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

Chapter 211 Before the Seminar
It had only been about a week since they last met, but Li Xiaoen felt as if a long time had passed. Looking at the girl's fair and pretty face, he narrowed his eyes and leaned closer.

"What do you want to do?"

Amelia was taken aback when she saw the young man in a suit. When he looked at her scrutinizingly, she frowned uncomfortably and took a step back. "Please don't look at me with such dirty eyes, or I'll call the police."

There wasn't a hint of evil in his eyes, was there?

Li Xiaoen felt a little strange, but still smiled and said leisurely, "Amelia, your face looks a little different than before."

"What's the difference?"

Amelia's eyes widened, a sudden pang of guilt rising within her. She deliberately averted her gaze from the young man. "I suspect you're up to something again."

"Um……"

Li Xiaoen looked closely at Amelia, took a deep breath, and said, "Amelia, it looks like your makeup is caked up."

"..."

After a moment of surprise, Amelia quickly turned around and hurriedly took out a small mirror from her bag to examine herself carefully.

"Ha ha……"

The young man's hearty laughter rang out from behind her, and her face darkened. She turned around and looked at him indifferently.

This trick seems to work every time.

Li Xiaoen found it amusing, ignoring the girl's resentful glare, "Is today some important day? It's so rare, you actually wore makeup?"

"you do not need to know."

Rolling her eyes, Amelia crossed her arms and turned towards the direction where the young man was not.

"Are you also going to an artificial intelligence seminar?"

Li Xiaoen suppressed her smile and stood beside the other person. Receiving no response, she sighed and said, "If that's the case, and you're planning to have me take you there again, you'd better let me know. My car only has two seats, otherwise I'll call someone else."

Upon hearing this, Amelia finally reacted, turning her head to give him a sidelong glance.

"Ok?"

Lowering her eyes, Li Xiaoen gave a soft snort, "Is this the kind of attitude you have when you want help from others?"

Clenching her fists, Amelia narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath to try to calm herself down.

"Yes, I'm going too."

"I remember you weren't a student in Professor Sedgewick's lab, were you?"

Without pressing the other person's tone any further, Li Xiaoen asked again, puzzled, "What's your major?"

He had only interacted with the other person in math competitions and Avery's introductory psychology course, and didn't know anything else about the other person.

Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Amelia replied in a deep voice, "In some aspects, there is knowledge involved in artificial intelligence."

"Wow……"

Li Xiaoen couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "A female engineering student, and a major like electrical engineering..."

Just like in China, in the United States, there are far more men than women in STEM fields, a ratio that is almost comical, especially at prestigious universities like Princeton.

"Don't look at me like that. You know I don't mean any disrespect."

Facing Amelia's resentful gaze, Li Xiaoen smiled and raised his hand, "There are very few female engineering students, but those who do get into engineering, especially at Princeton University, are all outstanding individuals who have gone through rigorous selection processes and are second to none. It's just..."

"Just what?"

"Let me state this beforehand, you are already very beautiful."

After abruptly emphasizing this point, Li Xiaoen continued, "Just don't be so serious. Relax, and you'll feel much more comfortable, and you'll look more natural and beautiful."

"..."

Amelia's eyes widened slightly, but she didn't reply immediately. Instead, she turned to look elsewhere at the group of other students who had been joking and chatting together in the laboratory.

"No need, I don't care what other people think."

She does indeed sound like a female STEM student who is deeply engrossed in learning and research.

Li Xiaoen sighed inwardly and couldn't help but ask, "Don't you care about other people's social opinions? Don't you care if people say you're a nerd?"

This is extremely rare. In the circle of young people at American University who value outgoing and social charm, he actually found such a unique girl.

"will not."

"This is good."

Li Xiaoen nodded, thinking to himself, Malcolm was one, and now he saw the same unconventional consciousness in Amelia. Is this the education and cognition of highly educated American families?

"Hey……"

Suddenly remembering something, he couldn't help but ask, "If that's the case, then why were you so angry when I was just joking when school started?"

"Because... you are special to me."

After a moment's hesitation, Amelia looked over with a gentle smile. As her smile shifted, Li Xiaoen's expression quickly turned serious.

"Shouldn't I feel honored to have such a beautiful, independent, and outstanding girl on my mind?"

With a helpless sigh, Li Xiaoen turned around and looked around, finally spotting Professor Sedgewick walking towards him not far away.

"Have you gotten to know each other well enough already?"

Looking at the two of them, Professor Sedgewick raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "I was going to introduce you to each other, but it seems there's no need."

"Professor Sedgewick, I'm not going to hand over the hardware implementation of my inference model to her, am I?"

Li Xiaoen asked, "She's only a sophomore. Does she have enough knowledge and ability to achieve this?"

Professor Sedgewick first glanced at the two of them strangely before chuckling in response.

"Don't worry, the hardware implementation is done in her advisor's lab, with the professor overseeing the progress. Several graduate students are working together to implement it. Amelia is here as a representative to attend the meeting."

"is it?"

Nodding knowingly, Li Xiaoen couldn't help but turn his head to look at Amelia. The girl's expression was calm, but there was a faint aura of indifference emanating from her, which made him feel a little apprehensive and he didn't dare to ask anything more.

After confirming the attendees, the group of more than ten people drove to a venue called the Javits Convention Center in New York.

Among the group of ordinary or slightly more expensive cars, Li Xiaoen's brand-new and eye-catching Aston Martin luxury convertible naturally attracted a lot of attention. The group of classmates looked over in surprise from afar and were stunned to see that the slender and beautiful girl had also gotten into the car.

They exchanged a glance, gave each other a meaningful and wistful smile, and then turned around and got into their own cars.

"Has it gotten a new car again after only one semester?"

The car slowly started, quickly accelerated outside the school gate, and sped to the front. Amelia looked around at the interior of the car. "Or did you borrow it from your rich friends because you're going to a seminar?"

Her family is well-off. Although her views on interpersonal relationships differ from the mainstream, they are consistent in terms of car consumption—she is not very brand-conscious and will not spend a lot of her savings to buy a car that is just a means of transportation.

She had never ridden in these luxury cars before, but that didn't make her feel timid or hesitant.

"It's somewhat related to them."

Li Xiaoen thought for a moment, then smiled meaningfully, "I won it in a raffle at their birthday party."

"Didn't they intentionally send it to you?"

Samaria turned her head to look at her.

"no!"

Li Xiaoen's face darkened. "Do I look like the kind of person who would take advantage of someone? I was planning to give the car away in the first place during the raffle..."

“That’s not necessarily true…” Amelia snorted casually, “You’re a liar who never tells the truth, and you’re also very good at pretending to be confused.”

"I admit I sometimes do that, but it's just an occasional joke, nothing as outrageous as you're making it out to be, right?"

Li Xiaoen explained helplessly, "Why do I feel like you have a lot of complaints about me? Clearly, we will have long-term cooperation on this intelligent driving project in the future."

Only when this was mentioned did Li Xiaoen suddenly come to his senses.

"Could it be that you're angry about what I said to Professor Sedgewick earlier?"

The girl didn't answer, but he already knew the answer in his heart. He couldn't help but laugh and shrug his shoulders. "I was just concerned about the project's arrangements and development. As a partner, you wouldn't want me to just coast along and not take the project seriously, would you?"

"Besides, am I not telling the truth?"

It was rare to hear the young man speak so seriously. He was clearly not as carefree and joking as he usually was. She should have been more accepting of him like this, but Amelia felt a little flustered. She quickly suppressed the strange feeling in her heart and pursed her lips.

"Since I was invited to the lab by my supervisor in advance, I don't need to worry about my current knowledge base, which is fully at the undergraduate level."

“I know that even so, my current level is still not high enough to work with you on an equal footing one-on-one. Professor Sedgewick said that several other graduate students will also be involved, and I am just one of them.”

"..."

“Um, Amelia…”

Li Xiaoen raised his hand with a strange expression, "No need to take it so seriously. What I said back then was mainly a rebuttal to you..."

Amelia paused for a moment upon hearing this, then looked over blankly.

“Being too serious and focused all the time can create a lot of pressure in your studies and life, especially for a research-oriented major like ours that requires a lot of brainpower.”

With one hand on the steering wheel, Li Xiaoen smiled and glanced over, "Or, if you're really worried that I'm not satisfied with you, you can say a few nice things, or sing a song, and I'll kindly let you off the hook."

The heaviness in her heart instantly vanished, but Amelia's pretty face suddenly turned cold.

"Do you know that based on just this sentence, I can sue you for academic misconduct and sexual harassment..."

"See, you're taking this way too seriously."

Li Xiaoen spread one hand towards the girl.

Amelia scoffed.

"Given your past experiences as a scumbag, I think it's reasonable to suspect that you're making pointed insinuations and flirting."

"Ha ha……"

Not to be outdone, Li Xiaon retorted, "What you said makes a lot of sense, but Amelia, do you know that you are also special to me?"

"I might have feelings for other girls, but for you, the sacred and pure one, I have absolutely no interest in you."

After he finished speaking, seeing that the girl didn't react for a long time, Li Xiaoen glanced at her sideways and asked, "What's wrong? Are you about to cry?"

"Can you concentrate on talking to me while driving?"

Taking a deep breath, Amelia started talking about other things instead.

"Don't worry about that, I'm very good at multitasking."

Li Xiaoen chuckled, just about to show off to the other person again, when a fist landed on his shoulder, startling him so much that his body tensed up.

"Hey, that's interfering with driving. Aren't you afraid of the danger?"

He exclaimed in surprise. Li Xiaoen glanced over out of the corner of his eye and saw that Amelia's gaze was fixed on the road ahead and she did not make any other moves. He then breathed a sigh of relief.

Is this a case of being embarrassed and angry?
Thinking to himself, Li Xiaoen didn't provoke the other party any further. He reached out and turned on the car stereo, using music to temporarily ease the silence in the car.

Having traveled the route to New York many times before, Li Xiaoen parked the car in the convention center parking lot with ease and registered with the other students.

Because of the large number of attendees, the exhibition hall for the seminar was a combination of two exhibition halls. As Li Xiaoen walked around, he looked at the furnishings and decorations from all angles. He learned about this from a graduate student next to him.

The group arrived at a bustling hall and quickly dispersed after Professor Sedgewick announced that they were free to explore on their own.

Are these students from various Ivy League schools in the United States?
Li Xiaoen looked around and saw many figures chatting and laughing happily, full of vigor and high spirits, which made him feel emotional.

In fact, not all students at world-renowned universities, even those at the forefront of modern research, are the kind of hardworking, single-minded, rigid, old-fashioned scholars. There are also many social butterflies who are meticulous in their appearance and dress up carefully.

Especially for important social occasions like meetings, Amelia wore light makeup today, which is unusual for her.

Of course, there are also people who don't care about their image, are casual and unrestrained, and can even be described as unconventional. Daniel is an example, and Lucas and Axel, who are not far away, are also wolfing down a large amount of various snacks like starving ghosts.

In general, college students are just ordinary people, and they have all sorts of personalities and styles.

What are you standing there for?

Before he could even lift his leg, a cup of coffee was handed to Li Xiaoen.

"Thank you."

Li Xiaoen nodded, reached out and took a sip. It was a very ordinary hand-drip coffee, but considering the supply for so many people at this exhibition, it was quite good.

"Aren't you going to have some snacks?"

Li Xiaoen turned his head and asked.

"I ate breakfast this morning before coming here."

Amelia shook her head. "Coffee is fine. Eating too much isn't good either."

"lose weight?"

"no!"

It's impossible to even exchange three simple words with this bastard, Amelia glared at him.

"Ha ha……"

Li Xiaoen couldn't help but chuckle, and raised his hand to walk towards the dining table on the side.

He had eaten breakfast before coming, but now that it was free time and he had nothing to do, he didn't mind trying some of the snacks here.

Picking up a plate, choosing two snacks he hadn't tried before, and some fruit, Li Xiaoen intended to watch other college students casually sample the food to pass the time. However, he couldn't help but be drawn to Lucas, who had just swarmed around him like a locust plague.

"Have you not eaten since last night?"

After staring blankly for a while, Li Xiaoen couldn't help but ask, both amused and exasperated.

"I was in a rush to get to the assembly point this morning, so I didn't eat breakfast."

With a sandwich still in his mouth, Lucas mumbled an explanation, "Sean, this sandwich is delicious, you can try it."

"No need, I won't fight you for it."

Li Xiaoen quickly shook his head, which made Lucas pause in his chewing.

“Sean, Lucas…”

Just then, Haskel walked over. Dressed in a suit, with one hand in his pocket and a coffee in the other, he looked just like one of those elite university students. "This seminar is almost entirely attended by outstanding students from Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. Why not take this opportunity to chat with them and make some friends?"

Did you have this planned in advance?

Li Xiaoen was taken aback for a moment. Having more friends meant having more options, even if it was just asking a simple question when needed. He didn't mind making some friends in this kind of setting.

“I guess there are some.”

Haskell smiled and nodded, turning to indicate a direction, "Take Truda, for example, a graduate student at Harvard. He's in the same year as me, about to graduate with his master's, but like you, he got a job offer from Google while he was still an undergraduate, and he also..."

Halfway through his sentence, Haskel unconsciously stopped talking, turned around, and looked at Sean Lee with Lucas in a strange way—at that moment, the pretty girl with glasses who was with Sean Lee was being approached and chatted up by her.

Seemingly oblivious to their gazes, Li Xiaoen remained calm and watched silently for a while. When he saw a hint of annoyance in Amelia's eyes, he narrowed his eyes and walked over.

(End of this chapter)