Jiang Chun had never been an enthusiastic student from a young age. Foreseeing this, Jiang Hongtao had the foresight to transfer her household registration to the capital, allowing her to barely scrape past the second-tier university cutoff line in the college entrance exam.
Later, Jiang Hongtao wanted to send her abroad to gild her credentials, but she and English were sworn enemies. After a period of one-on-one IELTS tutoring, she absolutely refused to continue. Jiang Hongtao had no choice but to let her happily muddle through four years at some obscure second-tier university.
In the blink of an eye, several years after graduation, stepping into Tang Zhizhou’s university, Jiang Chun felt a little nervous.
After all, Tang Zhizhou taught at C University, a top-tier institution ranked among the top 10 nationwide—the kind she wouldn’t have dared to dream of during her college entrance exam days.
Fortunately, she had consulted Ji Mingshu the night before for tips on youthful outfits and booked a stylist. Today, she woke up at six to style a fluffy high bun and apply a fresh, natural student makeup. Standing on campus compared to the plain female students, she felt somewhat confident.
About fifteen minutes before the public lecture began, Tang Zhizhou had already set up the necessary equipment. Scanning the classroom, he suddenly remembered something and walked out while sending a WeChat message to Jiang Chun.
Tang Zhizhou: 【Have you arrived?】
After sending it, he stood by the corridor railing and glanced downstairs. Coincidentally, he spotted a girl in a pale yellow T-shirt and jeans standing by the flower bed below. She wore a loosely tied high bun and carried a small monogram backpack, currently playing on her phone.
A few seconds later, his phone vibrated.
Jiang Chun: 【Almost there, I just got off the car. Might take another fifteen minutes TvT】
Tang Zhizhou glanced downstairs again, a question mark slowly forming in his mind.
Jiang Chun remained completely unaware after sending the message. She lingered downstairs for a while, dawdling until only five minutes remained before starting to climb the stairs.
Recently, she had been thoroughly brainwashed by Ji Mingshu. Ji Mingshu claimed that since high school, she had always made boys wait at least an hour for dates, and her husband had stood out from the arranged marriage candidates by waiting two hours.
Though it sounded exaggerated and its authenticity was questionable, given Ji Mingshu’s circumstances, making men wait seemed perfectly justified. Jiang Chun didn’t have that kind of capital, so she thought arriving right on time would suffice.
When Jiang Chun reached the upper floor, the one-and-a-half-minute early class bell had just rung. She followed other students through the back door into the classroom.
Whether it was because students at prestigious universities were naturally passionate about learning or Tang Zhizhou was particularly popular, the large lecture hall was packed. Moreover, everyone was scrambling to sit from the front rows backward, a stark contrast to the reluctant attitudes during public lectures at her own university.
Just as Jiang Chun settled into the second-to-last row, she overheard the girls beside her whispering:
“I told you to save a seat earlier. Why didn’t you come? Only the back rows are left now.”
“I went to the wrong building, okay? So annoying, I climbed six floors twice!”
“We can’t even see Professor Tang’s face from here. It’s so far away.”
“Then work hard to secure a postgraduate spot. If you get him as your advisor, you can see his face every day.”
Was Tang Zhizhou really that popular?
Jiang Chun squinted slightly and looked ahead.Tang Zhizhou was wearing a white T-shirt today, casually layered with a dark-colored shirt—a very typical, straightforward outfit for an engineering guy. But with his good looks, excellent temperament, and tall, long-legged figure, even dressed casually, he stood out noticeably on the lecture podium.
To be fair, if there had been a professor like him back when she was in school, given her habit of being boy-crazy, she probably would have snuck into his classes just to gawk.
Lost in these thoughts, someone suddenly tapped her shoulder from behind. She turned around to see two female students.
The girl in front, holding a stack of books, spoke directly to her, "Classmate, you’re not from the School of Information Engineering, right? The university recently issued a notice prohibiting auditors from disrupting regular students’ classes. Didn’t you see it?"
The girl’s tone was quite sharp. Jiang Chun paused for three seconds, "What? You spoke too fast; I didn’t catch it."
The girl rolled her eyes impatiently and repeated her words in an even more unfriendly tone.
Meanwhile, murmurs of discussion arose from behind, "Probably from the Dance Department. They’re always the most enthusiastic about sneaking into Professor Tang’s classes. Do they even understand anything?"
Before Jiang Chun could respond, a hand suddenly reached out in front of her, followed by a gentle male voice, "Sorry, she’s my friend and not a student here. It was my oversight for not considering this earlier, and I apologize for disturbing everyone’s class."
The girl immediately flushed red, waving her hands shyly, "It’s fine, Professor... Professor Tang."
Tang Zhizhou gave a slight nod, then turned to Jiang Chun, extending his hand toward her, "Come with me."
Jiang Chun was slow to react, pointing at herself, "Me?"
"Yes."
Under everyone’s gaze, she took Tang Zhizhou’s hand and slowly walked forward. When they reached the front row, Tang Zhizhou discussed with the students there, and they squeezed to one side, somehow managing to make room for her to sit.
Only after sitting down did she belatedly let go of Tang Zhizhou’s hand as if it were a hot potato.
The entire public lecture lasted ninety minutes. Jiang Chun didn’t understand a single word, but that didn’t stop her from staring at Tang Zhizhou for the full ninety minutes, completely smitten.
Sob sob, educated men are so handsome! Every gesture, every movement! If the students in the classroom hadn’t been so well-behaved, she would have loved to pull out her phone, snap nine consecutive photos, and send them to the group chat for Ji Mingshu and Gu Kaiyang to admire just how high-quality her blind date prospect was!
After class, Tang Zhizhou stayed for ten minutes to answer students’ questions.
Once the ten minutes were up, he politely declined further questions, asking everyone to email him instead, promising to reply to each one individually.
"Sorry, I forgot to arrange a seat for you in advance today," Tang Zhizhou apologized politely during lunch.
"It’s fine. I heard someone say I was from the Dance Department, and I was actually quite happy about it," Jiang Chun said, scooping up tiramisu while eyeing the matcha mousse not far away. "You have no idea—my best friend says I’m as chubby as a little piglet and that I dress poorly. She’s always pushing me to lose weight and revamp my style."
Tang Zhizhou smiled understandingly and gently pushed the mousse toward her, "Girls are cuter with a little extra weight."
Jiang Chun suddenly paused and looked up, "So you think I’m fat too?"
Faced with this deadly multiple-choice question, Tang Zhizhou hesitated for a few seconds, "That’s not what I meant.""That's exactly what you mean," Jiang Chun continued eating her tiramisu with her head lowered, her tone thoroughly world-weary and resigned. "Professor Tang, let's be honest—did you ask me to attend your public lecture today because you're somewhat troubled by having too many admirers at the university?"
Before Tang Zhizhou could respond, she went on chattering, expounding her grand theories. "Your family background is excellent, you're handsome, and you're so accomplished yourself. The more I look at you, the less you seem like a man who needs to go on blind dates."
"As for me, I don't have many other merits, but I do have a strong sense of self-awareness. So you don't need to feel any psychological burden. Our parents just stirred things up a bit, and I know we're simply not suited for each other..."
"I think we're very well-suited," Tang Zhizhou suddenly interrupted.
Jiang Chun looked up, "...?"
Tang Zhizhou gazed directly at her and repeated, "I think we're very well-suited. If you're willing, we could try dating."
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