Academic Attitude and Southern Cuisine

Four years had passed, and as the twenty-eight-year-old Chu Ran handed the keys to Ye Nanzhi once again, the young girl’s cheeks had already turned as red as apples.

After taking the keys, she kept her head low and practically bolted for the door as she left.

With her mind set on keeping her head down, she ran all the way back to her dormitory. Leaning her back against the door, Ye Nanzhi panted heavily, stroking her chest to calm her racing heart.

What did Chu Ran say just now…? Regarding the substitute attendance this morning, she had actually seen through it.

According to Chu Ran’s past personality, the scene should have turned quite ugly. At the very least, Li Huan would have definitely failed the course and been forced to retake it.

As for her, the accomplice—considering what she had done to Chu Ran four years ago—Chu Ran would most likely have handed her over to the university authorities for official punishment, or at the very least, sent her to her supervisor.

Getting caught for substitute attendance was enough to land them in serious trouble.

And yet, what was Chu Ran’s reaction? She had let it slide with a single, breezy sentence and told her to sit down. Ye Nanzhi raised a hand to touch her forehead. Well, no fever. It wasn’t a hallucination.

But her cheeks were terrifyingly hot.

Fortunately, she was alone in the room. Graduate dorms were double occupancy, but because there was an odd number of girls in her year, Ye Nanzhi had happily become the “lonely one” living in a single room.

In the past, she had been someone who enjoyed interacting with others, often called a “Little Sun” by those around her. But later, Ye Nanzhi gradually began to fall in love with living alone.

Eating alone, sleeping alone, going to the library alone.

She wasn’t used to it at first, but over time, she felt there were benefits to it.

Every event, itinerary, and decision could be made entirely according to her own preferences. She didn’t have to care about others’ gazes, nor did she have to exhaust herself trying to appease the people around her.

For instance, right now, if there were another person in the room, she would have to come up with a reason for why her face was so flushed.

Then, her phone chimed. Ye Nanzhi glanced at it; it was an email notification. Chu Ran had sent over the prepared files.

Ye Nanzhi exhaled, trying her best to calm down. It’s nothing, Ye Nanzhi. Your relationship isn’t teacher-student, and she’s not just a senior anymore.

It’s just a collaborative academic relationship researching the same topic.

Right, you must maintain a proper academic attitude. You are dedicating yourself to academia; it’s not embarrassing!

After organizing her thoughts, Ye Nanzhi opened her laptop and downloaded the files from the email.

Chu Ran had already categorized and organized all the files by date, category, major, and keywords. There was even an attached document summarizing the key points of each file.

Looking at the clearly organized folder, Ye Nanzhi felt dazed for a moment. Chu Ran was still that swift, decisive, and orderly model student.

But somehow, something was different.

A new email arrived. It was Chu Ran asking if she had received them.

Ye Nanzhi stared at the character “Ran” behind the sender’s name on the screen, lost in thought. After typing the word “Received,” she struggled for a moment before adding “Thank you” and pressing send.

Just as she was about to put her phone down, the screen lit up again.

It was a call from Guo Peng. The first thing he said was:

–Are you ready? Let’s go together!–

“What?”

–The research group dinner!–

Ye Nanzhi finally remembered. Since the first-year master’s students joined the group, Professor Song had been busy with meetings. This welcome dinner had been dragged out until the third week of the semester.

Professor Song had said that the time before the proposal defense was inevitably stressful. After looking at their prepared topics today, he wanted to treat everyone to a meal out of his own pocket as a way to comfort them, cheer them up, and give the seniors and juniors a chance to get to know each other.

Just yesterday, Guo Peng and Zheng Xiaorou were saying in their group chat that they would head over together today. Who knew that after a day of chaos, she would have completely forgotten about it.

In the car, Ye Nanzhi looked exhausted. Just as she wanted to close her eyes for a rest, the driver slammed on the brakes. Ye Nanzhi’s forehead slammed squarely into the back of the seat in front of her.

With a heavy dong, even Zheng Xiaorou beside her seemed to feel the pain. Ye Nanzhi felt dizzy, her brain instantly turned to mush.

She wondered if she had failed to check the almanac before leaving today; everything seemed so unlucky. And all this bad luck could be traced back to one person—Chu Ran.

With Chu Ran’s appearance, her seemingly harmonious world felt as though it had been hit by a century-defining earthquake. The originally flimsy structure, which was only for show, now had massive cracks following the tremors of heaven and earth, making it impossible to maintain a facade of peace.

Structural defects and problems were exposed in an instant; the most wretched interior was ruthlessly stripped of its cover and displayed openly to the world.

Ye Nanzhi rubbed her forehead, thinking that she must eat more tonight to make up for the mental exhaustion of the day.

With this thought in mind, Ye Nanzhi, Guo Peng, and Zheng Xiaorou walked into the private room of the restaurant. But as they pushed the door open, they didn’t see any junior students. Instead, they saw three mature silhouettes—one of which was particularly familiar.

Yes, this was the third time Ye Nanzhi had encountered Chu Ran today.

Seeing the three of them enter, Professor Song quickly beckoned them to sit.

Ye Nanzhi caught a glimpse of Chu Ran sitting on the outermost side of the teacher group. She consciously sat between Zheng Xiaorou and Guo Peng, deliberately maintaining a certain distance from her.

Throughout the process, she didn’t dare look at Chu Ran’s expression, acting as if they had never known each other and were truly strangers.

But sometimes, the more you try to avoid drawing a clear line, the more obvious your behavior becomes.

Her phone vibrated with a message in their small group chat:

[Zheng Xiaorou: You seem very afraid of that young teacher. Isn’t she the one you’re collaborating with?]

[Guo Peng: Yeah, yeah, did she make things difficult for you today?]

Ye Nanzhi pursed her lips and simply replied with a smile emoji, putting the phone back in her pocket without further explanation.

However, Ye Nanzhi overlooked one thing: often, a simple emoji is enough to trigger infinite speculation.

The looks Guo Peng and Zheng Xiaorou gave Ye Nanzhi gradually took on a hint of sympathy.

Professor Song took the lead in organizing the dinner.

–I originally wanted the first-year girls to join us so everyone could get to know each other, but the college suddenly arranged other matters for them tonight. So, I’ll just treat the three teachers from the Architecture Department.–

Saying this, Professor Song poured himself a cup of tea.

–I’ll be counting on you three teachers to look after my students in the future. In your joint research projects, I, the official supervisor, have become an assistant instead. I feel quite apologetic for shifting the burden to you. Today, I’ll use tea instead of wine to toast you three.–

With that, Professor Song downed the tea in his cup.

Although they were in different majors, in terms of seniority, Professor Song was the senior to the three young teachers. There was no reason for a senior to toast juniors, so the three teachers quickly raised their cups as well.

With the exchange of toasts, the atmosphere immediately became familiar. It had to be admitted that Professor Song was very skilled at livening up the mood.

Next, it was time for the students to toast the teachers.

–You three, hurry up and toast your respective teachers.–

Though it was called a “toast,” the cups of Ye Nanzhi and the others were filled with beverages like cola or juice. It was a rule in Professor Song’s research group: don’t use wine to talk like people do in the business world; use tea or juice for outings.

Ye Nanzhi held her cup, following the other two, and finally ended up in front of Chu Ran.

She held the cup with both hands, gave it a light clink, and then downed all the juice inside.

She didn’t dare look into Chu Ran’s eyes the whole time.

Ye Nanzhi knew that Chu Ran’s mood wasn’t great. Having known her for so long, she could naturally decipher the meaning behind Chu Ran’s various expressions.

For example, right now, it wasn’t quite anger, but Chu Ran had definitely stepped into the “unhappy” camp.

As for why she was unhappy, Ye Nanzhi didn’t want to think about it. She lowered her head, poking at a green vegetable leaf in her bowl with her chopsticks. Despite the table being full of authentic local cuisine, Ye Nanzhi had no interest; she only wanted this unexpected dinner to end quickly.

She recalled the first time she had eaten at the same table as Chu Ran. That scene was very similar to today, and for Ye Nanzhi, it wasn’t a good memory either.

After accepting Chu Ran’s keychain back then, Ye Nanzhi had actively controlled her brain to ignore the series of fantasies regarding the rabbit. She acted as if nothing was wrong, twisting the remaining keys onto the ring one by one, and then held the metal rabbit in her palm to observe it for a short while.

It had to be said, rabbits were cute no matter how you looked at them!

“Senior Chu!” Having stared for a while, Ye Nanzhi finally put the keys away. After cleaning up the gauze and swabs on the table, she enthusiastically invited Chu Ran. “Thank you, you really helped me out a lot! Let me treat you to dinner tonight. How about KFC?”

For a student, a meal at KFC wasn’t considered ordinary spending. At least compared to the price level of the school canteen, it was a luxury.

“No thanks,” Chu Ran said indifferently. “I don’t eat greasy food.”

Ye Nanzhi turned her head in shock: Could there really be someone in this world who can refuse the ‘fat-and-happy’ trio of fried food!

Chu Ran was indeed a ruthless person.

“Then what do you like to eat, Senior?” Ye Nanzhi smiled and took a step closer to Chu Ran. “The keychain you gave me is so nice; you have to give me a chance to show my gratitude. If you don’t want greasy food, how about hotpot? We can have a clear broth. Or, stir-fry would work too!”

Listening to the girl list various dishes, Chu Ran suddenly stopped walking and waited quietly for her to finish listing every campus-area delicacy she could think of.

“Ye Nanzhi,” Chu Ran called out to her. “You don’t need to be in such a hurry to return the favor.”

She raised her bandaged right hand. The knot on her index finger was small and nimble, making the bandage look less like a wound and more like a gift. “You don’t owe me anything, do you?”

Her intentions being seen through, Ye Nanzhi stood there a bit awkwardly.

She knew a keychain wasn’t very expensive, but the other person had found her keys, kept them safe, and even strung them together. It made her feel a bit embarrassed.

Moreover, her relationship with Chu Ran hadn’t reached the point where she could take gifts for free.

“Oh, it’s not like that!” Ye Nanzhi forced back the embarrassment of being caught and made up a random excuse. “I… I just wanted to treat a beautiful woman to a meal, what’s wrong with that!”

The moment the words came out, Ye Nanzhi wanted to slap herself. What a terrible reason! It would have been more practical to just admit “I’m treating you because I don’t want to owe you!”

It was over. Now Chu Ran would probably hate her even more. Would she be put directly onto her mental blacklist?

While Ye Nanzhi was lowering her head and loathing her own reflex reaction, Chu Ran suddenly started moving.

“Let’s go.” Chu Ran suddenly stepped out of the teaching building. Seeing that Ye Nanzhi hadn’t followed, she stopped on the steps in front of the building and looked back at her. The brilliant sunset spilled behind Chu Ran, her straight posture traced by a golden silhouette.

“I heard a new Southern cuisine place opened on the third floor of the canteen,” Chu Ran invited her. “Let’s go try it.”