Lu Mian wasn't keen on heading back to the Lu family. They would anyway make trouble. She would rather see them in the evening, and reduce their interaction time.
Right now, with her heart warm from Teacher Zhao's concern and her soul all fired up, she wanted to get started with her assignments. Her wanderings brought her back to the breakfast shop she had eaten at in the morning. It wasn't completely closed. Suspecting it was still open for business, she went in and absently called "boss, one noodles please."
And, without waiting for a response, she took out the practice questions and started solving them. It wasn't hard. At all. In fact, there were times she had to remember to write out the steps completely otherwise, she would loose marks. Her pen paused at an interesting question. There were multiple ways to solve it. Which one should she use? As she chewed her pen, a shadow fell on her work.
She looked up to see the breakfast shop owner standing next to her. There was a bowl of noodles at the corner of the table. Judging by how mushy it looked, it had been waiting for sometime. Oops.
"Sorry Boss. I was a bit caught up and didn't see the noodles. I can have it now". Lu Mian reached for the soggy noodle bowl, intending to eat it. The Shop owner however stopped her.
"I can get you a fresh one. Go back to your studies."
Lu Mian smiled up at him. He didn't look too old maybe in his mid 40s. He looked sprightly and his eyes looked really sharp and intelligent. That was really kind of him.
"Oh thats' ok boss. I am starving anyway and your noodles are delicious". She slurped in some more and paused. The taste! It was so like what her mother used to make. She added a pinch of pandan leaves to her noodles too.
"Everything ok?" the owner asked, seeing her pause.
Lu Mian chided herself for being silly. The taste was different after all. "It almost felt like this was my mother's noodles" she smiled. "Thank you Boss, that was delicious."
The boss waved her away - "You are welcome to work here. I see you are stuck."
Lu Mian scoffed " I am not stuck - these sums are too simple." The boss turned and raised an eyebrow. "So why did you stop writing?" his tone was curious - not accusatory.
"I was trying to find out which solution to use - which one would be ranked best in the olympiad." She nodded and went back to her work. Maybe write down all three solutions? She could check with Teacher Zhao which one she should do.
Completely missing the shopkeeper's stunned look, she went on to finish the rest of her sums. The afternoon sun slowly stretched out and soon cast long shadows across the walls.
Lu Mian worked without looking up, totally absorbed in her world of numbers.She didn't notice the shopkeeper coming in to check on her. Or how he cordoned off the section of his shop to not let anyone disturb her. Lu Mian was in her own world - working on something that would help her future and the numbers she found exciting. This was fun!
After finishing up the last problem, Lu Mian gave a huge sigh and stretched. 'That's done!" and looked around. It was then she noticed the time. Most of the afternoon was over! Had she still been in school, it would be time for the evening self study session.
Lu Mian cursed. She needed to get started with the project. However, she couldn't stay here indefinitely - her 3hr stint had already surpassed the measly bowl of noodles ordered. With a huge sigh, Lu Mian mentally got up to find another place.
"Done for today?" asked the shopkeeper. "You can have something more to eat."
Right on cue, Lu Mian's stomach rumbled. She gave a sheepish grin "I.."
"Well well well, look who it is - the unwanted eldest miss Lu hiding away here. Isn't it sad you would rather spend time here rather than at home?" It was He Yutin. Again.
Where does she get her confidence from? Wondered Lu Mian. "YEs, it is indeed sad I am here and not welcome at home. You should check with your precious Lu Xinya why that is. Or" Lu Mian gave a dramatic pause "'Why not ask Aunt He? She's your relative after all!"
"You, how.." spluttered He Yutin.
"Stop embarrassing yourself in front of me again. Scram" barked Lu Mian.
"Just you wait. You are just an unwanted girl who doesn't have a mother. Sooner or later the Lu family will kick you out and you would be nothing." she cursed.
Lu Mian laughed. She had truly embraced her demons. These meaningless things won't hurt her anymore. "You are wrong" she informed He Yutin pleasantly. "I was never unwanted. Just because my mother is dead doesn't mean I don't have her. My mother loved me. So much. I am proud to be her daughter. I will live up to her dream and live very well thank you. But you, need to worry about yourself. If the Pei family asks you for an explanation, do you think your precious Lu Xinya will defend you? Hmm?"
He Yutin, fled without looking back. Lu Mian sighed. It was truly tiring to deal with kids. She turned around and came to a halt. Behind her were the shopkeeper and the man from morning watching her with a strange expression. They aren't piting me now, are they?
"You are always welcome to come work here" the shopkeeper abruptly said.
"I can pay for your meals. Don't go hungry." The man who had teased her in the morning told her with an uncharacteristically serious look.
"It's not seemly for a man to sponsor a girls meals." frowned the shopkeeper. "She can eat for free here. I won't charge her. You do not need to pay."
Lu Mian was touched. For the second time in her life, there were strangers who had stepped up to be kind to her. And, she did need their kindness. She honestly needed a place to work. Lu Mian had not foolish pride. She could bend and accept kindness when she needed it.
"Then I will thank you both." she said sincerely, without pretense. "I promise to work hard and be worthy of your kindness."
"Don't think too much little sis. I can call you little sis, right? Little sis" Laughed the young man. "You can call me A'Ke. This is boss Qin. What's your name?"
"I am Lu Mian" she smiled at the duo. "You can call me Mianmian. Then I will go in and finish working."
"Have something to eat first" offered boss Qin.
Lu Mian smiled ruefully. She would love to eat - however she really did not have the time. The Olympiad questions had taken her longer than anticipated and she was running late to start on her assignment.
"I really want to get started on my project boss Qin" she said. "I have another 2 more hours before I need to be home. So I will work first."
Boss Qin still gave her a pancake. "Don't work hungry. Once you are done, we can eat more."
Lu MIan gratefully gobbled it up and went back to her corner, this time, with her laptop. Thank God I packed this today. Else going back to the Lu family would've been hard.
Seeing neither A'Ke or Boss Qin bothered with her anymore, Lu Mian discreetly signed into the Darkweb. Within seconds, the interface turned to an obsidian black console. Addein in a few encryptions to hide her IP, Lu Mian got started.
An ID that had remained dormant for a long time flashed green. Lumina is online
Eatingfirecrackers - Boss, where have you been?
Littlepiggywenwen-Like Boss needs to tell you. The more important question is, are you doing the top project?
Heartstopper316 - Take me along for the project Boss!
Lumina - Why are all of you so free?! And, if you aren' able to do a top level project after hanging with me for so long, unfriend me.
Eatingfirecrackers - Heartless as always. You would never find a girlfriend.
Littlepiggywenwen - "crying emoji" "crying emoji" I am happy to hear you but sad too.
Heartstopper316 - Indeed boss, your teaching skills are too poor. We still can't do top projects. Tsk tsk.
—-Heartstopper316 is locked out of chat. You can no longer send the users messages—
Heartstoper316:?!! Mommy… I was wrong!
Ignoring the antics of her online friends, Lu Mian sifted through the project that was talked about.
Project Titan Mirror: S+ Class. Decrypt and qualify a quantum level cipher. Completion will mean qualification to assist on more exclusive projects.
Lu Mian clicked agree - she could always negotiate the terms later. The problem didn't seem to be too hard. Her lips curved - two mirrored encryption loops with a concealed feedback trigger at exit. So cute.
This was child's play for her. Not only could she solve it - she could set it up to be even better. The trick was knowing the logic symmetry and identifying key point of entry. It wasn't brute forcible and the system will collapse on itself if pushed. That's what most hackers would've done.
Lu Mian traced both the loops simultaneously, rewriting the recursion in realtime. She didn't just crack it, she refined it and corrected for the original instability. You're welcome she murmured. Before moving on, she also thought of creating a cleaner recursive shield and introduced a tracer in it. It would silently track your IP and know when you move.
The next hour Lu Mian fingers flew across the keyboard, her attention on the tiny screen in front of her. There were times she heartily wished for her bigger console she used in her past life. That would've made the data crunching so much easier.
There! The code is now stabiilized too. She finally hit Enter and checked Submit.
Submission uploaded - integrity 98.9%.
Hmph. With better wifi and system she would've scored more! She was absolutely tired. What a long day. She would wait to hear back from the sponsors tomorrow. For now, she just wanted to go to bed. Oh wait, there would still be the Lu family waiting for her when she got back.
Yawning widely, Lu Mian started to tiredly pack up.
Beep: System Message: Ghostwire wants to send you a message.
Lu Mian paused. So quick? And why does that name ring a bell?
She sat back down and hit enter.
Message from Ghostwire: Lumina - that was excellent work. We are looking for one more person to join our team. Are you interested?
Lumina - I will not join anything that goes against the law or the Nation.
Ghostwire - Affirmative. We can't give you details till you agree. And then we need you to commit to a 4 day immersive project. Money is not a matter.
Lumina - Any nondisclosures? I am looking to add this project to my portfolio.
Ghostwire - Heavily redacted. But we can give you recommendation. What are you looking for?
Lumina - National Defense Academy - admission project.
Ghostwire- ??!! We will be in touch within two hours. The screen blinked out.
Boss Qin set a steaming bowl of noodles in front of her - simple tomato noodles with an egg on top. "The unreliable boy A'ke suddenly disappeared. I could've asked him to send you off otherwise".
"No thank you Boss Qin", replied Lu Mian. "I can head back on my own".
"I saw you working the questions - you are doing very well. What university are you planning on?:
"National Defense Academy" smiled Lu mian, with confidence and pride. In that second she wasnt the 17 yr old teenager. Who stood before Qin was Soldier Lu Mian, the top researcher and Divine Alchemist. Back straight and proud, she smiled at him - "I will get in and serve my country".
Boss Qin caught his breath. The same voice, the same confidence. He had seen it before. It superimposed with another stunningly beautiful and beloved face in his memory.
But when he blinked again, the image was gone. His heart hurting, and feeling a loneliness and regret that ate at his very bones, he watched Lu Mian walk away. "Control yourself old man. What you lost because of your foolishness, you can never get back…"
As Boss Qin sighed in disbelief, the "unreliable boy" he had mentioned was doing the same. He was looking at the well written, neatly decoded code as was aghast. This was a genius! GENIUS! They wanted this genius in their team.
More than an hour back Li Jian had called them all together. The alarm they had set up for their project had beeped. Someone was working on it - more importantly, their codes and methods had already met the team's requirements.
Lin Ke had hurried back to SafeHouse 3 to watch the project being solved in action. He sighed and cheered at every track completion. How well done - so elegant, so clever. This person had clearly thought 12 steps ahead!
"This is the one!" confirmed Li Jian. The team sighed quietly. They had found someone. There was hope.
"Ghostwire, make initial contact - and see how soon they can join." "Rhino, patch in Aegis"
So Ghostwire scouted out the mysterious Lumina, ready to offer all the money they could, while the entire team followed the conversation over Ghostwire's shoulder. When they came to the final requirement, as one, the team blinked.
"Did he really say admission?" echoed Ghostwire dumbfounded. "Wait, this was a teenager, not even a college student?!"
"National Defense Academy! He will be our junior" laughed Rhino.
Li Jian frowned. He was sure the genius they had was thirty years old atleast. He didn't know what to do with a teenager. Aegis had the same problem.
"Too young" he remarked. "He's still a kid. It's too dangerous for him." For a second, a pair of soft eyes and caring hands flashed in his mind. His fingers brushed against his bracelet gently. "Keep looking".
Lin Ke was stunned. "No. This kid is absolutely the best. He is even better than me. With his expertise, our plan will surely succeed. To make sure we protect him, lets bring him to safehouse 3 - and give him a double layered encryption as well. He will be untraceable."
Li Jian was tempted "Even if we get compromised, his identity would be safe." he murmured quietly.
Aegis was furious. "Are you really asking a school kid to put his life in danger?" The danger she was in, while she helped him made him even angrier. "Have you forgotten why we do this? We are their shield and protection. Since when did we start hiding behind children?!"
The room was quiet.
"Aegis, he is going into National Defense Academy - he will be serving anyway" reminded Chen Yuze quietly.
"He will not be in the front lines - that will still be us. What we are asking is for him to trace and track for us, while we bait the prey. I guarantee there will be no loopholes this time" assured Li Jian seriously.
"Command doesn't know of this - so the spy doesn't either. This is the safest operation we have done Aegis. And so much of our success will depend on this."
Aegis gritted his teeth. He admitted he was overreacting. "I don't want to involve and endanger more people/" he admitted quietly.
No one responded to that. The mandate they carried was heavy, every step stressful as walking in a live mine field. With the spy still in the shadows, their team was like meat on a chopping block.
"I think that's why we should ask him to join." said Viper quietly. "With his help, we have a very real chance of getting ahead of the spy. We can uncover him and not be in the dark anymore. We can make sure Black Lotus doen't hurt more people."
You can do this alone - but you don't have to. Her voice came to him again. Aegis fingers went back to his bracelet again. It seemed to be a habit - steadying him and giving him strength.
"Make contact. We give him full disclosure. And guarantee protection. If he doesn't take it, he can walk away - no strings attached". He barked.
The team scrambled to work. They had lots to get done, with less than 24 hours to launching their operation. But now, there was hope!