guard
Chapter 19: Guardian
In early September, the sweet fragrance of osmanthus flowers on campus filled the air.
Bai Ke, clutching a thick stack of professional books, walked quickly toward the administration building. The approval process for the Taiwan exchange program had been delayed for two weeks, and she needed to get clarification today.
"Student Bai Ke, we were looking for you." The project leader pushed his glasses, his expression serious. "Someone reported your submitted grades with a real name, saying you bribed the student union president and obtained the exchange qualification through improper means."
Bai Ke looked confused.
"That's impossible. I filled in the grades based on the transcript on the academic affairs website."
"The informant provided photos of you and Lu Zihan in close contact, as well as backstage operation records." The teacher sighed, "According to the regulations, you cannot apply for the exchange program."
Bai Ke immediately understood who was behind this: Wang Meng, her ex-girlfriend who would never let her go.
As she left the administration building, a light drizzle began to fall. Bai Ke didn't hold an umbrella, letting the rain soak her hair and clothes. Going on exchange had been a key plan for her this year, and now it was all gone.
"Bai Ke!" Lu Zihan ran over holding an umbrella, his face full of apology, "I heard about it. Wang Meng... I'll ask her to withdraw the report."
Bai Ke stopped and looked at him calmly: "Senior Lu, how many times have I clearly rejected you?"
Lu Zihan stood there, holding his breath.
"Your love only brings me trouble." Bai Ke's voice was soft, but like a sharp blade, "Wang Meng's entanglement, my classmates' misunderstanding, and now even the exchange program is affected. Please stay away from me."
Lu Zihan's face turned pale: "I didn't expect it to be like this..."
"Now you know." Bai Ke turned and walked into the rain without looking back.
The professional courses in his junior year were more difficult than he had imagined. Especially the psychological statistics course, whose complex formulas and data models gave Bai Ke a headache.
That night, she was sitting in the library worrying about a multiple regression analysis problem. She had been sitting there for two hours but had no idea how to solve it.
"Standardized coefficients should be used here."
A familiar voice sounded behind her. Bai Ke turned around and saw Chen Yiyu standing behind her. He was holding a few physics journals and looked like he was just passing by.
"Why are you..." Bai Ke was speechless for a moment.
Chen Yiyu sat down in the empty seat next to her and took her draft paper naturally: "Have you verified the premise of this model?"
He quickly wrote down a few formulas on the paper, his handwriting still clear and powerful. Bai Ke looked at his profile and recalled the time when he tutored her in physics in her second year of high school.
"Look, the data here needs to be tested for normality first." Chen Yiyu's voice brought her back to reality, "Otherwise the results will be biased."
He patiently explained, just like he did when he explained the physics problems back then, except that he was more composed now, occasionally pausing to observe her reaction.
"How do you know psychological statistics?" Bai Ke couldn't help but ask.
Chen Yiyu paused for a moment, "I took relevant courses in Germany."
That night, they stayed in the library together until closing time. When they left, Bai Ke finally understood the question that had been bothering her for so long.
"Thank you," she said at the library door.
Chen Yiyu shook his head and said to her with a smile: "It's just a piece of cake."
In the days that followed, Bai Ke often ran into Chen Yiyu in the library. He would always appear when she encountered a problem, helping her sort out her thoughts. Sometimes he would leave a few annotated reference books, and sometimes he would slip a note filled with formulas into her notebook.
Bai Ke gradually realized that these "chance encounters" were not accidental. Her heart seemed to be gently bumped by something.
In October, Bai Ke decided to apply for an internship at a well-known local psychological institution. On the day of the interview, she was so nervous that her palms were sweating.
"Ms. Bai Ke," the interviewer said, looking through her resume. "You have excellent grades and have worked on a wide range of projects, especially multivariate analysis. We happen to have a project that requires this knowledge."
Bai Ke passed the interview successfully.
On the first day of her internship, the project manager handed her a stack of data and said, "These are samples we collected earlier. We need to clean them and do some preliminary analysis. Is this difficult?"
Bai Ke looked at the complex data sets and suddenly found that the way one of the variables was processed was very familiar - it was the method Chen Yiyu taught her in the library.
After she successfully completed the analysis, the person in charge was very satisfied: "Very professional, it seems you learned a lot in school."
After work, Bai Ke went to the school's physics lab. Sure enough, Chen Yiyu was there, wearing a white coat and staring intently at a microscope.
"Did you teach them the method of data analysis?" Bai Ke asked while standing at the door.
Chen Yiyu raised his head, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, and then turned into a faint smile: "Li Meng said you were interning there. The researcher at that institution happened to be my collaborator in Germany."
"So you deliberately..."
"I just shared a few common data processing methods." Chen Yiyu interrupted her, his tone calm, "Don't think too much. You can pass the interview based on your own strength."
Bai Ke looked at him and suddenly remembered that year in her sophomore year, when she thought he had completely walked out of her life. But now, he was quietly helping her in a corner where no one knew.
Just like that dark blue umbrella, it holds up a sky for her in the rain.
"Chen Yiyu," she said softly, "thank you."
The lights in the lab twinkled in his eyes like stars in the night sky. He didn't answer, but only raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
At that moment, Bai Ke understood that some feelings do not need a grand confession. They are hidden in every detail and grow quietly in every silent protection.
Just like the osmanthus flowers on campus in autumn, they are silent, but their fragrance spreads all over the world.
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