Jiang Yubai turned to the second page of the paper. He no longer obeyed Teacher Lin, like a bad student who had given up and said, "Teacher Lin, can you change the question?"
Lin Zhixia picked up her backpack and took out a "Human Observation Diary" from it, and recorded it on the spot: "This morning, when Jiang Yubai was playing the piano, I sat on the lid of the grand piano. He grabbed my wrist, bent down and kissed the back of my hand. My heart beat a little faster... In the study, Jiang Yubai and I played a tutor role-playing game. I was the teacher and he was the student. I asked him how he felt when I kissed him, but he didn't want to tell me..."
Jiang Yubai looked at her notes, and suddenly borrowed her question to ask her: "What did you feel when you kissed me?"
Lin Zhixia said openly without any concealment: "I am very happy, and I want to kiss you a few more times."
She put her hands on Jiang Yubai's shoulders. Jiang Yubai looked at her for a few seconds. She stared at him without blinking, and he got closer and closer to her. He gently held her back. She could jump off his legs at any time, but she didn't move. She still sat on his legs, as if she was in a safe haven.
Jiang Yubai leaned back in his chair and no longer tried to get close to her.
He decided to stick to the principle of "gradual progress". The content of last night's dream has basically come true... Before he could think of the next step, Lin Zhixia approached him again and kissed him twice on the face. Finally, she buried her head in his neck and reiterated what she had said before: "I love the smell of you."
Back then, Jiang Yubai collapsed to the ground because of this sentence, but now, he has obviously matured a lot. He adjusted his breathing, intentionally destroying the ambiguous atmosphere, and said: "It may be the scent of shower gel and laundry detergent."
Unexpectedly, he dug another hole.
Lin Zhixia followed his meaning and asked, "Did you just take a shower?"
Jiang Yubai said slowly: "I washed it once this morning."
Lin Zhixia asked again: "Do you have strawberry-scented bath gel at home?"
Lin Zhixia asked this question because she wanted to know whether Jiang Yubai could emit the fragrance of strawberries. However, her question had another meaning to Jiang Yubai.
Jiang Yubai put away a paper, and the pages were wrinkled by his grip. He said in a hoarse voice: "I will prepare it for you."
Lin Zhixia asked back: "Are you going to prepare a bottle of shower gel for me?"
Jiang Yubai kept his mouth shut.
Lin Zhixia thought for a moment and whispered in his ear, "What did you think of? If you don't tell me, I'll have to guess it myself."
Jiang Yubai played the role of landlord: "Next September, if you can't get a dormitory, you can live in my house. I have a bedroom here, come and see if it's suitable."
Lin Zhixia's first reaction was: "How much per month?"
Jiang Yubai offered a symbolic price: "One hundred."
"GBP?"
“RMB.”
Lin Zhixia calculated, "At a Chinese restaurant near my home, one hundred RMB is only enough for two of us to have a meal, and we only have rice with toppings, and we can't order drinks... Renting a house outside costs at least two thousand RMB a month. I have a classmate who shares a house with others, and her monthly rent is one thousand nine hundred RMB. My dormitory fee is one hundred and forty pounds a week. Based on thirty days a month, the monthly rent is six hundred pounds. At yesterday's exchange rate, one pound equals ten and seventy RMB, so my monthly rent is more than six thousand yuan. Your house must be better than my dormitory, and the price should be higher."
Jiang Yubai couldn't possibly charge her 6,000 yuan a month. He discussed with her, "Let's add a clause to the rental contract. You become my tutor and it will offset your rent."
Lin Zhixia confirmed again and again: "Do you really want to hire me as a tutor?"
Jiang Yubai turned on the computer screen. He drafted a simple rental contract in a word document, including two versions in Chinese and English. Lin Zhixia read it one by one and added a request: "Please ask the landlord to briefly describe the teaching scope of the tutor."
Jiang Yubai typed three words on the keyboard: "Statistics."
Lin Zhixia had no objection.
Jiang Yubai printed out two copies of the contract. He signed them, stamped them with his personal seal, and then handed them to Lin Zhixia.
Lin Zhixia followed suit. She signed and frowned slightly, feeling that something was wrong. She added a note: "Lin Zhixia was assigned to a school dormitory in 2013, so this contract is now void."
She believed in Jiang Yubai's good intentions, but she was still hesitant. After writing the "Contract Void Clause", she turned her head to see Jiang Yubai's expression.
Jiang Yubai didn't mind at all. He held her waist tightly with his left hand, lowered his head and kissed her cheek, and called her, "Xia Xia." The voice was slow and intimate, mixed with a smile. She was powerless to resist this temptation, and threw herself into his arms consciously.
He would always understand her without any explanation.
The lunch that day was exceptionally sumptuous.
In the center of the table was a strawberry cream cake, surrounded by colorful and fragrant meat and vegetarian dishes. Lin Zhixia stood beside the table and said with emotion: "I remembered my eleventh birthday."
Jiang Yubai took out a diamond-studded box. He opened the box and found a strawberry carved from pink jade. The strawberry was exquisite and translucent, with a round and complete shape, but the carving was not delicate and did not look like it was made by a master.
Jiang Yubai explained: "I used an electric diamond knife to carve a strawberry and gave it to you as a gift for your eighteenth birthday."
Lin Zhixia immediately became interested: "Did you make this yourself?"
"Yes," Jiang Yubai said, "After several failures, I finally got a finished product."
Lin Zhixia cherished this strawberry very much. She took the box with both hands, looked at it repeatedly, played with it repeatedly, and even forgot to have lunch. She decided to put Jiang Yubai's hand-carved work on her bedside to accompany her to sleep every night.
The happy weekend was very short, and Monday came again. Lin Zhixia got up early and went to the office with her schoolbag.
Every Monday and Wednesday morning, their group holds a morning meeting.
Lin Zhixia heard that the Indian senior had just published a Nature paper as the first author. This morning, the Indian senior will give a brief report at the group meeting. She is interested in working with Lin Zhixia and Wen Qi. She majored in mathematics and needs a partner with a solid foundation in physics.
Lin Zhixia recommended himself.
Before the group meeting, she went directly to her Indian senior, praised her, talked about her own academic background, and expressed her intention to cooperate.
The senior high-fived Lin Zhixia. She transferred the experimental data to Lin Zhixia's desktop computer.
This was the first time that Lin Zhixia took the initiative to ask for cooperation with others.
Not long ago, Lin Zhixia and Wei Ruoxing had chatted on QQ.
After graduating with a Ph.D., Wei Ruoxing got a teaching position at a university in Shanghai. She is one of this year's "Qing Qian" scholars. "Qing Qian" refers to "young talents in the National Thousand Talents Program". Applicants must have "more than three years of overseas scientific research experience" and have significant academic achievements.
Wei Ruoxing successfully won the title of "Qing Qian". Now, she is an associate professor at a 985 university in Shanghai.
Lin Zhixia asked Wei Ruoxing through QQ what she was busy with every day after becoming an associate professor.
To Lin Zhixia's surprise, teaching was not Wei Ruoxing's main task.
Wei Ruoxing participated in the "Shanghai University Excellent Young Teachers Research Project". She often interacts with colleagues, corporate executives, and government officials. She also said that this is inevitable and socializing is part of a professor's life.
After listening to senior Wei Ruoxing's teachings, Lin Zhixia tried to cooperate with others again.
The Indian senior in the same group was Lin Zhixia's experimental subject.
The cooperation between the Indian senior and Lin Zhixia went very smoothly. In less than a week, they had a new breakthrough. In addition, Lin Zhixia was also organizing her thesis materials - her tutor had high expectations for her thesis, and she wanted to finish the article as soon as possible.
Although Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai go to the same university, they don't see each other often. Jiang Yubai wanted to invite Lin Zhixia to a dinner party on Friday, but Lin Zhixia refused him.
Lin Zhixia had a good reason: "I've been very busy recently. Also, I've developed a habit of meditating on Friday nights... I need to sort out my work for the week."
Jiang Yubai expressed his understanding.
On Friday night, Jiang Yubai went to the dinner alone.
Many students from the department came. Sun David saw him and waved to him from afar.
Sun David sat at the edge of a long table, and next to him was a girl in a black dress. The girl had delicate makeup and a laurel leaf-shaped pearl hair accessory, and she looked like a Greek goddess.
In front of them, exquisite utensils shone silvery, imitation candles inlaid with orange bulbs emitted soft light, and warm light surrounded the crystal vases on the dining table. All the guests were wearing suits or long skirts, and the atmosphere of the banquet was very relaxed, harmonious and stress-free.