BXBX NOVEL Chapter 259
° Her eyes halted on the curious boy before her as if locking on her prey, “Concepts such as temperature and energy were only invented relatively recently, and were probably taken at school in the same way as ‘Paris is the capital of France’ rather than ‘What the hell does this mean, and why does the universe behave in this way?’ It’s hard, but you really have to understand this stuff. I’m Xue Bi, and I’ll be teaching Thermodynamics and Electromagnetism starting the following semester.”
° “...” Sighing in relief, the students took it as her permitting them to use their cheats. Some didn’t dare to do it openly, resulting in a few students failing this exam. They did the exact opposite of what Xue Bi wanted. Now, she had to come up with new exam questions for a few retakes, which would take away the time she could spend in a laboratory.
° “Did you get lost?” Xue Bi asked the male in a black shirt. She called out all the names, and not once did he react.
° “No,” Lu Kai answered, “I’m a special guest.”
° “Oh, sorry...” It was definite. Xue Bi decided. She stamped a ‘new helper’ on his forehead. “...Enjoy your stay.”
° “I will,” Lu Kai smiled at her. After Xue Bi broke the eye contact, he picked up the pencil and answered the questions. It wasn’t like he was a jerk. He didn’t argue with teachers or have that endearing slightly rebellious spirit that would get his grades docked. He wasn’t condescending.
° Xue Bi, after finishing her master’s in physics, decided to pursue her doctoral studies, focusing mainly on material science. The ability to create new materials and to make existing materials perform better was the main reason for her to choose this curriculum.
° This 25 years old student, who besides being a researcher assistant, was also a teaching assistant. This seven-day a week, low pay work could be described as “slave labor”. But what wouldn’t one do for the sake of a PhD diploma, right? Xue Bi was among the luckier people; she wasn’t short on money, nor did she have to provide for her privileged family.
.....
° About Lu Kai; he was just a fifteen years old boy who ‘accidentally’ memorized an entire textbook in his head just to inspect his older brother’s arranged date. When will his parents give up? There was no way his mysophobic, asexual, and aromantic of a brother would get interested in a human being. Finishing early, he stood up and handed Xue Bi the papers.
° “You forgot your ID, and now you also forgot to write down your name? What’s wrong with kids these days, taking exams from their own free accord...” Xue Bi went through his answer sheet, pleasantly surprised. Could that boy do integral calculus in his head? Most answer sheets would at least have a few eraser marks. This one... the answer was just written simply by itself. “Wow... What a way to make one feel inferior....”
° “...” Lu Kai was used to act low key, so why did he suddenly try to impress her? He peeked at the sleeping dogs by Xue Bi’s legs. With these two beasts by her side, getting on her bad side wouldn’t be the smartest idea.
° After the exams, all eyes stared at the young man in black who continued to stand by her desk. Was he trying to hit it off with the doctoral student?!
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° After a year...
° Xue Bi looked at the clock inside her lab. 4 PM. She patted her dogs to wake them up, standing up, she walked with them to a nearby school park. Taking a package of cigarettes from her coat, she offered some to Lu Kai that was beside her the whole time.
° Taking one cigarette without remorse, Lu Kai pressed it in between his lips and used a lighter to light it up, placing it before her face, he helped her to light up hers too. Both sat at the bench near a small pond and started to smoke silently.
° Leaning against the bench, Lu Kai folded his arms behind it openly as he took a glance at her side profile. “What would you do if you knew that I lied about my age this whole time?”
° “You aren’t twenty?” Xue Bi asked coolly.
° “No.” Lu Kai exhaled a puff of smoke, “I’m sixteen.”
° “...” Xue Bi narrowed her eyes at her skinny assistant that was taller than her by a head, “Remember, I wasn’t the one who made you addicted to nicotine.”
° “If only nicotine...” Lu Kai chuckled, a gust of smoke escaped his lips and nose. He reminisced about the days when he tried to make her stop smoking while she tried to shut him up with a cigarette. The more atoms leave their space boundary in the crystal lattice, the faster the chance of the crystal to collapse just like a human relationship. Once one crossed the safe limits, one would lose their tempo. Things between them were getting complicated, or more like... his feelings towards this person.
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“It takes ‘no time’ to realize my love; a ‘decade’ to decide if it’s worth it, and a brief moment to act upon it.”
– Lu Kai aka Xuan Mu
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° Lu Kai had no idea how he ended up doing research with a woman whose thesis was about a new technology that would be able to neutralize neutron embrittlement during a fusion reaction. She was an individual who was curious and determined to find ‘real solutions’ to phenomenons that many believed to be unsolvable.
° There were all sorts of approaches to designing new products. But in the end, everything was still limited by the material properties. With the proper combination, one could make even a weak matter super strong. To truly get to the next level of performance, one would need to develop a new material which required knowledge of engineering, chemistry, physics, and nowadays biology too. Xue Bi’s drive and passion to do big, odd things made him feel... strangely... excited?
° “You knew?” he asked.
° “Zu Kai, the renewable energy entrepreneur, who always pays his younger brother to get rid of his dates...” Xue Bi shrugged her shoulders, sighing, “Yes. I always force my mother to spew everything about my dates out. It’s easier to deal with them later. ”
° “You’re sharp for someone who hates human interaction.”
° “I don’t know how I can discern other’s feelings. Something is telling me that you have a crush on me. Is it true?”
° Lu Kai stared at her raised lips. Looking away, he bit his bottom lip in frustration as he took a couple of short, firm draws out of his cigarette. “Be mine, please.”
° “So it’s true.” Xue Bi was amazed by herself, “Lu Kai, you really want me to end up in prison, don’t you?”
° Lu Kai tapped the ash off the ashtray next to the bench, “Do I have to wait until I’m legal before asking again?”
° “I’m like your brother. I can’t give you what you desire. I’m sure that sooner or later, you’ll try to find it somewhere else, like your brother’s exes.” Xue Bi finished her smoke and whistled at her dogs, ready to continue her work, “These past few days I couldn’t focus on my job, so I’m planning to meet up with your brother to end this hassle that our families put us through.”
° Maybe because Lu Kai had a brother like that, he could understand this side of Xue Bi pretty quickly. Though he tried to ask her for more, he never demanded from her things she couldn’t offer. She always held the matter-of-fact approach and didn’t let emotions distract her. She wanted to spare themselves of the hardships they would have to deal with as a couple. Xue Bi was freezingly pragmatic, but also freakingly considerate.
° The rejection, he expected it, but still chose to do so. Lu Kai grabbed his chest. The pain; he felt like he was about to lose her forever, “You never thought of hugging or holding anyone’s hand?”
° “No, never. Why would I want to do that?” Xue Bi rubbed her arms, “I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it.”
° “You touch your dogs.” Lu Kai patted her two bodyguards and helped her to put a leash on them. She didn’t treat them like pets, rarely would she play with them; they were truly here to watch over her safety. With these two beasts besides her, even a group of men would think twice of whether or not they should bully her. This girl used her family’s connection to get these two trained specially for her and to gain access to most facilities in the school.