Chapter 23: Giving the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences a Little Thrill.

But obviously, Winnie didn't do that. Instead, she offered a gentle smile, tilted her head to listen, and nodded from time to time.

However, her internal monologue was far from reserved.

[I heard that Xia Kingdom boys like reserved girls. I wonder if I was reserved enough just now... Damn it, playing the lady is so exhausting, and chasing boys is even more tiring. Should I just make a move instead? Ugh...]

[Should I find an excuse to get him drunk tonight? This tripe might not be great for drinking, maybe I should suggest going to karaoke...]

Li Can had no idea that the tall beauty beside him was having such thoughts. Instead, he was a bit preoccupied with height. It was truly ridiculous for a 1.75-meter-tall girl to be wearing five-centimeter heels. If he weren't 1.9 meters tall himself, it would have been hard to handle. He couldn't help but sigh; the girls from the "fighting nation" were truly fierce.

He had known Winnie for quite a while. They had interacted often during club activities. When Winnie first arrived, Li Can was the senior who welcomed her. Although he was only one year ahead, Li Can’s knack for breezing through his studies meant that while Winnie was still an undergraduate, Li Can was already about to graduate with his master’s degree.

They had learned dance together at the ZeroX Street Dance Club and participated in several events for the Beijing University Street Dance Alliance. It was hard not to remember a 1.75-meter-tall Slavic girl with long legs who started her routine with an "Air Fly" round-off.

He especially remembered a certain gala where they formed a band. Winnie, who had a background in classical guitar, picked up an electric guitar and stood on the monitor speaker to show off. Under the flashing disco ball, it felt as if the tremolo arm of her guitar was wailing. That explosive performance—the kind that hits you like a shot of high-proof vodka—still remained vivid in Li Can’s memory.

As he was thinking about this, the two reached their destination: Old Wang’s Tripe at Weizikeng Snack Street.

As soon as he walked in, Li Can saw four people waving at him. After sitting down with Winnie, Li Can gave a mischievous grin and glanced at Lin Feng and Han Jiayin. "Are you two not going to the studio tonight?"

"Huh? Why would we go to the studio?" Lin Feng asked, genuinely confused.

Chen Gang suddenly interjected, "But you two don't seem to be heading back to the dorms tonight either. You tell me, where would a lonely man and woman go in the middle of the night in the dark..."

"Ooooh~~~" The three of them—Li Can, Chen Gang, and Zhao Ze—had a synchronized moment of realization after a brief pause, all looking like they had figured it all out.

"Shut it!" Lin Feng’s face turned red, and he pointed a finger downward. Han Jiayin’s face flushed as well, her eyes darting away nervously.

"Let’s skip tonight. We’ll head to the studio tomorrow. First, to show you the way, and second, to start working, handle the onboarding, and you can also use the studio space to rehearse your program," Li Can said, suddenly slamming the table hard.

*Slap! Slap!*

"Old Wang! Where’s the tripe? You’re so slow, how is your place still not out of business?!"

"Stop rushing me, you in a hurry to get reincarnated?!" Old Wang poked his head out from the kitchen and roared. A moment later, he brought out several bowls of night-market-style spicy vermicelli and tripe. After setting them down, he glanced at Li Can. "It’s been so long, you still haven't graduated?"

Li Can took a bite of the tripe and frowned. "...Did you show your cow stomach a horror movie? Why is it this tough?"

"What? You went abroad and forgot how to eat tough food, only interested in 'soft rice' now?"

"I have the credentials to eat 'soft rice,' but you’ve never been this handsome, so of course you wouldn't understand."

"Sure, you're handsome. You could wear a wig and enter a beauty pageant. Old Wang might not understand the world of handsome guys, but I have seen the Miss Asia awards ceremony."

The tone between the two wasn't sarcastic; there was even a strange sense of friendliness, like old pals. Chen Gang and the others seemed used to this scene and didn't show any surprise. Winnie even watched the two bickering with interest, seemingly struggling with the urge to join in, though she suppressed her strange competitive spirit out of concern for the image she wanted to maintain in front of "Brother Can."

"Brother Can, it’s hard to find a job in music, isn't it? If you can't find one, you can come here; I’ll save you a dishwashing job." Old Wang lit a cigarette and clicked his tongue. "Even though you have the IQ of an eight-year-old, I don't think it would count as hiring child labor."

"An eight-year-old is still a graduate student. A college undergraduate like you is probably only six."

Li Can’s remark left Chen Gang and Zhao Ze completely stunned, and even Winnie’s face stiffened slightly. Only Lin Feng and Han Jiayin, the two vocal graduate students, looked at him with strange expressions.

One sentence had insulted half the people present, and even the four-year-old customer at the next table eating tripe froze. *What’s wrong with high schoolers?!* Why did he get insulted for no reason while eating?

But Li Can laughed, "Speaking of work, Old Wang, if this place goes under, I can find you a 'Dr. Zhao'."

"Huh? Why are you showing off your foreign language? What Dr. Zhao?"

"Dr. Zhao the Leak-Fixer."

"I thank you so much!" Old Wang rolled his eyes, tossed a few bottles of cola from a nearby cabinet, and turned back to his work.

Li Can turned around with a grin and asked, "So, what kind of program should we prepare?"

"The six-year-old undergraduate doesn't know how to talk, so we have to listen to the eight-year-old graduate student," Chen Gang said, rolling his eyes, which made Zhao Ze nod in agreement.

"Yeah, yeah, you're eight; it's the prime age for striving."

"...What about you, Winnie?"

"My Chinese isn't very good."

Li Can’s face darkened as he stared at the stifling-a-laugh Lin Feng, as if waiting for him to speak. Lin Feng held out his hand. "Give me eight hundred in lucky money, and then I'll speak."

"Get lost!"

Seeing Li Can’s composure break, everyone burst into laughter and began to discuss the real business.

"As for the program... the old rules, it has to be metal!" Mentioning this, Chen Gang became excited. "Since we’ve got you and Winnie together, we definitely have to give the folks at the University of Science and Technology something heavy!"

Hearing this, Zhao Ze agreed, "Exactly. The best drummer from the Conservatory and the best guitarist from the Conservatory playing power metal—that’s a great idea."

"Power metal?" Li Can glanced at Winnie, his eyelids twitching. He recalled the scene of Winnie the guitarist standing on the monitor speaker, shredding wildly. He had drummed until his hands and feet cramped, frequently receiving provocative and wild glances from Winnie. *Damn it, a man just can't stand that look of 'Is that all you've got?'*

So he had to grit his teeth and push even harder, hammering away until his shoelaces were vibrating. Power metal—it burned through one buff drummer every ten minutes.

"I think that works too!" Old Wang came out from the kitchen again. "Believe me, your Brother Wang is an old-school Beijing underground rocker. You’re so good at going crazy, and you’re a bit of a psycho—you’re perfect for power metal."

"Winnie?"

"Play!" Winnie said, concise and to the point. Her sparkling heterochromatic eyes seemed to be filled with the word "thrill."

"..."

He looked at everyone and realized that only Lin Feng, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist, looked a bit somber, while even the lead singer and bassist, Han Jiayin, seemed very interested.

Li Can was numb. "Fine, fine, the minority obeys the majority. Power metal it is."

"We’ll definitely have to wake up those science researchers at the University of Science and Technology! Consider it a contribution to the country’s technological development from the sidelines!"