Tainted

"Why do I get the feeling there's something behind those words?"

Wu Chen glanced at her.

"No."

Jiang Nan turned her face away, avoiding his gaze.

But after a few seconds of silence, she told Wu Chen the outcome of her negotiations with Wang Hongfa.

"Aren't you afraid you'll lose that 500,000 yuan? I told you long ago that a purely SNN-based vision solution has no future. Lavrov's side definitely faked their results," Wu Chen said, frustrated that she wouldn't turn iron into steel.

"I don't understand this stuff, but my best friend said it would be good if they managed to produce some results. It wouldn't be completely useless."

Jiang Nan spoke.

It was clear she trusted Chen Beitao.

Wu Chen didn't try to persuade her further. He merely clicked his tongue.

The young lady had money, anyway. It was her business how she chose to burn through it.

Although he did have some solutions that could be useful, he didn't want to waste his energy on them for the time being.

When they reached the end of the corridor, Wu Chen asked, "I need to go back to the office first and fill out the usage log for the multimedia classroom. Do you want to come with me to President Xu's office afterward and take a look?"

Jiang Nan shook her head. "No."

"So you just came to remind me about the trending topic?"

Wu Chen asked.

Jiang Nan answered softly, "Mm."

"Don't worry. A little storm like this is nothing. I'll be fine."

Wu Chen gave her a salute.

In his previous life, when Wang Hongfa and Liu Ping framed him for academic fraud and colluding with a female student, the pressure of public opinion had been far greater. After all, Douyin existed back then, and there were more "righteous" people around.

Jiang Nan rolled her eyes at him as usual, then headed downstairs to drive home.

In truth, she also knew Wu Chen could surely handle it, but some inexplicable feeling had made her want to show him a little extra concern.

But the way he had just looked down on her for throwing money around made another wave of annoyance rise in her heart.

Without saying goodbye, she turned and walked downstairs, intending to head back to Xiaoshan.

A batch of raw materials was arriving at the factory today, and a busy man like Wu Chen certainly wouldn't have time to deal with it.

So she, who only had to teach six classes a week, was the only one left to handle it.

Looked at that way, she really was a pathetic investor.

It was one thing to provide the money and the people, but she was even being ordered around like a laborer. She was practically worse off than a graduate student in the lab.

Stewing in resentment she couldn't explain, Jiang Nan stomped down the stairs, the sound of her low wedge heels echoing through the empty stairwell.

"Teacher Jiang, wait a moment."

Just as she reached the first floor, Wu Chen came hurrying down with his bag on his back, taking the stairs three at a time before coming to her side.

Jiang Nan tilted her face and looked at him in confusion. "Weren't you going to fill out the log?"

"Heard I had something to do, so Teacher Huang Ruijie from our group filled it out for me."

Wu Chen spoke.

"Oh, that's pretty nice of him."

Jiang Nan answered with little interest, then turned and continued walking.

But Wu Chen pulled a bottle of coffee from his pocket and tucked it into her hand.

"Have some coffee. Thanks for coming to warn me just now, and thanks for taking care of things at the factory tonight, too."

"Oh."

Jiang Nan looked down at the coffee in her hand and saw that it was a bottled Starbucks Frappuccino latte. It had only gone on sale domestically that March, and a bottle cost 18 yuan.

"Thanks."

As far as she'd seen, Wu Chen usually drank nothing fancier than a bottle of cola costing two and a half yuan, and most of the time he drank plain water.

She really hadn't expected him to bring her coffee on purpose. He'd spent quite a bit on it, too.

Wu Chen waved a hand casually, indicating it was nothing.

But Jiang Nan immediately felt much better.

She twisted off the cap and took a sip. It was very sweet.

She asked, "Do they sell this around here? They don't have it at the supermarket on Zhaohui Campus."

"If they don't even have it in Zhaohui, they definitely won't have it here on Pingfeng Campus."

Wu Chen spoke.

Zhaohui was in downtown Hangzhou, while Pingfeng was on the outskirts, where supplies were relatively scarce.

Jiang Nan was puzzled.

"Then where did you buy it?"

"I stole it. When Huang Ruijie was filling out the form for me just now, I swiped it off his desk. He probably bought it outside and brought it back."

"I..."

Jiang Nan nearly spat out the coffee in her mouth.

In over twenty years of life, this was her first time drinking stolen goods!

She was tainted!

Her pretty eyes widened as she glared at him, itching to pour the coffee in her hand over Wu Chen's head.

Seeing her bristle, Wu Chen couldn't help laughing.

"Relax. How could that be true? Would I, the dignified Factory Director Wu, need to steal a can of coffee? He gave it to me. Everyone in the office got one."

Huang Ruijie really did know how to get along with people. Ever since he learned last time that Wu Chen had published three papers in top journals, he had often greeted him with a smile.

After four more papers appeared in top journals and one in a Q3 journal last night, Huang Ruijie had transformed completely into humble Little Huang, hoping Wu Chen would take him along on a project so he could snag a second or third authorship.

So Huang Ruijie really had given Wu Chen the coffee.

Only after hearing his explanation did Jiang Nan's expression ease a little.

Even so, she merely gave a soft snort.

When they reached the parking lot, she slipped into her little red Mercedes in a flash and drove off at speed.

After watching Jiang Nan leave as if she were on fire, Wu Chen turned a corner and strolled all the way to Xu Jianping's office.

The door was open, and quite a few people were inside.

He spotted the tearful Yang Yuanjing at a glance.

Two police officers stood beside her, sternly reprimanding her.

When Wu Chen arrived, Yang Yuanjing looked up at him, but quickly lowered her head again, sniffling a little louder.

But Wu Chen didn't miss the flicker of malice in her eyes.

"Teacher Wu, you're here. How was it? Was teaching this afternoon tiring?"

To his surprise, Xu Jianping had also noticed his arrival immediately and was quite welcoming.

In his previous life, Wu Chen had barely exchanged a few words with him. When they met, one was usually on a stage and the other below it: Xu Jianping rattled off a load of nonsense while Wu Chen clapped away.

But since coming back this time, all he'd seen was Xu Jianping's smiling face, and now the man had even risen to greet him.

This counted as a Dalit making a Brahmin look at him in a new light.

"Not tiring. It's part of my job."

Wu Chen looked around the office and only then noticed that Wang Hongfa was there too. A pretty young woman with neat, ear-length hair sat beside him.

Both of them had also risen and walked over when Wu Chen arrived.

Xu Jianping introduced her. "Shen Jia is also an outstanding graduate of our University of Technology. She should be your senior; she graduated a year before you. She works for the program 1818 Golden Eye now, and she came especially for you this time."

"Hello."

Wu Chen shook her hand.

He knew of Shen Jia too, because the program 1818 Golden Eye later became quite popular, specializing in reports on all kinds of bizarre incidents.

For example, there was the outrageously expensive barbershop in Hangzhou, and that Xiao Zhang whose hand was cut when a bathroom glass door spontaneously shattered, only for the whole internet to focus on his looks instead.

He had watched a few episodes himself and laughed so hard he couldn't close his mouth.

"Hello, Junior Wu. I've finally gotten to meet you! If it weren't for President Xu and Dean Wang, I wouldn't even have made it into the queue!"

Shen Jia had a sweet smile and two little dimples like Jiang Nan's, though hers were shallower.

Wu Chen smiled back. "I'm a little nervous about you coming to find me. I'm afraid I'll end up as material for the video-remix section."

"Hahaha, how could that happen?"

Shen Jia was an avid internet surfer too, so she immediately knew what he meant.

Xu Jianping and Wang Hongfa, however, looked utterly baffled. They had no idea what the two young people meant by video remixes.

Now that they had been introduced, the group had become acquainted, but none of them paid any attention to Yang Yuanjing off to the side.

Shen Jia kept smiling, but her expression took on the seriousness of a reporter in front of a camera.

She said, "Teacher Wu, there are two main things I'd like to interview you about today. One concerns this student, Yang, and the other concerns whether the seven papers you published in top journals are genuine. Do you have any questions?"

Wu Chen thought for a moment.

"Yes."