369: Winter vacation

Twenty-five years old wasn't a special age, it was just Old Man Du's repeated instructions to Du Zhaoyu.

When Old Man Du prevented Du Zhaoyu and Lin You from dating, he once said that he wasn't always forbidding Du Zhaoyu from dating, nor did he have any issues with Lin You.

He just wanted Du Zhaoyu to experience more people and things in the world. Once she reached the age of 25 and her mind matured, he would no longer control her or interfere with her relationships.

When Lin You heard Du Zhaoyu's retelling at the time, he scoffed at Old Man Du—

"Your dad is lying to you now, saying he won't interfere after 25. Once you're 25, he'll come up with new demands. Men's mouths are like deceiving ghosts..." At the security checkpoint, the two hugged for a while. Du Zhaoyu was reluctant to part, preparing to drag her suitcase through security.

"Lin You?"

Lin You's body stiffened for a moment. He turned around and saw Wang Chun and You Xinyue.

No way?

Are you two destined to meet my 'Scumbag Physique'?

Counting Wang Xiaoyi and Xie Xingmeng from before, this pair, Wang Chun and You Xinyue, meant Lin You had met all of his good friends.

Since the National College Student Mathematical Modeling Contest ended, Wang Chun, You Xinyue, and Lin You had only communicated through social media.

They hadn't seen each other for almost a month. Originally, they were quite happy to see Lin You outside of school, but then they saw an unfamiliar beautiful girl also turn around, and they immediately felt regretful and awkward.

They had thought it was Wang Xiaoyi or Xie Xingmeng, whom they had seen before, but they didn't expect it to be yet another unfamiliar face... "Hello, hello, Lin You, I was about to send Xinyue home, I didn't expect to run into you here."

As Lin You's former hangers-on, the two suppressed their awkwardness and other expressions, only showing surprised faces.

The most dramatic acting episode!

"Brother Chun, Sister Xinyue, what a coincidence."

Lin You had already developed strong psychological fortitude. He smiled and greeted them, then put his arm around Du Zhaoyu's shoulder. "Xiao Yu'er, these are Wang Chun and You Xinyue, senior students from our school, and my teammates from the Mathematical Modeling Competition. This is Du Zhaoyu, my girlfriend."

Du Zhaoyu?

Is she the one mentioned by that Peking University female student when we met on the Peking University campus?

So tall, so beautiful, so elegant!

Du Zhaoyu smiled and waved at the two, "Hello, seniors."

"Hello, Junior Female Student~" ×2

Because they had been in the basement for a while, time was tight. Du Zhaoyu quickly said goodbye after greeting them. Lin You, Wang Chun, and You Xinyue stood together, watching Du Zhaoyu head to the waiting room to check her ticket and board the train.

After Du Zhaoyu left, the atmosphere became a bit awkward.

You Xinyue and Wang Chun didn't want to interfere with Lin You's relationships. Firstly, they didn't know the full story, and secondly... what right did hangers-on have to criticize the main person?

Finally, Lin You smiled and said, "I have something urgent to do back at school. You two go ahead and do what you need to do."

You Xinyue and Wang Chun immediately nodded like garlic.

On the way back, Lin You felt a sense of crisis. Apart from Li Qingbo and Wang Xinxin, You Xinyue and Wang Chun were the first among his immediate circle to discover that Lin You had three good friends.

But the longer Lin You stayed in Nandu City, the more people would surely know. Lin You couldn't hide all three of his good friends. He could only... Thinking this, Lin You was full of drive. A fifteen-minute drive usually took ten minutes. Lin You returned to his apartment, opened his computer, and logged into the official website of Acta Mathematica Sinica (Chinese Edition).

Lin You had submitted his finished paper to Professor Zheng, and review comments had not yet returned, but Lin You trusted his results and formally submitted it according to the journal's requirements.

The 20 lecture tasks were completed, and Lin You's [Mathematics] LV2 Apprentice had reached 95.21% progress. As soon as the paper was successfully published, he would immediately reach 100% progress for LV2 Apprentice and advance to LV3 Researcher.

Achieving LV3 Researcher was only Lin You's personal evolution; the outside world's understanding of Lin You remained unchanged. Besides Lin You, no one knew he was one step closer to becoming a light of humanity.

legendres conjecture is a world-class problem. Successfully proving it could gain recognition in the mathematical community, even leading to a professorship at Nandu University, but it was far from enough to become a top scholar.

Only by becoming an LV3 Researcher could Lin You challenge the millennium prize problem of the Navier-Stokes Equations, and only by successfully solving a problem of that caliber could Lin You become a treasure-level Mathematician.

Half an hour later, Lin You successfully submitted “Anisotropic Estimates and the Well-Posedness Theory of 3D Prandtl Equations.”

Although Lin You was famous in the School of Mathematics, Nandu University, and won the Higher Education Press Cup in the National Mathematical Modeling Contest, he was still an unknown newcomer in the domestic mathematical community.

However, the corresponding author of this paper was Professor Zheng, whose full name, Zheng Boyan, was very well-known in the domestic mathematical community.

Only in this way could Lin You speed up the review process without violating any rules.

After completing the task that had been weighing on his mind, Lin You didn't immediately relax. Instead, he continued to study the unread cutting-edge research related to the Navier-Stokes Equations.

Lin You, who had just received the system a year ago, could never have imagined that a year later, learning would be so closely tied to love... After a whole morning of studying, Lin You only emerged from his deep learning state when his 11:30 alarm clock rang precisely.

Lin You picked up his phone and first replied to the backlog of messages.

Du Zhaoyu's high-speed rail journey was more than halfway over, entering the province, about an hour away from reaching Ancheng.

Sister Yin had sent a message; Lin You planned to go see her tonight.

Xie Xingmeng had just finished her last exam at eleven and was now back in her dorm packing.

Lin You drove directly to East University and first picked up Wang Xinxin, who had finished his exams yesterday.

Wang Xinxin originally wanted to ask Su Wenwen to go home together, but Su Wenwen's first-year courses were few, and she had finished her exams three days ago, so her family urged her to go home first.

As soon as Wang Xinxin got in the car, he consciously sat in the back and began to "slander" Lin You.

"You staying in Nandu City, you're not planning to do anything bad, are you?"

Lin You smiled and said, "That's right. After dropping off Xiao Yu'er this morning and Xie Xingmeng this afternoon, tonight Xiao Yi and I can enjoy our time together undisturbed."

Wang Xinxin listened to Lin You's words, his expression gradually numb. "I definitely owed you in my past life to be your brother in this one."

Lin You didn't mind. Wang Xinxin wasn't outstanding in other aspects, but his psychological fortitude was top-notch. The two chatted and arrived downstairs at Xie Xingmeng's dorm, where they immediately saw Xie Xingmeng dragging her suitcase.

"Hi~"

Xie Xingmeng first greeted Wang Xinxin, who had gotten out of the car, then handed her luggage to Lin You to put away, and happily sat in the passenger seat.

"Finally, it's holiday."

Lin You fastened his seatbelt, his face bitter, "You're on holiday, but your boyfriend isn't."

"You chose to stay at school yourself. You can study perfectly fine at home. I wanted to accompany you, but without a proper reason, my dad wouldn't let me..."

Old Man Du is great!

Without Old Man Du's "obstruction," Lin You would have been overwhelmed countless times.

Leaving East University, Lin You then drove to Normal University to pick up Han Shaozhen.

Han Shaozhen had finished her exams a few days ago. She told her parents she wanted to wait for Xie Xingmeng to go home together, and her parents immediately agreed. These past two days, she had been holed up in her dorm bed, happily eating snacks and binging shows, occasionally taking photos to show off. Lin You had already "verbally attacked" her multiple times in their group chat of three.

"Hello, hello~"

The three went down to greet Han Shaozhen. Lin You, as usual, performed the Happiness Technique again.

The Happiness Technique doesn't fail just because someone is already happy; instead, it makes their existing mood even more joyful.

Han Shaozhen's mental state was getting better and better, and she had a good grasp of her emotions.

The last few times Lin You used it on Han Shaozhen, she was able to control herself well and didn't get carried away by happiness.

Lin You's act of bravery on this timeline had a perfect ending.

As Lin You helped Han Shaozhen put away her luggage and was about to return to the driver's seat, Wang Xinxin "charged" forward, blocking him and whispering a "question."

"Bastard, this one too?!"

Wang Xinxin remembered that this girl was the jumping girl Lin You had saved in October of his grade 12 year.

Friends who often contemplate suicide know that people who attempt suicide usually have poor mental states, after all, what mentally normal person would want to leave the world at 18?

As a person with normal values, Wang Xinxin felt that one shouldn't discriminate against those who have attempted suicide. Such girls could date, but... they shouldn't be entangled in a situation of having multiple partners.

Wang Xinxin originally had great confidence in Lin You's character, but recently, with Lin You dating three stunning beautiful girls simultaneously, he had already labeled him as "lustful to the core."

At this moment, seeing Lin You specifically rush to pick up Han Shaozhen, he immediately became suspicious of Lin You.

Lin You stared back at Wang Xinxin, whispering a "reprimand."

"No way? What kind of person do you take me for?"

Wang Xinxin quickly replied, "I take you for Lin You."

Lin You was stunned for a moment, thinking Wang Xinxin's insult was... truly vulgar.

No, thinking that way makes it seem like I'm insulting myself... "Are you stupid? Do I dare to put Xingmeng, Xiao Yu'er, and Xiao Yi together? Since I'm putting Han Shaozhen and Xingmeng together, it means I only see her as a good friend!"

"Really?"

"Truer than your Xiao Chunan body!"

"Damn it! Why are you cursing so badly?!"

...The two girls got into the car, which was still running. Xie Xingmeng returned to the back seat and sat with Han Shaozhen. After waiting for a while and not seeing the two boys get in, she opened the rear window and asked with a smile, "Why aren't you two getting in the car yet?"

Wang Xinxin immediately pretended to be nonchalant, putting his arm around Lin You's shoulder and turning back with a smile, "Oh, it's nothing, we're just discussing where to eat lunch~"

Although he thought Lin You's three-timing was despicable, since Lin You insisted on his own way despite being advised, their years of brotherhood... Wang Xinxin could only try his best to cover for him.

After getting in the car, the four chatted familiarly. Wang Xinxin was initially cautious when talking to Han Shaozhen, but as they chatted, he found that the girl was not as strange or difficult to communicate with as he had imagined. Instead, she was sunny, lively, and a very interesting and approachable young girl.

Wang Xinxin immediately understood that such a Han Shaozhen must be inseparable from Lin You, and he then realized he had wrongly accused Lin You earlier.

Wang Xinxin was beaming, giving Lin You a thumbs up.

Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda.

To not only save someone but also continue to change their mental state, such an act could be considered immeasurable merit.

Finally, for lunch, they had Western food. Han Shaozhen treated them, a decision she and Xie Xingmeng had discussed for a long time. Lin You and Wang Xinxin weren't interested in Western food, but they went along with Han Shaozhen's wishes.

After eating, the four strolled around the mall for a while, accompanying the two girls as they looked at the early-released spring clothes.

They only set off for the high-speed rail station when it was close to their train's departure time.

This time, Lin You also saw Xie Xingmeng and Han Shaozhen off at the security checkpoint. Lin You's eyes widened as he looked around, only breathing a sigh of relief when he saw no familiar faces.

Just as they were about to go through security, Han Shaozhen pushed Xie Xingmeng by the shoulder towards Lin You, blinking and saying, "You two are going to be apart for almost half a month. Aren't you going to have a farewell kiss?"

Lin You and Wang Xinxin were stunned, not expecting this woman to be so bold... Xie Xingmeng thought about it and felt that Han Shaozhen made a lot of sense. Although she had been very affectionate with Lin You today, it was limited to holding hands and sitting together.

So, blushing, she stepped forward, looked at Lin You seriously, then reached out and wrapped her arms around Lin You's neck, slowly pulling him down.

"Kiss!"

Xie Xingmeng didn't control her strength well, and the kiss was a bit forceful, making a loud sound when her lips separated from Lin You's.

Han Shaozhen covered her mouth, her eyes narrowed in a smile.

Xie Xingmeng's expression was slightly stiff, but she still insisted on finishing her sentence seriously.

"Darling, I'll miss you. You remember to always miss me too."

Saying sweet nothings like giving a report... that's very Xie Xingmeng.

Just as Lin You was about to speak, Xie Xingmeng immediately turned around and walked away, pulling Han Shaozhen and rushing through security as if in 'haste mode'.

Clearly, she wasn't unembarrassed when doing all that just now.

After passing security, the two gazed at each other affectionately across the glass barrier, reluctantly parting.

Han Shaozhen shouted, "Don't worry, Lin You! I'll take good care of your dear one!"

How could Lin You be outdone?

He waved, about to shout a reply, when Xie Xingmeng flinched, immediately pulled Han Shaozhen, and dragged her suitcase, fleeing for her life.

On the way back to the basement, Wang Xinxin silently pulled out a pack of wet wipes from his pocket, handed one to Lin You.

"Wipe your mouth. Look at all that lipstick on you, really..."

Lin You immediately took the wet wipe, wiping as he said, "It is a bit unseemly."

"...Damn it!"

The two finished speaking almost simultaneously. Lin You was stunned for a moment, then looked heartbroken. "We've been brothers for so many years, how could it come to this?"

Wang Xinxin squinted at Lin You, not speaking, but his eyes clearly conveyed, "You know what you did, kid."

Lin You gave two dry laughs. It was understandable for a tool-person number one to grumble a bit.

Even the landlord's cattle, after working for a long time, even if they can't strike, surely they're allowed to make a sound or two?