Chapter Seventeen: You Dare Compete with Me at This?

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Lin Xiaowen was in the middle of her dance class. During the day, she was nothing like the cold and aloof beauty seen at night; instead, she radiated the vibrant energy and freshness of youth. Dressed in a pink dance dress, the fitted bodice accentuated her perfect curves—the fullness that was neither excessive nor lacking, a smooth, toned abdomen without a hint of extra flesh. Her agile, graceful, and captivating dance moves enchanted everyone present; even the women seemed to be taken with this adorable creature.

After class, Lin Xiaowen changed her clothes and walked through the corridor of the teaching building. The smile on her face gradually faded. “Grandpa Hei, those people are truly too much. Could you go teach them a lesson for me?” She spoke, though no one was around her, and it was unclear who she was addressing. After that, she returned to her usual sweet, innocent self and skipped back to her dormitory. Lin Xiaowen was now living on campus.

The next day, the headline in the newspaper read: “Four Local Citizens Jump to Their Deaths—Reasons Unknown.” At that moment, Lin Xiaowen was in the elevator, alone. A faint, ethereal voice drifted in from all directions: “Wenwen, Grandpa has already taken care of it. Those young masters from the four great families really have nerves of steel, daring to spy on our young lady. I’ve taught them a lesson—I think they’ll understand now.” Lin Xiaowen nodded and replied cheerfully, “Thank you, Grandpa Hei.”

...

Not far from Ningxia University, in a luxurious villa, a young man dressed in designer sportswear lounged on a sofa, his face wearing a lazy expression. He looked delicate and handsome, but beneath his large, sparkling eyes, an occasional glint of wicked, green light flickered. This was none other than the eldest son of the Ximen family, Ximen Xiaokun.

“Master Ximen, the people we sent to monitor the young lady of the Xuanyuan family are dead,” reported a man dressed as a butler.

“I see. I read about it in today’s newspaper. It’s nothing surprising—if the Xuanyuan family didn’t kill our men, that would be odd. Did the other three families also send people to watch her?” Ximen Xiaokun asked.

“Yes, the other three families did the same. They sent people to monitor the Xuanyuan family’s young lady, and they are dead as well,” the butler replied respectfully.

“So this method won’t work. Tell me, what is Miss Xuanyuan doing in this godforsaken place like Ningxia? Now she’s even attending classes. If it weren’t for their family’s wealth and her beauty, who would bother coming to such a lousy place?” Ximen Xiaokun spoke with a hint of malice.

“I suppose the young masters of the other families are here for the same reason. Now that she’s staying at school and sending people to watch her isn’t working, let me think...” He paused, then suddenly brightened. “I've got it! Xiao Jie, help me enroll in Ningxia University. I’ll start attending classes tomorrow.”

The man called Xiao Jie replied, “Master, that’s a brilliant idea! This way, you can get closer to the young lady and shower her with attention at any time. I’m sure you’ll win her heart soon, and your grand ambitions will be within reach. I’ll get on it right away.” With that, he hurried off.

...

Back in the dormitory, Du Guoming plopped down onto his chair and powered up his computer. Don’t be fooled by its unremarkable appearance—every component inside had been personally modified by Du Guoming. Even the Pentagon’s supercomputers might not surpass his in terms of performance.

He idly browsed the web. He had intended to hack into the national security system to look up Lin Xiaowen’s personal information, but since his roommates were still awake, he decided to wait until they were asleep. There was no rush.

Now, a little background: Du Guoming was not only a PhD in economics but also a prodigy in the world of hacking—one of the world’s greatest. He once broke into the Pentagon’s security system in only ten seconds. The only hacker more skilled than him was Paul, now based in the United States and a good friend of his, who managed it in nine seconds—a feat that earned Du Guoming’s utmost respect.

Bored with Chinese websites, he clicked into a meme site called “Nine Demons’ Hidden Meaning Pics.” After browsing for a while, he still couldn’t find anything meaningful—just the occasional risqué link. Our protagonist was, after all, pure and innocent. Despite being knowledgeable about almost everything, he was clueless about matters of romance.

Although he lived in the liberal United States, Du Guoming had never even held a girl’s hand. His mother died when he was born, and whenever he asked his father about her, the old man would remain tight-lipped. Eventually, Du Guoming stopped asking.

Having lacked maternal love since childhood, Du Guoming developed a strong aversion to women, especially beautiful ones—he always felt that exceptionally pretty women were unreliable. Thus, at nearly nineteen, he was still entirely ignorant of matters between men and women.

His understanding of the differences between men and women was limited to the fact that men had Adam’s apples and less developed chests. What he really needed was for a woman to teach him about these things; otherwise, how would our hero fare in the world?

And so, Du Guoming passed the time browsing jokes and websites.

Suddenly, the tightly shut dorm door was kicked open, and several fierce-looking young men burst in. “Who’s Bai Hanwen? Where’s Bai Hanwen?” one of them demanded.

Startled, Bai Hanwen stood up. “I am. What’s this about?”

“You damn well know what this is about! Do you remember that match you screwed us over in this afternoon?” the leader snarled.

Bai Hanwen looked at them in confusion and shook his head.

“Don’t play dumb! Today was my promotion match, and everyone was trying their best. Why did you go AFK? If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have lost!” the leader bellowed.

This young man was Jia Xiongfei. He’d been playing a ranked match in League of Legends, but Bai Hanwen had been AFK the whole time, forcing a 4v5. They lost in twenty minutes, and Jia Xiongfei, furious, tracked Bai Hanwen down by having a friend hack the game’s server for his IP address.

At that moment, Bai Hanwen suddenly remembered he’d played a ranked game earlier but had gotten a stomachache just as the match started and ended up in the bathroom. By the time he finished, the game was over.

As someone who prided himself on never letting his team down, Bai Hanwen knew he was in the wrong and mumbled, “I had a stomachache and was in the bathroom, so…”

“Bathroom, my ass! I think you did it on purpose!” Jia Xiongfei snapped, raising his hand to slap Bai Hanwen.

Du Guoming instinctively stepped between them, catching Jia Xiongfei’s wrist with ease. “My friend already explained—he wasn’t trying to cause trouble; he just had a stomachache. Why don’t we just let this go? Fighting here won’t do you any good.” As he spoke, he subtly tightened his grip.

“You… let go of me!” Jia Xiongfei struggled. Du Guoming released him, and Jia Xiongfei shook his arm, realizing he’d met his match. But for the sake of his pride, he couldn’t just back down. His eyes darted as he said, “How about this—let’s have a match. If you win, we’ll leave. If you lose, you owe me ten thousand yuan in emotional damages.”

He figured such unfair terms would scare Du Guoming off, giving him a way out. To his surprise, Du Guoming smiled coldly. He saw right through Jia Xiongfei’s plan—there was nothing in this world he wouldn’t dare, and he hated being threatened above all else. Du Guoming said calmly, “What kind of match?”

Jia Xiongfei hadn’t expected him to agree. After a brief pause, he replied, “All right, I like your spirit. Since we’re settling this, let’s play League of Legends. How about it?”

What the hell, you want to challenge me at League? Du Guoming was astonished.

PS: Please add this to your favorites if you’re enjoying it! Thank you, everyone. Three chapters today.