Chapter 91: Luo Xing, Would You Like to Make a Bet With Me?

“We’re here,” Shen Que said, rising to his feet.

Luo Xing removed her earphones, stood up, and followed at his side. She wound the cord around her hand, looping it over and over.

After leaving the subway station, Shen Que hailed a cab. They got in, and the car radio was broadcasting financial news headlines.

“Recently, Minghai Technologies issued a statement that, due to alleged violations in information disclosure, the Securities Regulatory Commission opened an investigation into the company on November 4th this year…”

Luo Xing frowned deeply. Minghai Technologies… That seemed to be under Gu Ming’s name—she’d heard Gu Shiyan mention it to Grandfather Gu on the phone before.

If Minghai Technologies was under investigation, that meant Gu Ming had lost his grip on power.

Luo Xing picked up her phone to send a message to Gu Shiyan, but it wasn’t to reply to any of his previous texts. She simply asked him about affairs over in Beijing.

Gu Shiyan had long known Minghai Technologies would be investigated. The matter Grandfather had him handle was precisely to do with Minghai’s investors and its planned IPO. The old man was shrewd and had made contingency plans long ago; he had people on Gu Ming’s side. That was how, even when confronting Gu Ming openly, he could ensure Gu Yunzhi’s safety.

When Luo Xing and Shen Que arrived at the laboratory building, they found their lab door surprisingly ajar.

The two exchanged a frown and entered.

Inside stood several people, adjusting the equipment.

Luo Xing immediately recognized the boy in the center—it was Wen Fan, the team captain who had once taken a national award and had previously snatched her materials in the equipment room.

“How can you just come into our lab?” Luo Xing demanded, entering and seeing them using her team’s apparatus. “How did you get in?”

The five across from her barely glanced up, then lowered their heads and continued their work in silence.

But Luo Xing noticed the keys lying on the table beside them. If they had keys, that meant they’d been given official permission.

Qi Changbai had once said that the physics competition’s Team One was the school’s pride—every member was a top student guaranteed a place at the university, and all of them had already collected those rare national awards that were like gold dust at Xuyan.

Shen Que pulled Luo Xing aside.

“We can’t confront them head-on about this,” he said, taking her to a corner. “Let me message our advisor first and get in touch.”

Standing in the hallway, they relayed what had happened to their team’s group chat. Qi Changbai was the first to arrive—before they saw him, they heard his voice echoing down the corridor.

“When Team One grabbed our equipment before, what did the administration say? That Team One brings honor to the school, that they’re our seniors, and we should accommodate them. In the end, it was Gu Shiyan who sorted it out for us—otherwise we’d have lost our equipment and had to change our research topic. And now they dare to take our lab too?”

Qi Changbai came up to Luo Xing and Shen Que. “They just can’t stop helping themselves, can they?”

Shen Que glanced at his phone. “Apparently their lab is under renovation and unusable for a while, so they’re using ours temporarily. The advisor just forgot to notify us in advance.”

Qi Changbai snorted. “Forgot, or just couldn’t be bothered?”

“So we just put up with it?” Qi Changbai was saying when a group emerged from the lab.

At the front, Wen Fan looked at Luo Xing and smiled—a smile with a trace of triumph. She dropped her gaze and tapped the back of her phone twice.

“Doesn’t your team have a young master? Last time, his family even donated a practical superconducting single-photon detector. Since his family is so wealthy, why not have him donate a whole lab?” Wen Fan taunted.

Luo Xing scoffed, “Donate it for what? So you, who’d snatch even someone’s white blood cells if you could, can use it?”

“Well, the lab was approved by Professor Wen. Labs suitable for housing the new particle accelerator are few, and your team is the weakest. Of course you have to give way,” came the reply.

Qi Changbai was taken aback. “Professor Wen approved you taking our lab?”

Professor Wen was a well-respected veteran at Xing University, beloved by the students.

“Take? We call it you yielding to us,” they replied, exchanging mocking looks.

A boy with heavy bangs laughed and fixed his gaze on Luo Xing. “Why not have your team’s beauty go beg Gu Shiyan again?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Qi Changbai stepped in front of Luo Xing. “The donation from the Gu family was arranged by the university.”

“Sure, officially it was the university negotiating, but everyone knows you used your connections. Otherwise, how could a newly formed team like yours have a lab on par with Team One?”

Wen Fan, the Team One captain, cast a sidelong glance at Luo Xing. “Everyone knows what’s really going on. I always wondered why Xuyan would take in such a useless girl—turns out it’s all about connections…”

His eyes slid past Qi Changbai, landing on Luo Xing, raking over her with derision and mockery. “Did you have to beg on your knees for it? Why don’t you show us how it’s done, Teacher Luo?”

Before he could finish, his eyes still fixed on Luo Xing, there was a dull thud.

One arm of his glasses flew off, his mind blanking as his left eye filled with chaotic white flashes. He stood frozen for a moment, then finally registered the dull ache stretching from his brow to his cheekbone.

Shen Que, his fist still clenched, was about to go forward again but was held back by Qi Changbai.

Though Qi Changbai also wanted to punch him, reason prevailed. “Don’t. He’s Team One’s captain—the school will protect him,” he whispered in Shen Que’s ear.

At the mention of the school’s protection, Shen Que squared his shoulders, ready to go again, but the others reacted quickly, hurrying to shield Wen Fan and pull him back.

“Do you want to be expelled?” the heavy-banged boy shouted, clutching the captain, who was groping for his glasses on the floor, glaring fiercely at Shen Que.

Luo Xing gripped her phone, watching as Qi Changbai restrained Shen Que, her face stiffening.

Shen Que—had hit someone?

Even now, she could hardly believe it.

Shen Que, usually as calm and steady as a next-generation robot, had actually struck someone.

He’d always disdained using violence, and had once disliked Gu Shiyan for getting into a fight.

“Apologize,” Shen Que demanded, his eyes boring into the person who’d just put on his broken glasses, voice cold and heavy.

Wen Fan pointed at him. “Just wait! You’ll be disciplined and expelled!”

Qi Changbai held tightly to Shen Que, preventing him from moving forward.

The others, clearly shocked by Shen Que’s reaction, quickly helped their captain away.

Qi Changbai spat, “The detectors they use are ones we worked on, and still they swagger around like this.”

He turned to Shen Que, frustration clear on his face. “But you shouldn’t have hit him. Do you know who Team One’s captain is? His surname is Wen—he’s related to Professor Wen. And his mother is a professor here too. His father’s an administrator! Why do you think Professor Wen let them take our lab? It’s all because of his parents.”

Qi Changbai looked Shen Que over. “You didn’t drink at dinner, did you?”

“I had a little,” Shen Que replied.

“You drank?” Luo Xing’s voice was louder than usual. “What’s wrong with you?”

Shen Que rarely drank—on holidays, even when elders insisted, he usually just sipped to be polite.

He shook his head and, for the first time, didn’t answer Luo Xing’s question.

Qi Changbai sighed.

Luo Xing watched the others’ retreating backs, inhaled deeply. “What will happen to us?”

“Even if they’re in the wrong, we’ll probably have to apologize. If they refuse to forgive…” Qi Changbai trailed off, but all three understood.

Luo Xing stared at her phone, gripping it tightly.

Qi Changbai, thinking she was frightened, patted her shoulder. “That’s just how the world works. You’ll get used to it.”

“Shen Que, you don’t have to worry about this. Let’s do our research well and win first place at the International Physics Experimental Competition,” Luo Xing said, her eyes resolute.

Qi Changbai swallowed hard. “That’s… quite the boast, heroine. We haven’t even started the provincial round. The captain never imagined we’d win a national award this year.”

Shen Que’s knuckles were still red from the blow, but he nodded to Luo Xing. “Actually, it’s not impossible to sweep the national awards in one go…”

After Team One finished using the lab, they left everything in disarray.

Before Shen Que could start cleaning up, Luo Xing stopped him and took photos of the mess. “Just in case—we might need this as evidence.”

They stayed in the lab until nightfall before heading home.

At the entrance to her neighborhood, Luo Xing saw a figure standing beside the convenience store.

Gu Shiyan’s face had paled, all traces of his earlier drunkenness gone. He stood with downcast eyes, smoking quietly, fine ash falling away in the stillness.

“It’s been long enough. Can I go home now?” Luo Xing said, a trace of resignation in her voice.

He looked up when he heard her.

Under the night sky, the glow from the signboard fell midway across his face, leaving him half in shadow.

Smoke curled and vanished in the evening breeze.

Luo Xing stopped in front of him.

He lowered his hand, snuffing out the cigarette against the trash bin, pressing it straight until it crumpled.

“Your laptop and tablet are still at my place,” he said, standing on the steps of the convenience store, taller than her, looking down. “Last time, you mentioned wanting to use general relativity to construct a model of photon-gravitational field interaction…”

Luo Xing’s face was expressionless, her lips set in a stubborn line.

She’d spent ten hours on the project, tried three or four methods, but hadn’t succeeded. For now, it was set aside.

Today, she’d read a new review article—its methods more mature than theirs. Even when discussing with Shen Que in the lab, her mind kept returning to her own model.

She’d planned to continue working on it that night.

“I can show you another way.”

He swallowed, blinking earnestly as he watched her.

Luo Xing turned her eyes aside, avoiding his gaze, stepping back just a little.

Anyone could see she was retreating.

If it were someone else, perhaps they’d step back too, not wanting to frighten her.

But Gu Shiyan stepped forward, closing the distance. “It’s eight-thirty now. I promise you’ll be able to finish what you want to do on your own before midnight.”

“Luo Xing, care to make a bet with me?”