Awakening Elementary School System in University
Chapter 11 - 10: Sun Yu’s Troubles

Chapter 11: Chapter 10: Sun Yu’s Troubles

Chen Lin continued to explain: [I’m planning to post a math consulting service on Xianyu. I was hoping to borrow your report card and acceptance letter to use as promotional images. It would be more convincing that way.]

He thought for a moment and was about to add something else—after all, he couldn’t just use her things for free.

[I won’t borrow them for nothing. On Wednesday afternoon...]

Before he could even finish typing the word "free," a reply came from Shen Yan.

Shen Yan: [No problem.]

Shen Yan: [[Image]]

Shen Yan: [[Image]]

Two high-resolution original images. One was the gold-stamped acceptance letter from Yannan University, and the other was her report card from last semester. A long list of major courses was followed by a row of scores: "95," "98," "99"...

Her name, student ID, and other personal information on them hadn’t been censored or pixelated at all; she had just sent them as they were.

Chen Lin silently deleted the sentence he was halfway through typing.

Before he could even reply with a [Thank you], another message from Shen Yan popped up.

Shen Yan: [Is there something you need money for urgently?]

Shen Yan: [Do you want me to lend you some?]

Looking at those two lines of text, Chen Lin felt as if a soft spot in his heart had been gently poked. It was a little heart-warming, and a little funny.

Chen Lin quickly replied.

Chen Lin: [No, no, it’s fine.]

Chen Lin: [I just switched from my old errand-running job to consulting. Just optimizing my business model.]

Shen Yan: [Oh, okay.]

Shen Yan: [I’m meeting up with Hanhan for a study session to do homework, so I can’t chat right now.]

Shen Yan: [I’ll set a time with you early on Wednesday. Don’t forget, okay?]

Chen Lin: [[OK][OK]]

Chen Lin: [[Doraemon_bowing.gif]]

Putting down his phone, Chen Lin still felt that small touch of warmth.

’Looks like helping her out wasn’t for nothing.’

He shook his head, pushing those thoughts aside, and got down to business.

He expertly used his phone’s built-in photo editor to meticulously scrub all the personal information from the two images Shen Yan had sent.

Looking at the line on the acceptance letter—"Admitted to the Mathematics and Applied Mathematics program at our university’s School of Mathematical Sciences"—Chen Lin found it more and more appealing the longer he looked.

It was far more convincing than his own acceptance letter for Chinese Language and Literature.

He added the edited images to his product description on Xianyu. After a moment of thought, he added a single, eye-catching line of text to the very top of the description:

[Sophomore, Yannan University, Department of Mathematics. Excellent grades, favored by professors, and already involved in early-stage research projects.]

Click. Post!

Done!

Chen Lin leaned back in his chair, satisfied. He didn’t bother looking into Xianyu’s paid promotional services to buy traffic.

He knew very well that at the price he had set, ordinary students would just think it was a fantasy. Paying for promotion would be a waste of money.

He was putting his faith in the true ability of the "Little Mathematician."

The strategy was to let those who were willing take the bait.

As long as he could land the first one or two orders and build a reputation with his absolute skill, future clients would naturally be drawn by his fame.

Besides, he still had the stable business from Shen Yan, his "five-hundred-an-hour" client, so accumulating start-up capital wasn’t a problem at all.

At this thought, Chen Lin’s mood lifted. He had originally planned to continue browsing the Enki Love forums to see if there was any new drama.

But a glance at the time in the bottom-right corner of his screen showed that it was already dinnertime.

Chen Lin suddenly recalled his life before he got the system.

Back then, mealtimes were always his busiest moments.

To save time, he would always rush into the cafeteria half an hour early, wolf down a few bites of food, and then dart between every corner of the campus, delivering a meal to one person, a milk tea to another.

Thinking back, he had run to nearly every corner of the school over the past two semesters, yet it seemed he never had the time to stop and truly take in the scenery around him.

At this thought, an idea stirred in Chen Lin’s mind. He shut down his computer and stood up.

Today, he wasn’t in a hurry.

He decided to take a slow walk to the cafeteria.

The evening campus had shed the sweltering heat of the day, and the air carried the scent of fresh grass and earth.

The afterglow of the sunset painted the sky a warm, orange-red.

There were no classes scheduled at Yannan University during dinnertime, so there were many students walking around.

In mid-May, the drone of cicadas was growing louder, mingling with the cheerful laughter of boys and girls.

Chen Lin strolled along with his hands in his pockets, his pace unhurried.

A sense of unprecedented leisure and lightness filled his heart.

「Modu.」

At nine o’clock at night, the seventeenth floor of an office building was still brightly lit.

In the office of some engineering design institute, a few exhausted figures were still slumped in front of their computers, with the occasional CLACK-CLACK of a keyboard breaking the silence.

Sun Yu rubbed his sore eyes and irritably ran a hand through his already thinning hair.

He was a new hire who had just joined the company during the spring recruitment drive.

As a student with a bachelor’s from a non-prestigious university and a master’s in mathematics from an ordinary one, squeezing his way into this design institute was a pleasant surprise.

He’d also gotten a bit lucky on his own merit, barely passing the written exam.

For the interview, his family had asked a friend of a distant relative to pull some strings and give some gifts, which was how he finally got into the company.

To put it bluntly, he was the kind of employee many companies have—someone who got in through connections, but not very strong ones.

When things were running smoothly, everyone would cut him some slack out of consideration for that connection and wouldn’t give him a hard time.

But now, things were not running smoothly.

An important design proposal for their project team was mostly complete, but it was stuck on a core verification calculation.

Using the old method that had been passed down in the institute for years, they had run the calculations repeatedly, but the results were always significantly off from the theoretical expectations, preventing it from passing the final review.

This tough nut to crack was avoided by the slippery old-timers in the group, who had been coasting at the company for years and were as slick as eels.

The moment the group leader approached them, they would make all sorts of excuses to get out of it, like "I have other urgent work" or "I have to help my kid with homework."

And so, the group leader’s gaze naturally fell upon Sun Yu, the newcomer.

"Sun," the group leader said, patting his shoulder earnestly. "Look, this project just needs a few finishing touches. The other colleagues in the group are all quite busy, so I’ll hand this task over to you. It’s a great chance to learn as you go, a wonderful training opportunity."

Sun Yu’s technical skills might not have been great, but he understood office politics well enough.

’This isn’t a training opportunity, it’s a game of pass the buck!’

He had wanted to refuse right then and there. "Group Leader, I..."

"Young people need to seize opportunities and take on more responsibility to grow quickly!" The group leader didn’t even give him a chance to speak, cutting him off and dangling the carrot of "priority consideration for the year-end performance review."

What could Sun Yu say? He was still in his probationary period. The group leader reported directly to the big boss about his evaluation. If he failed, he would be kicked out.

Sun Yu could only accept the hot potato with a pained expression.

To be honest, for a graduate student in applied mathematics, his skill level was indeed average.

Just understanding the mathematical methods used in the current proposal had already exhausted everything he had ever learned.

Asking him to optimize the calculation method and solve a problem that even the senior engineers couldn’t handle? ’Isn’t that just a fantasy?!’

"Sigh..."

Just as he was frowning, stumped by the dense wall of formulas and data on his screen, his phone lit up with an incoming call.

"Hello, your food delivery has arrived. Please come down to the lobby to pick it up."

"Okay, okay, I’ll be right down!"

Back at his desk, he absentmindedly opened his takeout container while habitually tapping open the Xianyu app—he wanted to see if the shop had shipped the anime-themed phone case he had spent a fortune of 50 yuan on the previous night.