I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

The girl remained silent.

"No, I'll eat it." Cheng Fei threw the remaining half into his mouth, then shuddered and gasped, "Hiss—"

Shen Xi sneered with schadenfreude.

"Teacher Shen, have you ever heard the old saying, 'flirting'?"

The girl's expression suddenly turned cold, and she lowered her head to eat her rice noodle rolls.

Cheng Fei picked up another piece of her water chestnut cake and tasted it, gazing at her face as he said, "Teacher Shen, I will never make this kind of bet with you again."

"Why?" The girl didn't even look up.

"Because as long as you have a big enough imagination, you can always come up with a reasonable explanation, and then I lose."

"Can't you face your failures no matter what? You're beyond help."

"But I've already made up my mind."

"what?"

"As long as I live, I will continue to explore with you like this."

"You finally understand?" The girl raised her head, a hint of a smile in her eyes.

"Yes, I understand now. Although the corridor is fake, your persistence is real. Even if it's a bit childish, I want to protect your innocence." Cheng Fei said seriously.

Shen Xi's eyes returned to their coldness. "You've lost the bet twice, and you're already the earthbound spirit of the Corridor Research Department and my servant. It's only right that you do this."

"You have to accept the consequences of your bet, that's true." Cheng Fei nodded.

"The only thing worth praising is keeping your promise," the girl sneered.

It has been proven that when people are extremely hungry, they may develop the illusion that they can eat a lot.

Shen Xi ordered several dishes and soon couldn't eat anymore, so Cheng Fei had to ask the owner to pack them up for her to take home, so she wouldn't have to eat bread and drink yogurt when she was hungry at night.

The two walked out of the dim sum restaurant, and Cheng Fei, who had become a servant, carried the girl's small handbag and takeout box.

Saturday evenings are quite lively, with families, friends, or couples strolling the streets in twos and threes.

There is a display area in the atrium of Wanda Plaza, where a car and an unused piano are displayed.

As Cheng Fei passed by, he called out to Shen Xi, "Teacher Shen, could you please take my things for a moment?"

Under the girl's questioning gaze, the boy sat down on the piano bench, straightened his collar with a serious expression, and said to her, "Pachelbel's Canon Variations, dedicated to the lovely Shen Xi."

The girl stood with her arms crossed and expressionless. Under her gaze, the boy began to play.

Asuna Nagasaki once told Cheng Fei a story about Canon: A young pianist named Pachelbel came to a foreign land. When he played the piano in a church, a rich girl fell in love with him. Later, war broke out, and he was forced to join the army. It wasn't until the war ended that he learned that the rich girl had died while waiting for him. So he composed Canon in grief.

A day later, Nagasaki Asuna said the story was fake, but that didn't stop Cheng Fei from incorporating similar emotions into his performance; this was the ability that the "eighth note" gave him.

When the piece ended, the boy looked up and realized that many passersby had gathered around him to listen.

There were best friends holding milk tea, couples holding hands, and innocent-looking children.

Everyone's faces still held a lingering sense of enjoyment, and they spontaneously burst into applause.

Amidst the applause, Cheng Fei bowed and took the items from Shen Xi's hands, then walked out of the mall side by side with the girl.

Cheng Fei looked at her face, "Teacher Shen, how did I play?"

"Her skills are so-so, and her emotions are barely passable." The girl seemed thoughtful.

"Really? Well, that's not bad then." Cheng Fei shrugged. "I'll take you home."

"You're smart to know what's good for you." The girl snorted coldly. "By the way, how's your planning for the club showcase at the cultural festival going?"

"Is that so?" Cheng Fei's mind went blank.

"Didn't I hand it over to you to handle?"

"Oh right, I almost forgot." Cheng Fei coughed lightly, "My plan is to open a maid café. As long as you, Teacher Shen, put on a white silk maid outfit, I think the entire Sakura will kneel down in worship."

"Nonsense is fine," Shen Xi said coldly. "As expected, this kind of thing can't be entrusted to you. I'll think of a plan and let you know on Monday."

Cheng Fei opened his mouth, but in the end he lowered his head and said, "Yes, Minister."

Cheng Fei escorted Shen Xi all the way to her apartment building before handing her everything back. "Goodnight, Ms. Shen."

"Goodnight, Cheng Fei." The girl yawned sleepily and walked into the apartment.

……

52. The Sacred and Pure Absolute Territory

on Monday.

The cultural festival became the hottest topic in the class today.

The exhibition plan, which was supposed to be finalized last week, was put to a public vote after school because everyone was arguing about it.

The class monitor of Class 6, Grade 11, is a girl with long, straight black hair who wears glasses. She has excellent grades and a serious and responsible work attitude, which is the unanimous impression everyone has of her.

"There are four topics that are getting a lot of votes: food stalls, haunted houses, cafes, and game stalls. To get a result that everyone is relatively satisfied with, everyone should write down their two most desired topics on a piece of paper and then hand them to the vice class monitor to count the votes. I will tally the votes," the class monitor said, adjusting his glasses.

Then a series of tearing sounds filled the classroom as everyone tore off their ballots.

The vice class monitor was a handsome guy with glasses who always had a smile on his face. Although he wasn't as popular as Cheng Fei, he was still quite popular. He carried an empty backpack and collected votes from row to row.

When it was Cheng Fei's turn, he tore off a blank notebook, folded it, and put it into the vice class monitor's bag.

"Cheng Fei, what did you throw?" Chen Hao asked casually, resting his chin on his hand.

"A coffee shop and a haunted house," Cheng Fei said casually.

"As expected of Cheng Fei, you're either a pervert or a monster."

Du Xinhua joined the conversation from the other side, "You voted for Chen Hao?"

"Me? Coffee shops and snack stalls."

“Then you’re a pervert and a glutton,” Du Xinhua commented.

"And you?" Chen Hao asked, looking at him.

"I am a glutton and a sadist."

"You actually didn't vote for the coffee shop? You traitor!" Chen Hao suddenly gritted his teeth.

“I don’t want to be a male servant,” Du Xinhua said with a look of disgust.

"That's a necessary price to pay! Don't you want to see a maid outfit?"

"The real world isn't worth it."

As the two were arguing, Zhou Han turned around and said with a smile, "Cheng Fei, Cheng Fei, if you were to work in a coffee shop, would you be willing to wear a butler's uniform?"

"I don't care," Cheng Fei said indifferently.

Originally a maid café, due to strong opposition from the girls, it was eventually compromised to have both girls serving as maids and boys serving as male servants.

Of course, this is all predicated on being able to make the shot.

"Don't worry, don't worry, I'll be your maid." Zhou Han continued to smile, as if she was certain that Cheng Fei would be arranged to be her male servant.

Her deskmate, a very introverted girl, also secretly glanced at Cheng Fei.

Thinking back to the coffee shop that was originally opposed by half of the class, but suddenly became the most popular topic after being revised, Cheng Fei had a strange feeling.

Could he have been tricked?

On the platform, the class monitor and vice monitor quickly finished counting the votes, and the vote count was displayed on the blackboard with tally marks.

"Huh? How come the tallest one is a food stall?"

"Many people probably cast their second vote for the food stalls, which is why they received the most votes."

"What a pity, the coffee shop was only five votes short, so close..."

It seems that no matter what, Cheng Fei will never know the truth.

Amidst discussions of satisfaction and disappointment, the class monitor announced the disbandment of the class, and everyone scattered in a panic.

……

Cheng Fei carried the bag on his back with one hand, climbed to the rooftop of the student activity building, and pushed open the door to room 601.

Good afternoon, Teacher Shen.

"Good afternoon, Cheng Fei." The long-haired girl with black hair sat expressionlessly in the steel tube chair as usual, seemingly engrossed in studying something.

"How are you feeling?" Cheng Fei's gaze swept over her slender legs encased in over-the-knee stockings, feeling as if the texture was silky dark chocolate.

"Very healthy, thank you." The girl tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, then glared at him fiercely. "If you really care about people, then put away your filthy gaze."

"That's good." Cheng Fei acted as if he hadn't heard the last sentence, took out his study materials, sat down opposite her, and then looked around the room. "By the way, Teacher Shen, where's your binoculars?"

On the day we first met, the girl was adjusting a telescope. Later, in order to study celestial phenomena, she would occasionally stay at school until dark and sit here to look at the stars.

"It belonged to the Astronomy Department, and they had it moved away today," Shen Xi said.

"I see." Cheng Fei began to study.

After a long silence, Shen Xi looked up and said, "Cheng Fei, I have a question for you."

"Please speak."

How many players have you seen online simultaneously in the corridor? In cases where the number is relatively large.

Cheng Fei thought for a moment, "If you climb up to the clock tower next to the large teleportation portal, you can see many people at any time, but it's hard to say exactly how many."

"Let's take Sakura Academy's opening ceremony as a reference. There are about fifty students in a class at Sakura Academy, and about twenty classes in a grade, which means there are about three thousand people at the opening ceremony. Have you seen more or less than that in the corridor?"

"There are more corridors, though I took leave from Yinghua's opening ceremony," Cheng Fei shrugged.

"Have you ever thought about how many players would be online simultaneously in the corridor in the most extreme scenario?" Shen Xi stared at Cheng Fei.

Cheng Fei looked into her eyes and said in recollection, "Uh, maybe tens of thousands? The largest crowd I've ever seen was densely packed around the large teleportation portal."

"Very well, have you ever thought about whether it's reasonable for so many players to be online on the same screen at the same time?" The girl interlocked her fingers to support her chin and smiled.

"Isn't that unreasonable?" Cheng Fei raised an eyebrow. "After all, the Corridor is a large-scale online game."

"Besides the corridor, have you ever seen any other large-scale online game with so many players on screen at the same time?"

"Uh, don't those browser games often boast about thousands of players on screen at the same time, or tens of thousands attacking a city?"

Shen Xi sighed, "To actually think you could figure out the problem yourself, I overestimated your intelligence."

"Teacher Shen, I must emphasize that we are now the same in terms of intelligence, although you may have some special talents."

"Forget about your self-righteous arguments." The girl strode to the blackboard. "I'll explain some basic common sense to you."

She spoke as if she were lecturing Cheng Fei, "Putting aside poorly made 2D browser games, EVE is one of the games with the highest number of players on screen at the same time, apart from Corridor. You've heard of that, right?"

Cheng Fei recalled, "The eve of Star Wars? It seems even more complicated than the Corridor, with large-scale space wars or something between players."

“That’s right. That game can support tens of thousands of players on the same screen at most. The navigation, firing and resupply of each spaceship are calculated in real time.” The girl paused. “But in reality, just a few thousand players are enough to make the server lag. The game has a special setting called ‘time dilation,’ which means that if there are too many players in the same area, the flow of time in that area will automatically slow down to relieve the pressure on the server.”

"Okay, so what?" Cheng Fei's gaze swept over her legs again.

The absolute territory created by the tight-fitting over-the-knee socks is like a patch of pure white snow touched by the sunlight on a mountain peak made of black rock, sacred and pure.

"Where are you looking?" The girl's pure, dark eyes stared blankly down at him.

Cheng Fei quickly sat up straight and turned his gaze back to the girl's pretty yet cold face. "Teacher Shen, please continue."

The young girl frowned, "I think it's necessary to teach you a lesson first."

……

53. Topic Three

"As we all know, online game data is sent from players to servers, servers perform various calculations, and then return the results to the relevant players." Shen Xi finished drawing a diagram on the blackboard and turned around.