The back gate of Keda.
The early summer evening breeze had shed its last trace of chill. Now, it carried a touch of warmth, mingling with the strong smell of cumin and the smoky char of charcoal from the roadside stalls as it drifted freely down the entire street.
"The preliminary tests in the Capital City are finished."
Chu Ge waved a hand dismissively.
"Chu Ge, have you lost your mind? It’s not a holiday or anything. What’s gotten into you?"
Only after doing all this did Chen Zhuo raise his eyes to look at Chu Ge, whose face was brimming with irrepressible excitement. The corners of Chen Zhuo’s mouth curved up slightly.
Wang Dayong lowered his voice.
With a soft POP, the cap flew off, and white foam fizzed from the bottle’s mouth.
Hearing this, Lu Jia, who was sitting nearby, looked up. He pushed his black-framed glasses up the bridge of his nose and chimed in with a meticulous tone.
"Based on our average Engel’s coefficient for the past three months, this meal clearly exceeds the combined budgetary limits of our two dorms."
Chen Zhuo sat in the innermost seat, his back to the wall.
Lu Jia moved much faster than Wang Dayong.
"Take a look."
"Let him order."
He flattened the receipt on the greasy tabletop, holding it by the edges with two fingers, and slowly pushed it to the center of the table.
Wang Dayong, sitting across from Chu Ge, sucked in a sharp breath as he listened to the massive order. He kicked Chu Ge under the table.
"Brother Zhuo, that idea you gave me for the sparse matrix and vector multiplication was an absolute godsend. Last night, the team in the Capital City simulated ten times the peak concurrent traffic, and the server ran smoother than the hot water in our dorm."
After confirming everything was correct, he looked up, his expression for the first time filled with a bewilderment that no mathematical formula could explain.
Wang Dayong listened, completely bewildered.
Chu Ge jutted out his chin and said, feigning composure as he fought the urge to throw back his head and roar in triumph.
Chu Ge snatched the receipt back, folded it carefully, and stuffed it back into his pocket, even patting it twice for good measure.
"Rob a bank, my ass."
He snatched the receipt, pushed up his glasses, and his eyes quickly scanned the account number, date, and balance.
Lu Jia asked in all seriousness.
Chu Ge slapped his thigh, pointed at Chen Zhuo, and grinned from ear to ear.
The cattail fan in the owner’s hand paused. He glanced back at the table of four young men, who all looked like students, and offered a well-intentioned reminder.
"So, the hundred thousand is..."
Wang Dayong’s voice cracked.
"Boss, start us off with ten kidney skewers! Fifty lamb! Thirty pork belly, and make ’em extra crispy!"
"Wang Xing’s team... Last night, they integrated the underlying architecture I rewrote."
Chu Ge raised his bottle, his eyes shining with a rare light—the pride of someone who had made a real impact on the world with his own two hands.
"Just printed it out at the bank by the south gate."
Wang Dayong leaned in, suspicious.
In front of Old Li’s Barbecue Stand, four yellowed plastic chairs surrounded a square table with a chipped corner.
"If we can’t finish it, we’ll get it to-go and feed the strays."
"Fellas, are you sure you can finish all that? Ten kidney skewers aren’t cheap, you know."
The table fell silent for a few seconds.
"This meal is going to cost over a hundred, maybe close to two hundred! Are you trying to go broke? All I’ve got on me is a ten and a few coins."
The light from the streetlamp and the food stall mingled on the receipt, and the ink on it was somewhat faded.
"And bring over two cases of cold drinks. The absolute coldest you’ve got—the kind with frost on the bottles."
In an era where a student’s average monthly living expenses were just a few hundred, one hundred thousand was a fortune to a student who hadn’t even graduated yet—an amount that could change a great many things.
"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands... a hundred thousand?"
At this, Chu Ge turned to look at Chen Zhuo.
Wang Dayong squinted, his finger tapping the column of numbers on the receipt.
"They got anxious, worried I’d sell the architecture to someone else, so they wired the full amount this afternoon—principal and interest, all of it."
"The final payment, plus a bonus, plus a buyout."
He grabbed a bottle, hooked the cap on the edge of the table, and slammed his palm down on it.
A moment later, a pop-top can beaded with condensation was placed in front of Chen Zhuo.
"Did you... rob a bank?"
Chu Ge didn’t use the opener.
"Brother Zhuo gets me!"
"Boss, another can of Jianlibao! A cold one!"
Instead of explaining, Chu Ge mysteriously reached into his jeans pocket. He fumbled around for a moment before pulling out a crumpled ATM receipt.
Just then, the owner walked over carrying a case of frosty cold drinks and casually set a bottle opener on the table.
The tabletop, coated in a layer of grease that hadn’t been properly wiped clean in who knows how long, shimmered faintly under the low-wattage bulb overhead.
Chen Zhuo’s voice was gentle, yet carried a matter-of-fact certainty.
He opened two more bottles in the same way, pushing one to Wang Dayong and another to Lu Jia while keeping one for himself. Then, he turned his head and shouted to the owner.
Chu Ge took a huge gulp. The cold liquid rushed down his throat, and the chill made him shudder.
He didn’t join Wang Dayong and Lu Jia in questioning Chu Ge. Instead, he calmly pulled four pairs of disposable chopsticks from the plastic holder on the table. He rubbed them together to smooth away any splinters before handing them out to the other three.
He snapped his head up, his eyes wide as saucers. He stared intently at Chu Ge, holding his breath for a couple of seconds.
"Looks like Boss Chu finally cashed in big time. He’s been itching to treat us to this meal for a while now. If we don’t let him, he’ll be too wound up to sleep tonight."
Chu Ge sat sprawled in the seat by the aisle, turning his head to shout at the owner, who was busy flipping skewers over a charcoal grill.
Wang Dayong swallowed hard and reached for the bottle in front of him.

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