When Will My Childhood Sweetheart Marry Me?-Chapter 205: Insider

"Whoever heard of people not talking during meetings?"

Besides, the soundproofing in the conference room wasn’t very good, no matter how low the voices were, it shouldn’t have been silent as the grave.

Soon, the meeting room doors opened, and several senior brothers filed out one after another, their faces no longer relaxed as when they had entered. On the contrary, they looked bewildered and conflicted.

Across the diagonal distance, Jiang Shuyao subconsciously looked at Jiang Xubai, only to find him staring blankly back at her.

In their eyes hung capitalized question marks.

By the artificial lake, Pei Yan asked her if he was a good person.

Jiang Shuyao now reflected that at that time, she should have told him that if he thought he was, then he was.

The mentor’s project officially started the next morning, and to facilitate communication, the three senior brothers temporarily moved to the computer department office at the graduate school.

As the senior brothers were leaving, Boss Pei was leaning against the window, smoking. Why he didn’t go in the end remained a mystery.

This mystery, Jiang Xubai gestured with a rub of his mouth, the meaning was self-evident.

Jiang Shuyao inserted the straw into her milk tea cup, cupped it in her hands, and walked over, "This one has only three parts sugar, do you want a sip?"

Today, the sunlight was just right, slanting into the window sill, casting a warm glow on her cheeks.

Pei Yan casually pinched out the cigarette, placing the butt on the windowsill, turned his head lazily to look at her, "I want the second sip."

She obediently sipped through the straw and then handed it to him.

"You should know, I used to have a mild case of germophobia, but after being with you, I realized how hypocritical that was." Jiang Shuyao chuckled as she spoke, turned slightly, and stood by the window alongside him, facing the base.

"Mmm."

He responded and looked down at the faint lipstick mark on the straw.

The color of a girl’s lipstick is usually subtle, and when facing the computer, the screen light reflected on it offers a different visual.

Pei Yan slightly turned his head, his gaze landing on her soft lips, the corners of his eyes slowly radiating a soft light, "Today’s shade looks good."

What?

She looked at him.

Pei Yan asked, "How many lipsticks do you have?"

Jiang Shuyao thought for a moment, "Three."

He asked again, "Did I give them all to you?"

The girl nodded.

Pei Yan turned his head back, satisfied, "Old Man Jiang came to me yesterday, mentioning there’s a national college student innovation technology competition mid-year, asking if I would go."

A competition, and a national one, at that.

Go? Of course, you should go.

Jiang Shuyao’s bright eyes already showed her excitement.

However, someone casually sneered, "These competitions are the same every year, nothing interesting."

What?

You fool, you refused?

He glanced at her indifferently, "But I guess if I refused, you wouldn’t like it."

Jiang Shuyao glared at him sideways.

She only wanted to hear the final verdict.

Pei Yan turned to her, pinched her soft cheek, "Don’t look at me like that, the competition requires staying in the Capital for a whole week, I can’t stand you going alone."

So...

Is that the real reason he didn’t join the mentor’s project team?

Not exactly.

She waited and waited; he not only showed no intention of continuing, but he also took out a lighter ready to light a cigarette.

Jiang Shuyao fiercely snatched both items from his hand.

"Princess, you’re not cute when you act like this."

He smiled helplessly.

Under the girl’s silent stare, he still properly carried on the conversation.

This time, he finally spoke about what she wanted to hear.

Regarding the mentorship project, the software system actually had already had a name a year ago, called ERP Pathology Import to Cloud.

The name was quite long and awkward to say.

But it was this bizarre thing that actually had Southwest Capital Hospital, Huaren, as its end customer.

When she heard Huaren, Jiang Shuyao only had one thought flash through her mind, a big project.

The contract price must start at least in the six figures.

Heh, money isn’t that easy to earn.

Last weekend, Pei Yan hadn’t gone to Zhuo Cubic to see an exhibition and chat with his uncle for a bit?

It was quite a coincidence; the uncle’s company was in the medical business, serving Huaren as their biggest client.

During the casual conversation, he mentioned an issue that had been troubling Huaren’s technical department.

The pathology import system contracted out last year, had been left unfinished.

Indeed, even a large hospital inevitably has it’s blind spots; no one expected that the leading IT company, which had outbid everyone in the initial tender, would go bankrupt overnight.

Impressively, the unfinished project, after several changes of hands, eventually ended up in the hands of the graduate school of computer science at Rong University.

Those people must have been desperate for money; they hadn’t even figured out the details before blindly taking over the mess.

The project itself wasn’t flawed; the issue was the supervisor named Chen, who promised the upstream to deliver all the source code within a month.

A project that had changed hands seven times had backend programs so incomplete that only ten percent remained, barely different from starting over.

Something that should take at least three months now had to be condensed into one month.

Not only that, the mentor’s shady dealings didn’t end there; technically demanding to use templates was one thing, but the front-end design blatantly copied the mobile official website of an internationally renowned hospital, changing only the basic colors slightly; the rest, even a menu bar’s frame pixels, copied exactly.

If it were an ordinary project, cutting corners like this might work since international hospitals are too busy to notice a small software system.

But this was Huaren.

Huaren, a leading entity starting with Southwest, would be embarrassing to copy someone else’s system.

This project, with all its risks large and small combined, was definitely not something these kids could handle.

What Pei Yan didn’t mention was one crucial point: the entire project was intertwined with many shady dealings.

That supervisor named Chen played the most disgusting role in it.

Purporting to train students, at bottom, he worked them to the bone, and in the end, they might get nothing.

To teach by example, as one ages, it seems one often forgets their original purpose, obscured by time.

In the world of adults, everyone wants to earn a bit more. But a gentleman loves money and gets it in the right way.

However, Jiang Shuyao really wanted to know how Pei Yan communicated with several senior students; knowing the inside story, why did he still dive headlong into it?

Later, she found out that the three senior students who chose to join the mentorship team planned to apply for postgraduate studies after graduation.

If they wanted to apply within the same university, this experience could be a stepping stone, or a rare opportunity to ingratiate themselves with the mentor.

Pei Yan had tried to be the good guy for the first time, and it was unappreciated.

So, what good is it to be a good person?

He never told Jiang Xubai about this; the kid was too kind-hearted and easily stirred up negative emotions.

The day before the final exam, Old Man Jiang leisurely came to the base with his tea, inspected everything inside and out, marking his last examination as a nominal mentor before the end of the academic year.

As he was leaving, the old man suddenly turned and pointed at Pei Yan’s head, "Think about the competition during your winter break when you go back."

Think about what.

Jiang Shuyao was confused; wasn’t that guy already agreed to go?

Lost in thought for a moment, Old Man Jiang then turned his gaze towards the responsible, sensible class representative.

"Miss Jiang Shuyao, please persuade him."

With that, the old man walked away with a huff.