Early in the morning, Mu Chenghe was woken up by the sound of talking on the balcony downstairs. The auntie was the nanny of Professor Wang's family downstairs. She was strong and had a voice like a bell. Mu Chenghe had poor hearing, but he was a light sleeper, and the auntie's voice on the phone was too loud.
He was completely awake but did not get up immediately. Instead, he stared at the ceiling light in the room for a while. Then he heard footsteps from the bathroom to the living room.
"Tongtong." He called her name softly.
"What for?" Xue Tong heard the voice and poked his head in.
"When did you get up? Why didn't you call me?" he asked.
Xue Tong laughed and jumped to the bedside, pecking his face: "You lazy bastard!"
Seeing her jump up like this, Mu Chenghe's face turned pale and he quickly held her waist: "Be careful, kid."
"It's okay. It's as solid as me."
After breakfast, Xue Tong curled up on the sofa with a book in his arms, while Mu Chenghe worked on the computer at the workbench.
The two of them hadn't spent such quiet time together for a long time. Mu Chenghe attended classes at school for the entire semester, while Xue Tong was busy with her graduation thesis. Later, she accompanied a business delegation to North America several times in a row. She only stopped all her schedules when she found out that she was more than two months pregnant.
Xue Tong held the book in his hand and couldn't help but sigh when he saw the touching parts.
Mu Chenghe stared at the screen intently, listening to her sighing, and couldn't help asking: "What's wrong?"
"The heroine loves him so much, how could he bear to make her sad."
After a while, she gnashed her teeth and said, "Unfaithful man! Unfaithful man!"
Mu Chenghe took off his glasses, raised his head and asked, "What are you looking at?"
Xue Tong smiled foolishly, quickly put away the book and covered the cover: "Nothing, nothing. I borrowed it and used it to amuse myself when I had nothing to do."
Speaking of borrowing books, Mu Chenghe remembered that he had some information he wanted to look for in the library last night, so he changed his shoes and told Xue Tong that he was going to school and bringing back some ingredients for lunch.
Xue Tong was reading a book with great interest. He waved his hand without even looking up and said, "Go early and come back early."
Mu Chenghe left the professorial hall and crossed the road to reach the east gate of A University.
The library is also close.
What he wanted was usually on the fifth floor, so he looked up the code and went in to get the book.
The first and second floors of the A University Library are various reading rooms, and the third floor is for comprehensive social sciences and literature. Students usually like to borrow novels. Mu Chenghe occasionally goes to the sixth floor to look through professional books. But everyone scans the barcode at the entrance of the third floor.
Xiao Ma, who worked at the lending office on the third floor, was a young girl who had just graduated and stayed in school. Every time she saw Mu Chenghe, she was very serious and called him Teacher Mu, which made Mu Chenghe feel embarrassed. So he had no choice but to bite the bullet and change the name from Xiao Ma to Teacher Ma. However, the teacher Wei, who was in her forties, followed most people and called him Xiao Mu, which made him feel very comfortable.
He met several physics graduate students at the bookshelf. Although none of them were taught by him, he knew them. One of them was older than him and came to continue his studies several years after he started working.
Mu Chenghe exchanged a few words with a few people, then they found the book and came out together.
Xiao Ma scanned it with his computer and said expressionlessly, "Mr. Mu, your card is fully borrowed."
Mu Chenghe was stunned: "Impossible."
His original intention was not to refute the other person, he just asked a question in a light and shallow tone, but it was completely as if he was talking to himself. Unexpectedly, when Xiao Ma heard it, his face turned red.
"Did you make a mistake, Xiao Ma?" Teacher Wei put down the newspaper in his hand and walked over.
Teacher Wei took the card and scanned it again, confirming that "I have borrowed all the money. I borrowed it the day before yesterday."
"Oh." Mu Chenghe nodded, and suddenly remembered that Xue Tong seemed to have borrowed a book with his card a few days ago.
Teacher Wei looked at the screen and shook his head again, "It was Xiao Liu and the others who were on duty the day before yesterday. Did they make a mistake? They are so careless at work. We should really talk to them. How can Xiao Mu borrow books from these messy little girls?"
Mu Chenghe hurriedly clarified: "I borrowed it." At least it was his wife who borrowed it.
Teacher Wei said, "Impossible. Look at what kind of books these are." Then, in order to prove his point, he looked at the computer screen and read out the titles of the books one by one, "What are "Cold CEO, Pretty Mistress", "Blind Man, It Turns Out I Love You", "The Strong Woman Clings to the Man", "The Gorgeous Prince Fell in Love with Me"..."
Although Teacher Wei's speech was not as eloquent as that of the nanny downstairs, her voice was powerful and clear in the empty and quiet library. Combined with the four words "I borrowed it" that Mu Chenghe had just said in sudden enlightenment, her voice sounded even more sonorous and powerful.
Mu Chenghe, who was standing there, had his face turn from red to blue.
Later, the three graduate students' eyes all turned to Mu Chenghe. For the first time in his life, he personally experienced what it meant to want to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it.
The culprit, Xue Tong, was at home at the moment and sneezed loudly.
In full view of everyone, Mu Chenghe sorted the books one by one and put them back on the bookshelf, then hurriedly left the library. He wanted to go back immediately to have an in-depth chat with Xue Tong about the child's prenatal education.
When he got home, Xue Tong was no longer sitting on the sofa, but sitting in front of the computer, looking up the dictionary.
When she heard the door open, she quickly put down what she was holding and rushed towards him: "You didn't even take your phone. I thought you wouldn't be back for a while." She was less than three months pregnant and vomited a lot in the morning and evening. During this period, she not only did not gain weight, but was even thinner than before.
"What's wrong?" When he saw her pointed chin, he no longer had the heart to teach her a lesson. He just wanted to hold her in his hands every day.
"Song Qiqi called and said she had something in Russian and wanted you to translate it for her. She needed it urgently, and you didn't bring your phone with you, so I looked for a dictionary and translated a little bit myself."
After finishing speaking, Xue Tong showed Mu Chenghe the information sent by Song Qiqi and the first paragraph of his own translation as if he was presenting a treasure.
Mu Chenghe picked up the thing and glanced at it indifferently.
"How is it? How is it?" Xue Tong asked him.
"Not bad." He answered reluctantly.
"Have I made any progress?" Xue Tong looked at him expectantly.
"If you were my student and this was your level after two years of study, 20 points would be too much. But..." He changed the subject, his eyes smiling, "If my wife could translate like this, she would definitely get full marks. Don't worry about the rest, I'll do it for you."
"… "
It is indeed an era where those who know the times are heroes.
(Complete)