Part 4
“…Just a coincidence.” Xie Ren’s eyes darted away. “I’m not in the same system as him. Rarely meet at work, and in life… basically don’t meet either. I don’t know him well.”
Yu Shi gave him a strange look. “I know.”
“Are you tired? Want to rest?” Xie Ren changed the subject.
Yu Shi was baffled; they had only been touring for an hour. “Not tired.”
Xie Ren looked a bit embarrassed. “I searched online. Your heat cycle is divided into three stages. Calculating the days, the first stage should be over. The internet says Omegas in this period are relatively weak. If you’re tired, don’t hold it in.”
Yu Shi didn’t expect him to pay attention to this. He rarely discussed such things with Alphas, let alone with his student. The air was awkward for a moment.
After a while, he said, “Oh. Thank you.”
Xie Ren coughed and asked, “Are you still using that matchmaking app? What’s your nickname?”
“You use it too?”
“No… I don’t date. Just asking. Did you meet that match?”
The walkway reached the end. Yu Shi stepped off. “I haven’t used it these past few days. Chat wasn’t pleasant. No plans to meet for now.”
The corners of Xie Ren’s mouth curled up bit by bit. Hands in pockets, walking beside him, he happily steadied a swaying display sign and said smilingly, “That is truly a pity.”
After visiting the war history section, the guide took them to the DIY room, distributing molds to everyone to make weapons.
Han Po pushed the mold away impatiently. “Really turned into an elementary school field trip. Hey, you, come here. Why are you always avoiding me?”
Li Yang pretended not to hear, intending to find Yu Shi, but Han Po grabbed his back collar and spun him around.
“You’re getting close to the new instructor. Fancy him?” Han Po mocked. “I thought you were an Alpha like a Beta, with that thing down there just for decoration. Didn’t know you could actually get hard.”
Li Yang flushed red with anger, shoving him hard. “You scum with a brain full of waste, don’t touch my clothes with your dirty hands!”
“What did you say?” Han Po revealed a fierce look.
Yu Shi turned around. “Han Po, is your model done? I’m checking it later.”
Han Po let go with a cold sneer, dragging out his voice, “Oh, checking it. Instructor Yu treats us like kids. Do we get a little red flower for everyone, and a flying kiss as a rewardโ”
Before he finished, a ball of mud flew over and smacked him in the face.
Han Po froze for two seconds, then hurriedly spat out the clay pei pei, pointing at Xie Ren and cursing, “You fucking lackey, love meddling, don’t you? Did I get in your way? Want to fight again?!”
“Come on. Let me test if this works.” Xie Ren twirled the sculpting knife in his hand.
Seeing the two about to brawl, Yu Shi quickly signaled Ye Bingyang. He turned and put a hand on Han Po’s shoulder, smiling, “Don’t fight, don’t fight. We’re outside, what does this look like…”
Yu Shi stopped Xie Ren. “Your snake-shaped barrel is done well.”
“Hmph,” Xie Ren said unhappily. “Sooner or later I’ll twist his head off.”
Yu Shi laughed. “He’ll be a lieutenant after graduation at least. Do you want to go to military court?”
Xie Ren said, “He better not be assigned under me, or I’ll skin him alive.”
Yu Shi was curious. “You are both graduate students. Why would your rank be higher than his?”
“From the moment selected by the Falcon Regiment, whether a student or not, you already possess a rank. Plus merit promotions, it’d be weird if I wasn’t higher.”
“Merit can skip grades?”
Xie Ren tilted his head to look at him. “You seem very interested in my work.”
“Just caring about a student. Your trigger position is crooked.”
Yu Shi thought: Diverting the topic, the farther the better. Save you from throwing another lump of mud and me having to advance medical fees again.
Xie Ren began explaining the promotion mechanism. “Can’t skip grades, but can shorten the years…”
Yu Shi helped him adjust the model, fingertips accidentally brushing his hand. The clay was wet, sticky, and smooth.
Xie Ren felt something wet and soft slide across the back of his hand. Like water, like fine sand, like… the legendary silken tofu.
His heart tightened suddenly, face flushing red rapidly. He remembered an old planet romance movie he once saw, where the leads’ hands intertwined, ambiguously making a clay sculpture together.
Yu Shi lowered his eyes, focused on piling clay onto the gun body, occasionally sprinkling a little water.
Xie Ren carefully piled clay in the same spot, fingers brushing Yu Shi’s hand.
Yu Shi’s hand was very soft, skin white, messed up by the wet clay. Xie Ren grazed the blue vein on the back of his hand, feeling it beat faintly. The force was negligible, yet it shocked his fingertips numb.
The first touch, Yu Shi didn’t mind.
The second touch, Yu Shi moved to a different spot.
The third touch…
Yu Shi looked up, sayingๅฟๆ ๅฏๅฟ (unable to bear it any longer), “Stop adding clay blindly. Want to fill up the trigger hole?”
Xie Ren was embarrassed. “…Sorry, mistake.”
Zhao Yi, making a model next door, looked at them weirdly and whispered to Xu Bohan, “I actually heard Brother Ren apologizing.”
Xu Bohan huffed, “His handiwork is so bad, apologizing is right. Don’t let him ruin my master’s model.”
After finishing here, Yu Shi moved to check others’ work. He looked at Xu Bohan’s and commented it was done well. Xu Bohan almost pounced on him in joy at the praise.
While he checked the molds, Xu Bohan looked behind him and said oddly, “Why is Xie Ren glaring at us? Keeping provoking. Is he dissatisfied with Master? Hmph, it’s been so long, still holding a grudge from the start of the term.”
Before Yu Shi could speak, Zhao Yi interjected, “Impossible. He admires Instructor Yu…”
Both looked at him. Zhao Yi: “…’s achievements too much.”
Xu Bohan relaxed. Zhao Yi chuckled hehe. “Instructor Yu, actually Brother Ren knew about you long ago. Before you came to NDU, he watched your livestream.”
Yu Shi was surprised. “What livestream?”
“The award ceremony livestream. At Xinghai Lecture Hall.”
Yu Shi gradually understood. It seemed Xie Ren’s obsession with weapon manufacturing far exceeded his imagination. Not only frantically submitting to Particle, but even watching that boring award ceremony.
A good seedling.
For such seedlings, he was never stingy about sharing results.
He said considerately to Xu Bohan, “Send Xie Ren a copy of your thesis later. Send him the weekly test papers too, have him finish and hand them to me.”
“Okay.”
“In the future, sync all your weapon assignments to him to do together.”
“Yes.”
Zhao Yi: …
He seemed to have made a very grave mistake.
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