Close Enough To Pluck the Stars” (GL) - Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The piano teacher was both fierce and adorably dim-witted—a combination of traits that Liang Ke found particularly tricky to handle.

Then again, anyone would find her tricky.

Fortunately, Liang Ke had a calm personality, a love for facing challenges head-on, and a knack for finding breakthroughs in desperate situations. It took her only three minutes to detect that the teacher’s idol was Nakano Yuri.

“No wonder you look familiar. You and Yuri-chan do share a certain resemblance.”

“Oh, really?” The teacher’s face flushed slightly as she stroked her cheek with her slender fingers.

Liang Ke asked, “Have you never compared yourself to her photo books?”

“I… I never noticed.”

“Go, take another good look. I’m sure you’ll make a new discovery.”

The teacher asked foolishly, “Truly?”

“Truly. Sigh,” Liang Ke lamented.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s not fair. We are both fans of her, yet you are infinitely closer to her in both appearance and aura. It makes me so jealous I can’t find peace.”

“Then I’ll go back to the dorm right now and observe carefully!” The teacher’s eyes were filled with joy.

“Quickly, go. Good luck!”

Liang Ke waved and waved again, seeing the teacher off into the distance. She turned around to find Little A standing there, tear stains still on her face. Little B was nowhere to be seen.

“What are you doing?” Little A asked.

Afraid of a misunderstanding, Liang Ke decided to tell the truth: “Shielding you from the public eye so you and Little B can further develop your underground romance.”

Little A pursed her lips and said nothing, reaching out to take Liang Ke’s arm as they walked.

“Talking is fine, but don’t touch me.” Liang Ke bent her arm outward at a ninety-degree angle, making a desperate effort to maintain distance.

“What’s wrong with touching?”

Liang Ke sneered, mentioning something about being served a shoulder throw. She noted that if it weren’t for her high-level “cute-acting” skills, she might have faced whip kicks, straight punches, and hooks—a bloody, X-rated scene.

“She hit you?” Little A was clearly referring to Little B.

“Hmph.” Liang Ke remained coldly silent, offering no denial.

Little A looked embarrassed and fell silent for a few seconds.

Liang Ke, being easygoing and not wanting to leave things on a sour note, said, “Don’t feel too guilty. There’s no rush to avenge me, and you don’t have to be too heavy-handed. Just try to avoid the head and heart areas.”

She rambled on until she realized Little A hadn’t spoken in a while. She nudged her: “Where did Sister Little B go? Or rather, what did you do to her?”

Little A remained silent.

Liang Ke began to mentally compose a tragic story of a heartbroken lover wandering to the ends of the earth for love.

“We’re getting married next month,” Little A said.

…

When Liang Ke returned to the Research Institute, only the senior with the neon green eyeglass frames was in the workspace.

“Where’s Ye Tianze?” Liang Ke asked him.

“Don’t know. Probably with Luo Han,” the senior said, pushing up his glasses.

“What gives? Those two were blowin’ up my phone telling me to get back immediately, and now they’re gone.”

The senior chuckled, saying there was a small hiccup during the morning competition, but it had been resolved perfectly.

“As for you, you’ve manufactured another piece of heavy-hitting news,” the senior said mysteriously.

“Me? What news?”

Naonao rolled out of Shu Qingchen’s office and chimed in: “Rumor has it you reached the gate this morning, but a handsome groom escaped from his own wedding and used force to kidnap you. Basically, a romantic tale of a Prince and a Calico Cat fleeing for freedom.”

Liang Ke: “It was from a concert hall, not a wedding.”

The senior gasped: “The male lead is a musician!”

Liang Ke added: “The gender is female.”

“Oh! Breaking worldly taboos, wearing underwear as outerwear, taking the road less traveled, little Calico.” Naonao raised its mechanical arms, clutching its ‘heart’ in an intoxicated pose.

“How vulgar.” Liang Ke pulled Naonao’s arms down to face her and lectured: “Stop watching those trashy TV dramas. Read some books when you have time.”

“I don’t wanna!” The little trash can twisted its body, wiggle-wiggle-wiggling.

Liang Ke smiled. “How about this: let me take out your main control chip and ‘process’ it. I still prefer your old, ignorant, and innocent self.”

The little trash can, being a survivalist, sensed danger and chose to retreat. On its way out, it diligently cleared some fruit peels from the senior’s desk. Due to its exaggerated movements, it knocked a neon green USB drive onto the floor.

The senior jumped up neurotically but quickly regained his composure. Fortunately, he was neurotic quite often, so no one noticed.

Just then, Ye Tianze blew in through the main door. He panted for thirty seconds before pointing at Liang Ke. “Why are you still here?”

“Where should I be?”

Luo Han followed him in and gave a brief summary of the morning’s events. When she got to Shu Qingchen’s final attitude and thought of Liang Ke’s future, her face was full of worry, and she looked ready to burst into tears.

“Go on. Go admit your mistake, repent, and reform yourself.”

While scrolling through the system logs, Liang Ke said, “This doesn’t even count as work negligence. I suspect someone from our internal team messed with my system.”

“Did I mention that?” Ye Tianze countered.

“Mmh?”

“I know you’re good-looking, but the sword of beauty shouldn’t be swung wildly. It’s fine to charm men or women, but you have to hit the right target. So, stop [expletive] hanging around with rich ladies and runaway ‘grooms’ all day,” Ye Tianze said.

“That wasn’t… I didn’t…”

“It doesn’t matter if you did or didn’t. You need to consider the leader.”

“What’s wrong with Dr. Shu?”

“She was under a lot of pressure! She took 8 minutes to remove the Trojan’s control over the system and successfully loaded the backed-up competition environment.”

“Where… where is the pressure in that?”

Liang Ke was dazed for a moment, and her mind was immediately occupied by an overwhelming sense of admiration.

“8 minutes?”

“Mmh. In the middle of it, she even gave me and Senior Ye two task assignments. Before she left, she told you to change to a new login password.”

That last sentence was no different than a wildfire fueled by alcohol.

Liang Ke spontaneously combusted with passion. She steamed toward the leader’s office and twisted the doorknob, forgetting even to knock.

“I’m truly grateful. If you hadn’t helped that day, I really wouldn’t have known what to do.”

Professor M was leaning over Shu Qingchen’s desk with both hands, looking down at her as he spoke, thinking himself quite grand and suave.

Liang Ke ignored his portly silhouette and tilted her head to ask Shu Qingchen: “Dr. Shu, hello, hello. I’m here to report on my work.”

Professor M glared at her: “Do you have no sense of etiquette?”

“Oh, Professor M is here too. Hello, hello.” Liang Ke acted as if she had just noticed him.

“Get out.”

Liang Ke smiled but stood her ground.

“I told you to get out. Don’t you understand?”

“But I have an emergency! My work had a glitch this morning, and it involves the reputation of the entire Institute. I must ask for Professor M’s indulgence.” Liang Ke walked up to the desk and met M’s eyes.

M sneered. “You were the one who organized that exam this morning?”

“I suppose so.”

“No wonder it was such a mess—pigs and horses everywhere. I’m telling you, Xiao Liang, your ability is so poor that you shouldn’t shamelessly occupy a precious position in the Intelligent Computing Lab. If I were you, I’d just resign and save our Dr. Shu the trouble.” M smiled toward Shu Qingchen, seemingly seeking support.

Liang Ke cocked an eyebrow and said in the tone of a street rogue: “You’re right, it was indeed a mess. Just like…”

Just like your lifestyle.

But before she could finish her “just like,” she was interrupted by the sound of Shu Qingchen lightly tapping the desk.

“Have the exam results been verified?” Shu Qingchen asked.

“Not yet.”

“Why the delay?”

Liang Ke wanted to say there were 22 teams and three tracks—re-verification takes time. She wasn’t a deity.

But thinking of Shu Qingchen’s god-like 8 minutes this morning, she decided to change her approach.

“It’s like this: I’ve looked at the metadata you left for me. I have some clues, but not many.” As Liang Ke spoke, she hesitantly sat on the guest sofa, hugging her knees. “The mastermind behind this is currently untraceable. With my personal ability, I can’t prove the exam results haven’t been tampered with. I need your help.”

Shu Qingchen turned on the projector. “Mmh. Where are the difficulties? You can state the problems.”

Liang Ke seized the opportunity and, with renewed spirit, began to talk nonsense. She specifically picked things that M wouldn’t understand; in fact, even Shu Qingchen looked a bit puzzled by some of it.

In short, a layman would be baffled, while an expert would be infuriated.

Since she was a child, the Calico Cat had been an expert at “turning the guest into the host.” When Liang Jiyue used to drag her to the hospital for shots, she would loudly and incessantly ask the nurse to mask her fear: “It’s going to hurt once. Only once. Are you ready? Are you really ready?”

Then she would burst into uncontrollable sobbing.

It used to leave the room full of nurses in stitches, with none of them able to open the medicine ampoules.

M had a bad temper, but he had to pretend to be sophisticated. Gritting his teeth, he said they would find a time to chat and swaggered out.

“Liang Ke, see Professor M out.”

Liang Ke stood up and waved from where she was. “Safe travels, Professor M.”

M didn’t look back.

Liang Ke didn’t dare look back either. She keenly sensed that a storm was approaching, so she began to sidle toward the door, mumbling.