73: Chapter 73 Idol Wang Shuo

The voice was deep and bright, clearly belonging to a vigorous man in his prime.

Wang Shuo pulled his clothes down, took a look, and confirmed his suspicion.

Standing before him was indeed a Middle-aged man, with a square face, a high nose bridge, spirited eyes, and thick lips, giving him an upright appearance. He didn't seem very old, probably around forty.

He must be a professor of some subject at the college, right?

Wang Shuo pondered for a moment, then pulled his legs back, curled up, and made room for two people.

The man was slightly taken aback, seemingly not expecting his words to have such an effect, then smiled slightly and sat down anyway.

He looked at Wang Shuo, who was still curled up to the side.

"Student, which department are you from?"

"Uh..." Wang Shuo couldn't lie down anymore, so he helplessly got up, put on his clothes, and replied: "School of Computer Science and Technology, Computer Science and Technology major."

"Oh. A good major." The man nodded slightly, then added: "At this time... you should be in class, right?"

"Yeah." Wang Shuo nodded: "There's a quiz today."

"A quiz? An exam?" The man became slightly interested. Could it be that he had randomly stumbled upon a straight-A student?

"Since you came out so early, it seems the questions were quite simple."

"Uh." Wang Shuo rubbed his nose. Lying was disrespectful to others, so he answered truthfully: "I was kicked out by the teacher and didn't see the questions..."

The man: "..."

This topic couldn't continue. The man couldn't think of a new topic for a moment; after all, communicating with strangers was not his strong suit.

He didn't speak, and Wang Shuo was happy for the quiet. The two of them enjoyed the warmth of the early winter sun in harmony.

An hour passed quickly.

Seemingly having had enough sun, the man stood up and stretched contentedly.

"It's been a long time since I've enjoyed the sun like this; these past few days have been really comfortable." He turned his head and looked at Wang Shuo, who was still resting with his eyes closed: "Student, I'm leaving now, you continue."

"Okay." Wang Shuo opened his eyes and nodded.

Seeing Wang Shuo's lazy indifference, the man said in a somewhat speechless tone: "What is your name, student?"

Name? Wang Shuo looked at the man in front of him with some vigilance. He searched his mind and confirmed that he hadn't seen him among the professors he had met in person or in photos, so he said: "My name is Wang Shuo."

"Wang Shuo?" The man was puzzled. Why did it seem like he had heard that name somewhere? But now was not the time to think about that. The man said earnestly: "Student, I think there will be plenty of opportunities to bask in the sun in the future. You are still very young, and your prime years shouldn't be wasted like this. Although the path of learning is hard, sometimes it is also full of fun. Even if everyone doesn't think well of you, you cannot give up on yourself."

Give up on myself? What does that mean?

Wang Shuo looked at the man in front of him, completely bewildered.

Seeing Wang Shuo's "blank" look, the man showed a hint of sympathy.

"Meeting is fate. My name is Professor Qian Qidong, and I still have some influence in the college. I will talk to your counselor about your situation. Student Wang Shuo, please don't give up on yourself."

After speaking, he left with a sigh.

Wang Shuo was dumbfounded. What was that all about? I was just basking in the sun; who did I offend? What did I give up on?

Watching the man's retreating figure, Wang Shuo sighed speechlessly. There are all kinds of strange people these days.

He lay back down on the bench, covered himself with his clothes, and continued to bask in the sun.

As for what the man said... he would just pretend he hadn't heard it.

Two-plus hours passed quickly.

During these two-plus hours, Wang Shuo fully compensated for the sleep debt he had accumulated over the past two months. At this moment, after watching an intramural football match, he was preparing to go to the canteen to taste the food and improve his diet. After all, ordering takeout every day made him feel nauseous just seeing the word "takeout" now.

This was Wang Shuo's first time coming to the canteen.

In the huge canteen, there were only a scattering of students dining.

Checking the time, it was almost twelve o'clock; the main crowd would arrive soon. Wang Shuo deftly got his lunch and sat down at a table.

Habitually, he took out his phone, opened WeiChat, and scrolled through it. No one had spoken. However, several interest groups were chatting quite happily, with hundreds of unread messages.

As for the others... Wang Shuo scrolled through.

No new messages from Mom.

No new messages from Dad.

No new messages from his cousin either. That girl is probably still studying hard.

No new messages from the eldest; he's probably still in the middle of an exam.

No new messages from the fourth. The fourth had disappeared for several days and there had been no news, but Wang Shuo was used to it. Through Chen Zhongxuan, he knew that the fourth should be fine.

No new messages from Chen Xin. This girl had been very active a few days ago, but since yesterday, there hadn't been any news. Wang Shuo was also quite used to this.

Suddenly, Wang Shuo's hand paused slightly.

A familiar yet strange nickname came into view.

"Flowers Bloom on the Path."

Wang Shuo showed a complex expression and gently tapped it open to browse the Moments. However, he was prompted that since they were not friends, he could only view the Moments from the last three days. It seemed the owner of the Moments hadn't posted anything in the last few days, and the content was empty.

In the status bar, there was only one line of text: "Flowers bloom on the path, return slowly."

Sighing, he exited the Moments, and for a moment, Wang Shuo felt somewhat lost.

"Ding-dong."

His phone rang. Wang Shuo looked down; it was from the eldest.

"Second, we're out! Where are you?"

Wang Shuo replied: "Canteen."

"Alright, get a meal for me and the third. I want a double portion! Twice-cooked pork!"

...

Li Yao let out a soft breath, placed the test paper in his hand on the desk, and began to pack up his tools.

Three and a half hours of continuous testing—even though he had been tempered since childhood, he felt somewhat exhausted. At the very least, his stomach had started to protest.

"Li Yao, let's go." Zhou Peng rushed over from the side and said with a look of relief: "Finally finished the exam. If it had continued for another half hour, I think I would have gone crazy. Hey, by the way, how did you do?"

"How else could it be?" Li Yao packed up his tools, pressed the test paper under the draft paper, and said: "The questions weren't too difficult; I performed normally."

"Not too difficult?" Zhou Peng widened his eyes and said loudly: "I know you're a straight-A student, the star of our class. But can you consider the feelings of us academic underachievers? Hmm? Would it kill you to say something comforting?"

"Alright then." Li Yao smiled: "The questions were very difficult, and it took me a lot of effort."

"That..." Zhou Peng muttered, shaking his head. "Forget it, at least the exam is over. Let's go eat!"

Although he said he wanted to move at full speed, Zhou Peng's behavior in no way lived up to those words. At this moment, he was holding his phone, playing happily. At first, he would occasionally check the road conditions, but now he couldn't even be bothered to look at the road, his hands typing away frantically, looking excited.

Li Yao pulled him along, refraining from speaking.

"These scumbags just can't stand to see us do well. It seems quality education still needs to be improved." Zhou Peng put away his phone with a satisfied look, his face full of pride: "Fortunately, there are good netizens like me with high quality who raise the overall level of Chinese netizens. Watch me roast these trolls to death!"

"What are you looking at?" Li Yao frowned and asked.

"A post about manufacturing." Zhou Peng said excitedly: "You don't know, China finally has its own CNC operating system software, and it was designed independently by a domestic company! Hey! What's more coincidental is, do you know the name of the main designer of that system?"

Before Li Yao could answer, Zhou Peng shouted out.

"Wang Shuo! His name is also Wang Shuo! Isn't that a pleasant surprise?"

"Where did you get this news? How come I don't know?" Li Yao frowned. He didn't usually go online much; any free time he had was devoted to other hobbies.

"It's been circulating online for the past two days; it'll probably be on People's Daily Online soon." Zhou Peng chuckled, took out his phone, selected the page, and handed it to Li Yao to see.

People's Daily Online is different from other self-media and niche media; it belongs to mainstream media. If a matter can be confirmed by People's Daily Online, it's basically certain.

"The professional ability of the boss at Tianya is unquestionable; what he says is true nine times out of ten. Hehe, what excites me the most is that Japan actually bowed its head and admitted that China's system is better than theirs. Hahaha, this breath of fresh air, so satisfying!"

Li Yao ignored Zhou Peng's gloating. He frowned and carefully read the entire report, especially when he saw the last sentence thanking Mr. Wang Shuo. He couldn't help but say disdainfully: "Are self-media outlets this exaggerated nowadays?"

"Believe it or not, I believe it anyway." Zhou Peng took his phone back and pouted: "I just can't stand those haters in the comments section—Japan-worshippers, Germany-worshippers, US-worshippers. That's fine, but there are actually India-worshippers! These people just need to be roasted!"

Seeing that Li Yao was somewhat skeptical, Zhou Peng said with dissatisfaction: "I know you, Li Yao, the great academic, will definitely look at problems from the height of Science. I'm not as good as you, but I don't care. Anyway, from now on, this Frontier Technology Company is my goal! This inventor, Wang Shuo, is my idol!"

Then he added a sentence: "Of course, provided that this report is true."

How could it be true? Li Yao curled his lips in disdain. He was not unaware of the state of China's manufacturing industry, and as a straight-A student in Computer Science, he knew this even better. Creating control software was not difficult; the difficulty lay in how to call data and control variables to ensure physical precision. This was a complex problem thousands of times harder than the last question on today's operating system exam. This was not something that could be rushed.

But speaking of Wang Shuo...

"How much do you know about this Wang Shuo?" Li Yao asked.

"Wang Shuo? Which Wang Shuo?" Zhou Peng didn't react for a moment.

"Of course, the Wang Shuo in our class."

"Oh, that academic underachiever." Zhou Peng looked disdainful: "I've never paid attention to him. I don't know. What's up?"

"Nothing." Li Yao smiled faintly: "It's just that as a member of the class, I can't watch him keep holding our class back, can I?"

"So..."

"So I've decided to tutor him, for free!"