Jiang Mian lifted her eyes and looked toward the entrance.
Sure enough, Lu Heng stood at the doorway, wearing a wool coat and his neatly styled parted hair.
The moment he appeared, people from nearby seats immediately stood up and crowded around him.
Seizing the opportunity, they bombarded him with questions:
“Professor Lu, perfect timing! In your last paper on semiconductors, you proposed the ‘silicon-based heterojunction scheme.’ Our lab tried it for a while, but it didn’t work—what’s going on?”
“What substrate temperature did you use?”
“380 degrees. We strictly followed the Soviet standards.”
“Soviet standards are already outdated. Increase the temperature to 420 degrees.”
“Ah, I see! So it was the temperature issue. Thank you, Professor Lu, thank you!”
“Professor Lu, I’d like to ask—”
Lu Heng instantly became the center of attention, surrounded so tightly he couldn’t get away.
As he answered questions one by one, his gaze swept around, searching.
Finally, it landed on Jiang Mian.
Their eyes met.
Jiang Mian immediately looked away.
Nope. Absolutely not.
She had always wondered why, in the story, once she arrived in the capital, she seemed to lose her mind—acting recklessly and ruining her reputation.
Now she understood.
This ridiculous plot was sabotaging her.
Anyone would go crazy!
Better stay far away.
Even the soda wasn’t worth drinking—it would just make things worse.
Holding her belly, Jiang Mian prepared to quietly slip away.
Just as she lifted her foot, Xu Hongmei suddenly appeared out of nowhere, holding a bottle of soda, and grabbed her:
“Jiang Mian, quick! Professor Lu is here—go ask him for your certificate!”
Jiang Mian gestured toward Lu Heng.
With so many people surrounding him, how was she supposed to speak?
Besides, she had already gotten the 200 yuan from selling the certificate.
She didn’t even want it anymore.
Jiang Mian said, “If you’re so capable, go ask him yourself. I don’t dare.”
Throwing that line over her shoulder, she turned and walked away.
She even strode right past Lu Heng.
At that moment, he was still surrounded by people asking questions she couldn’t even understand. Surely, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—cause trouble for her in public.
But then—
“Comrade Jiang Mian, wait.”
Jiang Mian: “!!!!”
Her whole body stiffened as she stopped in her tracks.
The people surrounding Lu Heng, who had been eagerly waiting to ask questions, were stunned to hear him call out a pregnant woman’s name.
All eyes turned toward Jiang Mian.
Why was Professor Lu calling her?
Could it be that he was going to settle accounts with her?
After all, being entangled by a pregnant woman in public was considered quite embarrassing.
Those who had just been full of scientific questions now wore expressions like gossiping villagers watching a spectacle.
Lu Heng left the crowd behind and walked steadily toward Jiang Mian.
“Comrade Jiang Mian, thank you for what happened yesterday.”
The surrounding people were nearly shocked speechless.
Jiang Mian shot Lu Heng a glare:
“Thank me for what?!”
Don’t talk nonsense!
Haven’t you already dragged my reputation through the mud enough?
Lu Heng said:
“For helping me on stage yesterday.”
“……”
Lu Heng looked at Jiang Mian, but it was obvious he was explaining to the surrounding crowd:
“Yesterday on stage, I suddenly had a cramp and almost couldn’t stand steady. It was Comrade Jiang Mian who supported me, preventing me from falling in front of so many people. I came today specifically to thank you.”
“…………”
The people around immediately understood.
Ah, so yesterday on stage, it was Professor Lu who suddenly had a cramp, and a pregnant woman helped him?
It wasn’t any kind of pulling or inappropriate behavior at all!
Even Xu Hongmei, standing nearby, finally realized what had happened.
That made more sense—how could a country bumpkin dare to lay hands on a dignified professor in front of so many people?
So that was the truth?
Xu Hongmei once again regretted it—if she had known, she should have taken Jiang Mian’s place on stage!
Hearing that Lu Heng had finally cleared her name, Jiang Mian said calmly:
“A cramp? Professor Lu, maybe you’re lacking calcium. If so, you should drink more bone broth.”
Muscle cramps could be caused by calcium deficiency—this was something Lu Heng himself had once told her.
After they got married, Jiang Mian often had cramps in the middle of the night, writhing in pain on the heated bed.
Lu Heng had said it might be due to calcium deficiency.
He even made a crude hunting gun and went into the mountains.
Somehow, he actually managed to hunt a roe deer.
He used its bones to make soup.
Jiang Mian drank bone broth for over a month.
Miraculously, after that, she rarely had cramps again.
So Jiang Mian truly believed that cramps were caused by calcium deficiency.
Hearing her say this, Lu Heng’s mind flashed back to those nights—her rolling on the bed, clutching him, burrowing into his arms, crying out in pain.
A faint tremor stirred in his chest.
For a brief moment, the two of them were pulled into a shared memory.
Not far away, a woman in her thirties suddenly stood up and accused:
“So this pregnant comrade was doing a good deed, and just now, how did you all speak about her?!”
This woman had been standing nearby and had long since had enough.
A group of grown men gossiping about a pregnant woman!
Have you no shame?!
She had been holding back her anger, not wanting to offend others for no reason.
But now that she heard the pregnant woman had been wronged, she finally couldn’t hold it in and stepped forward to seek justice.
“You—you—and you! All of you grown men—what were you saying just now? Calling her behavior improper? Have some decency! She’s carrying a child and still has to endure your baseless slander. Why aren’t you apologizing to her now?!”
The men who had been gossiping about Jiang Mian lowered their heads, wishing they could disappear into the ground.
A staff member from the organizers stepped in to smooth things over, saying awkwardly:
“It’s all a misunderstanding, just a misunderstanding. Let’s just let it go, shall we?”
“Let it go?” the woman refused to back down. “If Professor Lu hadn’t clarified things, wouldn’t this comrade have been slandered for nothing, unable to clear her name? The world is really generous to you men—when you slander someone, you can just say ‘let it go.’ But for her, a woman seven or eight months pregnant, simply helping someone up gets her pointed at and falsely accused. Where was your tolerance and generosity then?!”
The men all flushed with embarrassment.
Some of them looked at Jiang Mian, hoping she would let it go and spare them from apologizing.
It was just a few unpleasant words spoken behind her back—was it really such a big deal?
But Jiang Mian stood there, hands cradling her belly, looking utterly wronged.
Pitiful.
And she refused to forgive.
They had slandered her—why shouldn’t they apologize?
She wanted to see who would be more unable to back down!
The awkward atmosphere dragged on as if for an eternity.
Finally, one man, seeing there was no way out, braced himself and said:
“I’m sorry, Comrade Jiang Mian. We were wrong just now. We shouldn’t have said those things about you. Please forgive us.”
Once one person took the lead, the others followed:
“Comrade Jiang Mian, we’re sorry.”
“Sorry!”
“Please forgive us!”
A group of once-arrogant researchers all lowered their proud heads and apologized to Jiang Mian.