Just then, an HB pencil sharpened to a fine point clattered softly and rolled to a stop right by Hawk’s shoe.
A hand with slender knuckles and smooth, delicate skin reached down for it.
“Sorry.” The voice was cool, with a faint Asian accent.
The girl it belonged to stood up.
She was Asian, with long, glossy black hair falling like a waterfall to her waist and framing a porcelain-delicate face.
Her figure was perfectly proportioned, and her well-tailored dark green knit dress followed her curves in smooth, understated lines.
It was nothing flashy, yet she radiated a quiet, dangerous allure.
Her eyes were large with slightly upturned outer corners and deep amber irises.
She was looking intently at Hawk now, her long lashes motionless like folded butterfly wings, giving her a look of striking innocence and curiosity.
“No problem.” Hawk held her gaze for a moment, then politely stepped aside to let her through the narrow aisle first.
The girl nodded slightly, the corner of her mouth lifting in an almost imperceptible smile.
“I’m Miu, Miu Kobayashi.
I’m new here.” Her voice was still cool, but the last word had a subtle hook to it.
As she bent to pick up the pencil, her soft hair slid down like silk, and a faint, elusive scent of gardenia drifted up to Hawk.
“Hello, Miu.
Welcome to Columbia University!” Hawk said with a polite smile.
“Hi, Hawk.
Could you take a look at this model for me?
I thought your take on liquidity was super cool.” Miu Kobayashi picked up the pencil and rubbed her hands together in front of her, looking a little nervous.
Her eyes held just the right amount of curiosity, with a barely perceptible hint of probing.
Hawk raised an eyebrow at her.
“‘Super cool’?
That’s a new one.
But liquidity itself isn’t cool.
The key is how you make it ‘flow’ for you.” He smiled, glanced at the economic model on Miu’s laptop screen, and began explaining it.
For the next half day, Hawk felt as though he had wandered into a garden full of beautiful college girls.
At the corner of a hallway, he “coincidentally ran into” Samantha, a Black girl with healthy, wheat-toned skin and a body to rival any Victoria’s Secret Angel.
She looked up, her finely sculpted features hardly looking Black, and her smile was instantly infectious.
She boldly pulled Hawk into a discussion about the potential of emerging markets.
Hawk answered patiently, but his aloof manner left Samantha a little disappointed.
She was definitely pretty, but unfortunately, few Black girls could make Hawk look twice unless he had no other choice.
On the stone steps, a tall redhead in tight jeans and knee-high boots was struggling to haul a heavy box full of economics textbooks up the stairs.
The exaggerated curves hugged by her jeans and her full breasts, which threatened to burst the buttons on her shirt, jiggled with every “labored” movement, radiating undisguised primal allure.
This was Abby, the red-haired girl with the astonishing figure and the sweet smile.
Naturally, the ever-helpful Hawk carried Abby’s heavy box of books up to her dorm, then spent two hours walking her through German classical economics.
As he was leaving, Abby, wearing a thoroughly fucked-out expression, said to him, “Hawk…
classical economics…
you really went deep with that one…” Avoiding prying eyes, he left the girls’ dorm and passed the terrace of a nearby cafe.
A mature young woman in a sharply tailored trench coat, with an air of mystery about her, gave him an ambiguous look of scrutiny and interest from behind her coffee cup.
Her entire figure was wrapped in an impeccably fitted black trench coat, revealing only a slender, snow-white ankle.
Dark chestnut curls fell loosely over her shoulders, half-concealing her face and leaving only a perfectly sculpted jawline and a pair of gray-blue eyes as cold as a frozen lake.
A slim cigarette rested between her fingers, and the curling smoke blurred her silhouette, lending her an even greater air of dangerous mystery.
As Hawk passed by, those frozen-lake eyes lifted lazily.
“Hawk?” Hawk stopped and turned to meet her gaze.
The moment their eyes met, he was rattled.
Wasn’t this Mera, the Sea Queen?
*The one who shit the bed?* “Hello, may I ask who you are?” Despite his shock and uncertainty, Hawk kept his tone perfectly polite.
“I’m Vivian, the new actuarial science professor.
You’re the most famous student in the economics department, in all of Columbia, really, so of course I had to come meet you.” Vivian flashed a charming smile.
“Actuarial science, huh?” Hawk said, but inwardly he thought: *A professor, huh?* *Which agency set this up?
They know me way too well!* Hawk gave Vivian a subtle once-over.
The self-proclaimed actuarial science professor standing before him gave off a lazy, dangerous vibe.
Hawk smiled.
“I thought your first stop would be the department chair’s office.” Vivian exhaled a wisp of smoke, her gray-blue eyes shifting behind the curling haze.
“The department chair is too boring.
I’d rather meet the ‘legend’ himself first.” She paused, her fingertips tapping lightly against the coffee cup.
“Especially the person who, in less than a month, drove Bates Capital from a ‘financial giant’ into ‘bankruptcy.'” Hawk shrugged.
“The market is never short of surprises.
I just happened to be on the right side of it.” “Is that right?” Vivian laughed softly, her voice low and magnetic.
“Or did you use…
some special methods?” The air seemed to freeze for a second.
Hawk’s expression didn’t waver at all.
He leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice.
“Professor Vivian, if that’s a professional question, I suggest you pick a different case.
After all, casually accusing a student isn’t good teaching.” Vivian didn’t respond right away.
Instead, she slowly stubbed out her cigarette and stood up, the hem of her trench coat swaying slightly with the movement and revealing glimpses of her long, slender legs.
“Don’t worry, I was just hypothesizing.” She stepped closer, her red lips almost brushing Hawk’s ear, her warm breath carrying a faint trace of tobacco.
“I’m just curious…
how long your ‘luck’ can last.” With that, she stepped back half a step, gave a knowing smile, turned, and left, tossing out one last line as she went, “You’re welcome to come to my class!” Her high heels clicked sharply against the stone pavement until she disappeared around the corner.
Hawk stood rooted in place, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing his ear where her breath had just brushed.
*Five people.* Hawk counted silently to himself.