Jiang Yubai held Lin Zhixia's hand tightly and asked in a very cryptic way, "Do you want to go home?"
Lin Zhixia suddenly remembered that before she and Jiang Yubai kissed for the first time, he also asked for her opinion. At that time, he asked her very immaturely and solemnly, "Can I kiss you?" Before she answered him, he began to back off.
That year, he just turned eighteen.
Lin Zhixia fell into a brief recollection, and the fragmented memory fragments stimulated her sense of pleasure. She deliberately tested Jiang Yubai: "I would rather go to the company to see how the quantum technology laboratory is prepared."
She raised her head and stared at him quietly.
He actually said directly: "Let's go."
Jiang Yubai walked a few steps along the sidewalk, passing under the shade of the trees. The falling raindrops soaked his suit jacket. Lin Zhixia asked again, "Did you promise me?"
He smiled: "When have I ever rejected you?"
"I've rejected you several times," Lin Zhixia brought up the past, "You used to be a very reserved and conservative person. When I gave you something, you would symbolically refuse it..."
The autumn wind swept through the lush branches and leaves. Lin Zhixia's voice was lighter than the wind: "Also, the first time you unbuttoned your clothes and let me look at you... you only allowed me to look for ten seconds."
Jiang Yubai vaguely remembered the scene of that day. He raised his left hand, held up his collar, and pulled his tie tighter before saying, "Tonight, you can watch as long as you want."
Because of his words, Lin Zhixia's imagination ran wild. She couldn't help but hold his hand again, actively interlocking her fingers with his, and rubbing her palms against his for a moment, as if she could understand his palm lines through just a few seconds of exploration.
Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia slowed down their pace in tacit agreement. Students from the university town were still walking on the sidewalks. People were interweaving and talking nearby. Xu Lingbo suddenly realized, "Where is Teacher Lin?"
Fang Yiwen glanced at him and said, "Teacher Lin and Master are gone."
"Where are they going?"
"I don't know. Ask the teacher on WeChat."
Instead, Xu Lingbo stuffed his phone back into his pocket. He held the plastic bag in his left hand, put his right hand in his pocket, and tapped the plastic shell of his phone with his fingertips. He asked, "There will be a meeting in the group next week, are you two ready?"
Needless to say, Senior Sister Fang Yiwen is definitely well-versed in knowledge and can handle things with ease, and she was able to have a very pleasant conversation with Lin Zhixia.
Xu Lingbo's questions were mainly directed at Zhan Rui.
Xu Lingbo didn't expect that Zhan Rui would stutter and talk about his research progress as soon as he finished speaking. It turned out that Lin Zhixia had already prepared data sets and sample codes for Zhan Rui. Zhan Rui completed one-third of the experimental work this summer, and now he is doing his best to implement the remaining two-thirds of the experimental content.
Xu Lingbo's heart skipped a beat.
Less than half a month into the new semester...
He was keenly aware that Lin Zhixia had extremely high expectations for his students.
Lin Zhixia not only set extremely difficult homework for undergraduates, but also invisibly intensified the competition among graduate students within the research group.
That afternoon, after Xu Lingbo returned to his dormitory, he put the lamb skewers and leftovers on the table and invited his roommate to taste them with him. His roommate was also a big shot, who had just entered his second year of graduate school and was called "Brother Qiang" by a group of classmates.
Xu Lingbo sat on a chair, his hands on his thighs, and called out, "Brother Qiang?"
Brother Qiang was playing games. He was wearing headphones and facing a laptop. It took him a long time to reply, "Bodi, what's up?"
Xu Lingbo scratched his head. "It's not a big deal. My supervisor invited us to lunch at noon. I was very happy. On the way back, I asked about the progress of my senior and junior students' projects. I didn't know until I asked. I was shocked..."
Brother Qiang closed his laptop, took off his headphones, turned around, and said to Xu Lingbo, "What did I scare you about?"
Xu Lingbo said honestly: "My junior fellow student will be able to publish his paper by the end of this year at the latest. Do you believe it?"
Brother Qiang picked up a mutton skewer, took two bites, and gave instructions: "You, don't panic, listen to me, show up in your tutor's office more often, ask her for projects and topics, aren't you quite capable?"
"I looked for her," Xu Lingbo said, "and she gave me a bunch of papers."
Brother Qiang raised his right hand and pulled his sleeves: "Bodi, you have already found a mentor, what are you worried about?"
Xu Lingbo leaned sideways against the pillow: "Brother Qiang, we have a group meeting next week. Don't I look like a fool compared to my seniors and juniors? You said my previous mentor, he didn't care about the students and rarely held meetings. There were two or three students in the group who were not as good as me. Now, I am the last in our group..."
Brother Qiang frowned, thought for a moment, and then taught Xu Lingbo a set of "graduate student group slacking techniques" that he had summarized.
Brother Qiang also said that as long as you master this set of "graduate student group slacking techniques", you can deal with 90% of the university tutors in the world. The tutors will not be able to guess what you have done this week, and they will think that you have read a lot of papers, produced a lot of results, and spent a lot of time and energy.
Xu Lingbo hurriedly thanked him.
With a grateful heart, he humbly learned the "Graduate Student Group Meeting Slacking Method" - the trick to this method is to try to talk about things that the tutor does not understand, pick out complex terms from the latest high-level journal papers, and then throw the topic to senior and junior students, and after a few rounds of discussion, the tutor will forget the student's specific work for the week.
"Master, really a master," Xu Lingbo was deeply moved. "Brother Qiang, you have saved so many postgraduate students from dire straits. With this great method, I don't have to worry about speaking at group meetings anymore!"
Brother Qiang smiled with a look of concealing his achievements and fame: "If you are studying for a master's degree, you have to know how to get by. Look at me, after I submitted my thesis last semester, my supervisor didn't ask me to work with him anymore. This semester, I will protect you and make sure you can live comfortably under Teacher Lin. Your supervisor and master's master are both good people, and you will have a better life than me."
Xu Lingbo applauded warmly for his speech.
At the same time, Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai took a special car to the main building of the Internet company. This is a high-tech software company park. The office building of their "Quantum Technology Laboratory" is on the side of the main building. Lin Zhixia followed Jiang Yubai around two buildings, and when he looked forward, he immediately saw the five eye-catching English letters "ptsic".
ptsic is the original code name of their quantum programming platform, representing the first letters of the alma mater of all the members of their team.
Lin Zhixia looked up at the "ptsic" sign and said with emotion: "When I was a child, I never thought I would have such an opportunity."
Jiang Yubai followed her lead and asked, "Opportunities to start a company?"
Lin Zhixia shook her head and said, "I never thought there would be someone like you who would accompany me through every important stage of my life."