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

Chapter 273 An Unexpected Trip to India

"Hahaha……"

Li Xiaoen laughed twice, then noticed Professor Sedgewick's silent gaze and quickly composed himself, his expression returning to seriousness. "Professor Sedgewick, there are too many things going on at the company. I'd like to step down from being in charge of all projects at the lab."

Upon hearing this, Professor Sedgewick showed no surprise. He nodded, lowered his head to serve his coffee, took a sip, and then looked up at Sean Lee, a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.

Think about it, it's only been a few months since I discovered this gifted Chinese boy in class. Back then, he seemed a bit naive and inexperienced when I took him to the lab, but now he's able to step out of school and compete in the real world through his own efforts.

That scene feels like it happened just yesterday.

Professor Sedgewick smiled and nodded slightly.

"Sean, you're very smart. I believe you have your own reasons for everything. Go ahead and do it with confidence."

"Yes, thank you, Professor Sedgewick."

Feeling no pressure from the start, Li Xiaoen smiled and nodded.

"Oh, yes."

As if remembering something, Professor Sedgewick spoke up again, "Take some time to refine and optimize that research topic you chose in the lab. I'll apply for your master's degree graduation approval."

"A master's degree?"

Li Xiaoen tilted his head, pointed to himself with a strange expression, and said, "Aren't I only a freshman?"

After speaking, seeing Professor Sedgewick's expression turn indifferent, Sean Lee raised an eyebrow and nodded reluctantly in agreement.

"Okay, okay, I'll send it to your email directly."

"Humph……"

Professor Sedgewick was speechless at the young man's feigned ignorance. He rolled his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and crossed his legs. "There's one more thing..."

"You've completed a demo model of your previous hardware implementation for intelligent driving, and you've successfully applied for a patent. It seems you'll soon receive a collaboration invitation from a company. You can check with Phyllis."

"I saw you've been busy, so I'm telling you now."

"I see."

Li Xiaoen nodded. When this was mentioned, he couldn't help but think of Amelia, the nerdy American girl.

If you always get called a jerk every time you interact with someone, isn't going to go there just making yourself uncomfortable?
Thinking to himself that he would chat with Professor Sedgewick a few more times before getting up and heading towards the Princeton hardware lab building…

"Sean, this project is basically complete. The next step is specific application and development. Of course, this involves specific field experiments, which are no longer within the scope of our school's experiments."

This time, as soon as Li Xiaoen arrived at the laboratory, he was led to an office where he met Professor Phyllis, whose style of dress and clothing was quite androgynous.

“I understand, Professor Phyllis.”

Li Xiaoen sat in the chair and nodded. "Which company is planning to cooperate with us?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a cup of coffee was handed to him. Li Xiaoen looked up and met those clear brown eyes, and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"It's an Indian company."

Professor Phyllis replied, "When are you available? We'll schedule a time to meet with them. As the most important software support person, you'll naturally need to be there."

"An Indian company?"

Given the consistently worrying reputation of Indian companies and even the government on international forums, Li Xiaoen asked again, still in disbelief.

"Yes."

Professor Phyllis reaffirmed, completely extinguishing the last vestige of his hallucination. He also understood the reason for the young man's change in expression and couldn't help but offer a word of comfort: "The international reputation of Indian companies is indeed not very good, but this trip is less about cooperating with Indian companies and more about cooperating with the branch of the United States in India."

"After all, as you know, India doesn't have many well-known car companies, let alone those that can use our intelligent driving patents."

As he said this, Professor Phyllis shrugged meaningfully.

"So, that was just an experimental site?"

Li Xiaoen asked tentatively.

"Yes, you are right."

Professor Phyllis smiled and nodded, glancing sideways at Amelia sitting next to the young man, a smile appearing on his face, "I will travel with Amelia and you then."

"Amelia is coming too?"

Li Xiaoen asked again incredulously, and as soon as he spoke, he received a gaze from the person next to him that quickly turned somber. He couldn't help but sigh helplessly.

“Amelia has been coordinating the hardware implementation of this project, and her grasp of the project’s details is probably better than mine.”

Phyllis glanced at the two people on either side, gave a meaningful smile, and offered a brief explanation.

"Alright, after all, it was your project that you implemented."

Li Xiaoen waved his hand, no longer dwelling on it.

Having agreed to meet this weekend, the purpose of the meeting came to an end, and Li Xiaoen took the initiative to say goodbye.

Walking away from the lab building, during class time, the sound of two footsteps could be heard in the empty corridor.

"What's wrong? Is your business so successful that you don't even care about the money from patent licensing?"

Footsteps echoed in their hearts. Amelia finally couldn't stand it anymore and turned to look at the young man who hadn't said a single word to her alone the whole time. "Why is your mouth, which was always so talkative before, so quiet today?"

"I'm just too lazy to listen to someone's personal attacks again."

Li Xiaoen chuckled and glanced at it from the side.

"If someone didn't do that, how could they be hurt by my words?"

Turning her head casually to look ahead, Amelia smiled faintly. "Even with the person I hate the most, I never say anything bad about them. Can you say that it's wrong for me to describe your behavior and give a reasonable and appropriate summary?"

"Don't you think so, Mr. Jerk?"

"..."

"Okay, that's why I'm not saying anything."

Li Xiaoen raised his hand, let out a long breath, and looked at Amelia with pity. "Amelia, do you know? I feel sorry for your future husband."

"Oh, not necessarily. Maybe you won't have that kind of relationship in the future."

Li Xiaoen suddenly realized and corrected him, "However, as your... teammate in the competition and partner in the project, I am a very tolerant and generous person. By the way, I'll pray for you, that you will find a brave warrior who dares to go through fire and water to favor you..."

"Clearly, the capital is quite good, what a pity..."

As he spoke, Li Xiaon looked Amelia up and down, shaking his head repeatedly with feigned regret. Then, he hissed through gritted teeth, his previous nonchalance vanishing, replaced by a grimace. "Let go... release your grip..."

Suppressing the pain in his lower back, Li Xiaoen reached behind him and grabbed the hand that was pinning him there. He looked at Amelia with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. "What's wrong? Can't win an argument with words, so you're resorting to physical actions to force a resolution?"

"Humph……"

Clenching her teeth, Amelia looked up and glared angrily at the young man in front of her. "When it comes to sharp tongues, who can beat you? Who can out-argue you?"

"Oh, so what you're saying is tantamount to admitting that you can't argue with me?"

Li Xiaoen raised an eyebrow, amused. "So what? Why did you provoke me? Knowing you can't win an argument, why do you insist on making trouble for yourself? Are you stupid?"

"what--"

These words seemed to have completely enraged Amelia. She let out a long howl in anger, loosened her grip on the young man's lower back, and just as his expression relaxed, she raised her two clenched fists and grabbed the young man's cheeks, starting to tear them apart.

"hey-hey……"

Amelia was still a bit shorter, and because of the tearing motion, she leaned close to him. Li Xiaoen didn't care about such an ambiguous action at this moment, and quickly raised his hand to grab back the hands that were tearing at his cheeks. "Amelia, don't go too far!"

"If I'm being unreasonable, then who is really being unreasonable?"

Amelia retorted fiercely, tears welling in her eyes. She was so angry that she could hardly breathe, and she increased the pressure on her hands.

"You forced me to do this..."

Li Xiaoen took a deep breath, let his hands fall to his sides, and placed them on Amelia's slender waist, which was pressed tightly against his body. He rubbed his hands up and down incessantly.

Just as Amelia was stunned for a moment, her body tensing up suddenly, she raised one hand into the air.

Snapped.

A crisp sound suddenly rang out from the corridor, and Amelia froze on the spot, staring at Lee Shawn with her lifeless eyes, as if all her mind had been drained away.

"You brought this on yourself, don't blame me."

The pain in his cheek was subsiding. Li Xiaoen snorted softly, quickly shook off Amelia's hand, broke free, and then ran away.

"Sean!"

Just as he ran out of the laboratory building and before he could catch his breath, he heard Amelia's gritted teeth calling out from behind. Li Xiaoen's heart, which had just landed steadily, began to pound again. He had no choice but to quicken his pace, walk around a bush, and completely hide his figure.

Good food and fun-loving.

Li Xiaoen muttered to himself, using his [Eye of Insight] to dodge Amelia's several charges and pursuits. Seeing that it was almost time, he took a detour to the school cafeteria, had a quick lunch, and then drove to the studio.

To his surprise, even though it wasn't yet afternoon work hours, all his colleagues in the work area were sitting at their desks, typing away at their computers, while the room next to them, where a small local server was located, was humming with the sound of a fan.

Clearly, during the half-day he had specially given them, they arrived at the company early in the morning to start working.

Fortunately, there is facial recognition and surveillance at the company entrance, so he can clearly know when everyone arrives at the company at any time of day, and can give them overtime pay bonuses in a timely and sufficient manner.

After greeting the others, Li Xiaoen entered his office and immediately noticed the figure sitting in his seat, hidden behind a large screen.

As he approached, Li Xiaoen crossed his arms and slumped his shoulders.

"I took you home yesterday and you didn't even say thank you, and today you came over and took my seat?"

Since the company was successfully registered, Catherine has brought in a few young girls, and they have taken over an office on their own. Catherine's workspace is in there—compared to Apple, which Li Xiaoen often visits, it's pretty much the HR and administration office.

Today marks the first time since then that Catherine has again taken the liberty of sitting in his seat without permission.

Could it be that Catherine was conscious of what happened last night?

Unable to contain his curiosity, Li Xiaoen tapped the table with his hand. "Hey, did you hear me?"

"As my secretary, when the boss comes in, aren't you supposed to make me a cup of coffee?"

Upon hearing this, Catherine finally reacted, stopping what she was doing and turning her head to look at her.

The two looked at each other, scrutinizing each other for a long time.

Today, Catherine was dressed as usual in a simple white shirt paired with a pencil skirt, a typical urban woman's outfit. Her charming and mature face was lightly made up, but her makeup looked a bit heavier than usual.

After a long while, just as Sean Lee was about to speak, Catherine turned her chair around, crossed her arms in front of her chest, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, Sean Lee subconsciously looked down at her, a flutter rising in his heart, and he quickly looked away.

Seeing the young man's reaction, Catherine narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Sean, you really didn't do anything to me when you drove me home last night?"

"..."

So, Catherine drank herself into oblivion last night and was unconscious?

Li Xiaoen pondered this, feeling a mix of emotions. He sighed softly, "I knew it. I should have filmed a video to prove my innocence back then, so I wouldn't be in this situation where my good intentions have backfired..."

"And who was it that got drunk and kept clinging to me?"

"Then I'll tell you now..."

Catherine rolled her eyes, stood up, turned around and walked past Li Xiaon, tossing her long hair behind her onto the young man. She then walked towards the coffee machine in the office, and only then did she say in a soft voice, "Thank you."

This is the first time I've seen this woman so obedient.

Li Xiaoen raised an eyebrow, but judging from the other party's reaction and attitude, what happened between the two of them last night was clearly just an unintentional act under the influence of alcohol.

Sitting down, Li Xiaoen looked at the computer screen, which displayed the cooperation contract that he had asked Catherine to draft during yesterday's dinner. It was quite thoughtful of her.

"Catherine, you came to the office this morning?"

Li Xiaoen looked up at Catherine, who was standing in front of the coffee machine, and asked.

"Of course, didn't some unscrupulous boss say that I had to see it by the time I came to work today?"

Catherine didn't turn around, but said something in a leisurely voice.

"..."

"You should know that was just my way of retaliating against your situation at the time."

Li Xiaoen sighed and explained, also taking the opportunity to explain his plans for the next two days, "By the way, I'm going to India tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the weekend. Please keep an eye on the company for me."

With her studies and company to manage, and her father still keeping a close eye on her, if Li Xiaoen had to entrust the company to someone, this "chief steward" would be the only person she could think of.

Upon hearing this, Catherine suddenly froze, turning her head to stare blankly at the young man.

(End of this chapter)