Chapter 11: The Ceremony

The freshmen orientation ceremony was the same boring affair as always.

At 2:05 p.m., Lu Jia walked into the large auditorium on the first floor of the College of Fine Arts, where it was already nearly full of teachers and students.

Rong Yi sat in the fourth row by the aisle. When she saw Lu Jia enter through the side door, she looked over at her.

The seat closest to Rong Yi was empty, and the two to her right were her newly recruited master’s students this year.

They had never done a group meetup before, only exchanging greetings when they joined the group chat. It was Lu Jia’s first time meeting them in person. They had left the spot closest to their mentor for themselves, and she curved her eyes into a smile. “Thanks.”

She did have something she wanted to ask her mentor, but with the ceremony about to start, she figured she’d wait until it ended.

After the party secretary’s speech came the student representative, and next should be the teacher representative.

Having just woken up not long ago, and with the content being especially dull, Lu Jia listened for several minutes. She saw the two fellow students beside her already sneaking peeks at their phones. Glancing at her mentor sitting solemnly nearby, she paused her fingertip heading for her phone and didn’t pull it out.

Just as she lifted her wrist to check the time, a notification popped up on the watch face.

It was from Sheng Shubai:

“Little Lu sister, remember to take a photo of me later…”

The watch screen was too small to see the rest of the message.

Just then, the student representative on stage was wrapping up. Lu Jia tapped to open the chat app anyway, only to find the message had been withdrawn.

She replied with a question mark. Before she could wait for a response, she heard a familiar name echoed through the speakers into her ear.

Lu Jia looked up. A tall woman in a suit was walking onto the stage.

She was used to seeing Sheng Shubai in sleep skirts or casual clothes, so this was the first time she’d seen her in a well-tailored women’s suit—long legs, slim waist, bright eyes, red lips.

The seductiveness in her features was subdued by the ink-black suit into a steady, serious demeanor.

When she spoke, her voice was clear and pleasant, without the teasing uptick she always used when flirting with Lu Jia. Every word carried a reliable maturity.

From the moment she took the stage, the faint murmurs in the audience vanished completely. The students all sat up straight, eyes fixed on her.

Lu Jia realized then that this woman was just as captivating when she was serious. No wonder she wanted Lu Jia to snap a photo.

She quickly raised her phone, switching to pro mode to adjust focus and lighting.

Six or seven out of every ten students in the audience were taking photos too, so Lu Jia didn’t stand out. She pressed the shutter several times in a row. The soft clicks were drowned out by the microphone but clearly reached Rong Yi’s ears.

Rong Yi’s gaze, which had been on the stage, turned calmly toward her. “Does she look good?”

Lu Jia was tapping into her gallery to check the shots, not even lifting her head. “She looks good.”

Only after she spoke did she have a chance to look at her mentor beside her. Remembering they had a decent relationship, she casually held her screen out to Rong Yi. “What do you think of my shots?”

Her right thigh was poked. Lu Jia turned her head to meet the eyes of the two new fellow students, their expressions identically shocked.

The one who poked her thigh was making urgent eye signals, but Lu Jia couldn’t figure out what she meant.

Rong Yi: …

She paused for a moment. “Not bad.”

Lu Jia said “oh,” assuming her mentor just didn’t like talking during speeches.

Seeing her fellow students look away too, she picked through and deleted a few blurry ones, took a few live photos, then finally set her phone down, planning to send them all to Sheng Shubai after the event.

She straightened up again, focusing on the woman’s speech.

Sheng Shubai didn’t just read from the script. Her gaze swept over the audience now and then, her tone rising and falling with emphasis. Perhaps from taking specialized public speaking classes or from years of teaching, she made the dry speech engaging, every word sinking in.

When she hit a humorous part, the audience laughed along cooperatively, and the atmosphere livened up several times over.

Lu Jia locked eyes with Sheng Shubai a few times. When the woman looked her way, her eyes sparkled with amusement one second, only to suddenly shift to somewhere else the next.

Lu Jia regretted not having her phone ready in time.

A shot capturing that eye contact would have been even better.

Earlier, when she’d glanced down to turn a page, a few strands of her jet-black hair fell over her shoulder. It wasn’t until she stepped off the stage that she tucked them behind her ear, the tassel earrings catching the overhead lights in a dazzling gleam.

Lu Jia’s gaze followed the earrings down her slender neck.

It lingered until the woman took her seat in the front row.

Then Lu Jia remembered: last night in bed with Sheng Shubai, she’d impulsively left a hickey on the side of her neck.

She hadn’t sucked too hard, just lightly. But when Sheng Shubai had held her waist from behind, she’d bitten the same spot in retaliation, hard enough to nearly make her cry.

Though… she did like being treated that way by her. But the mark on that woman’s neck had faded quickly, while hers was still there.

So unfair.

Luckily, it was covered by her hair, so no one would easily see.

Lost in thought, Lu Jia didn’t notice the event moving to the next segment.

Suddenly, the girl to her right poked her arm again and pointed at her phone, signaling her to check the message.

“Little Lu, can you send me the shots you just took of Professor Sheng? [praying hands.jpg]”

Lu Jia sent a batch to Sheng Shubai first, then to them. Only then did she remember to ask, “What did you two want to tell me earlier?”

She saw them exchange a glance before typing hesitantly and passing it to her:

“You’re way too bold. Asking our mentor straight-up if Professor Sheng is pretty.”

Lu Jia: ?

“Why would you say that?”

In her mind, Sheng Shubai and Rong Yi got along fine. Otherwise, why would Sheng Shubai have joked on the first day about stealing her from Advisor Rong to be her student?

Now both girls picked up their phones in unison. Ten seconds later, a notification popped up—she’d been added to a new three-person group chat.

Messages flew in rapid succession, the two typing furiously. Lu Jia could barely keep up.

“Our mentor and Professor Sheng are like fire and water… I heard from a senior sister they’ve been here two years and never spoken once.”

“Lu-jie, you’re my big sis now.”

“We’re done for. We were just bystanders—will we get taken out too? ono”

“Ignorance is bliss. They say our mentor’s nice, so we might live to see tomorrow’s sun… (?)”

Lu Jia had checked the weather forecast that morning when she got up. “It’s gonna rain tomorrow.”

The two beside her paused their typing.

Before Lu Jia could say more, polite applause rose—not exactly enthusiastic—as the orientation finally ended.

The two fellow students slipped away. Lu Jia had her doubts but set them aside for now.

She knew she wasn’t always the best with words, but she wasn’t clueless enough to ask Rong Yi outright, “Why don’t you and Professor Sheng get along?”

Remembering she had a question for her mentor, Lu Jia organized her thoughts.

Rong Yi pondered for a few seconds. “Go find a few reference works and send them to me. Summarize them, then come discuss this with me.”

Lu Jia nodded. “Okay, thanks, Teacher.”

As she turned to leave, she heard Rong Yi casually ask, “By the way, I haven’t asked where you’re living. It’s pouring outside. If it’s hard to get back, you can ride with me—Mengxi can drop you off first.”

Lu Jia gave the name of her complex. “It’s not far. I’m in no rush to head back anyway. See you, Teacher.”

Rong Yi knew the place and nodded slightly. “That’s good. Close by, good security too. Be safe getting home.”

She lived with Shi Mengxi, so naturally Shi Mengxi drove.

While attending the orientation, Shi Mengxi had waited in the upstairs studio. She’d just messaged half a minute ago that she’d be downstairs soon.

Lu Jia watched Rong Yi leave, then glanced at the front row. Sheng Shubai’s seat was empty now—she must have left.

Lu Jia felt their relationship wasn’t that distant, and her curiosity was killing her, so she typed directly:

“Professor Sheng, do you and Advisor Rong not get along?”

The reply came almost instantly: “?”

Lu Jia waited quietly for more, watching the “typing…” indicator at the top persist for ages.

It wasn’t until the rain pattering against the first-floor floor-to-ceiling windows began to ease that Sheng Shubai’s next message arrived.

It was a short line: “Come over again tonight. I’ll tell you in person then.”

But they had just…

Lu Jia wasn’t opposed—she was nearing her period and did crave it.

But the bite on the back of her neck inexplicably ached again, as if she could recall the sharp pain of teeth sinking into her skin.

And… the dense pleasure mingled in with the pain, sending shivers through her.

Lu Jia thought that ever since Sheng Shubai got drunk back in June, the woman had developed a habit of biting her now and then.

And she had grown to really like being bitten.

That night, at 10:30 p.m.

She showered and knocked on Sheng Shubai’s door across the hall on time.

She didn’t really need to knock—the door was just ajar, and the living room lights were off.

The voice-activated hallway light spilled into the entryway, blending with the night beyond the balcony to outline the living room furniture in rough shadows.

“Miss Sheng?”

After closing the door, Lu Jia called out softly.

She had mild night blindness, and Sheng Shubai knew it.

Once, she’d deliberately turned off the lights while getting intimate with Lu Jia, nibbling her ear and breathing hotly, “If you can’t see, do your other senses get more sensitive?”

Thinking tonight might be the same, Lu Jia paused her habitual reach for the light switch and didn’t flip it.

Sure enough, footsteps approached from nearby, accompanied by the woman’s soft laugh.

Sheng Shubai was a few steps away. Lu Jia couldn’t see clearly, only vaguely making out her voluptuous silhouette.

“Little Lu sister, do you need me to carry you over?”

Though phrased as a question, Sheng Shubai had already wrapped an arm around her waist.

The fabric felt smooth to the touch, and Lu Jia vaguely made out the sleep skirt on the girl—the one she’d specially picked for her before.

A light aquamarine silk slip, cinched perfectly at the waist and bust, ending just a few inches past her thighs.

The girl was naturally fair-skinned.

Though her personality could be a bit dense at times, it lent her an unpolished youthful softness.

When she’d obediently changed into the sleep skirt, the shyness and compliance in her eyes stirred in Sheng Shubai an urge to bully her to tears.

She’d never known she had this kink before.

But with Lu Jia, they matched perfectly in this regard.

Blushing through ears as she tried all sorts of things with her, always straightforward about her feelings—Sheng Shubai was very satisfied with Lu Jia.

Certain deep-seated traits and obscure desires, nurtured day by day under those compliant, soft gazes, grew and spread.

Her steps toward the bed halted.

Sheng Shubai tightened her grip, steering them instead to the large floor-to-ceiling window in the bedroom.