional question, I suggest you choose a different case study—after all, casually accusing students isn't good teaching practice."
Vivian didn't respond immediately. Instead, she slowly extinguished her cigarette and stood up, the hem of her trench coat swaying slightly with her movement, revealing the faint, elongated lines of her legs.
"Don't worry, I'm just hypothesizing." She took a step closer, her red lips almost touching Hawk's earlobe, her warm breath carrying a faint scent of tobacco. "I'm just curious… how long your 'luck' will last."
With that, she took half a step back, offered a meaningful smile, and turned to leave, adding as she walked away: "You're welcome to attend my class!"
Her heels clicked a crisp rhythm on the stone pavement until her figure disappeared around the corner.
Hawk stood still, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the earlobe that her breath had just grazed.
Five people.
Hawk counted in his mind.