Chapter 10

The soldering was done. Chen Wei said in a rush, “Master Qin, hold on just a sec. I’ll grab some data and check!”

Qin Yue acknowledged with a nod and leaned back in her chair. The extended line of sight let her see under the table: power cables and data cords bundled with nylon ties, neatly arranged. At the junction of the two rows of seats lay a dropped screwdriver. Beside the cabinet sat a brightly colored 7×7 Rubik’s cube.

Qin Yue’s slow-moving gaze met it. Suddenly, she heard Shen Jianqing let out a breath.

Today, Shen Jianqing sat across from Qin Yue. Every so often, Chen Wei called her over to check on the program. Occasionally she typed at the keyboard to revise her thesis. For most of the time, she propped her chin on one hand, eyes half-lidded, gaze lowered to her phone screen. Double-tap to light it up, double-tap to light it down. It looked like she was waiting for a call.

That sigh just now meant she had been waiting too long. Her brow and eyes carried a heaviness.

So the second a ringtone sounded, she answered instantly.

“Hello.”

“One moment, I’ll be right down.”

The call ended in under five seconds. Shen Jianqing shot to her feet and left, her hurried footsteps startling Chen Wei.

“What’s going on with your Teacher Shen today? She’s been so jumpy.” Chen Wei turned to Cai Wen’ge, who had arrived not long ago.

Cai Wen’ge’s gossip soul ignited. “Besides just now, when else was Teacher Shen jumpy?”

Chen Wei tipped her chin toward Qin Yue diagonally across. “When she went to pick Master Qin up from Lead Science. She was sitting perfectly fine, then suddenly bolted up. Nearly scared me to death.”

“Uh, Teacher Chen, please observe Rule Number One of the Wild Lab: civil language.”

“Oh.”

Chen Wei adjusted the oscilloscope and analyzed data while continuing, “Two years working with your Teacher Shen, and this is the first time I’ve seen her so… human.”

“Right, right.” Cai Wen’ge restrained himself while venting. “Think about it, when I went on that business trip in June, with equipment over two hundred pounds, Teacher Shen had me haul it alone onto the high-speed rail. I wanted to drop out on the spot.”

“I had it worse. Last New Year’s Day, Teacher Fang from the union assigned a skit to your Teacher Shen. She thought it was embarrassing, so she held a paper over my head and forced me to go in her place.”

“Uh, are you sure Teacher Shen wasn’t doing you a favor? A gift in the middle of a snowstorm, kind of thing?”

“Her research output already exceeds the quota by fifty percent! Lending me one paper, what’s the big deal?”

“…Still think Teacher Shen handled that one with class.”

Chen Wei said, “Ah, the young. Never had a taste of how cruel the world can be.”

Cai Wen’ge gave a dry laugh and forcefully steered the topic back on course. “Master Qin, what’s your relationship with Teacher Shen? For her to go pick you up?”

Qin Yue still looked under the table, her voice light. “Nothing. Teacher Shen came to get me because I’m the only one currently able to work with Teacher Chen. She was worried about delays.”

“Who told you that?” Chen Wei asked.

Qin Yue’s lashes fluttered. She looked up. “Isn’t that it?”

Chen Wei answered without hesitation. “Of course not.”

“Run a test line from pin 4 of U1 to the root.” Chen Wei handed the board to Qin Yue and clicked the mouse rapidly. “Teacher Shen went to get you because she felt sorry for you, making such a long trip.”

Qin Yue’s hand paused. The motion of pulling the soldering iron away wasn’t as crisp as usual, but the result was still flawless.

She handed the board back and moistened her lips. “It only takes me about half an hour to get here.”

“Only half an hour? Teacher Shen was already fidgeting at twenty minutes.” Chen Wei connected the wires at lightning speed. “You didn’t see it. The speed she stormed out with those keys, I thought she was going to snap her high heels in half.”

“Really? I want to see.” Cai Wen’ge slipped in.

Chen Wei told him to take a hike, and the conversation abruptly ended.

Qin Yue leaned back in her chair and gently rubbed her churning stomach.

“Master Qin, take a break for a bit. This round looks promising. Cai Wen’ge and I will run a few more tests. If there’s a problem, we’ll call you.” Chen Wei spoke quickly.

Qin Yue said, “Okay.”

She finished speaking and glanced at the closed door before turning back. She bent down and picked up the dusty Rubik’s cube from the floor and began solving it.

The lab fell quiet.

The flowers on the windowsill were still in bloom.

Before long, someone pushed the door open and stopped behind Qin Yue. There came the sound of a paper bag being torn open and a foil blister pack being pressed.

The latter sound was right behind Qin Yue’s ear.

Qin Yue instinctively looked up. A voice came from above her head. “Open your mouth.”

The rapid twist of Qin Yue’s hands on the cube stopped abruptly. She was acutely aware that every gaze in the room, except Chen Wei’s, had landed on her. And Shen Jianqing, right beside her, acted as if she noticed nothing. Half-leaning, half-seated against the edge of the table, she held a pill between her fingertips and brought it to Qin Yue’s lips. “Talcid. Chew two and see. Don’t let yourself actually throw up later.”

Ren Jiawen heard and hurried over. “Master Qin, is your stomach bothering you?”

Shen Jianqing shot her a look. “She’s been here this long and you haven’t even offered her a glass of hot water. How could her stomach feel good?”

Ren Jiawen turned sheepish. “I’ll go pour some right now.”

With Ren Jiawen dispatched, Shen Jianqing gave a small wave of her hand toward Qin Yue. “Talcid. Chewable. Not bitter.”

Qin Yue knew all that. What she was thinking about was when Shen Jianqing had bought the medicine.

Other than that one trip just now, Shen Jianqing had not gone out.

But that trip had only been four or five minutes, hardly enough to run to a pharmacy.

Medicine delivery? Possible.

The call she took before leaving had started with “Hello.” Clearly a stranger’s number.

So the call she had been waiting for the whole time was actually the delivery call?

Just ten-odd minutes, and she was already unhappy waiting.

Was it that she felt Qin Yue had waited too long? Or was she unhappy about having to wait long?

Either way, Qin Yue had to admit it was a care she had never asked for.

Something she had received from Shen Jianqing.

The first one.

“What are you spacing out for? Hurry up and take it.” Shen Jianqing urged.

Qin Yue set the cube aside temporarily and said “thank you” as she reached for the pill. But Shen Jianqing deftly dodged. “Taking medicine with filthy hands? You trying to get yourself vomiting and diarrhea?”

“What vomiting and diarrhea?” Chen Wei handed the board to Qin Yue again. “Please swap C18 for a 104.”

Qin Yue said, “Okay.”

She took the board and went to stand.

Standing was a process of leaning forward.

Shen Jianqing’s hand was waiting there, no more than two or three centimeters in front of her.

Chen Wei, sharp-eyed, spotted something in Shen Jianqing’s hand and craned her neck. “Teacher Shen, what are you holding?”

Shen Jianqing said, “Rat poison. Want some?”

Chen Wei decisively shook her head. “I’ve got my whole youth ahead of me. What kind of crazy would I have to be to eat rat poison? Wait, Master Qin, are you upset?”

Master Qin pressed the pill under her tongue and picked up the soldering iron. Clang, clang, she tapped it twice against the edge of the table.

The sound left Chen Wei’s ears ringing. She looked blankly at Shen Jianqing, who had successfully peddled the “rat poison,” and silently marveled: Truly the second college’s ‘eccentric’. She can lean against the edge of a table and it’s already a scene.

The “scene” meanwhile was thinking: some people’s lips looked dry to the touch but felt like jelly when pressed against. I want to kiss them. Too bad the timing is wrong.

Shen Jianqing discreetly rubbed the finger that Qin Yue’s lips had brushed when she took the pill. Only when the tender sensation had fully faded from her skin did she straighten up and return to rummaging through the bag.

She had also ordered cold medicine, a nasal decongestant, and throat lozenges, planning to use them all on Qin Yue. But just as she picked them up, she heard Qin Yue, who had finished her work and turned around, say, “Teacher Shen, I’ve already taken cold medicine.”

Teacher Shen, in a rare moment of thoughtfulness, felt a pang at being turned down right to her face.

After a moment, she couldn’t resist asking, “Does your throat hurt?”

Qin Yue hadn’t noticed. She went to swallow and check.

Then suddenly she felt a warm spot under the left side of her jaw. She looked up instinctively.

Shen Jianqing stood before her, one hand in her pocket, upper body slightly bent, head tilted. Her fingers, held sideways, brushed beneath Qin Yue’s jaw. “Right here.”

…Wow.

Cai Wen’ge stared wide-eyed from across the table. Teacher Shen’s move is slick! Too bad she’s a woman, and the target is also a woman.

Cai Wen’ge was very disappointed. He slumped back down and returned to grinding away at his thesis.

Qin Yue swallowed instinctively. As her throat descended, the skin pressed against Shen Jianqing’s fingers.

Shen Jianqing’s gaze rippled, then slowly rose. For a few brief, wordless seconds, her eyes met Qin Yue’s. Then, emboldened by the hidden angle, she let her thumb roam. From the center of Qin Yue’s lips, she traced inch by inch across the pressed-together lower lip, and asked, “Does your throat hurt?”

A flush of red rushed into Qin Yue’s sensitive neck. Wrapped in the sudden intimacy, her throat moved. Her tone remained steady. “It doesn’t.”

Shen Jianqing lifted her eyes to look at Qin Yue one more time, then withdrew her hand. With perfect composure, she gathered the medicine boxes off the table and put them back in the bag. “Take these when you leave.”

Qin Yue lowered her head and picked up the half-solved Rubik’s cube. Quietly, she said, “Okay.”

The lab soon returned to quiet.

Ren Jiawen, who dug the well for the water as she went, came rushing back six or seven minutes later and set the cup next to Qin Yue. Curiously she asked, “Master Qin, you can solve a Rubik’s cube too?”

Qin Yue hummed. “I liked tinkering with these things back in school.”

“Oh, oh. You seem pretty good at it.”

“For the 3×3, I can get close to the national record. The 7×7, not quite.”

“That’s amazing!” Ren Jiawen said, delighted. “Which university did you go to? I know a senior who also likes Rubik’s cubes. She organized a bunch of events in college. Maybe you two crossed paths somewhere?”

Qin Yue casually scrambled the solved cube and set it down. “I didn’t go to university.”

“Huh?” Cai Wen’ge popped up like a groundhog. “Why not?”

Qin Yue said, “I wasn’t good at studying, so I didn’t go.”

“How could you not be good? I look at you and…”

“Cai Wen’ge, do you think you’re a walking encyclopedia?” Shen Jianqing tapped the table with a curled knuckle, her voice sharp as a blade. “There are three hundred and sixty trades, and every trade has its champion. You doctoral students and graduate students, you’ve all been in school over ten years, and not a single one of you can out-solder Master Qin.”

Cai Wen’ge’s self-esteem took a fatal blow. He clutched his chest. “Teacher Shen, mercy.”

“No mercy.” Shen Jianqing walked over to Ren Jiawen, who was stifling her laughter, and ruffled her head. Softly, she said, “Don’t follow your senior’s example. Do it once and you’re ruined for good.”

Ren Jiawen dropped her head onto the table, giggling helplessly.

Across the table, Cai Wen’ge saw the gesture and shot to his feet. His eyes were the size of dinner plates. “Teacher Shen, you actually ruffled Little Mosquito’s head! You spoil her! You spoil her! Yesterday you even taught her how to write a paper, I saw the whole thing! She’s only a first-year graduate student, and I’m about to fail out. Waaah, a world where only I get hurt has been achieved so suddenly. My life is so bitter.”

Shen Jianqing glanced at Cai Wen’ge and added the final cut. “Who told you to have a teacher with a type?”

“It’s my fault for being ugly?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“The meaning is obvious!”

“Oh.”

“Teacher Shen—”

The spacious lab erupted in wailing and chaos.

Qin Yue watched quietly from the side.

Her gaze swept past Ren Jiawen and lingered for no reason on the tousled strands of hair, which seemed to carry a playful charm. The woman who had ruffled them leaned against the table, still needling Cai Wen’ge and defending her, not a shred of teacherly dignity in sight.

Nine p.m. The debugging was finished.

Chen Wei couldn’t stop smiling. “Master Qin, I really can’t thank you enough! Tomorrow’s the weekend. Let me treat you to dinner.”

Qin Yue said, “I appreciate the kind offer, but I’m going home tomorrow. It’s not very convenient.”

“Then we’ll have to do it next time. What about you, Teacher Shen?”

“Tomorrow I’m taking my students to the Metrology Institute.”

“Fine, fine. All big shots, all of you.”

Chen Wei worriedly reminded Shen Jianqing, “Skip the meal if you like, but you have to walk Master Qin to her door. She’s done me a huge favor. Making her take one extra step would be my sin.”

Shen Jianqing asked, “Then why don’t you walk her yourself?”

Chen Wei said with complete conviction, “I’m not good with words. I’m afraid of the awkward silences.”

“Heh.” A derisive sound drifted from nearby, full of genuine feeling.

Chen Wei slammed the table. “What’s with the ‘heh’? Ever heard of respecting your elders and teachers?”

“I have.”

“And you still ‘heh’ me?”

The two were about to come to blows.

Shen Jianqing hurriedly shut down the computer and said to Qin Yue, “Shall we?”

Qin Yue stood up. “Mm.”

“Wait!” Chen Wei swept her personal items off the table and into her bag, eager as ever. “Let’s all go together. The more, the merrier!”

Since when did arguing equal merry?

The corner of Shen Jianqing’s mouth twitched. She, too, wanted to say “heh.”

Outside, the air was dry and hot. Last night’s rain had only dampened the midnight pedestrians. It had done little to relieve the heat.

The moment they stepped out of the building, Chen Wei began railing against Jiangping’s cursed weather. She turned and saw Qin Yue’s long sleeves and long pants, and the same question that had struck Shen Jianqing rose in her mind. “Master Qin, aren’t you hot?”

Qin Yue said, “Not hot.”

“This is that legendary ‘a calm mind keeps you cool’?” Chen Wei exclaimed. Then she changed tack and suddenly frowned. “Master Qin, that shirt looks kind of familiar. I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.”

Shen Jianqing found it funny. “With conversation skills like yours, an awkward silence would have been better.”

“It really is familiar.” Chen Wei crossed her arms, thinking. “Ah! I remember now! Teacher Shen, the day of your associate professor defense, weren’t you wearing this exact shirt? I thought it looked great and specifically asked you for the brand!”

Shen Jianqing’s hand, just reaching for the cigarette case, paused. She turned to look at Qin Yue.

Qin Yue looked down, her breathing even. The streetlight from her side cast its glow quietly. Her refined profile formed itself into a finely drawn silhouette. Everything behind her was blurred. Only her full forehead, the bridge of her high nose, and the clean lines of her lips stood out in sharp relief.

Shen Jianqing’s gaze traveled from top to bottom over her, then slid away. With perfect calm, she said, “What kind of eyes do you have? It’s just a similar style.”

“Haha, true. Unless it’s custom, anyone could end up wearing the same thing. Ah! My husband’s here. I’m heading off!” Chen Wei’s boundless energy carried her shout. “Master Qin, thank you so much today! Let’s definitely grab a meal together when we get the chance!”

Before Qin Yue could decline, Chen Wei had already dashed off into the distance, leaving a tail of words dangling in the air, unclaimed.

No wind tonight. The hazy moon hung half its shadow on the wall.

Qin Yue and Shen Jianqing walked side by side for a while. Suddenly, Qin Yue said, “Teacher Shen, I am indeed wearing your clothes.”