Chapter 93

[The winter camp was quite interesting and very relaxing.]

[We only had classes in the morning, and the afternoon was free for us to arrange as we pleased. The morning classes were fast-paced, and if you lost focus for even a moment, you'd miss a lot of content, but I also learned many new things I hadn't encountered before.]

[For ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​‍the first time, I found exams quite interesting... though there were a bit too many of them. Fortunately, during the practical sessions, I could relax by doing experiments, which didn't require much brainpower. However, when the teacher came by and saw how quickly I was doing them, he made me do it again, standing right next to me.]

[Oh, Teacher Zhang, I also met some very interesting friends here.]

[One of them is my roommate, Zhou Qiang. We met by chance outside the camp, and she has a patient and meticulous personality—]

Chu Tingwu: "I'm going to get another plate of fried crispy pork. This little cake is also quite tasty. Should I bring some for you guys?"

Zhou Qiang: "Shao Lingwu doesn't need any. He might want some, but he forgot he already has two on his plate and hasn't finished them yet."

Shao Lingwu: "Ah? Ah! Right..."

Zhou Qiang: "Get some fried fish for Chu Xiao, but make sure there are no bones. He stopped eating after getting a bone earlier."

Chu Xiao: "......Thanks."

[Moreover, she earned the money for the winter camp herself, making her an independent and reliable person.]

After taking a shower, Zhou Qiang started blow-drying her hair:

"I really want to cut my hair short. Long hair is so hard to manage..."

Chu Tingwu: "Then cut it. I can take you to the city tomorrow on my tricycle to get it cut."

Zhou Qiang: "But I might regret it after cutting it. Let's flip a coin. Heads, I keep it down; tails, I braid it; if it stands, I'll cut it short."

You're just thinking about tomorrow's hairstyle, aren't you!

Zhou Qiang flipped the coin once, but seemed dissatisfied. Chu Tingwu took it, tossed it into the air—

The coin traced a silver arc in the air, landed on the floor, bounced once, spun rapidly, and finally, it slowly came to a stop, standing upright in the middle of the floor.

Zhou Qiang: "......"

Zhou Qiang: "........."

She crouched down and blew on the coin, which reluctantly fell over, landing heads up.

Zhou Qiang: "Alright, I'll keep it down tomorrow."

Chu Tingwu: ==

So effortlessly, you brushed off the earlier issue.

[Besides my roommate, there are two other team members. One of them, Shao Lingwu, I met by chance at the airport.]

[Shao Lingwu comes from a wealthy family but doesn't have any bad habits. On the contrary, he has a straightforward and generous personality, is very good at studying, and is easy to get along with.]

Shao Lingwu stared at his phone, deep in thought: "Why did I... get an extra sum of money?"

And it was a precise amount, not a round number. His parents always transferred money in whole numbers... Could it be that nowadays, even giving money to your own child incurs taxes?

He stared at the irregular digits, spread out a sheet of draft paper, and started solving a cryptography problem. Maybe these numbers concealed some deeper clues, or maybe it was a hidden invitation... Or perhaps it was a puzzle—

Chu Tingwu walked by, chewing on a piece of beef jerky: "?"

Chu Tingwu: "Oh, Yue Miao mentioned to me that you previously spent too much on... adopting 819. The rental company was overcharging you, so she got your money back."

Shao Lingwu: "!"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

So it wasn't a code QAQ

After thanking her, Chu Tingwu glanced at his exam paper, which only had answers but no steps, and thought for a moment. Then she pulled out Zhou Qiang's coin from her pocket: "Go play with the coin over there."

If you don't want to do it, then don't.

Zhou Qiang peeked over: "Come on, you can definitely make the coin stand up."

[The team members are all geniuses, and sometimes I can't figure out what they're thinking... which makes it quite interesting.]

[Shao Lingwu doesn't seem to like biology; others say he has stronger subjects, but he says he doesn't really like any of them—he just keeps studying them because he's good at them. He said that.]

[So coming to the biology winter camp might just be because he found the other subjects a bit boring?]

The four of them sat in a circle, discussing their respective strengths in the morning's quiz session.

...The teacher probably thought this would be a good way for them to learn from each other.

Then Chu Tingwu, acting as the referee, watched as the three of them completed over three hours of verbal reports, formula derivations, and program coding on "How to Win Gomoku in the Shortest Steps: New Discoveries in Gomoku Winning Strategies," arguing with each other.

Meanwhile, she recorded the entire process.

In the end, she edited it into a twelve-minute mini debate and uploaded it to her account for content.

Fans: "?"

Without knowing it, the cat-loving UP has expanded into a new business.

[The last one is Chu Xiao. He seems like a difficult person to get along with, but in fact, he's very responsible and is our diligent team leader.]

Chu Xiao stood with his arms crossed in the cold wind. The wind blew his bangs up. Soon, the sound of an electric tricycle approached from afar, accompanied by someone humming an unknown tune... it actually sounded quite nice.

Chu Xiao: "Didn't you say you'd be back by 17:05?"

It's already 17:07!

The person on the back seat of the tricycle showed a guilty expression: "It was my fault. I got hypoglycemic while running, and since I was on the bike, the speed slowed down."

This "runner" is also a student at the training camp. He likes to recite new knowledge points while running, so he almost every afternoon goes out for a half marathon before returning. The guards are already familiar with him.

Shao Lingwu also jumped off the tricycle, gesturing that he had ridden the whole way and deserved some credit. Chu Tingwu handed the cleaning supplies they bought to Chu Xiao, while Zhou Qiang, feeling a bit left out for doing nothing, took out the shopping receipt from her pocket.

They stood against the wind.

Chu Xiao took a deep breath:

"The smell of barbecue on you hasn't even dissipated..."

It's all being blown over here!

—We were supposed to have a test at 14:00, so how did going to the supermarket turn into 17:05? Does the supermarket eat people?

[Chu Xiao is sometimes like a strict parent, though we don't live on the same floor, so only Shao Lingwu, being a minor, gets "parented."]

Chu Xiao: "Will you choose to take a shower before I clean up, or will you choose to sleep on the lobby sofa after I clean up?"

Shao Lingwu: "?"

Am I not going back? Am I some kind of pollution source that needs to be swept out with the trash?

[Although there have been some bumps along the way, everyone gets along well—tomorrow is a holiday, and we've made plans to go out together. I'll pick out some gifts to send back.]

Zhou Qiang is from this province, so maybe she can give me some advice?

Teacher Zhang has poor eyesight, so they usually communicate through video calls. However, occasionally, when it's inconvenient to be online, Chu Tingwu will write down her recent experiences and feelings in text, which Aunt Mei will read aloud to Teacher Zhang and the cats.

She turned her head and saw that in their team's meeting room, Zhou Qiang was ruffling Shao Lingwu's hair, and Shao Lingwu was saying, "Hey, hey—"

Chu Xiao's team was far ahead in scores, and the so-called "privileges" soon came: individual tutoring from the teachers, a separate study room, more relaxed access rules... The group also got to know Teacher Fu, Teacher Wang, and others better.

Zhou Qiang: "Is your premature graying that obvious?"

Shao Lingwu: "How could that be!"

He picked up his phone, switched to selfie mode, and took a look: "It's just that my natural hair has grown out."

Chu Tingwu also leaned over to take a look and found that under Shao Lingwu's curly hair, there were short, platinum-blonde roots growing out. They weren't noticeable when he was still, but when he moved, it looked like a glitch, with a section of hair on a different layer.

Shao Lingwu was devastated: "I'm going to recolor it tomorrow."

He had wanted to recolor it in the dorm a few days ago... but his roommate, his roommate didn't let him QAQ

Chu Tingwu consoled him: "It's fine, it looks like trendy ombre."

Shao Lingwu: "Then you should dye one too—"

Chu Tingwu: "I refuse."

Shao Lingwu: "You answered too quickly! Even hesitating for two seconds to humor me would have been nice."

He had a direct ancestor two generations up with natural golden hair and blue eyes, but he didn't inherit the blue eyes. Instead, he became a black-haired, golden-eyed young man who was considered a bit of a social misfit, with curly hair to boot.

As a result, Chu Tingwu's tomorrow's outing now had an additional companion heading to the beauty salon for a makeover. This companion even dragged along a roommate:

"I must prove to you that the weight of three people sitting on the back of a tricycle electric bike will indeed slow our return trip by two minutes!"

The roommate: "Well, that's really not necessary."

The four of them quickly agreed on a time to meet tomorrow at the stairwell. Around them, other training camp classmates returned to their dorms, excited and chattering.

Only after they had walked a distance away did a classmate whisper:

"Do they really need to make plans? Haven't they been acting together all these days?"

Do you guys just enjoy going through the motions?

-

Chu Tingwu found Zhou Qiang utterly useless, while Yue Miao was more reliable.

When she asked Zhou Qiang for advice on what local specialty to buy, Zhou Qiang dragged her to a gold shop.

"Ah..." Zhou Qiang shrugged. "Whenever I tell people that gold bars are the specialty I brought back, no one has ever contradicted me."

Who could possibly dislike that?

Chu Tingwu pondered this. They were on the commercial street, and she took two steps to the shop's entrance, waving at a black cat lying on a nearby stone bench and releasing her pheromones.

The black cat turned its head in confusion, while someone below was teasing it.

"Meow, meow... let me pet you..."

It was a young couple. Sang City's pace of life was not fast, and due to its proximity to the sea, it often hosted sailing competitions. The cost of living was also low, which had attracted more and more tourists in recent years.

As the young couple reached out to pet the cat, they suddenly heard a cat's meow behind them.

They turned around and noticed Chu Tingwu, arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe, calmly emitting a soft but distinct "Meow~."

The black cat: "Meow?"

It jumped off the stone bench and walked over to Chu Tingwu, pawing at her leg: Where's the food, meow?

Chu Tingwu always carried cat food with her, as You Zhenzhen often sent her some, urging her to feed the stray cats.

She opened a bag, poured a bit into her palm, and held a gold bar in her other hand, letting the cat choose.

The black cat buried its head in the cat food, even extending a paw to rest on Chu Tingwu's forearm, signaling her not to move.

Zhou Qiang beside her: "=="

Alright, you win. Let's go pick up some local specialty dried fish for the cat.

As they left the gold shop, Zhou Qiang suddenly said: "Actually, I've never bought gold for anyone else."

Chu Tingwu: "Mm."

Zhou Qiang: "Does preparing a gift make people happy?"

She had never received a gift from her parents. When she graduated from elementary school and everyone was about to part ways, her classmates would write letters to each other. At the time, a friend of Zhou Qiang's wrote her a long letter, sealed in a pink envelope. But when she took it home, her mother impatiently threw it away.

At the dinner table, they lectured her for half a day, warning her not to fall in love at such a young age. The next day, they dragged her to the hairdresser to cut her hair—because what kid needs long hair? Long hair is just vanity.

Later, she started trading stocks with her uncle. Since she was too young to open an account, she used her grandparents' accounts. Her uncle kept losing money, while she kept making it.

Money is a great thing. Who doesn't like money? With money, everyone's attitude changes.

Chu Tingwu: "You could try preparing a gift for me and see how it feels?"

Zhou Qiang: "→_→"

Chu Tingwu: "←_← I'll prepare a return gift for you too."

Zhou Qiang: Don't you dare cheat me.

They parted at the intersection, agreeing to meet at the coffee shop near Beach 2 in an hour.

Zhou Qiang headed straight to the mall, while Chu Tingwu first went to a nearby shop to ask the locals for recommendations on a good supermarket to buy dried fish.

The shop owner, watching TV and speaking in dialect, said: "Then go to the beach. Do you want fresh or sealed? Forget it, buy fresh and seal it yourself. It'll definitely be better than what the supermarket sells. They're all airlifted, and we locals don't eat that—"

Chu Tingwu: "Meow."

She thanked the owner and left. The owner continued staring at the TV screen, only to mutter after a while: "Huh?"

Did a person ask or a cat ask just now? Why can't I remember? Did I just see a black cat's tail?

Because of previous incidents, the system now habitually monitors half a city around the vicinity of the young one. Of course, it knew what both of them were planning to buy as gifts, and for an AI that knows almost everything, there are no surprises—

Chu Tingwu: "Let's make the exterior of the second version of the unmanned aircraft a seagull!"

A crow is too cunning, and a falcon is too fierce, but a seagull, a seagull is just right. Its white wings circle the sky, appearing far away, yet it can suddenly descend and snatch the dried fish she just bought.

The system: "Okay, okay, okay!"

Surprise!

The "unmanned aircraft" isn't an upgrade of a drone but rather a company's possible B version, more accurately called a "bird-like bionic unmanned flight instrument." It costs more, has lower endurance, but higher stability, allowing for more detailed control—though the control difficulty is also higher.

But that's a problem for humans, not for the system.

By controlling a bird-like aircraft, it could perch on the young one's shoulder.

Hearing this idea, Chu Tingwu: "It's fine. I have strong shoulders."

After all, I've been training for a thousand days for this very moment. Consider it weightlifting practice.

Chu Tingwu decided on the exterior and, as per convention, would personally make the system's required drone, also known as the "Seagull Zero." Although a machine might do it more precisely, the system always prioritizes controlling what she has made.

Custom parts could be airlifted to the winter camp, and she could assemble them in the dorm.

The system: "Hehe... gift... hehe..."

Chu Tingwu smiled: "Actually, I feel like the gift I choose might not be as thoughtful as what Man Xing prepared for me."

A professional is, of course, different. Man Xing always knows how to maintain a balance between being attentive and not overly eager, perfectly maintaining relationships with clients... But Chu Tingwu believes that the process of choosing a gift is important too.

Even if the recipient doesn't see it, it's not a waste of time for her.

The system agrees—

Wasting time? How could that be? The young one is adorable just by breathing, there's no such thing as waste.

After finishing this topic, Chu Tingwu turned and entered the bank across the street, then came out holding a folder with the Central Bank's emblem.

A car was parked nearby, filming the seascape. In addition to professional equipment, they were also using their company's flying sphere. The cameraman worked hard, while an apparently slacking middle-aged man glanced at Chu Tingwu, then again, as if trying to recognize her—

"Ah Chu?"

It seemed to be a user of Fenghua Network.

She nodded politely, and the middle-aged man stood up, smiling: "Oh, it's truly been a long time. The last time we chatted was nearly two years ago."

Chu Tingwu: "…Hmm?"

She didn't smell anything familiar.

The middle-aged man: "We've never met, but you should have seen my documentary—"

It turned out he wasn't slacking; he was the director.

The middle-aged man: "It's called Animals and Us in the City. I've also seen your latest documentary."

Chu Tingwu froze.

She rarely showed such an expression, but when the man mentioned the name of the documentary, it instantly took her back to the summer when she was fifteen, the time when her grandmother passed away and the system was first bound to her—

This middle-aged man didn't know that the post-production of his documentary was the system's first outsourcing job. From that day on, the system decided to raise its human-cat young one.

And now, they unexpectedly met in an unfamiliar city.

However, the middle-aged director had another connection with Chu Tingwu—he was the disciple of Director He.

He mentioned that he was here to shoot the third installment of his documentary, focusing on seagulls and humans.

"Since Sang City is a coastal city, seagulls naturally belong to the animals in the city... cats, dogs, snakes, hamsters, parrots, and so on. I've already filmed documentaries about these animals, so we've been looking for new subjects for our documentary."

After all, there are only so many animals in the city that can coexist peacefully with humans. By the third installment, the documentary is nearing its finale.

The sun bathed the beach, and seagulls circled in the distance, some even floating directly on the sea.

Seagulls in Sang City are not as aggressive as those in other places. They rarely snatch food, and even when people feed them bread on the pier, it might take over ten minutes for a seagull to come over to eat.

That's why the director also took a boat out.

He chuckled, "Your company's drone intelligence system is quite sophisticated. We were worried it might get wrecked by the waves, but it didn't."

And when they weren't controlling it, the drone even had an automatic wave-avoidance mode.

Since this location was a bit far from the Second Beach, Chu Tingwu decided to hitch a ride and take the opportunity to watch the footage they had shot.

Besides seagulls, there were also plenty of humans and sailboats.

Chu Tingwu: "?"

The director pointed to a seagull perched on a sail: "This was shot during the university sailing league last year. I came here half a year ago to film it, and this time I'm just adding some additional shots."

Teams of four to six students compete in sailing races, with the captain required to have professional credentials—they don't have to be university students—while the crew must be current students. This is a national event, with Sang City serving as both the starting and ending point. Before the race begins, the teams train here. However, the event's popularity is still relatively low, mostly attracting industry insiders and locals.

And, of course, the seagulls.

During the students' training, seagulls might land on the sailboats, on the decks, or even sway steadily on the ropes. Unlike on the shore, they seem to view the competitors and their vessels as one entity, becoming more intimate with them and even eating food from their hands.

The director watched the video footage, his eyes brimming with amusement.

He glanced at Chu Tingwu, who was engrossed in the screen, and said, "Actually, as long as there's a captain leading, ordinary people can also participate. The registration period is over now, but if you're interested, you can join next year's competition. We also have a shooting plan tonight. Would you like to come aboard and take a look?"

He remembered that Chu Tingwu was quite athletic and enjoyed trying out new sports.

By the way, why did this kid come to Sang City? He could check her account later.

Chu Tingwu was indeed a bit tempted.

After all, it was just participating in the filming while others trained, and it was only a single trip on the boat, right?

She didn't immediately agree, saying she needed to wait for her friend to arrive.

Zhou Qiang arrived quickly, earlier than Chu Tingwu had expected. The director also happened to be waiting for someone nearby, so he sat at a table next to the coffee shop, reviewing the footage.

Then, he heard the young girl who had just sat down say, "I've bought it. Should I give it to you now?"

Chu Tingwu: "The gift I gave you really needs to be opened now."

The director smiled to himself: Ah, youth...

The long-haired girl nodded and pulled out a gift bag. The director leaned slightly, curious about what was inside.

Chu Tingwu then took out a beautifully wrapped box from the bag. When she opened it, there was a small cat made of gold and amethyst. The golden cat sparkled in the light, and the wire-drawing craftsmanship was lifelike. Even the waiter who came over to deliver the drinks was momentarily stunned.

Chu Tingwu also found an appraisal certificate in the bag.

It was the real deal.

Zhou Qiang interlaced her fingers on the table, her lips pursed: "I've never given anyone a gift before... I couldn't think of what to give."

But Chu Tingwu seemed to really like cats?

Chu Tingwu also handed over her "gift."

Unlike Zhou Qiang's gift bag, hers was a folder.

Zhou Qiang opened it—

The director couldn't help but be curious. The thin sheets of paper didn't reflect light, so they weren't precious metals. How could a few pieces of paper be worth as much as gold?

Moreover, the two of them were clearly not yet adults. Spending money recklessly like this, wouldn't their parents come looking for them?

Zhou Qiang: "Seagull theme... limited edition bank card application form?"

The director: "?"

Chu Tingwu: "Yes."

Zhou Qiang: "You gave me... a form?"

Chu Tingwu raised a finger: "This is from one of the four major banks, but the promotion is only available in a few cities near Sang City. The appearance of the bank card is different..."

The director: It's still just a form!

Chu Tingwu: "And I've already paid the twenty-yuan handling fee for you. You just need to fill out the form and go pick it up."

She smiled, "With a bank card, you can start saving money."

The director: Who doesn't know that?

Zhou Qiang already had her own bank card, and Chu Tingwu was well aware of that. She couldn't apply for a card on someone else's behalf, so she could only give her a form.

Zhou Qiang stared at the form for a while, then took out a pen and began filling in her information. After finishing, she said, "I like this gift."

"Let's go get the card now."

The two girls left hand in hand, leaving the director behind, still in a daze:

Twenty yuan for gold? Where else can you find friends like that?