Chapter Ch29.1 - I’ve got this Scholar’s back (11)
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 b.u.mped 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 a.s.sistant 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.
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.
Lu Jingmo took back his thoughts and continued his experiment. Gu Chuanbai handed over the test bench and moved to one side to a.s.sist him. However, he still couldn’t help looking at the gentle and handsome profile of the young professor standing in front of the instrument.
Maybe it was because he was thinking about matters regarding the laboratory, that especially delicate face had on a faintly serious expression. The corners of his lips, though, were still softly pressed together. It was so beautiful that it could be directly drawn into people’s hearts.
As though he had noticed his gaze, Lu Jingmo looked sideways. But Gu Chuanbai had already quickly averted his gaze and focused on checking the reading.
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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.senger 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 pa.s.senger 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 a.s.signed 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 s.p.a.ce. 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.
Translator’s note: Next chapter is going to be the end of this arc. =)