How could Jiang Qingyuan fail to see through his little scheme?
As the old saying went, when a child went quiet, they were surely up to mischief.
The more sincerely Chen Fan admitted his mistake, the more little schemes he had brewing inside.
"Don't give me that." She curled a finger and lightly tapped Chen Fan's forehead, the touch gentle but carrying a hint of punishment. "You think I don't know what you're plotting? You say you wouldn't dare, then turn around and start thinking up a sneakier way."
Exposed on the spot, Chen Fan showed no embarrassment. He chuckled twice and shamelessly played along. "Isn't it just because news in the Immortal Palace is so restricted? I only wanted to understand the situation outside. Know yourself and your enemy, and you'll never lose a hundred battles. Besides, seeing more of the spiritual technology out there can inspire my cultivation too, right, Professor Jiang?"
He tilted his head up to look at Jiang Qingyuan, his eyes sparkling with a touch of sly ingratiation.
Jiang Qingyuan was so exasperated that she laughed.
"You certainly have a whole arsenal of crooked arguments." She turned, returned to the sofa, and sat down with her arms folded. "The Immortal Palace's spirit network firewall was set up jointly by several Mahayana Realm elders. Those little tricks of yours can only slip through a few gaps around the edges. If they seriously investigated, they could pinpoint your bedside in three minutes. When the Inspectorate comes knocking, let's see how you talk your way out of it."
Chen Fan's heart tightened.
He had thought he had hidden himself pretty well, only to discover that he might as well have been transparent to them.
"Then... Professor Jiang, you kept this quiet for me?" he asked cautiously.
"What else?" Jiang Qingyuan glanced at him. "Wait for Director Zhang to invite you to the Inspectorate for tea and give you a major disciplinary demerit?"
Chen Fan immediately climbed the pole she had offered, leaning closer with a face full of gratitude. "I knew Professor Jiang cared about her students most! You really are the best professor in the world!"
"Enough with the glib talk." Jiang Qingyuan rolled her eyes at him, but she could not hide the smile in them.
Looking at Chen Fan's restless yet clever expression, she found herself momentarily lost in thought.
Many years ago, she had been just like him.
When she first entered Jingfu University, she too had feared neither heaven nor earth, always feeling that the Immortal Palace controlled this and restricted that until she could barely breathe.
Whenever her mentor was not paying attention, she would secretly set up proxies to bypass the firewall, browse X Platform and argue with people, or lurk in the black market hunting for bargains. She had caused no shortage of trouble.
Every time she was caught, she had worn this same look: surrender immediately, then dare to do it again next time.
Come to think of it, she had almost forgotten how long it had been since she had felt so alive.
"You..." Jiang Qingyuan sighed softly, her tone unconsciously softening. "You're exactly like I was when I was young. Not the least bit well-behaved."
Chen Fan's ears immediately pricked up.
"Huh? Professor Jiang, you bypassed the firewall when you were young too?" His eyes instantly lit up with interest. "Really? I thought you'd always been this cool and proper."
"Do proper people never get to have been young?" Jiang Qingyuan said irritably, but she did not deny it.
She fell silent for a few seconds, then took a pale cyan jade talisman from her storage ring and gently placed it on the coffee table.
"Stop using that lousy proxy setup of yours. It'll get you into trouble sooner or later." She tapped the jade talisman with a fingertip. "This is the private account I used to use. It runs through a specially encrypted channel that the Inspectorate's routine monitoring can't detect. Its access privileges are fairly high. You can enter most sections of X Platform."
Chen Fan froze.
"Is... is that really okay?" His words were polite, but his hand was already halfway out, his eyes practically glued to the jade talisman.
With Jiang Qingyuan's account, wouldn't he be like a fish in water from now on?
"Why wouldn't it be?" Jiang Qingyuan said calmly. "I stopped using it ages ago. It's just sitting there anyway. But I'm warning you: once you're in, keep your mouth shut, don't cause trouble, and absolutely do not post inappropriate remarks with this account. If you really stir up a hornet's nest, I won't be able to protect you."
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Chen Fan snatched up the jade talisman and tucked it into his pocket like a treasure, thumping his chest in assurance. "I'll absolutely keep a low profile. I'll only read, never speak! Professor Jiang, you can put a hundred worries to rest!"
Inside, his heart blossomed with joy.
What a huge win. Professor Jiang really was a woman who could be her mommy. She was so considerate. If it weren't forbidden, I'd want to say, 'If my lord does not disdain me, I am willing to bow to you as my adoptive mother.'
Amid his delight, he looked up at Jiang Qingyuan. Under the warm light, the lines of her profile were soft, with less of her usual sharpness and a little more gentleness.
Remembering what she had just said, Chen Fan suddenly felt a little warmth in his heart.
So she did not object because she saw a reflection of her younger self in him.
"Professor Jiang," he could not help asking curiously, "what did you do when you bypassed the firewall back then? Did you lurk on forums eating melon like me?"
At his question, Jiang Qingyuan's cheeks flushed faintly, and she gave a light cough.
"What's a little kid asking so many questions for?" She turned her face away, her tone slightly unnatural. "Put it away already. Don't stay up too late playing around with this stuff, and don't forget you have my class tomorrow."
With that, she stood up, ready to leave.
As she rose, her skirt accidentally brushed the corner of the table. Chen Fan instinctively reached out to steady her, his fingertips touching her wrist.
The instant their skin touched, both of them paused.
Jiang Qingyuan's wrist was cool, delicate and smooth, like fine warm jade. Chen Fan withdrew his hand as soon as he touched her and scratched his head a little awkwardly. "S-sorry, Professor Jiang."
"It's fine." Jiang Qingyuan withdrew her hand, her fingertips curling slightly. Her voice remained calm, but the tips of her ears quietly took on a faint pink.
Without saying anything more, she turned and walked toward the door.
Her purple nightdress traced an elegant arc beneath the light, leaving the room filled with the cool fragrance of plum blossoms.
At the doorway, she stopped and reminded him without looking back, "Remember what I said. Don't get too carried away. If I find out you've misused the account and caused trouble again, I'll take it straight back."
"Mission completion guaranteed!" Chen Fan saluted behind her.
Only after the door closed and her footsteps gradually faded did Chen Fan slump back into his chair and let out a long breath.
"That scared me to death..." He patted his chest, then chuckled again, taking out the cyan jade talisman and turning it over and over in his hands.
A massive win. An absolutely massive win!
Not only did he now have a safe way to bypass the firewall, but his relationship with Jiang Qingyuan had also taken a great step forward.
He lowered his head to glance at the million High-Grade Spirit Stones in his panel, his eyes gradually brightening.
With a high-access X Platform account, reaching channels in the outside world would be much easier. Laundering the Spirit Stones was only the first step. With so many resources and so much information out there, he might even find quite a few useful things related to traits.
Chen Fan rubbed the jade talisman with his fingertips, a mischievous smile curling his lips.
He was rather curious about what "dark history" lay hidden in the account Jiang Qingyuan had used when she was young.
With a little appetite for gossip, he infused his spiritual sense into the jade talisman and logged into the account that had gathered dust for years.
The next second, the profile information that popped up left Chen Fan frozen on the spot.