The Black-Stockinged Female Academic Was Secretly...

Su Bai looked up and froze.

A cool, aloof beauty with long straight black hair, she was tall and slender, dressed simply in a T-shirt and a chiffon skirt. Beneath the skirt showed a stretch of black stockings and small leather shoes.

It was already mid-September in River City, yet summer still lingered.

Any girl daring to wear black stockings and leather shoes in this weather was a real beast.

After wearing them for half a day, they would probably end up smelling stuffy.

Yet the girl gave off no unpleasant odor. Instead, a faint, rich fragrance wafted toward him, carrying the deep and elegant air of a flower blooming high in the mountains.

"What did you just say?" Su Bai asked.

He couldn't help it. She was too pretty, and his brain had temporarily short-circuited.

"I said the computer you want to buy isn't suitable."

The girl pointed at the screen on the tablet. "The brand premium is too high. I recommend buying the parts and assembling it yourself. You could probably save around thirty percent."

No, miss.

I'd love for it to cost thirty percent more! The brand premium is exactly what I want!

They were complete strangers meeting by chance, so why was she cutting off his path to riches right away?

Su Bai grumbled inwardly, then smiled faintly. "It's fine. I just like this brand. It has sentimental value. Still, thanks for the reminder."

"All right. Then you can wait until the national subsidy kicks in before buying it. It should be soon, and you could save several thousand yuan."

"...No, do we know each other? Why do you keep trying to persuade me to save money?"

"You're Su Bai. We're in the same class."

"Ah!"

Su Bai smacked his forehead.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "What was your name again, classmate?"

It had been a month since school started. A beautiful girl from the same class remembered his name, but he did not know hers.

Awkward. So awkward!

Fortunately, she did not seem like one of those Japanese anime heiresses who flew into a rage whenever someone forgot her name. With a calm expression, she said, "Chen Yusheng. Yu as in rain, Sheng as in bamboo fungus."

"I'll remember it."

"We were assigned to the same group for the physics experiment. We have to work together on the lab report, so let's add each other on WeChat."

"Sure!"

A few days ago, Chu Mingzhe had still been racking his brains over how to add Chen Yusheng on WeChat... in a fresh, natural, unforced way.

Who would have thought that Su Bai would be the first one in Dorm 510 to get her WeChat?

It was downright hilarious.

Really, it was nothing unusual. It was already the year 5202, and adding someone on WeChat had become an utterly ordinary thing. Especially among college classmates, group projects, club socializing, collecting payments for events... all sorts of matters made it easy to add each other.

It was just that Chu Mingzhe had an unrealistic romantic fantasy about girls, as if every step from getting acquainted onward had to be decorated with pink bubbles.

It was a little funny.

No wonder their classmates teased him by calling him Hu Ye. He really did have an inexplicably comedic air about him...

Thinking about the amusing things in the dorm, Su Bai casually opened his WeChat QR code and held it out for Chen Yusheng to scan.

"Huh? I've already added you?"

"Really? Why don't I remember? What does your profile picture look like?"

"An anime girl with purple hair."

"Ah, let me look... um..."

The two fell silent at the same time.

Chen Yusheng held her phone, her long, thick eyelashes trembling.

She looked at the Big White Goose profile picture she had added that very morning, then at Su Bai standing before her.

Even with her naturally cool, poker-faced expression, she could barely hold it together. Her cheeks flushed red, and her toes curled in embarrassment.

To Su Bai's credit, he had a strong mentality. Even in such an unbearably awkward situation, he was the first to break the silence.

"No, miss, why are you using your real name online? It's postmodern times already. Can you at least have some awareness about doxxing? Who uses their main account for companion gaming?"

"I told you, I never add clients on WeChat. You're the first." Chen Yusheng's tone carried a trace of grievance. "How was I supposed to know I'd get booked for the month by a classmate?"

"..."

The moment she said that—

The entire atmosphere changed.

It somehow became ambiguous.

Su Bai hurriedly changed the subject. "Hurry up and make an alt account. If something like this happens again, remember to use the alt."

"...Okay."

"Which part are you handling in the experiment later? The hands-on work or data recording?"

"Data recording. I'm not very good at hands-on work."

"Aren't you working for Professor Luo? How can you not be good with hands-on work?"

"Research in Computer Science usually doesn't require hands-on ability."

"I see."

Then the conversation went dead again.

Su Bai considered himself socially adept. The problem had to be Chen Yusheng. Clearly, the personality she displayed while companion gaming was her real personality.

Cold on the surface, but actually a bit of a goof.

Her insistence on trying to stop Su Bai from buying Republic of Gamers was proof enough...

Thankfully, the teacher at the podium announced the start of the lab class in time.

The classroom quieted down.

They entered the boring stage where the teacher read from the PPT and droned on about experimental precautions.

As everyone knew, old professors teaching college classes were the hardest thing to sit through.

There was no emotion, only technique.

With a heavy, strange accent from some unknown county near River City, he read out awkward physics terminology like he was summoning some damn evil god.

Chen Yusheng had still been wallowing in embarrassment, but after listening to the old professor's scripture-like PPT recitation for a while, sleepiness immediately washed over her.

She had been severely sleep-deprived lately.

So Su Bai watched as Chen Yusheng's head began bobbing, until she lowered it and fell asleep.

Just then, the old professor reading the PPT looked up and swept his gaze across the classroom. His sharp eyes landed on Su Bai and Chen Yusheng's desk.

"Girl in the second-to-last row, stand up and answer the question!"

The old professor tossed a piece of chalk, which landed on the desk in front of Chen Yusheng with a crisp tap.

Chen Yusheng startled awake and stood up.

She stared blankly at the blackboard.

"Briefly describe the precautions for measuring this xx constant."

"..."

Under the desk, Su Bai poked Chen Yusheng's black-stockinged thigh with his pen. He flipped the experiment manual to a certain page and subtly shifted it over for her to see.

Chen Yusheng immediately understood. She glanced at the contents from the corner of her eye, cleared her throat, and answered, "There are mainly three precautions. First..."

The old professor nodded. "Very good. Your foundation is solid. Sit down. This course counts toward required credits, so everyone should try to take it seriously..."

Then he continued chanting.

Once the experiment introduction ended, they moved on to the practical portion, and the students were allowed to talk.

Chen Yusheng took the chance to say to Su Bai, "Thank you."

"It was nothing."

"You're amazing. You could even listen through such a boring class."

"...Actually, I wasn't listening either. I just happened to know what the teacher asked about."

"Oh."

While the old professor had been chanting away, Su Bai had been spacing out.

The system judged it as indulgence and rewarded him with 1,000 yuan.

It also activated the function that eliminated the negative effects of indulgence, stuffing all the relevant knowledge from this physics experiment into Su Bai's head.

Not bad.

At least now he would not be completely lost during the experiment.

While the other students were still flustered and scratching their heads, Su Bai had already finished the experiment. Chen Yusheng recorded the data, and once they went back and worked together on the lab report, they would be done.

It was quite troublesome.

No wonder every class of upperclassmen crazily complained about this damn "College Physics Experiment."

But Su Bai did not care.

As long as he left it alone, the power of the system would make the lab report grow by itself.

Ah, System Brother! Daddy loves you!

Thus, Su Bai and Chen Yusheng's group was able to get out of class early.

Chen Yusheng let out a sigh of relief, her eyes full of gratitude as she looked at Su Bai.

Not only had he saved her from embarrassing herself in class, but he had also completed the experiment so quickly and saved her time.

Now she could immediately go work at Professor Luo's laboratory.

But...

There was still one thing Chen Yusheng felt conflicted about.

In the hallway, Su Bai was about to slip away when Chen Yusheng called out to him from behind.

"Wait!"

"What is it?"

"I..." Chen Yusheng struggled for a long time before mumbling softly, "About me being a companion gamer..."

Su Bai could not hold it in and burst out laughing. "Haha, no, miss, you don't seriously think I'm the kind of person who says, 'You wouldn't want the classmates to find out you're doing companion gaming, would you, Miss Chen?'"

"..."

"Don't worry. I'm not some gossiping old busybody who runs around flapping his mouth. I'll definitely keep your secret. That's also the professional integrity I should have as a client."

"Thank you."

After a pause, Chen Yusheng still asked uneasily, "Really?"

Su Bai complained helplessly, "Do you need to kneel and beg me before you can relax? Ah! Please, don't tell anyone! I'll do anything!"

Perhaps Su Bai's exaggerated tone amused her, because Chen Yusheng revealed a rare, sincere smile.

At that moment, Su Bai finally understood why their classmates said Chen Yusheng was expressionless and never smiled.

It was right that she did not smile. If she smiled, it would be absolutely criminal, I'm telling you! This girl's smile was so mesmerizing it could kill without paying for it!

However, while Su Bai was temporarily rendered unable to act by her flashbang-like charm, Chen Yusheng keenly caught a certain scent from him.

The scent of her own kind!

Chen Yusheng was not entirely sure, but after interacting with Su Bai both online and offline, she had formed quite a good impression of him.

So she decided to give it a try.

After hesitating for a moment, she asked:

"What did you just say?"

"...Uh, I said I'd keep your secret."

"After that!"

"Huh?"

Su Bai was confused.

Chen Yusheng grew a little anxious. She was not very good at expressing herself to begin with, and now her words became even more jumbled.

"That thing you said after that, the meme, uh, was it from that anime, um..."

Su Bai's eyes lit up, and he blurted out, "Onegai, watashi?"

"Yes, yes!"

"Holy shit, you too?"

"Mhm, mhm!!"