169: Chapter 169 Stop pretending, you're just trying to get my trade secrets.

Mid-July.

The sun in Mingzhu City was outrageously fierce.

The leaves in the villa's courtyard were bleached pale by the sun, a visible heatwave shimmered over the lawn, and even when Robot No. 18 watered the flower bed, a faint 'sizzle' could be heard as the water hit the stone slabs.

It was a rare occasion for Lu Li to lie around at home for two days.

It wasn't that he didn't want to move, but there was truly no compelling reason to do so.

The closed renovation of Chengbei District in Beining City had officially begun.

The entire area was designated as a special pilot management zone, with identity recognition systems installed at all entrances and exits. Only local residents and construction technicians with special passes could swipe their ID cards to enter and exit.

News about Chengbei District online was controlled so tightly that not a single leak got through.

The only things that managed to leak out were a few blurry long-distance photos with pixels so blocky they looked like oil paintings.

The more this was the case, the crazier the outside world became.

On various major forums and short video platforms, speculation threads about 'Guanghui Technology smart city' were about to crash the servers.

But Lu Li couldn't be bothered to care.

Right now, he just wanted to be a quiet, lazy salted fish on his own sofa.

Until this afternoon—

Suddenly, a howl comparable to an air raid siren erupted at the villa's entrance.

"Bro—!!!"

"Cousin—!!!"

"I'm here!!!"

Lu Li's finger, which was scrolling through his phone as he curled up on the sofa, paused.

He didn't even lift his eyelids.

There was no need to guess.

In the entire Mingzhu City, there was only one person who could call out to him at this decibel level.

The door opened.

A round, chubby ball of flesh carrying a backpack and wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses so thick they looked like the bottoms of glass bottles rushed in at a speed completely mismatched with his weight.

Wang Peng.

Before he even reached the living room, his voice had already vibrated through the air of the entire villa.

"Bro! I did great on my exams! I really did great this time!"

"I only lost four points in total for Chinese and Math combined!!"

"The way all the teachers in the school look at me has changed! Do you understand that look, Bro? It's like they're looking at a rising supernova!"

As he spoke, the flesh on his face trembled along with his emotions, and his thick-rimmed glasses bounced up and down on the bridge of his nose. He looked both smug and goofy.

And yet, he actually had the right to be smug.

But while he was boasting extravagantly, his small eyes inadvertently stole a glance at Lu Li's face.

It was very quick.

So quick that an ordinary person wouldn't have noticed it at all.

He actually just wanted to see one thing—whether his cousin would show even a tiny hint of a satisfied expression because of his grades.

Lu Li raised his eyelids and glanced at him.

"Aren't you taking the sixth-grade graduation exam?"

"How did you do?"

Wang Peng puffed out his chest and raised his chin to an extremely punchable angle.

"Extremely well!"

"So well that my mom almost burned high incense for me at home yesterday!"

"If only the metaphors in my last essay hadn't failed to be earth-shattering, I would have gotten a perfect score in both subjects this time!"

He paused and added in a tone of subtle frustration, "Just two points short. It made me toss and turn all night, unable to sleep."

He said this very quickly, as if he didn't want to be heard clearly.

But Lu Li heard it clearly.

Two points off for Chinese, two points off for Math, adding up to four points.

For a sixth-grade graduation exam, this score was already at a crushing level of excellence.

And what this kid actually cared about was never 'whether he did well'.

It was 'why didn't I get a perfect score'.

The corner of Lu Li's mouth twitched, but he didn't say anything.

All of this little fatty's exaggeration and smugness, in the final analysis, boiled down to the same thing—using the loudest bragging to mask his most sensitive self-esteem.

Before he could speak, another figure walked in through the door.

A white T-shirt, high-waisted denim shorts, a neat and clean ponytail, and bright, almost aggressively beautiful facial features. As her long legs stepped inside, she carried a cool, aloof aura that made people hesitate to strike up a conversation.

But the moment she saw Lu Li, this aura melted like ice cream thrown into a microwave.

She seamlessly switched from 'do-not-approach Jingda campus belle' mode to 'automatically acting spoiled upon seeing big bro' mode.

"Bro."

Lu Yaoguang walked over with a smile in her voice, casually placing a bag of fruit on the coffee table.

"I've delivered this ball to you."

"What do you mean 'ball'?!"

Wang Peng instantly bristled. "I call this an intellectual, flexible tonnage!"

"If you were any more flexible, the door frame would have shaken when you walked in just now."

Lu Yaoguang coolly added a jab.

Wang Peng: "You!!!"

Looking at the two of them standing on either side of the living room, Lu Li felt a headache coming on.

But at the same time, a tiny corner of his heart inexplicably softened.

He had passed away too quickly in his previous life; he had never enjoyed even a single day of this kind of trivial, lively warmth.

Every day he made up for in this life was actually a bonus.

Of course, he would never say such words out loud.

It wouldn't be him if he did.

"What on earth do you two want, running over here together?"

Wang Peng's eyes darted around.

In the next second, he lunged forward and tightly hugged Lu Li's thigh.

"Bro! I want to stay at your place for a month during summer vacation!"

"A month isn't long! Just thirty days! It'll pass in the blink of an eye!"

"Don't worry, I don't eat much! I don't take up much space when I sleep! And I can wash my own socks!"

Lu Li looked down at the lump clinging to his leg.

"If you don't let go right now, I'll have Robot No. 18 carry you out."

"I won't!"

Wang Peng hugged even tighter, his round face almost pressed against Lu Li's knee. "If you don't agree, I'll hang onto you all day! I won't let go even if I starve to death!"

Lu Yaoguang stood to the side with her arms crossed, watching the show with a beaming smile.

But as she smiled, her gaze swept across Lu Li's face, and she noticed the exhaustion deep in his eyes—though he hid it well, she was far too familiar with this face.

Ever since that incident on the bridge, although her brother seemed no different from usual, she just felt that he was more tired than before.

It wasn't physical fatigue.

It was that the things weighing on his mind were too heavy.

So when summer vacation started, her very first thought was to come over.

It wasn't entirely to pry for news about the new phone and the smart city.

She wanted to see him and make sure he was okay.

"Bro, I'm also going to stay here for a few days."

Lu Li looked up at her.

"You too?"

"Yeah."

Lu Yaoguang blinked, smiling innocently. "It's summer vacation, after all. Can't I come visit my brother?"

Lu Li looked at her face, which practically screamed 'I just purely missed my brother,' then looked down at Wang Peng, who was still desperately clinging to his leg.

Three seconds later.

"Visiting me is just a cover."

"Prying about the new phone launch in September and trying to fish for news on the smart city is your real motive, isn't it?"

The living room fell silent for a moment.

Wang Peng's hands froze on Lu Li's knee.

Lu Yaoguang's smile also froze on her lips.

The two of them were completely exposed by a single sentence.

But interestingly, neither of them actually felt embarrassed.

Wang Peng was the first to look up, his expression instantly switching from stiffness to a mixture of shock and adoration.

"Holy crap!!! Bro, how did you even guess that???"