With an area of nearly 100,000 square meters, a century-long history, and a collection of tens of millions of books, as the most powerful university library in City A, the popularity of the A University Library is unimaginable. Even with a relatively complete reservation system, the good seats in the reading room and study room are still in short supply. Especially in the secluded treasures near the window in the main library, with sockets and not exposed to direct sunlight, the time students spend to grab a seat is as short as getting an appointment with a top expert in a large hospital.
In addition, the cafeteria is far away, take-out food cannot be delivered, the supermarket has a small stock of convenience foods, and the library has a clear rule that students cannot be away from their seats for more than 30 minutes. With all these difficulties added up, it is no exaggeration to say that the time during lunch break is like a Shura field.
However! Where there are difficulties, there are business opportunities!
On this day, when Ethan Li came to the small open space behind Building C of the west building of the main library of University A with a giant three-layer incubator in his hands, the space under the tree was already full of refugees, no, students, who had received the notification text message in advance. When they saw the newcomers, their eyes flashed green like wolves smelling meat.
Under several enthusiastic gazes, Ethan Li calmly opened the lid of the box with one hand and pulled up the payment code from his mobile phone with the other. He scanned one and got a bowl of rice, scanned one and got a bowl of rice. The cheerful beeping sounds rose and fell amid the snoring of food.
"Hey, this bowl doesn't seem right. I ordered a rice bowl with three fresh ingredients, but this one has chicken? It's five dollars more expensive." Suddenly one of the students questioned the lunch box he had just received.
The mechanical process of distributing rice was not interrupted by this slight protest, and Ethan Li didn't even turn his head.
"The three delicacies are gone, only the chicken is left. If you don't want to eat it, give it back to me."
The protesters shut up decisively.
"Hey brother," a boy with a bowl-cut haircut said to Ethan Li when the last bowl of rice was distributed, "Are you free this afternoon? Can you save a seat for me on the seventh floor? My girlfriend will come over to review in a while, and I've already made an appointment with her."
Ethan Li didn't say anything, but bent down to pick up the packaging bags on the ground.
"The old price." The boy asked anxiously.
Ethan Li closed the empty incubator.
"Ten more?"
Ethan Li looked around.
"Another five dollars?"
Ethan Li looked at his watch.
"Five more dollars, a total of forty, no more, I really have no money." The boy said earnestly.
"It's the end of the semester now," Ethan Li finally responded. His voice was very soft and sticky, which should have made people feel good about him with his good looks, but Ethan Li's expression was very condescending, making his words sound even more distant. "Midsummer, end of semester, Tuesday, afternoon, and a place like the seventh floor. Besides me, why don't you try someone else at this time?"
The boy's face twitched a few times, and he gritted his teeth when he saw many people on both sides who had finished their meals and were returning like a large school of fish.
"Okay, eighty. Give me fifty as a deposit first. Transfer the money!"
Ethan Li listened to the pleasant "ding ding" sound coming from the mobile phone, and finally nodded lightly.
Turning around, he picked up the incubator and hid it in a large bush. Then Ethan Li walked straight into the building's elevator and pressed 7F.
Most of the books on information science, engineering, and law are located on the sixth to ninth floors of Building A. Usually, this is one of the busiest areas in the library, let alone at the end of June. Ethan Li, who was not wearing any takeaway clothes, perfectly blended in with the students of University A in a refreshing T-shirt and jeans, and even looked more outstanding than many boys.
He came to the lobby on the seventh floor with familiarity, but did not rush into the reading room. Instead, he stood by the door and silently glanced inside. After all, it was lunch time, and there were still a few empty seats in area A, but there were more or less personal belongings placed on them, indicating that the owner was only away temporarily and waiting to return.
Third from the left, fifth from the right, two from the front, and eight from the back. Ethan Li counted them and found four seats. He calmly took out his fake old-fashioned phone with a 4-inch screen and took a few photos of each end. After confirming that the picture was blurry but the general content could be seen, Ethan Li pushed the door and walked in.
A hand tapped on the information desk. The administrator who was busy handling affairs looked up and saw that it was him. He immediately rolled his eyes and cursed in a low voice: "Here comes another speculation and speculation. Aren't you afraid that the security department will find out and throw you out?"
Ethan Li was completely immune to this kind of impolite personal attack, and nodded without changing his expression: "It is not good to speculate, but compared with the embezzlement of some people, I don't know which one is more likely to be punished by the security department."
Before he could finish the second half of his sentence, he was interrupted by someone who jumped up and tried to cover his mouth: "I, I didn't."
"It didn't work because I found out." Ethan Li dodged the dirty hand swiftly, exposed the other party impatiently, and tapped the dial again to indicate that he was in a hurry.
The threatened administrator's face was ten levels darker than the pot-lid man downstairs just now. He hid his surging anger and unwillingness and said, "Even if I want to help you, I can't just cancel other people's appointment numbers now. Recently, people from our Institute of Computer Science came to upgrade the system. A work-study student like me doesn't have the authority to access the main backend, and any problematic operations will be screened by the system."
Seeing that Ethan Li remained silent, the other party was afraid that he might not believe it and continued to emphasize.
"It's true. The old version of the reservation system was so bad that it always lost its reservation number, which was just right for us to get in on the act. But now the new system has a very high security factor. You have to log in every time you confirm, over and over again. Not only can you not tamper with it, but it's so annoying. The person who designed it is really..."
Just when he was complaining, the voice suddenly stopped.
Ethan Li seemed to sense something and slowly turned his head following the other person's focused gaze. He saw a tall boy poking out from behind him, looking at them silently.
The administrator suddenly became very nervous when he saw this, and asked stumblingly: "Senior Fang Fang, why are you here? Is there something wrong with the museum?"
The boy called "Senior Fang" lowered his eyes and glanced over. That glance didn't actually mean much, but perhaps it was because of his height or appearance, which inexplicably made the sight feel a little more oppressive.
However, Ethan Li remained expressionless as he watched the other party walk past him to the consultation desk.
"Nothing, there are too many people at the self-service machine. I would like to ask you to help me check if these books are still available for borrowing?" Senior Fang said as he took out a piece of paper with many book titles written on it and pushed it over.
"Oh, wait a minute," the administrator quickly started typing, glancing at the person in front of him and forcing a smile, "Well, actually, we were just talking about the current library system. Although it's a bit complicated to log in repeatedly, it's much faster. Operations like this in terms of querying and borrowing are very convenient and accurate. Everyone thinks it's much better than the old version. The school changed it in a timely manner, and the designer was very thoughtful. Haha."
After hearing this, Senior Fang didn't even raise his eyelashes, and just said "Oh" without moving at all.
The administrator was very embarrassed. After a long while of hesitating with a chubby face, he finally stood up and said, "I checked. Senior Fang, all but one of your seven books have been borrowed. I don't know if they can be returned before the holiday. The remaining one can only be read and not borrowed. If Senior Fang needs it, I can get this one for you. It's just that you may have to wait. There are no seats in the reading room right now."
Senior Fang looked around, frowned slightly, and felt a little troubled.
At this moment, a girl who had just entered the room happened to see him head-on and walked towards him quickly with surprise.
"Adrian Fang? Are you here to read a book too?"
This is a beautiful woman with a dazzling appearance, and people should be happy to see her. However, the boy named Adrian Fang did not change his expression when facing such a beauty. He put one hand on the table and the other hand in his pocket without any change. Only his upper body was half turned towards her politely.
"Yeah, checking some information." He answered in a flat voice.
"It's crowded at this time. Have you found a seat? My classmate and I occupied two seats before. She won't be coming in the afternoon, so you can use it." The girl didn't mind his coldness. She cleverly noticed the other party's current situation and made an enthusiastic invitation, with her eyes firmly glued to Adrian Fang's perfect face.
Adrian Fang didn't answer, but pursed her lips as if thinking.
The girl continued to lobby: "It doesn't matter. There's really no one else sitting in that seat. It's a waste to leave it empty. You're so busy, why bother making a wasted trip?"
The administrator, feeling guilty, had already cleverly run to the bookshelf in area C, took the book that was not allowed to be borrowed, and handed it over happily.
"Senior Fang?"
Adrian Fang looked at the book and seemed to be successfully convinced.
After taking the things and saying thank you, Adrian Fang was about to leave, but suddenly turned around, his eyes lightly passed over Ethan Li and fell on the administrator.
"The old library system did have many operational problems, but any illegal operations in the background would be recorded. When I updated the new version, I also backed up the old records. Whenever I need to, I can check them in detail anytime and anywhere."
After saying that, Adrian Fang turned and left.
Ethan Li stood there and glanced at the administrator's face which turned pale due to negligence. Then he turned around and walked quickly forward, overtaking the man and woman walking in front in a few seconds.
Adrian Fang and the girl only felt a figure flash in front of them, and when they looked over, one of the two empty seats in front of them had been occupied.
"Hey, classmate, this is our seat." The girl naturally stepped forward to stop him and pointed to the notebook she had placed on the table as evidence.
"Oh," Ethan Li said, but he didn't move his B*tt at all, "Sorry, this is mine now."
To show his sincerity, Ethan Li opened his phone and placed it in front of the girl. On the screen were several photos of empty seats he had just taken, including the two occupied by the girl, taken half an hour ago. After showing them, Ethan Li pointed to the library rules on the wall, as if he was also helpless to follow the rules.
But even a fool could see that he was clearly prepared. Thinking of Adrian Fang whom she had finally met, the girl was very unhappy. However, she still tried to control her temper and begged, "My classmate, there are two of us in total, and this is the only seat that is connected to the other seat. There is only one single seat left over there, and it will be half an hour later. You are alone, can you please go?" She meant that she wanted Ethan Li to help her out.
"Is that so? That's not impossible," Ethan Li nodded after hearing this.
The girl thought there was a chance and was about to put on a thankful smile, but then she heard Ethan Li say quietly: "It depends on how generous your boyfriend is."
Originally, the three words "boyfriend" should have made the girl very happy. However, when her eyes moved down to Ethan Li's fingers tapping lightly on the table, and the screen next to him had switched to a payment software, she couldn't help but be stunned.
What does it mean?
It couldn't be what she thought it was?!
It’s just a seat in the library. In this era, in this place, are there still such shameless people?
TV dramas aren’t filmed like this anymore, right?
In the awkward atmosphere, Adrian Fang broke the silence and said, "No need, it's the same if we sit separately. You sit here and I'll go there."
After saying that, without giving the girl time to object, he glanced at Ethan Li coldly, and Adrian Fang walked towards another area with the book under his arms.
Looking at the back figure that showed no reluctance, and then looking at the girl who wanted to cry but had no tears and wanted to stab herself but felt extremely embarrassed and had to leave in anger, Ethan Li shook his head and sighed to himself: "It seems that he is not a generous boyfriend."
Ignoring the contemptuous looks from the people around him who had witnessed the whole process, Ethan Li slowly took out the piece of paper from the information desk, looked at the title of the book written down with sharp and powerful strokes, crumpled his palm and threw the paper ball, which fell steadily into the wastebasket not far away.
Another deal done!
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