What is life?

Xia Ye was completely oblivious to the teasing hidden in Lin Yuan's words, which left Lin Yuan a bit speechless.

'No wonder Song Xiaoxiao had to act like an overprotective mother.' Lin Yuan felt that Xia Ye's brain was like a single-layer network with only one convolutional kernel, only able to grasp the surface information of what others said.

And a single-layer network is, at most, used as an explanatory example during teaching and cannot be applied in actual production environments. Just like Xia Ye's brain is clearly not suitable for this complex society.

Xia Ye's next words also proved this point, "I'm still getting the top salary at the bubble tea shop, thanks to the boss taking care of me."

This time, Lin Yuan couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"What are you laughing at?"

"A top salary of 25 yuan an hour?"

"Yes. Our bubble tea shop's hourly wage starts at 20 yuan and caps at 25. I'm getting the top salary."

"How much traffic can you bring to that bubble tea shop in one night? Just based on that, giving you 250 an hour would be more appropriate."

"I'm not 250. When I first went there, I didn't know anything. Thanks to the boss not minding, he didn't deduct my pay. I only need 25."

"I didn't say you were 250." Although Lin Yuan genuinely thought she was a 250.

"What? I said I don't want 250, only 25."

Lin Yuan was stunned for a while before he finally reacted. He remembered the last time this girl chased his electric scooter, the reason was also because she mistook "I'll return the thousand yuan to you" for "You return the thousand yuan to me," which scared Lin Yuan into jumping on his electric scooter and speeding away.

'This girl seems to have a problem with slurred speech. And, it's the kind she doesn't even notice.'

From Lin Yuan's professional perspective, this was a bug, a typical case of "front-end and back-end data definition out of sync." The brain is like the back-end server, an invisible existence, and the brain's information needs to be transmitted through the mouth, so the mouth is the front-end display.

And Xia Ye was clearly a program riddled with bugs, needing to be debugged!

As for how to debug, and who should debug. Lin Yuan privately felt that given Xia Ye's outstanding looks and obviously insufficient main frequency of her brain, debugging would definitely be very difficult. Since he was in IT and good at handling all kinds of bugs, it was naturally his inescapable duty.

Lin Yuan recalled his previous conversation with Song Xiaoxiao, who said that Xia Ye hadn't had a boyfriend in her four years of college and was still a virgin, which made Lin Yuan even more excited.

After all, in today's era, a girl like Xia Ye was a rare animal no matter how you looked at her.

Lin Yuan felt a surge of secret joy. He had originally had some doubts about Xia Ye because of the maid cafe incident, but now Song Xiaoxiao's divine operation had, conversely, dispelled his doubts.

Should he tell Xia Ye that he had been accepted into graduate school? Lin Yuan thought about it for a moment, then chose to keep it a secret. Just for the sake of the former Lin Yuan.

That's right, just for the sake of helping the former Lin Yuan, who hadn't yet obtained the system, realize his deeply hidden loser's dream. A person who had no prospects after graduating from college and could only end up delivering food, dating a high- Appearance girl who graduated from the arts department—it sounded like a very interesting plot.

"So, what are your plans next?" Lin Yuan was very curious how Xia Ye would handle the clearly unaffordable tutoring class fees now.

"Hmm~~," Xia Ye stopped, thought carefully for a moment, "Of course, I'll work even harder and try to get a raise, so I can save up enough money."

Facing the sunset glow of a summer evening, Xia Ye spread her arms and smiled like a flower in the afterglow. Lin Yuan enjoyed watching her, feeling a faint sense of contentment in his heart, as if this was the life he wished to have. Of course, it would be even better if that piece of vegetable leaf on Xia Ye's front tooth could be removed.

"Let's go buy bubble tea."

"Oh." Xia Ye put down her outstretched arms.

"To wash down the vegetable leaf on your front tooth."

"Huh? Vegetable leaf?" Xia Ye was stunned for a moment before she reacted, then immediately covered her mouth and said in an indistinct, muddled voice, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" No girl could accept smiling broadly in front of a guy she liked a bit, only to have a piece of vegetable leaf on her front tooth.

"Wait, I'll wipe it off." Xia Ye still wanted to dig a small mirror out of her bag.

"Come on, just drink some bubble tea and it'll wash down." Lin Yuan pulled her arm, leading her away by the hand.

Xia Ye was awkwardly led by Lin Yuan, 'This is... holding hands?' She lowered her head, an uncontrollable smile spreading across her face.

"Don't walk with your head down."

"Oh," Xia Ye responded, and so she raised her head. But the smile on her face was a bit out of her control; she was still in the throes of Lin Yuan's sudden hand-holding. So, that piece of vegetable leaf reappeared.

Lin Yuan tried very hard to suppress his laughter, but his nasal sound ultimately betrayed him.

"Hmph, you're laughing at me." Xia Ye made a move to pull away from Lin Yuan's hand, but there was clearly not much force in her grip.

"Alright, alright. I won't laugh anymore. I'll buy you bubble tea."

—

On the way to the bubble tea shop, Xia Ye's hand gradually transitioned from being somewhat stiff and uncomfortable to being natural, and she and Lin Yuan were like two elementary school students holding hands.

What is life? This question suddenly popped into Lin Yuan's mind.

Ever since graduating, he had often asked himself this question. It wasn't that he liked to ponder such profound questions, but rather that reality kept prying open his head, forcing him to confront this issue.

Delivering food was for life, and taking the postgraduate exam was also for life. Lin Yuan increasingly felt that, after growing up, a large part of a person's 24 hours a day was spent directly confronting life.

He thought of Da Zhang, who was probably busy with the evening rush hour now, working for his child's tutoring class fees.

And Song Xiaoxiao, who had just left. Lin Yuan observed the tone of her farewell and the cosmetic mirror she pulled from her bag; she was clearly not returning to her rented room.

Everyone defines their own life, even if they may not have seriously considered the question, but everyone faces the ups and downs in their own life script.

'What about my life?'

Lin Yuan looked at Xia Ye beside him.

The answer might be right in front of him.

If all went well, Lin Yuan would likely have a good job. Although Xia Ye would probably not get into Purple Arts for graduate school, finding an easy place to teach dance was still possible. He would marry Xia Ye, and they would have their own children. Then they would watch their children grow up, and he and Xia Ye would grow old together.

Even at 80, the two of them would still be holding hands, strolling under such a sunset glow.

Who said a cheater must accomplish something earth-shattering? Who said having a system meant having to promote human progress?

At this moment, Lin Yuan was immersed in his own little bit of happiness.

...

But suddenly, Lin Yuan's steps faltered, and he almost slipped.

"What's wrong?" Xia Ye quickly grabbed him.

Lin Yuan quickly straightened up. He felt a bit inexplicable, because he had clearly felt no discomfort just now. It was just so sudden, why did his legs suddenly go weak for a moment?

Could it be physical weakness caused by his computing power recovery? Lin Yuan could only think of this far-fetched reason. But the feeling of kidney deficiency clearly wouldn't last for just a moment and then disappear without a trace. So what was it really?

"I'm fine, let's go buy bubble tea."

Lin Yuan suddenly thought of a possibility. Was the system warning him because of his complacent thought just now?

Lin Yuan quickly rejected this idea, because so far, his way of communicating with the system was through gestures and lip-reading, but not through thought or consciousness.

Then could it be that the system, seeing him immersed in a gentle embrace and forgetting about the computing power resources, gave him a slight reminder? (Like a reader's 'kind' greeting when they see the author deviating from the main plot)

[System?] Lin Yuan quietly mouthed the question, but the system didn't respond.

Never mind, he really should go back to doing serious work.

"Let's hurry." Lin Yuan planned to buy bubble tea and then quickly return to his dorm to continue his application for computing power resources from OCR.