Venue of the competition

As they all reached the venue, all four of them were a bundle of nerves. But when they alighted, awe replaced nervousness. The venue was a branch of the Mao company abroad. It was of the modern style and so tall that Yu Chen hurt her neck trying to look for its highest point. Chen, Hua and Zenghai stood admiring the building when Mo Kio came back after parking the car. They all went in, with Kio leading the way and Chen in the behind, looking awe-struck at everything around them. One of the clerks met them at the entrance and took them to the coding department, after checking all of their details and handing them ID cards. As they walked through the main lobby, Yu Chen saw the grandeur of the building. "It's not the second top computer company for nothing. This building is even grander than Si corporation, and it's just a branch company."

Before Chen could finish praising the company, they entered the coding department, and Chen's jaw dropped to the floor. The computers there were the fastest ones in the world. Each and every one of them cost a little more than 2 millions, all the peripherals included. Yu Chen was admiring the computers when Xi Hua yanked her hand. "Let's go to our cubicle. After we win this thing, you can live here if you want."

Yu Chen mumbled as was being pulled along, "Yeah I wish I could live here."

The clerk led them past many small cubicles, where different teams were sitting. Some were talking among themselves, some had a laptop open between them and were discussing things. Yu Chen caught up with Mo Kio and said, "Hey, I thought we were not allowed to bring our own laptops."

Mo Kio fell a little back and said, "No, we are allowed. But I thought it would be better to check out the other teams rather than ponder on our already perfect code. We can not use it anyway and..."

Mo Kio's voice trailed off as Chen felt something hard against her shoulder and almost toppled over. Kio caught her and steadied her, then looked at the person into whom she had bumped. He was a really tall and lanky boy who looked in his mid-teens. He seemed to be foreign as he was unusually white and had wavy blond hair. He was rather handsome. He was leading a pack of other five boys who all looked foreign.

Yu Chen turned around and bowed, "Sorry. I wasn't looking."

The tall boy said in an arrogant voice, "Well you better be. Stupid girl."

Yu Chen scoffed in her mind, "Yes you arrogant ba*tard. You are just a pretty face, rotten inside."

She surveyed him up and down and said, "So this is how your people treat each other. Huh. I might not want to go abroad to study after all."

Behind her, Mo Kio stiffled a laugh. The boy's face turned more even pale in anger. He said, "No it's just how I treat ugly people."

He definitely seemed to think that that did the trick.

But Yu Chen gave him a devilish smile and said, "Excuse me, but I am not a mirror."