Back home, Tang Rui sent a message to Zhou Tao, inquiring about the situation on their side.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Tao immediately called him upon receiving the message.
They chatted for a while.
Zhou Tao didn't ask about his situation at the military area but kept asking about when he got a girlfriend.
What a weirdo.
Tang Rui couldn't be bothered to deal with him, so he casually replied and hung up the phone.
Speaking of Li Shuyao...
Considering the circumstances of their date today, she didn't leave but instead accompanied him to the military area. She even went through the security clearance, which he had not anticipated.
In fact, given her situation, she didn't need to go to the military area. Just like other students, she could sign a confidentiality agreement and attend a security education class at the university.
But she still went with him.
There was no doubt about that.
As a result, Tang Rui liked her even more now.
If initially he was just attracted to her appearance, now he was genuinely developing feelings for her.
However, how should he pursue her?
After pondering for a while, Tang Rui decided not to pursue her and instead directly confront her.
He truly had no idea about dating and all that stuff.
All those online advice about spending money was just nonsense.
Even though Li Shuyao didn't come from a rich family, he was not lacking in money.
So spending lavishly was out of the question. But dragging it on indefinitely was also not his style.
After all, he had his own matters to attend to. Today, he even accepted another professor and, in a way, sold himself out.
So he didn't want to drag it out either.
Since they had already gone on a blind date, he decided to directly ask about the situation.
It was either a yes or a no.
If it worked out, great. If not, forget it.
He picked up his phone and called her.
"Hello... Tang Rui, what's up? Why are you panting so heavily?"
Hearing the heavy breathing on the other end of the call, Tang Rui furrowed his brows and asked.
"...I'm at the gym, working out."
Li Shuyao replied, and then hung up the phone.
Wait, what?
She was at the gym, so what's with hanging up the phone?
The next second, Li Shuyao's video call came in.
Tang Rui answered the call.
On the screen of his phone, Li Shuyao's image appeared.
She was indeed on a treadmill, exercising.
"Cough... I didn't mean anything by it."
Tang Rui said with some embarrassment.
"I don't need an explanation," Li Shuyao replied, rolling her eyes.
Then there was a moment of silence.
Li Shuyao held her phone with one hand while the other arm swung, having some trouble maintaining balance, and her running rhythm was interrupted.
She was trying to adjust her breathing, so she didn't say anything.
As for Tang Rui, his eyes were fixed on the screen, feeling a bit dizzy, so he also remained silent.
After a while, Li Shuyao gave up adjusting her running rhythm and directly stopped the treadmill, stepping off.
At that moment, she noticed that Tang Rui had been silent for quite a while.
"Are you enjoying the view?"
"Ah... um, the internet lagged just now."
"Compared to Little White Plow, which one do you prefer?"
"... How do you know about Little White Plow?"
"Zihan Little Overlord, Yixing, Monica, Tongtong, Wang Siyi, Dian Dian, Lemon Yipin, Liang Yi, Ning Ning Little Fairy..."
Tang Rui felt a bit hopeless.
She listed all the usernames of the girls he followed on Douyin. It seemed his online activity had been exposed.
"They can't compare to you. Your Mai Sakurajima cosplay surpasses all of them."
Tang Rui just went all out and didn't hold back.
They were just firing bullets at each other at this point.
It's not like he's some hacking expert.
"..."
Now it was Li Shuyao's turn to be silent.
But soon, she snapped out of it and asked Tang Rui, "So, do you like Mai Sakurajima or Mai Shiranui?"
"Mai Shiranui? I don't know who that is."
"I'll upload it now."
After saying that, Li Shuyao returned to her computer and, in front of Tang Rui, uploaded a photo.
Through the video call, Tang Rui could clearly see that her computer's hidden folder contained even more pictures.
"Want to see them? As long as you can hack into my computer, I'll show you all of them."
She opened the anti-scanning program on her computer, waiting for Tang Rui's actions.
What else was there to say?
Tang Rui also took out his laptop, pretending to be engaged in hacking.
In less than five minutes, Tang Rui gained superuser privileges and completely controlled Li Shuyao's computer.
"When did you learn this?" Li Shuyao was puzzled.
"I finished reading the booklist I asked you for a while ago. With my existing knowledge in this area, it was easy... That's how it went," Tang Rui boasted.
"Don't share the photos."
"I'll only look at them myself."
"You called me, so is there something you want to talk about?" Li Shuyao didn't want to discuss the photo issue and quickly changed the subject.
"Well... I was actually wondering, what kind of relationship do we have?" Tang Rui said, feeling that it didn't sound right and he shouldn't have phrased it that way.
Li Shuyao looked up at the ceiling, not sure how to respond.
'You're an idiot.'
"Can you be my girlfriend?" Tang Rui tried to salvage the situation.
"You're asking such an important question over a WeChat video call?" Li Shuyao suppressed her smile and pretended to be displeased.
'Ah! This shouldn't be discussed on WeChat?'
"Well... How about QQ then?"
"QQ... HAHAHAHA..."
Li Shuyao couldn't hold it in and nearly laughed uncontrollably.
Forget it.
There's nothing worth fussing over.
With someone like Tang Rui, there's no need to talk about romance; it didn't exist in his thought process.
So why did she agree to be his girlfriend?
Because in this messed-up world, Tang Rui was already considered pretty good.
Regardless of Tang Rui himself or his family background, he was much better than those who would act one way in front of you and another behind your back.
Her family had arranged blind dates for her before, but she only used her knowledge in IT to check and didn't even want to meet the other person in person. She wasn't a damsel in distress that only thought about romance all day.
Apart from that, she found that being with Tang Rui was straightforward and without much unnecessary drama. Today was an exception.
But no matter what, she has a good impression of Tang Rui. It would be even better if he weren't so straightforward.
Next, there wasn't much more to say. Li Shuyao was in control of the conversation, asking Tang Rui about his food preferences, if he had any favorite celebrities, and what he usually did. She asked in great detail, leaving Tang Rui speechless.
The two chatted for over an hour before hanging up the phone.
Putting down his phone, Tang Rui was still a bit dazed. Did it really go so smoothly? Finding a girlfriend wasn't that difficult, after all.
Oh, there are also the photos. Tang Rui cast aside other thoughts and began to look at the photos he had downloaded.
Huh? Why are they all celebrity photos?
During the video call earlier, he could only see the folders filled with photos, including some of legs in stockings, but couldn't see any faces.
Li Shuyao's actions made him subconsciously think that these were all her own photos.
However, all these photos turned out to be celebrity portraits.
Although they were photos of four female celebrities, he was not into chasing stars, especially female ones, so these celebrity photos didn't appeal to him at all. There wasn't even a single cosplay picture that he liked.
"She tricked me!"
Annoyed, Tang Rui sent a message directly to Li Shuyao.
Whoosh!
A photo appeared on his screen.
It was the cosplay picture of Mai Shiranui that Li Shuyao had mentioned earlier.
Swoosh!
This picture was really large.
"Do you have more?" Tang Rui shamelessly asked.
"It depends on how you behave," Li Shuyao replied.
"What do you mean by 'behave'?"
🙄🙄🙄
The two continued exchanging messages for another half an hour before ending the conversation.
Before going to sleep, Tang Rui downloaded some books related to mechanical automation, preparing to study them before bedtime.
The night passed without any further communication.
The next day, Tang Rui didn't go mountain climbing with Li Shuyao because her relatives came to visit, and she wasn't feeling well.
Since there was no mountain climbing to do, Tang Rui didn't have any other plans either.
So, after giving it some thought, he decided to go and tidy up the venue he had rented two days ago.
Next, he needed to get the fire-fighting drone ready.
After that, he had to hire some people.
In December, he would also need to report to the school.
Thinking about it, he realized he had quite a lot to do.