America: I came here to study, not to show mercy.

Chapter 192 Is this a team fight?
Ignoring Victoria's expectant and delighted gaze, Li Xiaoen escorted the two girls back to their dorm and then said goodbye.

"You've been on a plane for so long, and you have class tomorrow. Get some rest, see you tomorrow."

After saying that, without waiting for the two girls to say anything more, Li Xiaoen turned around, quickly started the car, and sped off towards the parking lot.

His cautious nature had always given him a vague feeling that if he stayed there any longer, something bad would happen to him.

"..."

"Why? It feels like this guy is avoiding us."

Victoria's joyful expression turned somber as she turned to Sophie. "Sophie, did Sean do something to offend me?"

Suffer was stunned by what he heard. He felt a lump in his throat, opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything.

She could only take a deep breath and shake her head.

"I don't know, you should ask him."

"okay."

Nodding helplessly, Victoria turned and went inside, immediately breaking into a smile. "Sophie, have you had dinner? I learned a new dish when I got back. That bastard won't have the chance. I'll make it for you to try."

"Sorry, I'm not hungry right now."

Sophie forced a smile. "Let's wait until tomorrow. It'll be a good opportunity to let that bastard test the poison."

"okay."

Victoria paused for a moment, bit her lip, and nodded with a casual smile, "I'll give it to you after he's tried it."

Without saying another word, Suffer greeted everyone and went upstairs. Once she returned to her room and closed the door, her face instantly turned ashen.

The first day of the spring semester.

Today, the snow stopped for the first time, and the sun shone brightly on the snow-covered flowers, trees, and shrubs, making them sparkle with a crystalline light.

After a month of rest, the new semester has begun. On the way to the classroom, almost every student's face is full of energy, but there are exceptions, such as Daniel who walks next to them looking listless.

After a quick breakfast in the dorm, Li Xiaoen couldn't help but glance at her roommate, who seemed like a walking corpse, as she walked towards the classroom.

If you really can't hold on any longer, why don't you take a leave of absence?

He found it absurd to think about it; to save money for that kind of thing, this guy spent the whole night researching high-paying part-time jobs with Michael, and didn't get back until the early hours of the morning.

"No."

Upon hearing this, Daniel quickly shook his head, seemingly perking up a bit. "Taking leave on the first day of the new semester will leave a bad impression on the teacher."

"Are you also afraid of making a bad impression on the teacher?"

Sean Lee raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing Daniel with a complicated expression—if he hadn't spoken to him again at the beginning of last year's semester, he would have suspected that Daniel got into Princeton through cheating or connections.

"You are not afraid?"

Daniel asked a question, then remembered that Sean Lee had entered Professor Sedgewick's lab ahead of time, and waved his hand helplessly.

"The goal for most people is simply to learn, complete the courses, and graduate smoothly. Nobody wants to stand out or leave a bad impression on the teacher, right?"

"..."

Suddenly remembering his psychology class from last semester, Li Xiaoen gave a strange smile.

"Are you sure it's not just you personally? Are you worried about leaving a bad impression on the teacher and getting them to pay special attention to you?"

"Hmm...that's about right."

Daniel hesitated for a moment, then waved his hand with an awkward smile.

"I kind of understand you."

Nodding helplessly, Li Xiaoen waved and walked in another direction. "I suggest you buy a cup of coffee; that might help you a little."

After saying goodbye to Daniel, Sean Lee went to Professor Sedgewick's laboratory.

"Sean..."

Professor Sedgewick was already sitting on the podium when he saw someone and quickly raised his hand, "Come over and let's talk about your papers and achievements."

Good morning, Professor Sedgewick.

Li Xiaoen walked over, smiled and nodded, took out his printed, sealed and bound thesis from his backpack and handed it to the other person, "This is a printout of my thesis."

"Yes, very well done, Sean."

Professor Sedgewick set the paper aside, looked at Shawn Lee with a strange expression, and said, "You studied on your own again this winter break, didn't you?"

"Yes, there are some concepts that can be applied to this reasoning model."

Li Xiaoen nodded in agreement. The third time he completed the knowledge extraction from the [Advanced Learning Card] professional learning, the new knowledge he acquired was exactly what helped to improve his model, so he made some special modifications.

Otherwise, he could have finished his thesis while he was in China.

"Yes, good, very good."

Professor Sedgewick took a deep breath, looked at Sean Lee and nodded repeatedly, patting the young man's shoulder repeatedly, "Sean, do you remember the research discussion on computer algorithms that we universities held last semester?"

"I remember, when was it?"

Early February.

Professor Sedgewick nodded and looked at Sean Lee seriously. "Sean, I'd like you to present our lab's results on stage. What do you think?"

"You can describe your model in detail; it will be of great help to you."

As he said this, Professor Sedgewick gave him a meaningful look, which made Sean Lee pause for a moment.

"Okay, thank you, Professor."

Quickly realizing what was happening, Li Xiaoen nodded in agreement.

After chatting for a few more minutes about the content of the paper and the progress of the overall project, Li Xiaoen turned around and walked to his seat below. At the same time, Professor Sedgewick's voice rang out from behind him.

"I have uploaded Sean's results and papers to our lab's cloud server. You can take a look."

Professor Sedgewick's voice carried a hint of disappointment, "He's only a freshman..."

As soon as Li Xiaoen returned to his seat, before he could even sit down, he received astonished looks from the other students in the lab. He paused, raised his hand to indicate his presence, and then sat down.

Without dwelling on it too much, Li Xiaoen turned on his lab computer, logged into the cloud server, followed the instructions given by Professor Sedgewick, and retrieved the overall project progress and summary.

Next, by early February, all he needed to do was review the entire project and memorize it, write his speech before the meeting, and revise his paper according to the professor's guidance. It wasn't complicated at all.

By silently observing the progress and results of other projects in the laboratory, Li Xiaoen gradually gained a comprehensive understanding of the overall project.

Time flies, and it was soon 10 a.m.

Li Xiaoen packed her things and left, heading towards the building where the basic psychology classroom used to be.

He had already completed the course on the foundation of psychology, and thanks to his excellent memory, he achieved the highest grade, an A, in the only final exam he took.

I don't know, but let's just assume she's Professor Avery's star pupil.
Li Xiaoen pondered to himself, but instead of walking, he walked to a higher floor, to a classroom at the very edge of the corridor—this semester, he had enrolled in Language and Thinking, a general education course, which he had discussed with the girls in the group chat.

Thinking of this, Li Xiaoen's expression turned uninterested. Just then, his vision suddenly went dark. Before he could react, a figure jumped up from behind and hugged him, wrapping two arms around his neck.

“Hey, Sean…”

A familiar yet distant voice came from behind, "Haven't seen you for a month, have you missed me?"

“I’m sorry to disappoint you. I didn’t mean to.” Li Xiaoen’s face darkened. He raised his hand to pry the arms wrapped around his neck, then turned around. His gaze swept over the four pretty girls standing in front of him, finally stopping on Serafina.

"I'm curious, do you really like this course?"

Initially, it was Victoria who brought it up in the group chat. Just like with his basic psychology course, he had discussed this course with two girls, which already made him feel a little uncomfortable.

To his surprise, Serafina and Mary only chimed in after he had made his decision, claiming they also wanted to enroll in the general education course.

Originally, the student assignments for general education courses were random, and he thought one or two girls would be assigned to other class times. But it turned out that they were lucky, and none of them missed a class—he seriously suspected that some rich girl had used "non-objective factors".

"Isn't it all the same which general education course you take?"

Serafina rolled her eyes dismissively, then glared at him, clearly displeased with what the young man had said earlier.

"I even helped you train in shooting and combat, and this is how you talk to the people who helped you?"

"This is just a normal question, beautiful young lady."

Li Xiaoen shrugged helplessly, "Isn't the choice of general education courses based on each person's own interests?"

"Humph……"

Serafina scoffed, "What if I said this is what interests me?"

"Alright then, I was thinking of recommending a wilderness survival activity to you, but forget about it."

Without replying, Li Xiaoen looked down at his phone and murmured something, which made Serafina pause for a moment.

With a slight frown, she stepped over to the young man's side and peered curiously at him, only to see her face reflected in the front-facing camera.

At the same time, Li Xiaoen turned his phone around, shifting the view to Serafina.

Click, click, click...

A series of crisp sounds came from the phone, and Serafina suddenly came to her senses. She looked up and met the young man's meaningful, sneer. She gritted her teeth and raised her arms to wrap around his neck again.

"Hey……"

Quickly regaining her balance, Li Xiaoen raised her hand and pulled away the arm wrapped around her neck. "I'm just helping you clarify your true preferences."

"Um... thank you, thank you very much."

Serafina sneered and tightened her grip.
"Okay, stop playing, okay?"

Only then did Victoria take a deep breath and exhale weakly.

She glanced at the young man with a strange look in her eyes, then pulled Serafina in front of her. "It's getting late, let's hurry up and go into the classroom to grab a seat."

Upon hearing this, the group finally realized what was happening and turned to walk into the classroom. Fortunately, they found seats together in a row at the back edge.

To Victoria's surprise, Sophie did not enter first in the same order as the three of them in the psychology class last semester. She followed closely behind after Victoria and Li Xiaoen entered and sat down next to the young man.

The group sat down, and for a moment, a tacit yet eerily silent silence fell over them.

"..."

If I had known, I wouldn't have discussed which general education courses to choose with Victoria in the group chat.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Victoria's surprised gaze. Feeling like he was being watched, Li Xiaoen inwardly groaned, but on the surface, he remained calm and took out his iPad from his backpack.

Those who have thunder in their hearts but a calm face can be appointed as generals.

He tried to encourage himself, but he still couldn't help feeling a bit of a toothache—based on Suffer's reaction before he set off yesterday afternoon, he should have expected this.

While his heart was surging with such turmoil, Suffer, who appeared equally calm on the surface, was also experiencing such intense emotions.
Li Xiaoen's thoughts were immediately thrown into chaos, and he couldn't help but think of this.

He had no doubt that Sophie possessed the same remarkable self-control as him.

Seemingly noticing his overly normal and indifferent reaction, Victoria's eyes gradually became suspicious.

No one knew what she was thinking. She stared at it silently for a while without saying a word. Instead, she gave a gentle smile and turned to look at her iPad.

"Sean..."

Sophie still seemed to feel it wasn't enough. She moved her body to sit next to her in the seat and looked up.

My dear young lady, my beautiful, proud, and intelligent young lady, please stop torturing me like this, okay?

Turning his head, he met those light blue eyes so close to his own, and a meaning appeared in Li Xiaoen's eyes.

Unfortunately, whether Sophie didn't notice or remained unmoved, she gave a beautiful but "dangerous" smile in the young man's eyes.

"Did you download the learning materials for this Language and Thinking course? Send me a copy."

"Oh……"

Despite the surprised and astonished looks from those around him, Li Xiaoen nodded in agreement, shifting his gaze to focus on operating the iPad.

"The file is too large; I can't send it via WhatsApp."

Li Xiaoen was stunned when he saw the pop-up message indicating a 100M limit.

"You're a computer science student, don't you understand this?"

Sophie rolled her eyes and scoffed, then reached out and tapped the iPad in front of the young man, explaining slowly as she operated it, "Isn't AirDrop faster? You don't even know that?"

"Mainly, I've never used this method before."

Li Xiaoen nodded helplessly.

The girl leaned forward, intently operating the device, getting very close. If there were only two of them, he would definitely reach out and hug her, but unfortunately, Victoria was also beside him.

The girl's hair wafted into his nostrils, but he could only lean back slightly, creating a small distance between them.

Fortunately, Suffer didn't go too far; it seemed she was just genuinely helping him operate the machine, clicking a couple of times before sitting back down.

Then, while waiting for the data to be transmitted, she took out her phone and looked at the news, and this corner fell into a deathly silence again.

At this moment, the three people on the left and right were still staring blankly at him, their astonished expressions unable to recover for a long time.

Li Xiaoen took a deep breath and remained silent, scrolling up and down the information on the iPad.

This information is so smooth.

Victoria blinked her big eyes twice, snapping out of her daze. She felt a mix of emotions, but she still smiled and bent down, walking past the young man to look at Suffer on the other side, and teased him.

"Sophie, your relationship with Sean has finally improved."

"Yeah, right."

Looking up from her phone, Suffer nodded in acknowledgment and glanced over. "He went back to school early, and I even spent some time with him."

"Thanks to my brother's connections, my company finally has the opportunity to cooperate with universities."

"Oh, is it?"

With a startled exclamation, Victoria couldn't help but turn to look at the young man in front of her.

"Yep."

With Victoria in front of him, Li Xiaoen still had to lean back, his body pressed against the back of the seat, nod, and force a smile.

Are we about to have a team fight?
He's not fully developed yet...

(End of this chapter)