Tan Qingze’s gaze fell on Jiang Lezhi.
He walked a few steps to the side, where he could see Jiang Lezhi’s profile perfectly from his angle.
He was certain now. The voice just then… had come from Jiang Lezhi.
But wasn’t she unable to speak?
Mother Jiang and Jiang Lezhi chatted for quite a while, and only then did she finally relax.
Her Lezhi really could speak!
Mother Jiang patted Jiang Lezhi’s hand. “Is there anything tasty to eat at your school? Your father and I rushed over to see you and haven’t eaten yet.”
Father Jiang pointed to the restaurant ahead. “That one looks pretty good. Lezhi, have you eaten there before?”
Jiang Lezhi looked up. The restaurant Father Jiang had casually pointed at was the same one Tan Qingze had just taken her to.
Tan Qingze seemed to eat there often, and he was probably quite familiar with the staff there. More importantly…
She had been so anxious to kiss Tan Qingze just now that she had no idea whether the staff had seen it.
And she had only just left the restaurant before going back in again. It would be hard for the staff not to recognize her.
What if he really had seen it and accidentally let it slip…
Jiang Lezhi simply couldn’t imagine how toe-curlingly embarrassing that scene would be.
To be safe, she couldn’t let them eat there.
She tugged at the corners of her lips and pretended to look disgusted. “Ah, the food there isn’t good. Let’s go somewhere else!”
“Bang!”
It sounded as though something had collided with something behind her. When Jiang Lezhi turned around, however, she didn’t see anything.
Mother Jiang tugged at her hand. “What is it?”
“Nothing. I probably heard wrong!”
*
Tan Qingze rubbed his forehead. He had accidentally run into a lamppost just now.
He was annoyed beyond belief.
What was he hiding from?
Why had he hidden?!
And he had even crouched sneakily behind a tree. He really had to be sick in the head!
He swung his fists heavily through the air a few times, then finally kicked the tree trunk speechlessly.
Jiang Lezhi’s parents left the next day. Third-year classes weren’t particularly numerous, and the two of them wanted Jiang Lezhi to stay with them outside for one night, but she was genuinely afraid that she would give herself away when she woke up the next morning.
Wouldn’t that make all her frantic effort to go find Tan Qingze today pointless?
That night, she tried keeping her eyes open instead of sleeping. Maybe if she didn’t sleep, she would still be able to keep speaking?
In the end, the result was exactly as expected. The moment midnight arrived, she could no longer speak again. It seemed to have little to do with whether she slept or not…
Jiang Lezhi was extremely glad that she hadn’t stayed at a hotel with her parents. Otherwise, she really would have given herself away.
A message from Mother Jiang popped up on her phone. The older couple had already gotten up and were preparing to leave.
Jiang Lezhi replied to the message, then fell straight into bed and went to sleep.
Over the next few days, Gu Qing and Jiang Jiaojiao noticed that Jiang Lezhi had been holed up in the dormitory without going out. That really wasn’t like Jiang Lezhi at all!
The final exams were almost here. Normally, Jiang Lezhi would go to the library to study every day around this time.
But now, Jiang Lezhi had already stayed in the dormitory for three whole days!
The last time Jiang Lezhi had gone out to find Tan Qingze, she had been able to speak again after returning, but she had only been able to speak that one day. She still couldn’t speak during the following days.
Jiang Lezhi didn’t seem anxious either. They clearly remembered that when Jiang Lezhi discovered the next day that she couldn’t speak, she had even gone and smashed a streetlamp…
But the two of them didn’t dare ask. They both felt that Jiang Lezhi’s mental state had seemed a little off these past few days.
Gu Qing and Jiang Jiaojiao exchanged a glance, and sure enough, they saw Jiang Lezhi bury her face in her pillow again. She even pounded on the bed, then lifted her head several seconds later.
Her face was terribly red, whether from holding her breath or for some other reason.
After holing up in the dormitory for three days, Jiang Lezhi finally went out.
They had a class to attend that morning.
Jiang Lezhi wore a pink down coat that nearly reached her ankles. Her complexion was naturally fair, and the pink made her look even more radiant.
It had snowed again the night before, and the path to the classroom had frozen over. Hugging her textbooks, Jiang Lezhi walked like a little penguin, moving very slowly and looking rather unintelligent.
After finally reaching the classroom and sitting down, the class bell rang, but the professor still didn’t appear.
Gu Qing lowered her head and whispered with them, gossiping, “Why hasn’t the teacher come yet? Does that mean we don’t have to attend this class? Hahaha!”
Jiang Jiaojiao snorted. “Dream on. The teacher told you last week to be ready to go up to the podium and solve a problem in this class. Hahaha!”
Gu Qing: “…”
After they waited for more than ten minutes, the professor still hadn’t arrived, and the students below began speculating about whether the class had been canceled.
Then a tall, slender figure walked in through the door and strode up to the podium.
The already somewhat noisy classroom exploded the moment Tan Qingze entered.
“Holy crap! Why is it Tan Qingze?”
“Oh my god! Why is Tan Qingze here in our class?”
As they spoke, everyone else’s gazes unconsciously turned toward Jiang Lezhi’s seat in the middle.
Although that post from a few days ago had been deleted, they hadn’t forgotten its contents!
Now the male and female leads of the rumor had appeared in the same scene!
How could that not excite them?!
Some people even secretly took out their phones and snapped two pictures of Tan Qingze on the podium.
Tan Qingze loosened his scarf a little, swept his gaze across the students below, and then said, “Professor Lin slipped and fell while he was out today, so I’ll be teaching this class in his place.”
Jiang Jiaojiao and Gu Qing nearly let out groundhog shrieks on the spot. They shook Jiang Lezhi’s arm, and, taking into consideration how thin-skinned Jiang Lezhi was, lowered their voices. “Lezhi, Lezhi! Tan Qingze is teaching our class!”
Jiang Lezhi heard them. Both her ears heard them loud and clear.
The moment Tan Qingze entered through the door, her heart had shot straight up into her throat.
At first, she thought Tan Qingze had walked into the wrong classroom or had come to get something, so she hadn’t paid much attention. But now, she couldn’t ignore it even if she wanted to.
Just now, by an incredible coincidence, she had happened to meet Tan Qingze’s eyes.
The scene of her kissing him was still vivid in her mind, and she had a pretty good idea of how angry Tan Qingze was.
She had hidden in the dormitory for several days precisely because she was afraid of accidentally running into Tan Qingze outside. She had originally planned to spend these days thinking about how to apologize to him, but even she felt that her reason sounded completely unreasonable.
And now, fate seemed to be deliberately tormenting her. How could a second-year graduate student like him be substituting for a class…
Jiang Lezhi thought about it, then instantly deflated.
All right…
Tan Qingze seemed to be Professor Lin’s student. He had probably been dragged over by Professor Lin to rescue the situation at the last minute, which was why he had arrived so late.
Jiang Lezhi tried her best to minimize her presence, hoping that Tan Qingze wouldn’t notice her.
The moment the class ended, she would run!
Tan Qingze’s voice was deep and pleasant. Obviously, the words were written exactly that way in the textbook, but the students below still felt that he made them sound so good!
Gu Qing propped her chin in her hands and stared at him. “What is he mumbling on about? He’s so handsome…”
Jiang Jiaojiao: “…”
Jiang Lezhi: “…”
“For the next problem, Professor Lin specifically instructed me to find a student to come up and write out the solution.”