Little Sprout shot back, "And you think modifying it won't require time for testing?"

Ziye was rendered speechless. After a long silence, she mumbled weakly, "Modification takes slightly less time..."

Without another word, Little Sprout began operating the light screen. It had no hands, controlling everything with its consciousness, moving so fast that Ziye's eyes blurred. Before she could even grasp the previous command, the next one was already overwriting it with new code.

The schematics on another light screen shifted accordingly. Ziye stared at the programming for a while, realizing she couldn't keep up with Little Sprout's thought process at all, so she gave up and started contemplating how to modify the engine blueprints herself.

Beep-beep. Ziye instinctively looked toward the comm screen.

She expected a message from Bobo, but the incoming communication was from Tang Wen.

Last semester, Tang Wen was at the Interstellar Federation Research Institute while she was at the academy; they met once or twice nearly every week. This semester, Tang Wen became a full-time professor at Kajia, and she hadn't seen him once since the term began.

So, when Ziye saw his incoming message, she had a premonition: nothing good was coming.

Tang Wen cut straight to the chase, his tone assured, "Planning to skip my class again this afternoon, aren't you?"

Ziye's heart skipped a beat. She put on a long face. "Professor, it's not that I don't want to come, but the mech competition engine has vanished! I need to finish building a new one immediately, or the competition will be ruined!"

Tang Wen knitted his brows, wearing an expression as if he'd been abandoned. "If you don't come to class, I won't be happy."

Ziye pleaded helplessly, "Sir, please be merciful—"

Little Sprout looked up from its programming, not forgetting its standing despite being busy. "You little dummy, your master is me!"

Ziye choked for a moment, then Tang Wen started laughing. His laughter made Ziye suddenly want to land a punch right on his nose—why did that annoying man have to smile so handsomely? After his laughter subsided, he tossed out a remark: "Come to class this afternoon. I'll help you with the engine."

Getting his help would be an absolute boon.

Ziye immediately switched from worry to joy and was about to agree when Tang Wen added a threatening clause: "If you don't come, I won't hold the afternoon class."

Ziye: ...

This guy was getting increasingly willful.

And to make matters worse, Ling Si seemed to enable his caprice.

Ling Si University was an institution that deeply revered its instructors. One of the biggest manifestations of this was that professors had autonomy over scheduling classes. In other words, if a professor didn't feel like teaching, a simple notification email sufficed.

This led to willful instructors like Tang Wen and the red-haired one frequently adjusting their schedules, meaning poor students sometimes had classes running from seven in the morning until ten at night, or sometimes an entire day free.

Ziye really wanted not to encourage his willfulness, but she decisively committed the transgression: "It’s great if you don't teach. Come in the afternoon and help me sort out this engine."

Tang Wen: ...

He was displeased, which made Ziye happy. She hung up his comm and dialed Li Chunyu’s number: "Senior Brother Chun'er, Teacher Tang Wen is coming to see us this afternoon, get ready quickly."

The mention of Tang Wen coming galvanized Li Chunyu completely. All thoughts of the shame of being seen crying, and the anxiety over Bai Wendun stealing the engine and fleeing, vanished. With Tang Wen's full support, everything would be alright. He wiped his face, hastily composed himself, and hurried back to the lab.

Not long after he arrived, Bran showed up, bringing his little shadow, Tang Wen, along.

Ziye was surprised. "Wasn't it this afternoon?"

Tang Wen heard this and immediately looked displeased, humming internally and turning his face away.

Bran chuckled. "Came to invite you to lunch. It's nearly noon, let's go."

For the sake of good food, Ziye instantly forgave Tang Wen. She walked up to him and made a silly face, but when he turned his head, he suddenly slapped his hand over her face.

He truly covered it!

—He opened his palm and covered Ziye's face, looked for a moment, and calmly remarked, "Your face is really small. Once I cover it with my palm, you can't even see it anymore."

Ziye: ...

Her warm breath hit Tang Wen's palm. A tremor went through him, and he opened his fingers to cup her cheek. Ziye, enraged, opened her mouth and bit down hard on his palm!

—Using the metal-gnawing strength of Douzai!

Tang Wen hissed in pain and quickly pulled his hand away.

Ziye wiped her mouth, gazed up at the vault of the space station's ceiling, and murmured to herself, "As expected, hunger makes one bite."

Tang Wen: ...

Around noon, Bobo's subordinate sent back news about Bai Wendun: Bai Wendun was missing!

Bobo went to the student apartment management center and pulled up the surveillance footage, only to find it completely blank—it had been deleted. It seemed Bai Wendun had backup somewhere?

He asked his subordinate, "Did you find any other news about Bai Wendun? Does he have a girlfriend or a close male friend?"

The subordinate replied, "Yes, he has a girlfriend. She's in Command Department Class 5. Her name is Yin Lu."

Bobo pondered for a moment, then dialed Lingyin’s comm.

Lingyin answered happily, "I was just about to look for you guys. Your mechs are ready, surely you have time now, right? My club still only has me as its lonely president; we haven't held an event yet. If we don't organize something soon, they're going to revolt!"

Bobo was silent for a moment. After she finished her rapid-fire speech, he spoke, "Do you know Yin Lu?"

"Yin Lu?" Lingyin possessed a first-class memory and smiled immediately upon hearing the name. "With a memory as good as mine, how could I forget her? Isn't she that top-tier girl from the same tent during military training? If you need anything, sis will help you out."

Bobo watched her on the comm, thumping her chest with a tomboyish guarantee, and the tension in his expression eased considerably. "Good. I'll come pick you up. Wait a moment, and then you can help me meet this 'top-tier' Yin Lu."

Ziye and the other one finished their grand meal with Tang Wen and headed straight to the assembly line terminal to inspect the mech.

He knew the area like the back of his hand, and his judgment on mechs was famously ruthless. When he stood before the machine, Ziye and the other were both a little nervous.

Although Ziye’s attitude toward Tang Wen wasn't as deferential as before, she still held his knowledge and mastery of mech engineering in the highest regard—a towering presence. When his demeanor turned serious, she immediately felt the pressure.

Tang Wen finished his inspection with a placid expression and turned toward the external laboratory. Ziye blinked, then quickly snapped back to reality and followed him.

Tang Wen sat down in a chair in the lab, lightly tapping his fingers on the desktop. "The blueprints."

Ziye had them ready and pushed the light screen toward him. Tang Wen opened the schematics, scanned them front to back, and asked, "Did you draft these?"

Ziye replied, "This is the original design for the missing engine; our team worked on it together."

Tang Wen's thin lips parted slightly. "Not very good."

Ziye’s face darkened instantly. She quickly offered the revised version. "Take a look at this one."

Tang Wen glanced at her sideways, and she immediately glared back. Tang Wen wasn't bothered, leisurely examining her revision. Seeing his calm, almost ethereal composure, Ziye felt a bit deflated—his expression clearly suggested he was looking at child's play!

She was about to speak when she saw Tang Wen raise an eyebrow, his expression suddenly becoming focused. She immediately swallowed her words and quietly sat down to wait for him to finish.

Li Chunyu was not as composed as she was, standing respectfully to the side, terrified of showing him the slightest disrespect.

As for Bran, he set down the teapot and tea set he brought from the vehicle onto the lab bench and calmly began brewing tea. After it was done, seeing Li Chunyu still frozen in his previous posture, he couldn't help but laugh. "Young man, have some tea."

Li Chunyu hastily waved his hands. "I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare."

Bran shook his head, placing one cup in front of Tang Wen, the next for Ziye, the third for Li Chunyu, and then taking the last one for himself.

Tang Wen pushed the light screen away, picked up his teacup, and took a gentle sip. He leaned back against the chair and asked, "Who made the revisions?"

Ziye reflexively answered, "I did."

"Oh? Really?" The end of his tone rose slightly, suggesting disbelief.

Ziye looked guiltily toward Little Sprout. It was true that she had revised it, but Little Sprout had been the primary force. This morning, Little Sprout had rebuilt it from scratch. While the underlying concept was the same as the previous engine, the execution was already vastly different. She had reviewed it and decided to integrate her own ideas with Little Sprout's before finalizing this revision.

She hadn't expected Tang Wen to be such an astute judge of character, seeing immediately that it wasn't within her usual level of skill.

She carefully chose her words. "I consulted someone highly skilled."

Tang Wen frowned, clearly unhappy. "You sought help from someone else, instead of me."

Bran glanced up at Tang Wen. This guy was getting tangled up in some completely insignificant detail again. What could he possibly say? Better just observe.

Ziye pouted. "But haven't I come to you now?"

Tang Wen set down his teacup, crossed his arms, and questioned her, "Who did you consult?"

Ziye was speechless. That wasn't the point at all! And she had consulted Little Sprout—how could she say that? What a headache this man was!

Just then, Little Sprout suddenly communicated in her mind, "Nine Years. Just say Nine Years."

Ziye's eyes flickered. "Nine Years."

Tang Wen narrowed his eyes slightly. "Him?"

Ziye gave a forced laugh. "He left Coco Group and moved to Mengya. He just started work, and he was reporting his status to me, so I casually asked. It really means nothing."

For some reason, Tang Wen suddenly felt like laughing. He was intimately familiar with Nine Years' bizarre design style, which was the polar opposite of this work. But he didn't expose it. He pulled the light screen back toward him, tapped the screen lightly with the stylus, and said, "Nine Years is a good designer. He made excellent improvements on these two points; they are incisive."

Little Sprout immediately looked toward Ziye with pride.

Ziye snorted internally, but outwardly maintained a humble tone. "Are there any other areas that need modification?"

Tang Wen nodded, drew a line with the stylus, and then rapidly sketched a rough diagram on the surface. Ziye stared intently, a cold sweat breaking out on her back.

Tang Wen was Tang Wen, indeed. That single stroke not only drew blood but pierced the very heart of the problem!