After Sun Pinting hung up, Xu Ai almost ground her entire set of teeth to pieces.
Who exactly did she provoke? Why was she so unlucky? That was the first time she ever lied, yet karma had hit her too damned hard.
She regretted that she didn't check the school's website last night; she should have put out the fire before it had a chance to burn, and she shouldn't have hidden in the comfort of her home to sleep.
She covered her head with her blanket and wanted to suffocate herself to death.
If only she had known…
Money can't buy hindsight...
She buried herself in her blanket for a long time. She still believed she shouldn't let things keep brewing the way it was now. She didn't want to be trending nationwide; how was she ever going to function in society after this?
After some careful thinking, she crawled out of her blanket and turned on her computer again.
She logged onto several other schools' official websites and saw the exact same huge headline. Gossip from other schools was no less heated than her school's.
She bit the bullet and hacked all the computers of authors from other schools.
When she finished hacking their computers, she was afraid of leaving any fish that might have slipped through the net, so she went back and thoroughly checked everything, making sure nothing was traceable. Then, she turned off her computer.
Once she finished everything, she let out a sigh of relief to the window and then climbed back to her bed once again.
She was all strung out alongside Lil' Wen when she escorted Lil' Wen to the hospital. And after all that hassle when she returned, it didn't take long for her to fall asleep as well.
"Ding ding ding ding, we're back!"
She didn't know how long she had slept for when the door was pushed open and Violet's gleeful voice came to her ears.
Woken-up by the noise, Xu Ai frowned but ignored Violet and planned to go right back to sleep.
"Ah, Ai-Ai, you're back!" Violet threw away the hiking backpack before she jumped on top of Xu Ai to give her a bear-hug.
The sudden force was enough to almost crush Xu Ai.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry; get up and tell us. How did you land Su Xuan?" There were stars in Violet's glowing eyes. She straightened her body as she dragged up Xu Ai from her sleep.
Autumn threw away her backpack as well and ran to her. "Yes, you know resistance can only lead to severe punishment."
Xu Ai covered her head with her hands. "I'm sleepy!"
"We'll let you sleep after you tell us, or else don't even think about sleeping." Violet pinched her arm. "Are you awake now?"
Xu Ai's arm was hurting from being pinched. "Didn't you guys go hiking?" People who just came back from hiking shouldn't be this energetic, right?
"Yeah, we went hiking!" Violet had a smug smile. "I can't believe how fun it was; we should go again next time."
"Aren't you guys tired?" Xu Ai tried to change the topic.
"We're tired, but we met two cute guys, and they carried our backpacks for us, heh heh… so we weren't that tired afterwards. We'd still be hiking if it wasn't dark outside." Violet pinched her again. "Fess up; stop trying to change the topic."
Xu Ai dodged her Wolverine claws. "What kind of cute guys? Did you tap that?"
"I'm going to test them first!" Violet ignored her dodge. "Are you going to fess up or not!"
"Well, Ai-Ai, what's that expression called? Yes, early death equals early afterlife. So just hurry up and confess already!" Autumn reached out with her hands and immediately began tickling her.
Xu Ai was extremely ticklish and hated it, so she surrendered immediately. "There's nothing to tell. We met at a bar, um…"
"A bar?" Those two women's eyes glowed as they shouted together, "One night stand!"
Xu Ai coughed and remembered the glass of hard liquor that was poured down her throat and how she almost teared up as she coughed.
Violet and Autumn shared a look with each other and then looked at Xu Ai, believing they had guessed it right. They opened their eyes wide and screeched, "Ai-Ai, you actually banged Su Xuan!"
Xu Ai's cough almost gave her chest pain. She was angry enough to slap them across their faces.
"What kind of nasty stuff are you two thinking?" She was furious.
"Explaining means you're hiding!" Those two kept on staring at her.
Xu Ai was feeling completely helpless. She shrugged and said, "Fine! If that's what you want it to be, then it is!" She glowered at them. "I won't say a single word if you two keep thinking about nasty crap like that." Then, she added, "Tickling me won't work, either."
Now that they had irked her, the two girls were disappointed to know that it probably wasn't a one night stand. "It wasn't? Then what was it?"
Xu Ai rolled her eyes. "I got drunk and ripped off a button from his clothes." That was the truth.
"Pffft!" Obviously, they weren't buying it.
Xu Ai gave them a "believe-it-or-not" look. "That's all that happened. There's nothing I can do if you don't believe me."
"That's all that happened? You nodded your head yesterday and admitted he was your boyfriend." Violet stared at her, trying to dig up more dirt.
"I was drunk. That was the alcohol talking." Xu Ai thought about those articles on other schools' websites and finally told the truth.
"So what's the deal with Lin Shen and Cheng Yanyan?" Autumn followed.
The mentioning of Lin Shen still had a bitter taste in Xu Ai's mouth and made her inevitably a bit depressed. "How would I know? I ran into Zhao Yang yesterday when I was dropped off on my way back. You know him, right? Zhao Yang from our Foreign Language School."
"Yes, he always escorts his hometown girl back. I've considered going after him before when I thought he was kind of cute. But later on, I realized he has no feelings for his hometown girl, yet he always escorts her back and acts all Mr. Niceguy. I feel like he's holding onto this girl while seeking other girls, so I thought I'd better just leave him for his hometown girl." Violet pouted.
"That's him. He told me he likes me and wants to pursue me." Xu Ai's expression turned wry at the thought of how everything started because of Zhao Yang. "He wouldn't bugger off and kept on asking me who my boyfriend was. At the same time, we saw Lin Shen and Cheng Yanyan coming back together."
"So then you said Su Xuan was your boyfriend?" Autumn's eyes were wide open. "You used Su Xuan as your shield!"
"Mhm, you are such a smartie pants, Autumn!" Xu Ai looked at Autumn in awe.
"So that's what happened!" Violet was dumbfounded. "I really thought you climbed up to Empyrean's Su Xuan. I was way too over-excited."
Xu Ai braced her hand against her forehead.
Violet rolled her eyes and laughed. "Anyway, you ran into Su Xuan at a bar; that has to be the work of destiny. You also took a button from him…"
"Oh, I remember now!" Lil' Wen shouted all of a sudden.
Xu Ai, Violet, and Autumn were all startled by Lil' Wen, then they looked at her.
Lil' Wen sat on her bed and looked at Xu Ai. "Ai-Ai, I just remembered who was the man you spoke to at the hospital?"
"Who?" Xu Ai asked.
"It was Su Xuan!" Lil' Wen looked at Xu Ai as if she saw a monster.
"What?" It was Xu Ai's turn to shout. He was Su Xuan? How is that possible?
"That was Su Xuan; I'm sure!" Lil' Wen nodded her head as if she had an epiphany. "No wonder I thought he looked familiar! His face is plastered all over the newspapers, magazines, televisions, and news right now."
Xu Ai tried to recall the man who poured down a glass of liquor down her throat that night. His image was blurry in her memories, but she remembered him being a very handsome man. The only thing that stood out in that memory was the spicy liquor that burned her to tears.
She recalled the man she ran into at the hospital today. He looked like he was either rich or was a high-class gentleman, a completely different image.
Was that really him?
Su Xuan of Empyrean?
"What are you two talking about?" Violet and Autumn looked at them with confused eyes.
Lil' Wen saw the dumbfounded look on Xu Ai's face and tried to decipher the puzzle for the two ladies. "I didn't feel very well when you guys went hiking. I called Ai-Ai to come to the hospital with me. We ran into Su Xuan when we were in line to pick up the prescriptions. He stopped Ai-Ai to talk to her."
Sparks flew in Violet's eyes. "He still remembers Ai-Ai after he sobered up?"
"Of course he did, our Ai-Ai is a beauty. Besides, what kind of man is Su Xuan! Do you think it's easy to get the second button on his shirt? He definitely wasn't drunk; he likes Ai-Ai." Autumn said with regret, "Why would I go hiking if I had known? I would've come to the hospital with you, so I can finally meet Su Xuan."
Violet nodded in regret as well. "Yeah, I wouldn't seek cute guys if I had known."
Xu Ai looked at them helplessly. She still couldn't believe that man was Su Xuan.
"Here's a picture!" Lil' Wen found a news article on her cellphone and tossed it to Xu Ai.
Xu Ai took the phone and saw the well-dressed man in a suit. If that wasn't the man she ran into at the hospital, then who else could it be? She reminisced about their conversation as she continued staring at the picture, then her expression turned dark and somber.
"Look at that begrudging look on your face; that's the foreshadow of love!" Lil' Wen teased, "Ai-Ai, didn't you say you'll rip him into pieces if you knew who he was? Now that you know, are you going to rip him?"
Do what! Does she think it is easy to enter the Empyrean Corporation and hurt Su Xuan?
Xu Ai passed the cell phone back to Lil' Wen and shooed Autumn and Violet off her bed. "Don't ever mention him to me again. I have nothing to tell!"
Autumn and Violet made eye contact with each other and then said, "There's more juice to the story!"
Xu Ai smashed her pillow at them.
She smashed them very hard. Autumn and Violet grunted and then dodged away from her bed.
Xu Ai covered her head with her blanket. She believed Su Xuan must be bearing a grudge against her.
Autumn and Violet sighed before turning back to look at Lil' Wen. Lil' Wen shrugged and shook her head. She didn't know the details either.
"If it's Su Xuan who wants to pick the flower named Ai-Ai, then we don't give a crap about Lin Shen. If he's not interested in our Ai-Ai, Ai-Ai isn't interested in him, either," Violet uttered before she started organizing her stuff.
Autumn agreed. "Exactly!" She started organizing her belongings as well.
Xu Ai bitterly smiled under her quilt. Was she not interested in him? Of course, she was...
These two girls who just came back to their dorm room kept on chatting about the two cute guys they met during their hiking trip today. Xu Ai and Lil' Wen couldn't sleep anymore from the girly gossip, so they thought about their own issues.
When it was time for dinner. Violet and Autumn stopped chatting and asked Xu Ai and Lil' Wen to go to the cafeteria together.
Xu Ai was not in the mood. "You guys can go! Just remember to bring my portion."
Violet and Autumn looked over at Lil' Wen.
"I don't want to go either. Please bring me my portion." Lil' Wen shook her head; she wasn't in the mood, either.
"Oh, by the way, we saw He Tao in front of our building on our way back. He was waiting for you." Violet remembered, "He looked like he had been waiting for you for a long time. You two had a fight, and now he's trying to make it up to you, so go down there! There are so many single she-wolves in our building; you can't lose the handsome Mr. He to someone else, or you will live with regret…"
"We broke up!" Lil' Wen interrupted her sentence.
Violet was shocked to her core.
"Ah!" The gasp came from Autumn.
Lil' Wen turned her back towards those two. Obviously, she wasn't in the mood to be interrogated.
Violet and Autumn were both in a daze briefly. They looked at Xu Ai, who was still buried under her blanket, then they looked at each other and walked out the door.
The dorm room was finally silent once again.
It didn't take long for Violet and Autumn to come back with dinner. Xu Ai and Lil' Wen got up to eat with them. They sat around the table together.
Violet was about to die if she couldn't talk. She looked at Xu Ai. "When we were getting food, we heard that the person who posted that article on our school's website got hacked. Apparently, it was Zhao Yang; he was asking people in the computer science major to fix his computer."
Xu Ai was speechless. It really was Zhao Yang!
"But I heard quite a few people already archived that article and posted it again. Everyone was guessing which Computer God hacked him. I also heard other schools' forums got hacked, too." Violet continued, "Ai-Ai, you're good at computer stuff; don't tell me you were the hacker!"
"My computer skills are only enough to find out who posted that article." Xu Ai was cursing inside but tried her best to mask it.
Violet seemed to believe her as she nodded.
Lil' Wen gave Xu Ai a strange look. Xu Ai blinked at her, so she shook her head with a smile.
Out of the four members of the dorm room, Xu Ai was the only one who was born and raised in Beijing; everyone else came from other provinces. Violet was the most outgoing extrovert with gossiping genes encoded in her DNA. She was born without a zip on her mouth, so she always spoke whatever was on her mind. Autumn wasn't as big of a blabbermouth as Violet, but she was the closest with Violet because of their personalities. After spending so much time together, she obviously became gossipy as well.
Therefore, Xu Ai knew that some things should never be told to Violet and Autumn. Lil' Wen also knew, thus she asked Xu Ai to go to the hospital with her, keeping it a secret from Violet and Autumn.
Violet and Autumn climbed to their beds after dinner. Usually, the four had the time to themselves at night. Checking phones, chatting on QQ, sending WeChat messages, internet surfing, or reading, they had their own private space.
Xu Ai grabbed her computer and saw the reposted article on the website. It hurt her eyes. She was determined and finally found the courage to hack their school's website.
She knew, in order to stop the weeds from growing, she had to pull them out from their roots. The root was her school's official forum.
After she hacked her school's forum, she also checked on other schools'. Every time she saw the article, she hacked the site.
She hacked about four or five schools' online forums, including Sun Pinting's school.
She made sure to clean up any traces left behind after she hacked all those sites. She sighed in relief and wondered if the school officials would report this hacking incident to the police. If they did, then she was definitely screwed!
But, nonetheless, she couldn't let the article go viral!
Xu Ai didn't have a good sleep that night. She dreamed about someone pouring hard liquor down her throat, someone throwing post-abortion drugs at her, the wailing sound of a police siren…
When she woke up the next morning, she stared at the ceiling and wondered why she didn't dream about Lin Shen…
Why didn't she dream about Lin Shen?
The cafeteria was crowded and noisy in the morning. When Xu Ai and the other three entered, they heard gossip here and there about their school's website being hacked.
Xu Ai felt guilty. She sat down and ate with her head hung low after ordering breakfast.
Violet and Autumn were super excited to join the gossip about the hacking incident. People were coming up with the names of the potential computer-genius hackers who had the balls to hack so many schools. People also said the professors of the computer science major were trying to rescue the failed website for a whole night but had very little luck.
People were guessing if it had been Su Xuan. After all, Empyrean was filled with extraordinarily elite talents; they could easily hack a school's online system, and even the computer science professors would have trouble fixing it.
When they mentioned Su Xuan, Xu Ai inevitably received several pairs of eyes looking at her.
Xu Ai couldn't stand this anymore. She didn't bother to wait for Violet, Autumn, and Lil' Wen; she finished her porridge hurriedly and left the cafeteria.
After stepping outside the cafeteria, she inhaled the fresh air and then exhaled a long, deep breath.
Hopefully, today will be a sunny day with no rain.
Just as she had that thought, a familiar silhouette walked out of the cafeteria next to her. That person carried a book in his hands. She noticed that person, and that person also noticed her and stopped in his tracks.