As soon as they arrived at Paradise Manor, Xie Lian dropped his bag and slumped on the sofa, starting to text everyone at The Heavens furiously; even though it was late, he still could get Jun Wu and The Academic Council ready to see him and Lan Chang the next day.

After 10 minutes or so, Hua Cheng, who had headed straight to the shower, showed up against the light on the door frame and left Xie Lian a towel and some clean clothes for him. Xie Lian also had a shower, and, wearing some of Hua Cheng's sweatpants and a t-shirt, found him in bed, lying down as if waiting for him, and not looking exhausted as he sometimes did.

"Hum, San Lang, I can crash on your sofa. Would you have a blanket or something?", he said.

Hua Cheng looked at him like he wanted to laugh, and lifted half of the bed's blanket, saying,

"We can share my bed, unless you're afraid I might attack you during the night?", and he smiled teasingly.

Xie Lian laughed, and walked around the bed, ready to get into it. Then Hua Cheng said,

"Actually, I should be the one afraid of you you know?"

"Oh?"

"The way you got all flirty-flirty with Lan Chang. Fuck, you're a sexy beast Gege!"

PA! Hua Cheng got a pillow shoved squarely on his face. Xie Lian, the attacker, said, laughing harder,

"Stop making shit up!"

The next day, Xie Lian woke up early, and as he walked out of the bedroom he didn't see Hua Cheng anywhere, only heard his voice, "Morning. Have some coffee".

Then he came in from the balcony, wearing a sleeveless top and sweatpants; he was all sweaty in spite of being freezing cold outside. Xie Lian didn't see any equipment, so he guessed Hua Cheng must have been shadow boxing; just for how long, for him to get that sweaty?

Xie Lian drank some coffee and got ready in a hurry to go to that bar and meet Lan Chang. True to her word, she was waiting for him, wearing a fluffy pink coat, fishnets – she MUST be freezing to death, Xie Lian thought – and huge golden hoop earrings, her hair up in a messy bun. Xie Lian waved, and they got a train to The Heavens, not talking much.

Surprisingly for a meeting arranged so last minute, Jun Wu and The Academic Council were waiting for them: Ling Wen, Feng Xin, Mu Qing, Shi Qingxuan, his brother Shi Wudu – who Xie Lian had an admission interview with – Pei Ming, and others. They were at the main meeting room, modern with designer furniture; it was called The Great Martial Hall.

After general offers of tea or coffee, the meeting started. "Good morning Sir. Everyone", Xie Lian started formally. "I came with a former student today, Lan Chang, so we can share the story of her cyber forensics project being stolen... If you're so good as to start Lan Chang..."

Only Lan Chang was stumped for words. 'C'mon Lan Chang don't leave me hanging', Xie Lian begged mentally. The Academic Council indeed were an intimidating bunch, all looking high and mighty, like anyone they met was wasting their precious time. To make matters worse, there was Lan Chang looks too, pretty much out of place there.

Everyone present looked at one another, confused. Xie Lian then cleared his throat and said, "Alright, I'll start from what I was told..." thinking, maybe Lan Chang would feel encouraged and join in the story. Specially if he got the technical details all mixed up. He started.

After telling everyone how he met Lan Chang – without details of her harassing him – and what he overheard at the bar – also omitting he did it on purpose, hiding close together with Hua Cheng –, Lan Chang still kept silent, even looking bored, like everything being said was of no concern to her at all.

Everyone kept stealing glances at Pei Ming. A pretty girl involved, his reputation, and that Xuan Ji affair just being the cherry at the top of the cake... He noticed, and looked back at them with cold stares, specially at his pals Ling Wen and Shi Wudu. They would pay for that!

"Well, this script for Sift Workstation for the investigation of sex offenses indeed exists, it's called CuoCuo", Ling Wen said, looking at her laptop screen.

Lan Chang sucked in a breath; now it'd be impossible to pretend it had nothing to do with her!

Ling Wen continued, "It was licensed six years ago".

"Oh! That matches the timeline Lan Chang is telling me", Xie Lian said.

"It was licensed under The Heavens' name", Ling Wen concluded.

Jun Wu and The Academic Council looked at one another, growing impatient.

"Is that all?", said Shi Wudu. "That doesn't mean anything; generally such projects are task forces, designed with whole classes collaborating, so no one can claim authorship".

Lan Chang still didn't say a word to defend herself. Xie Lian was stunned; she talked about her project, even giving it a name, The Fetus Spirit, she seemed real. Was it only empty boasting then? Was she making things up just to impress people, Xie Lian included?

"It seems we're wasting out time here", Mu Qing humphed.

"Mu Qing. Please", Jun Wu said. He was the very model of a gentleman.

"Xie Lian, hum, maybe you can have a chat with this, hum, lady, till she decides to cooperate?", Feng Xin said, uncomfortably, Xie Lian had no doubt, because a girl like Lan Chang was present.

"Without you giving any more details it's impossible for us to track down anything else related to this matter", Ling Wen said, matter-of-factly as she usually did.

Xie Lian, seeing Lan Chang remained stubbornly silent, thanked everyone for their time, and left as fast as he possibly could. He wasn't particularly pissed off at Lan Chang; he was more puzzled than anything. He was going to do as Feng Xin suggested and take Lan Chang for a coffee and a chat, but she mumbled something about an appointment, and was gone.

He looked at his phone; his next class would be in about 40 minutes, so he went to the canteen to have a coffee by himself. Feng Xin found him, and stopped by.

"Keep an eye on Mu Qing", he said, with a low voice. To be fair, Xie Lian also noticed Mu Qing reacted weird when he saw Lan Chang, but he didn't think too much of it. Mu Qing probably run into Lan Chang one of these nights and slept with her, and felt awkward with meeting her there.

Feng Xin went on, "I don't think he did it, but he must know something".

XieLian nodded, and kept drinking his coffee thoughtfully, till it was the timefor him to go to his class.

Hualian doing pillow fight! 😍😍

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