Chapter 3190: Chunshu Lane's Bitter Summer 33

Jin Chen rested for several days before finally going out to meet Professor Jin Feng.

Supposedly resting, but actually Chenshu kept him from running around; the affairs before leaving Ling City had drained too much of his energy, and for several nights he couldn't sleep soundly, the dark circles under his eyes making Chenshu unable to bear it, so in the first few days in Didu, Jin Chen was almost confined to his room eating and sleeping, only occasionally walking around the neighborhood to bask in the sun.

Jin Chen felt like a transplanted plant that needed time to recover.

When he finally felt able to go out, Professor Jin Feng's invitation arrived on his phone just in time.

It was practically a modern netizen meet‑up; Jin Chen sat in the taxi, watching the passing streetscape, recalling his online history with Professor Jin Feng.

Now that he was to meet this venerable old man, Jin Chen still took it seriously.

Chenshu said a gift could be brought for the first meeting; Jin Chen thought it reasonable, and following his brother's reminder, he bought an expensive box of tea in advance, the packaging exquisite, the price giving his wallet a small pang.

Autumn Didu was much drier than Ling City; as he stepped out of the neighborhood, a cool breeze blew through the plane trees, lifting the bangs on Jin Chen's forehead slightly, his mood good, though a little nervous.

The restaurant was chosen by Jin Feng, a small eatery serving home‑style dishes hidden deep in an alley, with another world inside.

Jin Chen gave his name, and the waiter led him to the innermost private room. Opening the door, a casually dressed little old man sat with legs crossed at the table, drinking tea; seeing Jin Chen enter with the gift box, he immediately smiled.

"You little brat," Jin Feng set down his teacup, pointing at the gift box in Jin Chen's hand, "online you were so rude to me, and now you're being polite."

Before Jin Chen could show his social etiquette, Jin Feng had already risen, grabbed several bags from the nearby chair, and shoved them all into Jin Chen's hands: "Take these; I brought them for you—young people don't eat properly, you've gotten this thin, fortify your body."

Jin Chen lowered his eyes to look at the gift box in his hand, then at the pile of supplements shoved in; his gift box hadn't even been presented yet when his hands were already full of more stuff, and through the semi‑transparent bag walls he could see neatly packed tonics—ginseng, ejiao, goji berries—red and yellow jammed together, just looking at them made him feel like he'd get a nosebleed.

What a strange old man. Jin Chen thought.

But that subtle nervousness was replaced by the familiarity from their online interactions; Jin Chen sat down, placed the gift box on the table, and said, "Professor, this is for you—I can't drink tea leaves, they're too expensive."

The implication was that taking it back would just be wasteful.

Jin Feng also didn't stand on ceremony, accepted it, and still muttered a couple of sentences: "Such waste—next time don't bring it, what's a student spending this money for?"

But hearing Jin Chen call him professor, Jin Feng chuckled and corrected, "Why not call me teacher? Didn't you agree to become my disciple?"

He poured himself a cup of tea, then another for Jin Chen, and remarked, "You could almost count as half‑family; I endured being called a scammer online for over a year just to chat and take you on as a student."

Jin Chen lifted his teacup, took a sip, finally relaxed, and began to eat.

He picked up a piece of the dish in front of him, chewed and swallowed, then seriously corrected, "Teacher, it's not considered family, so you can't count it that way."

Not only that, they share the same surname—so distant that even eighty poles couldn't connect them. If Old Man Jin Feng… no, Teacher, were also from the Ling City Jin family, Jin Chen didn't know how many more worries would arise, and he didn't want to involve himself with anyone related to that clan.

Jin Feng also knew about that family's troubles, waved his hand with a smile, and said, "Fine, fine, fine—then we're master‑and‑disciple family, you little brat."

Only then was Jin Chen satisfied; he lowered his head and took another chopstick of stir‑fried vegetables.

Midway through the meal, Jin Feng pulled a hard drive from his bag and pushed it toward Jin Chen: "By the way, this is the new material I prepared; you can look at it before the summit. It contains some recent research directions and background on the topics likely to come up at this summit. Get a heads‑up so you won't be too passive—you really need to make a name for yourself now."

Jin Chen took the hard drive, held it in his palm, then put down his chopsticks, looked at the old man opposite, and said seriously, "Teacher, I'm preparing to retake the college entrance exam."

This was the decision he had made after deciding to leave Ling City with Chenshu.

Leaving Chunshu Lane was not just a geographical move but a reselection of his life path. He wanted a formal education, a broader road to walk side‑by‑side with his brother, rather than forever scraping by on odd algorithm jobs on forums.

Jin Feng thought a moment, then said, "That's fine. Anyway you're smart, it won't delay you. If you could get directly into Didu University, even better."

"I can," Jin Chen said confidently.

Jin Feng looked at him, satisfaction showing in his eyes, "All right, all right, all right—I'll wait to write you a recommendation letter next year."

After finishing the meal, Jin Feng ordered another pot of tea, and the two sat chatting for a while.

Jin Feng mentioned the student he had previously taken on, who is now also studying for a doctorate in the School of Data Science at Didu University.

"He counts as your senior fellow student," Jin Feng stated bluntly, "but today I won't let him come."

Jin Chen looked at him doubtfully and said, "You're so domineering."

Jin Feng: "……"

Jin Feng explained, "Because that kid is even more socially anxious than you. I asked him to come eat together, but he refused whatever I said, claiming he wasn't ready to meet new people."

The old man sighed, "Geniuses always have a bit of a quirky temperament."

Jin Chen realized and blurted, "He also has a mental illness."

Jin Feng blinked, then was amused and took a while to recover, "No, that's not it. He's just socially anxious—not good at meeting unfamiliar people, and he stammers when nervous. I actually took him to see a doctor; currently he's……

He paused a moment, as if choosing his words.

Jin Chen strained to listen, waiting for what came next.

Jin Feng said, "Incurable."

Jin Chen showed a hint of subtle sympathy and seriously evaluated, "That's really a shame."

Compared to that unseen senior fellow student, Jin Chen felt much luckier. Whether social anxiety or anything else, at least he had Chenshu by his side.

Under Jin Feng's prompting, Jin Chen added the senior fellow student as a friend.

Jin Feng pushed a business card toward him, saying, "You two chat first, start as online friends. Once you're familiar, it'll be fine—he doesn't stutter when chatting online."

Jin Chen looked at the name on the card: Bo Xue.

He twisted his earring, thought for a while, and felt the name was really inauspicious—Bo Xue, Bai Xue—sounding like it hinted at futile effort.

To show courtesy, Jin Chen sent his own name first.

After several minutes, the chat box popped up a reply: "Hello, I am Bo bo Xue."

Jin Chen stared at that line, realized it was actually "Bo Xue," withdrew the low score he had mentally given the name, reassessed, and thought the name was indeed auspicious.

Before leaving that day, Jin Feng had Jin Chen solve on the spot a relatively difficult algorithm problem with complex conditions involving multiple layers of nested logic.

Jin Chen didn't decline, took paper and pen, lowered his head and began writing, skipping some unnecessary calculations and directly giving the conversion formula at the key nodes. Jin Feng sat opposite, holding his teacup, his gaze following the pen tip, occasionally nodding slightly.

After writing the final stroke, Jin Chen pushed the paper back; Jin Feng took it, read it from start to finish, feeling very relieved, then carefully folded it and put it into his own bag.

"Not bad, not bad!"

It wasn't in vain that the old man was posed as a scammer online for a year!

They said goodbye at the restaurant door. Jin Feng didn't waste the good tea Jin Chen brought at all; he took the box of tea in hand, then shoved all the supplement gift boxes he'd brought for Jin Chen back into Jin Chen's hands, saying, "Take them back to eat—young people need to keep their bodies healthy."

Jin Chen lowered his eyes to look at the bag in his hands, feeling the weight of his teacher's kindness.

When he got home, Chenshu opened the door, saw Jin Chen lugging two armfuls of stuff, and laughed through tears.

He took a few bags, poked his head in to glance at the contents inside, and teased, "Did you go rob someone or go see your teacher?"

Jin Chen placed the paper bag on the coffee table, rubbed his reddened fingers, and complained with a bitter face, "The teacher gave these, my hands hurt."