045 Complicated Gazes
After finishing lunch with Pei Ningle, Wang Heng temporarily parted ways with her.
After all, it wasn’t appropriate to bring an unrelated person into the office, especially since he wasn’t an official employee of Penguin Company, which made it even less appropriate to act freely. So he ordered a cup of milk tea for Pei Ningle to sit in the restaurant for a while longer, while he himself went back to the office to ask Lu Qi for leave.
Walking into the office, he directly knocked on the door of the technical director of group one.
“Sister Lu, something came up at school, about the freshman procedures. I have to go back this afternoon.”
Wang Heng’s ability to lie was naturally beyond question, and small, low-risk matters like this were even less of a problem.
Of course, Lu Qi didn’t see any flaws and nodded. “Then you should go. Actually, you don’t need to tell me when you have things to do in the future, because your salary is calculated based on progress, not by the hour. That is to say, it depends on how much work you’ve done, not how long you’ve been sitting in the office.”
“So that’s how it is.”
Wang Heng had a sudden realization. It turned out that there was no need to lie in this place… Wait, was there really no need? After a brief moment of thought, he decided not to tell Lu Qi about Pei Ningle getting a refund for her plane ticket and staying in Rongdu. Anyway, as long as he didn’t let Pei Ningle come over in the future, the two of them would never meet.
Wang Heng: “By the way, since my salary is calculated based on my workload, if I don’t write any code but offer a useful suggestion, does that count?”
Lu Qi: “Of course it counts! But you just came today. What suggestion did you make?”
Wang Heng: “You can ask Feng Zhuo.”
Lu Qi immediately called her slightly balding subordinate of the same age. In less than a minute, she understood what had happened in the morning.
Hanging up the phone, Lu Qi raised her eyebrows, looked at Wang Heng, and said with a smile, “Impressive. You’ve really opened my eyes…”
Wang Heng waved his hand. “You flatter me, you flatter me.”
“You gave me a surprise as soon as you came in, speeding up the development by at least several days,” the smile on Lu Qi’s face grew wider. “How should I reward you?”
Wang Heng: “Cash is fine.”
“Don’t worry, you definitely won’t be shorted on your bonus.”
After receiving this promise, Wang Heng left Lu Qi’s office with satisfaction, ready to go find Pei Ningle. But as he passed by Feng Zhuo’s workstation, he noticed that this guy was stealing glances at him, and the emotions in his eyes seemed quite complicated.
However, he didn’t think much of it and just walked past Feng Zhuo as usual.
**
Wang Heng’s efficiency in finding a house surprised Pei Ningle, and Pei Ningle’s efficiency in making a decision surprised Wang Heng even more.
After just one look at the forty-square-meter one-bedroom apartment, she decided on it. At this point, she had only seen photos of the dozen-square-meter shared room and hadn’t even seen it in person.
Seeing the girl’s resolute attitude, Wang Heng helped her pay the first month’s rent and deposit and settled the rental contract.
After seeing the landlord off, Pei Ningle leaned back on the sofa and exclaimed with satisfaction, “From now on, this will be my nest!”
Wang Heng stood to the side and asked, “Can you tell me now? Why did you insist on this place?”
“Because it’s really great!” Pei Ningle counted on her fingers. “First, I don’t like sharing. It’s easy for me to be disturbed by others when I’m writing songs, and I like to sing, so it’s easy for me to disturb others. Second, I like high floors. The feeling of looking down from a high place can really inspire me, so I chose the higher floor.”
“Alright then. You can slowly get inspired. I’ll be leaving now.”
The girl was taken aback. “You’re leaving now?”
Wang Heng shrugged. “What else? Everything’s done. Why shouldn’t I leave? Let me make it clear. I’m your manager now, but I’m not a personal assistant. You have to do things like tidying up and cleaning the house yourself, understand?”
“I didn’t expect you to do housework, it’s just…”
“Just what?”
Pei Ningle sighed heavily. “Nothing. I was just thinking, how should I make the video you mentioned?”
“You should think about it yourself first. If you still can’t figure it out in a couple of days, I’ll help you brainstorm then.”
With that, Wang Heng quickly retreated.
He could see that Pei Ningle was in a good mood at the moment. To avoid her getting another whim and dragging him into something, Wang Heng didn’t plan to stay in this apartment for another minute.
**
At the University of Electronic Science and Technology, the class meeting for the first-year computer science and technology major, class one, began on the first night of military training.
The military training ended at a little after six, and the class meeting started at seven. They had to queue up for dinner at the cafeteria, so the students were so pressed for time that it was impossible for them to change clothes. So when they gathered in the classroom arranged by the counselor, almost all the students were wearing their military training uniforms.
The only exception was Wang Heng.
When he walked into the classroom, he attracted the attention of most of the students. Basically, everyone had joined the class group, so they naturally knew why Wang Heng was not participating in the military training. Thus, the gazes they cast on him were also quite complicated. Of course, the level of complexity was still slightly less than Feng Zhuo’s.
But in the midst of this collective attention, Wang Heng not only wasn’t nervous, but he actually breathed a sigh of relief.
There were thirty to forty people in the whole class, and only five girls. Although they were all in military training uniforms, the girls’ hair was obviously longer than the boys’. Without needing to guess, Wang Heng could tell at a glance.
The fewer girls there were, the safer his situation naturally was.
After all, although the assassin girl group only had four members, who could guarantee that there wouldn’t be new members in the second timeline? Considering the nature of the worldline’s correction mechanism, it was hard to say.
Among the crowd of unfamiliar students, Wang Heng found three familiar faces: his roommates Tang Hexing, Wang Ke, and Fu Hanwen.
Wang Ke looked around and said in a low voice, “Everyone seems to be looking at you, Wang Heng.”
Fu Hanwen pouted. “Of course. No one really knows each other right now, but everyone knows him. And we’re all dressed so ugly now, while Wang Heng is dressed handsomely. Who else would they look at?”
Wang Heng looked down at his clothes. “Handsome? I don’t think so.”
Fu Hanwen: “Everything depends on comparison. This outfit of yours is just a little trendy on the street, but among us, it’s very conspicuous.”
At this moment, the counselor, Teacher Liu, came in with the class roster. The classroom instantly fell silent.
But Tang Hexing asked again, “Wang Heng, are there any girls in our class that you like?”
Wang Heng quickly shook his head. “I’ve already said, I only like 2D girls. I’m not interested in real ones.”
Tang Hexing: “Then can you help guide me?”
“Guide what?”
“Picking up girls.”
Tang Hexing’s voice was very low, but these two simple words brought looks of astonishment from his roommates.
After a few seconds, Fu Hanwen couldn’t help but ask, “The girl you like is in our class?”
Wang Heng retorted, “A choice of one out of five. The selection is a bit narrow.”
