294 The Friendship Boat Capsized

“You’re doing this on purpose!” Bai Ling glared at Ye Lingchen resentfully. “Are you even human? How could you bully a girl like me!”

“Old Man An, your university’s students are heartless!” Professor She was getting flustered too. He was already trying to argue with Professor An.

It was intolerable to watching his proud disciples being teased.

“Old Man She, it’s a coincidence. I assure you, it’s a coincidence!” Professor An kept a straight face and subsequently smiled while shouting at the stage, “Student Ye Lingchen, tactfulness please. Pay attention to your tactfulness. Don’t go too hard.”

Question five.

Bai Ling swept through the question at record speed and began quick calculations in her heart. On that occasion, she felt as though she had pushed her potential to its limits and exerted her fastest speed.

Before opening her mouth, she secretly glanced at Ye Lingchen before turning her lips away in a thunderous manner and blurting out, “The answer for this question is eight-thousand-eight-hundred-forty-eight.”

She breathed a sigh of relief after she finished speaking and glanced at Ye Lingchen proudly.

Ye Lingchen responded by smiling at her before saying, “Student Bai Ling, you’re too careless. This question has two answers, one is 8848 and the other is 360. Forfeited again.”

“I…”

Bai Ling nearly vomited blood. Ye Lingchen had put too much pressure on her, leading to an overzealousness for success that made her rush things.

“I’m not competing anymore, I quit!” She glared at Ye Lingchen and was practically speaking with gritted teeth.

Facing Ye Lingchen required one to be a lot more resistant to pressure, for his abilities were truly otherworldly!

“Hahaha, I’m so sorry, Old Man She. Nobody told you to get paired against our Ye Lingchen. Don’t be too sad. The ranking is just a status.” Professor An chuckled heartily at Professor She and was very proud.

“Tch, some dogsh*t luck you have this time after getting such a talented student!” Professor She snorted and did not want to linger there any longer.

There was no suspense in the next game. Ye Lingchen was unstoppable, and those whose opponents were Ye Lingchen could only blame it on their bad luck. Capital managed to emphatically get first place.

“Student Ye Lingchen, you have brought Capital great honor today. I thank you on behalf of Capital’s major universities!” Professors An, Bai, and Tang said solemnly to Ye Lingchen.

“You’re all too courteous, dear professors,” Ye Lingchen replied modestly.

“And Teacher Xu, it’s all thanks to her this time, otherwise we would have let an amazing math genius slip by us. Teacher Xu has keen eyes and a unique vision. She’s a good teacher!” Professor Bai added.

“Ye Lingchen, I was wrong before. I apologize to you,” Xu Dong offered a sincere apology.

“That, we’re sorry for looking down on you before.” Cao Tongtong and Zhang Yu looked at each other, then stood up and said to Ye Lingchen.

“It’s okay.” Ye Lingchen waved his hand. Having reached the kind of level that he was at, such tiny little things were of no concern for him at all.

“Student Ye Lingchen, congratulations on getting first place!” Xu Wanqing said with a smile. “You’ve made a great contribution to Capital this time.”

Everyone nodded emotionally.

It was truly an assembly of prodigies on that occasion. Each one was more otherworldly than the other, and if it were not for Ye Lingchen’s dominance, first-place would be out of the question. Anything above fifth was already Godsent for them.

“It’s a pity that you’re not in the mathematics department. You have a talent for math. It’s such a waste of talent to stay in the language department!” Professor An looked at Ye Lingchen and proposed, “How about I make an application for you to transfer to my mathematics department? I’ll send you for postgraduate and Ph.D. studies.”

“That’s right.” Professor Bai nodded in agreement as well. He said, “Ye Lingchen, if you want to change universities, Huaqing is a good choice. Just say the word and I’ll immediately transfer you to the Huaqing University’s mathematics department. In addition to guaranteeing your postgraduate and Ph.D. studies, I’ll also help you find a good job after graduation!”

“F*ck! Old Man Bai, what’s the meaning of this? We’re teammates just moments ago, but now you’re trying to poach someone from my university?” Professor An was immediately anxious and snarled angrily.

“Old Man An, he’s from the language department. It’s not like he’s your student. How can you say that I’m poaching one of your own? Besides, he’s such a good seedling. Can’t I compete fairly?” Professor Bai retorted.

“You’re trying to snatch away students from my Capital University? You…stinking shameless man!”

The two professors began arguing and disregarded their image. Neither would concede to the other, and their friendship boat was capsized just like that.

It was fortunate that they were both already of age. Otherwise, they would probably be exchanging blows be then.

“Thank you both for your admiration. I have no plans to transfer departments for the time being. I’m fine with the language department,” Ye Lingchen said.

Professor Bai and Professor An fell silent.

“Forget it, with your level of math, you can’t possibly learn anything from the math department. But if you ever decide to transfer to our department, come to me at any time,” Professor An remarked.

Once everyone got in the car, it was a slow drive back to the university.

The journey back had a much more relaxed atmosphere. There were sounds of laughter from time to time and it could be treated as a glorious return.

Ye Lingchen sat by the window and quietly watched the scenery passing by before him.

With nothing better to do, he took out his mobile phone. Weibo or TikTok were nice little things to pass the time.

Weibo’s trending searches had a few entertainment-related news and some other weird occurrences. Ye Lingchen glanced briefly through them, and in the end, he saw an activity initiated by Weibo.

“Literary Prose Creation Competition.”

The event was for the general public and was aimed at collecting original poetry. It could be regarded as an event for language and culture to be commemorated and passed on.

The catalyst was undoubtedly the short period in which Celestial Bane created waves amongst traditional literary writers, who came together just to bombard the work. The incident caused quite a stir, and there was also Y-God’s spontaneous creation of poetry on Study of the Three Kingdoms.

Those events made many people interested in poetry, and Weibo took advantage of this trend to launch that event. It attracted the attention of countless individuals within a short amount of time. The number of replies and follows continued to increase, and under that were various poems. The majority, however, leaned more towards a parodic nature, fully reflecting the wealth of netizens’ intellect and wit.

For example: [New Quiet Night Thought. Moonlight before my bed, Li Bai drinking rice soup. After drinking one big bowl, he pees his pants at night[1].]

Although they had little, if any meaning, they made people smile and relax for a while.

Ye Lingchen scrolled around for some time, then quit Weibo and began scrolling TikTok.

Soon however, he frowned slightly when watching one of the videos in TikTok.

The stretch of road in the video was very familiar and should be near university town. The TikTok user who posted the message was the owner of a cosmetics store. Judging by the look, it was a shop by an internet celebrity and it received lots of likes.

The video was initially shot in their own store. All kinds of cosmetics were available and the decoration was also very tasteful, but the video then changed slightly, and viewers could spot another cosmetics store not far away. The sign on the door was a big Y.

The voice of the TikTok user was also heard:

“In this day and age, it’s common to take advantage of trends and there really isn’t any limit to it. Someone opened up a shop and named it Y Cosmetics. Hehe, I’ve visited this store. The cosmetics all look branded, but they’re fakes. To all my dear friends around university town, please beware. Don’t go to this store!”

[1] 新静夜思 is translated as New Quiet Night Thought. A parody of Li Bai’s Quiet Night Thought (静夜思). Only the first line remains the same.

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