After Pei Chuan finished his class, the classroom immediately became noisy.
Everyone had thought Professor Pei was merely dating Bei Yao, never expecting they were already married! It was truly shocking news.
After finishing his lecture, Professor Pei went directly to the medical school building.
There were things he had missed for many years—having taken the title of her boyfriend, yet never once coming to Bei Yao's teaching building to pick her up.
Pei Chuan had dismissed his computer science class early, so when he arrived at the medical school, there were still three to four minutes left before their class ended.
The warm yellow sunlight slanted westward, long past the summer solstice, with lush green leaves on the treetops.
He quietly walked through the corridor and stood outside their classroom, waiting for Bei Yao's class to end.
It was already the last few minutes before dismissal, and the students were somewhat restless, looking around. Then they spotted Professor Pei at the door.
The fact that someone from the Academy of Sciences was giving lectures was known throughout the university. Some gossipy students in the medical school immediately recognized this young and accomplished scientist.
They stopped listening to the lecture and began whispering among themselves.
All eyes turned toward him.
This year, Pei Chuan was twenty-three years old.
He wore a white shirt with a light gray tie. His sturdy frame filled out the shirt's silhouette, and below it were black pants fastened with a belt.
A watch adorned his wrist as he stood not far from the doorway.
Pei Chuan's back was straight, like a silent pine tree.
His gaze swept past the equally youthful students and settled on Bei Yao, who was sitting in the middle to back rows.
Because they were married, she was juggling home and school, always with countless tasks left undone. At that moment, she was copying notes, her long eyelashes lowered, sitting upright—just like the girl who used to sit beside him with her tender, lotus-root-like arms crossed.
The medical school students were also buzzing: "Is that Professor Pei? The one from the Academy of Sciences?"
"Yes, yes! I just saw him at the computer science department a couple of days ago. It must be him."
"What is he doing at our school?"
"No idea."
Qin Dongni nudged Bei Yao: "Yaoyao, look at the door."
Bei Yao lifted her head.
Sunlight filtered through the tree shadows, dappling the ground as he stood there watching her. One was outside the door, the other inside.
Yet it felt as if time had never passed—in the blink of an eye, many years had gone by, and he was still by her side. Seeing her look up, he met her gaze across the crowd.
Bei Yao could no longer hear what the lecturer was saying at the podium.
She stared at him in a daze.
Had Pei Chuan finished teaching? In her eyes, going public meant telling her roommates—it wasn’t like she would shout through a megaphone that Pei Chuan and she had gotten their marriage certificate, right?
The surrounding whispers and curiosity grew louder: "What is Professor Pei doing at our school?"
"Yeah, I want to know too. Will he come into the classroom?"
Although the lecturer at the podium noticed the commotion and initially wanted to scold the students, upon seeing Professor Pei outside, he smiled and shook his head inwardly. Let it be.
A minute later, the bell rang, but this time, no one rushed out of the classroom first.
Bei Yao packed her backpack.
Her current backpack was beige, containing medical books she needed to read and her wallet. On the outside hung the panda plushie he had once sent her via remote control airplane back in high school.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, she walked toward Pei Chuan.
"What are you doing here, Pei Chuan?"Stepping out of the air-conditioned classroom, they were instantly greeted by the warmth of summer. The breeze gently rustled the plane tree leaves, accompanied by occasional birdsong.
The sky was exceptionally blue that day, without a single cloud in sight.
Pei Chuan took her backpack and slung it over his broad shoulder.
She heard him say, "I'm here to pick up my wife and take her home."
He hadn't lowered his voice when saying this, and for a moment, the classroom fell completely silent.
Pei Chuan held Bei Yao's hand, paying no attention to the reactions inside, and led her out.
The sunlight stretched their shadows long across the ground.
After what felt like a long while, the stunned medical students in the classroom suddenly erupted into heated discussion.
"What did he just say? Picking up his what?"
"Am I hearing things? Am I seeing things?"
"Is that Professor Pei? What about all those rumors from the Computer Science department about him being cold and unapproachable?"
"Oh my god! No way, what's going on here!"
...
The classroom was in an uproar, with Qin Dongni and Shan Xiaomai suddenly surrounded by many curious classmates. Qin Dongni thought of the gold bracelet she had received from him and felt the pressure mounting - one couldn't bite the hand that fed them.
"Yes, yes, our Yao Yao is indeed his lawful wife! She's been his woman for a long time now!"
Bei Yao felt her face grow warm, while Pei Chuan's hand felt particularly comforting.
Her heart felt like a little person spinning around in circles, filled with excitement. Back in high school, he had said that if she wanted to know what love felt like, she could come to him, but they shouldn't make it public.
Yet she never expected that one day, he would be the one to make it public.
The man walked with her small backpack slung over his shoulder, remaining silent the entire way.
His silence made it seem as if those words he had declared before the entire class hadn't come from him at all.
She had been walking half a step behind him, holding his hand, when she suddenly quickened her pace to stand in front of him, wanting to see his expression.
Pei Chuan stopped and looked down at her: "What's wrong?"
She tilted her head: "I wanted to see what expression you're making."
"Did you see it?"
Bei Yao blinked: "I saw it, but I don't quite understand. Does this mean you're happy?"
The corners of his lips twitched slightly, lifting just a bit, before he pressed them together again.
Her almond-shaped eyes curved into crescents as she finally understood the complex emotions of this inscrutable man. Her heart swelled with matching joy.
He reached out and gently touched the corner of her eye, saying softly: "Silly."
She asked in a gentle voice: "Does this mean we're public now?"
"Mm."
"But you never allowed it before?" Bei Yao had always found his thoughts difficult to understand, how they could suddenly change.
Pei Chuan said: "I allow it now."
"Why?"
He said: "Before, I thought I couldn't be with you for a lifetime, that there were many things I couldn't give you. Now I think, whatever you want, I'll spend my life working hard to provide it."
Without a sound body, he could offer a heart that burned even more passionately and sincerely.
He would treat her well for the rest of his life, so well that no other man could compare. Then he would deserve her. So everything that should be his, he would claim - status, her heart, the normal marital intimacy between husband and wife.
Her eyes glistened with moisture as she couldn't help but smile again. Three parts shyness, seven parts foolish happiness. It rippled through the early summer season, making anyone who saw it feel happy too.
Bei Yao didn't experience mood swings during her period, but one morning she woke up to find she had stained Pei Chuan's pants with blood.
This day happened to be the Grain Buds solar term, and also Pei Chuan's birthday.
She was extremely embarrassed: "Change out of them, I'll wash them for you."He said, "Go wash up, I'll handle this." He had always pampered his girl, not only washing his own trousers but also her soiled pajama pants.
He glanced at the faint red stain on her pants, where the color had lightly bled into the water.
This was the first time Bei Yao felt so frustrated about her period.
She hadn't yet mentioned his birthday to Pei Chuan, but he brought up another matter instead.
"I'll take you on a trip during summer break."
Bei Yao was slow to react: "Where to?"
"Where would you like to go?"
Bei Yao thought for a moment, and after a long pause remembered they hadn't gone on their honeymoon yet.
She asked Pei Chuan: "Is it for our honeymoon?"
Pei Chuan responded: "Mhm." He paused briefly, "We'll hold the wedding ceremony here before the new year."
Their previous wedding had been too rushed - just a simple ceremony and exchanging rings. When he took things seriously, he attended to every detail meticulously.
Being young after all, Bei Yao found the concept of a honeymoon novel and exciting.
She was browsing on her iPad when Pei Chuan glanced over and gently embraced her from behind: "Have you gotten used to being married yet?"
Bei Yao was slightly taken aback.
She felt somewhat embarrassed - when Pei Chuan had suddenly proposed marriage before, it had actually been quite frightening. In her eyes, marriage was just a formal concept, and since living together had been so sudden, many things required gradual adjustment.
Yet Pei Chuan, silent as he was, saw everything clearly.
She nodded: "I'm used to it, and very happy too."
He didn't speak, merely curling his lips slightly.
He knew his girl was trying very hard to integrate into his life, but being still young, habits formed over twenty years were difficult to change. Sometimes in the middle of the night, she would find his embrace too warm and roll away from him.
He would open his eyes, pull her back into his arms, and place her hands around his waist.
Hence the scene this morning where she had stained his trousers.
Pei Chuan also wanted her to grow accustomed to having him in her life - warming milk for her in the mornings, occasionally helping her with shoes, having her tie his tie, picking her up after school, getting her used to sleeping in his embrace at night...
Day after day like this, she would learn to miss him the way he missed her.
Pei Chuan sometimes felt that love wasn't equal.
He had fallen for her long ago, starting from that heavy rain in their first year of high school, when he had first torn his heart apart to leave Bei Yao.
That year, he knew she hadn't missed him - perhaps not even once.
Pei Chuan believed Bei Yao liked him now.
But compared to his own intense, almost unspeakable feelings, hers remained somewhat youthful and inexperienced.
He turned her around: "Give me a kiss, hmm?"
Bei Yao stood on her toes and planted a smacking kiss on his cheek.
He smiled, not making an issue of it, and helped her choose destinations together.
He loved this summer - he was learning earnestly to be her husband, and hoped that this summer, she would completely become his wife.
~
During the Grain Buds season, the Huo family's stocks continued to plummet.
Besides Huo Xu feeling anxious, Shao Yue also sensed the tense atmosphere as if sitting on pins and needles.
Jiang Huaqiong didn't seem in any hurry to finish them off, instead playing with them like a cat with mice, wearing down their spirits.
Huo Xu had once been an elegant young master who rarely lost his temper.
Now he often returned home irritably loosening his tie and cursing.
Shao Yue wasn't foolish enough to approach him when he was in a bad mood, but this was her first time experiencing the atmosphere of impending bankruptcy so closely.
Shao Yue advised him: "Maybe we should stop fighting Jiang Huaqiong. Let's go abroad, lay low like we did before."Huo Xu said angrily, "Hide? Where do you think you can hide? The reason we managed to go abroad back then was because Jiang Huaqiong couldn't figure out who exactly killed Huo Nanshan, and my father stalled her with the divorce matter. Now, if we show any sign of weakness, that madwoman Jiang Huaqiong will tear us to pieces."
Shao Yue, having been scolded, felt somewhat resentful.
But from Huo Xu's words, she suddenly recalled something and asked doubtfully, "Why is it that Jiang Huaqiong, who previously couldn't confirm Huo Nanshan's death was related to you... to us, suddenly became certain recently and started attacking like a rabid dog?"
They were already guilty and hadn't thought in that direction, focusing only on protecting the Huo family during this period.
But now, thinking about it suddenly, there's no reason for Jiang Huaqiong to go mad only after all this time, right?
Huo Xu was taken aback for a moment, then his face darkened.
Yes, someone was behind the scenes, watching the fight from the mountain, calmly setting up a trap for him to be destroyed by Jiang Huaqiong.
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