Nina stayed out of their argument. She stared for a long time at the supplemental section for Orbital Physics and the Sakuradite High-Energy Experimental Group on the application page, then finally uploaded a paper she had never published. It contained derivations she had worked out using data from the Ashford laboratory, and even Lelouch had only understood half of it. When the upload button lit up, she hesitated for a moment before pressing it anyway.
"I'm only applying," she whispered to herself. "They might not even understand it."
The ears on Tabane's projection suddenly perked up.
"Oh?"
Nina stiffened. "What is it?"
"Nothing. Someone's just about to be in trouble-no, wait, someone's about to get promoted."
Meanwhile, in Luoyang.
Lin Cuo, who had temporarily become an adult, was kissing C.C.
More precisely, before C.C. had even finished explaining the terms of her contract, he had kissed her without warning.
The whole thing lasted only a brief instant. C.C. froze at first, then ruthlessly sank her teeth into his lower lip. Lin Cuo pulled away in pain.
"What are you doing?! Are you out of your mind?"
"Oh, damn! Isn't this the usual way to confirm a Code contract?"
"Who told you that?"
Lin Cuo fell silent for half a second. "A judgment based on the Chancellor's traditional experience."
"You shouldn't even know my name. What experience could you possibly have?"
A few minutes earlier, C.C. had just regained consciousness after prolonged restraint and drug-induced suppression. When she opened her eyes, she saw Lin Cuo standing outside the Medical Isolation Chamber, his eyes shining with a deeply suspicious brightness.
She asked where she was. Lin Cuo answered, "Luoyang, Great Han."
She asked who he was.
Lin Cuo did not answer. He only said, "C.C., you're finally awake."
Her wariness of this