It was the same bathroom. After only a few minutes, Su Yuan had somehow found herself back there. Some things were truly hard to predict. This time, though, she wasn't exactly willing to be there.
Their eyes met. Lan Qiuzhu said awkwardly, "Um... are you okay, classmate?"
Su Yuan let out a muffled groan. How could she be okay? Her butt was practically split in two! It still hurt!
When Su Yuan didn't answer, Lan Qiuzhu tried to apologize. She knew she'd given the younger student a nasty fall. Thinking about it now, she felt a little regretful. Su Yuan was just a young girl; why had Lan Qiuzhu taken things so seriously?
Lan Qiuzhu came from a family of martial artists and had been put through the wringer since childhood. As she grew older, though, she blossomed into a beauty, and she had fewer chances to throw a punch.
In fact, Lan Qiuzhu's parents hadn't wanted their daughter to practice martial arts. Like most people, they believed that society had moved on and that studying hard and finding a place in the world was the right path. Even her parents had left martial arts behind for more conventional pursuits, becoming a business owner and a teacher, respectively. Their daughter was no exception.
But Lan Qiuzhu often snuck over to join in when her grandfather was training her older brother, and that was how she picked up a few moves.
She had grown into a beauty and developed a certain reserve, so she didn't fight much anymore. But she'd never lost her foundation. Every now and then, when no one was around, she would practice a few moves and admire herself. When she saw Su Yuan's fluid, practiced attack just now, the few moves she'd put away in the back of her mind sprang back to life.
"How about I rub it for you?" Lan Qiuzhu thought she'd come up with a great idea. The younger student had fallen and hurt herself, so Lan Qiuzhu could rub it for her.
"Don't!" Su Yuan dodged out of the way.
Lan Qiuzhu's eyes shifted. Thinking the younger student was just shy, she said, "Don't be afraid. Let your senior rub it for you. By the way, I'm Lan Qiuzhu. What happened just now was a misunderstanding. I didn't mean to make you fall."
Seeing how determined Lan Qiuzhu was to rub her butt, Su Yuan was both embarrassed and annoyed. She hurriedly said, "There's no need. I believe you didn't do it on purpose." After all, Su Yuan had been a little reckless herself.
"But you fell so hard. Are you sure you're okay?" Lan Qiuzhu asked with concern.
"I'm fine."
"Does it still hurt?"
"A little."
"Let me rub it for you, then."
The conversation had come full circle. Su Yuan rolled her eyes at her. "Why are you so set on this?"
Lan Qiuzhu smiled. "I just don't want you to hurt yourself. I'm sure that fall really hurt!"
"Of course it did!" Su Yuan said, looking unhappy.
If you simply fell onto soft ground, it might not hurt much. But the moment the ground was even a little hard, it became a serious matter—especially when, like Su Yuan, you fell flat on your back. The pain had nearly knocked the breath out of her, so it was no wonder tears had welled in her eyes.
Lan Qiuzhu looked apologetic. "All right, I was in the wrong! Want me to go with you to get an X-ray?"
Su Yuan shook her head. Getting an X-ray seemed like overkill. "No need. It only hurts a little. It's nothing serious."
"Then let me buy you a meal."
"Uh, no need." Su Yuan was actually quite fond of the idea of a free lunch, especially one shared with a beauty. But as the saying went, no one showed kindness without a reason. Her gut told her that this girl named Lan Qiuzhu had ulterior motives.
She'd seemed to be approaching her with a purpose from the very start.
"Aw, that's too bad." Lan Qiuzhu sighed and shook her head, though she found the little junior increasingly adorable.
"We've been talking for ages and I still don't know your name," she said.
"You don't know me?" Su Yuan asked, surprised.
Lan Qiuzhu looked taken aback. "Why would I know you? Are you famous on campus?"
Su Yuan came back to herself, suddenly realizing she'd fallen into a misconception. She'd always assumed that her reputation on campus was so terrible that everyone must know who she was. But now she understood that she'd been making far too much of herself. The earth kept turning without anyone; who was she to expect the whole school to know her?
Her bad reputation was an objective fact. It wasn't even an exaggeration to say it was heading in an even worse direction. Su Yuan was always noticing people pointing and whispering around her, and after hearing it often enough, she'd come to believe everyone talked about her behind her back. In reality, though, the number of people who had even heard of her was probably tiny.
They were the so-called Xiao fans.
Su Yuan felt like bursting into tears. So this was what it meant for the clouds to part and reveal the moon. She wasn't quite as awful as she'd thought.
Her confidence came rushing back. Smiling at Lan Qiuzhu, she said, "My name's Su Yuan. Su as in Su Dongpo, Yuan as in origin. I'm a sophomore."
"Su Yuan? How does a girl end up with a name like that?"
Su Yuan's expression stiffened. Only then did she realize that this senior had been assuming she was a girl all along. No wonder she'd wanted to rub Su Yuan's butt. She'd thought Lan Qiuzhu had something shady in mind. A woman rubbing a man's butt was pretty suggestive, but between two women, it wasn't anything unusual.
Perhaps realizing she'd put her foot in her mouth, Lan Qiuzhu smiled. "I'll just call you Su Su."
Su Yuan nodded stiffly. She didn't try to explain her gender, because the more she explained, the harder it would be to make herself understood. She might even be thought of as a pervert.
"Oh, right! I nearly forgot why I came over. Here, take these!" Lan Qiuzhu pulled a stack of club application forms from her bag and handed them over.
"The Anime Club?" Su Yuan glanced at them, surprised.
"That's right. I'm the club president. I was hoping to invite you to join, but then that big misunderstanding happened."
Su Yuan's cheeks turned a little red. She'd misjudged Lan Qiuzhu's intentions.
But Lan Qiuzhu was the Anime Club president? She never would have guessed! She looked more like the president of a martial arts club.
"I've got a few more forms here. Take all of them. If you know anyone promising, feel free to recommend them to the club."
Su Yuan took the forms and said goodbye to Lan Qiuzhu. She hadn't considered whether to join or not. Now that Lan Qiuzhu thought she was a girl, Su Yuan had no reason to risk exposing her identity by getting involved.
She'd have to keep an eye on the Anime Club's activities from now on and make sure to steer clear of them.
As she walked past a laboratory building, Su Yuan spotted a woman in a white lab coat in the distance. The woman saw her too and waved.
"Sister Xia, what are you doing here?" Su Yuan hurried over, smiling.
Xia Linfei reached out and naturally ruffled her hair. "I'm a graduate student here. I work on experiments in this building."
So that was it! Su Yuan nodded. Seeing the tray of reagents in Xia Linfei's hands, she volunteered, "Let me carry those for you."
Getting along with people was a curious thing. Some people clicked naturally, while others clashed the moment they met. Take Lu Wei, for instance. She and Su Yuan hadn't directly clashed, but it was as if they instinctively disliked each other. Xia Linfei gave Su Yuan a very different feeling. They didn't seem at odds at all; walking together, they felt like old friends who had known each other for years.
Su Yuan liked the wild streak in Xia Linfei, especially when it was wrapped in the gentle aura of a mature woman. When it showed through now and then, it seemed both strong and soft.
"Su Yuan, what happened to your butt? Why are you walking so strangely?"
"I can't help it. It still hurts." Su Yuan smiled wryly and explained the misunderstanding that had happened in the library.
"I don't think you can blame her entirely. If she hadn't known a few moves, she'd probably have been the one thrown to the ground."
Su Yuan nodded.
The building Xia Linfei worked in was a state-of-the-art laboratory building at Binhe Institute of Technology, built at great expense for students and professors in the biochemical sciences. It had the most advanced instruments and equipment in all of Binhe City. Many graduate students like Xia Linfei were currently conducting research there.
"Sister Xia, your field is molecular biochemistry, right?" They passed through a locked gate and then a glass door. Looking at the sophisticated instruments in several rooms, a sudden thought flashed through Su Yuan's mind.
"That's right. Why?"
"What does molecular biochemistry do?"
Xia Linfei smiled. "Nothing too special. You study biology, don't you? Molecular biochemistry is a branch of biology that focuses on research at the molecular level."
"Is it about modifying and analyzing things like DNA and genes in cells?"
Xia Linfei set the reagents down on a table and nodded. "You're talking about genetic engineering. In practice, there isn't much difference between genetic engineering and molecular biochemistry. The names and areas of emphasis are just a little different."
Su Yuan asked excitedly, "Then can you examine chromosomes too?"
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