Rumors

"Teacher Wu, I happened to be in the area on business this afternoon, so I thought we could go to the factory together after your class. I'm really sorry for interrupting your lesson."

Jiang Nan explained apologetically.

"No problem, then. Just wait a moment, my class ends in three minutes."

Wu Chen breathed a sigh of relief.

The School of Pharmacy was on Zhaohui Campus, and Jiang Nan rarely came to Pingfeng Campus.

So he had thought something serious had happened.

He returned to the classroom and continued watching the students do their exercises.

After that little interruption, however, most of them had completely lost interest in studying and were packing up their laptops, ready to sprint to the cafeteria.

Only a few true academic overachievers were still hunched over, pondering the algorithm examples covered in class.

Min Xinrou was one of them.

But ever since Wu Chen had returned to the podium, she had seemed a little distracted, stealing glances at the doorway from time to time.

She remained that way until the bell rang.

The students in the classroom immediately rushed out like wild horses that had slipped their reins.

A few of the more mischievous boys, however, came over to joke with Wu Chen as they passed the podium.

"Teacher Wu, that's Teacher Jiang, right? Is she here to see you? You two aren't dating, are you?"

Wu Chen was utterly speechless.

"We need to discuss work. And yesterday, none of you recognized me when you saw me on campus, but you recognize a teacher from another school?"

"We can't help it. Teacher Jiang is Chen Xiaodong's goddess. He goes on about how pretty she is in the dorm all day. It'd be hard not to know her!"

Giggling and joking, the boys pushed the one named Chen Xiaodong forward.

Chen Xiaodong kept trying to hide behind them while protesting, "That's not true! Don't make things up about me!" The classroom descended into chaos.

Wu Chen rapped on the desk.

"Stop fooling around. That kind of joke is very inappropriate. Besides, if he has something to say, let him say it himself."

Only then did the rowdy boys stop, running out of the classroom while pulling at one another.

But as they passed Jiang Nan, she fixed them with a cool stare, and not one of them, Chen Xiaodong included, dared go up and speak to her.

Wu Chen looked at the group of boys, already in their third year, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Come to think of it, his body was only four or five years older than theirs.

Yet he had lost the vibrant youthful spirit they possessed, which was somewhat regrettable.

Besides the joking students, one boy who had been working diligently on his assignment had run into a problem.

He wanted to ask Wu Chen for help, but he looked at Wu Chen, then at Jiang Nan waiting by the door, and couldn't figure out how to bring it up.

In the end, Wu Chen noticed his expression and asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Uh, yes, sir. I can't get this part of the algorithm to compile, but if you have something to do, please go ahead. I can try to figure it out myself first!"

The boy answered sheepishly.

Wu Chen waved a hand. "I'll take a look."

He walked over and sat down beside the boy. Only then did he remember that Jiang Nan was still waiting outside, so he called to her, "Teacher Jiang, why don't you come sit in the classroom for a bit?"

Jiang Nan nodded and came in.

She glanced around the classroom, sat down casually in a seat beside the podium, then lowered her head and began tapping away on her phone.

Min Xinrou happened to be sitting next to her.

But at that moment, Min Xinrou's face was tense and her body was hunched over as she stared intently at her computer screen. She seemed to have run into a problem too.

Wu Chen paid them no attention, focusing instead on helping the boy beside him.

It was a simple type compilation error, and he resolved it without trouble a few minutes later.

The boy thanked him, packed his bag, and hurried away.

Wu Chen returned to the podium and packed up his own things. Then he glanced at Min Xinrou's screen and asked, "Min, is there anything you need help with?"

Only then did Min Xinrou emerge from her thoughts.

She opened her mouth, but in the end she only shook her head and said quietly, "Not at the moment, Teacher Wu."

"All right. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime. If not, go get something to eat soon. Your health is the most important thing. And the sports meet is coming up, so try to get some exercise when you have time."

Wu Chen had also experienced the pain of losing his father in his previous life, so looking at her pitiful appearance, he couldn't help offering a few extra words of comfort.

"O-okay. Thank you, sir."

Min Xinrou nodded hurriedly.

Wu Chen gave a hum of acknowledgment, then said to Jiang Nan, "Let's go, Teacher Jiang."

Jiang Nan obediently got up, gave Min Xinrou a thoughtful look, and followed Wu Chen out.

Min Xinrou was left alone in the classroom.

But she didn't leave right away.

She had actually wanted to ask Wu Chen how the voice emotion model he had mentioned, the one that could let her talk to her father, was coming along.

But for some reason, when she saw Jiang Nan, she was too embarrassed to ask, feeling that her question was unnecessary.

There was something else, too: she really had run into some difficulties.

After hearing Wu Chen talk about the future of artificial intelligence last week, she had looked up some information herself, but there was a lot she didn't understand.

She had originally planned to ask Wu Chen about it again today.

If possible, she had also wanted to go to the school cafeteria for dinner with him again.

She had received 400 yuan in wages from her work-study job today and could treat him to that five-yuan chicken leg in return.

"Ah..."

In the gradually quieting teaching building, Min Xinrou sighed softly and slowly packed her bag.

Just then, someone suddenly asked from the classroom doorway, "How much longer are you staying? We're about to clean the classroom."

She turned and saw that it was a junior from the work-study program.

"I'm leaving now. Sorry."

Min Xinrou hurriedly picked up the pace, then shouldered her bag and rushed out of the classroom toward the cafeteria.

Xiaoheshan University of Technology's Pingfeng Campus had two cafeterias.

One was called Jiahe, and the other was called Yangxian Mansion.

Jiahe Cafeteria was a little closer to the teaching area.

But Min Xinrou decided to eat at Yangxian Mansion anyway, because it had a Cantonese food stall.

As she reached the cafeteria entrance, she was still wondering whether to have sampan congee or stir-fried beef rice noodles when she ran into her three roommates, with Yang Yuanjing at their head.

Min Xinrou lowered her head, intending to pretend she didn't know them.

In their second year, Yang Yuanjing had falsely accused her of stealing and joined forces with the other two to ostracize her.

Although Min Xinrou was later proven innocent, their relationship in the dorm had never been repaired.

So even though the four of them slept in the same room every day, they belonged to two completely different worlds.

The other three hardly ever spoke to her.

But Min Xinrou didn't mind much.

She had to get up early every morning for her work-study job at the cafeteria, and in the evenings she studied and helped out at the library.

For the others, the place where they spent the most time at university was the dorm, but for her it was just the opposite.

The library was her favorite place.

But for some reason, instead of ignoring her as usual today, Yang Yuanjing raised her head and spoke to the other two in a very loud voice.

"Have you heard? Apparently, a certain someone has something shady going on with a male teacher. Not only did she keep staying in the classroom after class, she even ate with him, all lovey-dovey, and then his actual girlfriend came looking for her!"