Under the strict supervision of Assistant Professor Gu, Professor Lu, who was aware that he had already recovered, still remained in the hospital bed until the very last moment. He was finally allowed to get out of bed and walk around by himself once he guaranteed that he would personally look through the fifty questions.
His fever had just subsided and he'd been sleeping for so long, it was hard to avoid feeling tired. Lu Jingmo's knees buckled. Gu Chuanbai, sharp-eyed and deft-handed, grabbed him into his arms and patted his back worriedly. "You should eat to get back your strength. I'll go back and cook you some porridge, okay?"
The body in his arms was cold, and the heartbeat he could feel against his chest was also running a bit fast. Gu Chuanbai couldn't help tightening his embrace. He took down the coat hanging to the side and put it on him.
With warmth covering his shoulders, Lu Jingmo raised his head and shook his head gently. "I'm fine."
He had to setup and regulate the laboratory, the project plan needed to be improved and revised and he had to prepare for his classes and draw up the test papers. Sooner or later, he will have to accompany Gu Chuanbai to do the experiments. Instead of letting the system do the work for him, he refreshed his studies and he thought that he might as well do these tasks himself.
His original specialty had been studies related to plants. The level of scientific research in this world was about a hundred years behind the plane from which he was born. It wasn't difficult for him to personally do these things. Lu Jingmo was also determined to be personally responsible. The only task he handed over to the industrious and conscientious system was the non-technical work of correcting the students' homework.
The workload was originally meant to be completed in one to two years but he had compressed it to half a year. Naturally, it was impossible not to be busy.
It's easy for him to forget the time when he's busy. He doesn't feel sleepy by himself and he also doesn't feel tired. He simply never thinks to stop to rest.
In fact, he himself didn't know how long he's been working. So long as the hidden dangers to his body doesn't cause substantial impact, they won't be monitored by the system. Unexpectedly, after being subjected to the cold night wind, he really had collapsed.
Looking into his still somewhat dizzy eyes, Gu Chuanbai's arms tightened. He carefully supported him to sit back and half-squatted beside his bed.
"Jingmo, have you been living in the office and haven't been going home?"
Occasionally staying in the office was fine but the quality of rest couldn't be guaranteed. The doctor said that Lu Jingmo hadn't had a good rest for at least one or two months. His little professor forgets to eat. When he was alone, he also probably forgets to sleep.
Lu Jingmo almost forgot that he still has a place to live outside of the school. He was startled by his question. After thinking about it for a while, he hesitated and shook his head.
He wasn't a character in the original plot. The outside world setting might not be unlocked unless he comes into contact with it. Lu Deng urgently knocked on the system in his mind, "Do I have a place to live?"
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.
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He wouldn't be able to finish checking all fifty questions in two hours. Lu Deng wasn't worried at all. He comforted it in his mind. "I see, don't worry."
If it didn't go to build the residence, it would have been sent to check over the homework. They system didn't dare delay. It put a red busy sign and, with a buzzing sound, it cut off contact.
Seeing him muttering to himself irresolutely, Gu Chuanbai only took it to mean that he was still in a daze. He worriedly let out a soundless chuckle. It seems that the little professor who raised his hand and rubbed his head only had space for scientific research in his head. "Jingmo, people need to eat, sleep and rest."
These past days, he's always been at the laboratory, Lu Jingmo was the only one in the office. If he hadn't accidentally gotten a fever from being exposed to the cold night wind, he had no idea until when Lu Jingmo would have persisted with being this busy.
Although Gu Chuanbai himself was busy, there was always a limit to how much exhaustion he could take. However, Lu Jingmo didn't seem to feel tired at all. He would only realize that he's exhausted once his body signals the warning.
In the future, he's going to have to closely keep an eyes on him until he can develop good sleeping habits.
Gu Chuanbai raised the back of his hand and put it against Lu Jingmo's cheek. He spoke gently and tentatively asked, "You've just recovered from your illness. You need a good rest. Can I take you home?"
Lu Jingmo was startled and took his hand. "Shouldn't I look over your homework?"
"You can take your time to look over it. The conditions here are limited. There are also a lot of people who've caught colds these days. It will be troublesome if you get re-infected."
Gu Chuanbai smiled. He leaned forward to support the person to stand. Once he was steady on his feet, he then patiently lowered his head and asked, "Are you still feeling dizzy?"
Although he wasn't feeling dizzy, he still needed to delay him for two hours.
Lu Jingmo blinked, thinking of a way to stall for time. "I want to go to the laboratory first."
"I'll go with you."
Gu Chuanbai knew that all of Lu Jingmo's recent hard work had been poured into the Botany laboratory. He nodded and helped him put on his coat. He then took the other person to the sink and patiently adjusted the temperature of the water.
The reputation of a laboratory came from the papers they produce. Zhan Pei was an abominable person. It was because of the easy results of his laboratory that year after year, graduate student after graduate student jumped into the fire pit.
Lu Jingmo was new to the job. His laboratory was now at the critical stage of its rise. It needed to publish at least a dozen or so studies in mid-level publications to build its reputation.
He soaked the towel with warm water and then used it to cover his slightly aching eyes. Under the cover of the towel, Lu Jingmo took a deep breath. The lingering muddle-headedness he was feeling from sleeping so long finally dispersed completely.
The water slid down his jaw and dripped down, hitting his collar and making it slightly wet.
Gu Chuanbai raised his sleeve to wipe it for him. Lu Jingmo didn't try to avoid him. He stood there obediently and let him wipe off the droplets of water. His eyes turned towards Gu Chuanbai's face. After a long while, a happy smile appeared on his face.
He truly no longer felt unwell.
The little professor stood under the sunlight, obedient and quiet. Gu Chuanbai suddenly felt some impulse in his heart. He was inexplicably nervous. He grabbed a dry towel and handed it over: "Professor."
"En?"
Already used to Gu Chuanbai addressing him by all sorts of names when he teased him, Lu Jingmo responded with a nasally sound of agreement. He wiped off the water droplets and squeezed some toothpaste onto his toothbrush, brushing his teeth while waiting for his next words.
The figure beside him stood tall and straight. Sunlight fell on his lofty appearance. Those dark eyes stared fixedly at his body from start to finish. It seemed that that haze from the other night, the haze that seemed as though it could almost crush Gu Chuanbai had completely disappeared long ago.
Seeing that Gu Chuanbai hadn't said anything, Lu Jingmo simply rinsed his mouth, put down his toothbrush and turned around to look at him. But then suddenly, he found himself pulled in and covered.
One hand lay steadily against the back of his waist, stopping him from hitting against the sink. The fragrance of the Ning Shenmu pressed close. Gu Chuanbai gently rubbed his cheek, and his voice softened.
"Are your graduate students…provided with off-campus accommodation?"
The arm behind him clearly went rigid. The breath against his ear went unsteady. Lu Jingmo blinked, turned his head sideways and blew a breath on his prospective disrespectful-to-one's-elders graduate student. He immediately saw that the base of his ears turn red at a speed visible to the naked eye.
If he had the system look into Gu Chuanbai's internet search records, it would probably find searches such as "Is flirting with your professor against the law?" And afterwards, "Concrete steps on how to flirt with your professor" and those types of searches.
Lu Deng himself remembered more than the other.
Lu Deng's lips curled up. In his heart, he was quietly very pleased with himself.
The system has always been worried that it would be very tough on Lu Deng, given that he was the only one who could remember what happened in the previous worlds. Based on how things were now, it seemed that he wasn't the one who had it tough.
Soon, Gu Chuanbai wouldn't be able to remain standing.
Professor Lu didn't rush. He pressed his hand to the other's waist, which was probably soon to give way. He turned over the other hand and supported himself against the sink. "No, they're not."
Gu Chuanbai wasn't expecting this response and was slightly startled. The light in his eyes deepened. He already had both arms around his little professor, the gentle and warm sensation stuck to his neck softly.
"But the teaching assistant is provided with board and lodging. In addition to three meals, you can also have one more meal."
He'll have a lot of graduate students but he plans to accept only one teaching assistant.
The system had already built a dedicated subsidiary laboratory for food engineering or one could say, molecular gastronomy. With that, Gu Chuanbai certainly wouldn't just be limited to making ice cream. When the time comes, he would be able to create meals and snacks from even more types of ingredients.
Without noticing that his teaching assistant had momentarily stopped breathing, Professor Lu pursed the corners of his lips and thought so confidently.
On the way to the laboratory, Gu Chuanbai was still a little dizzy, thinking all the while about what that extra meals was that the little professor had been referring to.
Lu Jingmo's laboratory was newly built and it wasn't located in the old laboratory building. Moreover, all the laboratory technicians were ones that were recruited from outside. Although they were still strict and rigorous in conducting experiments, the atmosphere was much more relaxed than in Zhan Pei's laboratory.
Aside from the time they secretly made ice cream, this was Gu Chuanbai's first time coming to this laboratory during the day. He changed into a white lab coat and was led by Lu Jingmo inside. He greeted everyone and couldn't help but look around carefully.
Lu Jingmo got the bulk of the department's funds but it was, in fact, mainly used to establish the laboratory. A few large instruments consumed most of the expenses. The remaining was used to purchase materials and reagents. Seen from this perspective, the fund wasn't actually all that plentiful.
Although it didn't have the lavishness of Zhan Pei's laboratory, the laboratory technicians conducted their work in a very orderly manner — only slight arguments could be heard between conversations and they very rarely had to wait for use of an instrument.
On the blackboard was tacked on several pieces of paper on which the task distribution for the day was meticulously written down. The tasks had already been arranged for the next three days.
For laboratories below the intermediate level, this kind of detailed step-by-step allocation saves the most work effort and material resources. It could also produce results the fastest. However, there were very many factors to consider and it takes a lot of effort to make. Many instructors would rather spend more money and time and just not bother to make such a tough experiment preparation.
Gu Chuanbai stood in front of the blackboard, read it carefully several times, and finally understood how Lu Jingmo had worked himself to exhaustion.
"Little brother, are you here to take the test to become Teacher Lu's research graduate?"
The middle-aged man who had just finished pouring the reagents, covered the waste bucket and grinned at him. "Our laboratory doesn't have a lot of things right now. Thanks to Teacher Lu's careful arrangements, we can take turns using the instruments. Don't look at how plain it looks now. When the laboratory scales up in the future, an extremely virtuous circle will be established. You see, our laboratory has only been open for a few months and already more than a dozen SCIs with an impact factors higher than 5 have been published."
Gu Chuanbai liked hearing people praise Lu Jingmo. He smiled at that person, nodded lightly and looked at the young professor who was focused on reviewing the experimental records.
The Botany laboratory was now in the stage of building up their impact factors. It needed a lot of short and quick experiments to get a foothold and it was also useful in establish a tacit understanding between laboratory technicians. He liked this atmosphere and sincerely wanted to join in as soon as possible.
Lu Jingmo's body had just gotten a little better. He can't immediately start working on high-intensity tasks. Gu Chuanbai moved a stool and had him sit down. He then took another stack of bound experiment records and accompanied him to look through it carefully.
Organizing records was his strong point although he was used to working on the computer in Lu Jingmo's office, today, he switched to the laboratory and it proved equally as handy.
Lu Jingmo turned his head sideways and looked at him. His eyes curved into a smile. He held his hand and passed over the pen he'd been using to make notes.
The plain pen was still warm from his touch. Gu Chuanbai's heart stirred slightly and he thanked him and accepted it. He held it firmly in his hand, lowered his head and calmly looked at the data.
The research ability of full-time researchers was higher than that of an ordinary graduate students'. Most of Lu Jingmo's experiment data were accurate enough. He just looked over the rough comparison for final confirmation. There weren't any mistakes.
Gu Chuanbai held the pen, looked at it for a while and couldn't help his thoughts from drifting away. He moved his left hand into his pocket and touched the folded pieces of paper of his experiment plan.
He wanted to throw it away but he was unwilling to part with it at the same time.
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.
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He had already forgotten his reaction at that time. He only remembered the saline solution entering bit by bit into his veins. When he finally confirmed that the breathing of the young man in his arms had gradually stabilized, it seemed that even his breath could elicit pain from his chest.
Lu Jingmo didn't need to be in such a hurry.
The process for general professors to get on the right track was about one to two years. Some specially-appointed professors simply don't take on any graduate students and only let lab technicians do the experiments, the credit for which they let the school take a nominal part of. For schools who had desperate need for scientific research, they would love to have such professors.
In half a semester, he's written more than a dozen SCI papers, all of which were "JBC" and above. Lu Jingmo was anxious to begin a formal project because only when the project starts can he take Gu Chuanbai from Zhan Pei.
His little professor hadn't even said a word to him.
His vision blurred for a moment and he quickly blinked it away. He stared intently from out the corner of his eyes at Lu Jingmo, who was still focused on reviewing the experiment records. Gu Chuanbai took a deep breath and concentrated, continuing to compare the remaining results.
His movements suddenly paused.
Noticing that the sound of turning pages beside him had stopped, Lu Jingmo looked over and sent him a questioning look. Gu Chuanbai frowned and passed over the paper in his hand. "Here…"
Looking at this set of data alone, it was fine. It even made a very beautiful line. Looking at the overall experiment though, normally there should be a very slight deviation, which will cause more complicated changes here. It shouldn't have come out with such a perfect result.
The lab technician wasn't a graduate student and he knew the seriousness of data fraud. This step of the experiment wasn't difficult. As long as you continue to do it, there was no need to fabricate the data.
Lu Jingmo took the page of data. He looked over it for a while and then fumbled for his hand under the table.
His cool fingertip wrote a word on his hand. When he wrote the word "night" for "tonight", Gu Chuanbai had already turned his wrist and held his hand. He nodded gently. "Then let's eat first."
Even if an abnormality was found, they couldn't make it public immediately. If they repeated the experiment now, not only do they not have any spare equipment but it could also easily cause conflict with the technician.
Lu Jingmo blinked and nodded lightly. He gathered together the data and records, told everyone to continue the experiment and left the laboratory with him.
"Jingmo, could it be Zhan Pei? He couldn't get to you through other methods so he bribed your researcher…"
After leaving the laboratory, Gu Chuanbai finally couldn't help it anymore. He frowned and spoke in a low voice, feeling deeply disturbed.
This kind of experimental procedure was too simple. If the one to review the data weren't a rookie like him, most professors would have just swept their glance through it.
Stubbornly selecting this kind of place to maliciously fabricate and tamper with the data, it was hard to guarantee that Zhan Pei was not secretly playing dirty tricks and bribing the technician to destroy Lu Jingmo's paper.
"It doesn't matter. We'll do it again."
Lu Jingmo didn't seem surprised. He held his hand and spoke warmly.
He has a private laboratory and he doesn't need those electron microscopes to do his experiments. It is not surprising that Zhan Pei would act like a cornered dog and jump over the wall.
If it was just falsification of his thesis from back then, Zhan Pei could still continue to stubbornly deny it. At most his reputation would suffer but he wouldn't necessarily be dismissed from his post as a professor. He could also simply settle down at a lower-level scientific research institution.
But if he does this kind of malicious sabotaging of other people's experiments, as long as there was evidence to support it, news will spread through the academic circle at a speed not any slower than in the entertainment circle. Within half a month, Zhan Pei will probably no longer be able to gain a foothold in any high-end scientific research site.
The system liked doing this kind of work most. There was no need to worry that they wouldn't be able to find reliable evidence. Lu Jingmo left a message for the system and stopped worrying about it as he dragged Gu Chuanbai to the cafeteria.
*
After the two had eaten, they returned to the office to rest away the rest of the afternoon before returning to the laboratory in the evening.
The technicians have already left and the laboratory was empty. The situation was reminiscent of when they made ice cream that day.
The system had completed the construction of the house and when it heard that it was supposed to go looking for evidence, he was in very high spirits about it. Lu Deng gave it several directions it could direct its search to so that it wouldn't just shoot randomly. He had his head lowered and was putting on his gloves when a warm breath suddenly brushed his back.
"Actually, I was also going to make mung bean soup but it's past summer now…"
Repeating the experiment was very simple, but the steps were dull and boring. Gu Chuanbai's ability to follow the steps of an experiment was honed under high pressure; he performed the steps neatly and directly. With his skills doing the prep work, he had selected the same batch of reagents and instruments written on the experiment record and he also adjusted the temperature and humidity. He had finished the preliminary blend and had now began the static stratification.
Lu Jingmo blinked and looked at the test bench where it seemed that he wouldn't be able to help. He looked up at him. "I also have a centrifuge."
"But it's too cold now, drinking mung bean soup—"
Gu Chuanbai didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He sensibly tried to dissuade him for a while then gave up after being subjected to the expectant gaze of those black eyes. "Okay, let's cook some up…"
The little professor was obviously very satisfied. He went to check on the experiment with a smile on his face. He adjusted the timer and set it aside. He added, "Can you also make popcorn?"
Those animals he called roommates had probably already sold him clean out for the sake of never having roll call.
Gu Chuanbai took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and admitted honestly, "I can also make caviar using lychee and muskmelon."
After receiving the confirmation that he wanted, Lu Jingmo was obviously in a good mood. His eyes appearing above the mask were slightly curved into crescents. Gu Chuanbai chuckled soundlessly. He couldn't rub his hair while wearing gloves. He could only lean over and rubbed his earlobe with the tip of his nose. "Be sure to take good care of your body and I will make all the delicious foods for you."
He never wanted to see this person before him falling silently into his arms from tiredness and exhaustion.
Lu Jingmo nodded obediently then lowered his head to do the preparatory steps for the next experiment.
When all was said and done, he still kept in mind proper business and was thinking about sending Lu Jingmo home as soon as possible to have a good rest. Gu Chuanbai stopped being distracted and focused on the test bench in front of him.
The two were each busy with their own matters. Occasionally, they would cooperate with each other and their experiment progressed smoothly from start to finish. Gu Chuanbai remained staring at the temperature of the heating plate. Lu Jingmo went to get the new results before turning on the machine when suddenly there was a "pop". The laboratory lights suddenly went out and his eyes quickly went dark.
Outside the window, it was already well into the night. With no moon or stars, it was also pitch-dark.
The other end was still quiet but Gu Chuanbai suddenly felt uneasy: "Jingmo…?"
His little professor was afraid of the dark.
In order to avoid any disturbance during their experiment, their mobile phones had been placed on the experiment preparation table. For a while, he couldn't find the lighting installation kept close at hand. He was afraid that he might accidentally knock over some reagents so he could only fumble along the test bench, walking as fast as he could towards the direction he remembered seeing the other last.
Lu Jingmo was still holding the reagent in his hand, and was slightly startled by the sudden change. Suddenly, the system's voice rang in his mind.
"Don't be afraid, host! This machine is broken, which caused the laboratory's breakers to trip. I will be able to fix it immediately!"
The two previous experiences have cemented in the system's mind that the host was afraid of the dark and it was determined to use this opportunity to protect the host. It confidently explained the situation and thoughtfully continued to babble, "Don't worry. Nothing will happen to the host. With me here, I will protect the host—"
Before it could finish its words, a familiar figure had already accurately fumbled his way in the dark. He leaned down within Lu Deng's line of sight. His fingertips reached out towards his ears and gently took off his mask.
Lu Deng blinked and looked up. Gu Chuanbai held him firmly in his arms and lightly met his lips.
"The next time you find yourself in the dark, remember this…"