Awakening Elementary School System in University
Chapter 18 - 17: Wu Chao, Boxed

Chapter 18: Chapter 17: Wu Chao, Boxed

「Wednesday, 9:30 AM.」

In dorm room 406 at Yannan University, a sliver of sunlight had already pierced through the gap in the curtains, casting a bright patch of light on the desk.

Chen Lin struggled to open his eyes. He had gone to bed a bit late last night.

He grabbed the phone from his bedside table to check the time, only to realize that the room was unusually quiet.

He sat up in bed and glanced around.

Well now, all three of his roommates were already gone.

Chen Lin gave a knowing smile.

Those three characters were always competing to see who could goof off the most, either by playing ARAM or scrolling through short-form videos all night.

But when it came to final exams, they always tried to outscore one another.

Every one of them was secretly putting in the effort where no one could see.

Before, having a roommate like Chen Lin—who was solely focused on making money, had no interest in studying, and relied on last-minute cramming for his major courses—had been a source of comfort for them. They felt like someone would always be there to cushion the curve.

But now, it seemed things had changed a little.

First, Chen Lin had started working with Shen Yan from the math department on some advanced modeling competition.

Then, they heard that Old Wang had singled Chen Lin out for praise in their major course.

His three roommates must have been feeling some real pressure.

This early in the morning, they had either gone to class or headed to the library to grind.

Chen Lin shook his head, a little amused.

’Actually, guys, don’t get the wrong idea. I still just want to make money!’

’It’s just that because of the system, I’ve changed my attitude a bit, so it only looks like I’m studying seriously.’

He leisurely got out of bed, washed up, and started planning his morning.

He already had plans with Shen Yan for the afternoon to help her with that professor’s research project she found tricky.

Should he spend the morning continuing to chew on that *Python Mathematical Programming* book, or should he finish the TV show he was halfway through and completely hooked on?

Chen Lin didn’t really have a habit of watching TV shows.

For one, his previous part-time job schedule had been packed, leaving him no free time.

For another, his impression of domestic dramas was almost entirely shaped by viral takedown videos on streaming sites. The fifty-cent special effects, cheesy photo-studio costumes and sets, and scripts that seemed written by monkeys at a typewriter had always made him steer clear.

But there was an exception to every rule.

His elective yesterday afternoon was "Film and Culture Studies." The professor was a witty and humorous middle-aged lecturer with a very artistic flair. He was also a generous grader, so his classes were always hard to get into each semester.

Yesterday’s lecture topic was "How Period Dramas Portray Social Changes in Recent Decades."

In class, the professor showed clips from several critically acclaimed period dramas and finished by assigning a major project: each student had to choose a period drama to watch and write a work analysis of no less than two thousand words, due in one month.

Chen Lin had immediately taken a liking to a show called *Long Season*.

The cinematic quality of the clips, along with the color grading and soundtrack, was right up his alley.

Plus, when the professor mentioned it also had a touch of suspense, Chen Lin’s interest was piqued.

So last night, as soon as he got back to his dorm, he put on his headphones and binge-watched nine episodes in one go, finally going to sleep after 1 AM, still wanting more.

Thinking back on it now, Chen Lin felt that choosing this elective had been an incredibly wise decision.

For the same two credits, watching a TV show was at least more interesting than studying *Dream of the Red Chamber* or public relations writing.

In the end, however, Chen Lin decided to go to the library and continue reading *Python Mathematical Programming*.

"Making money is still the priority."

Chen Lin muttered to himself.

’If I learn programming sooner, I’ll be able to make better use of my ’Little Mathematician’ ability.’

Once he made up his mind, he didn’t hesitate. He grabbed yesterday’s copy of *Python Mathematical Programming*, slung his laptop bag over his shoulder, and headed straight for the library.

Walking along the tree-lined path to the library, the pre-noon sun wasn’t too harsh. It filtered through the dense leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

Chen Lin remembered that he had started watching the show right after returning to the dorm from his elective yesterday, and he hadn’t checked Xianyu for most of the day.

He took out his phone as he walked and skillfully tapped open the Xianyu app.

The moment he opened it, a red dot for a new message notification popped up.

Chen Lin’s heart skipped a beat. ’Don’t tell me I actually missed a client?’

He opened his message list and saw that the message was from the same client as last time, the one with the ID "Phoenix Institute Xiong Zhen."

They had sent him a series of messages.

「Yesterday 10:50 PM」

Phoenix Institute Xiong Zhen: [Master, are you asleep?]

「Today 1:39 AM」

Phoenix Institute Xiong Zhen: [Master, can you reply when you see this?]

「Today 8:46 AM」

Phoenix Institute Xiong Zhen: [Master, can we arrange to meet somewhere at Yannan University?]

Phoenix Institute Xiong Zhen: [Master, my company is interested in a partnership and would like to speak with you in person.]

What the fuck?!

Chen Lin stopped in his tracks.

He stared at the last two messages, his mind racing as a million thoughts flashed through his head.

’What is this situation?’

He couldn’t quite figure out the other party’s true intentions.

Did they genuinely want to discuss a partnership in person, or had his proposal been seen by someone with ulterior motives who was now trying to track him down?

Although the former was more likely, Chen Lin had always believed it was better to be safe than sorry.

He decided to lay low and play it safe.

Chen Lin stood where he was, deliberating for a moment before typing a line of text on his screen and hitting send.

[Sorry, I only provide online services.]

He had already made up his mind. If the other person insisted on meeting in person, he would block them immediately, no matter what they offered.

He might get a complaint for "consultation time not fully used" and lose some reputation points, but compared to his personal safety, that was nothing.

Thinking of this, Chen Lin couldn’t help but feel a wave of relief. It was a good thing he’d been cautious and hadn’t added the person on WeChat directly.

With just a Xianyu account, they shouldn’t be able to trace him through the meeting software. Finding his real identity wouldn’t be that easy.

He glanced at the chat interface. The message he’d sent was still marked as "unread." It seemed the other person wasn’t online at the moment.

Chen Lin put his phone away, stopped overthinking it, and continued toward the library.

Just then, his phone vibrated again. The screen lit up with a WeChat notification.

He tapped it open. It was from Shen Yan.

Shen Yan: [Chen, are you free at 1:30 this afternoon?]

Chen Lin: [Yeah, I am. Where should we meet?]

The moment he sent the message, she replied almost instantly.

Shen Yan: [Let’s meet at the usual place, the study classroom.]

Chen Lin: [[OK]]

After arriving at the library, Chen Lin found a single-person study room, took out his laptop and the *Python Mathematical Programming* book, and got back to studying.

He had finished the first two Chapters yesterday. Chapter three was on the "Statistical Characteristics of Data."

The math concepts inside were actually quite basic, meant to be paired with code for the reader to practice.

Chen Lin glanced over the terms in the table of contents: "mean," "median," "variance and standard deviation," "correlation coefficient," and so on. The concepts and their related formulas were already clear in his mind.

He flipped directly to the code section and began carefully typing the code from the book into his computer: [def calculate_mean(numbers)

s = sum(numbers)

N = len(numbers)

mean = s/N

return mean]