Forcefully Doting On You - v4c15

 

Chapter 100

Note: Early chapter release. Thank you for the Ko-Fi, Sakuradahl! And happy 100 chapters for Forcefully Doting On You! ◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜ 

The third floor of the canteen at S University.

Li Yu walked, carrying a large pot of spicy hotpot, towards the spot where Mu Cai was sitting. The hotpot was full of various ingredients, steam rising from the pot, filling the air with a tantalizing aroma.

When he had offered to treat Mu Cai to a meal, he had been slightly afraid. Li Yu had been scared that Mu Cai might decline, even if his intention was not to burden Li Yu with financial strain.

Facing their loved ones, most men harbor a desire... a desire to protect them, to make a sacrifice for them, to create a safe space for them... and not to have their ability to do so questioned.

Li Yu was no exception. Moreover, he was still very young, and had grown up in unique circumstances. This made such feelings even more sensitive for him.

Fortunately, Mu Cai readily agreed, and he even looked excited when they arrived at the canteen. After a walk, Mu Cai finally stopped in front of the spicy hotpot counter.

At that moment, the young man had his gray coat unbuttoned, hands in his pockets... His bright eyes, much like a morning star, lit up when they passed the hotpot counter. His crimson lips parted revealing a hint of white teeth and a red tongue.

He looked quite eager to eat.

The moment Li Yu saw this expression on Mu Cai, he immediately fetched a stainless steel basin and tongs from the nearby shelf, handing them to Mu Cai. He let Mu Cai pick what he wanted to eat. After selecting from the shelf, Li Yu passed the basin to the counter, swiped the card, and collected the token number.

Since it was still early in the school year and not many students were around, the meal was quickly prepared. As Li Yu returned carrying the pot, he spotted Mu Cai sitting at their spot, a pair of chopsticks in his hand, watching him.

Mu Cai had taken off his gray outer coat, revealing his thin, pale-pink wool sweater underneath. It accentuated his naturally fair face with a healthy pink glow. His face was radiant, like a blooming flower in the spring morning, with an excited smile adding to his charm.

Somewhat taken aback, Li Yu exchanged glances with him.

Mu Cai's dark eyes were slightly larger than usual, and his focused gaze seemed to indicate that you were the only one in his thoughts and vision. Li Yu's heart pounded under the intensity of those eyes. He quickly put the full pot in the middle, ran to fetch two bowls of rice, and managed to compose himself.

Taking the chopsticks handed to him by Mu Cai, Li Yu filled his bowl with rice. Then, with some hesitancy, he broke the silence: "Today is Saturday, and classes start from Monday. For a long while after that, it's likely we won't get much chance to eat together."

After uttering those words, Li Yu felt a touch of melancholy, and he could hardly eat any more.

Mu Cai asked, "Do you have classes every day? Can't you come on weekends?" He looked at Li Yu, whose face showed a hint of surprise, and mischievously blinked his eyes. "Haven't you realized the nature of internet companies after interning for so long? Although our company's workload is not that heavy, capitalists never miss an opportunity to exploit the value of labor, especially since our company provides accommodation. People often work overtime on weekends. If you don't come, they'll make sure to drag you in."

Li Yu, trying to hide his excitement, couldn't help but ask, "Will you be at the company too?"

Mu Cai glanced at him and smiled, "Yes, but I probably won't have anything to do on weekends. I guess I'll just be playing games and watching TV shows in the office, making you all jealous and envious."

Upon hearing this, Li Yu finally relaxed. His happiness was evident, and his appetite increased. After taking a bite of rice, he said, "As long as the boss is around, our efficiency will improve. After all, the boss is there to share the hardships with us, even if he has nothing to do."

Mu Cai didn't expect the originally cool and reserved main character to become so smooth-talking. He took a pair of chopsticks and put some food in Li Yu's bowl, commanding, "Eat up!"

Li Yu laughed as he proceeded to eat.

________________________

In the days that followed, Li Yu attended classes, completed homework, and carried out tasks assigned by his project team seniors in the library.

Initially, since he was not working regularly, his internship salary would be reduced accordingly. However, as the boss, Mu Cai instructed the finance department to pay him his usual salary.

As Li Yu had not slacked off his studies during the previous year's vacation, he was now completing tasks assigned by his senior project team members more and more adeptly. Plus, Li Yu typically concentrated when working, which meant his coding efficiency was high. Almost every day, he was able to complete his tasks by around 9:30 PM.

After 9:30 PM was the rare personal free time that belonged to Li Yu. He valued this time tremendously and did not dare to slack off.

Because Li Yu had decided to participate in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).

This news was bundled with a series of various competition information, both on-campus and off-campus, by the counselor a few days ago and sent to the professional group. At that time, Li Yu had looked through it, directly ignoring competitions like singing contests, and dance competitions, focusing on computer-related competitions.

He filtered and searched these competitions, and finally, under the condition that the time did not conflict with his, he decided on this competition.

The ACM competition, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery, is usually a team competition where universities send their teams. It is divided into domestic and international divisions. The top teams in the domestic division have to participate overseas. If a team wins a gold medal, the three team members can receive a cash prize of more than 80,000 yuan after exchange rate conversion. The domestic division is sponsored by well-known domestic companies, which also provide various rewards to excellent domestic teams, including cash prizes and job opportunity rewards.

It can be said that the rewards of this competition are very valuable.

S University encourages computer science majors to actively sign up, from freshmen to seniors. Before forming the university team, there will be on-campus competitions for screening. Only those who rank high in the entire school competition are eligible to form the university team and represent the school in the competition.

Li Yu didn't hesitate and directly downloaded the form at the bottom of the file. After filling it out, he sent it to the email address in the appendix.

In his opinion, this was his first step in proving himself.

Li Yu has always been down-to-earth. If he wants to pursue Mu Cai in an upright and proper way, he must first acquire the qualifications to be on par with her. So, he must find ways to get himself out of his current situation and increase his talents and assets. This competition serves as an excellent springboard.

No matter how difficult the springboard is, he must conquer it.

More importantly, when Li Yu signed up, he noticed that his roommate, Rong Yucheng, had also signed up.

Ever since the start of the semester, their relationship had become somewhat delicate. Previously, Li Yu got along well with Rong Yucheng, just as he did with the other people in the dormitory. But now, he could vaguely perceive the hostility between them.

Li Yu has always been wary of those coveting Mu Cai. Before, Rong Yucheng had tried to inquire about Mu Cai in front of other people in the dormitory when they were all present, but Li Yu managed to dismiss the questions in a few words.

After experiencing these attempts, Li Yu immediately realized that he needed to speed up. Li Yu had already hinted to Rong Yucheng about his ambiguous relationship with Mu Cai, but Rong Yucheng still hadn't given up on trying to dig up more information about Mu Cai. This indicated that Rong Yucheng didn't think Li Yu was worthy of Mu Cai and still wanted to undermine their relationship in secret!

He decided to show his opponent in this competition that some things couldn't be changed just because they wanted to.

The ACM competition's campus selection was set to start in about a month. Li Yu knew that as a freshman, he couldn't compare with the sophomores, juniors, and seniors in terms of knowledge reserves and practical experience. Therefore, he borrowed related exercise books from the school library well in advance, observed and summarized them, and finally concluded that his only option was to use the tactic of tackling a massive amount of problems.

Li Yu's daily routine consisted of attending classes, working part-time, practicing problems, and exercising. On Friday afternoons, he would take the crowded bus to the central CBD district, arriving at the floor where Galen Technology was located. Every weekend was Li Yu's happiest time, and whenever he saw Mu Cai sitting across from him during mealtime, he felt energetic and ready for more challenges.

After more than a month, the campus competition finally began.

Li Yu walked to his assigned computer station, joining the three to four hundred other students from his college who had signed up for the competition. When the timer started, they all began reading the questions.

ACM competition questions are usually difficult, requiring contestants to write programs to solve problems. Generally, a team consists of three people. There are many problems with varying degrees of difficulty. Contestants could choose problems they knew how to solve, and final rankings were determined based on the number of completed problems and their difficulty levels.

The school competition followed this format, but the overall difficulty of the questions was significantly reduced. Additionally, instead of team collaboration, players participated in individual selections. Once the candidates were selected, they would receive centralized training to form the school team.

The entire competition venue was very quiet, with only the sound of draft papers rustling and pens scratching across the paper. Occasionally, information would appear on the computer screen to show which problems had been solved by which computers, creating immense psychological pressure for the contestants.

After nearly an entire morning, the campus competition finally came to an end when lunchtime was almost over.

When the invigilator announced "Time's up," there were even simultaneous long sighs heard from the crowd of participants in the computer room.

The difficulty and complexity of the problems had all but exhausted the contestants' energy.

The competition software on each computer automatically saved and exited. The invigilator checked the scores on the main computer while the contestants waited. The teachers from the organizing committee even brought lunch for everyone, with one meat dish, two vegetable dishes, and a large chicken leg.

Many of the contestants were younger and ill-prepared, and at this point, they realized that they had no chance of passing the selection. So they simply enjoyed their meal, feeling happy that they not only gained experience from participating in the competition but also had a free meal.

Li Yu, however, barely tasted his food.

Because of his internship at Galen Technology and the extensive time he spent practicing problems, he could basically solve all the problems in the school competition. The only exception was the last particularly difficult problem, on which Li Yu got a little stuck. He hurriedly typed in the code in the last second before the time ran out, not knowing if he made any mistakes or even if he had time to check his previous solutions.

He wasn't sure how his results would be.

Although he was fast, and his performance was considered excellent among the three to four hundred contestants, there were also many messages on his computer screen indicating that others were not slower than him. Among them was Rong Yucheng from computer number 401! There were three to four hundred people participating in the school competition, but the teachers only needed three. Since Li Yu had not checked his code, he could not be sure if he would be one of the final winners.

Just as he swallowed the last bit of his meal, the invigilator walked down from the stage.

Keeping with the straightforward style usually familiar to this technical subject, he began:

"The winners of this school competition are:

First place, computer number 419, Li Yu from grade xx, class 4!"

Instantly, all eyes turned to him, among them was Rong Yucheng:

"Grade xx? Isn't that a freshman?! Nowadays, even freshmen dare to participate in such competitions!"

"There are quite a few freshmen participating this year. Seems like many in the row starting with 4 are freshmen."

"Wow, are they that good? I keep seeing the numbers starting with 4 on my screen showing the completion of various problems, making me, a junior, nervous."

"......"

Amid the buzz, Li Yu did not turn around. Instead, he stood up and bowed to the instructor.

Only when he sat back down did Li Yu seem to look towards Rong Yucheng. Their gazes briefly met, and it was as if there was a brief metallic clash of blades in the air.

"You lost.",

"Mu Cai is mine now."

Li Yu thought calmly. His heart seemed like a piece of ice wrapped in flames, about to melt, igniting a fiery passion.

Today, he wanted to rush to Galen Technology right now, he wanted to see Mu Cai right now!

________________________

Author's note:

Concubine Li: Only with these little tricks, my sisters are still too weak. Xiao Li, reward him with a festive red envelope.

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