CHAPTER 623: 【617】ORPHAN’S COUNTERATTACK 86 (2ND UPDATE)

Zhou Yiyi’s heart tightened, her movements momentarily stilled, "Wha-, what’s wrong?"

Zhou Mo walked up to her, and her heart was about to jump out of her chest when he cupped her face with his hands, kissing her on the left and then the right cheek.

"Yiyi, happy birthday, be good, go to sleep now."

Zhou Yiyi was quite scared, and even after he pushed her into her room and even closed the door for her, her heart kept thumping wildly.

She finally calmed down, turned around, sat on the bed, and continued to dry her hair when the door opened again and Zhou Yiyi abruptly looked up.

But she saw Zhou Mo, a departure from his usual aloofness, grinning playfully, "Be good, want me to keep you company in bed?"

Zhou Yiyi felt she was being teased, and he was relentlessly tormenting her time and again. Without delay, she threw a pillow at him, "Get out!"

"Hahaha...," Zhou Mo burst into a hearty laugh, consciously closed the door, and left. Zhou Yiyi glared at the tightly shut room door, thinking that a single man and a single woman alone in a house could easily lead to trouble. She was lucky she was younger, and he hadn’t made a move. If both of them were adults and working, she feared things wouldn’t have ended so simply.

Zhou Yiyi didn’t wait for her hair to dry; she soon felt sleepy without the air conditioning, but they did have two electric fans, one for each of them. Even so, it was still very hot.

Newly renovated houses were bound to smell, but theirs wasn’t a luxury renovation, and after airing out for a few more months, it should be fine.

That night, Zhou Yiyi didn’t even know when she fell asleep, only that when she woke up the next day, Zhou Mo had already bought breakfast back.

Zhou Yiyi saw that he was already dressed in his own clothes, while her father’s clothes were still hanging on the balcony, a bit surprised, "When did you get up?"

"I’m used to getting up early; hurry and wash up and get ready for breakfast. I’ll be heading back to school soon. What are your plans for today?"

Yesterday was Sunday, and today was Monday, so she naturally had to continue going to Mr. Guan’s for study. Zhou Mo was headed in a completely different direction, so she didn’t ask him to take her.

Besides, her home was close to Tsinghua University, just a few bus stops away. By the time he left, she hadn’t finished her meal, and he took the chance to steal another kiss.

"Are you addicted to taking advantage now?"

Zhou Mo shamelessly replied, "Who makes you so irresistible? I think now that your house was a good buy and a smart move. I have one hundred thousand yuan now; should I buy one too?"

Zhou Yiyi replied without hesitation, "If you want to buy, I support you. I have one hundred thousand yuan too. Look, when I bought mine, it was at 4,800 yuan per square meter, and now this complex has already risen to 5,200 yuan. It’s going to be even more expensive in the future."

Last semester, Zhou Yiyi had saved thirty thousand yuan, and then her writings were serialized, bringing in more than 2,000 yuan per month from regular attendance and income. Over half a year, she had earned over ten thousand, which had helped pay for the renovations. Then in the past two months, due to good user recommendations, she interestingly made over twenty thousand from serialization. Along with the prize money of eighty thousand yuan she had earned, she had a total of one hundred thousand and six thousand yuan. She had been planning on buying stocks with it, but if Zhou Mo was buying a house, she didn’t mind supporting him with her savings.

However, after the serial writing was over, there’d be no more money, and she definitely had to start new writings this month. She had just finished "Yu Niang" and was fully capable and had the time for serial writing.

Looking ahead, it was feasible to make an extra two or three thousand yuan a month depending on the situation.

Zhou Mo didn’t seem to want her money at all, "You keep your money. I’ll talk to my parents about it. I don’t even know if there are any more houses available in this community."

"This community is quite large, you know. This is Phase I; across from us is Phase II. They are still building over there. You could totally go buy a set,"

"Alright, I’ll discuss this with my parents when I get back,"

After Zhou Mo left, Zhou Yiyi went to class and on the way stopped by the sales department across the street to inquire. The average price had indeed been set at 5,200 yuan. It was almost 2006, and if one didn’t buy now, the price could jump to eight thousand overnight, and by 2007, it would be even scarier, directly hitting eleven thousand—a doubling in price!

So she sent Zhou Mo the prices she had found out: "They said, for anything over ninety square meters, it can be lessened to five thousand. Ninety square meters is a three-bedroom unit. If you don’t have enough money, I can lend you some first."

Zhou Mo replied to Yiyi quickly, "Okay, wait for my news."

But then, one thing led to another, and before they knew it, the semester had started, and upon the start of the semester, Zhou Mo was transferred to the famous Yao Class.

Once the Yao Class was formed, Tsinghua started circulating a saying: "Half of the nation’s talents gather at Tsinghua, half of Tsinghua’s talents are in the Yao Class."

Therefore, for math problems, seek out "Yao Class", where the strongest math competitors reside; for programming problems, go to "Yao Class", home to the strongest international gold medalists; for physics problems, still go to "Yao Class", home to national physics competition medalists and high school top scorers.

For each type of problem, the students of Yao Class were not stingy with their knowledge and could help solve issues.

Originally named "Software Science Experimental Class", the Yao Class later renamed to "Computer Science Experimental Class" and was part of the Tsinghua University School of Information Interdisciplinary Research. Each year, through the National Informatics Olympiad recruitment, independent admissions, secondary school internal admissions, and internal department transfers, they selected outstanding students.

Most students who could enter Yao Class were gold medalists in math, physics, and informatics competitions from their respective provinces, often ranking in the top three.

The founder and chief professor of Yao Class was Professor Yao Qizhi, the only ethnically Chinese winner of the Turing Award. The initial intention of creating the "Yao Class" was "the best undergraduates with the best undergraduate education". The goal was to have undergraduate students who could match top American computer science students upon graduation.

Yao Class boasted a high volume of coursework and a plethora of problems, fully conducted in English, with some foreign professors even presenting the most cutting-edge theoretical issues directly to undergraduates. These problems often lacked predefined answers or frameworks, requiring students to design their problem frameworks and explore their own solutions.

The course focus of Yao Class was academically oriented, with the goal being to cultivate academic rather than industrial talent.

Students’ IQs were above average; although there were differences among them, each student had a clear goal for their future. They no longer cared about grades. They didn’t stop to admire the scenery simply because they had to work even harder to close the gap with others.

As a result, many students published papers during their undergraduate years, and by graduation, they had already achieved their own results.

As for classmate Zhou Mo, he was dual-majoring in computer science and physics, his level clearly far ahead in the first inaugurated Yao Class, making the contrast between him and Yiyi like that between an academic god and an academic slacker.

Under the leadership of Yao Qizhi, Yao Class was poised to stand up against any world-class university in the future. Therefore, even if they did not go abroad for further studies, their prospects were still limitless and immeasurable.

While Zhou Yiyi felt a sense of awe, she also increasingly noticed the gap between herself and Zhou Mo.

In the end, Zhou Mo didn’t buy a house because Mr. and Mrs. Zhou had already planned to send him abroad for further studies after his undergraduate graduation. The money had to be spent where it mattered most. Yiyi thought this was no problem at all; after all, they weren’t relying on this single property to make a profit. His future was definitely beyond her predictions.

Though she felt that some gaps were insurmountable, she nevertheless sincerely rejoiced for him because it was precisely because of the renowned Computer Department, led by the nation’s best Yao Qizhi with his Yao Class, that it was so coveted. As a member of the first class, his future was truly astonishing.