16: Chapter 16 The Last Stand

Wang Shuo thought it over repeatedly, but still helplessly swallowed the bitter pill.

Although Chen Xin did not ask him for hospital fees again, as a man, he felt he should have a man's dignity.

Words spoken are like nails driven into the ground; he would absolutely never pull them out and stuff them back into his mouth.

Doing that would be too disgusting...

Of course, he would not admit that this was because he did not want to lose face in front of Chen Xin, even though he had already lost quite a bit of face.

Wang Shuo's brain raced; this money had to be repaid, but how to repay it, in what way, and when—these questions made Wang Shuo very uncomfortable.

After all, he was just a college freshman, in the prime of his eighteen years, and his life had not even started yet, yet he was already shouldering one of the heavy mountains of life.

Ask his parents?

No, no. If he asked his parents, given their honest nature, they probably would not believe he owed the money due to hospitalization; they would more likely think he had gotten involved in gambling.

Go out and find a part-time job?

That was not impossible, but... Wang Shuo thought about the job advertisements he had seen; it seemed the highest pay for temporary work was only 120 yuan a day. How could he possibly scrape together 400,000 yuan?

Go out and sell some technology?

This... Wang Shuo was somewhat tempted.

He did not have anything else in his head right now, but he had plenty of technology. However, extracting this part of the technology was not easy; it was very likely that if he was not careful during the data transfer process, he would just drop dead.

Due to these limitations, he had only learned a small portion of the content from the core so far, and even that was just about coding...

So, he... had to become a code monkey?

But do code monkeys... make money?

After thinking it over, Wang Shuo felt a bit dazed. There were many things in his mind, but none of them taught him how to make money. Perhaps the Humanoid Race civilization considered wealth to be worldly possessions that should not tarnish sacred technology, so they... excluded that content.

This put Wang Shuo in a difficult spot.

The sight of Wang Shuo trying hard to think, in Chen Xin's eyes, looked a bit like... he had been scared silly...

A trace of change appeared on Chen Xin's usually calm face, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, looking a bit like the small smugness after a prank succeeded, but then a flash of worry crossed her expression.

She lowered her head and also fell silent.

The small room grew quiet again.

"Wang Shuo."

After a long while, Chen Xin spoke.

"What?"

Wang Shuo's voice was filled with depression and seemed to carry a hint of anger. It was unclear if he was angry that he had slept for a month, or angry that he had spent an exorbitant amount on medical fees.

"Have you... thought about the future?"

"The future?"

Wang Shuo opened his eyes in confusion and looked at Chen Xin sitting on the sofa. This girl... was acting a bit strange today, wasn't she?

"Have you thought about what you want to do in the future? And how you are going to do it?"

"My future? Maybe start a company and just get by." Wang Shuo thought about it seriously, then remembered the exorbitant medical fees and could not help but say indignantly, "I can barely afford tomorrow's meal, let alone think about the future."

"If I could just earn a sum of money first, then I could have a future." Wang Shuo closed his eyes in pain, remembering his huge sum of money that had vanished into thin air. His heart ached uncontrollably; that was all his money! It was all money he had painstakingly saved up bit by bit! It was all his marriage savings!

It sounded as if... he already had that money.

While Wang Shuo was still immersed in the sorrow he had created for himself, he saw Chen Xin looking at him quietly.

"Uh..." Wang Shuo wanted to explain further.

"You told me yesterday that you are a student in the Computer Department at Huazhong University of Science and Technology?"

"It's the Computer Science and Technology major at Huazhong University of Science and Technology."

"You said you also know a bit about computer languages and programming, and you can do systems engineering?"

"This..."

"You said you were gifted and quick-witted since you were a child."

"..."

Big sister, are you a tape recorder? I said all those things, what's the problem? Can't a person brag a little? Wang Shuo was angry: "I said all of it, so what?"

Chen Xin remained unmoved, her cherry lips moved slightly as she uttered a sentence: "You just said you wanted to start a company?"

"I said that too! That's right!"

"What's the name?"

"What?" Wang Shuo felt he could not keep up with Chen Xin's train of thought.

"The name of the company, what is the company called?"

"It's called..." Wang Shuo rolled his eyes and suddenly saw the book placed to the side, which happened to be open to a page, revealing the large characters for 'Preface'.

"Let's just call it Frontier Company, Frontier Technology Company, heh heh, walking at the forefront of all technology."

"Okay, I got it." Chen Xin nodded and reached out to Wang Shuo, "Now, give me your ID card."

...

Wang Shuo felt like he had been robbed, and by Miss Chen Xin, who had always been—bah—mutually respectful... bah—mutually supportive... bah—in short, who had always kept to herself.

His ID card had been robbed, his bank card had been robbed—although there was not much money in the card, and he still owed this little rich girl hundreds of thousands—but she could not just do that, right?

What difference was there between this and a robber?

What difference was there between this and using force?

This girl, she could not be thinking of taking his ID card to do something illegal, could she?

For example... go and get a fake marriage certificate?

But please, you took my ID card, how am I supposed to handle the discharge procedures? Staying here costs money!

Wang Shuo lay on the bed in pain.

The hospital bed, which was originally comfortable, no longer felt comfortable. Wang Shuo wanted to get up, but thinking that if he did not lie down, his money would go down the drain, he could only endure the pain and continue lying there. This was truly... agony.

Chen Xin was gone for two days.

During these two days, the long-absent Zheng Jun and the others finally appeared.

Wang Shuo wanted to hug Chen Cheng and tell him about his miserable experience, but suddenly remembered that Chen Cheng was also a second-generation rich kid.

Second-generation rich kids have no feelings for things like money.

He could only hug Li Li and pour out his indignation, making the greatest possible accusation against Chen Xin, that vicious robber. But... why was the effect not very obvious?

Why were the faces of his three dormitory brothers all wearing gloating smiles?

"I think you are getting off easy and still complaining." Zheng Jun, the oldest, said with a face full of righteousness, "Having a great beauty take care of you for several days, we can only envy you. Don't be ungrateful!" He patted Wang Shuo on the shoulder and walked out, looking envious, jealous, and hateful.

Chen Cheng had an expression that said, 'I told you so, but you did not believe me,' shaking his head from time to time and sighing as he walked out the door.

As for Li Li, he walked over and patted Wang Shuo on the shoulder: "Take care of yourself."

This... what did that mean?

Where was the basic empathy between people? Where was the closest friendship between dormitory brothers? What about the prestige of being the second oldest in the dorm?

It seems... he had no status in the dorm anymore.

No, he must pull himself together and rebuild his prestige as the second oldest in the dorm! He had to let them know that he was absolutely not to be underestimated!

Huh? Why does this sentence sound strange when read carefully?

At this moment.

In a high-rise office building in the center of W City.

Chen Xin was sitting behind an office desk, looking seriously at the contract in front of her.

And Uncle Chen was sitting on the sofa to the side, looking at his young mistress with a face full of helplessness, occasionally showing a bitter smile.

When this young mistress of his family had a fit of willfulness, it was truly much harder to deal with than the eldest mistress.

Running away from home went without saying, ditching the bodyguards went without saying, and spending hundreds of thousands of funds could be put aside for now, but to think that the young mistress actually lowered herself to make breakfast for a boy she had just met?

And she would be gone for an entire day, not answering anyone's calls or returning anyone's messages. This matter had been mentioned by the master several times already. He could tell that the master was also very helpless, but since they were in the wrong first, there was nothing he could do about it, and he could only watch the young mistress act recklessly, merely reminding her to stay safe.

That would be one thing... but he did not expect the young mistress to seem to get into it, and now she was even intensifying her actions...

"Young Miss, why don't you... consider it again? This is no ordinary..." Uncle Chen had not finished speaking when Chen Xin's cold, clear voice interrupted him.

"I have already considered it very clearly, Uncle Chen." Chen Xin raised her head, "Besides, he saved my life. Is my life not worth this amount of money?"

As she spoke, she pointed to a certain part of the contract on the desk and said to the secretary behind her: "Change this clause."

The secretary looked at Chen Xin with a troubled expression, then turned her seeking gaze to Uncle Chen.

Uncle Chen nodded helplessly.

The secretary was immediately relieved, as if granted amnesty, and hurried away with the contract to make changes.

"Young Miss... this... is a different matter." Uncle Chen rubbed his temples with a headache and said with a bitter smile: "You have to know, this kind of thing, even if the master agreed, the other shareholders would not be able to agree."

"That's why I proposed conditions. I think my aunts and uncles would be very happy to agree to this matter." Chen Xin said calmly.

"Young Miss, I know very well what you are thinking." Uncle Chen shook his head and sighed: "It's just that your way of doing things is really... a bit childish."

Childish? Chen Xin thought about the decision she had made, and a smile appeared on the corners of her mouth.

"Perhaps..."

Even if the outcome was already determined, even if she could not change anything, she still had to show her stubbornness.

After all, this might...

be her last stubbornness.