Chapter 80: The Setup

“Th… thank you…”

Jiang Ran knew this counted as Su Wanqing making a concession for her, and she couldn’t bring herself to say anything more.

“It’s nothing. I’m not some devil. Saying this now is just because I feel sorry for you. Don’t look at me with those eyes. And besides, why do you have to get so close to other women? What’s so great about them anyway?”

Jiang Ran bit her lip, feeling as if a fishbone was stuck in her throat.

“I’m sorry.”

Digging through the meager ‘dry goods’ in her stomach, this was the only response Jiang Ran could muster.

“Oh… you only know how to say ‘I’m sorry.’ Can’t you be a little firmer? You’re making me look like I’m bullying you.”

Looking at Jiang Ran like this, Su Wanqing felt a mix of affection and frustration.

Jiang Ran’s appearance just made people want to tease her a little.

But precisely because of that, bullying Jiang Ran so harshly…

She felt a bit guilty.

“I just feel really sorry. And didn’t you just say I was being too much? I don’t think I’m a good person either…”

“Yes, I did say that, but I was hoping you’d change a bit. Look at yourself now. Do you look even remotely like my lover?”

“I… I’m not your lover.”

Jiang Ran bit her lip, the light in her eyes flickering slightly.

She kept walking until she reached the mall entrance, where Su Wanqing finally caught up.

“Jiang Ran, how are you getting back? Regarding the clothes, I’ll have someone go with you for a while later.”

“I can go back by myself. Sorry, we were supposed to go grocery shopping together.”

“It’s fine. I’m happy just being with you. I won’t say anything just because you’re not coming with me. And don’t blame yourself at all now. It was partly my fault for getting a bit emotional earlier. If you’re angry, you can hit me later.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Jiang Ran waved her hand and got into the car.

She had originally come to shop with Su Wanqing, but the earlier incident had completely derailed that.

Thinking about it, Jiang Ran saw a new message appear on her phone.

‘Didn’t get to have fun properly today. This is your compensation, consider it emotional distress fees. ~’

A direct transfer of three thousand yuan.

Looking at this large sum, Jiang Ran was utterly dumbfounded, completely unprepared for such an amount.

“Miss, are you heading back?”

“No need. Just drop me off near the school.”

Looking at the maid in the front seat, Jiang Ran didn’t give her own address.

If she did, the maid might report it to Su Wanqing.

“Understood.”

The car drove all the way to the school.

Getting out at the school gate, Jiang Ran made a phone call.

Soon after, Bai Ranran arrived at the school, holding a large white cat.

“Jiang Ran, what brings you to see me today?”

“It’s what your parents asked before. How about you go home for National Day? They’re about to go abroad.”

Bai Ranran’s eyes flickered as she shook her head.

“We’ll see. Since you’re here, come see a project I’ve been working on recently.”

Bai Ranran pulled Jiang Ran towards the second floor. Jiang Ran saw the large sign there.

“This is the Computer Building. But I remember this place was locked?”

“Yeah, this is sort of my office. My family donated the entire computer building to the school before, and this place was reserved for me.”

“A whole building?!”

Jiang Ran was shocked by the sheer, inhuman extravagance of Bai Ranran’s parents. Thinking of that figure from before…

Uncle’s hair was really thinning.

It seems the less hair a person has, the stronger they are.

Taking the elevator, Jiang Ran went upstairs.

Standing inside, she couldn’t help but complain.

During normal computer classes, they were never allowed to use this elevator.

Now she could actually ride it…

“What the school does and what we do are definitely different. They’re probably worried about overloading it, so they make everyone take the stairs.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

Jiang Ran remembered that even when many elevators were open, it was only for limited times.

Sometimes if you went late, you still had to climb seven floors in one go.

Especially for the large lecture halls for cultural classes like Rooms 1 and 2, you had to climb stairs with tons of people.

She’d heard from seniors before that because there were too many people, they specially built a wider staircase.

“So that’s really how it is.”

“We’re here. Let’s go.”

Bai Ranran walked ahead and pulled open the large door.

Inside was an office absolutely saturated with light pollution.

“Why are there so many wires in here?”

“Yeah, this is my independent workspace. All these computers are running code I wrote before. The floor tiles you’re stepping on are actually holographic projections; they can switch to various modes.”

Bai Ranran put down the cat in her arms and clapped her hands.

Sure enough, the color of the floor tiles changed.

Not only that, even the background music changed.

‘So magical. Is this also controlled by code?’

“No, it’s projectors. I just wrote an app that can recognize my clap as a signal—an acoustic component—to control these light beams to change. There’s no real technical depth to it.”

“So it’s like a voice-activated light?”

Jiang Ran thought of the sensor lights she’d seen at street corners before, guessing the principle was similar.

“Sort of. That’s not important. Try this instead. The AR glasses I invented. Guaranteed to be super immersive.”

“Oh?”

Jiang Ran took the AR glasses.

They looked pretty much like what she imagined glasses would.

Though wearing them felt more high-tech.

Biting her lip, Bai Ranran said, “Hold my hand. Sit here.”

Unable to see, Jiang Ran was led forward and sat down on a soft chair.

“I’m turning on the power.”

Bai Ranran murmured. Jiang Ran nodded.

The next second, she saw a woman walk into her field of view within the glasses.

The woman’s head wasn’t visible because her body was covering it.

‘What kind of game is this?’

“It’s a sort of physical interaction game. Guaranteed to be the kind you like.”

“Ha, there are such advanced games?”

Jiang Ran didn’t really understand, but she chose to trust Bai Ranran.

After all, hacker tech was always very high-tech.

“Yes. Don’t try to understand yet. Let me load the game interface for you.”

As she spoke, Bai Ranran began to take off her clothes.

Just as Jiang Ran lay down, Bai Ranran also began to approach.

In the virtual world, Jiang Ran only felt that this sister was being very bold, starting to undo her clothes for her.

Wait… was this a little adult game?

Jiang Ran wanted to move but found she couldn’t.

Just as she tried to turn her head, an animation soon played, and a pair of hands were placed on her body.

She felt her lips being blocked by something.

‘Whoa, are game sensations this realistically immersive now?’

Jiang Ran wanted to complain but found she couldn’t make a sound.

She reached up to pull off the visor and then saw Bai Ranran, half-undressed, leaning in to demand something from her.

“Mmph mmph… You… you…”

Jiang Ran couldn’t get her words out.

Unexpectedly, Bai Ranran licked her lips and smiled.

“Student Jiang, why aren’t you playing the game properly? Isn’t the AR sensation realistic enough?!”