The expression on Fei Bai’s face could be summarized with a string of ellipses. He thought to himself that being remembered by Professor Luo wasn’t a good thing at all.
But he still wrote four words on the note passed to him by the girl in the back row, then passed it back: “Leave it to fate.”
Having experienced student life himself, Luo Yusen knew that no one liked teachers dragging out the class. He finished the lesson five minutes before the bell and then said, “Now let’s assign some homework.”
Then he projected a full page of homework on the screen, with over a dozen items listed. The students below were stunned for a moment, then erupted into a chorus of groans.
“These assignments aren’t for everyone to do. Only one student needs to complete them all, and they will be presented as a classroom case study in the next class. The rest of the students will each choose one task to complete,” Luo Yusen said calmly.
The groans abruptly stopped, and everyone listened attentively, wanting to know what criteria the unlucky person had to complete all the tasks they needed to meet.
“For the sake of fairness, I will randomly select a student according to the course enrollment list,” Luo Yusen said as he picked up the roster from the side of the podium, flipping through it page by page. The classroom was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
“Department of Education, Fei Bai,” Luo Yusen said.
Fei Bai’s vision went dark. This was indeed fair.
At that moment, the bell rang for the end of class. Luo Yusen’s lips curled slightly upward. “Alright, class is dismissed.”
After class, a crowd gathered around the platform again. Those who didn’t know might have thought a celebrity was holding a signing event. Fei Bai sluggishly packed up his backpack and sat in his seat, waiting for Luo Yusen.
About half an hour later, Luo Yusen checked his watch and politely said to the people around him, “I’m sorry, but I have something to attend to this noon. If you have any unanswered questions, you can come ask me before next week’s class or email my work inbox.”
Then he walked out of the crowd and stopped in front of Fei Bai’s seat, casually tapping the desktop with his fingers. “Let’s go,” he said.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Fei Bai could feel the gaze of the crowd behind Luo Yusen on him. He couldn’t handle being the center of attention like this and quickly stood up, grabbed his backpack, and hurriedly walked out with his head down.
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“You were the one giving the lecture.” Fei Bai felt ashamed and humiliated as he recalled the embarrassing scene earlier that morning. “You knew I had chosen your class. I told you.”
“I knew you picked my class, and I have the enrollment list, which shows everyone who’s signed up for my class. I’m aware that other students besides you have chosen to attend. So, do I really need to send an email to each and every one of them just to remind them that I’m the one teaching this class?” Luo Yusen said calmly.
He didn’t say anything wrong, but Fei Bai still felt aggrieved. Somehow, he blurted out, “But I’m not like them.”
Luo Yusen’s gaze flickered as he effortlessly switched Fei Bai’s bag to his outer hand, calmly asking, “How are you different?”
“I… with you…” Fei Bai stumbled over his words, unable to continue the sentence no matter how hard he tried.
Luo Yusen waited for a moment, and seeing that Fei Bai didn’t seem to want to continue, he stopped probing further. Instead, he lowered his head and adjusted the hood of Fei Bai’s jacket. “Shidi, some things you have to figure out for yourself.”
For a brief moment, confusion flickered across Fei Bai’s face in response to this statement. After Luo Yusen adjusted his hood, he reached out and gently touched the back of Fei Bai’s neck, lightly rubbing his jawline with his fingertips. It was a very gentle touch.
Fei Bai felt perplexed. As if during an exam, he received a hint about the answer without being given the actual question. He could sense that Luo Yusen was implying something, but he didn’t understand what he needed to figure out.
It was like someone handed him a key to break through the impasse, but he couldn’t find the door.
But the matter of finding the door could be put off for now. Fei Bai had to start with the dozen or so assignments that Luo Yusen had assigned him.
Luo Yusen drove Fei Bai home. Today was Saturday, and the traffic in the city center at noon was not smooth. It took them quite a while to reach Fei Bai’s grandmother’s house.
Fei Bai’s grandmother only found out this morning that Luo Yusen was coming for lunch. She resisted the urge to scold her grandson over the phone and decided to prepare the meal within the limited time before admonishing Fei Bai. Luckily, Luo Yusen and Fei Bai arrived late, so when they entered the house, she had only one dish left to cook.
The old lady heard her grandson opening the door, and she came out of the kitchen holding a kitchen knife, pointing it at Fei Bai, saying, “You little rascal—”
She stopped abruptly, swallowing her words, when she saw the tall and handsome Luo Yusen standing behind Fei Bai.
Fei Bai carefully wrapped his grandmother’s hand and persuaded her to put down the knife. “Grandma, the Chinese nation is a nation that loves peace, diligence, bravery, and self-improvement. As a member of the Chinese nation, could you please promote the traditional virtue of loving peace…”
Luo Yusen smiled. “Hello, Grandma, I’m Luo Yusen. You can call me Xiao Luo.”
The grandmother snapped out of her initial surprise, wiped her hands on her apron with the hand not holding the knife, and then greeted Luo Yusen warmly with a smile. “Come, come, Xiao Luo, have a seat at home. Dinner will be ready soon.”
Luo Yusen agreed and politely asked if he could help with the cooking.
Fei Bai quickly intervened. “No need, Shixiong. You don’t know, but my grandma is really fast at cutting vegetables. You haven’t seen her chop dumpling’s filling with two knives. I even wanted to kneel down and call her the Double-Knife Granny.”
The grandmother glared at Fei Bai and said, “Feifei, don’t ruin my image in front of our guest, will you?”
“Feifei?” Luo Yusen raised an eyebrow and looked at Fei Bai. “Is that how your family calls you?”
He noticed a momentary freeze in Fei Bai’s expression when he mentioned family, and Fei Bai’s grandmother immediately changed the subject. “I’ve been calling him that since he was little. At that time, an old man was living next door and had a dog named Bai Bai. I thought this kid couldn’t have the same name as a dog, so I used the first character to give him a nickname.”
Luo Yusen recalled Fei Bai mentioning that his family situation was complicated and that he needed to save money for future studies and to take care of his grandmother. He guessed that Fei Bai probably had some unpleasant experiences with his parents, so he didn’t inquire further. Instead, he simply said, “I see.”
“Alright, Feifei, you go sit with Xiao Luo, and I’ll be done soon,” the grandmother pushed Fei Bai gently.
Fei Bai had already thought it was quite difficult to persuade Luo Yusen to come over for dinner, but he was surprised by how well Luo Yusen carried out the task. Not only did he sincerely praise his grandmother’s cooking skills, but he also patiently answered every question she asked without any hint of superiority or impatience. However, he didn’t expect that towards the end of the meal, his grandmother would suddenly ask Luo Yusen a question that caught him off guard.
“Xiao Luo, what do you think of our Feifei?”
The question itself was quite normal, but for some reason, Fei Bai felt that his grandmother’s expression when asking the question was particularly reminiscent of a matchmaker.
Luo Yusen glanced at Fei Bai and calmly replied, “He’s very good.”
Fei Bai felt embarrassed, as it seemed like his grandmother intended to ask Luo Yusen what he thought was good about him.
He quickly interrupted, “Uh, Grandma, we’re done eating. Let me wash the dishes. I have to go teach Shixiong’s sister in the afternoon.”
After saying that, he grabbed his grandmother’s hand again and said, “Look at your hands, all calloused. It’s from cooking for me, isn’t it? You should rest well and stop talking so much. Talking wears you out.”
His grandmother’s attention was indeed diverted by his words. She stared at her own hands for a moment, pondering, “Why do I feel like these calluses are from playing Mahjong?”
Feibai: “…”
Thinking that Luo Yusen was still present, he needed to save his grandmother’s face a bit. So he said, “Grandma, playing Mahjong involves gambling. You shouldn’t play it in the future.”
The grandmother nodded vigorously in agreement and said, “Yes, playing Mahjong can easily lead to losing money, but your suggestion not to play Mahjong is better.”
How old are you, LYS…? Stop behaving like a bratty teen and start talking with each other like a real adluts =.=
Thank You for the new chapter ( ˘ ³˘)♥ Congrats on 100th update! 🎉
+1
Luo Yusen should really stop playing games with Feibai, I would be so pissed if someone did that to me. How is he expecting to move on from this situation honestly 😔
It’s like they’re taking one step ahead but 100 steps behind each time. So frustrating 😩