When Lin Zhixia returned to the hotel room, Jiang Yubai was taking a shower. He did not close the bathroom door tightly, and water mist slipped out from the crack of the door. Lin Zhixia heard the sound of water hitting the floor and smelled the fragrance of shower gel.
She stood at the door of the bathroom and looked towards the shower area openly.
Jiang Yubai's silhouette was vague and unclear through the frosted glass. He turned off the shower, the sound of water stopped, and mist filled the air. He called out her nickname: "Xia Xia?" His voice was a little hoarse, which was particularly bewitching.
Lin Zhixia approached him quietly, and he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the round bathtub filled with warm water. Her clothes were scattered on the ground, and her mind was washed by the waves, relaxing from head to toe. Jiang Yubai touched her from shoulder to neck, and the skin he touched was white, tender, and smooth. He held her waist tightly, and bent down to kiss her ear.
Lin Zhixia leaned on Jiang Yubai, grabbed his left hand, gently pressed his knuckles, and traced his nails. Finally, she imitated his usual movements and placed a kiss on the back of his hand, and he pulled his hand away.
She looked up at him immediately.
He continued to kiss her and rubbed her with his left hand for a while. She felt so comfortable that her bones went soft and she almost melted in the water.
The surroundings were filled with steam, hazy smoke, and dim lights, and they seemed to be in a mist. Jiang Yubai's urgent breathing lingered in her ears, and she said implicitly: "It's past ten o'clock in the evening, I'm a little sleepy..."
Jiang Yubai stood up and put on a bathrobe, then pulled out a bath towel and covered Lin Zhixia's head. Lin Zhixia hooked her arms around his neck, and then he lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom.
The bedside lamp was emitting a dim light. Lin Zhixia hugged her pillow and rolled around on the bed. Jiang Yubai pulled her pillow away, lay down beside her, and said for no reason: "You are still drunk, go to bed early."
Lin Zhixia retorted, "I am sober." She also said, "Alcohol has no effect on me at all."
Jiang Yubai turned off the bedside lamp and took off his bathrobe, and her hand came up to him. He grabbed her slender wrist, and she blurted out, "Just now, the communication between me and my senior sister was very smooth."
Jiang Yubai just asked: "What did you talk about?"
Lin Zhixia replied calmly: "Economic issues."
Jiang Yubai guessed: "Industrial investment?"
The darkness enveloped the entire room, but a blue light flashed outside the window - a sudden strong thunderstorm swept across the city, and the sudden thunder startled Lin Zhixia. She threw herself into Jiang Yubai's arms and continued to describe: "No, I was talking to my senior sister about salary and benefits."
Jiang Yubai paused with his right hand around her waist. She continued, "You know, I sold software before, and my senior sister didn't charge me a penny. This year she joined our company and has been working overtime every day. It's really too hard... In addition to overtime pay and stock incentives, she deserves more rewards."
Jiang Yubai didn't quite believe that Luo Ying and Lin Zhixia had been discussing the "salary issue" for half an hour, and Lin Zhixia sincerely suggested: "I want to set up a public award to commend the best technical team in the company's engineering department based on the quantified performance evaluation results, and then distribute the bonus evenly to each employee according to their contribution within the team. After the spring and autumn recruitments this year, the company will have a large number of new people..."
At this point, she yawned and said, "I told you that I am not a reliable person. You must understand what I mean."
Jiang Yubai said mysteriously, "Not necessarily."
Lin Zhixia explained: "I have limited energy and am not good at managing or running a business. People learn things in different ways and specialize in different fields... My senior also said that there is no perfect life and many people cannot get what they desire in this lifetime."
Jiang Yubai tried to test her in a roundabout way: "What's your senior sister's personality like?"
"He's a bit like my brother, both are serious and responsible people." Lin Zhixia concluded. She was so sleepy that she was not fully aware, and her voice was getting softer and softer: "My brother's Weibo name is 'Qiuqiu promotion and salary increase'."
"And you?"
"Xia Xia cuts through thorns and brambles."
Jiang Yubai couldn't help laughing: "It rhymes."
Lin Zhixia was half asleep and half awake, murmuring: "You can also come up with a similar online name, corresponding to 'Pijing Canji'..."
Jiang Yubai hugged her tighter: "To protect you from the wind and rain?"
Lin Zhixia said: "The river protects us from wind and rain."
"Just for you," he added.
Lin Zhixia had already fallen asleep. She no longer responded to him and fell into a deep sleep.
The thunderstorm stopped in the second half of the night, and the sky cleared up the next day with exceptionally fresh air.
Lin Zhixia and her colleagues set out from the hotel again and headed to another famous university in Hong Kong. The negotiation between the two sides started at 9 am and lasted until 4:30 pm. The progress during the meeting was not smooth - several professors hoped to train graduate students with Lin Zhixia, Tan Qianche or Gu Likai instead of establishing the so-called "four-school joint research group".
The joint research group does not represent a simple "strong merger". The division of labor within the group, information transparency, funding sources and allocation are all difficult problems that need to be solved urgently. Even though Lin Zhixia proposed four solutions, her partners were not very satisfied.
Lin Zhixia expressed her understanding.
In the evening, she and her colleagues left the campus.
A girl ran out of a laboratory building and ran towards Lin Zhixia, shouting as she ran: "Professor Lin! Professor Lin!"
The sound was so loud that Lin Zeqiu became alert and looked around. He happened to see the girl. She had a round face, clear eyes, and long hair dyed dark brown. She ran with a firm step and a clear goal. She stopped in front of Lin Zhixia and held out a thick stack of documents.
She said breathlessly: "My thesis, Professor Lin, can you please ..."
"Are you Chen Shihan?" Lin Zhixia actually recognized her. "You sent me an email the day before yesterday. The attachment was a paper of yours. I read it and it was well written. I was preparing to reply to you today."
Chen Shihan held the envelope in both hands and took the initiative to follow Lin Zhixia. She was just 21 years old, a little younger than Lin Zhixia, and her gestures were full of student spirit, and a little reserved. She greeted everyone and bowed to them. Tang Tingting asked with a smile: "Are you a student of this university?"
Chen Shihan described truthfully that she was about to graduate from college. However, she couldn't change her Cantonese accent, and no one except Lin Zhixia could understand what she meant.
Lin Zhixia chatted with her in Cantonese for about ten minutes, and she was so happy that she was about to explode. She had read all of Lin Zhixia's works and was very interested in Lin Zhixia's research. But she never dared to contact Lin Zhixia.
Not long ago, she heard that Lin Zhixia and her group were going to visit their university, so she plucked up the courage to send an email. Today, she even went directly to Lin Zhixia in person with her thesis - Teacher Lin was indeed as beautiful and gentle as she had imagined, mature and stable, and full of the intellectual temperament of an intellectual.
She no longer concealed her feelings and said frankly, "Professor Lin, I want to be your student."
The university where Lin Zhixia works also recruits students from Hong Kong. The school adopts an "application for interview" system. Students need to submit an application document and then pass an interview assessment. According to the university's arrangement, this year's interview time is in late April.
So far, Lin Zhixia has come into contact with many students. Last December, she decided on a master's student recommended by another school and two direct doctoral students. Together with the postdoctoral students transferred from other research groups, the number of people in her research group soared instantly. If she added Chen Shihan, she doubted that she would have enough energy to take care of every student.
Lin Zhixia is very strict with herself, and "teaching, educating and solving problems" is one of her professional principles. After thinking it over, she did not immediately agree to Chen Shihan, but encouraged her to apply to more schools and contact more tutors. However, Chen Shihan said that she only applied to Lin Zhixia's school.
There is nothing more desperate than burning your boats.
Lin Zhixia was a little surprised.
Chen Shihan also said that she searched Lin Zhixia's name on the "Tutor Evaluation Network" and found that students praised her highly. Lin Zhixia's doctoral student Fang Yiwen published two papers in half a year, each of which was of high quality, making people salivate and envy. This fully shows that Lin Zhixia is not only an independent principal investigator, but also a responsible tutor.
Lin Zhixia humbly responded: "I'm not that good. It mainly depends on the students' own efforts. The teacher's reputation is not important. What matters is the students' gains."
Having said that, after she and Chen Shihan parted ways, she immediately took out her cell phone, opened the "Tutor Evaluation Website", and searched for her own name "Lin Zhixia" - the cell phone web page displayed more than twenty reviews.
The first comment received the most likes. The student said: "Teacher Lin is only in her twenties, but her knowledge reserves are like those of a 70-year-old. Don't be afraid to sign up just because she is young. She is a good teacher with a strong sense of responsibility."
Another student said, "There is a senior named Xu in her group. If Xu was in our group, he would have been delayed in graduation. She did not delay the students. Does she have a strong sense of responsibility or not?"
Lin Zhixia noticed that the student who proposed to "delay graduation" was named "Cui Xiaoming" on the Internet. She clicked on "Cui Xiaoming's" profile picture and saw that he had given Tan Qianche several high scores, and he was indeed a loyal supporter of Teacher Tan Qianche.
Lin Zhixia locked her phone and put it back in her backpack.
"Do you want to marry Chen Shihan?" Tang Tingting asked her, "That child has talent and is simple-minded. I am quite optimistic about her."
Lin Zhixia repeated her evaluation: "Talented, but not cunning?"
Tang Tingting picked up the milk tea, took a sip, and then said, "Just like Duan Qiyan, I'm really hopeless. I like this type."
Lin Zhixia chuckled.
In the next few days, Lin Zhixia and her group traveled around the city of Hong Kong. Lin Zhixia originally hoped to cooperate with two Hong Kong universities, but she only managed to get one of them. The day before she left Hong Kong, she signed a "joint research group" agreement with that university. Her undergraduate advisor Gu Like is the general director of the "joint research group", and Gu Like is about to be elected as an academician. Compared with Lin Zhixia, who is in her early twenties, Gu Like's qualifications, age, connections, and foundation make people more reassured.
With Gu Like's help, the two top universities in Beijing were willing to join the research group. The "Four Schools Alliance" signboard instantly became popular, and Gu Like's daily work became increasingly busy.
In late April 2017, he brought several colleagues and students with him and flew from Beijing to the provincial capital to discuss the launch plan of the "Joint Research Group" with Lin Zhixia.
Lin Zhixia and Tan Qianche were jointly responsible for the reception this time. Although they were both senior brothers and sisters from the same school and taught at the same university, they had not seen each other for a long time and did not chat with each other on weekdays. Lin Zhixia felt that her relationship with Tan Qianche could be described as "minority", but Tan Qianche called her "little junior sister."
His words were affectionate, but his voice was cold and indifferent, and the contrast was strong and confusing.
Lin Zhixia could understand Tan Qianche because, last Friday, Lin Zhixia received an electronic wedding invitation from senior Wei Ruoxing.
Senior student Wei Ruoxing is an associate professor at a well-known university in Shanghai. Since last year, she has been in a relationship with another male teacher at the same school. The male teacher is young and promising, with extraordinary appearance, and is a perfect match for the senior student. They are both "talented man and beautiful woman", and "talented woman and beautiful man", and everyone praises them.
Tan Qianche remained the same. His style of doing things had hardly changed from before.
Lin Zhixia was still polite to Tan Qianche: "The dean and the vice dean have held a meeting with me. The leaders attach great importance to the 'Four Schools Joint Research Group' and hope that you can bring your students to join. You are a student cultivated by Teacher Gu, and your scientific research results have improved significantly in the past six months..."
"Do you want me to join?" Tan Qianche lit a cigarette.
They stood in a garden on the east side of the laboratory building. The spring breeze was gentle and the view was broad. His laughter was also smoky: "I guess you don't want to."
The garden was full of lush grass, verdant bamboos, and pine and cypress trees. Everywhere was a beautiful sight. Tan Qianche sat on a bench, the ashes of the cigarette falling between his fingers. He said, "Teacher Gu is the head of the research group..."
"You are Mr. Gu's favorite student," Lin Zhixia said in accordance with his meaning, "If you can join the group, everyone will be happy, senior."
Tan Qianche put out the cigarette.
Lin Zhixia always kept a distance of one meter from him. He asked again: "Is the quality of the students you recruited this year acceptable? I don't have time to check for you this time."
"Thank you," Lin Zhixia said, "I can check it myself."
Tan Qianche glanced at his watch before throwing the cigarette into the trash can beside him. He stood up and took a few steps. He was tall and had long legs, so his steps were long.
Teacher Gu will arrive at the campus around 10 am. It is now 9:55. Time is running out. Tan Qianche and Lin Zhixia walked to the school's conference hall one after the other. They waited for a few minutes, and Teacher Gu appeared with a group of colleagues and students. Among these people, Yang Shuwen was an old acquaintance of Lin Zhixia.
Yang Shuwen was among the crowd. When he saw Tan Qianche, a smile from the bottom of his heart appeared on his face, and he shouted repeatedly: "Hey? Senior Tan!"
When Yang Shuwen turned around, he happened to see Lin Zhixia, and a warm smile froze on the corner of his mouth. His heart fell into an ice cave, and he nodded mechanically and called her, "Junior Lin."
Lin Zhixia smiled friendly.
Yang Shuwen, however, seemed to have encountered a ghost and went to another place.
The school leaders gathered nearby, chatting with several other professors. Teacher Gu, with his hands behind his back, walked towards Yang Shuwen and said to him, "Your senior brothers and sisters have found teaching positions. If you want to stay in the academic world, you need to work harder."
Last September, Dr. Yang Shuwen graduated and became a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Gu's group. He had little interest in scientific research and chose to be a postdoctoral fellow because he had not found a suitable job for the time being. He thought to himself, "It is a blessing in disguise that I can graduate with a doctorate," but he said, "Okay, Professor Gu, I will work hard."
"Come on, senior." Lin Zhixia's voice came from behind him.
He didn't dare look back and walked forward with big strides.
Lin Zhixia stayed where she was and continued chatting with Gu Likai. Gu Likai not only mentioned the content of the "Four Schools Joint Research Group" agreement, but also asked about Professor Shen Zhaohua's recent situation. He said that he had sent an email to Shen Zhaohua but received no reply. When he called Shen Zhaohua's office, her students told him that their teacher had taken a long vacation.
Lin Zhixia relayed the news truthfully: "I heard about this, too. Teacher Shen has taken a leave to recuperate and will not be back until the second half of the year. Teacher Shen's work is quite strenuous and she often has to go out on field trips. I have known Teacher Shen for so many years and I have never seen her take a break."
Gu Likai looked quite strange.
This is a bit strange.
Gu Like didn't look so worried the day Yang Shuwen blew up the lab. He didn't say much in front of Lin Zhixia, but Lin Zhixia noticed something - Gu Like and Shen Zhaohua were classmates in college, and he and Shen Zhaohua had known each other for decades, so he must know Shen Zhaohua better than Lin Zhixia.
That afternoon, Lin Zhixia went to the Institute of Paleontology and found Professor He Yuanqian.
He Yuanqian is Shen Zhaohua's son-in-law and Shen Fuxuan's father, but his attitude towards life is more sincere and simple than that of his son Shen Fuxuan.
Not long ago, Lin Zhixia had just delivered a batch of amber to He Yuanqian's laboratory. When He Yuanqian saw Lin Zhixia, his face looked friendly. Lin Zhixia simply asked him directly: "How is Mr. Shen doing recently?"
"Not bad." He Yuanqian replied briefly.
Today is He Yuanqian's office open day. His students have just left, and there are five or six disposable plastic cups filled with purified water left on the coffee table.
He Yuanqian picked up a paper cup and watered the bonsai placed by the window.
The setting sun was slanting, and the brilliant afterglow was spread under his feet. He and the flower pot were coated with a layer of deep golden orange. He pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose and said, "Teacher Lin, I have good news. We used instruments to measure the batch of amber, and there are new species in the amber. My students are collecting data and writing papers, which will be published next year. Thank you very much, Teacher Lin."
"You're welcome," Lin Zhixia went back to the topic just now, "I haven't heard from Teacher Shen for a long time, and I haven't seen her in school. I heard from others that Teacher Shen was on vacation, and I was happy for her..."
He Yuanqian shook his right hand, and water spilled out of the cup. The orchid's branches and leaves stretched out, verdant and dripping, and water droplets splashed on the orchid's petals.
The door of the office was wide open, and some colleagues from the Institute of Paleontology were passing by. The sound of footsteps came and went, but the office was completely quiet.
Lin Zhixia waited for a few seconds, but He Yuanqian still didn't speak. She then made up her mind and said, "Teacher Shen was my first mentor. She taught me how to do research and brought me to university..."
"Teacher Shen misses you too," He Yuanqian finally told her frankly, "At the beginning of this year, she was diagnosed with bile duct cancer and went to Beijing to see a doctor. If it is discovered early, surgery can solve the problem. Our family believes in science and is not too worried... Teacher Shen did not want to spread the news of her illness. After people are over 70, their organs age and illness is common. She had previously asked for leave to undergo surgery, and she did not want to worry her colleagues or students."
Lin Zhixia asked, "What happened next?"
He Yuanqian remained silent.
Lin Zhixia's voice became even softer: "Can I go see Teacher Shen?"
He Yuanqian sighed softly: "I'll go and give Teacher Shen a message now."
He Yuanqian's sigh made Lin Zhixia realize that Teacher Shen's condition was not stable. Lin Zhixia became anxious. She wanted to contact Shen Fuxuan to ask him about Teacher Shen's current condition.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com