Chapter 29: I've got this Scholar's back
Lu Deng raised his head and looked at him in the dark.
It was pitch black in front of him. He could only vaguely see the other's outline, but the feel of his touch was real and clear. The arm against his back was firm and steady and the familiar warmth covered his body. That kiss just now was light, there and gone the next but it had already bumped against his heart along with his gentle words.
He wasn't afraid anymore.
Lu Deng stared at him, his eyes curved with his smile. His empty hand wrapped around the other's shoulders and he leaned against him.
With a hum, the lights of the laboratory suddenly turned on once again.
The lights are bright and everything appeared detailed and clear. Meeting the sleek, raven-dark eyes of the young professor, Teaching Assistant Gu's heart, who'd been so brave in the dark, suddenly jumped. He was about to immediately retreat but the hand behind him suddenly forcefully stopped him.
It wasn't the almost unyielding, protective force he had showed in the cryo-electron microscopy laboratory. The force behind his back right now was light and gentle but it didn't give him the slightest chance of retreat.
His little professor looked at him, a crystal-clear light in his eyes. The fresh scent of greenery clung to his body and then a warm touch covered his lips.
Gu Chuanbai's heart gave a jump.
And jumped once again.
The overwhelming happiness he received in response whistled and echoed in his chest, drowning out all his uneasiness.
The corners of his lips couldn't stop from curving up. Gu Chuanbai hugged him tightly. He almost picked him up and spun him around but then he remembered that this was actually a serious and proper laboratory. He forced the rush of joy back. Only the excessive brightness in his eyes remained, still waiting incredulously for the other party's confirmation.
In response to his look, Lu Jingmo smiled and nodded. "I've already committed it to memory."
This new memory filled his heart, covering those extremely heavy shadows. In that same darkness where neither of them could see anything, the other party had fumbled his way over, carefully but accurately locating him.
He found his way over and kissed him.
In response to the warm smile in those eyes, the base of Gu Chuanbai's ears turned scalding. He raised his hand to touch his head, the corners of his lips still grinned unconsciously.
Lu Jingmo held his hand with a smile. Confirming that the machine had been repaired, he put in the reagent he was holding and soon after, an electronic beep sounded without a hitch.
The system was missing. No response was heard even after calling it a few times. By now, it had probably learned his routines and after repairing the machine, it went to look for evidence that the lab technician had deliberately tampered with the machine.
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.
His system was learning very quickly. It kept increasing it's capacity to help. Next time he goes back to the system world, he should give it a red envelope as encouragement.
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Although the experimenters were somewhat distracted in the middle of the process, at least, they still remembered proper business and it didn't take long for them to calm down.
After half a night, they had finished repeating the entire experiment.
"There was indeed a deviation, the offset value caused the tailend of the curve to flatten, here—"
After tidying up the laboratory, Gu Chuanbai drew a curve, straightened up and pointed it out to Lu Jingmo to see.
With no distractions, the young professor gave a sound of acknowledgement and quickly walked over to have a look. He didn't sit, instead he just bent his elbow on his shoulders and moved the mouse to examine the difficult-to-find details.
The fresh and moist breath swept gently against his ear. By now, he couldn't tell whether his little professor was completely oblivious and unguarded or a self-taught tease. Gu Chuanbai's heart thumped, his eyes moved unconsciously and his palms were beginning to sweat.
Lu Deng had long gotten used to being close to him like this. He didn't realize that there was anything wrong with his actions. He lay on his shoulder and checked the data one last time. He nodded in satisfaction and straightened up, exporting the data and shutting down the computer.
"That's it. We will go home tonight to write the paper and try to send it out as soon as possible.
Zhan Pei's scheme was not difficult to guess. First, he bought someone to maliciously falsify the data and then broke the equipment necessary for the verification experiment. He published papers too quickly and Zhan Pei thought he would probably pass it directly without looking carefully.
When the time comes, Zhan Pei would use this as leverage. Whether for using it to threaten Lu Jiangmo to negotiate terms or as part of his desperate retaliation, it was sure to give him lots of confidence and something to depend on.
It was a pity that Zhan Pei probably didn't expect that the experimental data he carefully had falsified would be picked out by a graduate student that had been trained under his high-pressure policy.
His heart started beating faster when Lu Jingmo said "go home". Graduate student Gu, who picked out the wrong data at a glance, didn't realize that he had done a great job, and he kept nodding. Lu Jingmo smiled all the way out of the laboratory and placed a key onto his palm.
It wasn't until he was squeezed into the driver's seat that Gu Chuanbai finally came back to his senses. "Jingmo——"
"This car was given to me by the school. I can't drive, so I just kept it parked here."
Lu Jingmo got into the passenger seat. He explained patiently and fastened his seat belt. "I will hand it over to you in the future."
His emaciated shoulders flashed in front of his eyes, causing Gu Chuanbai to feel choked up. He gave a low hum in response. He held the other's hand that had yet to fully warm up. "When we get back you should take a good rest. I'll write the paper for you. You can revise it afterwards, alright?"
When he didn't hear an instantaneous response, Gu Chuanbai felt a little nervousness in his heart. He grabbed the other's shoulder and wanted to see his expression, but Lu Jingmo was already looking up at him. "Get in bed and write it there, okay?"
Habit was a terrible thing. Since Lu Deng developed the habit of sleeping with the other person, he hasn't been able to sleep well for many days.
Since he was already bringing the other home, there was no reason not to go to bed together.
Feeling that he has probably blushing terribly all the way down to the base of his neck, Gu Chuanbai took a deep breath and repeatedly warned himself that the little professor just felt lonely and wanted him to accompany him to sleep. He finally managed to push down to the bottom of his heart, the instinctive throbbing caused by "my professor asked me to go to bed to write a paper". He held his hand and said, "Okay."
Lu Jingmo's lips ticked up, perfectly content. He gave him an address and slumped against the passenger seat, completely at ease.
His mood hadn't completely calmed since the electricity came back on. Gu Chuanbai tried his best to focus on driving. When he came to a fork in the road, he was about to ask Lu Jingmo which way to go but he suddenly kept quiet.
His little professor was already asleep.
He had just gotten over being sick and then he spent half a night of performing an experiment, he must be very tired. Gu Chuanbai carefully pulled over and parked. He took off his coat and covered him with it. His eyes fell on the peacefully sleeping, pure and handsome face. A warm expression came unbidden on his face.
Like this was good.
He placed his hand on the top of his head and gently ruffled his soft hair. Gu Chuanbai put on his earphones, turned on the navigation then quietly leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips.
When they were nearing his house, Lu Jingmo was woken up by the system's prompt.
The residence assigned to him by the university was in a high-end residential area. He hasn't ever lived in it. It would have just remained as a house number and no actual residence would have been generated.
The system took two hours to help him build a house. In order not to make him seem too unfamiliar with his own house, the system babbled at him, introducing him to the parts of the house. And since he was taking someone home with him, the system very patiently educated him about self-defense and safety knowledge. It specially pointed out to him the location of emergency supplies. Supposedly, there was also a pair of handcuffs hidden at the head of the bed. In case, the situation turned for the worse, it told him to beat the other until he was immobile and then run away.
Lu Jingmo couldn't help but smile. He had his gaze turned towards the window but Gu Chuanbai still noticed the soft curvature of his lips.
He parked the car on the parking space. Gu Chuanbai raised his hand to cover his cheek. He waited for him to turn and look at him. His voice was curious and gentle, "What is the professor laughing at?"
Professor Lu's smile grew deeper. He rubbed against his palm, unexpectedly relaxed and leaned towards the other.
Gu Chuanbai's heart felt soft and he stopped questioning. He unfastened both their seat belts with one hand. His other hand was still holding the other's cheek. He leaned over and pressed a kiss on his forehead.
Noticing that he was only wearing a thin shirt, Lu Jingmo moved, wanting to return his jacket but Gu Chuanbai raised his hand and held it down. "I'm not afraid of the cold. I'm okay with the cold."
Lu Jingmo blinked, before he could understand the deeper meaning of this sentence, Gu Chuanbai had already turned and got out of the car. He went to the other side to open the door for him and he took the entire person in his arms, jacket and all.
The dark clouds covering the night sky have disappeared. And while the moonlight was still faint, the stars appeared even brighter.
Standing firmly in his arms, Lu Jingmo wanted to find his hand but Gu Chuanbai had already firmly held his hands and draped the jacket over him. "Let's go. Let's go home."
Although it was an urgently constructed residence, it did not appear to be deserted and empty at all. It was an almost exact copy of his real-world residence. As soon as Lu Jingmo jogged his memory, he distinguished the purpose of each room, and led Gu Chuanbai straight to the bedroom. As soon as he entered, he saw the familiar bed big enough to sleep three people.
After sleeping in the single bed for so long, it would be a lie to say that he didn't feel moved finally seeing the bed he was familiar with.
Lu Jingmo let out a long sigh of relief and moved to sit on the bed. His body that had just recovered from illness finally felt a deep sense of fatigue.
On the way back here, he had already fallen asleep. Lu Jingmo must have been very tired. Gu Chuanbai coaxed him to take a bath first before laying down. He then covered the person with the quilt, stroked his forehead and planted a kiss, before quickly stepping into the bathroom.
Before they began the experiment in the afternoon, he had slept in the office for several hours. Right now, he didn't feel the least bit sleepy.
Standing under the shower, Gu Chuanbai lowered the temperature of the water a bit. He then raised his hand to press against the cold tile. Thinking how the little professor had been especially meek and docile when he was all sleepy in the bathtub just now, his cheeks went hot once again. He shook his head vigorously, driving all unnecessary thoughts from his mind.
He had actually followed the professor home.
It was much warmer here than in the cold office and it was much better to rest here. Now that he knows the way, he can drive his little professor home to sleep well. He will make sure he will never be tired to the point of falling ill.
Only a wall separated them. The other man was lying on the bed, sleeping peacefully.
Gu Chuanbai felt his chest warmed up just thinking about it. He took a cold shower, dried off and changed to his pajamas. Seeing Lu Jingmo sleeping soundly, he stood by the bed and hesitated for a while. He then gently took out the computer and sat down on the empty side of the bed.
The little professor was afraid of the dark and he had already made up his mind to accompany him to sleep, so he must stay with him.
Gu Chuanbai sat quietly for a while, waiting for Lu Jingmo to fall deeper into sleep before turning the brightness of the screen to a minimum and transferring the experimental records and data.
He had just typed a few words on the keyboard when the warmth next to him suddenly moved in closer.
Worried that he had woken him up with the noise, Gu Chuanbai quickly stopped. When he was about to lower his head to ask, he saw that Lu Jingmo was still asleep. Only now, his forehead was pressed against him. He snuggled lightly and the corners of his lips curved softly.
Under the dim light of the computer screen, Gu Chuanbai's gaze softened into a deep pool of still water. He stared for a while. He lifted the young professor's chin, leaned over, and gently kissed his lips.
He was going to accompany him every night from now on.
Hearing that Lu Jingmo had already submitted his paper, Zhan Pei's heart that had been worried for many long days finally felt relieved.
These days, he hadn't heard of the Botany lab borrowing any equipment. The experimenter he'd bribed gave him his most confident reassurance that Lu Jingmo hadn't found any problems with the data. As long as this paper was sent up and it passes the review, it would be a bomb that could blow up at any time in Lu Jingmo's hands.
He wanted fame, as does Lu Jingmo. Both people have problems with the data in their papers. They would have to spare each other's dignity and it would now be much easier to negotiate.
Taking a sip of the fine coffee ground by his graduate students, Zhan Pei leaned back against his office chair, slowly flipping through the latest weekly report.
There was a light knock on his door. Zhan Pei frowned and raised his eyes impatiently. "What is it?"
"Boss, people from the school are looking for you. In the laboratory, they're saying — talk…"
The one who came in was a third year graduate student with a pale face and cautious tone. However, his eyes flashed with an unusual light.
Accustomed to these graduate students keeping quiet out of fear in front of him, Zhan Pei was pierced by his unusual gaze and he narrowed his eyes. He snapped the weekly report off the table unhappily. The student shivered immediately, lowered his head and stepped back.
Seeing that his ability to awe was still there, Zhan Pei snorted with satisfaction and told him to clean up the office. He got up and pushed open the door, heading out.
His graduate students have recently lost morale. They haven't produced any valuable results for a long time. The people from the school weren't ones sent there to urge him to produce results rather it was Lu Jingmo, that despicable guy had already seen through him.
The former was so very easy to handle and even the latter was too. This wasn't the first time his paper had been exposed. If back then, he'd been able to deceive his way through once, he could deceive his way through a second time. As long as the tampered paper was published in time before Lu Jingmo submits the results of his repeated experiment, he wasn't afraid that this baby professor, not even old enough to grow facial hair, would dare make trouble.
Before entering the laboratory, Zhan Pei adjusted his expression and put on an enthusiastic smile.
You shouldn't hit a smiling face. He was already a veteran in this university and everyone has to show him some face. If there was really anything wrong, they would mutually trade explanations, show consideration for each other and let things pass.
Thinking thus with a smile on his face, he opened the door to call out a greeting. But his smile suddenly froze on his face and a look of slight anxiety flashed in his eyes.
Gu Chuanbai hadn't been to the cryo-electron microscopy laboratory for a long time. He didn't want to ruin his future because of such an insignificant graduate student, so he had been letting him do as he wanted, half-pretending not to know of his activities.
But this time, Gu Chuanbai was brought here by the university leaders.
Lu Jingmo was also there, sitting in front of the test bench, his eyes quietly staring at empty space.
His face seemed to be pale, but still looked calm and unconcerned. No one could make out what he was thinking, but he still shifted half of his body unobtrusively and stubbornly guarded Gu Chuanbai, who was behind him, with his body.
If there were only these two people, it would be fine. What made him feel intensely uneasy was that researcher he'd bribed was also standing amongst the crowd.
The university president only focused on scientific research and was usually not on campus. The vice-principal, who was in charge of administration, walked slowly over, hands behind his back. The look he directed at him even had a bit of bitter hatred.
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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The vice-principal sighed again and again. He continued speaking in a deep voice.
"Professor Lu's research does not conflict with yours. What were you planning with this? If it weren't for Teaching Assistant Gu's careful verification and helping him to find out the mistakes and omissions, urgently redoing the experiment, there would have been a problem with Professor Lu's paper——Professor Lu was personally invited back by the principal. Do we also have to persuade others to retire?"
That word "also" made Zhan Pei's eyes contract. Zhan Pei took a deep breath, and his voice trembled, "Principal Ding, what do you mean?"
The vice principal did not speak, but pushed a document over. "Sign it. Letters of accusation against you are already piled up in my office. As far as we know, apart from falsifying thesis and maliciously tampering with other people's experiment data, you also have also been maltreating your graduate students for a long time. This kind of behavior has persisted for so long in broad daylight. We should reflect on…"
"Who said that!"
Zhan Pei's eyes were already bloodshot. H suddenly slammed open the door of the laboratory. Outside was a group of graduate students, suddenly standing upright in shock.
Zhan Pei glared furiously, and said in a cold voice. "Who said that?! Who am I maltreating! If you have the guts then stand up now—"
Before he finished his words, the youth leading them had already stepped forward and bowed silently to him.
More and more graduate students followed, most of their eyes were red. Several girls couldn't help squatting on the ground, covering their face and crying bitterly.
"If our future prospects come at the cost of future students jumping into the fire pit then we no longer want these future prospects."
The young man heading them had his lips pursed, his eyes filled with unshed tears. Nevertheless, he still walked to the vice principal, took out a letter of accusation and handed it over.
"This is the last letter of accusation. My name is Bi Song. I use my real name to report that Professor Zhan has been oppressing and insulting the graduate students. He collects the students' internship salaries and holds the students' papers hostage by withholding his signature…"
They didn't know exactly what happened that caused Zhan Pei to run into bad luck, but Gu Chuanbai came to them and asked if they would be willing to report Zhan Pei, saying that there was a way to submit it.
They only thought about it for one night and they all agreed to sign their names on letters of accusation.
Rather than saying they were willing to believe in Gu Chuanbai, it was better to say that they were willing to believe in Lu Jingmo. That night, when they watched Gu Chuanbai being led away by the young professor who had rushed to defend him, a great many of them lay sleepless afterwards. Throughout the night, there was a faint but inerasable envy and longing in their hearts.
If there was still a last ray of light in this very gloomy time as students, even if they were just moths flying into the flame, they will still pounce on the chance.
Before his words finished, Zhan Pei rushed over in anger. He raised his hand to strike, but was immediately firmly held back by several people.
"Z University wanted you. Your future prospects, Z University gave you!"
The vice principal pressed his shoulder tightly and spoke loudly. Seeing Zhan Pei fighting and struggling desperately under their hold, his eyes finally darkened, knowing that he was completely hopeless. With a trembling hand, he finally signed the document and let out a deep sigh.
Someone pushed Zhan Pei. The person sitting at the table seemed to suddenly collapse. It took a long time before he got up in confusion and staggered out the door.
They could hear the sound of intermittent footsteps in the corridor fading farther and farther away.
Zhan Pei was dismissed from his position as professor and his original graduate students could choose a new tutor to apply for transfer. Suddenly he noticed a lot of scorching gazes and Professor Lu, who was still pretending to be an aloof genius, suddenly felt a shiver down his spine. Having a belated realization, he raised his head and looked at Gu Chuanbai with a vague cry for help in his eyes.
He wanted to recruit graduate students but he never thought of having so many.
He had taken a whole day to give his comments on Gu Chuanbai's fifty question application test. Only when he had finished, had he been allowed to get out of bed. If each person had another fifty questions, even if they were handed over to the system——
This thought just came to mind when there was a chaotic mechanical sound in his head. The system went black with a pop, probably because it had stalled due to insufficient memory.
Lu Jingmo sighed anxiously and chose to restart the system. There was suddenly a light hold on his shoulders.
Raising his gaze, he was greeted by the warm smile in Gu Chuanbai's eyes. "I can help the professor check the application tests."
They prepared for today's battle for a long time. Only after repeated experiments proved that the data was falsified and the paper was successfully published, did they submit the evidence they had collected.
The academic circle was deep and quiet but only because they were afraid of causing too much of a commotion. These were all timed bombs that would explode with the slightest touch. The students' letters of accusations made a bad situation even worse. If they were unable to pacify every party, this scandal might detonate online and it would be a deadly strike to Z University.
Universities must properly and clearly document the situation when punishing professors. Thus, Zhan Pei probably has no chance of even going to a lower level university.
A lot of people had come and the pair were trapped behind them. Gu Chuanbai grew bolder and he moved his hand. He fumbled for Lu Jingmo's hand and wrote on his palm "a kiss for every ten questions".
He had written only six words when the crowd began to disperse.
Gu Chuanbai withdrew his hand in time and before the graduate students could surround Lu Jingmo, he took his little professor and broke out of the blockade by following the flow of people.
The brightness of the sun was just right, without a cloud in the sky. It was a rare day of perfect weather.
*
During a certain year, at the turn of spring and summer…
The train rumbled along. The patterns of light and shadow kept constantly changing. On the seat by the window, the young professor was looking at the applications for a new batch of graduate students when suddenly someone gently held his other hand.
Lu Jingmo raised his head, met the other's gaze and smiled warmly. Gu Chuanbai said, "It's not good for your eyes, wait until you get to the hotel."
Although he doesn't engage in taxonomy, Lu Jingmo was still given funds for study trips. He would often take along his graduate students on these trips, nominally to investigate new plants in the mountainous area, but in fact was also to allow these hard-working graduate students some time to breathe.
Gu Chuanbai originally wanted to book a soft sleeper for him, but at Lu Jingmo's insistence, he changed back to a hard seat. One trip was almost 10 hours; his little professor didn't know what it meant to be tired.
He put the stack of papers on the small table, took out a cup of mung bean soup from the thermos and passed it over. Seeing Lu Jingmo accept it and take a sip it, Gu Chuanbai's eyes revealed a smile once again. "Is it good?"
Lu Jingmo raised his head to look at him, curled his eyes into a smile and nodded lightly. Taking advantage of his inattentiveness, he took out a pen and wrote a reply on Jiang Zhou's application. He marked down, "Cannot be admitted due to full quota."
Jiang Zhou was the protagonist of this world. He was a graduate student who should be studying under the head of the Biology Department, who was an industry leader. Unexpectedly, he'd been tempted by his program for graduate students.
Everyone else can be considered, but this one had to be rejected as soon as possible so that the plot line could be corrected.
Before the two set out on this trip, they had just finished a small revision for a paper for "Science". Seeing the faint tiredness on Lu Jingmo's brows. Gu Chuanbai covered him with a thin blanket and had him lean against his arm. "Would you like to lie down for a while?"
"No need. I'll lie down when we get to the hotel."
Lu Jingmo sipped his mung bean soup and shook his head slightly. He looked curiously at the ever-changing scenery outside the window.
He was born from data and has traveled between various worlds. He had gone to many places, but he rarely experienced going on a long train journey like this. The scenery outside the window flashed past and kept changing. The flora was getting more and more luxuriant and the sunlight was dazzling. The north was barren of greenery but as they headed south, the surroundings became verdant and lush.
Lu Jingmo was looking intently at the scenery but Gu Chuanbai was looking at him.
Gu Chuanbai's been following his little professor for five years, from his graduate studies to his PhD. And all through that he's never been able to change the habit of peeking at the other.
The train passed through the light and shadow, and the sunlight jumped onto his gentle and handsome features, reflecting in his dark and gentle eyes. Gu Chuanbai looked forward and suddenly couldn't help smiling.
Perceiving his chuckle, Lu Jingmo turned his head curiously, but his vision suddenly went dark.
The train was passing through a tunnel, the rumbling sound instantly echoed.
This was a tunnel through the mountain. With the lighting only available in front, and there was no light in the train car for nearly a minute.
Lu Jingmo had already overcome his initial trauma of the dark, but Gu Chuanbai still held his hand firmly, holding him between his arm and the seat.
Taking advantage of the darkness in the carriage, amidst the increasing excited chatter and laughter and the deafening roar of the train, Gu Chuanbai gathered him close and kissed him softly.
Lu Jingmo smiled and closed his eyes, leaning forward and pressing in closer. He then raised his head and gave a quiet hum.
The keys swayed in his pocket, and the bell gave out a crisp ring.