Chapter 23: Come See Me in My Office

"Yes, I accidentally bumped my head yesterday." Sang Fuying pushed aside the hair covering her temple, revealing the adhesive bandage underneath.

Merle gazed at the girl’s fair, delicate forehead, where the strawberry-patterned bandage looked almost like a cute hair accessory.

"Is it serious?" he asked with concern.

To him, such a minor injury was surely nothing worth mentioning, but he couldn't be sure about his seatmate, a delicate little female.

"It’s not too bad."

This was her third day at Federal University. So far, she hadn't detected any abnormal or dangerous traits in her seatmate; he was the only person in the entire class she could talk to, and their daily interactions had been perfectly normal.

She had assumed that university in this interstellar world would be like back on Earth—where classrooms weren't fixed, assignments were based on the course, and seating was first-come, first-served. Instead, the classrooms here were fixed, and each seat required student verification, meaning the seating arrangement remained unchanged for the entire semester. Fortunately, the lectures were conducted via holographic projection, so where one sat made no difference.

"As long as it's not serious, that's good." Merle pulled two chocolates from his jacket pocket and placed them on Sang Fuying’s desk. "The dark chocolate helps with focus, and the raspberry one is sweeter; females usually like that. We have Professor Zhou’s class in a bit. You’ll need to pay close attention and not fall asleep again. He’s a bit of a stickler and likes to make things difficult for those who don't listen."

Sang Fuying looked at the two exquisitely wrapped chocolates on her desk and asked Merle, puzzled, "Are these for me?"

Merle nodded.

Last night, he had taken the opportunity to ask his sister what females liked after she returned from a date with some boyfriend or other. His sister had rattled off a long list and asked if he had his eye on a particular female. He admitted he felt a certain fondness and wanted to get to know her better. His sister then told him to give her chocolates, calling it an age-old, immutable rule.

He had never been interested in such things himself, so his sister gave him two—one dark chocolate and one pink cranberry-flavored one—telling him that females would surely prefer the pink one.

Sang Fuying didn't know enough about this world. On Earth, chocolate was a sweet symbol of romance, typically used to imply attraction or a romantic gesture, though it wasn't uncommon for classmates or friends to simply share them as snacks. However, if it were the latter, one usually wouldn't give them to just one person, but would share them with a whole group.

"Thank you. I'll transfer the money to you," she said, thinking that rejecting him would be awkward, yet accepting gifts for free didn't feel right either.

Merle clearly didn't understand her reaction. "These are a gift for you. You don't need to pay me."

***

Little Bu popped up at this moment: [Host, is he secretly in love with you?]

"Don't talk nonsense! We've only known each other for a few days!"

[When I was an assistant system, I followed a senior system. She handled a 'disastrous start' mission for a female college student on Earth. I saw those kids just starting university—many of them started dating after only a few days. You mustn't learn from them, Host! Puppy love is wrong! Besides, this blonde, blue-eyed boy is currently the number one dangerous person on your list.]

Little Bu rambled on in the system space, sounding like an old father terrified that his precious cabbage might be snatched away by a pig.

"I know."

Speaking of puppy love, they were both adults now; surely it didn't count as puppy love? In this world, females were expected to match with many males upon reaching adulthood, often skipping the dating phase entirely to register as married couples. At the end of the day, Little Bu seemed to be a very conservative and traditional system.

After giving her the chocolates, Merle began messaging his sister to ask what he should say next.

His sister, frustrated by his lack of progress, replied, "Tell her to add you as a contact! Once you're back, find a way to chat and build a rapport, you fool!"

Merle, always willing to take advice, said bluntly to Sang Fuying, "Since we’ll be seatmates for the whole semester, could we add each other as contacts?"

It was hard to refuse a request to add a classmate. Sang Fuying opened the messenger app on her light-band and moved it toward Merle. "Sure."

Their bands touched, and the contact was added.

During class, seeing Professor Zhou Ying’s focused face, Sang Fuying really wanted to listen carefully, but the content was simply too difficult to grasp. She was a liberal arts student; her knowledge of math, physics, and chemistry was barely skin-deep. In high school, her uncle would have been overjoyed if she just managed a passing grade in math.

This class started immediately with advanced mathematics. She had just arrived and missed a great deal of the earlier material. As a science underachiever, she felt like she had stumbled into a royal court—she hadn't even learned to stand, yet they expected her to fly! It was pure torture.

Her seatmate wasn't listening properly either; his digital pen spun continuously between his clean, slender fingers.

***

Intuition and her experience from reading novels under the covers told her that this person must be an all-around genius. Even though her classmates said the same—that the young master of the Lesterlin family was a monster among monsters, and that as long as he was around, the other males were merely background characters—she hadn't seen it yet. For the past few days, Merle had been slacking off just like her.

Professor Zhou didn't call on anyone to answer questions during either session, which made many students in the room heave a sigh of relief.

After class was the lunch break—two and a half hours. Most students who didn't live in the dorms spent their time in the library or at cafes, while the wealthy students took their personal starships home. For the past few days, Sang Fuying had spent her lunch breaks in a quiet corner of the library trying to catch up on her missed coursework, though she found the complex science subjects incredibly difficult to grasp.

Professor Zhou sent a message to Sang Fuying: "Come see me at my office."

Sang Fuying went to his office without a second thought. This time, the mechanical doors opened automatically.

Wearing a crisp white shirt and silver-rimmed glasses perched on his high-bridged nose, the young man sat meticulously beside a mahogany bookcase filled with classic, vintage books. His temperament was elegant and gentle, a stark contrast between his scholarly air and his somewhat striking, vivid features.

In front of him was a sandalwood table adorned with rustic celadon tea sets. The man lifted his wrist to pour the tea, the stream creating a clear, melodic arc. The scent of jasmine wafted through the air with the tea steam. When she had visited his office before, Sang Fuying had noticed he must be an enthusiast of traditional culture. Even the books on his shelves were mostly ancient classics and masterpieces.

"Come, sit. Don't be a stranger." Zhou Ying placed a teacup on the spot to his left, gesturing for her to come over. His voice sounded like the striking of gold and stone.

Sang Fuying sat down obediently. "Is there something you needed me for, Professor Zhou?"

"Sang Yao asked me to find a way to get you in, but my relationship with the other professors at the university is only average. I couldn't transfer you to another department, so the best I could do was place you in the class I teach. There are monthly assessments here, and the standards are quite strict. If you fail three times in a row, you will be expelled. Since you didn't come last month, your assessment was recorded as a zero."