Five minutes had passed, and Leizi had only typed two keystrokes.
Ten minutes had gone by, and Leizi's fingers were frozen on the keyboard.
Fifteen minutes had ticked away, and Leizi didn't move an inch. The room was completely silent as all eyes watched Leizi, who was drenched in sweat.
Leizi kept swallowing saliva. His mind was blank as he started hitting the keyboard randomly like a headless fly.
After two to three minutes, Leizi seemed to suddenly deflate. The tense energy left his body all at once.
He finally gave up.
He slumped back in his chair, his complexion ashen. He panted roughly for air, looking exhausted. Bean-sized beads of sweat slid from his forehead into his eyes, stinging them.
Principal Han Xi's heart sank to the bottom.
They had lost.
Leizi looked at Qiao Ying across from him, his eyes full of unwillingness.
"How...how long have you been learning computer science?" He tried to find an excuse that he could accept for his defeat.
But Qiao Ying annoyingly replied, "I only started getting into computers in high school."
Qin Hanyue in the audience laughed out loud.
Qin Yan thought: What a heartless killer! I'll write this down in my little diary: Today is a nice sunny day, and my heartless idol is as steady as ever.
This is such a good chance to reveal her hacker identity and shock them to death!
Qin Yan really wanted to see that.
In the not-so-distant future, when Qin Yan looked back on this moment, she would only think: This was too small a stage to be worth her idol revealing such an amazing secret.
Leizi lost control of his emotions and yelled, "That's impossible!"
Qiao Ying said, "The little boy I competed against recently is my brother. He started learning about computers in 10th grade. That's just one summer vacation's worth of serious study."
The only reason Qiao Yi lost was because he started late. Give him another summer vacation with her and Qin Hanyue as mentors, and he would have no problem thoroughly beating that punk.
Such truth was a heavy blow to Leizi, who had been exposed to computers since childhood and even found a formidable master to teach him.
Qiao Ying suddenly felt a whim: "Who's your master?"
Leizi said, "You're not qualified to know!"
Whether Qiao Ying was qualified or not, he knew very clearly in his heart.
Although he had looked down on her before the match, he had not been careless or arrogant.
He had gone all out with that code.
Yet Qiao Ying had easily found loopholes within minutes and fixed them at a skill level far above his own, and with just one hand! What he didn't know was that Qiao Ying hadn't even tried.
Qiao Ying didn't care. "Alright then. It's not like it could be Hacker X or Y anyway."
When he heard the legendary hacker's name, Leizi's heart jolted in shock. "You know them?" His gaze fixed intensely on Qiao Ying.
Qiao Ying nodded slightly. "We're quite familiar."
"School beauty Qiao Ying knows Hacker X? For real? That's the Hacker X!"
"Hey, don't just casually dismiss Hacker Y. Although he's new, he's also first-class, commanding the admiration of veteran hacking masters!"
"Maybe she's lying about the others, but I believe School Beauty Qiao Ying..."
"Can anyone tell me who Hacker X and Hacker Y are? Are they really that good? And which two ordinary friends of School Beauty Qiao Ying are they?"
"It's like School Beauty Qiao Ying has friends on both sides of the law."
"More than just good - they're legendary, the gods in the minds of countless tech nerds, programmers and hackers! I'm talking about Hacker X. Hacker Y doesn't matter."
Qin Yan thought: Quite familiar? Is that considered very familiar? One is herself, the other she has kissed - such intimate relationships! Her BS skills are as good as ever.
I should also write in my diary - my idol won't reveal her secret identity.
Leizi looked at Qiao Ying in shocked awe.
Qiao Ying said, "I heard you were mocking how there isn't a single Chinese hacker in the global top ten?"
She slowly stood up. "I regret to inform you that there is more than one."
With one line, she stirred the spirit of all the young people present.
Leizi was horrified. What did she mean?
Could Hacker X be Chinese? Or Hacker Y?
Or...both?! Thinking of that possibility, Leizi's legs grew weak.
When Qiao Ying spoke, a small minority of male students exploded.
"What does that mean? Hacker X is from our China?"
"Is she really familiar with Hacker X?"
"Damn, although I don't know this Hacker X, hearing that makes my blood boil!"
Zhang Chengyong laughed. "Principal Han, I'll take that dorm building. I'm really looking forward to new competitions next year, any field is good!"
Principal Han Xi: "..."
Leizi lost. The moment the results were announced, the entire audience roared and cheered, the noise almost blowing the roof off.
Principal Han Xi and the other leaders looked towards the excited audience. They saw the Hanxi students were no less excited than the Capital University students.
For a time, it was hard to tell Hanxi students apart from Capital University students.
Although very annoyed, given this nationalistic spirit...what more could they say?
"Sis Qiao, you're so awesome!" Huo Chengdong rushed up first.
A group surrounded Qiao Ying, celebrating.
Principal Han Xi couldn't stand watching the celebration. He turned to leave and discovered Qin Hanyue standing outside the basketball court.
He rubbed his eyes in disbelief before daring to confirm: "Oh, Master Qin, Master Qin the Third!"
He swirled over to Qin Hanyue like the wind. "What wind blew you here today without notice? You should have told me you were coming!"
Qin Hanyue indifferently said, "I came to watch the competition."
"Watch the competition?" Principal Han Xi was puzzled. Following Qin Hanyue's gaze, he looked at Qiao Ying surrounded by people.
Qin Hanyue dismissed the others with a few words, then walked towards Qiao Ying.
"Sis Qiao, Sis Qiao, that coffee bean's dumbfounded! He runs his mouth here, mouthing off nonsense, courting death-" Huo Chengdong was speaking spiritedly when he did a double take. There was suddenly another person next to them, giving him a tremendous shock. He nearly dropped the banner in his hand.
Qin Hanyue smiled faintly. "Congratulations."
Did he really not know if it was worth congratulating? Though Qiao Ying nodded on the surface in response.
With Qin Hanyue's arrival, the others subconsciously moved away, distancing themselves from him while standing closer to Qiao Ying.
Qin Hanyue said, "Shall we go?"
Qiao Ying took her laptop. "Let's go."
Tens of thousands of eyes on the stands and basketball court stared at the two below.
They saw Qin Hanyue naturally take Qiao Ying's laptop. Then, in front of everyone, he held her hand and they left side by side.
The atmosphere across the entire stadium exploded again, accompanied by waves of unrestrained screaming. The girls went mad.
"They held hands! This is real!"
"My ship is official! I'm going crazy!"
"It's officially announced! Put it top headline!"
"School Beauty Qiao..." The Capital University male students and newly infatuated Hanxi male students had their hearts broken.
A Hanxi female student asked, "Sisters, share some resources. Can I still get on this ship?"
Huo Chengdong dumbly watched their retreating figures and muttered in disbelief, "Sis Qiao and Qin Hanyue are together?!"
His tone grew increasingly incredulous and unable to accept as he immediately looked to Qiao Yi for confirmation.
Before Qiao Yi could say anything, Sack took her away.
A dazed Huo Chengdong could only look to Xu Zhiyi and the others. However, they didn't want to answer his question either.
Xiao He stood in place, gazing at the two people's departing backs.
In the car,
Being stared at by Qin Hanyue made Qiao Ying want to curse. She inexplicably asked, "Something wrong?"
She then heard Qin Hanyue ask, "Just quite familiar?"
Hearing the trace of grievance in his tone, Qin Yan felt a chill.
She thought: Master Qin, although my idol is more steady than me, she's still just a young teen girl. Can you please not bully such a young girl or be so petty?
