The First Lotus of Summer, the Moon Reflected in Autumn Waters

Xu Jianping was so angry at Luo Wenbin's words that he nearly laughed.

Wasn't poaching one enough? Now he wanted to poach two?

Jiang Hongyue contributed a substantial amount of funding to the university every year, along with various experimental bases and collaborative projects.

If Jiang Nan left, wouldn't all of those go with her?

"Old Luo, that's not very fair of you."

Xu Jianping voiced his displeasure.

Luo Wenbin also knew the request was too much, so he gave a couple of sheepish laughs and hung up.

Once the office was quiet again, Xu Jianping stood by the window, watching Wu Chen and Jiang Nan walk away, still utterly baffled.

What on earth had happened?

Unable to figure it out and unsure whom to ask, he opened a news website to give his mind a break.

Then he saw a trending story that had appeared half an hour earlier.

"Wu Chen, teaching assistant at Xiaoheshan University of Technology, publishes seven papers in top journals in a single month!"

Meanwhile, Wu Chen was walking with Jiang Nan, impatiently taking a phone call.

"Boss, boss, your other five papers have been published too! Even our dean was totally stunned, and he wants to invite you to give a lecture!"

On the other end of the line, Chen Beitao was showering him with endless rainbow farts.

Wu Chen, however, was quite calm.

This was only the beginning.

"All right, but my schedule's full this semester, so I can only pick a weekend. You'll have to work out the arrangements."

"Okaaay~"

After hanging up, Wu Chen said to Jiang Nan, "Looks like you'll have to keep an eye on the company for a while. I expect I'll be busy for some time."

Academia was never just about technology; it was about navigating human relationships.

For Wu Chen to complete his research, he needed a supporting system for both software and hardware.

So he needed a lot of people to work with him.

Academic exchanges, conferences, and building connections were all necessary work for establishing his own academic system.

Jiang Nan agreed, though she had a condition.

"No problem, but you have to take care of the factory today."

What concerned her most was getting Wu Chen's pill quality inspection system into use at her family's pharmaceutical factory as soon as possible.

"Got it. I prepared everything a long time ago."

Wu Chen lifted the backpack in his hand.

It contained samples exchanged from the system, which could perfectly solve the problems with the Little Jiang No. 2 production line.

Once everything had been debugged, Hazelnut Technology's factory could officially begin production.

But when they reached the parking lot, they unexpectedly found someone waiting for them.

"Didn't I tell you to go back to your dorm first?"

Wu Chen asked Min Xinrou, who was waiting in the shadows of a corner.

She was still holding her backpack, sitting blankly on the edge of a flower bed, lost in thought.

The orange streetlight cast a soft halo over her head, sharply separated from the darkness around her, like a mimosa plant forgotten in the night.

Only when she heard Wu Chen speak did she start out of her thoughts.

"Teacher Wu, Teacher Jiang."

She stood and greeted them in a small voice, twisting the tip of her shoe uneasily, but didn't answer Wu Chen's question.

Jiang Nan gently tugged Wu Chen's arm, signaling him not to speak, then stepped forward and placed a hand on Min Xinrou's shoulder.

"What happened?"

Min Xinrou pressed her lips together and hesitated before saying, "I'm scared to go back to the dorm."

"Is it because of Yang Yuanjing?"

"Mm."

Min Xinrou lowered her head.

When they had left the meeting room that evening, the look Yang Yuanjing gave her had left her unable to calm down for a long time.

Seeing how pitiful she looked, Wu Chen couldn't bring himself to tell her to be braver.

Jiang Nan studied her carefully for a moment, then took her hand and asked, "You haven't eaten since this afternoon, have you?"

"Mm."

"Then let's go eat first."

"Okay."

Min Xinrou nodded obediently.

Jiang Nan tossed the car keys to Wu Chen. "You drive. Let's go to the snack street over in Pingfeng."

Pingfeng was a nearby urban village with plenty of good places to eat.

But since it was two bus stops from the university, most of the time the teachers and students preferred to eat at the snack stalls on Garbage Street outside the campus gates.

Wu Chen didn't understand why they were going there, but he didn't ask. He simply served as chauffeur for the two campus beauties.

Jiang Nan sat in the back with Min Xinrou, and the two huddled together, whispering about something all the way.

The car drove smoothly through the night. Streetlight filtered through the windows, weaving a soft net in the confined space that slowly smoothed away a whole day's restlessness.

Wu Chen let his mind go blank too, though he was still curious about what they were saying.

He strained his ears for a long time but couldn't make out a thing, so he could only glance at them in the rearview mirror from time to time.

Yet, remarkably, after the short drive, Min Xinrou looked much better. Even her once-melancholy peach blossom eyes had brightened a little.

As they approached the snack street, Jiang Nan directed Wu Chen to park outside a Chaoshan beef hot pot restaurant.

After getting out, the two women walked ahead hand in hand, while Wu Chen followed behind, his mind brimming with questions.

"The owner here is from Chaoshan. His beef ball casserole is really fresh and flavorful. Have you eaten here before, Xinrou?"

Jiang Nan asked Min Xinrou.

Min Xinrou shook her head.

She had seen the restaurant, but she simply hadn't had the time, and no other girl had been willing to come here and spend money with her.

But if she came alone, she couldn't eat much, and that would waste the soup base.

There weren't many people in the restaurant at that hour, so the three quickly found a table and sat down.

Restaurants near the university weren't particularly fussy, and the tables and chairs always seemed to have a layer of grease on them, but neither Jiang Nan nor Min Xinrou minded.

As soon as they sat down, however, they attracted nearly every gaze in the restaurant.

Jiang Nan was a typical Hangzhou girl. Her skin had the luminous fairness nurtured by the waterways of Jiangnan, and her long black hair was neatly tied back, revealing a smooth forehead and a slender neck.

Her beauty was open and radiant, carrying the confidence and composure of a young lady from a distinguished family.

Her clear, bright eyes in particular held an unmistakable frankness, as though they could dispel any gloom.

Sitting there, she didn't need to make any particular effort; the air around her seemed to grow clear and bright.

Min Xinrou, on the other hand, possessed the delicate grace and gentle charm distinctive to Chaoshan girls.

Her frame was more slender, and the outer corners of her peach blossom eyes tilted slightly upward. When she looked at someone, her gaze carried three parts shyness and seven parts tenderness.

Sitting quietly in the bustling little restaurant, she was a lovely, touching sight all on her own.

One was as brilliant as the first lotus of summer; the other as clear and graceful as the moon reflected in autumn waters.

A table of young men, apparently out for a dorm dinner, had drunk quite a bit. At the sight of the two women, they grew restless, urging one another in low voices to go over and ask for their contact information.

But Wu Chen merely cast a mild glance their way, and their intentions were snuffed out.

People who had been through life and death carried themselves differently.

It was an aura forged by a passage through the gates of hell, with a baleful edge hidden within, heavy as a mountain.

That glance, however, clearly left Jiang Nan and Min Xinrou a little stunned as well.

As they knew him, Wu Chen could be upright, gentle, learned, or unhurried. He could even be indifferent to worldly affairs.

But in that brief instant, they had indeed sensed a Wu Chen as sharp as a blade.

It felt rather reassuring?

Before they could think any further, though, Wu Chen swiftly checked off a soup base and several dishes.

"I'm having the spicy broth anyway. Pick whatever you want for the mild broth yourselves; I won't touch it."

He really was hungry.

Taking the menu, Jiang Nan and Min Xinrou suppressed the strange feelings that had flashed through them a moment ago and began considering what to eat.

Though decisive and quick in other matters, Jiang Nan suffered from indecision when it came to food.

Paired with Min Xinrou, who was fine with anything, it was even more of a disaster.

By the time the two finished ordering, Wu Chen had replied to dozens of messages on QQ on his phone.

They were from former classmates and a few colleagues he had only recently met, all asking about his papers.

It wasn't just the word2Vec paper. His system architecture paper published at IPDPS had caused a huge sensation as well.

The reason was simple: Wu Chen had put OpenCL, which was still only a theoretical draft, into practice!

This had caused a violent storm within the Khronos Group.

It was just that the wind hadn't yet reached China.

When he finished replying and looked up, he found that the two women across from him were both watching him.

"What is it?"

"If you're done, give Wang Hongfa a call."

Jiang Nan said.