CH 19

Since Li Ting had an injury on his hand, and Tian Dian wouldn’t let him cook, he(TD) had to buy it outside or bring over some leftover food from the bar after getting off work.

The two of them ate while sitting around the old wooden table, and Tian Dian couldn’t help scolding him: “Don’t think that if I’m not at home, I won’t know that you sneaked out again today, huh? Didn’t you agree to rest in bed? If you don’t go for a few days, will your legs run away?”

Li Ting glared at him gloomily, and Tian Dian immediately retracted his words, “I’m only caring about you. Okay, I won’t talk about it, so don’t be angry. By the way, our boss has opened another restaurant near the bar; it’s quite big, and we will need to recruit some staff soon, would you like to try it? The salary and the treatment should be satisfactory, not bad, and not overly taxing.” Tian Dian said while smiling.

Li Ting ignored him, took the last bite of his meal and picked up the dishes to wash, but was stopped by Tian Dian.

“Give it to me; I’ll clean it up later. I know you’re worried that you won’t be able to do the job for very long, you can go and look before you decide. No one will dare to not give you face with me there, and if you don’t want to do it, it doesn’t matter if you leave.”

Li Ting got up and sat in front of the computer, pointing his butt at him.

“Hey, Li-zi… You really… Forget it, it’s not good to be in a hurry anyway. Think about it slowly, okay? Take care of your body first.”

Tian Dian saw that the other party was unrelenting and finally gave up, going to wash the dishes while muttering something.

Li Ting turned on the computer, took out the USB flash drive he had brought back and hesitated for a moment, but plugged it in anyway.

Before the folder opened, he noticed that the desktop was filled with all sorts of things. This was the first time he’d used it after getting it back. It was an unusual thing for him to see an example of the chaos and unrestrainedness* of the boys in the computer department.

[TN: Not very sure about this one.]

Li Ting looked back and forth between the two folders named “Photos” and “Life Records”. Thinking of Tian Dian’s previous words, he couldn’t help but move the cursor. He hesitated for two seconds and was about to click it open when the USB flash drive document finally opened, putting Li Ting’s rare moment of curiosity to rest.

There was a lot of information in that USB flash drive, but it was still much more organized than Wang Fuliang’s computer. Li Ting looked and found that although they were all English names, they were most likely not simplified titles.

Anyway, he couldn’t understand them. Li Ting searched carefully, remembering Fang Huaining telling him to download the one with a yellow logo. He found three yellow ones—one whitish-yellow, one brownish-yellow, and one orangish-yellow.

After thinking about it, Li Ting picked the yellowest one.

It was no secret that Li Ting was somewhat reserved about many things. In fact, with the rapid pace of development, the current generation was extremely familiar with the digital technology that Li Ting had little to no contact with, so he was very unfamiliar with this entire process. Just getting this software out of the computer and installing it on the mobile phone was enough to torment Li Ting for quite a while.

Tian Dian, who finished washing the dishes, also came over and was surprised to see that Li Ting wanted to install an accounting software.

“I have tried to persuade you so many times before, and you ignored me, but you finally want to try it out this time?”

But after struggling for a long time and still getting no results, Tian Dian nagged at him to use simpler a software instead.

“Which expert gave you this thing? It’s too complicated. Delete it. I’ll find another one for you online. I’ll make sure to install it in just a few seconds.”

It was just that he was pushed away by Li Ting before he could do anything.

“Hey!” Tian Dian was annoyed, “All right, I don’t care about you. You can do it yourself and see if you can get it done!”

Tian Dian went to sleep angrily; Li Ting really installed it himself, then sat there for a few hours. 

The Ace of the Computer Science department would never have guessed that the app he thought would make things easier, in front of another person would turn out to be a problem* that was even more difficult than memorizing the Oxford dictionary.

But that person still worked hard to overcome it.

[TN: Basically, Li Ting had trouble working the software, complex interface or programming maybe, cuz FH is big brain coder and LT has nothing to do with maths and sh*t.]

***********

Li Ting traveled the road for several hours that day, sold watermelons, walked back home at night, and worked on the software until dawn when he returned.

The next day, he completely lost all his strength, but because of this, he at least lay on the bed honestly and rested for a few days until it was time to return to work for Library A again.

Li Ting went there on time and searched around as usual. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find the book he wanted to borrow, but luckily found another book he wanted being returned by someone else at the entrance. Li Ting took it to the staff to scan the QR code and asked when the other desired books would be returned.

The staff member said, “At least by the end of the vacation. And you already borrowed five books, including this book in your hand. If you still want to borrow more, you must return the previous ones first; the maximum loaning period for books is two months.”

“You remember, some of the books you have borrowed have been taken for more than a month already, and the time to return them is due soon.”

Hearing this, Li Ting expressionlessly calculated the time in his head.

At the same time the following day, Li Ting arrived at the main desk of Library A with a large stack of books in his hands. The administrator was the volunteer student who was on duty last time*.

[TN: The ‘last time’ refers to when he came to book seats at the library and met FH.]

“Damn it, I’m still haunted by this guy even after summer break…”

Li Ting was not interested in chatting with him this time, so he turned on his mobile phone, searched for a number, copied it, and handed it to the other party, saying: “You call. Tell him to come and get the books.”

The administrator was confused, saw the books, looked at the mobile phone number, and suddenly realized: “Hey, did you pick up some shady job again? Why don’t you make the call yourself?! It’s none of my business. Why should I do it? I won’t do it!”

Li Ting looked straight at him.

The administrator was angry: “Don’t try to threaten me like that again. This time, it won’t work; I’m not afraid of you.”

Li Ting narrowed his eyes.

The administrator blushed, stared at him for a while, and grabbed the piece of paper while gritting his teeth.

“Li Ting, I will report you to the security department sooner or later: you just wait for it!”

As if he couldn’t hear him speaking, Li Ting calmly told him what he had to say on the phone later.

“Don’t use your cell phone. Use the library’s phone.”

“What kind of business deals are you accepting? If you cause me trouble, you will be finished.”

Li Ting did not answer.

“If he doesn’t pick up, what should I do?” the administrator asked.

“Try it again.” Li Ting instructed.

The administrator had no choice but to try again, and the result was still the same.

“No response, you see, it’s going to be late soon. Why don’t you come back tomorrow or later*?”

[TN: I’m not sure if the meaning was clear, but basically LT borrowed these books so his ‘customer’ could borrow them and the books aren’t taken away by others, he got the admin to call the customer. When customers arrives, LT will return the books and customer will borrow them right after.]

Li Ting frowned, his gaze fixed on the books in his hands; it’s not impossible for him to return later, but his small bike broke when he crashed back then, and he hasn’t had time to repair it.

And Li Ting’s condition is not suitable for riding a bike anyway, so recently, he has been taking the bus to and from the rental house, but the bus back to the rental house from University A was extremely crowded. Li Ting was afraid that if he ran back and forth a few more times, the new book in his hand would become an old one.

“Is it okay to leave the books with you?” Li Ting asked.

The administrator refused straight away, “No, I don’t mean to embarrass you on purpose, Li Ting, these books you’ve borrowed already, I can’t manage them here. If someone takes it away, it will become a problem.”

Li Ting Ting thought for a while and had no choice but to leave with the books in his arms.

The books were large and heavy, with several of it being hardcover editions. Carrying four or five of these books was like carrying a large rock*. Perhaps Li Ting hadn’t done any heavy work recently, or his body hadn’t fully healed, but his clothes were soaked in sweat after only a short walk.

[TN: Not very sure, sorry.]

Finally, he reached the Research Institute of the Economics Department of University A, but Li Ting did not go inside. From a distance, he took out his mobile phone and looked through the contact list, then dialed one of the numbers and turned around. He walked to one side of the bushes and sat on a bench.

After waiting more than ten minutes, a person dashed out of the research institute and hurried toward Li Ting.

“Brother? Why are you here!?” Li Han was very surprised, “Are you feeling better?”

Li Ting nodded and asked, “Can you put these things in the place where you practice?”

Li Han was puzzled: “Ah? What? “

Li Ting pointed to the stack of books at his feet.

Li Han knelt to check: “Huh? Isn’t this from Library A? Why did you borrow it? Is it a part-time job again?”

But didn’t he quit his job when Li Ting injured his hand?

Li Ting did not respond to his question; instead asked, “Can you do it?”

Li Han picked two books and flipped through them but found that he couldn’t understand them: “It’s okay… There is some space under the computer desk I’m using now…but when are you going to take them back?”

Li Ting said: “Soon.”

Li Han finally agreed and reached out to grab the books: “It’s so heavy…”

Li Ting assisted him in moving the books for a short distance before saying, “I won’t go up. Can you carry them yourself?”

His brother’s situation was indeed not suitable for doing strenuous work. Li Han took all the books with a red face and nodded, “Okay, you go, be careful on the road.”

Li Ting nodded as well. After watching his brother leave, shaking and trembling as he carried the books and entered the research institute building, Li Ting took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead before turning around and leaving.

…

Fang Huaining went to Hexin Industry in the morning and returned to the research institute in the afternoon to discuss the situation with his seniors.

He was so preoccupied that it was almost dark before he had time to drink water. Wu Yi brought a large bowl of fruit for everyone; as Fang Huailing ate a piece of bright red watermelon, he suddenly thought of something, then took the mobile phone that had been thrown aside and looked at the app on it.

As the creator of the software, he could see a lot of background statistics, such as how many users have downloaded, clicked, and logged in to use a certain software, etc. However, when he opened the accounting application, he found that all the data values were displayed as zero.

Fang Huaining’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Was it useless?

Why?

Did he forget?

Maybe he was not interested?

Or… does he have no computer at all?!

The last question made Fang Huaining suddenly realize something.

That’s right, a person who only ever uses shabby mobile phones and manages his accounts by hand can live without a computer. How could he think of giving him a USB flash drive at that time; he should’ve just sent the software directly! What a dumb mistake…

While he was still annoyed, Wang Fuliang from downstairs sent him a message in which he asked Fang Huaining a question.

In fact, most of the people on the project team had gone home at this time. Only Fang Huaining had been very busy today, and Wang Fuliang is an especially hardworking person who always finds things to occupy his time with.

Fang Huaining would usually help as much as he could, but when he made his way downstairs, he found the lights were still on in the large laboratory on the seventh floor. Aside from Wang Fuliang, another boy was sitting inside, scratching his head at the computer.

Fang Huaining thought for a while, then remembered that the other party appeared to be Li Ting’s younger brother.

When he passed by the door, the boy raised his head to look at him.

Let’s welcome our dear editor, Leya/Nini, to the team! (it’s just a duo right now but still.)

Hello everyone! *lets out celebratory noise*