Chapter 40: Xia Yin

At the end of the day, it was still impossible to grasp human nature even after taking NZT-48.

Should this be attributed as being a limitation of NZT-48 or the unpredictable nature of humans?

The strong bite of the cigarette smoke made Chen Chen cough a little. As he looked at Guo Dazhuang’s figure turning away, his eye became slightly bloodshot.

Just as Chen Chen had expected, the previous three candidates had agreed to work together when they saw the potential profit. However, Chen Chen forgot to factor in someone like Guo Dazhuang.

Perhaps it was this perseverance and unwavering spirit of his that made him one of the leading members of the largest hacker organization in the world as well as the CEO of a company with a market value above a billion.

This failure was a sharp reminder to Chen Chen who was growing bolder by the day.

It seemed like he had crossed the line with Guo Dazhuang.

With that said, Chen Chen would not continue to trouble Guo Dazhuang just for refusing to invest. He was not in dire need of Guo Dazhuang’s assistance anyway so he would not even mind apologizing on the spot.

However, what Chen Chen did not expect was that not only was Guo Dazhuang prepared to challenge him but he even threatened Chen Chen with his parents.

In this regard, Guo Dazhuang had crossed the line with Chen Chen as well.

Thus, the endless battle was ignited.

There were moments where life and death were decided in an instant.

Chen Chen silently crushed the cigarette butt. He got up to open the curtains and then looked down.

Outside the building, he could tell there was something off with the way Guo Dazhuang walked. He silently walked out of Mickey Café and walked toward the road without a moment’s pause.

It was a busy road. There was an endless stream of vehicles coming back and forth.

It was as if Guo Dazhuang did not notice the traffic at all as he walked past the sidewalk and went straight ahead to the opposite road.

One car, two cars, three cars...

One after another, the cars blazed past Guo Dazhuang with their horns screeching along the way. Guo Dazhuang paid no mind to all the dangers around him. It was as if he had been possessed.

“Bang!”

Finally, as Guo Dazhuang was crossing through the barrier in the middle of the road, an SUV that was unable to stop in time violently crashed into Guo Dazhuang.

The harsh screech of the brake rang across half the street. Countless people turned toward the direction it came from.

At the same time, Chen Chen closed the curtains. He snapped his thumb, turned toward the door and smiled:

“Waiter, the bill please.”

...

“Ring ring ring!”

As Chen Chen was riding his scooter back to his warehouse, his phone suddenly rang.

Chen Chen frowned when he heard the ringing.

He had preset his phone so that it would only ring like this when X contacted him.

Before he headed out, he had already put X into standby mode just in case something happened while he was gone.

There was only one scenario in which X would be awakened – someone was detected in the warehouse.

Chen Chen had installed dozens of cameras in the warehouse. They were positioned perfectly so that there were no blind spots. The feed went directly into X’s processor.

The very moment it had detected signs of any stranger, X would come out of standby mode and immediately alert Chen Chen.

Chen Chen parked his scooter by the road and quickly took out his phone to investigate.

X had sent him around ten pictures taken from the cameras.

In the first picture, a girl in a white t-shirt and denim shorts got down from a red car. The girl had a slender figure. Due to the resolution of the picture, the face was blurry.

In the second picture, the girl stood before the warehouse door and was gently knocking on the roller shutter door.

In the third picture, the girl sat down on the slope in front of the warehouse door. She seemed to have realized there was no one in the warehouse and was taking out her phone.

In the fourth picture, the girl had put down her phone.

Chen Chen shook his head. He put the phone back in his pocket and restarted the scooter.

The girl was not just any other person. It was Xia Yin.

Chen Chen intentionally picked a warehouse in the middle of nowhere to serve as his base of operations. He was not sure how Xia Yin had managed to find it. Judging by her troubled expression, she was debating whether she should contact him or not.

“Why, though?”

Chen Chen sighed. There was just no winning with her...

After an hour, Chen Chen finally got back to the warehouse. He was all burned up by the scorching sun even with the wind blowing while he was riding the scooter.

To Chen Chen’s surprise, when he made a turn at the junction into the warehouse, he saw a red Mercedes parked by the road.

At the same time, Xia Yin, who was sitting in front of the warehouse, looked up and turned toward his direction as well.

Xia Yin was wearing a white t-shirt and blue denim shorts. Due to her being in a seated position, her shorts were pulled back. The outline of her long, slender legs was showing.

At this moment, if someone asked him what was special about Xia Yin, Chen Chen would give a definite answer: her leg[1].

When Chen Chen saw the girl who was teeming with youthfulness, he shook his head and became almost speechless. “You’re still here.”

“What do you mean?”

Xia Yin immediately got up. She complained while patting the dust off her butt. “I just got here.”

Chen Chen parked his scooter beside the warehouse and took out his key. “How did you know I was here?”

“Brother Wei told me.”

Xia Yin smugly ran toward her car and threw up a peace sign. “I’m just here to brag, you see this new ride?”

“Those are some nice legs you got there... Oh wait, I mean nice car.” Chen Chen intentionally made a suggestive joke.

Xia Yin’s cheeks turned rosy red as she quickly interrupted. “My dad gave this car to me as a gift for having the thesis published on Cells.”

‘I f**king knew it!’

Chen Chen turned around to open the roller shutter door without a change of expression. “Aunty, I’d like to continue working hard on my business, why don’t you go find some other young bloke.[2]”

“What aunty? Am I that old?”

Xia Yin puffed up her cheeks and went on angrily. “I’m only three grades above you. Plus, I started a year early so technically, I’m only two years older than you!”

“Come on, you’re obviously a fifty-eight-year-old aunty alright?”

Chen Chen walked into the warehouse. He dug up a bottle of water from under the bed and downed half of the bottle before stopping. “Aunty, do you want me to make you some cappuccino?”

“What cappuccino, I don’t even drink coffee,” Xia Yin replied with a blank face.

“Look, you don’t even know what that means. And that’s why I say you’re an aunty,” Chen Chen voiced with disdain, “Do you know brother Kai[3]?”

Xia Yin shook her head.

“You know Qiao Biluo, her royal highness[4]?”

Again, Xia Yin shook her head.

“If you don’t know anything, then it’s time to start studying. Always postgraduate this, postgraduate that, you’ve post yourself into becoming an idiot!”

Chen Chen tossed a bottle to Xia Yin and said in a disgusted tone, “Get out, you and I aren’t the same!”

“What’s your problem?”

Xia Yin finally erupted. She smashed Chen Chen’s head with the water bottle. “I came out here to see you and this is how you treat me? What have I ever done to you to deserve such treatment from you all the time?”

Chen Chen rubbed the spot where she had hit him and retorted, “This is what I don’t like about you, this entire *ss-kissing thing. Stop being an *ss-kisser.”

“You...”

Xia Yin’s cheeks became flushed red. She took a deep breath. “I wouldn’t choose to be an *ss-kisser if it weren’t for the crush I have! Besides, I have already given up on the postgraduate!”

Chen Chen was taken aback. He looked up and asked, “Why did you suddenly give up? Didn’t you submit the specialized postgraduate recommendation?”

“I thought about it afterward and changed my mind in the end.”

Xia Yin lowered her head. “I suddenly had an epiphany. Why bother with it if I wasn’t going to go down the path of biology in the future anyway? Also, the sole reason I did it in the first place was because of my dad. Now that things are getting a bit better between me and my dad, there’s no reason for me to continue.”

“That’s true. I’m just a poor boy from the slums. I’ll never understand the mindset of pampered rich girls like you.” Chen Chen touched his chin and nodded thoughtfully.

“...”

[1] this is a play on the Chinese phrase “special” which shares a similar meaning with “long”

[2] a running online joke that young men who did not want to work hard anymore will turn to a sugar mommy

[3] a popular streamer

[4] another popular streamerz