What if My Roommate Finds Out I Write Danmei? - Chapter 21

S University’s Gymnasium.

The scene was very fiery early on, with many students who had arrived early to reserve seats to watch the national search and rescue robot competition. However, there were only a dozen or so participating teams, because the production of search and rescue robots was difficult, requiring team members to be proficient in software programming, electronics, mechanical automation, and other fields. Moreover, the instruments required were precision-demanding, and the rules changed every year, making it very expensive. Only universities with substantial strength, willing to invest, and able to secure many sponsorships could afford to participate.

Although the production difficulty was high, and it took up much time to learn knowledge outside the textbooks and put it into practice, Ning Wenru chose this project among the many robot competition projects to participate in because if search and rescue robots could actually be put into use, it would be a very meaningful thing.

Search and rescue robots could judge complex environments such as earthquakes, fires, and mining accidents, collect data and analyze it, respond to unknown emergencies, and enter dangerous areas that people couldn’t enter for safety considerations. But as of now, domestically there were few search and rescue robots actually put into use, and rescuers’ sacrifices occurred frequently.

The rescue team Ning Wenru was part of wanted to try some things, and planned to publicly share all their experimental data after the competition, to provide experience for the advancement of rescue robots and their future large-scale production.

The competition began, the atmosphere on the competition field was intense, all the spectators were staring tightly at the robots, their hearts tense, afraid that the robot of the team they supported would collide with obstacles. Because according to the competition rules, as long as a robot collides with obstacles twice, it counts as a failed attempt!

The competition range was the size of a football field. Robots over a meter tall needed to participate in a timed off-road obstacle race simulating an earthquake disaster within the football field. A competition had several scoring items: 1. Must meet the requirements for smartly avoiding obstacles, including iron blocks and stones simulating collapse accidents, extinguishing fires upon encountering them, avoiding water, and upon falling into pits having basic functions to stand up; 2. Detecting the biosignatures of living beings on the field, drawing rescue maps after finding them and sending them to the referee’s computer; 3. Climbing up a small house built on the spot to carry the mannequin to the exit and continuously sending location information. Moreover, the mannequin representing life’s vital signs must not collide with obstacles during transportation or encounter danger.

In addition, if other innovative functions were discovered, the judges would award extra points at their discretion.

Ning Wenru’s team arrived at the competition venue early in the morning, having tested and tuned all their machines. Moreover, during the competition, each team only had two chances to pause the match to repair their robots; at all other times, the rescue robots acted autonomously. So, if no repairs were needed, Ning Wenru only needed to sit outside the field and quietly watch.

Now it was the preparation time before the match for other teams. Ning Wenru rested his cheeks in both hands, his mind wandering, and displayed a sweet smile.

Suddenly a blue flag waved in front of Ning Wenru’s eyes. Ning Wenru looked up, noticing it was his own captain.

The captain said, “Since we assembled yesterday, whenever you have time, you’ve been daydreaming with a stupid smile.”

A teammate also gathered around, laughing, “Yes! Xiao Ningning, these past few days you’ve laughed like you’re really mentally disabled. Did you fall in love?”

Ning Wenru touched his face, took out his phone to look in the mirror, and stared at it for a while, asking, “Do I laugh very mentally disabledly? How do you know I have a girlfriend?”

His teammates burst into laughter, saying, “Yesterday you were wearing a high-collared shirt and it wasn’t obvious, but today after changing into the team uniform it became obvious. Your girlfriend’s kisses are incredibly passionate! Ha ha ha ha, all over your neck, my goodness, let me count how many there are.”

Next, the teammates surrounded Ning Wenru, counting while circling him: “1, 2, 3… nine! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha nine! So deep so red! How much force! The small villa we stayed in last night couldn’t have had a little sister secretly come in, so that must be left from the day before yesterday!”

Ning Wenru pulled his collar taut and glared at them apprehensively, but couldn’t help but recall that night, his face beginning to burn.

To the side, the captain, with a grave expression, knocked away the teammate’s hand that was trying to pry open Ning Wenru’s collar. “Don’t play around. Our robot tipped over and came off its tracks, so let’s be serious and watch the match attentively. You’re representing our entire school now, so don’t make exaggerated gestures.”

“Yes sir!” The teammate saluted the captain, sitting solemnly at Ning Wenru’s side but eyes gleaming as he stared at him. The captain, on the other hand, took out a woolen scarf with a grave expression, and tightly wrapped Ning Wenru’s neck, wrapping it three layers thick.

Ning Wenru shot the captain a resentful glance. Their team uniforms were clearly still short-sleeved! Wearing a short-sleeved shirt with a woolen scarf was really too strange. But the captain returned his glare expressionlessly, and also took out a matching-colored scarf to wrap around his own neck, then tossed another one to the teammate.

Well then, everyone is wearing short-sleeved shirts with scarves, now he’s not the only one who looks strange.

So Ning Wenru tugged at his very well-wrapped scarf, making it a bit easier for him to breathe.

A teammate approached him, asking with a smile, “Darling~ look at our scarves, don’t they look like couple outfits? But when did you get a girlfriend?! Abandoning us who are all obsessed together with the lab!”

Although the captain’s expression was calm and serious, his ears had perked up.

Ning Wenru explained, “We just got together the night before last, it’s not intentional concealment.”

The teammate asked again, “The night before last! No wonder when I came to your dormitory the night before last, I couldn’t find you! So—turns out you were going out giggling! Hurry up and tell me, which tough girl snagged you? Is she from our school?”

Ning Wenru pushed away the teammate’s face that had gotten too close, saying, “Concentrate on watching the competition! The robot in front is track-based, different from our bipedal one.”

“I’ve been watching all along, after hitting the wall they stopped moving, they were repairing it for the second time, but now they’ve all stopped and are scratching their heads, just stalling for time, killing time,” the teammate glanced over again and continued teasing, “You’re still embarrassed? If she’s pretty, bring her out to show off a bit.”

“He is very handsome, his muscles are stronger than yours,” Ning Wenru said, then stood up, leaving his teammate with a face full of bewilderment, O-mouth wide open, and said: “I’m going to take a look at Q Team.”

Every failure is precious experience, those who can participate nationwide all have a certain level of skill, if because of nervousness leading to avoidable mistakes, the competition cannot be completed, that would truly be a pity. The captain obviously also values this opportunity greatly, got up and went over with Ning Wenru.

Ning Wenru and the captain walked over, the Q Team members dressed in red uniforms were all helplessly staring at their robot, taking apart and putting together their robot’s movement mechanism. But when they saw Ning Wenru and Ning Wenru’s captain, they looked wary, even using their bodies to cover, intending to hide the disassembled robot.

Keeping secrets is necessary for participating, Ning Wenru understood as well. After squatting and watching for a while, he asked: “Have you guys smelled anything?”

No one answered him, several were busy inspecting the robot’s tracks and wheels and other movement mechanisms, they had checked that they could manually move, but the robot couldn’t move on its own; several were checking the program on-site, trying to format the chip and re-enter the program.

Ning Wenru said again: “Really haven’t smelled the burnt smell? The burnt smell is very likely a short circuit, why not check the circuit?”

“Right! Thank you!” The members of Team Q all had an epiphany.

“There are 4 minutes remaining for repairs,” the captain said, looking at the big screen. “3 minutes and 56 seconds now.”

The members of Team Q struggled for the last second, hastily disassembling the circuit boards, but as soon as they saw there were more than twenty circuit boards, each one was dumbfounded. How could they quickly find the short-circuited one in the complex circuit and troubleshoot? They felt like giving up.

One of Team Q’s little golden retriever pitifully glanced at Ning Wenru, sighed, and said: “Thank you, but even knowing the fault, there’s not enough time.”

Ning Wenru hinted: “Don’t be anxious, what other characteristics does a short circuit have apart from a burnt smell? Look at the thirteenth circuit board.”

“Aaaaah, it will turn black when burned! How didn’t I think of that!” The little golden retriever roared, and as soon as he found the fault, he swiftly started repairing it, then put the robot back together with Team Q’s members and placed it on the competition field. Due to the tight time, there wasn’t even time to test. As soon as the robot was placed on the competition field, Team Q’s members all clasped their hands together and prayed, hoping the fault was completely eliminated.

As soon as they saw the robot start moving again, the members of the Q Team all jumped up and cheered! On the way to the simulated accident shack, the Q Team’s robot had no further incidents, and the progress was very smooth. Unfortunately, while transporting the mannequin, they dropped it, so it only counted as completing two items.

Although they couldn’t complete all of them, the Q Team members were overjoyed, all coming over to shake hands with Ning Wenru fiercely. The Little Golden Retriever even said: “Hello, Senior Brother! Our school is coming for the first time to participate in the competition, really lacking in experience, thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother! Ah, you were originally in the blue team uniform, it turns out you’re from X University! The champions from the previous session, I hope this time you can defend your title!”

The Little Golden Retriever and his team also took the opportunity to ask questions and exchanged contact information, saying they wanted to invite them for a visit to Q University and other things. Ning Wenru and the captain didn’t engage in further small talk because it was almost time for them.

Ning Wenru’s X Team had long undergone multiple adjustments. The captain was a member of the previous champion team, but at that time, the captain was an undergraduate student, while this time he was a graduate student. The captain had rich participation experience and sufficient adaptability.

Moreover, compared to the robots of other teams, this year’s robots of X University have a great advantage and innovation!

The design concept came from aircraft carriers. Whereas other teams’ rescue robots had only one, their robot was a rescue team that could give birth to children!

As soon as the robots hit the field, they broke down into several small teams: The child aircraft were used to inspect the road. When the aircraft detected a fire, they would lower another child robot from their belly to put out the fire; there was also an obstacle-clearing sub-team that pushed all the roadblocks aside, clearing the path for the mother robot!

However, one major disadvantage of the mother-child robots competing was that neither the mother robot nor any of the child robots it produced could collide with roadblocks or falling metal chunks. Just like the rules for a single robot competing, hitting twice in total would count as a mission failure.

But since Ning Wenru and his team could deploy an entire robot army, they had the confidence to avoid all the obstacles. Multiple teams of child robots worked together, delivering the mannequin to the exit at a speed no other teams could match! Moreover, they achieved an extremely high degree of completion. Not only did they extinguish fires, but they also did something no other teams had managed—clearing the obstacles.

In the end, the competition won deservedly amidst a sea of praise. Ning Wenru and his teammates happily laughed while holding the reward of a 200,000 yuan bonus check. The captain made a speech under the camera interview, saying a few words about the future prospects of search and rescue robot work, the efforts of the instructor and each member, and the support of the robot parts sponsors.

Now, there was no need to worry about the research sponsorship for the overseas competition.

After Ning Wenru’s classmates learned that he and his team had won the championship again for their school, they received many congratulations and blessings that same day. It wasn’t until the night after the competition, after Ning Wenru and his teammates had celebrated, that he finally had time to check his chat messages. By then, Ning Wenru had already taken a shower and was just brushing through his messages on Koukou before bedtime.

Among those sending blessings to Ning Wenru were the lab members and their department’s beauty, Yami. But after congratulating Ning Wenru, Yami also tearfully complained about him.

Yami: Congratulations on winning the championship, Senior Ning!

But, Senior Ning, you’re just too bad, misleading us!

Weeping Ning Wenru: What?

Yami: Before going to the competition, Senior encouraged me to pursue Senior Pang, even saying he didn’t have a girlfriend.

Ning Wenru’s heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Yami had seen Pang Zaiyuan’s phone, seeing it filled with pictures of himself?

Fortunately, Yami sent two screenshots. The screenshots were from the WeChat moments two days ago:

:::box
Seeking advice: What are some cool and romantic ways to confess love, hitting the bullseye in one go?

Anyone with ideas, please PM me! Thanks!
:::

And yesterday, another post:

:::box
Help wanted: What makes for a creative birthday gift for my partner?
:::

So it was just WeChat moments! Ning Wenru felt relieved, experiencing a mysterious surge of happiness. He further checked his own WeChat moments. After a swipe, he discovered that he had actually been blocked by Pang Zaiyuan! He hadn’t seen this post at all.

It seems Pang Zaiyuan is going to give him a surprise!

Ning Wenru is somewhat looking forward to it and types a reply to Yami saying: I’ve been in the lab all day; I only found out recently as well. When I told you before, I didn’t know he had a crush on someone.

Yami: What should we do now? Does senior know who he’s pursuing? Is she pretty? What type is she? Do I still have a chance?

Ning Wenru begins to ruthlessly show off his affection, typing a reply saying: Hey, you’ve seen the posts in the friend circle too. Zaiyuan has been deeply infatuated with his object of desire recently, unable to recover. His crush is smart, lively, and adorable, with good grades and a good personality.

Then Ning Wenru adds a more cruel knife-cut: Just the night before the competition, he didn’t return home all night. Everything has been used by others already, Yami, don’t get hung up on a single tree. There are plenty of people chasing after you.

After typing these words, Ning Wenru’s face becomes very red. With a mysterious feeling, he consoles Yami for a while, then receives a chat message from Pang Zaiyuan.

Yuan: Why aren’t you sleeping so late?

Holding the quilt, Ning Wenru rolls over and replies: Can’t sleep because I’m thinking about you. Want to hug you when sleeping, but hugging the quilt isn’t as comfortable.

Fuck, I’m the same.

Yuan: Start video.

Immediately after, Pang Zaiyuan sends a video chat request.