Chapter 93

Tao Shushu’s eyes lit up. She rose from the quiet classroom and stepped out into the hallway.
Her steps were light and cheerful, completely unaware of Yang Kai’s hesitant glance in her direction.
Nan Yuan, however, saw it all clearly, he even noticed Yang Kai repeatedly reaching into his desk, wanting to pull out a calculus reference book but hesitating.
"How was your day?" Nan Yuan asked.
"Where are you, Nan Yuan?" Tao Shushu had always seen Nan Yuan through her phone screen before. Now, without her phone, she had no idea where he was. She didn’t like the feeling of only Nan Yuan being able to see her.
So this was how Nan Yuan had felt all those previous times.
Nan Yuan always seemed perfectly content, smiling just at the sound of her voice, accustomed to watching over her silently, so much so that she had overlooked these kinds of issues.
Nan Yuan chuckled softly.
Tao Shushu focused all her attention on listening. The deep, cello-like voice resonated in her ear, and she felt her ears grow warm.
"Where the light resides."
Before the comprehensive teaching building, a sliver of light overflowed from the spire of the tower, trailing colorful wings as it flew into Tao Shushu's embrace.
Nan Yuan's handsome face appeared before Tao Shushu.
Gradually, Tao Shushu could see the scene on Nan Yuan's side, he was still sitting in the spaceship's laboratory, with the vast expanse of cosmic stars visible through the porthole.
"Nan Yuan!" Tao Shushu reached out her finger, placing it against Nan Yuan's palm.
Her finger passed through the air.
Yet Nan Yuan abruptly curled his hand back, as if holding Tao Shushu's hand from across the vast distance of two universes.
It was a life-sized projection of Nan Yuan.
Tao Shushu squinted and smiled.
Indeed, seeing Nan Yuan felt right. She had grown accustomed to chatting with him every noon, even if it was just trivial small talk.
Fortunately, Nan Yuan would always answer her calls.
"I'm quite happy today. By the way, the city is promoting a school uniform reform. I’ve seen the pilot schools' uniforms, they look really nice. Maybe we’ll get to wear them soon too," Tao Shushu shared excitedly. "The competition class teacher has the same style as my previous teacher, so I don’t need to readjust. The classmates are interesting too."
Nan Yuan listened with a smile as Tao Shushu shared. "Have you encountered any difficulties in your studies?"
Tao Shushu hesitated and nodded. "I didn’t participate in math competitions before, so I’m not great at calculus. I struggle a bit with problems that require integral simplification."
Nan Yuan chuckled. "Shushu, give me your email. I’ll send you some materials."
"Huh? How?" Tao Shushu asked.
"You could think of it as you using coins to help me before. Now, I can help you with small things too, like finding materials." Nan Yuan thought the system was quite useful.
Tao Shushu had the system receive the materials for her, planning to download them later from the self-service printer.
"By the way, are you getting used to the food?" After sending the carefully selected materials he had prepared earlier, Nan Yuan asked.
Tao Shushu nodded and continued chattering away with Nan Yuan.
Sometimes she talked about the training base school's environment, and other times she asked about Nan Yuan's situation.
Nan Yuan kept his head tilted, smiling.
As Tao Shushu watched, she noticed something off. "Nan Yuan, what’s wrong with your right side? Why aren’t you turning around?"
Nan Yuan smiled and said, "It’s nothing. I accidentally tore my clothes while welding a robot. I didn’t want you to worry."
Tao Shushu pouted. "Then why are you telling me now?"
"I was more afraid you’d think I was unwell and worry during your studies." Nan Yuan lowered his eyes, looking especially obedient.
Tao Shushu couldn’t bring herself to scold him for being careless. He was alone, managing all the surviving humans, formulating strategies, and constantly assembling robots, he had enough on his plate.
Tao Shushu thought for a moment. "Let me see if I can buy you some clothes now."
She tried and found she could actually access the system store.
She directly selected categories like windbreakers and combat suits, suitable for the apocalypse, but her eyes unconsciously drifted to the store’s hot new items, a very academic style, somewhere between formal suits and casual wear, with a crisp cut and excellent tailoring, paired with a metal chain pocket watch, somewhat resembling the uniforms of the students at her school.
Tao Shushu didn't look any further and began asking Nan Yuan what colors he liked and what requirements he had for materials.
Nan Yuan was momentarily stunned. In the C1 star system, artificial intelligence recorded everyone's body measurements. Based on preferences, scenarios, and physical data, AI and automation worked together to deliver custom-made clothing directly. Ordinary people rarely had the chance to choose their own clothes.
Only Man Qian occasionally helped her fashion-challenged father pick out some casual outfits.
Now, Shushu was softly asking him which piece he liked, as if they were a family selecting clothes together.
"Anything Shushu picks is fine. I trust Shushu's taste," Nan Yuan said.
"Alright." Tao Shushu selected a few outfits, but when closing the system mall, she couldn't help lingering over the new arrivals.
Nan Yuan timely remarked, "I just saw Shushu's classmates wearing clothes like that. Is that what you call a school uniform?"
A flicker of longing appeared in his eyes, but he quickly concealed it.
Tao Shushu's heart instantly ached. Nan Yuan must miss the normal world deeply, and here she was constantly mentioning school matters in front of him.
"It's the school uniform. I'll buy you a set too. Rounding up, we're practically classmates now," Tao Shushu said.
Just as Tao Shushu had anticipated, Nan Yuan looked exceptionally refined and handsome in this style of clothing.
His long-term physical training had given him an excellent physique.
The golden pocket watch glowed faintly, accentuating Nan Yuan's gentle eyes and brows, making him resemble a little prince lost in the human world.
Tao Shushu nearly stared blankly, regretting that this wasn't on her phone where she could screenshot Nan Yuan's appearance as a keepsake.
But the life-sized projection provided an excellent way for Tao Shushu to observe him.
Nan Yuan stood a full head taller than Tao Shushu. His slightly lowered eyes and brows appeared particularly tender and affectionate.
The clothing's clean lines wrapped around his body, outlining his lean and powerful waist.
Tao Shushu cleared her throat lightly, "It looks good. If you came to our school, you'd definitely be the school heartthrob."
"Really? I think there are many, many handsome people in Shushu's world."
"Not at all, none are as good-looking as you." Tao Shushu vaguely raised her hand, instinctively wanting to ruffle Nan Yuan's hair.
Realizing Nan Yuan was currently in life-sized projection form, she awkwardly tried to withdraw her hand.
But Nan Yuan proactively sat down, bringing his head to her palm, "Thank you for comforting me, Shushu."
Tao Shushu smiled faintly, "It's not comfort. Nan Yuan was already good to begin with, very, very good."
He was the best protagonist she had ever seen.
Tao Shushu cleared her throat lightly, "My schedule is roughly like this - self-study sessions morning and night. I can use my phone for an hour in the evening to look up information, call family, and such. That's when we can play games. I also have a bit of free time after waking up in the morning and during noon."
Nan Yuan carefully noted it down. "I'll remember that."
Tao Shushu inexplicably felt a bit embarrassed. "Then I'll go study now."
She ran to the self-service printer, logged into her email, downloaded the materials Nan Yuan had sent, and printed and bound them.
Tao Shushu skimmed through the materials. They were much more concise than what Teacher Zhang had mentioned, yet packed with essential content, complete with example questions arranged by difficulty. The reference answers were detailed down to every step, making them perfect for learning.
They were far better than Tao Shushu had imagined.
Tao Shushu paused for a moment, feeling that the formatting style of the materials seemed familiar, somewhat resembling the analyses organized by Xun for the Academic Genius System.
Thinking of this, Tao Shushu checked with the system again and found that the Academic Genius System hadn't replied but had accelerated its efforts to recruit talent across various disciplines.
It seemed quite upset.
After chatting with Nan Yuan for a while, Tao Shushu returned to the classroom, full of energy. She put away the reference materials from Teacher Zhang and began studying the materials Nan Yuan had given her.
This time, Tao Shushu worked at an incredibly fast pace, completely immersed in her studies, alternating between learning and practicing with great vigor.
It made Yang Kai, sitting beside her, hesitant to disturb her.
After finishing a section, it was time for the lab class.
The class representative said worriedly, "I heard the experiments are always very difficult every year. The experimental design really tests your thinking, but I always struggle to wrap my head around it."
Tao Shushu patted the class representative on the shoulder. "Once you've mastered the knowledge, all it takes is a little integration, and you'll do great."
"I'll do my best. Our Huiwen team definitely won't hold anyone back," the class representative said.
It was another tightly packed afternoon.
Teacher Zhang, true to his reputation as someone who had published reference books, posed questions that were highly targeted, testing both foundational knowledge and emphasizing the students' innovative thinking.
Soon, another afternoon had passed.
Even Tao Shushu, who had once again answered everything correctly, felt a bit dizzy and overwhelmed.
As they walked out of the lab building with their papers and pens, everyone sighed as if they had survived a disaster, each feeling somewhat drained.
However, after these two exams, the camaraderie among the competition team members had deepened significantly.
The students agreed to meet up for dinner in the cafeteria.
"Shushu is really amazing. Who would have thought the pendulum law could be applied like that? I never would have imagined it."
"Yeah, Shushu, could you explain the second question? Why did the waves cancel out?"
"I want to ask too. Teacher Zhang explained it too quickly, and I didn't catch it."
Tao Shushu patiently answered each question, word by word.
Under the setting sun, a group of spirited young people, chatting and laughing, surrounded Tao Shushu as they made their way to the cafeteria.
In stark contrast to this healthy and positive atmosphere, a weathered surveillance camera along the path suddenly adjusted its direction, aiming squarely at Tao Shushu.
Its dark lens resembled a pair of bottomless, shadowy eyes.
Tao Shushu turned her head curiously but didn't spot anyone suspicious. She turned back and continued discussing ideas with her classmates.
The students who had made it to the provincial team were no ordinary talents, and Tao Shushu didn't need to explain things repeatedly. Most of the time, a simple hint was enough to spark their understanding.
The students felt they had gained a lot from having their questions answered.
Even Yang Kai asked a couple of small questions.
All along the way, students kept asking questions.
Yang Kai didn't get another chance to interject.
By the time they reached the cafeteria, the hungry students rushed toward the braised fish, sweet and sour pork ribs, and sticky rice chicken...
Yang Kai followed behind Tao Shushu and suddenly said, "Classmate Tao Shushu, I have some calculus materials. Do you need them?"
Tao Shushu and her friends had arrived late, and only one last piece of sticky rice chicken remained in the cafeteria. Hearing someone call her name, she quickly handed her tray to the cafeteria lady first, secured the last piece of sticky rice chicken, and then turned around. "Oh, it's Classmate Yang. I've already found the materials, thank you."
Humming an unknown cheerful tune, she carried the fragrant food, passed by Yang Kai, and briskly walked over to her competition team classmates.
In another dimension of the universe, Nan Yuan cut off the communication and answered System 001's question. "You ask me if it's always worth spending energy to see her? Of course, it's worth it."
She was such a wonderful person, those who had met her would find it hard not to like her.
And yet, he was separated from her by such a vast distance.
Only by constantly striving could he appear at every moment she needed him.
Calmly, Nan Yuan refueled the spacecraft and locked onto Chu's location. "Destination: Red Ore Planet. Estimated landing time: two hours later."