Teething World's Ceiling

Yang Xiaoyu opened her mouth, as if to persuade him, but in the end, she could only sigh.

This really couldn't be forced.

"All right. If you change your mind before Friday, you can bring the application to me anytime."

Holding his little sister Candy, Mo Jingchun nodded. "Okay. If I decide to apply, I'll bring the application to your dorm."

Apply? As if. He wouldn't even consider it.

For one thing, he'd soon have no shortage of money. But even if the partnership still took a long time, Mo Jingchun wouldn't apply for a poor-student grant.

From the start, even before signing the contract, Mo Jingchun had never planned to apply for a poor-student grant.

He didn't want someone to photograph him spending money one day and put him on the front page, making him a target for the whole country's criticism.

When he got to class that afternoon, the girls had barely let him sit down before they coaxed Candy out of his arms.

It had been over two months since the semester started, nearly three. Even after all that time, the girls were still willing to help Mo Jingchun look after Candy. To be honest, even he was impressed.

People really thought Candy was such a good baby that she was easy to take care of? If anyone actually thought that, Mo Jingchun could only tell them this: unless the little one was asleep, there was no such thing as easy.

The only thing to be thankful for was that she'd never cried in class. She only babbled a little now and then, making the teacher and students burst into laughter.

In Discrete Mathematics, the professor was lecturing on graph theory. Li Xuanyu had already studied the topic on her own, so she wasn't paying much attention. Instead, holding Mo Jingchun's little sister Candy on her lap, she watched with concern as Candy solemnly chewed on her teething stick, making squeaking noises.

Good heavens! Li Xuanyu could hardly believe her eyes. The little one had chewed two grooves into that hard piece of wood!

And Candy seemed to be getting more enthusiastic by the minute. The squeaking was starting to scare Li Xuanyu.

What if the little one knocked out her only five baby teeth?

At first, Li Xuanyu had tried to hide the teething stick hanging on Candy's chest so she couldn't chew it.

The moment Li Xuanyu reached for it, the little one frowned, displeased, looking ready to burst into tears.

She wouldn't even trade it for a bright red strawberry.

That class was pure torture for Li Xuanyu. It was the first time since she'd come to Jing University that she'd looked forward to class ending early.

Unable to pry away the teething stick Candy was chewing, Li Xuanyu could only keep wiping the drool from the little one's mouth with tissues.

The squeaking as Candy chewed wasn't exactly loud, but it wasn't quiet, either. At the very least, the girls sitting beside Li Xuanyu and in the row behind her could all hear it.

Zhou Huiling and the others were shocked, and more than a little unnerved.

Good grief, did babies really chew that hard when they were teething?

If the teething stick hadn't been so big, Li Xuanyu would have suspected Candy would shove the whole thing into her mouth and bite down, instead of just gnawing on the edge like she was now.

Li Xuanyu had no idea how she'd made it through the entire class. The moment the professor turned and walked out, she scooped up Candy, who was still chewing her teething stick, strode over to Mo Jingchun, and placed the little one in his arms.

"What's wrong?" Mo Jingchun asked, bewildered, taking his little sister and staring at Li Xuanyu's worried face.

Usually, the girls didn't bring Candy back until the last class of the day was over. What had happened today?

Zhou Huiling poked her head out from behind Li Xuanyu and pointed at the teething stick in Candy's hand. "I know! I know! Just look at that teething stick and you'll see."

At that, Mo Jingchun lowered his head and examined the stick Candy was chewing. No matter how he looked, he couldn't see anything wrong with it.

"Hey, Mo Jingchun, you didn't notice that your sister chewed two little grooves into it? She was making a huge racket chewing it during class."

"That's all? My sister's been chewing on it for days. She's probably teething, and it must be bothering her."

Mo Jingchun shrugged and replied calmly, "I was worried at first, too. I was afraid she'd chew out her only four baby teeth, but clearly I was overthinking it."

"Besides, lately I've had to replace Candy's bottle nipple every three days or so. Every time I change it, the one she bit through could double as a showerhead."

"Are you sure she's okay? She was chewing so loudly!"

Mo Jingchun smiled. "Don't worry. I checked with someone, and it's fine."

"Oh, then I'm relieved." With that, Li Xuanyu snatched Candy—who was still intently chewing her teething stick—from Mo Jingchun's arms and walked away without looking back.

Mo Jingchun was left sitting in his seat, completely baffled.

Mo Jingchun: ???

Under the streetlights, Mo Jingchun walked unhurriedly, carrying his little sister Candy, who had worn herself out chewing her teething stick and fallen asleep.

As the days passed, night was falling earlier and earlier.

When he'd first arrived at Jing University, the sun was still up when his last class ended.

But by mid-November, the sky was already dark by the end of the last class of the day, and the streetlights had long since come on.

Just then, as Mo Jingchun walked back to the apartment building, he felt his phone vibrating repeatedly in his jeans pocket.

Holding Candy with one arm, he pulled out his phone and saw a call from a strange number. It looked just like a telemarketing call.

Without even thinking, Mo Jingchun instinctively hung up.

He was just about to shove the phone back into his pocket when it started vibrating again. He glanced down and immediately grinned.

Were telemarketers really this dedicated these days?

Mo Jingchun thought that if he were this person's boss, he'd definitely give him a promotion and a raise.

"Hello?"

"It's me."

Mo Jingchun frowned. This telemarketer wasn't following the usual script. He'd opened with "It's me," as if they knew each other—well, and were close.

"Who's this?"

Mo Jingchun had been about to hang up, but for some reason, he decided to mess with the caller instead.

On the other end of the line, Lieutenant Colonel Zhang Aijun's mouth twitched. They'd only met yesterday. How had Mo Jingchun forgotten his voice already?

"It's me, Zhang Aijun. We met just yesterday."

Mo Jingchun: What?

"Ahem. Lieutenant Colonel Zhang, you guys really shouldn't use numbers that look like telemarketing calls. I thought it was a sales pitch."

Zhang Aijun wouldn't tell Mo Jingchun that the phone number was supposed to have exactly that effect.

"Here's the situation. We have a project that needs a specialized optimization of the Attitude Balance Algorithm. I wanted to ask how long it would take you to do the optimization. I can then arrange for you to work on it on-site or at home."

"Send me the parameter data. It'll take at most an hour to optimize the algorithm. If there are any issues afterward, I can make further adjustments."