bayedsolid Chapter 327
Chapter 327
"Rong, are you okay!"Sato had just gotten off the stage, still at the edge of it, and rushed over with a panicked expression.
"What business is it of yours?" Sheng Ciyuan said coldly. "Move aside, don't block the way!"
A group of injured students were being sent to the hospital one after another.
Yu Kexin watched the departing ambulance, her face full of guilt: "It's all my fault. If I hadn’t insisted on dragging you all to the show, none of this would have happened..."
"You should be glad we came. If Rong Yu hadn't been right there, Senior Zhai Weitong might have been in danger of her life." Xue Yun changed the subject. "It's still early. I’m going to the library. Want to come?"
Yu Kexin shook her head. "You go ahead."
As Xue Yun walked away, mentally sorting through her book list, she had just left the sports field when a voice sounded behind her: "Xue Yun, wait a moment."
Xue Yun turned around and saw Sato, who exuded an aura of Japanese culture.
Sato smiled humbly. "Xue, could I ask you for a favor?"
Xue Yun stared at him coldly. "How do you know my name?"
"I, well, I admire Rong Yu. Asking about her roommate’s name is quite reasonable, isn’t it?" Sato pulled a small velvet box from his backpack. "This gift is something I specially customized for Rong Yu. It has to be delivered to her personally. Xue, please help me, okay?"
Xue Yun turned away. "I can’t help."
"I, I’ll pay you." Sato blocked her path. "Ten thousand RMB. Is that enough to get your help?"
Xue Yun’s expression turned icy.
"Thirty thousand." Sato held up three fingers. "That’s the highest I can offer."
Xue Yun opened her mouth as if to say something but held back. She looked at the box and said coldly, "One hundred thousand. Otherwise, no deal."
"You, you..." Sato fumed, but in the end, he relented. "Fine, one hundred thousand it is. I’ll transfer it after it’s done."
Xue Yun put the velvet box into her backpack.
She was usually calm and composed, but now she didn’t feel like going to the library anymore. She headed straight back to the dormitory.
When she returned, Yu Kexin was video-calling with her parents. Seeing Xue Yun come in, she hung up and asked curiously, "Why are you back so early? Was the library too crowded?"
Xue Yun shook her head.
She sat down, took out the velvet box from her backpack, and opened it directly.
She was genuinely curious about why Sato would pay her one hundred thousand just to pass along a gift.
"Hey, isn’t this the necklace Sato used to confess to Rong Yu tonight?" Yu Kexin leaned in. "Wow, it’s so beautiful up close. It even has fire, this must be a real pink diamond. That’s probably worth tens of thousands. Sato is really going all out to pursue Rong Yu... Wait, no, Xue Yun, how did you get this? Why did you bring it back to the dorm?"
Yu Kexin had been curious at first, but now her expression changed.
She didn’t think much of Sato.
But if Xue Yun had accepted a gift originally meant for Rong Yu, she’d think even less of Xue Yun.
Being roommates with someone like that would be unbearable.
She looked at Xue Yun accusingly.
But Xue Yun didn’t seem bothered at all.
She picked up the necklace, turning it over and examining it closely, as her brows furrowed deeper.
"Xue Yun, you shouldn’t have accepted..."
Yu Kexin couldn’t hold back anymore and started again, but Xue Yun made a shushing gesture and beckoned her closer.
Confused, she came over.
Xue Yun flipped the pink necklace over and pointed at the exact center on the back of the pendant.
"Oh my, that’s..." Yu Kexin’s mouth was covered, swallowing all her words. She pried Xue Yun’s hand away and said in a loud voice, "Wow, what a gorgeous necklace! How could Rong Yu refuse this? When she puts it on and sees how pretty it is, she’ll definitely say yes to Sato. Then we’ll make him treat us to a five-star hotel dinner!"
As the two were exchanging frantic glances, the dorm door swung open and Rong Yu stepped in.
The back of her neck had been scratched by a piece of debris, but it wasn’t serious. After disinfecting and applying ointment, she just needed to keep it dry for a day.
"Rong Yu, take a look at this." Xue Yun, usually a woman of few words, was now unusually chatty. "This is the gift Sato asked me to give you. Actually, Sato’s not a bad guy. He’s top of his class, valued by Japan, and studying here on a government scholarship. His family is quite well-off, part of the nobility back home. You..."
As Xue Yun spoke, she pointed subtly at the back of the necklace.
Rong Yu’s face darkened.
This was an ultra-miniature listening device.
Sato was bugging her?
What was he planning?
Xue Yun sent a message in the dorm group chat to explain: "The fact that he paid me one hundred thousand for this means it’s not just a simple gift. If I refused, I was afraid he’d find someone else to plant something in our dorm, so I accepted."
Rong Yu stepped forward and hugged her.
Xue Yun was the type to keep to herself—quiet, introverted, and not keen on talking to people. In today’s terms, she was an extreme social phobic. Deigning to deal with Sato must have taken a lot of effort.
Xue Yun looked a little embarrassed. "I’m going to shower first."
Yu Kexin mouthed silently, "What do we do with this thing? Smash it? Throw it away? Report it?"
Rong Yu whispered, "Let’s turn the tables on him."
The three of them took turns showering.
Afterward, Rong Yu fiddled with the necklace and said aloud, "I can start an independent research project now. My advisor has a project on fuel coating tests for the space launch base."
She paused deliberately. "I heard it’s made from the same batch of materials as the military’s next-generation stealth fighters."
Xue Yun thought Rong Yu was just feeding false info to the listening device for Sato’s benefit, but then Rong Yu pulled actual project documents out of her backpack.
Xue Yun was incredulous. "You can start a research project as a freshman?"
"And it’s this kind of project..." Yu Kexin swallowed hard. "It involves classified material. Can Xue Yun and I handle it?"
"It’s military-related, so of course we need confidentiality. You’ll sign a non-disclosure agreement tomorrow," Rong Yu said. "We only have one class in the morning tomorrow. Let’s go check out the lab first."
The next day, after class ended that morning, Rong Yu led her two roommates toward the laboratory building.
This project was a sub-branch of a larger initiative under Academician Lin—a national-level confidential project. Naturally, it was assigned to a top-tier lab.
As the lab door closed behind them, Yu Kexin and Xue Yun looked around like country bumpkins who had just entered a big city, full of curiosity and bewilderment, too afraid to touch anything.
Rong Yu handed them two sets of protective gear. "Put these on first. This lab is special. Don’t touch anything without asking me. Today, we’ll get familiar with the project and sort through the relevant historical data..."
Yu Kexin and Xue Yun, both new to this kind of project, were so fired up they worked like they’d just drunk rocket fuel.
After the official work was done, Rong Yu took out two documents.
Yu Kexin flipped through one and gasped in surprise. "These... the data are exactly the same!"
The experimental parameters, charts, and even the references in both reports were identical. The only differences were the titles and some subject-verb phrasing within the text.
A document cover read: "Tsinghua University · Cafeteria Counter Heat-Resistant Tray Performance Optimization Experimental Data."
Another document read: "Base Four Aerospace Fuel Coating Heat Resistance Experimental Data."
Xue Yun immediately understood: "If this document were stolen, it would be sufficient evidence of the wolfish ambitions of the Cherry Blossom Country."