Chapter 2

Over the past two-plus years, Qin Yue and Shen Jianqing hadn’t met every Friday. Sometimes Shen Jianqing was busy and would let Qin Yue know via WeChat.

Usually it was a quick voice message, a few seconds long and over in a flash.

Guan Xiangchen had heard one once while mooching a meal at Qin Yue’s place. She rested her chin on her hand, thought for a long time, then commented with the gravity of a sage that Shen Jianqing had a voice both commanding and alluring: fast-paced it was authoritative; slow it down even slightly and images of seductive sway hit you right in the face.

Qin Yue and Shen Jianqing’s relationship had lasted nearly three years. She understood this far more deeply than Guan Xiangchen did.

So deeply it had become habit, effortless to detect without even trying.

Right now, Shen Jianqing’s pace was very slow. Impressively slow. Her lips curved in a smile, the corners of her eyes tilted upward.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Did I say something wrong?” Shen Jianqing asked.

As she spoke, she casually lifted a finger and hooked away the annoying strands of hair from Qin Yue’s neck.

The cold air of the corridor seized the chance to press against Qin Yue’s damp skin. She shivered instinctively, her wrist curling back to press the hard corner of the cardboard box against her thigh.

“Is it possible that I’m not here for you?” Qin Yue said.

“Hmm?” Shen Jianqing shifted her right knee forward, bending her leg, her heel lifting naturally from her black high heel. “Then…”

Before Shen Jianqing could finish, the door to 312 swung open from inside with a few piercing creaks.

She turned reflexively and saw Chen Wei charging out with a phone pressed to her ear, begging for rescue.

“When are you people coming back?! I have to run experiments at the Sixth Institute next week, and the boards still aren’t tuned. How am I supposed to explain this to Teacher Mu?!”

“I’d do it myself if I could! The problem is it’s a high-frequency microwave board and the chips are fragile. My half-assed soldering can’t handle it!”

“Are there any students who stayed on campus with decent skills?”

“Just start preparing my coffin.”

“……”

The call ended. Chen Wei, utterly defeated, smashed her head against the wall bang bang bang. The students hovering by the door gasped and mumbled a greeting to Shen Jianqing. “Hello, Teacher Shen.”

Chen Wei whipped around, eyes blazing. “Teacher Shen! Emergency!”

Shen Jianqing’s hand was still tangled in Qin Yue’s hair. Chen Wei’s unhinged expression startled her. Her fingers curled back instinctively, loosely cupping Qin Yue’s neck.

“Why is it so hot?” Shen Jianqing’s gaze snapped to Qin Yue as she slid her heel back into her shoe and tightened her grip on the slender neck. “Were you out in the sun the whole way?”

Shen Jianqing had just come from an air-conditioned room. Her hands were ice cold. The moment they touched Qin Yue’s skin, the chill seeped through her pores and crept toward bone and nerve.

Qin Yue had to hold her breath and steel herself against the sudden jolt before she could speak. “I…”

“Teacher Shen, solder two chips for me!”

Qin Yue’s voice was completely drowned out. She stopped.

Shen Jianqing frowned, then quickly relaxed. She tugged Qin Yue’s collar up a fraction and withdrew her hand into her trouser pocket. To Chen Wei she said, “You picked chips that are way too finicky. Even I can’t handle them.”

“Ahhh!” Chen Wei was losing her mind. “It’s not just us going to the Sixth Institute next week. Engineer Lin from 071 is coming too. That girl hauled equipment all the way up from the foot of the mountain. If I bail now, how will I have the face to collaborate in the future?”

“That serious?” Shen Jianqing’s tone of concern was perfunctory at best.

Chen Wei, wounded, spun around and marched back inside. “I’m going to the optoelectronics building right now to apologize to Teacher Mu on my knees!”

“Wait.”

“If I wait any longer there’ll be nothing left but my corpse to flog! Huh? Who was that just now?”

Chen Wei and Shen Jianqing both turned to Qin Yue. The latter asked quickly, “You have a way?”

Beyond the things they did rolling around in bed, Shen Jianqing knew nothing about Qin Yue’s private life. She didn’t even know that her workplace was right next to this university.

For Qin Yue to suddenly speak up naturally puzzled her.

Qin Yue coughed a few times and met Shen Jianqing’s probing gaze. “I can solder it.”

Surprise flickered through Shen Jianqing’s eyes.

The next second, her brow darkened as her attention settled on Qin Yue’s throat.

After coughing, Qin Yue’s voice was hoarse. Her face was white enough to match the wall behind her.

Thinking back over these two-plus years, she always seemed to look under the weather.

Exhaustion from work?

Someone who could solder precision boards in her early twenties must deal with this stuff regularly.

What exactly did she do for work?

Shen Jianqing watched Qin Yue, and a sudden urge to explore arose within her.

Beside them, Chen Wei’s excitement overflowed. “Teacher Shen, Teacher Shen, who is this?!”

Shen Jianqing’s thoughts were scattered and she didn’t respond in time.

Qin Yue had already matched Chen Wei’s face to the voice from the phone call. Seeing that Shen Jianqing didn’t answer, she spoke up herself. “Qin Yue. From Lead Science Electronics. Here to deliver sample boards. We spoke on the phone a few minutes ago.”

“Right, right! Sorry for the trouble!” Chen Wei’s politeness was a world apart from the woman who’d been smashing her head against the wall.

Standing to the side, Shen Jianqing finally noticed the cardboard box in Qin Yue’s hands.

So she worked at Lead Science.

Such a large factory with year-round production. She was on piece-rate pay, trading on youth. Being exhausted was the norm.

Wait!

Shen Jianqing suddenly registered the implication.

So Qin Yue being here genuinely had nothing to do with her??

She’d been flattering herself earlier. And what she’d said was also…

Shen Jianqing dipped her head slightly and rubbed the tip of her nose with her knuckle. Well, the words are already out.

Credit to Master Qin for not slapping her in the face on the spot. Generous.

“Teacher Shen…” Chen Wei nudged Shen Jianqing’s arm, hesitating. She’d already accepted the sample boards from Qin Yue during Shen Jianqing’s moment of self-reflection, said her thanks, and casually given Qin Yue the once-over. Now suspicion crept in. “Is she up to it?”

She was strikingly good-looking.

In Chen Wei’s experience, looks tended to be inversely proportional to competence. Er, well, Shen Jianqing was the exception. The moment she threw on a shirt and dress pants, her chestnut-brown waves seemed to become extraordinary. She was the second college’s sole “rare flower” possessing both ornamental and economic value.

“Rare flowers” were rare.

You couldn’t run into two on the same street.

Chen Wei was deeply skeptical of Qin Yue’s abilities.

But this was a question Shen Jianqing couldn’t actually answer. She didn’t know much more about Qin Yue than Chen Wei did.

After a moment’s thought, she tossed the question to the woman herself. “Any way to prove you can do it?”

Qin Yue asked Chen Wei, “Any scrap boards?”

Chen Wei said, “Plenty!”

“I’ll solder two chips on a scrap board. If you’re satisfied, give me the good one.”

“Deal!”

Chen Wei quickly led Qin Yue to 312.

At the sound of the door, three or four heads inside turned in unison, startling Chen Wei. “I was gone less than ten minutes. Don’t recognize me?”

“We do, we do! Hey, Teacher Chen,” Cai Wen’ge, a PhD student on Chen Wei’s project team, squeezed up beside her and waggled his eyebrows at Qin Yue. “Senior sister or junior sister?”

Chen Wei saw through his lecherous grin in a heartbeat and smacked him on the back. “She’s Master Qin!”

Cai Wen’ge yelped in pain and immediately lost all mischievous intentions.

Shen Jianqing, who’d entered last, couldn’t resist piling on. “She really is Master Qin. Here to rescue the high-frequency microwave board that even a PhD like you couldn’t handle.”

Cai Wen’ge couldn’t believe it. This “master” was too young! And gorgeous! Uh… tall, too. She was on par with Teacher Shen even in heels. Had to be over 170.

Then he watched as the seated Qin Yue wielded a hot air gun and effortlessly removed the stamp-hole module he’d struggled with for ages. In under ten seconds she tinned the pads next to it, placed the sensor chip, and finished with a soldering iron. When the work was done, Cai Wen’ge couldn’t help but marvel, “Like flowing water and drifting clouds. A true master!”

Shen Jianqing didn’t speak, but the slight gleam in her eyes clearly showed equal admiration for Qin Yue’s craft.

Qin Yue herself remained indifferent. She stood, handed the board to Chen Wei, and said, “Take a look.”

“No need!” Chen Wei could barely contain her excitement. “That’s machine-level soldering! What’s there to look at! Ren Jiawen, get the board!”

Ren Jiawen, who had been watching in a daze, hurriedly cradled Chen Wei’s precious baby and placed it before Qin Yue. “U4 is burnt out. It needs to be removed and resoldered. This is an imported chip and we only have one left, but it’s very, very fragile. Heat it even a bit too long and it stops working.”

“Understood.” Qin Yue picked up the board, checked the surrounding circuitry, then set it down. She raised both hands above her shoulders to gather her loose hair into a bundle and reached for the hair tie on her right wrist.

“……”

Guan Xiangchen had distracted her in the changing room. She’d left the hair tie hanging inside the locker.

Qin Yue sighed silently. Her eyes swept the table. She reached for a spare pair of tweezers to use as a hairpin.

Her fingers had just touched them when cool fingertips grazed the back of her neck.

Qin Yue’s hands froze. The hair gathered behind her head was promptly taken over by Shen Jianqing, who said, “Focus on your work.”

Qin Yue’s gaze drifted to the corner of her eye. The hand holding her hair slowly released. “Mm.”

The seven or eight seconds it took the hot air gun to warm up were enough. Something unidentifiable was threaded through her thick hair. A twist, a tuck, and a low bun formed at the base of her skull. The person who’d done it even took care to tuck away any loose strands near the temples behind her ears before saying, “There.”

Qin Yue looked down at the black circuit board, the faint ghost of Shen Jianqing’s fingers lingering on the shell of her ear.

“Thank you,” Qin Yue said.

Before Shen Jianqing could respond, an incredulous Chen Wei cut in. “Teacher Shen, isn’t that the jade hairpin you picked up at the antique market? You actually lent it to someone else!”

Shen Jianqing reached back and swept the curls that had tumbled free without the pin behind her. “I can take the hairpin back, or I can stay and help Qin Yue finish soldering your board. Pick one.”

Chen Wei said, “Soldering the board, obviously!”

Chen Wei turned back and propped herself on the edge of the table to supervise.

The lab fell silent except for the hot air gun’s monotonous drone.

Less than two minutes later, Qin Yue set down the hot air gun. “Done.”

“So fast!” Chen Wei waved the board like a treasure to cool it.

Power on. The light blinked green.

“It works! Hahaha! Master Qin, your skills are incredible!” Chen Wei grinned like a blooming trumpet flower.

Qin Yue accepted the praise without fanfare, pushed back her chair, and stood.

Shen Jianqing was leaning against a table directly behind Qin Yue, guiding Ren Jiawen. At the movement she looked up and met Qin Yue’s gaze.

Impressive. Unmoved by praise or blame.

Shen Jianqing straightened and walked over. “Chen Wei, if you’re all set, we’ll head out.”

“No, no, no!” Chen Wei clasped her hands together at the two of them. “Save a life to the end. Let your Master Qin stay and help me get this thing tuned before you go! Everyone has their specialty, and soldering really isn’t mine!”

Shen Jianqing understood, but… her relationship with Qin Yue was strictly a matter of mutual consent in certain matters, with no interference otherwise. There was no “your Master Qin” to speak of.

She had no authority over Qin Yue.

“I can stay,” Qin Yue said.

“Sure?” Shen Jianqing’s gaze swept across Qin Yue’s still-pale face. “Your workload is heavy. Can you handle it?”

“I can handle it.”

“Alright then. I appreciate it. Chen Wei’s situation really is important.”

Qin Yue nodded and sat back down.

For a long stretch after that, Qin Yue worked under Chen Wei’s direction, dismantling and reassembling components on the small board, sometimes cutting traces and running jumper wires. The visuals were so harrowing that Ren Jiawen, who’d just been admitted to the graduate program and wouldn’t officially start until September, watched with her jaw on the floor.

Shen Jianqing hadn’t left yet. She sat with her legs crossed, leaning at an angle in her chair, flipping through an electronics industry journal.

Catching Ren Jiawen’s expression from the corner of her eye, she glanced up. “Not a fan of hardware?”

Ren Jiawen shook her head rapidly. “It’s just that Teacher Chen has nerves of steel.”

“Chen Wei, nerves of steel?” Shen Jianqing chuckled. “How so?”

Ren Jiawen said in a small voice, “Master Qin is so fierce, and Teacher Chen still bosses her around without any hesitation.”

Shen Jianqing paused, then turned to look at Qin Yue, busy at the table ahead and to the left. Sitting upright, shoulders slightly hunched, lips pressed, unsmiling. That austere expression did lend her sharp features a certain “fierce” quality, but…

Shen Jianqing suddenly laughed.

She deliberately kept it quiet, a lab habit. It should have been a perfectly serious reaction, but her distinctive voice colored it. It seemed to rise from deep in the throat, travel briefly through the mouth, its edges worn smooth before drifting out rounded and soft through nose and lips.

The result was far from her intention.

Qin Yue’s lowered lashes blinked naturally as her hands kept working.

When the drag soldering was done, Qin Yue cleanly withdrew the iron and handed the board to Chen Wei. “Test it.”

Chen Wei had already glimpsed hope. Her face shone. “Great!”

Qin Yue’s work was done for now. She leaned back in her chair.

The conversation behind her continued.

“Teacher Shen, what are you laughing at?” Ren Jiawen asked quietly.

Shen Jianqing swapped the position of her crossed legs and pressed her fingertip lightly on the magazine resting on her thigh. “Laughing at how wrong your impression of her is.”

Ren Jiawen looked puzzled. “Huh? She’s not fierce?”

“Not fierce.” Shen Jianqing’s languid gaze swept over Qin Yue’s right hand draped over the chair armrest, long and slender, pale, knuckles well-defined. Even the resting posture seemed designed to stretch the visual lines.

Without question, Qin Yue had beautiful hands. Nimble and steady.

…Nimble.

Shen Jianqing’s crossed leg shifted slightly inward as she found herself thinking, unbidden, of that intrusive sensation that only appeared in the still of night.

A fierce person wouldn’t make something meant to put you on guard feel so eagerly anticipated, so hard to let go of.

A fierce person wouldn’t ask again and again, adjusting over and over, wholly attentive to the other’s pleasure, even when reason was being torn apart.

A fierce person wouldn’t have hands so warm and tender.

Huh.

Come to think of it, Master Qin’s merits were fairly obvious. She’d somehow never noticed.

Shen Jianqing leaned sideways, propped her jaw on her knuckles, and leisurely watched Qin Yue, who was being casually ordered around by Chen Wei again without a word of complaint.

Time ticked by. Ren Jiawen waited for an answer that never came and mumbled, “She still seems really fierce.”

Shen Jianqing snapped back to the present and lowered her voice. “Don’t worry. It’s just surface. She has a lovely temper, and she’s…”

Shen Jianqing’s smiling gaze drifted gently, then settled on the motion of Qin Yue absently rubbing her index and middle fingers together. After a long pause she said, “Very patient.”