Chapter 22 - I’ve got this Scholar’s back (4)
Chapter 22: I’ve got this Scholar’s back
“Homework?”
Without realizing at all the deeper meaning behind the young professor’s question, Gu Chuanbai was somewhat dazed. He met Lu Jingmo’s clear, smile-filled eyes but there was an inexplicable chill down his back.
…
Maybe he forgot to close the window tightly.
Judging from Lu Jingmo’s age, he guessed that this was his first time to give a lecture. While he could still rely on his scholarly knowledge to prepare the lessons, he didn’t know much about assigning homework. He probably wanted his advice on the matter.
Helping professors to assign homework was also the duty of teaching assistants. A strong sense of responsibility immediately emerged in Gu Chuanbai. Nodding his head, he sat down and patiently introduced the different types of homework he usually did.
“Our homework has several different types. For general subjects like botany, generally, we would organize and tabulate what we have learned or consult a reference material and write a summary. You can ask us to link up the current topic with a previous one or you could also have us check the latest literature to make short essays. You could also ask us to create experiment designs and then use it during the lab class…”
It seemed as though he hadn’t expected that he would take the initiative to speak. The young professor on the sofa showed some surprise in his eyes, but furrow in his brows turned deeper and he nodded earnestly, listening to his lesson while holding his notebook laptop.
Sitting so close together, the breath of clean, fresh greenery was all the more distinct. Lu Jingmo quietly nestled in the sofa, tilting his head as he looked at him. From time to time, he would type notes on his laptop. There was a clear smile in his eyes and under the light, it seemed to be reflecting a sea of lights.
Meeting such a pair of eyes, Gu Chuanbai’s tone unconsciously gentled. He might as well just tell him everything he knew. He deliberately slowed down his speech and waited until Lu Jingmo stopped typing before raising his head and continuing to the next sentence.
The two continued on that way, one speaking and the other taking notes. When Assistant Gu finally stopped, he had already lectured his little professor on the four major types and more than a dozen different sub-types of homework.
This was probably enough for one semester of homework.
He had been worried the type of homework he’d assign would be too similar and repetitive, but he didn’t expect the other party to be so considerate.
Lu Deng blinked his eyes. The corners of his lips secretly ticked up and he added a few small class assignments to his courseware before finally clicking ‘save’.
Even if he still had to check the homework himself, being able to leave homework for the other party was a very delightful thing.
He did a mental high-five with the happy system that was waving a small flag. Lu Deng, with his secret book of homework, was quite satisfied. He slumped into the sofa with his laptop, continuing to modify the remaining courseware.
Seeing that he was focused on working, Gu Chuanbai didn’t sit next to him anymore lest he disturb him. He made a cup of coffee for him and set it next to him and then went back to sit at the table.
It was getting late. He should stand up and take his leave, but for whatever reason, he could get himself to move his feet.
Seeing that Lu Jingmo didn’t have the slightest intention of asking him to leave, Gu Chuanbai simply turned on the desk lamp and opened the book of “Chinese Flora” that he hadn’t finished reading during the day.
The pages of the book were full-color, rich and detailed, with exquisite illustrations for each plant. During the day, he had read this with so much interest, but suddenly he couldn’t make any headway.
Turning a page lightly, Gu Chuanbai calmly raised his gaze amidst the ceaseless sound of typing. Using the book as a cover, his gaze fell on Lu Jingmo once again.
The little professor was also very handsome when he was concentrating on his work. His expression was serious, conscientious and meticulous. The corners of his lips are pressed together. His originally gentle brows were offset by the cool light coming from the computer screen, creating an indistinct coldness in his delicate features, enough to deceive people.
But he knew that as long as he walked to the other person, patted his shoulder, and said a few words, the other’s eyes would immediately light up with a gentle and clear light, a bright smile would steal over his face.
After a light tap on the ‘enter’ key, Lu Jingmo stretched out, moving his slightly sore body.
Before he could be discovered, Gu Chuanbai had quickly moved his gaze back to the pages of the book. His lips were secretly curved as he earnestly took in new knowledge.
—He takes back his words. After covertly watching him for ten minutes, even if he had seen the young professor working seriously like this, he probably would have still summoned his courage, gone up to him and asked him if he needed a teaching assistant.
*
The night was growing deeper.
After spending time in the office until the dormitory were almost scheduled to close, Gu Chuanbai finally closed his book and stood up gently, ready to take his leave.
His movements were as light as possible but once he stood up, Lu Jingmo, who was in the middle of revising the courseware, still raised his head sharply. His eyes fell on him, “Are you heading back?”
He had also worked as a teaching assistant during his years as an undergraduate. There were few taboos for boys. If the teacher assigned too many tasks and they end up working well into the night, it was common to grab a blanket and spend the night on the sofa. But it was, after all, the first time the two of them have met. Lu Jingmo also didn’t have any task to give him. They really wasn’t any excuse Gu Chuanbai could use to let the professor have him stay over.
After a long while, he could no longer wait for the other party to give a reason to force him to sleep on the sofa. Gu Chuanbai secretly lamented, but he still smiled at Lu Jingmo and nodded warmly. “The dormitory is about to close. I have to go back as soon as possible, otherwise I’ll have to sleep by the doorway. ”
Lu Jingmo blinked. As though persuaded by his reasons, he nodded, pushed away his laptop and got up: “I’ll see you off.”
For some reason, Gu Chuanbai felt that the light in those eyes dimmed for a moment.
Although guessing that the other party was probably tired, Gu Chuanbai’s heart twinged a bit. He swallowed back the words of civility to decline his offer that he had been on the verge of letting out. He waited patiently for Lu Jingmo to get up, put his coat on and walk quickly beside him.
The future is long. It seems that his little professor wasn’t very good at taking care of himself. Coming to school, leaving school, starting working, going home. He will have lots of opportunities.
Lu Deng has always been taciturn and Gu Chuanbo was still scheming to find a legitimate reason in the future to sleep over on the sofa. Without the sounds of typing on the keyboard and the flipping of the pages, the office become particularly quiet.
When Gu Chuanbai couldn’t help but want to speak, asking Lu Jingmo if he should deliver breakfast tomorrow, a streak of white lightning flashed across the window.
The roar of thunder immediately rang out and instantly, rain poured down in torrents.
The weather in summer has always been changeable. The night sky which had been clear just now was washed out by the sudden rainstorm.
Opportunity.
Gu Chuanbai’s heart stirred. He took a deep breath, about to seize this opportunity to stay the night, but Lu Jingmo was faster. Before he could speak, Lu Jingmo had already lifted his hand to seize Gu Chaunbai’s wrist. “It’s raining. Are you okay with staying here instead?”
Of course, he’s okay.
The rain was pure and fresh; the thunder sounded sweet, and even the lightning was so attractively bright.
Realizing that his little professor probably didn’t want him to leave either, Gu Chuanbai couldn’t help but curling his lips into a smile. He nodded without hesitation, and said, “Then I will help you edit the courseware.”
Seeing him nod, the light in his black eyes shone brightly once again. Lu Jingmo relaxed. He pulled him in as he shook his head. “It’s already fine.”
With Gu Chuanbai’s generous instruction, he was already able to assign ample homework. He also especially assigned several small in-class assignments. If he lets him see it now, then it would no longer be a pleasant surprise.
Teaching Assistant Gu lost the first round. He cast his eyes down for a moment and regrouped: “Then I’ll help you make a teaching plan.”
The teaching plan had already long been finished. Lu Deng shook his head, his eyes narrowed as he smiled. He pulled him back in and pushed him into the bathroom. He said methodically, “Take a shower and then sleep.”
“Jingmo——”
This wasn’t how a teaching assistant should be like. Gu Chuanbai struggled stubbornly, trying to find something he could help with to justify his sleeping on the sofa, However, he had already been stuffed into the bathroom by his little professor.
The conditions of the specially-appointed professor’s office were still much better than the graduate students’ dormitory.
While he was there, he might as well make the best of it. Gu Chuanbai simply put all thoughts aside and immediately took a cold shower. He washed his t-shirt and after wringing it tightly a couple of times, put it back on semi-wet. He went out of the shower room feeling refreshed, planning to go over to the sofa and make himself a nest.
Lu Jingmo had just finished the last of his work. He got up to meet the figure that came out, mild puzzlement appeared in his eyes. He stopped him, asking, “Aren’t you going to rest?”
“I can just sleep on the sofa.”
Gu Chuanbai smiled at him, gestured to the sofa and responded warmly.
The break room wasn’t very big. When Lu Jingmo went in to rest, Gu Chuanbai was planning to take off his shirt and sleep wrapped in the blanket. After a night under the air-conditioning, his T-shirt would be more or less dry by the morning.
His class tomorrow morning wasn’t until the second period. He would still time to go back to the dormitory to freshen up. Maybe he could even get up early and go to the second cafeteria to buy Lu Jingmo some fresh fried Youtiao and freshly squeezed soy milk.
As he was plotting out all this, his wrist was suddenly held. Gu Chuanbai raised his head in puzzlement but he was already being pulled into the break room by Lu Jingmo. “You go to bed first, and I’ll take a shower first.”
After entering the break room, he realized that there was more than one bed inside. Lu Jingmo had pulled out the box-spring bed that was stowed to one side and with a bit of tinkering, unfolded the bed. Just as he was about to put on the sheets and bedding, Gu Chuanbai stepped forward just in time to take over. “Let me do that.”
It turned out that there were two beds. Gu Chuanbai silently pursed his lips. He couldn’t say whether he was sighing in relief or frustration.
It was just so easy to abduct the little professor. If he was invited by the professor to sleep in the same bed on the first day of their meeting, he really should go out and buy a lottery ticket tomorrow.
Probably because his class preparation had gone so smoothly, Lu Jingmo seemed to be in a very good mood, with his eyes curving in a beautiful eye smile. Gu Chuanbai couldn’t help but give a shallow smile. He adjusted his collar for him and watched Lu Jingmo turn to take a shower in high spirits. He then returned to fixing the bed.
Lu Jingmo has probably stayed over here before. The bedding is soft and smelled of sunshine, so that people couldn’t help but feel relaxed.
Gu Chuanbai breathed a sigh of relief, took off the half-damp T-shirt to let it air-dry and sat back down on the bed. Listening to the sound of water pattering down in the bathroom, he actually started to feel a bit tired. He took out his phone and looked through it.
He hadn’t gone back to the dormitory today and his roommates were so excited that when he opened his screen, messages from his dorm room chat flashed one after the other.
[Jiang Li: Not bad, so you really didn’t come back to the dorm! Have you found yourself a little wife already? 】
[Liang Meng: Is a can of soda really that effective? Tomorrow I’m going to buy myself a whole box. Should I just stay by the roadside and give one to each person? 】
[Yan Gang: He’s not even responding to any of our messages. He’s done it. He’s really gone and done it. Break it up. We’ll have to ask him to treat us to dinner tomorrow. 】
[Jiang Li: At this hour, they’re probably washing up, preparing to go to sleep. I don’t know if our Chuanbai was blessed with a feast for the eyes…]
Looking at how his dorm mates were sending messages, watching the excitement while also fanning the flames, the corners of Gu Chuanbai’s lips silently ticked up. Before he could reply with an explanation, the door to the bathroom was suddenly but gently pushed open and a head peeked out from behind it.
“Chuanbai?”
Lu Jingmo liked hot showers. As soon as the door opened, steam rushed out of it.
His soft short hair was wet and pasted to his head. His black eyes were as clean and clear as though they’d been washed. Lu Jingmo looked at him, holding on to the edge of the door. The exposed half of his shoulder wasn’t as thin and frail as he imagined. It even had indistinct but very beautiful smooth muscle lines.
…
He really had gotten a feast for his eyes.
Gu Chuanbai hadn’t done anything wrong but still had a guilty conscience. He stuffed his phone under his pillow and nimbly sprang up, “I’m here. Do you need anything?”
Lu Deng was only concerned because he wasn’t hearing the sound of movement outside and so he came out to take a look. Seeing that Gu Chuanbai was still staying in the break room and hadn’t gone running back to sleep on the sofa, his eyes curved into cresents and he shook his head. He withdrew back into the steaming bathroom.
His heart was still beating loudly against his chest. He remained staring at the closed door for a long while before Gu Chuanbai gradually came back to his senses. He took out his phone, and completely deleted that column of messages.
*
By noon the next day, Gu Chuanbai, who hadn’t returned to the dormitory last night and also sent absolutely no messages, undoubtedly became the subject of interrogation of his entire dorm room.
“I just got a job as a teaching assistant. I didn’t come back because it started raining. How could you possibly think I found a girl?”
Pushing away the roommate’s enthusiastic head, Gu Chuanbai yawned. After failing to get a wink of sleep last night, he lay on his desk to conserve his strength and store up his energy. The situation last night resurfaced in his mind.
When Lu Jingmo was equally as quiet when he was asleep. Nestled under the quilt, curled up in a small ball. His breath was even and light. It was nothing like the animals he shared his dorm room with, who had snoring competitions every night.
He should have slept better than usual, but he unexpectedly lost a whole night of sleep looking at the peacefully sleeping person on the opposite bed.
“A teaching assistant? When you’re this completely out of it? For sure, someone’s caught your heart.”
A hand waved in front of his eyes. Seeing that he was slowly snapping out of it, Liang Meng, their dorm room leader, curled his lips and concluded, “He’s found himself a girl.”
The graduate students’ dorm rooms were allocated before the start of semester. Although semester was only formally starting now, most people choose to enter their research groups early and start learning from their academic tutors. He and his dorm mates have been in school for a little less than half a year and so they were already very familiar with each other and they had no misgivings about ribbing one of their own like this.
Gu Chuanbai was wrongly accused but found it hard to clarify. He took a breath and got up, but Jiang Li smiled and pressed down on his shoulders to get him to sit back down.
“He isn’t necessarily not admitting it — maybe he picked up but they didn’t hold hands, maybe they held hands but didn’t hug, maybe they hugged but didn’t get into bed, maybe the two of them just shared a room and studied all night…”
…
He did hold his hand. He did embrace him. He even got in bed.
Gu Chuanbai’s heart beat even faster. He dropped his gaze and deeply reflected on his position.
Seeing that he had stopped speaking instead, his roommates exchanged loaded looks. They stopped questioning him too closely and instead, they chatted about new things about the start of school.
The botany lecture was that afternoon. Gu Chuanbai was thinking about picking up Lu Jingmo, but he didn’t want to be too obvious. After curbing his impatience and chatting with them for a bit more, he finally put away his plate and cutlery and hurried to the administration building.
Almost everyone knew that there was a young botany professor who came to Z University.
Botany was a big class, set in a lecture theatre. Several graduate students come to attend his lecture. Gu Chuanbai plugged in the laptop in advance and then sorted out the plant samples one by one according to their numbers. After arranging everything, he returned to his seat and was met with awed gazes of his roommates.
“What are you looking at?”
Gu Chuanbai raised his eyebrows. Suddenly remembering that Lu Jingmo would come out in a while and given these people quite the scare, he couldn’t help feeling a lot lighter. “I told you I was a teaching assistant. You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Well, who could have known that you would have picked up a professor instead of a girl with that can of soda?”
Jiang Li gave an exaggerated sigh. He hooked an arm over his shoulders, moved in close and whispered, “Is the professor old or not? Is he strict? Does he like to call on people? If we’re friends with you can we get out of having to do hom–”
Before he finished his words, Gu Chuanbai had already picked up the apple on the table and stuffed it into his mouth. “The teaching assistant doesn’t get special treatment. He must lead by example and behave in class. Talking is not allowed.”
This was his little professor’s first day of conducting a class. If these guys dared to create a disturbance, he was going to show them all them tonight!
Jiang Li was blocked by Gu Chuanbai. He took off the apple and was about to speak when the door of the classroom was pushed open.
The overly young professor walked in and stood in front of the podium and greeted the entire class of shocked or perhaps doubtful faces. He smiled and said, “Hello everyone, my name is Lu Jingmo. I am in charge of teaching you botany this semester.”
Unlike the quiet and gentle youth he saw yesterday, today’s Lu Jingmo was gentle and calm. The sleeve of his simple white shirt has been folded twice. He wore no other accessory except for the watch around his wrist. His back was tall and straight and his stark black eyes had a gentle but forceful light.
The whispered discussions in the classroom gradually eased and the students gradually calmed down.
Gu Chuanbai had been considered keeping order in the class for the professor but he quickly extinguished that idea. Gu Chuanbai sat on his seat. He only had eyes for the figure on the podium. His eyes quietly lit up with a resplendent shine.
Lu Jingmo’s lecture was very good.
Learning and adapting others’ strengths, he explained the topic in simple terms. The slightly boring introduction was livened up with examples of scientific history that he had prepared beforehand. It touched upon specialized fields, but he made them extremely clear and accurate.
The Latin names were clearly cumbersome and hard to pronounce, but when he spoke them, they seemed to have a special rhythm, which made them particularly mellow and pleasant to hear.
The order of the class was good throughout; only that there were a lot more people secretly taking pictures with their mobile phones. During the break between classes, Gu Chuanbai had already posted dozens of Lu Jingmo’s photos in Moments.
The young professor was absolutely radiant when he talks about his field of expertise. Looks like he was going to have to study that book, China’s Flora, well.
Gu Chuanbai’s lips were ticked up. He picked out a few particularly good-looking photos and secretly saved them. He was about to put away his phone when he was kicked secretly by Liang Meng.
After reluctantly moving his eyes from how Lu Jingmo’s hair in the photo looked almost golden under the sunlight, Gu Chuanbai suddenly looked up and the actual person in the photo was already standing beside him.
Meeting his gaze, Lu Jingmo pursed his lips. He raised his hand and pulled him closer. He leaned in and said in a low voice, “Chuanbai, did you bring any water?”
Unexpectedly, he forgot to give him water.
Annoyed by his carelessness, Gu Chuanbai nodded quickly. He took out the water flask and handed it over. Suddenly, his phone that he’d left of the table, buzzed.
The screen lighted up instantly. On the screen was the best picture of Lu Jingmo that he had secretly taken. Gu Chuanbai resolutely raised his elbow to cover it. He unscrewed the lid for him, and while reminding him to drink slowly, he took a distracted glance at his phone.
It was a meeting notice from his tutor, Zhan Pei.
Translator’s note: This was a long chapter. For reasons, I also haven’t been able to really look through this for errors. I will probably be able to give this a proper edit by next week.