Chapter 33
The printing room at B Medical University was filled with various white and yellow papers, and even before entering, the strong smell of ink hit you.
Jian Wu walked in, twirling his USB drive. Sister Du, the printing room attendant, saw him and greeted him with a smile: “Teacher Jian, here to print test papers?”
“Hello, Sister Du.” Jian Wu smiled at her and handed over the USB drive, “Printing review materials this time, just compiled them in the meeting.”
The affiliated middle school didn’t have many students. There were only three teachers in the eighth-grade biology group: a veteran teacher about to retire at sixty, a pregnant woman under special protection, so Jian Wu usually handled the printing and carrying of materials, which was how he became familiar with Sister Du.
“Still 300 copies?” Sister Du asked.
“Mm.” Jian Wu nodded and poured himself a glass of water, waiting for the printing to finish.
There were a total of 280 students in the eighth grade of the affiliated middle school. Each teacher needed a copy, plus some extras as backups, since there were always a few careless students who would lose them.
Sister Du adjusted the machine and sat down, offering him a plate of sunflower seeds.
Once the sunflower seeds were cracked open, the atmosphere for chatting was set.
Sister Du spat out a sunflower seed shell and gossiped with a smile: “Xiao Jian, did you know the university department seems to have a new teacher?”
Jian Wu wasn’t interested, “Doesn’t the university department always have new teachers?”
Unlike their affiliated middle school, which had regular unified recruitment, the university’s recruitment was ongoing throughout the year, so there were always new faces.
Seeing he didn’t seem interested in the gossip, Sister Du quickly added: “This one is different, he’s very handsome!”
Jian Wu suddenly had a bad feeling. As expected, Sister Du continued: “I heard his surname is Song, someone Dean Ling has his eye on.”
Jian Wu was silent for a moment and asked: “Has he… officially joined yet?”
“I’m not sure about that,” Sister Du said, “I only saw Dean Ling showing him around this morning. I happened to be delivering experimental handouts to the animal lab and ran into them.”
Jian Wu said “oh,” and Sister Du pushed the sunflower seeds towards him again, “Eat some, don’t just listen to me and forget to eat. This is five-spice sunflower seeds I just bought, they’re delicious.”
“…Okay.”
Sister Du continued excitedly: “I heard from the people in the animal lab that this handsome guy is a great researcher. Dean Ling probably wants to assign him to the mouse lab and was asking them how many empty cages they had. Later, after leaving the animal lab, they went to visit a few research groups doing animal experiments. Since I had nothing to do, I followed them.”
She paused, then leaned closer, adopting a mysterious air, and whispered: “This Teacher Song is really handsome, especially in a lab coat, just like on TV!”
Jian Wu: “…”
After the sunflower seed incident last night, he couldn’t stand hearing any praise for Song Shuci, let alone praise for how handsome he looked in a lab coat. He questioned: “Was the lab coat new?”
Sister Du recalled: “It seemed to be one of the shared lab coats from that research group.”
Jian Wu said with a deadpan expression: “Then it’s been stained with mouse droppings.”
“Ah?”
Sister Du mainly worked in administration and had never been in a lab, so she wasn’t familiar with the lab environment. And clearly, she had never seen Song Shuci pour copious amounts of disinfectant into the lab coat-specific washing machine, nor had she seen him point at his lab coat and complain about the origin of every stain.
Jian Wu hummed in agreement and added: “Maybe also blood, urine, or some random reagents.” After all, a lab coat was only clean on the first day it was bought, let alone a shared one.
Seeing Sister Du’s disillusionment, Jian Wu advised earnestly: “Don’t romanticize lab coats.”
—And especially don’t romanticize Song Shuci in a lab coat.
He still remembered when they were living together in City A, Song Shuci once spent a week in the lab doing behavioral experiments and didn’t come home.
Because lab mice were sensitive to smells, frequently changing clothes during a long experiment would make them alert and stressed, leading to inaccurate results. So Song Shuci immersed himself in the lab with the mice for a week, only leaving to eat.
Jian Wu, worried he hadn’t rested properly for a week, went to the school to pick him up after the experiment ended.
The man in the lab coat, conducting experiments at the lab bench, wearing glasses, his back straight, his features distinct, looked like he was in a drama. However, even from three meters away, Jian Wu could smell the strong, musky scent of mouse food, droppings, and body odor emanating from Song Shuci, making him seriously wonder if Song Shuci was actually a giant mouse.
His love felt precarious at that moment. Even Jian Wu, who wasn’t very particular about cleanliness, couldn’t stand it. He supervised Song Shuci as he showered three times, almost scrubbing his skin raw, before finally getting rid of the smell. This continued until the school standardized the management of the animal lab and introduced protective suits to replace lab coats, which gradually improved the situation.
So, in others’ eyes, Song Shuci might be handsome and charming, but in Jian Wu’s eyes, Song Shuci would probably never be associated with those words.
As they were talking, another person came over, seemingly having overheard their conversation. The newcomer said: “Are you talking about Professor Song?”
Jian Wu was exasperated: “How do you all know about him? Is he that famous at our school already?”
“Handsome guys are always different.” The speaker was an administrative staff member from the university department, surnamed Qin.
Teacher Qin tucked her hair behind her ear and continued: “Appreciating beautiful faces is an innate, irresistible hobby for every human on Earth. Didn’t you receive the same treatment when you first arrived?”
“Yeah,” Sister Du chimed in, teasing, “As soon as you joined, everyone in the university heard that the affiliated middle school had recruited a handsome guy.”
“But this Professor Song is really a nice person,” Teacher Qin said, “Dean Ling asked me to add him on WeChat and send him some documents about our school’s talent recruitment program. I was worried a big shot like him wouldn’t bother with me, but he’s very down-to-earth and efficient, he replies to messages very quickly.”
Teacher Qin’s worries weren’t unfounded. Whether in universities or hospitals, the relationship between administrative staff and technical personnel was always delicate.
Few technical personnel didn’t dislike administrative staff who often “micromanaged” them, but the lower-level administrative staff were often just relaying instructions, without much say, and often ended up being ignored.
But Jian Wu didn’t give her a chance to express her admiration. He sneered: “You’ll know later, he sends messages even faster when he’s cursing someone out.”
He had personally witnessed how Song Shuci blasted his supervisor on his phone, including but not limited to “Don’t micromanage if you don’t understand,” “How long has it been since you’ve been on the front lines? Do you know how to do experiments, or do I?”…
His language and tone made it hard to tell who was the supervisor.
So, putting aside their relationship, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable for Lu Lizhu to often find fault with Song Shuci.
Teacher Qin said doubtfully: “It can’t be that bad.”
“Hey,” Sister Du also asked curiously, “How do you know he sends messages faster when he’s cursing? Did you know each other before?”
“…” Jian Wu, remembering he had to maintain the facade of not knowing him, quickly changed his words, “I guessed from his face.”
“Then your face reading skills are quite inaccurate,” Sister Du chuckled, “Professor Song looks so refined, it’s hard to imagine him cursing. By the way, I heard he’s still single,” she sighed while eating sunflower seeds, “Handsome, highly educated, and good-tempered, whoever dates him will be so lucky.”
Jian Wu couldn’t understand why printing some materials had somehow turned into a Song Shuci fan club meeting. He rolled his eyes and said: “Whoever wants that luck is an idiot.”
This wasn’t directed at Song Shuci.
He had been with Song Shuci for seven years, feeling more like a long-distance relationship even when they weren’t, and like being single when they were. He couldn’t imagine anyone being able to tolerate dating such a boyfriend.
Sister Du retorted unhappily: “Xiao Jian, why do you have such a strong opinion about Professor Song? Just like that old stick-in-the-mud from the anatomy department.”
Jian Wu’s complaints suddenly stopped: “Who else has an opinion about him?”
Sister Du, hearing the printing machine stop and beep, temporarily put aside the gossip and stood up: “Oh, it’s done printing, I have to quickly clear this up and print for Teacher Qin. Usually, there are only a few people a day, but everyone seems to have come at the same time today.”
She started binding the papers, and Jian Wu brought a cardboard box over to pack them.
Seeing Sister Du was busy and didn’t answer, he asked again: “Who in the anatomy department has an opinion about him?”
Sister Du continued binding the papers, her hands not stopping: “Who else, that Old Hu you went fishing with.”
She recalled: “Dean Ling originally wanted to take him to the anatomy department today. He told Old Hu beforehand to inform the others to come and meet him, but when they went there today, no one was there, they completely ignored Teacher Song. Dean Ling was furious.”
Old Hu’s full name was Hu Jinghua, the current deputy director of the anatomy department, and a veteran teacher. He loved fishing, but despite having all the equipment, his skills were lacking.
“He’s trying to isolate him,” Sister Du said knowingly, “The former director retired at the end of last year, and Old Hu probably thought it was his turn. Who knew Dean Ling would recruit someone from outside, and so young, the old man is probably unhappy.”
Jian Wu took a stack of papers from her and casually said: “Oh, I see.”
“Exactly, that’s just how he is, petty. Anyway, forget it, it’s pointless.”
They quickly finished their work. Sister Du put the last stack of materials into the box and asked Jian Wu thoughtfully: “Do you need a trolley, Teacher Jian?”
“No need,” Jian Wu lifted the box, “I can carry it back.” He said goodbye to Sister Du and Teacher Qin and walked towards the office, carrying the huge box. After taking a few steps downstairs, he put the box down again.
The afternoon sun on the university campus was strong, somewhat dazzling. Jian Wu looked around but couldn’t find any shade, so he simply dialed a number.
Hearing the call connect, Jian Wu rubbed his face, forcing a smile.
“Hello, Teacher Hu, it’s Xiao Jian!”
The old stick-in-the-mud, just mentioned by Sister Du, hearing it was him, immediately became friendly: “Xiao Jian, what’s up?”
Jian Wu looked down at the ants on the ground and said with feigned enthusiasm: “I recently got a new type of bait, when are you free? Let’s go fishing again.”
“Okay, okay, great, you finally have time!” Old Hu sounded very happy and immediately started discussing the time with him.
After they finished their discussion and hung up, Jian Wu stared at his phone and suddenly sighed.
He put his phone back in his pocket, nudged the box with his knee, and picked it up again. Standing in the sun for a while had made him sweat.
As he walked towards the school, he took a deep breath and finally couldn’t help but curse inwardly.
Jian Xiaowu, you really have too much time on your hands.
