Miss Champion and Mr. Sixty-One Points

Chen Zhi returned to the hotel room and closed the door behind him.

Lin Wanwan skipped in right behind him, still hugging that trophy in her arms.

"Can you put the trophy down first?"

"No, I want to sleep holding it."

Too lazy to argue with her, Chen Zhi sat on the edge of the bed and pulled out his phone.

The screenshot of the flight information sent by Pei Ningxue was still on the screen: 7:15 AM tomorrow, Changsha to Beijing, First Class 1A.

Chen Zhi silently calculated the time. For a 7:15 flight, he had to leave by 5:30 at the latest to allow time for the taxi ride to the airport. That meant he could sleep for four hours at most.

What a life.

The phone screen lit up again. A new message popped up in Li Zhiyi's chat box.

[Li Zhiyi: Mmhmm, get some rest early then. Waiting for you tomorrow.]

Chen Zhi replied with a [Go to sleep early], and then switched to Pei Ningxue's chat window.

That solitary "Okay." still hung at the very bottom. She hadn't replied since.

This was scarier than her sending a hundred messages.

"Chen Zhi~"

Lin Wanwan finally found it in her heart to put the trophy on the nightstand. She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and pressed her face against his back.

"Whose message are you replying to?"

"Dai Damai," Chen Zhi said, calmly locking the screen and placing the phone face-down on the bedside table. "There's another issue at the company."

Lin Wanwan let out an "oh" and didn't overthink it.

She walked around to face him, resting both hands on his shoulders, her head slightly bowed.

"Chen Zhi."

"Hmm?"

"The show's recording is over. Let's go out and stroll around tomorrow."

Lin Wanwan's tone was full of anticipation. "There is so much good food in Changsha. I passed by some places during rehearsals but didn't have time to eat."

Chen Zhi felt a bit guilty.

"I'm sorry, Wanwan. The company has a big project recently, and a new round of financing just landed. Tomorrow morning, there's a pile of documents waiting for my final signature. They can't proceed with the process if I'm not in Beijing."

Lin Wanwan froze for a moment.

"Ah? You have to go back already?"

Her hands slipped off Chen Zhi's shoulders, and she took a half-step back.

"Every time I see you, you can't stay for long."

Chen Zhi gently smoothed the stray hairs by her ear.

"Next time, next time we will definitely have a proper date, okay?"

Lin Wanwan lowered her head. "It's like this every time."

She muttered.

"What?"

Lin Wanwan pouted.

"Last time you also said next time, and this time you're still saying next time."

Her eyes were getting a little red.

"Exactly how many 'next times' will it take?"

Faced with this straightforward grievance, the guilt in Chen Zhi's heart was overflowing.

He truly felt guilty.

For today's grand finale, from inviting Taylor to injecting investment to personally keeping an eye on the venue, he had indeed done a lot. But what was the essence of all these things? Compensation.

Because he spent too little time with her normally, because there was never enough time to go around, because on a similar night he might be sleeping with his arms around someone else at Wanliu Academy.

So he could only make up for it this way.

But this was never what Lin Wanwan wanted.

What she wanted was actually very simple. She just wanted to go shopping with him and eat a bowl of stinky tofu.

"I'm sorry, Wanwan." Chen Zhi reached out and pulled her into a tight embrace.

Lin Wanwan buried her head in Chen Zhi's chest and sniffled.

She was very sensible and wouldn't make a scene over nothing.

"Forget it." Lin Wanwan let out a soft hmph and lightly punched his shoulder with her small hand. "Considering how much you helped me today, I'll reluctantly forgive you."

"Thank you for sparing my life, Lady Wanwan."

"Hmph~"

Lin Wanwan had already pressed herself back against him. She nestled into Chen Zhi's arms, her head nuzzling against his chest.

After a good while, she suddenly leaned in closer.

"Chen Zhi."

"Yeah."

"I've finished singing."

Chen Zhi didn't process it immediately and casually praised her, "You sang really well. First place is well-deserved."

Lin Wanwan angrily punched him again, much harder than before.

Then she leaned close to his ear and murmured softly.

"What I couldn't help you with last night... I can do it today."

Chen Zhi's brain went blank for 0.3 seconds.

Last night?

Oh.

That sixty-one points incident.

His gaze drifted down for a second, then bounced right back up.

Lin Wanwan's face was completely red, biting her lower lip as she waited for his reply.

Chen Zhi cleared his throat.

"Are you sure?"

"Sure." Lin Wanwan's face was flushed, her voice so small it was almost inaudible. "I don't have to sing today... my throat will be fine."

What kind of upstanding man could withstand this kind of test?

Anyway, Chen Zhi definitely couldn't.

But he still put up a token struggle. "Don't you have an interview tomorrow?"

"Sister Su Man helped me cancel it."

"Then..."

"Stop dawdling!"

Lin Wanwan lifted her head from his embrace, held his face in both hands, puffed out her cheeks, and glared at him.

"Do you want it or not!"

"...I do."

The lights in the room went out.

The blanket arched into a bulge, and rustling sounds came from beneath it for quite a while.

As for the score this time.

Chen Zhi felt he could give it at least a seventy-five.

Significant improvement, proper attitude, worthy of praise.

As for Lin Wanwan herself, after the tossing and turning, she shrank entirely under the blanket, leaving only her eyes exposed.

"What's the score?"

"Eighty."

"Really?"

"Really." Chen Zhi reached out and fished her out of the blanket. "I gave you five extra points for encouragement."

Lin Wanwan punched him again, then burrowed into his arms. Within two minutes, her breathing became even.

After a whole day of exertion, from rehearsal to performance to winning the award, this girl's energy had bottomed out long ago.

5:00 AM.

The phone screen on the nightstand lit up right on time, followed by a slight vibration.

Chen Zhi immediately reached over and turned off the alarm.

The room was pitch black, with a sliver of grayish light filtering in through the gap in the curtains.

The phone screen showed 5:01.

Lin Wanwan was sleeping soundly in his arms, one arm draped across his chest, her breathing soft.

Chen Zhi gently moved Lin Wanwan's arm off his body.

Lin Wanwan mumbled, rolled over, and hugged the pillow next to her.

Holding his breath, Chen Zhi got out of bed.

He didn't turn on the light. Feeling around in the dark, he found his clothes and put them on one by one. The belt buckle made a faint metallic clink. He paused for two seconds to make sure the person in bed hadn't woken up before continuing to fasten it.

He even skipped washing up.

Chen Zhi left a note on the nightstand.

"Miss Champion, I'll treat you to Haidilao when you return to Beijing. — Your Mr. Sixty-One."

After writing it, he slipped the note under the trophy.

He took one last look at Lin Wanwan curled up on the bed.

Her hair was scattered across the pillow, and her sleeping face looked incredibly peaceful.

Chen Zhi bent down and planted a kiss on her forehead.

The moment his lips touched her skin, Lin Wanwan wrinkled her nose, but she didn't wake up.

Chen Zhi grabbed his cashmere coat draped over the back of the chair, turned, opened the door, and left.

The carpet in the hallway absorbed all his footsteps.

Exiting the hotel, Chen Zhi shivered, pulled his coat tighter, and hailed a taxi.

"Driver, Huanghua Airport. I'm in a hurry."

The driver glanced at him through the rearview mirror—a young man sporting dark circles under his eyes this early in the morning.

"Catching a flight?"

"Yeah."

"What time?"

"7:15."

"You'll make it, you'll make it. No traffic jams at this hour."

The car sped along the empty road, the streetlights still lit along the way.

Chen Zhi leaned back in the backseat and pulled out his phone.

There were no new messages in Pei Ningxue's chat.

Since her message last night—"Forget it, I won't ask anymore. Good night."—she had only sent that one screenshot of her flight.

Chen Zhi thought for a moment, typed a few words, and hit send.

[On my way to the airport.]

After sending it, he shot another message to Dai Damai: [I've looked over the overseas server expansion plan. We'll discuss the details in the meeting on Monday. Get some rest today.]

Dai Damai replied in seconds: [Roger that, boss.]

Was this guy awake just past five in the morning?

Whatever, a programmer's sleep schedule couldn't be judged by normal human standards.

People like that usually end up experiencing every time zone in the world at some point.

As expected, the early morning roads were completely free of traffic. The taxi arrived at Huanghua Airport in just forty minutes.

Chen Zhi walked into the terminal and used his ID to print his boarding pass at a self-service kiosk.

After passing through security and reaching the waiting area, his phone buzzed.

Pei Ningxue had replied.

[Let me know when you land.]

At 7:15 AM, the flight took off on time.

Chen Zhi fastened his seatbelt, leaned his head against the seat back, closed his eyes, and prepared to catch up on some sleep.

But his mind was a total mess.

Lin Wanwan was still asleep in the bed at the Changsha hotel. Would she be mad when she woke up and saw the note?

Li Zhiyi was waiting for him in the capital; they had agreed he would go see her today.

Pei Ningxue had bought a ticket to drag him all the way back from Changsha. What exactly was waiting for him when he landed?

Two hours later, the plane landed at Daxing Airport.

Chen Zhi turned on his phone.

Lin Wanwan had sent a photo of the note he left under the trophy, with a corner of the messy blanket visible in the frame.

The caption read: [Mr. Sixty-One, just you wait.]