This Top Student Apparently Wasn't Good at Everything After All!

This Top Student Apparently Wasn't Good at Everything After All!

"Professor Xia?"

Wu Tianming turned around and saw that the person who had arrived was Xia Qing, the head of their department. A man and a woman stood beside her.

Wu Tianming and Wang Ye hurriedly straightened up and looked at Professor Xia with proper decorum.

How were they supposed to explain being caught eavesdropping outside the door by their department head?

"Professor Xia, don't misunderstand. We were just passing by and heard people arguing inside, so we got curious." Still unwilling to give up, Wang Ye shamelessly forced out an explanation.

Professor Xia glanced at him expressionlessly and ignored him. Looking toward the office door, she asked, "Is Teacher Ke Zhan inside?"

Wu Tianming and Wang Ye both nodded. Wang Ye was especially eager, stepping forward as he said, "Professor Xia, would you like me to knock for you?"

"Mm," Professor Xia replied.

Having received permission, Wang Ye quickly went to knock. Soon, a set of footsteps sounded from inside.

When the door opened, Ke Zhan's face appeared. He first saw Wang Ye and frowned. Just as he was about to say something, he caught sight of the people standing beside him from the corner of his eye.

"Director Wei, Vice President Han, Director Xia, why are you here?"

Xia Qing looked at him and slowly said, "We'd like to talk to you about your paper. Is now convenient?"

"Uh, of course. Please come in." Xia Qing and the other two's arrival had clearly taken Ke Zhan completely by surprise. After hastily inviting them into the office, he finally remembered that Luo Yao was still standing there.

"Luo Yao, you should head out first." Ke Zhan did not want Xia Qing and the others to know about his conversation with Luo Yao, so he quickly told Luo Yao to leave.

Xia Qing watched Luo Yao leave without saying anything. Only after Luo Yao closed the office door did she turn her sharp gaze toward Ke Zhan.

Outside the office door.

"Boss Ye, the way you knocked on the door for Professor Xia just now was like you were leading the Japanese officers!" Wu Tianming relaxed after seeing Luo Yao come out and could not resist teasing him.

"It was all for Santuo! You have no idea how worried I was just now." Wang Ye wiped at the nonexistent sweat on his forehead.

"Let's get out of here first. None of us ate breakfast, so let's go have lunch." Wu Tianming suggested.

"You don't want to keep listening?" Wang Ye whispered, his eyes still lingering reluctantly on the office door.

"Getting caught just now was embarrassing enough. Two grown men eavesdropping out here—if you want to listen, go ahead!" With that, Wu Tianming left with Luo Yao. Seeing that he was the only one left, Wang Ye thought that being embarrassed alone would be truly embarrassing. He hurried after them.

Along the way, Wu Tianming asked Luo Yao whether Ke Zhan had said anything in the office. A rare flicker of emotion appeared on Luo Yao's face.

"He was so stupid. He kept asking why I emailed the editor of Semiconductor instead of sending it directly to him. It looks like not emailing him was the right choice. Even if he read it, he probably wouldn't understand it."

Wu Tianming and Wang Ye fell silent.

Luo Yao and Ke Zhan seemed to be completely on different wavelengths. One only wanted the other to correct his mistake, while the other was desperately trying to cover it up.

Ke Zhan probably had not expected to run into someone as stubbornly straightforward as Luo Yao.

"Santuo, you don't understand. Ke Zhan is still only an ordinary lecturer. He probably wants to be promoted to associate professor, and that promotion is tied to the number of papers he has published. After what you did, that paper of his probably won't count toward his evaluation."

"Associate professor? How could someone at his level possibly become an associate professor?" Luo Yao's utterly serious expression left Wu Tianming and Wang Ye torn between laughter and tears.

This guy really did not pull any punches when he spoke!

They had never met anyone so blunt.

"Damn! I just remembered the way Ke Zhan looked at me. Could he have thought Professor Xia and the others were sent by me?" Wang Ye suddenly froze in place.

Wu Tianming also recalled what had just happened. Somewhat dejected, he said, "All we can do now is pray that Ke Zhan fails to become an associate professor. Otherwise, we won't have it easy in the future."

"I don't know whether we'll have it easy, but after you said that, I really am hungry. Let's hurry up and eat. I'm so hungry I'm seeing stars. If this keeps up, I'll get hypoglycemia for sure." Wang Ye drooped his head listlessly.

Wu Tianming also felt his stomach was empty. He said, "Then let's go. Cafeteria One or Cafeteria Two? Cafeteria Two seems to have spicy hot pot today..."

"I'm not going. You two go ahead." Luo Yao spoke up when he saw them already discussing lunch.

"Huh? You didn't eat this morning, and you're not eating lunch either? That won't do. Skipping meals can give you cholecystitis. At least eat something." Wu Tianming's family often dealt with medicine and pharmaceuticals, so he had been influenced by it from a young age and paid particular attention to health.

"Really?" Luo Yao asked doubtfully.

From childhood to adulthood, other than completing the reading tasks assigned by the system, he truly had not known that skipping meals could cause cholecystitis.

This top student apparently was not good at everything after all!

Both Wu Tianming and Wang Ye realized it.

"Santuo, I've noticed your ability to take care of yourself is kind of lacking. Come on, I'll take you to eat." As he spoke, Wang Ye beckoned for Luo Yao to follow him.

"But I need to study." Luo Yao was not lying. He needed to prepare for the EDA project, and since he did not have a computer, the best option was the library, where he could look up materials and write code conveniently.

"Study after eating. Our ancestors said it well: a person is iron, food is steel; skip one meal, and you'll feel weak. Think about it—if your body can't take it anymore, how are you supposed to study?"

Luo Yao normally did not care about this sort of knowledge. His brain automatically filtered out things that seemed useless to him, so after hearing this, he instinctively found it strange. "Iron is a metallic element, while steel is an alloy. Iron can be made into steel through smelting, so if a person is iron and food is steel, then the causal relationship is wrong."

Wang Ye decided he did not want to talk anymore.

"Just look at how skinny you are. If you keep refusing to eat, in a few days you'll be a mummy's relative. Hurry up and go. I'm starving too." Wu Tianming could not take it anymore and interrupted Luo Yao's ongoing explanation.

Luo Yao hesitated, but in the end, he chose to go eat with them.

It was not because they had persuaded him, but because their constant nagging reminded him of his mother.

After arriving at the cafeteria and getting their food, the three sat down and began eating. Wang Ye was starving and quickly finished a bowl of rice. One bowl was not enough, so he went to get a second.

Only after he finished his second bowl of rice and ate a piece of savory pancake did Luo Yao finally finish his meal.

"Boss Ye, can't you learn how to eat from Santuo?" Seeing that Wang Ye called Luo Yao Santuo and that Luo Yao did not seem to dislike it, Tianming started calling him that too.

Wang Ye waved a hand, looking disgusted. "No way. If I ate that slowly, I'd starve to death."

After they finished eating, Luo Yao wanted to go to the library to study. Wang Ye had originally wanted to go back and sleep, but Wu Tianming talked him into going to the library too, grandly calling it a post-meal walk.