"...A senior once said this: 'The course of fate is shaped by many factors.' I think that makes a great deal of sense. You are like that, and so am I."
"...When Dean Yao asked me to serve as a teaching assistant, I was actually very uneasy. I wasn't joking—I just didn't understand how a student from Jiuyou Academy like me could come to Edge Academy and become a teaching assistant. But Dean Yao said the school had already made its decision, so when I returned to my dorm, I spent the entire night flipping through the First University Campus Management Regulations, trying to find a more tactful way to decline."
"...There was no punctuation in those regulations. Every page was packed so tightly with what looked like nonsense that I studied them for a long time before reading between the lines."
The entire book of regulations, back and forth, boiled down to just six words—listen to the school. So after closing the regulations, I obediently went to Professor Yao's office the next day and signed the papers."
"And then I was standing before you."
At that point, Zheng Qing paused to catch his breath. He picked up the clear tea on the lectern, lowered his eyelids, and took a small sip.
He finally understood why so many teachers liked to bring a drink to class. Talking at such length was truly exhausting. After only a few minutes, he felt as if his throat had swollen shut.
The passage that normally allowed air to flow freely had become narrow and dry, as though breathing too quickly had lowered the air pressure in his throat, flattening the fleshy walls on both sides.
The warm tea eased that dryness considerably.
The young teaching assistant took a deep breath, raised his eyes again,