Holding Hands in Class, Caught Red-Handed by Her Father

037's voice rang out: [Xiaoxiao, time's up! Congratulations on completing task 4.]

Before Shao Enci could secretly delight in that answer, she flung his hand away almost by reflex.

With a smack, their two sweaty palms parted, the sound especially crisp in the quiet classroom.

Lu Xiaoxiao put her hand back on the desk, her face expressionless and her eyes fixed straight on the blackboard. Her expression was as solemn as a bodhisattva's in a temple, as though nothing had just happened.

Shao Enci, left hanging: "???"

He was about to say something when a stern voice came from the lectern:

"Lu Xiaoxiao, answer the question I just asked."

At some point, Lu Yifei had turned to look their way, his expression colder than ice.

The classroom fell silent in an instant, and everyone's eyes turned toward them. Yesterday's video had already spread like wildfire throughout the school, and now that people saw them sitting together, the whispers started up again.

"Holy crap, they're actually sitting together in class. Are they dating?!"

"Getting all lovey-dovey right under her father's nose? That's so thrilling!"

Lu Xiaoxiao took a deep breath and stood up, her face deathly pale.

She had been so absorbed in the system task that she had no idea what her father had been talking about.

The classroom was frighteningly quiet.

Shao Enci turned his head and whispered quickly, "Your dad was talking about the antagonistic relationship between gibberellin and the DELLA protein."

Lu Xiaoxiao breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, she still had the knowledge she had accumulated in her previous life.

She looked toward the lectern and spoke at an even pace. "Gibberellin's mechanism of action isn't to promote growth directly, but to remove inhibition by degrading DELLA proteins. DELLA proteins are growth inhibitors. Gibberellin promotes their degradation, removing the inhibition and allowing the plant to grow."

The classroom was quiet.

Lu Yifei looked at her, his expression softening a little. He asked another question. "Then what applications do you think this mechanism has in agricultural production?"

Lu Xiaoxiao froze for a moment. This wasn't something she had studied in advance.

She thought for two seconds, then answered from her memories of her previous life. "Stable DELLA proteins cause crops to become dwarfed; if gibberellin cannot act on those proteins, the dwarf trait won't change either. Promoting DELLA protein degradation makes plants grow taller. In agriculture, plant height can be controlled by regulating the gibberellin pathway. For example, dwarf breeding in hybrid rice can direct nutrients to the grains."

Lu Yifei's eyes brightened slightly as he looked at his daughter.

"Very good. Please sit down."

Lu Xiaoxiao sat down, her heart thumping faster.

Luckily, she had been reborn. Otherwise, if she hadn't been able to answer the question today, her old father would definitely have lectured her when she got home.

Shao Enci tilted his head slightly and teased her in a low voice. "Your dad really is pretty scary, singling you out to pluck your wool."

Lu Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes at him and lowered her voice. "You'd better watch out. My dad might come after you to settle the score."

"Huh?" Shao Enci looked bewildered, then caught on and chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm not as stupid as you."

Lu Xiaoxiao immediately turned and glared at him. "Shao. En. Ci!"

"What are you calling your daddy for?"

Shao Enci sat there looking relaxed and asking for a beating, making her want to give him one.

"My dad's right up there. Aren't you afraid you'll shorten your life?"

The two traded barbs back and forth, completely forgetting the man with the fiery eyes and golden gaze at the lectern.

He tapped the lectern and cast a cold glance in a certain direction. "Shao Enci, answer the question on the blackboard."

Everyone's eyes fell on the two of them again. Lu Xiaoxiao immediately clamped her mouth shut, took a guilty glance at her father's scrutinizing gaze, then silently turned her eyes to the blackboard:

[The Arabidopsis ga1 mutant is deficient in gibberellin synthesis and has a dwarf phenotype. It returns to normal after external application of gibberellin. However, in one mutant, externally applied gibberellin has no effect, and the plant remains dwarfed. Identify the defective gene in this mutant and explain your reasoning.]

Shao Enci stood up briskly, lowered his eyes, and gave the question a cursory glance. "GID1."

Lu Xiaoxiao had the same answer in mind.

She had an advantage because she had memories from her previous life. But Shao Enci hadn't studied this, and it was truly unexpected that he could answer. As surprised as the other students in the classroom, she tilted her head to look at him, her face full of admiration.

Lu Yifei remained expressionless. "Your reasoning."

The outer corners of Shao Enci's eyes lowered slightly as he answered at an even pace. "The ga1 mutant cannot synthesize gibberellin. The effectiveness of external application proves that the downstream pathway is normal; if application is still ineffective, then the GID1 receptor has lost its function, causing a failure in signal reception."

Lu Yifei nodded. "A good answer. Please sit down."

The girls around them had stars in their eyes. "As expected of a study god. He can answer fluently even when he's not paying attention in class."

Lu Xiaoxiao secretly glanced at her father at the lectern.

Lu Yifei was flipping through the PowerPoint slides, his expression calm and betraying no emotion.

But she knew she was in for it when she got home tonight.

The scene shifted to the Lu family villa that evening.

Lu Xiaoxiao sat upright in a chair, her little face lowered, not daring to look her father in the eye.

Lu Yifei sat to her right, his arms crossed and his expression stern. "Your daughter's really done it now. She's actually started dating a boy from Tianji Class behind our backs."

The woman in a figure-hugging long dress, who carried herself with exceptional grace, held her daughter's hand with a gentle smile and asked eagerly, "Really? Is it that boy Shao Enci? I think he's good-looking, the kind whose looks grow on you. My precious daughter has excellent taste."

Lu Xiaoxiao: ?

Lu Yifei: ?!

"Jingjing!" Lu Yifei frowned and said unhappily, "You don't know this, but this afternoon that brat actually dared to hold your daughter's hand in my class! What kind of behavior is that? If they dare hold hands in my class today, tomorrow they'll dare do something even more outrageous in yours! My daughter, Lu Yifei's daughter, holding hands with someone in my class—if word gets out, how am I supposed to go on teaching?"

"Oh, honestly, you're such an old fuddy-duddy." The corners of Wen Jingjing's eyes curved slightly, revealing sweet dimples. She looked at her daughter and said, "Isn't that how it is when young people fall in love? When your dad was dating me back in school, he even made a point of asking me to meet him in the little grove so he could hold me and kiss me."

Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes widened, her expression stunned.

Wait, that's a lot to take in.

Father saw us holding hands during the open class?

And why is Ms. Wen telling me about what they did when they were young?

Even about kissing in the little grove?

Did they have to rub it in a single dog's face like this? As a single dog, I don't deserve to hear this.

Lu Yifei's face turned red, and he said anxiously, "Honey, why are you telling our daughter all that?!"

Wen Jingjing rubbed the top of her daughter's head and said gently, "Our precious Xiaoxiao has grown up. She's an adult now. If she can find someone she likes and have a wonderful romance, we as her parents should support her."

Lu Xiaoxiao blinked her big eyes and nodded along.

There were still ninety-six tasks left, and she might end up doing even more outrageous things later. It seemed that only the excuse of "dating" would convince her parents.

Lu Yifei's temples throbbed several times with anger, and he said furiously, "Xiaoxiao isn't even nineteen yet. She's still young. That boy Shao Enci looks shifty at first glance. Who knows, he might trick her out of everything she has, right down to her underpants!"

Lu Xiaoxiao pressed her lips together, her eyes flickering slightly, but said nothing.

At the moment, it seemed Shao Enci had been the one coming out worse all along.

She had forcibly kissed him and held his hand, and tonight she still had to sully his eyes by sharing a shameful H-manga with him.