A Joke

"Who are you cursing?" Ji Yehao, who had been about to leave, heard her and turned around.

Only then did Su Yuan realize something was wrong. She waved her hand and said, "It's nothing, it's nothing. Look over there."

Just then, Gao Jun also noticed the computer on the desk. His mouth fell open. "Holy crap!!" Then he strode over to it, his steps nimble, and stammered, "It's actually a workstation-class laptop! Luxurious, elegant—and this external keyboard and mouse, too. The whole setup must cost thirty thousand yuan!"

Gao Jun looked utterly shocked, as if a miser had just laid eyes on a table full of gold. He reached out and gently touched the keyboard.

"Over thirty thousand!" Su Yuan exclaimed in surprise. She knew a bit about laptops, and this one was already top-of-the-line. Still, a price tag of over thirty thousand yuan exceeded her expectations, which was why she was so startled.

"Sister Xia actually uses such a high-end laptop..." A puzzled glimmer appeared in her bright eyes once more.

"Hey, what are you doing!!" Seeing Gao Jun reach for the power button like an infatuated drunk, she immediately stopped him.

"Su... Su Yuan, let me have a look." Gao Jun looked desperate.

"..."

Su Yuan frowned. There was no way she could agree. The contents of the laptop were private, and it wouldn't be good if Xia Linfei found out afterward. Su Yuan also knew one thing: workstation-class laptops weren't very common, but she absolutely didn't believe Gao Jun had never encountered one before. If he had, how could he be acting so desperate now?

Su Yuan smiled. She understood Gao Jun's little scheme almost instantly. When someone became curious about another person, they naturally developed an urgent desire to learn more about them. Judging by Gao Jun's behavior, had he really fallen for Sister Xia?

No way. If that was the case, she definitely couldn't let Gao Jun look at what was inside! Su Yuan quickly made up her mind. She didn't know whether Xia Linfei kept a diary, but if there really was something like one on the laptop, it would be a girl's innermost secret. It was wrong to read someone else's diary, and she absolutely couldn't let Gao Jun see it!

"Su Yuan, what are you doing?"

Seeing that Su Yuan hadn't moved her hand away from the power button and had instead gone even further by closing the screen, Gao Jun glared at her.

A godlike opponent wasn't scary; a pigheaded teammate was. Su Yuan was the perfect example of a pigheaded teammate right now! Of course, she had no inkling of this. She said to Gao Jun with righteous indignation, "Sister Xia has private things on here. You can't sneak a look behind her back."

"..." Gao Jun was stunned for a moment, then said, "Su Yuan, how could you have such a childish idea?"

"I..." Childish? Su Yuan's face flushed red, and she looked ready to explode.

"Come over here and take a look!!"

Ji Yehao's voice came from next door.

"I'll let you off this time!" Su Yuan shook her fist at him, then hurried next door.

Gao Jun, whose mission had gotten off to a bad start, rubbed his nose and muttered, "A traitor who sides with outsiders—classic backstabbing your teammates. And so naive, too!" Then he noticed something else. Su Yuan's movements just now... had actually been kind of cute. For a moment, a thought crossed his mind: Was she really a boy? No matter what, Gao Jun could never have guessed that Su Yuan had already transformed.

He looked back at the unattended computer and shook his head regretfully. "Forget it. It's not like there won't be a chance to look openly someday."

The room next door was the same size, but it had been renovated and looked like a study. The windows were tightly shut, leaving the room airless and dim. The moment they opened the door, two enormous screens came into view. Then they saw the intricate, beautiful cables crisscrossing the room, making a rather messy sight.

There was a long desk, with a soft sofa chair in front of it. Two widescreen LCD monitors were set up on the desk, and a huge tower sat underneath.

"4155bf3?" Gao Jun blurted out from behind Su Yuan.

Su Yuan gave him a puzzled look. "What does that mean?"

Gao Jun said, "Lenovo's 4155bf3, also known as the ThinkStation D. This tower has an Intel processor clocked at 3.3 GHz, comes standard with two six-core CPUs, two 450 GB hard drives, and 24 GB of memory. It can support up to 96 GB of memory, has a 12 MB L3 cache and 12 threads. The market price is around 160,000 yuan."

"So expensive?" Su Yuan was startled.

Gao Jun looked just as baffled. "Normally, individuals rarely use such high-end workstations. Unless they have a strong personal preference or simply have more money than they know what to do with, there's no need for a personal computer to have such a high-end configuration."

"Yeah." Su Yuan felt the same way. There was one thing she couldn't understand. In her mind, Xia Linfei was someone who dressed plainly and didn't care much for material comforts. But now that she'd seen Xia Linfei's home, she'd discovered that she used such a high-end computer. Was this really the sort of thing someone struggling to make ends meet would go for?

A glimpse of the whole could be seen through a small opening. This unexpected discovery had taught Su Yuan one thing: Xia Linfei wasn't short of money. Perhaps she worked part-time outside because she enjoyed the experience.

"From what we've seen so far, Lin Fei's family seems to be pretty well-off," Ji Yehao conjectured.

Su Yuan agreed. "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes today, I really wouldn't have believed it. But Sister Xia doesn't seem to want to broadcast it, so I think we should pretend we don't know when we're around her."

"Gao Jun, I think Su Yuan's right. What do you think?"

"I agree with Su Yuan." Gao Jun shrugged to show he'd go along with it. Suddenly, he chuckled. The sound gave Su Yuan and Ji Yehao an eerie feeling.

"What are you laughing at?"

Gao Jun said, "It never occurred to me before that Lin Fei was a rich woman. Now I want to pursue her even more."

"Uh! Do you want to be a kept man?" A strange glint flashed in Su Yuan's eyes as she looked at him with disdain.

Gao Jun wasn't ashamed in the slightest. He smiled faintly and said, "Why not? With a beautiful, rich wife like that, it'd be worth living off her. I could save myself more than ten years of hard work. Is there a better deal in the world? I've made up my mind. From now on, I, Gao Jun, am going to live off a woman!!"

Su Yuan was deeply shaken by his bold declaration. She curled her lips and couldn't help praising him. "If your dad knew about your ambition, he'd kick you out of the house. What a disgrace to the family!"

"That is a problem." Gao Jun calmed down, his brows drawing together. He thought of how his father had always had such high hopes for him. If he learned that his son's ambition had turned to living off a woman, Su Yuan's prediction might really come true and he'd kick him out.

"Don't listen to Su Yuan. She's just trying to scare you!"

Seeing that Gao Jun's intelligence seemed to drop to zero whenever romance came up, Ji Yehao glanced at Su Yuan, who was giggling, then turned back to him. "Your family is already well-off, and besides, don't you believe in your own abilities? If you really marry Lin Fei someday, you'll make a powerful couple. Your dad would be over the moon."

Gao Jun's eyes lit up. "That's right! Why should I sell myself short? It's settled, then." Looking at Ji Yehao's handsome face, he added, "Ye Hao, we're brothers, so you have to do me a favor this once. Don't compete with me, all right?"

Su Yuan gave him a thumbs-up. "Right, Gao Jun, you've finally grasped the key issue. Ye Hao is quite good-looking, and he's your biggest threat. So you have to eliminate him right from the starting line, or you'll have endless trouble later!"

On this matter, she was clearly on Gao Jun's side.

Seeing that they were both convinced of this, Ji Yehao said with a helpless laugh, "Am I really that despicable? I know better than to covet a friend's wife."

Gao Jun shook his head and smiled. "Even Su Yuan can see the risk, so my worries aren't completely baseless. This is just a little advance warning."

"..." Ji Yehao.

"Hey, let's stop talking about pointless stuff. Don't you think this is just wishful thinking right now?" Thinking about how they'd spent all this time discussing how Gao Jun could pursue Xia Linfei, Su Yuan suddenly felt speechless. It was true that Gao Jun had his eye on Xia Linfei, but it took two to tango. They hadn't even gotten off the ground yet, so there was no point talking about any of this.

"Oh, I know!" Gao Jun suddenly had an idea and jumped in. "Ye Hao, we almost got tricked by this kid Su Yuan."

"Tricked by me?"

Su Yuan was bewildered. Then she asked curiously, "Explain yourself. How did I trick you?"

Ji Yehao chimed in, too. "You'd better explain yourself. Otherwise, she'll blow her top."

"Ye Hao really knows me best." Su Yuan flashed a big smile.

"How have you still not figured it out? Su Yuan's setting a trap! She's strongly encouraging me to pursue Lin Fei, when really she just wants to eliminate you fair and square. Once the most formidable rival is out of the picture, she can swoop in, and I'll be as helpless as a rookie against her!"

Ji Yehao was taken aback. "Brilliant plan!"

"..."

Su Yuan's thoughts skipped a beat. She really hadn't considered that angle. If she did want to pursue Xia Linfei, this plan would indeed be pretty workable! No, it was practically perfect! Gao Jun was no match for Ye Hao, so if Ye Hao voluntarily dropped out, then she, who came right after him, could crush Gao Jun, couldn't she?

Hahahaha...

"Gao Jun, do you really think I'm that scheming?"

Su Yuan came back to her senses. Was she really the sort of scoundrel who'd betray a brother for a beauty?

"You never know someone's true nature just by looking at them!" Gao Jun wore a weathered expression, as if he already knew he was destined for a miserable failure. The wind sighed on the riverbank, chilling as we departed.

"Take that!!"

Su Yuan punched and kicked Gao Jun, landing blow after blow. Still unsatisfied, she gave him another kick.