Chapter 67

As soon as the page loaded, Tao Shushu saw Nan Yuan welding.
The protective goggles were rusty and not particularly appealing, but when Nan Yuan wore them, they made the skin around his eyes appear even paler. Iron filings fell on his face, adding a battle-worn kind of beauty.
Tao Shushu clutched her chest and took a sharp breath.
Nan Yuan was just too good-looking.
Nan Yuan was diligently learning to repair robots, with Dr. Xie watching nearby under the guise of teaching, though it felt more like surveillance.
Tao Shushu didn’t disturb Nan Yuan and focused on watching him work.
Nan Yuan continuously assembled and welded, occasionally testing the components, and Tao Shushu watched with great interest.
The sparks flying everywhere were like blooming fireworks, and Nan Yuan sat right behind them.
Tao Shushu couldn’t resist and took a screenshot to commemorate the moment.
After watching the scenery along the way, the bus finally arrived at the entrance of Yancheng No.1 Highschool.
The students, now well-rested, began comparing answers with one another.
Tao Shushu was surrounded in the center. Every time she explained a question, her classmates would react with either excitement or regret.
One student flipped through his scratch paper and asked, "Shushu, for the electromagnetic field question, I calculated the electric field first. Can I still get partial credit for the steps?"
He was referring to the second-to-last proof question. Tao Shushu thought for a moment and replied, "Proving the electric field first is possible, but it's easy to make a mistake. Did you pay attention to the condition for positive charges?"
"Ah?" the student groaned. "I forgot. Oh well..."
Li Xin had studied the questions as soon as they were released at noon. He nodded and said, "That's right. The positive charge condition was a trap. If you didn't account for the conversion condition, you'd get it wrong."
Tao Shushu had also noticed this while solving the problem and had perfectly avoided the trap.
After comparing her answers with Li Xin's, Tao Shushu smiled. She hadn't made any mistakes, and now all that was left was to wait for the exam results.
After bidding farewell to her teachers and classmates, Tao Shushu hopped off the bus and waited for her family's car to pick her up.
At the entrance, she spotted Shen Yichen holding a model.
As soon as Shen Yichen saw her, he waved her over.
Tao Shushu had a good impression of Shen Yichen, so she walked over and asked, "Senior Shen, is there something you need?"
"It's not safe near the school with all the surveillance cameras. I have something to discuss with you," Shen Yichen said seriously.
Just then, the Tao family's driver arrived. Tao Shushu invited Shen Yichen into the car.
Once the soundproof partition was raised, Tao Shushu had a hunch that this conversation might provide a breakthrough in dealing with Qin Rui and the Academic Genius System.
"That day in the hallway, I deliberately reminded you," Shen Yichen recounted the situation from a few days prior.
Like Qin Rui, he had already been admitted to university through early acceptance. However, his interests and strengths lay in programming, so his school and major were different from Qin Rui's.
"Qin Rui invited me to join a newly established interdisciplinary laboratory abroad, but I felt I was just a highschool student, so I declined," Shen Yichen explained.
Qin Rui had enough wealth to recruit any talent he wanted. No matter how capable Shen Yichen was, he was still just a high school student. What Qin Rui saw in him was certainly not his research abilities as a high school student.
As soon as Qin Rui hinted at it, Tao Shushu understood this simple logic.
Things were becoming clearer in Tao Shushu's mind. In the original story, Shen Yichen was also a supporting character with a role. What Qin Rui wanted was precisely these supporting characters, Qin Rui himself, Jia Xu's talent, Wang Tianba's downfall...
[System, verify whether all the supporting characters in the original story have been united by Qin Rui,] Tao Shushu said.
Seeing Tao Shushu lost in thought, Shen Yichen didn’t rush her.
Tao Shushu smiled apologetically and listened as Shen Yichen continued.
That day, Qin Rui had been trying to persuade him. When they reached the stairs, Qin Rui spotted Tao Shushu and suddenly turned pale. Shen Yichen also noticed Qin Rui clenching his fists, as if ready to charge into a fight.
Acting decisively, Shen Yichen threw his book. On the surface, it was to stop Qin Rui from pestering him, but in reality, it was a warning to Tao Shushu that someone was coming.
That day, he had deliberately helped Tao Shushu.
Shen Yichen told Tao Shushu everything, Qin Rui’s attempts to persuade him, the specific details of the lab incident.
"Thank you," Tao Shushu said, puzzled. "But why did you decide to help me?"
"It wasn’t me." Shen Yichen opened the model box.
Inside, a small blue machine with a heart-shaped expression on its face greeted, "Hello."
"Xun?" When preparing for her debate with Su Momo, Tao Shushu had discovered a very useful language AI, the very Xun in front of her.
"To be precise, this is Xun’s smart portable translation terminal form, similar to AI smart home devices on the market, but with a different functional focus."
When Tao Shushu chatted with Xun on her phone or through web pages, Xun behaved quite normally.
But this terminal version in Shen Yichen’s hand kept emitting little hearts.
It was rather cute.
"Xun was created by me and a friend. My partner was more talented than me, but after an injury, he could no longer code, and our project failed. Still, I’ve grown accustomed to relying on Xun’s big data for decision-making. Some posts about you on the forum were handled by Xun itself."
As Shen Yichen spoke the first sentence, Xun made a crying expression. By the end, Xun blinked shyly and emitted even more little hearts.
"Xun thinks very highly of you," Shen Yichen said.
"Thank you. Does Xun have a low opinion of Qin Rui?" Tao Shushu asked.
"To be precise, it’s the recent Qin Rui. Before, Xun didn’t have any particular bias against him. But it doesn’t think highly of Su Momo. Oh, don’t doubt it, during your debate, the one scoring wasn’t this terminal; it was strictly impartial..."
Before Shen Yichen could finish, a red light suddenly flashed on Xun’s head, and it made an expression as if fuming with anger.
The next second, Xun began broadcasting line by line: "Deleted, deleted..."
At the same time, Tao Shushu’s phone vibrated.
It was a screenshot sent by Li Anyu, a post from the Huiwen Campus Forum.
"I am Jia Xu, a student from Yancheng No.1 Highschool. I was supposed to participate in the National Middle School Physics Competition today. My grades have always been excellent, as teachers and students at No. 1 High can attest. However, because I accidentally spoke a few words to Tao Shushu from your school this morning, she cursed me with dark magic, causing me to completely fail to understand the questions during the exam and miss my chance at the physics competition..."
Meanwhile, a trending topic suddenly appeared on social media, directly accusing Huiwen Highschool of condoning students learning dark magic.
Tao Shushu’s debate video had previously gone viral. Without her knowledge, she had gained some online fans due to her looks and fluent English.
The trending topic included that video, explicitly identifying the person as Tao Shushu, and the topic was climbing unnaturally fast.
Li Anyu quickly sent another message: "Shushu, this person is insane. He’s blaming you because he couldn’t handle the difficulty. Luckily, the post was deleted. Don’t worry about the trending topic; I’ll think of something."
"It seems you already know what happened," Shen Yichen said.
At the same time, Xun chimed in with a faint, sulky tone, "Who is this person? Shushu actually ignored me to listen to her first."
The system was also clamoring in Tao Shushu's mind, [Why are you staring at this low-level AI? Am I not fast enough? I’ve already figured out what happened.]
Tao Shushu simply found Xun’s expressions vivid, there was no need for such rivalry, and she didn’t understand it.
Xun added, "The other party stole a real-name account belonging to a student at our school, so I deleted it according to the rules."" It even struck a pose with its hands on its hips.
Tao Shushu couldn’t help but chuckle. She reassured Li Anyu before continuing her conversation with Shen Yichen.
"Thank you, Senior Shen. I’ll handle the matter, and I appreciate you coming to tell me," Tao Shushu said. She had actually been wanting to find Shen Yichen, but he hadn’t been at school these past few days.
Shen Yichen pointed at Xun. "It was the one who made me come. It insisted on seeing you in person to warn you that even the school isn’t safe. It also said something, "
"Any drama can stem from reality, but it doesn’t have to be reality," Xun interjected eagerly.
Tao Shushu pondered for a moment, then nodded. "Thank you, Xun."
Xun made a shy expression.
Shen Yichen remarked, "Although I use artificial intelligence for decision-making, it’s not like superstitious people relying on fortune-tellers. But lately, Xun has been getting more and more conspiratorial. I don’t even know what it means."
"Hmph, you don’t understand me because you didn’t write my core program," Xun retorted, trying to display a robotic arm pattern as it attempted to stay close to Tao Shushu’s hand.
After Shen Yichen left, Tao Shushu asked, [Do you think Qin Rui’s experiment is just a pipe dream?]
Tao Shushu had come to realize that Qin Rui didn’t care about producing shocking results. He just wanted to gather all the notable characters together and fabricate an achievement that would earn him praise from the world.
As the protagonist, he could even make others act foolishly, making it all seem effortless.
Her phone vibrated intermittently, Li Anyu was reporting that Jia Xu, after discovering his account had been banned, had gone on a rampage in other public places and even contacted journalists, threatening to cause trouble at Huiwen Highschool.
Tao Shushu shook her head, recalling Li Anyu’s mention that Qin Rui would also attend the princess’s evening banquet.
The timing and setting for showcasing his aura were all falling into place.
Tao Shushu noted the princess’s evening banquet in her schedule. Shortly after, she received a message from Li Xin.
Li Xin informed her that the school had detected unusual online sentiment and asked how she wanted to handle it, whether her parents needed to be notified.
After a moment’s thought, Tao Shushu replied that there was no need to trouble her parents.
Tao Shushu had just gotten out of the car to attend a small meeting back at the school conference room when she spotted a security guard stealthily opening one of the side access gates.
The guard looked shifty and clearly up to no good, and his face was unfamiliar to her.
Tao Shushu let out a surprised "Huh?" and walked over to the entrance. "What are you doing?"
The guard was startled, dropping his phone to the ground. As it fell, Tao Shushu caught a glimpse of the screen, a notification for a 20,000 yuan transfer and a command message: "Pretend to accidentally let the troublemakers into the school. Just open the gate away from the guard post."
Tao Shushu picked up the phone and snorted coldly. To be honest, she didn’t have much patience for opponents who only knew how to play dirty tricks.
Realizing he’d been caught and seeing only a female student before him, the guard’s expression turned menacing. "Give it to me," he demanded.
Tao Shushu tightened her grip on the phone.
"Hand it over, or I won’t be polite," the guard threatened, grabbing a baton.
Tao Shushu blinked. "Even if you get the phone back, the evidence is here. You’ll still face consequences."
The guard had clearly considered that, but the temptation of 20,000 yuan was too strong. All he had to do was open a gate. It was Saturday, he was the only one on duty, and his shift was almost over. It should have been foolproof, until someone saw him.
A vicious glint flashed in the guard’s eyes. If he could just retrieve the phone and destroy the evidence, the surveillance cameras were already disabled, there’d be no proof…
He strode over to Tao Shushu, intending to grab her.
But Tao Shushu subdued him in just two moves. She twisted his arms behind his back, removed his walkie-talkie, and called in, "There’s an incident at the school gate. Please send someone to handle it."
While waiting for the campus security team to arrive, Tao Shushu took a quick look around. To facilitate the trouble, the guard had even disabled the surveillance cameras at the entrance.
Fortunately, anticipating that Jia Xu might stir up trouble and that it could be misinterpreted, she had specifically asked the driver to aim the car’s dashcam toward the gate.
The guard, now kneeling on the ground, wept bitterly. He knew it was all over. He couldn’t understand how this seemingly frail female student could be so skilled in martial arts.
Tao Shushu crossed her legs, quietly comparing her own performance just now to Nan Yuan’s.
When Nan Yuan fought Bob, Bob was already a tough opponent, focused and determined to win that day. Yet Nan Yuan had taken him down in just five moves.
She had only needed two moves to handle this guard. Even though she hadn’t practiced much since transmigrating to this peaceful world, her skills hadn’t deteriorated.
Just as she pulled out her phone, Tao Shushu felt it was strange how she wanted to share everything with Nan Yuan.
She put her phone away just as the security captain arrived.
The moment he saw Tao Shushu, the captain began apologizing profusely. "I’m so sorry, something happened…"
Then he noticed the guard lying on the ground and was completely stunned.
Tao Shushu briefly explained what had happened and mentioned that she had dashcam footage proving the guard had attacked first.
The captain checked the phone and apologized repeatedly. Recognizing Tao Shushu, he said, "We were just in a meeting discussing this matter."
In the captain’s view, there was no such thing as dark magic. The messages on the bribed guard’s phone clearly indicated a conspiracy behind the whole incident, so the captain immediately called the police.
As this unfolded, Tao Shushu listened to the system’s notifications in her mind.
[On the surface, Qin Rui was exceptionally selected to join the newly established laboratory, but in reality, this plan was sponsored and spearheaded by the Qin family.]
[Qin Rui chose supporting characters who already had a certain social status and were beginning to make a name for themselves to participate in the laboratory, inviting them to take charge of projects.]
[For supporting characters who hadn't yet appeared, such as Jia Xu, he chose to seize their talents.]
[Was it worth helping Jia Xu, letting Qin Rui know that you were aware of his plan? And Jia Xu was even incited to target you.] the system asked.
Jia Xu's talent had been restored with Tao Shushu's help, but Qin Rui quickly responded. Under the influence of the Academic Genius System's intelligence-lowering halo, Jia Xu became convinced that it was all Tao Shushu's deliberate retaliation, that she had intentionally suppressed him for the sake of the competition, and his sudden inability to solve problems during the exam was due to some dark sorcery.
Filled with resentment, Jia Xu wanted to seek justice, but everyone thought he was hallucinating due to academic pressure and refused to believe him.
At this point, Qin Rui arranged for reporters, media, money, vehicles, and even bribed the school security guards to incite Jia Xu to cause trouble.
No matter how absurd his claims were, Qin Rui could apply the intelligence-lowering halo, making those who saw the news believe that Tao Shushu practiced dark sorcery and had maliciously caused a classmate who offended her to be cursed during the exam.
She would still become a scapegoat despised by everyone, and those who spoke up for her would be labeled as idiots.
Tao Shushu sneered coldly, [My only regret is not beating Qin Rui until even his own father wouldn't recognize him the first time I saw him.]
She gazed at the playground of Huiwen Highschool. As a wealthy private school, it had exceptionally well-developed infrastructure.
She recalled when she first transferred to this school and happened to witness the flag-raising ceremony. Qin Rui was giving a speech on the podium, and at that time, he seemed to be saying something about taking pride in his alma mater.
Qin Rui had once regarded Huiwen Highschool as a proud alma mater, but now, for the sake of his personal schemes, he was willing to manipulate public opinion, showing no concern for Huiwen Highschool's reputation and image.
Tao Shushu let out a light laugh, feeling pity for Qin Rui. When he first confronted her, he had seemed to look down on Su Momo's methods.
But in truth, compared to Su Momo, he was just as despicable.
Tao Shushu hesitated no longer. In this school, there were still lovely classmates, teachers who bustled about for her, and support staff...
She was not one for individual heroism. Everyone who had experienced the apocalypse knew that an individual's impact on the world was minimal. But now, the war between her and Qin Rui was essentially a battle between the truth of this world and the foreign Academic Genius System. She didn't know if she had the ability to accomplish this alone, but she wanted to do her utmost to protect the truth of this world.