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“Haha, you guys were nerds, huh? So, who did you guys eventually choose, Da Xiao Qiao or Huang Yueying?” Chu Xiaoting asked with a laugh.

“Of course, it was Da Xiao Qiao,” Zi Cheng said, spreading his hands.

“Ha! Men!” Chu Xiaoting then asked, “Did you guys never discuss real-life girls? I’m sure there were beautiful and cute girls at your school, right? Like the school beauties and such?”

Zi Cheng thought for a moment, then reminisced, “School beauties… I don’t have any memories of that, it seems like our school didn’t have this concept. As for real-life girls… I remember in the second semester of our first year, Chang Bin dragged us to help out some Art Institute people with a party they were hosting. We then hung around to watch a fashion show they put on. There was a girl wearing an outfit filled with LED lights. The stage lights dimmed, and she danced for a short while. Ah Tu and I discussed it on our way home that night…”

Zi Cheng couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Chu Xiaoting continued to inquire, “What happened, was that girl exceptionally beautiful, or did she have a great figure? Hey, why are you laughing?”

Zi Cheng laughed for a while before he replied, “I’ve long forgotten what the girl looked like. What we discussed most was where her battery pack was hidden since her outfit was cropped, and the battery pack wasn’t on her waist, we wondered where it was hidden. Also, how the LED lights behind her could flash on and off in a regular pattern, lighting up different colours. What kind of control chip she used, whether the flashing pattern was pre-set or controlled in real-time…”

After listening to all this, Chu Xiaoting was left dumbstruck. She stared at him for a while and then said, “So you could have just directly asked the model who was performing, and maybe even had the chance to get her phone number or WeChat. That would’ve been a perfect chance for you to get to know her! Since you were helping out, I think you would have had the opportunity!”

“Oh, that would have been too much hassle. When we went back, we just looked it up on the internet and found their solution,” Zi Cheng said while shaking his head with a laugh. “Then, we purchased some parts on the internet to modify a computer temperature feedback light strip. When the computer’s temperature was in the normal range, it would shine a white light; when the temperature rose to a certain level, it would shine a yellow light; and when it reached a dangerous level, it would shine a red light. Actually, it didn’t have much practical significance. There’s software on the computer to monitor CPU and GPU temperatures, and there are many alert features for high temperatures; they can even tell you the exact temperature, and they’re much more accurate than our lights. Apart from the very beginning when we intentionally overloaded the computer to test the light strip, we never really used it again after that.”

After hearing all this, Chu Xiaoting didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry: “So there they are, putting on a fashion display, strutting on the catwalk, and performing in their glittering outfits. But instead of focusing on the beautiful girls on stage, all your attention was on the lights. What’s that phrase that’s used on the internet… on and off (注孤生)?”

Zi Cheng spread his hands: “Yeah, so neither of us had a girlfriend in university. Honestly, it’s mostly Ah Tu’s fault. He loves to think about stuff too much and research stuff. Every time we would tackle a new dungeon, he would search for all sorts of information about the monsters and bosses. If the games were released overseas earlier, he would look up strategies that were released overseas first. Then based on our team’s actual abilities, he would make modifications to the specific operational details. At any given moment, he could pull an all-nighter;”

“He was always researching computer configurations and keeping up with the latest hardware specs and technological developments. He would often hang around computer stores but rarely bought anything. The computers we had were completely sufficient for our gaming needs and projects;”

“The same went for software projects. Every time, he would contemplate some things that actually had no practical uses and couldn’t be submitted for competitions or assignments. He did it just for fun, constantly working through the night…”

“I was definitely led astray by Ah Tu!”

Chu Xiaoting laughed, “Maybe Xiang Kun feels like you led him astray! Look at him now, he’s surrounded by so many beautiful women. He’s especially popular with the girls!”

Zi Cheng scratched his head and laughed, “Maybe it’s because he shaved his head, do you think I should give it a try?”

Chu Xiaoting squinted at him, “I like guys with long hair!”

“Then… I won’t shave! I’ll let it grow!” Zi Cheng said with a grin. “But speaking of which, Ah Tu has changed a lot. Not just his appearance, but also his personality. He’s become a lot more outgoing and confident. He has a certain authority in what he does and, most of all, he’s different from before. He even chats with girls, something he and I usually stumble on…”

“Oh?” Chu Xiaoting looked at him. “How come you’re so fluent in talking to me? Am I not pretty?”

“You…” Zi Cheng laughed. “It’s not about whether you’re pretty or not. I see you as a bro~”

Chu Xiaoting laughed as she got up, threatening to smear his face with watermelon peels, and playfully scolded, “So you’re saying you don’t see me as a woman?”

Zi Cheng dodged with a grin, retorting, “You’ll have to prove that you’re a woman first, right?”

“Oh? Who was it that was hugging my waist last night, trembling all the time?” Chu Xiaoting giggled and moved her face closer to him. “Why don’t you prove that you’re a man?”

Facing her close-up smiling face, Zi Cheng paused for a moment, swallowed hard, and averted his eyes before muttering, “I guess you are a woman, Miss Beauty Chu.”

“Clever boy.” Chu Xiaoting laughed as she lightly shoved Zi Cheng’s head before sitting back down on the chair.

After some laughter and jokes, Chu Xiaoting asked about the game they were making. She wondered, “Did you and Xiang Kun create the game together? Why would he run a restaurant in Tongshi Town and start a farm or research institute in Chongyun Village while making a game? Shouldn’t a game company be located in a big city?”

“We didn’t create the game together. He did it on his own. Well, he might have hired some other teams, I am not sure. I didn’t ask for the specifics. I just do whatever he wants me to. I trust him.” Zi Cheng said and then smiled at Chu Xiaoting, “Why do you keep asking about Ah Tu? Did your uncle put you up to it?” Although he hadn’t met Chu Xiuwen many times, he could still sense that Chu Xiuwen pays significant attention to Xiang Kun, even more so than Liu Caifu.

“What? You think I was sent by my uncle to charm you and pry out your business secret?” Chu Xiaoting huffed.

Zi Cheng laughed, “If that were the case, then I should thank your uncle~”

“Thank my foot!” Chu Xiaoting responded by tossing a watermelon peel at him, then said, “My uncle didn’t tell me anything about Xiang Kun. But when ‘Youlong Restaurant’ opened, my uncle did treat Xiang Kun differently from everyone else.

“And I also think that Xiang Kun seems to become the center of everything wherever he goes. A center that’s not conspicuous, but connects everything together. It’s like when we had dinner just now, he seemed to know what we were thinking about, and always found a topic. Like when we talked about sports, he mentioned swimming, then beaches, sailing, surfing, smoothly transitioned to climate, then solar power, wind power, which lead to my major. This also happens when Nana, Zhen’er, and Zhang Qian were around. As long as Xiang Kun is present, everyone feels comfortable participating in the discussion. He’s like…”

Chu Xiaoting’s hands fluttered as she said, “He’s like a spider weaving webs, connecting us all through the spider silk onto a single web.”

Zi Cheng, who was drinking tea at the time, nearly choked laughing at her analogy, erupting into a fit of coughing.

At this moment, the door to the private dining room was knocked and then You Meng opened the door, poking his head in. He asked the two of them, “Brother Chu and Boss Qi are here. I ordered some dishes to have late-night snacks with them, then I’ll call Xiang Kun over. Do you two want to join?”

Zi Cheng looked at Chu Xiaoting and left the decision to her, after all, Chu Xiuwen was her second uncle.

“We won’t go. You’re probably going to discuss business. We don’t have anything to contribute, it’s quite boring,” Chu Xiaoting said. “And we just ate a lot of fruit. We’re not hungry and can’t eat any more late-night snacks. We’re going to head back.”

So, the two of them didn’t bother going to the other room to greet Chu Xiuwen and Qi Haoguo, but directly left the Youlong Restaurant.

At this time, it was already past ten in the evening, the shops on the pedestrian street had mostly closed for the night, and the pedestrians were mainly shop owners.

Zi Cheng and Chu Xiaoting chatted while walking side by side down the street.

After a few steps, Zi Cheng took the opportunity to hold Chu Xiaoting’s hand, then while acting as if nothing had happened and grinning, continued walking ahead.

Chu Xiaoting, however, stopped in her tracks, pulling him to a halt. She then lifted their intertwined hands and asked, “What do you mean by this?”

“Hehe, be my girlfriend,” Zi Cheng said with a laugh.

“Aren’t we siblings?” Chu Xiaoting squinted at him.

“Siblings on the surface, but actually a couple, hehe.”

“Hehe, my foot!” Chu Xiaoting lifted her foot to kick Zi Cheng while not letting go of his hand.

On the second floor of the Youlong Restaurant, Chu Xiuwen stood by the window, watching the backs of the two young people holding hands and playing around as they walked away, with a wry smile on his face.

“Is he the friend of Mr. Xiang, whose family owns the supermarket chain? His name is Liu Chuang, right?” Qi Haoguo also walked up to Chu Xiuwen and asked while looking at the two figures in the distance.

“Seems like it,” Chu Xiuwen nodded, but didn’t tell Qi Haoguo that the person walking hand in hand with Liu Chuang was his niece.

Soon after, You Meng brought a few dishes he had just prepared into the room, saying to the two of them: “I just called Xiang Kun, but he said he was already in bed and has something to do tomorrow morning, so he won’t come over.”

“That’s fine, we just decided on a whim to come here for late-night snacks today. Since Mr. Xiang has already gone back, there is no reason to call him out again. We’ll have plenty of opportunities to meet again in the future,” Chu Xiuwen said with a smile.

Qi Haoguo also agreed: “Yes, President Chu and I just craved the rabbit meat from your place, so we came over for late-night snacks.”

So the three of them talked while eating and “incidentally” discussed their plans and ideas for a future cooperative restaurant chain. After You Meng revealed the meaning of going into business together with Xiang Kun to Chu Xiuwen the night before, the latter had contacted Qi Haoguo that night. The two of them had no objections to the partnership, as they did not place a high value on the restaurant chain fact, they did agree that the rabbit meat here was truly delicious.

The casually discussed plan put the interests of You Meng, or at present, the Youlong Restaurant, first. This made You Meng feel slightly embarrassed. Even though Xiang Kun told him to make the final decisions, he still wanted to discuss the final proposal with Xiang Kun.

After finishing their late-night snacks and about to leave, Chu Xiuwen suddenly asked: “Boss Qi, can your driver help me drive? I just remembered that I had some alcohol during dinner.”

Qi Haoguo was taken aback. Chu Xiuwen had driven here himself and did not smell of alcohol at all. But he quickly understood that Chu Xiuwen wanted to be alone with him as he clearly had something to discuss. So, he nodded to his driver, who took Chu Xiuwen’s car keys and went to the parking lot, while Qi Haoguo took the driver’s keys and got behind the wheel.

Half an hour later, having dropped Chu Xiuwen home and sitting back in the back seat of his car, letting his driver drive, Qi Haoguo furrowed his brows in deep thought.

During the journey, Chu Xiuwen had been talking about various things, but he could distill the crux of it down to two things. One was the thunderstorm in the mountains the previous night that had killed two escaped prisoners, and the other was the woodcarving in his new house in Tongshi Town.

When he first moved to Tongshi Town, Chu Xiuwen and Liu Feibao had come over with gifts and he had seen the eight-armed, eight-eyed woodcarving. At that time, Chu Xiuwen had asked where he bought it, who made it, and even wanted to borrow it to look at it, but he had brushed it off with something else.

Today in the car, Chu Xiuwen brought up the woodcarving again, this time directly asking what the figure of the woodcarving represented.

The first time he had asked, Qi Haoguo didn’t think much of it, assuming Chu Xiuwen was simply curious about the design of the woodcarving. But when Chu Xiuwen asked again, he realised that Chu Xiuwen’s curiosity wasn’t just about the carving, he must know something!

But under his probing, Chu Xiuwen had only played dumb, unwilling to reveal what he knew.

So, what was Chu Xiuwen’s motive?

Going by what Liu Feibao had said, Chu Xiuwen didn’t know Xiang Kun before and was only introduced to him through Liu Feibao and Liu Caifu when Liu Feibao wanted to reconcile. He was just a mediator.

Could it be that he had learned something recently?

And the matter of the lightning striking the escaped prisoners, they had talked about it before while having dinner with You Meng. When it was brought up again in the car, it was obvious Chu Xiuwen was hinting and probing at something.

Xiang Kun also lives in Chongyun Village…Could the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster and the lightning storm killing two convicts be connected?

With this thought, remembering the images of the lightning storm shown on the news, Qi Haoguo broke out in a cold sweat.