Lin Mo quickly discovered that saying “it's just a small project” was one of the biggest lies a university student could tell himself.
On Monday, the project had been an idea.
By Wednesday, it had become a document.
By Friday, it had become a problem.
A very large problem.
Lin Mo stared at his laptop.
The application refused to compile.
He stared at the error message.
The error message stared back.
“You.”
Zhao Kai looked over.
“What?”
Lin Mo pointed at the screen.
“It hates me.”
Sun Qing leaned closer.
“That's a compiler error.”
“I know.”
“You can't blame it.”
“I can blame anyone I want.”
Zhao Kai laughed.
“You wrote that section.”
Lin Mo looked at him.
“Whose side are you on?”
“The side of reality.”
“Traitor.”
---
Two hours later, the problem was finally fixed.
Not because Lin Mo had discovered some revolutionary solution.
He had simply stared at the code long enough to realize he had forgotten one bracket.
He leaned back in his chair.
“I hate programming.”
Zhao Kai looked at him.
“You're studying computer science.”
“Exactly. That's why I know.”
Sun Qing laughed.
“You're strange.”
Lin Mo had heard that many times.
He accepted it.
---
The project slowly began taking shape.
They called it CampusLink.
The name was temporary.
Lin Mo hated it.
Zhao Kai liked it.
Sun Qing refused to change it.
So it stayed.
Their application could locate classrooms, display building schedules, report lost property, and eventually connect students with campus announcements.
Nothing revolutionary.
But it was useful.
And Lin Mo liked useful things.
He didn't care about winning.
He didn't care about impressing the judges.
He simply wanted the application to work properly.
Unfortunately, that attitude made his teammates trust him more.
By Friday evening, Zhao Kai said something Lin Mo absolutely didn't want to hear.
“You should present.”
Lin Mo looked up.
“No.”
“You understand the system best.”
“No.”
“You explain things clearly.”
“No.”
“You're the team leader.”
Lin Mo's expression changed.
“When did that happen?”
Sun Qing looked at him innocently.
“Wednesday.”
“I don't remember agreeing.”
“You didn't.”
Lin Mo stared at both of them.
“This is dictatorship.”
Zhao Kai laughed.
“Fine. We'll vote.”
“Two against one?”
“Yes.”
“Still dictatorship.”
---
That evening, Lin Mo escaped to the library.
He needed peace.
Unfortunately, peace had apparently become a rare commodity.
“Lin Mo?”
He looked up.
Gu Wen stood beside the table.
“Why are you hiding?”
“I'm studying.”
Gu Wen glanced at his laptop.
“You're watching your project compile.”
“That's studying.”
Gu Wen pulled out the chair.
“Can I sit?”
“Sure.”
Gu Wen sat down.
He looked at the screen.
“CampusLink?”
“Don't laugh.”
“I wasn't going to.”
“You're smiling.”
“Because it suits you.”
Lin Mo frowned.
“How?”
“You said you wanted a simple life.”
“And?”
“You've created something designed to make thousands of students' lives easier.”
Lin Mo looked at the screen.
He hadn't thought of it that way.
“I just don't like inefficient systems.”
“I know.”
Gu Wen smiled.
“That's one of the things I like about you.”
Lin Mo's fingers stopped.
He looked at Gu Wen.
“What?”
Gu Wen seemed to realize how that sounded.
He calmly opened his textbook.
“I said I like your way of thinking.”
“Oh.”
Lin Mo returned to his laptop.
He didn't notice the slight relief in Gu Wen's expression.
Neither spoke for a while.
Then Lin Mo quietly said,
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For helping me when I was sleeping in class.”
Gu Wen smiled.
“You remember that?”
“Of course.”
“You looked half-dead.”
“I was tired.”
“You're always tired.”
“It's a lifestyle.”
Gu Wen laughed.
The quiet sound made Lin Mo smile.
---
The following Monday, Jiang Rui returned to the university.
This time, he wasn't there for an academic event.
He was filming a short promotional video for a company sponsoring the technology competition.
Lin Mo didn't know this.
He only knew that the hallway was unusually crowded.
He stopped.
“What's happening?”
A student nearby answered excitedly.
“Jiang Rui is filming!”
Lin Mo immediately turned around.
Wrong direction.
He was going back to class.
Unfortunately—
“Lin Mo?”
He stopped.
That voice.
He turned.
Jiang Rui was standing several meters away.
The actor smiled.
“You're here.”
“Yes.”
“Running away?”
“Yes.”
Jiang Rui laughed.
“Why?”
“Too many people.”
“You don't like crowds?”
“No.”
“I remember.”
Lin Mo blinked.
“You remember?”
“Of course.”
Jiang Rui walked closer.
For a famous actor surrounded by people, he somehow seemed completely relaxed.
“How's your project going?”
Lin Mo narrowed his eyes.
“How does everyone know about it?”
Jiang Rui laughed.
“I'm working with one of the sponsors.”
“Oh.”
Lin Mo relaxed.
Again, there was a reasonable explanation.
Jiang Rui glanced at the laptop in his hands.
“Can I see?”
“It's not finished.”
“I won't judge.”
Lin Mo hesitated.
Then showed him the interface.
Jiang Rui studied it.
“This is actually useful.”
“That's the goal.”
“You don't care about winning?”
“Not particularly.”
“Then what do you care about?”
Lin Mo answered without thinking.
“Making it work.”
Jiang Rui smiled.
“That's very you.”
Lin Mo looked at him.
“You say that like you've known me for years.”
“We've met several times.”
“That's not years.”
“Not yet.”
Lin Mo didn't know what to say to that.
Before he could answer, Jiang Rui's assistant called him.
“I have to go.”
“Okay.”
Jiang Rui turned, then looked back.
“Good luck.”
Lin Mo nodded.
“Thanks.”
Jiang Rui walked away.
Lin Mo watched him disappear into the crowd.
He didn't notice the way Jiang Rui glanced back once.
---
That evening, Jiang Rui sat in his dressing room.
His assistant handed him a bottle of water.
“You seem cheerful.”
“Do I?”
“Yes.”
Jiang Rui smiled.
“I met Lin Mo.”
Again?
His assistant didn't say it.
But his expression did.
Jiang Rui laughed.
“He's participating in the competition.”
“I heard.”
“He doesn't care about winning.”
“That's unusual.”
“Exactly.”
Jiang Rui leaned back.
He thought about the first time he'd met Lin Mo.
The arcade.
The disguise.
The crowd.
Then the library.
The academic event.
Now the competition.
Every time they met, Lin Mo treated him exactly the same.
No attempt to become closer.
No attempt to gain anything.
And strangely—
Jiang Rui found himself looking forward to the next time.
He frowned slightly.
That was new.
---
Meanwhile, Shen Yichen received the competition's latest progress report.
He skimmed the list.
Then stopped at CampusLink.
He remembered Lin Mo refusing the internship.
He remembered the library project.
The network problem.
The game shop.
The university gate.
Lin Mo's consistent refusal to seek anything from him.
Shen looked at the project summary.
Practical.
Simple.
Efficient.
Very Lin Mo.
His assistant asked,
“Should we arrange for the project to receive additional technical support?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Let him finish it himself.”
The assistant nodded.
Shen closed the report.
He had begun to understand something.
Lin Mo didn't need someone to open doors for him.
He simply wanted people to stop opening doors he hadn't asked for.
---
That night, Lin Mo sat alone in the library.
The project was nearly finished.
He looked at the screen.
For once, he wasn't annoyed.
He was proud.
Just a little.
His phone vibrated.
A message from Gu Wen.
«Are you still in the library?»
Lin Mo replied:
«Yes.»
«Have you eaten?»
Lin Mo froze.
He looked at the time.
9:46 p.m.
“No wonder I'm hungry.”
Another message appeared.
«I'll bring you something.»
Lin Mo immediately typed:
«No need.»
The reply came almost instantly.
«Too late.»
Lin Mo smiled.
Five minutes later:
«What do you want?»
Lin Mo thought seriously.
«Noodles.»
Three dots.
«Of course.»
Lin Mo laughed quietly.
He put his phone down.
He didn't notice the student sitting several tables away looking in his direction.
He didn't know that someone else had started noticing how often Gu Wen was around him.
He didn't know that Jiang Rui had begun looking forward to seeing him.
He didn't know that Shen Yichen's curiosity had quietly become something more personal.
And he certainly didn't know that, somewhere far away, Mo Ren's name was beginning to appear more frequently in the same business reports surrounding the people entering Lin Mo's life.
For now, Lin Mo had only one concern.
Whether Gu Wen would remember to bring extra chili.
He sent another message.
«And extra chili.»
The reply came immediately.
«I knew you'd say that.»
Lin Mo smiled.
For some reason, his chest felt warm.
He didn't question it.
Not yet.