The National Tech Convention was a sea of glass, blue LED lights, and the hum of thousands of innovators. For any other couple, a first date would be a candlelit dinner. For Li Yan and me, it was a VIP pass to the "Future of Neural Networks" keynote.
"You're staring at the haptic interface again," Li Yan murmured, leaning close. He wasn't wearing his usual charcoal coat; he was in a sharp, tailored navy suit that made several heads turn—mostly female. "Is it more interesting than the person standing next to you?"
"The interface doesn't have an ego, Li Yan," I teased, though my hand was tucked firmly into the crook of his arm. "And it doesn't calculate the 'efficiency' of my outfit before we leave the dorm."
"I said the silk was 94% compatible with the ambient lighting of the hall," he defended, a rare smirk playing on his lips. "It was an objective compliment."
We were happy. For three days, the "Group of Seven" chat had been quiet as we navigated our new, fragile "v1.0" relationship. But as we approached the main stage, the atmosphere shifted.
Standing at the center of the exhibit was Ying Yue. She looked like a tech goddess in a white structured dress, her glasses catching the neon glare. When she saw us, she didn't look angry. She looked... victorious.
"Li Yan! Xiao Xing!" she called out, her voice amplified by the professional headset she was wearing. "I was wondering if you'd make it to the unveiling."
"Unveiling?" Li Yan's brow furrowed.
"The Board of Directors at the National Institute just approved my solo project," Ying Yue said, stepping closer. She tapped a tablet, and a massive holographic display erupted behind her.
It was a code architecture for a city-wide smart grid. My heart dropped. The logic, the variable naming, the specific way the loops were nested...
"This is my sorting algorithm," I whispered, my grip tightening on Li Yan's arm. "The one from the private repository. The one you commented on last month."
Li Yan's face went from calm to lethal in a millisecond. "Ying Yue. Explain the source code of this module."
"Oh, Li Yan," she sighed, looking at me with faux pity. "In the professional world, there's no such thing as 'private.' Since you used the Institute's server to 'mentor' your little high school friend, the Institute now owns every line of code she wrote. And since you're my partner, the project has been assigned to me to lead."
She stepped right into my space, her voice dropping to a whisper. "You might have the boy, Xiao Xing. But I have your career. Let's see how long a 'Topper' lasts when she's been deleted from her own masterpiece."