Having His Back

Lu Chengze looked at the child standing there without moving. His face seemed expressionless, but his eyes glimmered with helplessness and grievance. The coldness in Lu Chengze's dark eyes immediately softened. He reached out, pulled Bai Jin in front of him, lowered his head, and asked gently, "Kid, did that scare you?"

Bai Jin, whose heart had remained perfectly calm, first turned to look at the people who had truly been frightened silly. His bright black eyes shifted before he put on a frightened act and shrank his shoulders. "I-I'm not scared."

But Lu Chengze, already convinced that Bai Jin had been scared half to death, only felt more distressed when he saw this. He reached for Bai Jin's hand, and the instant he touched it, the icy coldness startled him. "And you say you weren't scared? Your hands are freezing."

As he spoke, his large hand completely wrapped around Bai Jin's, then naturally stuffed it into his pants pocket.

In Lu Chengze's eyes, Bai Jin was simply too embarrassed to show weakness in front of so many people, so he was stubbornly denying it.

Through the thin layer of fabric, Bai Jin's palm pressed tightly against Lu Chengze's thigh, less than a finger's width from his manhood. That warm sensation made Bai Jin burn all over.

If the situation had been different, Bai Jin would seriously have suspected that Lu Chengze was trying to seduce him in a roundabout way.

Who put someone's hand into their pants pocket to warm it, only to press it against such an unspeakable place?

Pretending not to see Bai Jin's embarrassed indignation, Lu Chengze ended their oblivious-to-the-world interaction. He turned to Ai Huainan. "Old Ai, yesterday you told me how great your school was and how reliable it would be to invest in your experimental research. This? These people?"

Ai Huainan: "..."

After receiving Lu Chengze's call, Ai Huainan had nearly fainted from anger on the spot!

Only yesterday, he had finally managed to persuade Lu Chengze, for Bai Jin's sake, to put this year's three hundred million yuan investment from Lu Group Corporation into Medical University's experimental research.

Yet they had only arranged that morning to sign the contract with Lu Group Corporation. The contract had not even been signed before something went wrong.

As a member of the Ai Family in the capital, Ai Huainan naturally knew that Lu Chengze's sudden arrival in Xu City was not merely due to a transfer from the military, but also because of certain investigations that could not be made public.

Therefore, while Lu Chengze was still in Xu City, Ai Huainan had been persistently trying to get him to agree to make introductions.

By coincidence, he had accidentally overheard Lu Chengze and Lu Jin discussing Bai Jin that day, and had also heard Lu Chengze trying every possible way to pursue Bai Jin.

Ai Huainan immediately had someone investigate all of Bai Jin's information and promised Lu Chengze that, as long as Lu Group Corporation invested, Bai Jin would be fully involved in the related experimental research projects.

Only then did Lu Chengze nod in agreement.

Who would have thought that Bai Jin would be targeted by villains after becoming the leader of an experimental research group for barely any time at all?

It was one thing for them to target Bai Jin, but for Lu Chengze to discover it was another matter entirely.

Wasn't this a slap to Ai Huainan's old face?

With Lu Chengze's unruly temperament, along with the Lu Family's and the Dragon Family's shameless habit of protecting their own no matter who was right or wrong, how could he show his face in the capital afterward?

That was why Ai Huainan had dragged Jiang Hongfeng and Zhan Zhou along with him when he came.

He could not be the only one bearing such humiliation.

"Chengze, don't be angry yet. Our school will definitely give you... oh, no, give student Bai Jin a satisfactory explanation." Ai Huainan's face was covered in smiles.

With the three hundred million yuan startup investment for the experiment practically in hand, Ai Huainan absolutely would not allow anyone to jump out and disrupt things.

After speaking, he hurriedly signaled Jiang Hongfeng with his eyes.

Jiang Hongfeng immediately took over, his expression stern. "Bai Jin becoming the leader of this experimental research group was a unanimous decision made after deliberation by our relevant experimental supervisory team. If any of you have objections, you may come directly to me."

Those words made the other students lower their heads one after another, no longer daring to voice any objections.

Every experimental project conducted in Medical University's laboratory building formed a corresponding experimental supervisory team. These people were prominent figures transferred from the school's own laboratories and even national-level experimental teams.

The experimental supervisory team held great authority and could decide who stayed or left an experimental project.

Since Professor Jiang said that Bai Jin's position as team leader had been decided in a meeting of the experimental supervisory team, it meant that Bai Jin had not obtained the position through other means.

Rather, Bai Jin's abilities had been recognized by the experimental supervisory team. He had been promoted to leader of the experimental group through his own merits.

That was awkward.

Thinking of how they had deliberately huddled at the door earlier to gossip about Bai Jin, and had even caused Chen Mo to hold a grudge against him, their faces burned with shame.

"Bai Jin, I'm sorry. We maliciously speculated about you without understanding the truth."

"Sorry. Please forgive us. We'll definitely cooperate properly with your work from now on."

Although it was humiliating for third- and fourth-year seniors to lower their heads and apologize to a first-year junior, no matter how humiliating it was, it was still better than being remembered by Fifth Master Lu, right?

The others also all hurried over to apologize to Bai Jin.

Their tones were sincere, and their attitudes had made a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn.

This left Bai Jin somewhat at a loss. He edged closer to Lu Chengze's side, and the fingers tucked inside Lu Chengze's pants pocket instinctively tightened around the man's hand. "...It's, it's okay."

Perhaps Bai Jin had been too nervous, because he seemed to have accidentally touched something he should not have touched.

Lu Chengze's body stiffened slightly. Taking advantage of the chance to step forward, he avoided the child's wandering fingers and completely shielded Bai Jin behind him. "Even if Bai Jin doesn't pursue this matter..."

Before Lu Chengze could finish his harsh words, Ai Huainan hurriedly cut in with a smile. "Chengze, don't worry. We will definitely deal with everyone present seriously. Those who should publicly apologize will publicly apologize, and those who should be punished will be punished."

If Lu Chengze finished making his threats, there would scarcely be anyone left in their experimental group.

The experiment had already begun, and replacing everyone would be another enormous undertaking.

Lu Chengze lowered his head and glanced at Chen Mo, who had somehow woken up but was too afraid of being kicked unconscious by Lu Chengze again to open his eyes. Lu Chengze sneered. "Old Ai, since you've said so, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to refuse you face. But you know that my patience has always been limited..."

"Understood, understood!" Ai Huainan nodded repeatedly and quickly had someone carry away the unconscious Chen Mo.

Seeing that things had more or less been settled, Zhan Zhou finally spoke and dismissed everyone else. "All right, disperse. Go do whatever you need to do."

Li Ming remained behind, standing obediently behind Bai Jin. "Fifth Master Lu, I'm... I'm Li Ming. I'm Bai Jin's friend. It's an honor to meet you."

Lu Chengze looked at Li Ming's sparkling eyes and narrowed his own. "From the Li Family?"

When Li Ming heard that Lu Chengze actually knew of him, he became even happier, nearly ready to list every detail of his family background. "Yes. My father is Li Zhenghao. One of our hospitals in the capital has also maintained a long-term partnership with Lu Group Corporation..."

Lu Jin had just walked in when he heard Li Ming's innocent attempt at ingratiating himself, and he could not help giving him an extra look.