Professor Shen’s Needy Little Lover - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

“Did I say anything strange or nonsensical?” Long Xin asked again cautiously, her nerves still strung tight.

Remembering nothing after being drunk made her feel truly unsettled.

“No, you stopped talking after you got drunk. You were very quiet, didn’t say a word the whole way.”

Shen Zaiqing watched Long Xin’s exceptionally uneasy appearance with a smile. After speaking, she popped a sweet Jinxiang mulberry into her mouth and chewed unhurriedly.

Long Xin looked at her, falling into deep thought.

She had confidence in her self-control and trusted the words coming from the Professor’s mouth, but for some reason, the feeling in her heart grew even stranger…

Could it be that the Professor was quite angry about her drinking?

This was a misunderstanding!

Long Xin gripped the edge of the table with her slender fingers and hurriedly explained to Shen Zaiqing: “Professor, I originally intended to buy a drink, but I didn’t recognize the character for wine. I took two cans by mistake.”

She promised Shen Zaiqing: “I remember the taste of alcohol now. If I ever taste it again, I will definitely spit it out.”

Long Xin had an excellent memory; she would never forget something once it was recorded in her mind. She now had a profound impression of the smell of alcohol—forget putting it in her mouth, she would push it away the moment she caught a whiff of it.

Long Xin spoke very sincerely, her eyes, clean and devoid of impurities, staring unblinkingly at Shen Zaiqing. Her back was slightly curved, her lips pressed together, and her hands were placed properly on her knees, not daring to move.

She looked like a puppy waiting for a scolding from its owner after making a mistake.

Shen Zaiqing’s demeanor held a touch of leisure. She clapped her hands, brushing away the excess moisture, and then cleared the things on the table. Taking this opportunity, she wanted to carve the character for “Wine” firmly into Long Xin’s head.

Long Xin sat quietly. Without instructions from Shen Zaiqing, her entire body was tense, not daring to relax in the slightest.

“Sit a bit closer. I’m going to teach you to recognize this character: (Wine).” Shen Zaiqing lifted her eyelids, glanced at her, and tilted her chin toward her.

“Okay.” A smile appeared on Long Xin’s face as she responded obediently. Holding the small stool beneath her, she moved her long legs and shuffled over to Shen Zaiqing’s side.

“Watch closely.” Shen Zaiqing dipped her finger in water and wrote the character “wine” on the wooden table. The surface of the table was dark, making the water-written character very clear.

Long Xin tilted her head, watching every stroke Shen Zaiqing wrote with great focus.

“Remembered it? If you see this character in the future, stay far away from it.”

“I’ve remembered it, Professor.”

Long Xin looked at the character many times, silently tracing its shape in her mind. Now, even if it were upside down, slanted, or disassembled, she would be able to recognize it.

“Very good. Sit back. Once you’ve finished eating, write this character a thousand times.” Shen Zaiqing’s expression was calm, but her words made Long Xin’s eyes widen.

Write it a thousand times?

…Isn’t that a bit much?

“But Professor, I can remember it firmly after looking at it a few times. I don’t really need to write it a thousand times…” Long Xin protested to Shen Zaiqing in a tiny voice.

She wrote very slowly.

Because she hadn’t systematically learned human writing and hadn’t formed good writing habits, her writing was more like drawing the lines her eyes saw. She could mimic someone else’s handwriting very closely, but every stroke took a lot of effort.

A thousand characters would take her the entire night.

Shen Zaiqing’s smile held a hazy, floating sense of mischief, her stance unwavering: “No, how can you learn just by looking without practicing? You won’t remember it firmly that way. You must write.”

Long Xin couldn’t see through the smile at the corners of her eyes. Her expression slumped; she thought the Professor must be angry. At a time like this, she couldn’t afford to disobey.

So she nodded and promised to go upstairs and write as soon as she finished eating.

Shen Zaiqing wiped the water from the table, stood up, and pointed toward the hearth, her smile deepening: “Sit here. I’ll go get your food.”

“Okay.”

Shen Zaiqing left her seat and walked toward the hearth.

Long Xin thought: Even though the Professor is angry, she is still very good to me.

She had missed mealtime, yet the Professor had thoughtfully saved food for her. Long Xin became expectant again, her fingers tapping a rhythm on her knees as her eyes constantly peered toward the hearth.

Eating is a very happy thing that can sweep away all unhappiness.

Shen Zaiqing returned under Long Xin’s expectant gaze. The smile on her face remained as she brought over a bowl of plain, watery congee with a small spoon. She placed the congee, which had been simmered until thick in the hearth, in front of Long Xin and said, “There, eat.”

“This is rice grown by Uncle Liu’s family. It’s very fragrant. Try it.”

Long Xin lowered her head, the light in her eyes fading by half. She gripped the end of the spoon and stirred the congee. She wanted to eat it as if nothing were wrong, but after stirring twice, she couldn’t quite keep her face straight.

She was so hungry; she wanted to eat meat.

“Professor, isn’t there anything else?” Long Xin summoned her courage to ask.

“Because Long Xin woke up too late, this is all that’s left. Just make do.”

“If it feels too bland, eat a few mulberries. They’re very appetizing.”

Shen Zaiqing pushed the unripe mulberries she had set aside toward Long Xin, keeping the fully ripe and sweet ones in front of herself.

The Professor is definitely still angry, Long Xin concluded.

Long Xin scooped a mouthful of congee and sent it miserably into her mouth. She glanced at the mulberries that looked very sour, her mouth pouting slightly as she looked at Shen Zaiqing with misty eyes.

Shen Zaiqing was impenetrable, merely urging: “Hurry up and eat, it’ll get cold if you wait.”

“Okay.” Long Xin sent congee into her mouth. When it felt tasteless, she reached out to grab a greenish mulberry and chewed it.

The mulberry was even sourer than she imagined, so sour her face scrunched into a ball and her hand holding the spoon trembled. As she was being “ravaged” by the mulberry, she faintly heard a suppressed chuckle from the person opposite her.

She opened her eyes, swallowed the mulberry, and then, without a word, continued to dig into the bowl of congee. As she ate, she looked at Shen Zaiqing with an even more pitiful expression.

She instantly turned into an obedient yet aggrieved big dog.

This was a bit of a foul.

Shen Zaiqing couldn’t withstand that look. She never could; it was truly hard not to soften when being watched by such a gaze. Shen Zaiqing clearly felt the annoyance in her heart melting, but thinking of her arrogance and irrationality in the afternoon, she still felt slighted and said, “You’re not allowed to look at me like that. Close your eyes and eat.”

Long Xin truly closed her eyes. As soon as Shen Zaiqing’s voice came, she shut them. She brought her mouth close to the bowl and slowly sent the congee in, spoonful by spoonful.

When she got tired of the taste again, she reached out like a blind person to feel for the mulberries on the table. She already remembered which direction they were in, but the speed of her hand was comparable to a snail—even the fingers moving on the table were written with reluctance and unwillingness.

Shen Zaiqing was defeated by her and couldn’t help laughing.

She reached out and caught the hand that had grabbed a mulberry and was slowly retracting. She snatched the mulberry from her fingers and said, “Wait, I’ll go get you some meat.”

“Also, you can open your eyes. Closing them so tightly and eating with such a pained expression if someone saw, they’d say I’m mistreating a little dragon.”

Long Xin opened her eyes with a mouthful of congee, feeling as if the world had brightened significantly.

Shen Zaiqing brought two more bowls of food from the hearth and placed them in front of Long Xin: one was stir-fried pork belly with dried bamboo shoots, and the other was cauliflower, which Long Xin liked very much.

She had specifically saved these for her; the previous act was just a slight punishment.

“Can you eat properly now?”

Long Xin picked up a piece of meat and nodded shyly.

“Professor, I’ve finished eating.”

Putting down her bowl and chopsticks, Long Xin proactively cleaned the table.

She was very satisfied, her stomach felt warm, her eyes narrowed slightly, and her belly felt so comfortable she wanted to touch it.

She actually acted on it, but as she reached out, she felt a strange object in the front pocket of her hoodie.

She pulled it out and looked at it, thinking strangely: Isn’t this the Professor’s phone? Why is it in my pocket?

She looked at Shen Zaiqing with a puzzled face and asked, “Professor, why is your phone with me?”

Shen Zaiqing couldn’t tell her the truth, so she made up a lie: “This skirt of mine doesn’t have pockets, so it’s not easy to carry a phone. Seeing as the pocket on your clothes is quite useful, I left it with you for safekeeping.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is.”

Sticking her hands in the front pocket of the hoodie was indeed very convenient. Long Xin fumbled around for a moment and then stuck both hands into the pocket.

Shen Zaiqing had a “shadow” regarding this movement. Pointing at the dirty spots on Long Xin’s white hoodie, she said with considerable disdain, “Look, this one is dirty. You must change into a new one tomorrow.”

She thought for a moment and felt tomorrow was too long, so she added: “Rest for a bit then go upstairs to shower and change out of these clothes.”

“Alright.”

“Then can I wear the green one tomorrow?” Long Xin remembered Shen Zaiqing had praised her, saying she looked good in the green hoodie.

The thought of the green hoodie having similar pockets made Shen Zaiqing shake her head repeatedly: “No, no. We’re going to catch fish in the water tomorrow; there will be a lot of mud. You can’t wear light-colored clothes.”

“What about the dark blue one?”

“The dark blue one is a jacket, isn’t it? Does it have pockets on both sides?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think that one looks good.”

“Then I’ll pick another.”

Long Xin felt that tonight the Professor was exceptionally concerned about her attire. Before, she always let her pick for herself, but now she was pointing out all sorts of things.

She didn’t find anything wrong with it. After all, when away from home, one must pay attention to their image. She was the Professor’s dragon and couldn’t embarrass her.

After resting on the first floor for over half an hour, Long Xin was hurried upstairs by Shen Zaiqing to shower and change. Shen Zaiqing went to ask Uncle Liu’s granddaughter for some school paper.

When Long Xin came out of the bathroom feeling refreshed after her shower, what awaited her were those one thousand characters for (Wine).

Most of her high spirits withered instantly.

“You’ll have to learn to write eventually. You might as well use this opportunity to practice well.”

Shen Zaiqing wrote an example for her on the side. Long Xin sat obediently at the desk by the window, holding the pen and writing slowly, stroke by stroke.

The window in their room faced the lush camphor tree in the courtyard, and moonlight spilled onto the windowsill. As Long Xin wrote slowly, her heart gradually grew peaceful.

Shen Zaiqing went to wash up and worried about the bite mark in the mirror. Her pajamas had a collar, but the crucial point was that the red mark was too large; even collared clothes couldn’t hide it.

Once she left the bathroom, she would have to face Long Xin, whose memory had been cleared. Not covering it would lead to wild imaginings—how could she not cover it?

Unless she popped the collar up.

Shen Zaiqing tried a few times in the mirror and found that popping the collar offered the best hiding effect. Although it looked a bit silly, she had to accept it reluctantly.

She decided to check on Long Xin’s progress and then lie down in bed; once the blanket was over her, no one would notice. Besides, she wasn’t sharing a bed with Long Xin.

Shen Zaiqing walked to Long Xin’s side and looked down, finding that her writing speed was indeed very slow. It had been half an hour since she entered the bathroom, yet Long Xin had written fewer than two hundred characters. At this rate, it would take another two hours to finish the task.

Shen Zaiqing urged: “Long Xin, you need to write faster. It’s almost ten o’clock. At this speed, you won’t finish until midnight.”

Sitting by the window writing with a pleasant breeze blowing, Long Xin had slowly come to like this state. She said to Shen Zaiqing, “It’s okay, Professor. I slept for a long time this afternoon and have a lot of energy now. I can write slowly.”

“If you’re sleepy, go to sleep first.”

Whenever she spoke to Shen Zaiqing, she made sure to look into her eyes. So when Shen Zaiqing came over, she put down her pen and turned to look at her.

It was this glance that let her see a bit of the red mark peeking out from Shen Zaiqing’s collar.

Without thinking much, she said directly: “Professor, your neck is red. Were you bitten by something?”

She didn’t see it very clearly because the moment she spoke, Shen Zaiqing reached out to cover her neck and turned to walk away.

Shen Zaiqing sat on her bed, her back to Long Xin, her voice carrying no obvious emotion: “Yes, I was bitten by something annoying.”

Long Xin rested her hands on the top edge of the chair’s backrest, her gaze following Shen Zaiqing as she muttered, “Something annoying? Was it a mosquito?”

Shen Zaiqing lay down at the head of the bed, picking up a book to read. Since Long Xin was on the other side, no matter how much she stretched her neck, she couldn’t see the bite mark.

Seeing her persistent questioning, she said gloomily: “It’s something even more annoying than a mosquito.”

“It wouldn’t be the Cnidocampa flavescens (oriental moth) you mentioned in class, would it?”

Shen Zaiqing wasn’t in the mood to discuss academic things with her and replied casually: “No, an oriental moth is not as bad as her.”

Long Xin’s interest was piqued, and she named several types of insects in a row, but Shen Zaiqing denied them all. Seeing her lack of interest and having no more “stock” in her mind and seeing that the Professor had no intention of telling her she turned her head back and continued writing her characters.

As she picked up the pen, her thoughts were still entangled with this “annoying thing,” but unable to think of more possibilities, she muttered to herself: “I don’t know what annoying thing it is, but anyway, it’s definitely impossible that I bit it.”

How would she have the courage to bite the Professor’s neck? Even if she were to turn into a mosquito this very second, she wouldn’t dare.

Long Xin’s mutter was originally low, intended for herself, but perhaps because the room was too small and quiet, it reached Shen Zaiqing’s ears.

The book in Shen Zaiqing’s hand suddenly snapped shut with a “teng” sound.

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