Beautiful Girl Programmer Says

Such a scene of striving for progress was truly a rare sight in our dorm full of eccentric characters.

Especially with the massive pile of development-related books stacked on Xue Tao's desk, which left Su Bai completely dumbfounded.

Seriously, bro, do these have anything to do with tomorrow's competition?

As the sponsor of the event, Su Bai had at least some understanding of the competition's specific details.

Even though he wasn't participating in it at all himself.

Still, he would occasionally chat with Chen Yusheng about it, so he knew the general gist.

After all, he was here as a proper student; he had to know at least a little bit about what they were studying.

The field of computer science sees rapid iterations of knowledge. Popular frameworks and systems undergo major updates almost every two or three years.

This was practically unimaginable in more traditional fields.

Furthermore, according to Su Bai's observations, some traditional engineering disciplines rarely involved much professional practice during the undergraduate stage, focusing mostly on theoretical study. In contrast, computer and electronics-related majors required a lot more hands-on tinkering.

It seemed that good employment prospects and high starting salaries came with a price.

Not to mention, the industry was no longer what it was ten years ago. Su Bai had heard from some upperclassmen in the department that in the past, knowing some basics and grinding interview questions could land even non-majors a high-paying job. Things were different now.

Therefore, seeing the books on Xue Tao's desk, Su Bai couldn't help but roast him internally: Seriously, bro, how do you not even know what tools you need for the competition...

It possessed a sort of primitive beauty.

"What? We aren't using these?" Reminded by Su Bai, Xue Tao was stunned.

"Chen Yusheng was holding a Q and A session in the classroom today. I saw quite a few people from our class go. Did your teammates not go?"

"I don't think so... Wait, even if they went, they'd only find out today. I've been studying this for days, and it turns out I've been learning useless stuff. Ugh, what a massive loss..."

Seeing Xue Tao beating his chest and stamping his feet in frustration, Wang Haoran consoled him, "You can't really say that. If you do backend development in the future, you might actually use this stuff."

"Bullshit. I'm not doing development. I'm going to be an algorithm engineer, obviously. I'll make an annual salary of at least half a million."

It seemed Xue Tao harbored lofty and pretentious ideals for his future.

However, his math grades were less than ideal... Wang Haoran even felt that it wasn't just about grades; Brother Tao didn't even understand the most basic courses.

Whatever, a man needs to have dreams. Besides, it wasn't exactly news that the local guy aimed too high. As his roommate, Wang Haoran was already used to it and decided not to crush his enthusiasm.

Wang Haoran went back to catching up on his homework. Once he finished, the rest of his week would be free to study what he actually wanted to learn.

Naturally, he wasn't participating in that competition.

Because it had nothing to do with his planned career path.

Hard work in college was divided into many factions. Some people aimed to be all-rounders, dipping their toes into everything. Judging from their social media feeds, their lives looked incredibly rich, but their actual skill level was hard to determine. Truly well-rounded individuals were exceedingly rare.

Furthermore, even for those big shots who won special scholarships, their resumes were often highly inflated. Some seemingly badass experiences were likely just padded through connections.

A person's energy and time are limited, after all.

Yet some universities loved to engage in this god-making movement, heavily promoting these supposedly amazing students to fool high schoolers into thinking the university was incredible.

How should one put it? It was a marketing tactic used to boost their social reputation.

Wang Haoran's mindset was much more grounded. Since he had earned Brother Bai's appreciation, he certainly couldn't just coast through life waiting to die. Su Bai had suggested he pick a direction of interest and dive deep into it. So, aside from attempting to start an online gaming studio, Wang Haoran's biggest interest lay in game engines.

Su Bai was quite optimistic about this and encouraged his roommate to dig into it.

Su Bai figured that Wang Haoran was the type who could settle down and actually produce something. Although his talent wasn't as obvious as Chen Yusheng's, he was still far better than those unreliable guys in their class who clamored about getting recommended for grad school all day long.

Over on the other side, Chu Mingzhe laughed at the chest-beating Xue Tao for a while before saying with a mysterious look, "Brother Su Bai, I heard there's a beauty from another university joining the competition tomorrow. Word is she's amazing at coding and a natural beauty, looking better without makeup than those internet influencers..."

"Wow."

"No, Brother Su Bai, don't brush it off. Isn't your Chen Yusheng a natural beauty who knows how to code?"

"Precisely because I have one right next to me, I know just how rare that kind of person is," Su Bai retorted. "Who did you even hear this from?"

"A high school classmate. He goes to the Normal University next door. He said some of his classmates are coming to participate in our competition, since the prize money is pretty high."

"..."

Now that he mentioned it, it made sense.

Su Bai hadn't skimped on setting the prize pool. After all, it counted as a system-recognized expense and would all be returned as cashback.

His thought process was simple: what college student didn't want a sudden windfall? Since that was the case, he might as well offer more prize money to let everyone have some fun.

If they were students from the neighboring Jiangcheng Normal University, the probability of pretty girls showing up was actually quite high.

A Tier-2 Normal University—the chances of finding a good-looking girl there were undeniably much higher than in an elite engineering program...

After all, these two groups of people were basically separated into different tracks back in high school. The situation was pretty obvious.

However, Su Bai wasn't very optimistic about the newcomer's technical skills. Although performance in a small competition wasn't entirely tied to academic credentials, statistically speaking, it was incredibly rare—especially when paired with being a beautiful girl...

"Could it be one of those influencers marketing themselves as a beautiful genius?" Su Bai guessed.

That felt like a more plausible answer.

But Chu Mingzhe shook his head vigorously. "Nope. Word is she barely even uses short video apps. She just focuses on her studies every day, aiming straight for a good job... Sigh, pure and hardworking girls like that are so rare nowadays!"

Hearing the envy in Chu Mingzhe's voice, Su Bai couldn't resist teasing him, "So, may I ask, is your Leilei not pure, or is she not hardworking?"

"Where is she pure? Where is she hardworking?" The moment his crazy girlfriend was brought up, Chu Mingzhe went frantic. "That girl goes into late-night depressive episodes every single day. I can't take it anymore. If I block her calls, she threatens to kill herself. This isn't dating; this is adopting an ancestor to worship!"

Congratulations to the Shanghai young master for finally recognizing the true nature of a toxic girl...

Perhaps at first, Chu Mingzhe had been blinded by her decent looks. Combined with being repressed for so long during high school, the rush of blood to his head had led him to date her. But after getting into the relationship, he realized it wasn't what he thought at all. He barely enjoyed any sweetness and instead had to endure her daily manic episodes. The mental pressure alone...