Professor Shen’s Needy Little Lover - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“If something goes wrong, can Professor Shen take full responsibility?” With the negotiations broken down, Su Wu’an’s voice inevitably grew louder.

Sitting in the outer office, Xiao Lin heard it, and her heart trembled with fear. Originally, she had dared to peek curiously toward the manager’s office, but now she kept her neck tucked in tight.

Shen Zaiqing was not at all intimidated by Su Wu’an’s pressure. She lowered her voice, speaking with a heavy, steady tone: “I have signed all the guarantee forms. If something happens that I am responsible for, I will bear it. You don’t need to worry about that, Manager Su.”

“I have noted your warning today. As a guardian, I will fulfill my duties properly.”

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave.”

Shen Zaiqing walked out in her high heels. Su Wu’an didn’t stop her; he leaned back on his black leather sofa, too fuming to speak for a long while.

Xiao Lin didn’t dare provoke her enraged boss, nor did she dare make a sound. She simply nodded to Shen Zaiqing as she passed by, offering an apologetic smile. Shen Zaiqing nodded back to the young girl and left in a whirlwind.

Her temper wasn’t usually bad; at school, she was known as a gentle teacher, and the undergraduate students liked her very much. She was stricter with graduate students, but their private relationships were quite good. This time, however, Su Wu’an had stomped right onto her minefield, and thus suffered the blast of her artillery fire.

Returning to the 18th floor, Shen Zaiqing took a few breaths at the door to steady herself before pressing the code and pushing the door open.

Upon entering, she saw Long Xin’s gaze shift toward her. She curved her eyes into a smile and called out softly, “Long Xin.”

With a small dragon in the house, the atmosphere changed instantly. All the decorations seemed to come alive, and Shen Zaiqing caught a scent of warmth in the air.

If she had a surveillance camera, she would have discovered that since she left, Long Xin’s gaze had been glued to the door without moving; she hadn’t just looked up because she heard a noise. Once she saw Shen Zaiqing enter, Long Xin withdrew her gaze, letting it fall back onto her tiny feet that couldn’t reach the floor.

Long Xin’s gaze was a bit dazed. She didn’t know how to address Shen Zaiqing; she wanted to call her “Professor” but feared it was overstepping, yet calling her by her name felt strange too. So, she simply responded to Shen Zaiqing’s call, her throat bobbing as she let out a quiet “Mm.”

Shen Zaiqing changed into her slippers, walked to her side, and sat down on the sofa next to Long Xin. She stared at the untouched drink on the coffee table.

“Why haven’t you touched your drink? Are you shy?”

Dragons were highly intelligent; they had learned human languages hundreds of years ago and could communicate with humans without barriers. Furthermore, one day for a dragon was equivalent to a hundred days for a human. Compared to humans, dragons grew at a hundredfold speed. Therefore, whether in terms of intellect or linguistic expression, a dragon cub of one or two months could communicate normally with humans.

Long Xin told Shen Zaiqing her concern: “My claws are too long; I can’t hold the cup. Can you help me trim my claws?”

Her eyes were earnest, but her hands were curled up, hiding her claws in her palms she looked very hesitant. Dragons were close to humans but had their own habits; in a fit of rage, they could injure people with their sharp claws. She worried that Shen Zaiqing would fear them.

However, she forgot that on the way to the 18th floor, Shen Zaiqing had held her claw the entire way without a hint of hesitation or distrust.

“Sure,” Shen Zaiqing agreed immediately.

She had a very complete set of tools. During the two years and three months of waiting, she had made all the necessary preparations. She took a dragon claw grooming kit from under the TV cabinet, set it on the coffee table, and brought over a small trash can.

Long Xin didn’t move her seat; she watched blankly as Shen Zaiqing moved back and forth, only snapping back to reality when Shen Zaiqing sat down beside her.

“Give me your hand.” Shen Zaiqing held out her palm in front of Long Xin.

Long Xin slowly extended her claw. The moment it touched Shen Zaiqing’s palm, it was gently grasped. Long Xin couldn’t help but look at Shen Zaiqing’s focused eyes.

They were the same as seven years ago delicate and gentle but her aura had changed. After becoming a professor, she seemed steadier. Back then, she might have “bristled” once or twice, but now that word didn’t apply to her at all. She was like a cool breeze, forever calm and mild.

If she had moved the kiss from seven years ago to the present, would Shen Zaiqing still have thrown that punch?

When she first met her, she was probably still a student; in the blink of an eye, she was a respected university professor. And she herself… was still a “bad” green dragon that everyone yelled at and detested.

When she looked at Long Xin’s claws, a flicker of shock crossed Shen Zaiqing’s mind.

Long Xin’s claws were jagged and uneven, as if they had been violently smashed by stones, and fine sand remained in the crevices. A dragon’s claws are very hard; if not trimmed, they grow very long. Grooming tools are made by specialized manufacturers; ordinary scissors simply cannot cut them.

It was obvious that Long Xin’s half-broken claws had been smashed by force with stones. Was she afraid that her long claws would scare Shen Zaiqing during their first meeting? So much so that she would brutally break them even without proper tools?

Shen Zaiqing didn’t say anything or ask; she acted as if she hadn’t noticed and began to carefully trim the claws. Shen Zaiqing was meticulous and her movements were light. Her eyes always carried a soft smile; being with her was truly a comfortable experience.

Surrounded by such tenderness, Long Xin felt she couldn’t be an impolite dragon. They needed a way to address each other.

So, she spoke up dryly: “What should I call you?”

The voice was tiny, but since they were close, Shen Zaiqing heard it clearly. Without stopping her work, she asked back, “What do you want to call me?”

She left the choice to Long Xin.

Long Xin gathered her courage and asked, “Is ‘Professor’ okay?”

Shen Zaiqing smiled: “Of course it is.” To her, titles weren’t important; she only cared that the person using them liked it.

“Okay.” Long Xin felt as if she had received a piece of super-sweet candy. her heart settled, and her little tail swept back and forth on the sofa, feeling very happy.

After trimming the claws, Shen Zaiqing led her to wash her hands. Long Xin’s claim about the “edema” seemed to be true; after two hours, she had already shrunk by a size. She would likely be fully restored by the afternoon.

Lunch consisted of fragrant white rice, sautéed cauliflower, stir-fried beef with scallions, and a bowl of clam soup.

Most one- or two-month-old dragon cubs used forks, though a few could use chopsticks skillfully after being taught. Long Xin was an exception among exceptions; she had never held chopsticks before, but by stealing glances at Shen Zaiqing’s grip, she immediately learned how to pick things up. Nevertheless, Shen Zaiqing thoughtfully provided a fork as well, so she could switch whenever she wanted.

Dragons love everything sweet; Shen Zaiqing had learned this long ago. Being from the south, her home cooking leaned slightly sweet, which suited Long Xin’s palate perfectly.

Long Xin especially loved the sautéed cauliflower. Shen Zaiqing had added sugar and hadn’t cooked it too soft, so it was crunchy and sweet. Her chopsticks landed in that bowl almost exclusively.

The way she ate cauliflower was different from others: most people eat the florets first, then the stem. Long Xin ate from the stem up, putting the floret end in last. By the end, it looked like a flower was blooming in her mouth. It was quite amusing. When Long Xin ate, Shen Zaiqing would pause for a few seconds just to watch her finish a piece before picking up her own food. This was a habit she hadn’t seen in other dragons; it seemed unique to Long Xin.

After lunch, Shen Zaiqing took a few calls from students and went to the study to look over some papers. She plucked a few jaboticabas for Long Xin, washed them, and put them in a bowl in front of her.

Long Xin ate from the bowl, but her eyes were glued to the ones on the tree. It was instinct. In her cub form, she instinctively wanted to climb the tree and eat them right off the branches.

When Shen Zaiqing came out of the study and saw her obsessive gaze, she explained with a smile: “You can climb it tonight.”

“At your current weight, you’d break the branches.”

Long Xin quickly withdrew her fixed gaze, looked at the few remaining fruits in her bowl, and gave a low response: “Mm.”

Shen Zaiqing passed through the living room, poured a glass of water, and returned to the study.

Long Xin found it strange. Why, after all this time, had Shen Zaiqing not asked for her information sheet? Was she not curious about her background at all?

Yet Long Xin was torn; she couldn’t let Shen Zaiqing see that sheet. If she saw it, she would know that Long Xin was actually a 2,500-year-old adult green dragon, not the dragon cub she had her heart set on.

But how long could she hide it? Could she stay in Building No. 3 forever?

Building No. 3 has a special protective layer covering the building and the surrounding public grounds. Within this protected zone, a dragon can freely choose their form. But once they leave and enter an area without a dragon-specific protection layer, they must interact with humans in human form.

A one- or two-month-old dragon cub appears as a young child outside, but an adult dragon corresponds to the physique of an adult. The moment she stepped out of the protected area of Building No. 3, she would have to face Shen Zaiqing with her true appearance.

At that time, would Shen Zaiqing feel she had been greatly deceived?

Long Xin’s head drooped. She sat on the sofa holding her head in her hands; even the jaboticabas in the bowl no longer tasted good. The difficult choice left her at a loss.

Her initial plan was to stall for as long as possible. But now, she wavered. Shen Zaiqing was so good it felt wrong to hurt her; she truly wanted to raise a little dragon, not a dragon like her who was intentionally deceiving her. When the deception was finally uncovered, Shen Zaiqing would be the one most hurt.

From beneath her hardest dragon scale, Long Xin pulled out the deeply hidden information sheet and evaluation forms. She clutched them tightly in her hand—clutching her fate along with them—walked to the study, and knocked on the door.

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