Su Xi and Xiao Yue stared in astonishment as their boss and his young girlfriend disappeared from view.

They turned to each other, both seeing the shock in the other’s eyes.

“She is young…”

“A student…”

The two were almost certain now that the boss’s girlfriend was a student!

At this moment, the various private chat groups were also extremely lively, with almost everyone waiting for their first-hand news.

“Xiao Yue? Xiao Xi? Is it the boss’s girlfriend who came, or a child from the boss’s relatives?”

“The boss doesn’t have many relatives left, right…”

“It could be a distant relative?”

“Yeah, surely not all relatives have been dealt with by the boss!”

“It must be a young girl!”

…

Seeing no one else coming in, Su Xi took out her phone and revealed a bit of information.

“It is indeed the boss’s young girlfriend who came, should be a student. They’ve already gone upstairs, looks like they’ll be in the boss’s office all day.”

The replies below scrolled incredibly fast—

“Damn! So it’s true!”

“Old Wang, aren’t you going up to report your work later? You can take the chance to see the boss’s girlfriend.”

“The boss found a student… which school?”

“That’s not something you can tell just by looking.”

“This is shocking, I want to see the boss’s girlfriend…”

“Su Xi, Xiao Yue, do you know any other information?”

“Yes, yes, yes, quickly share all the first-hand news!”

…

Xiao Yue suddenly gently pushed Su Xi, as if remembering something: “Do you remember what the boss’s girlfriend’s name is? Let’s search for it on Baidu!”

When the boss’s girlfriend had come last time, she had given her name, but Xiao Yue hadn’t paid much attention and couldn’t remember it.

Su Xi had also forgotten somewhat. She scratched her head, thought carefully, and said: “I think her name was… was… Gu…”

Su Xi frowned deeply, and after a moment, her eyes suddenly opened wide: “I remember! Gu Xue Jiao!!”

“The boss’s little girlfriend is called Gu Xue Jiao?”

“Yes.” Su Xi nodded with certainty, “When Secretary Chen took her away that day, I made a special note of it, but I’m not sure which character is used for ‘Jiao’?”

“I’ll search it on Baidu!” Xiao Yue quickly took out her phone and opened the browser.

Su Xi leaned close to her, tilting her head: “A student probably wouldn’t have any information on Baidu… and we don’t know the correct way to write the name.”

“Let’s check anyway, it doesn’t cost anything.” As she spoke, Xiao Yue had already typed “Gu Xue” in the browser, and “Gu Xue Jiao” Baidu Encyclopedia popped up below.

Although she was searching, her heart, like Su Xi’s, thought they probably wouldn’t find anything on Baidu.

But soon, reality slapped her in the face.

“Gu Xue Jiao” in the Baidu Encyclopedia had a photo, the one Tsinghua University had posted on their official website.

“Oh my—” Su Xi considered herself an excellent receptionist who could handle any situation, even maintaining a forced smile when seeing Lin Zhihua.

But at this moment, she couldn’t even manage a fake smile, only a face of pure shock, her mouth hanging open.

“Gu Xue Jiao is a sophomore at Tsinghua University!”

“Holy crap!! She scored 731 on the college entrance exam, breaking the record!!”

“And there’s more! Winner of the 16th Chen Shengshen Mathematics Award!”

The two looked at each other, then said together—

“She is the boss’s girlfriend!!”

The girlfriend of a big shot was also a big shot!

Who said students couldn’t be big shots? Wasn’t this a living example?

After a moment, Xiao Yue sighed: “You really can’t tell by looking…”

Su Xi nodded in agreement. Indeed, she looked like a delicate young girl, as if a few harsh words might frighten her, so how could she be so incredible?

——

Xue Jiao was led by Lin Zhihua toward his office. He seemed very happy, with the corners of his mouth upturned, holding Xue Jiao’s hand tightly.

When passing by the small offices, Xue Jiao always felt that people were looking at her.

But when she looked up, everyone in the offices had their heads down, each attending to their work, appearing very focused.

“What are you looking at?” Lin Zhihua asked gently.

Xue Jiao shook her head and simply said: “Nothing.”

After a pause, she added: “Will I be disturbing you today?”

“How could you?” Lin Zhihua was surprised, “I’m thrilled to have you here. With you by my side, my efficiency will be much higher.”

Xue Jiao looked up, saw that he was serious, and broke into a radiant smile like spring suddenly arriving in the middle of winter.

Lin Zhihua was stunned for a moment, then smiled as well, lifting her hand to his lips for a gentle kiss.

Xue Jiao’s face flushed.

Soon, the two entered Lin Zhihua’s office.

Xue Jiao had been to Lin Zhihua’s office before, so she naturally knew its layout.

Therefore, she immediately noticed the desk that was vastly different from the office’s style.

In the spacious office, which was predominantly cool gray and white, there was suddenly an obtrusive pink desk.

It was somewhat… strange, and a bit awkward.

“This is…” Xue Jiao tentatively began.

Lin Zhihua nodded, grinning: “I had Chen Yan buy it. Do you like it? Let’s keep it here from now on, so you can use it whenever you come to study.”

Xue Jiao: “…”

Lin Zhihua’s aesthetic sense was usually quite good, but for some reason, this time his taste was terrifyingly bad, the suffocating aesthetic of a straight man.

“Do you think… a pink desk fits well in this office?”

“Is there a problem?” Lin Zhihua was surprised.

Xue Jiao held up two fingers: “First, it doesn’t match well. Second, anyone who comes to your office in the future will guess that this desk is for a girl…”

Lin Zhihua turned to look at the desk. Just thinking that this desk was for Xue Jiao made him feel it matched perfectly, even giving off a couple’s desk vibe with his large office desk not far away.

As for the second point… he was eager for the whole world to know that Xue Jiao was his girlfriend.

At this moment, Xue Jiao added: “But considering the effort you’ve put into preparing it, I’ll reward you.”

Before Lin Zhihua could react, Xue Jiao stood on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek.

Lin Zhihua came to his senses and instinctively wanted to pull her closer to deepen the kiss.

Xue Jiao placed her hand against his lips, smiling softly: “No, today isn’t for dating, it’s for serious matters. You should get to work, and I should study.”

Lin Zhihua: “…”

Lin Zhihua returned to his large office desk and began working, while Xue Jiao sat at the pink desk, opening her textbooks and notebooks.

He watched her focused face, gently shook his head, and smiled.

This day was the best day for Lin Zhihua since he started working, with high efficiency and a good mood as he occasionally turned his head to look at the girl.

For the Lin Corporation employees, today was also their most relaxed day recently.

The boss was so agreeable today that reporting work to him was easily approved.

Of course, sometimes they would still trigger Lin Zhihua’s anger, but as long as he turned to look at the girl sitting nearby, his tone would become much gentler, pointing out problems and asking them to go back and make corrections.

“The boss is so approachable today!!”

“I was prepared to be scolded, but the boss was so gentle…”

“It seems like the young madam sitting nearby has changed the boss.”

“Is the young madam really that beautiful? Our department manager is on a business trip, so we can’t go up to report our work.”

“She’s truly beautiful! A fairy, my god, even more beautiful than the spokesperson for our newest project!”

“More beautiful than top-tier celebrities? Are you exaggerating?”

“I’m not exaggerating, it’s true. I went up with my manager before.”

“Wow, Secretary Wu is speaking! Then it must be true!”

“If she’s so beautiful, is she from the Central Academy of Drama or the Beijing Film Academy? Wasn’t she said to be a student?”

“Being beautiful doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll be a future celebrity. The boss’s girlfriend doesn’t have to be a celebrity.”

“I suspect she’s a top student…”

Seeing the heated discussion in the group chat, Xiao Yue and Su Xi, who had been silent, exchanged a glance, everything was understood without words.

Seeing but not speaking, although they already knew the specific situation of the boss’s girlfriend.

But some things could be said, and some couldn’t, this they knew.

If the boss got married in the future and his wife’s name was published to the public, then everyone would naturally know how impressive this young girl was.

——

Being impressive doesn’t come naturally; she did have a bit more talent in mathematics than others, but she also worked harder than many more people.

She controlled herself even during her relationship, not letting herself forget about studying and working hard.

The flying car project had reached its most difficult stage. Their successive solutions had failed, and everyone was waiting for Senior Zhang Han’s final solution.

But after just a few days, with Senior Zhang Han’s posting of two words in the group—”Failed”—all the candlelight was temporarily extinguished.

They had already tried all possible solutions, but now the result was that all solutions had failed.

This indicated that their direction might be wrong, or that there were problems they couldn’t think of or solve.

It also meant that their past year’s work might have been completely wasted.

“So what do we do now?” Xue Jiao murmured, sitting on the stool, momentarily bewildered.

Chu Sheng was the most upset, burying his face in his arms, thoughts unknown.

Zheng Jiakun reached out and patted Chu Sheng’s shoulder: “Let’s take it one step at a time. If nothing works, let’s summarize what we’ve done and publish a paper. That would at least justify our past year.”

Xue Jiao took a deep breath, turned her head, and looked at the various models and materials not far away.

Indeed, in the world of scientific research, you can’t simply accomplish whatever you set out to do.

You might receive success and honor, or you might face failure and waste.

Xue Jiao briefly closed her eyes, then quickly opened them and replied—

“Alright.”

It wasn’t considered a complete failure; they could only say that they couldn’t see hope for now, but perhaps in the future, they might have a flash of inspiration and see hope again.

Temporary failure wasn’t the same as despair.

At this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open.

At the doorway stood Zhang Han and Yang Zhan. Despite the cold weather, beads of sweat were visible on their foreheads, indicating they had run over.

“What’s wrong?”

Zhang Han pressed her lips together and said seriously: “All solutions have failed, but while working on the last solution, I discovered a problem! I’m certain that if we proceed from here, our project will soon see the dawn of success!”

The three stood up abruptly, looking at Zhang Han with disbelief and excitement.

“We can’t waste any more time. I have a few days off recently, so I’ve canceled all my upcoming plans and have seven days of free time. Yang Zhan has also taken seven days off. Can you all take time off?” Zhang Han continued.

The group was stunned. “Take time off?”

Zhang Han looked at them, her gaze resolute: “Yes, take time off. We need to seclude ourselves.”

“No problem for me!” Chu Sheng said eagerly, “Our final exams don’t start until eight days from now.”

Zheng Jiakun also nodded: “I only have one exam on the seventh day.”

They all looked at Xue Jiao, perhaps the only one among them who attended every class, a proper and disciplined student.

Xue Jiao thought for a moment. She was similar to Chu Sheng, with final exams starting seven days later, though she still had classes this week…

“No problem, I’ll ask for leave.”

“Little Junior isn’t going to review? Not afraid of failing?” Yang Zhan raised an eyebrow, teasing with a wink.

Xue Jiao smiled lightly: “If not reviewing meant failing, I wouldn’t dare say such things.”

Everyone laughed together.

They were all bold; in the last week of classes, professors mostly took attendance, and not showing up basically meant forfeiting the regular grade points, so the final exam… would rely entirely on the paper score.

Having made their decision, those who needed to make calls did so, and those who needed to ask for leave did so.

Xue Jiao informed Professor Tan, and then sent messages to her family and Lin Zhihua.

Chu Sheng borrowed the large lab next door from Professor Jin, where they could rest at night.

After everything was settled, the laboratory door closed.

The seclusion officially began.

By then… either they would succeed, or they would completely fail—there were only two possible outcomes.