Tattoo

Cheng Ning, [Fuck.]

Jiang Tao, [Old Cao, don’t be like this in front of Teacher Xiao.] 

Zhou Zui, who had disappeared for half a day, suddenly made a sound again and sent a voice message directly with a flat voice, “Don’t think about it, can’t you remember these words?”

Fang Xi also smiled and also sent a voice message, “You dare to think about Professor Xiao? Old Zhou will really fuck you.”

Xiao Ke looked at Zhou Zui’s message with his eyes bent with laughter, and he saw Old Cao saying, [I’ll remember it for now, but I may forget it tomorrow or the day after.]

He also chatted with them for a while before he locked the screen and put down the phone.
This time, he was really busy.
A new experiment had begun in the group, and a new batch of imported equipment came to the lab that was still in the debugging stage.
Xiao Ke, although happy with his love life, did not dare to be careless in his work.

His doctoral supervisor asked him to help with two more master’s degrees, and Xiao Ke also had to find time to help with thesis revision.
His doctorate wasn’t completed at this school, and his teacher wanted him to stay in school while Xiao Ke also still wanted to come back.
Since his teacher was quite sorry about it, he still wanted to keep bringing him along with him.

The quality of this year’s batch of master’s students wasn’t that great.
Xiao Ke thought that their papers weren’t even as good as the undergraduate students’.
They had grabbed bits and pieces off of the web, but it didn’t make sense when put together.
If this were in the past, Xiao Ke might help them edit it a bit, but his mentality changed after becoming a teacher himself.
He directly returned the papers to them and told them to rewrite them.

He traveled for two days from Wednesday till Thursday to Beijing to hold an academic seminar.
His level was actually inadequate for this kind of seminar, but the dean treated him well and generally brought him to these types of opportunities.

Although Xiao Ke was young, his professional ability was very strong, and he was also very perceptive so he made people feel very relaxed and comfortable.

The meeting was very serious, but in fact, these well-known professors in the profession were familiar with each other since many of them were even classmates or brothers who shared the same teacher which was why it was customary to have a dinner gathering after the meeting.
It was fine when there were a lot of people, because these gatherings turned out to be filled with the customary eating and catching up.
They would discuss some academic topics.
However, it was more difficult when there were fewer people.
These small get-togethers were definitely filled with people from the same school. 

This time, Xiao Ke followed the vice president to a meeting, and the table was full of the vice president’s classmates that remained in the field of education.

Xiao Ke had just had a drink last weekend, but he had eaten something first to cushion his stomach at that time, and this time, he started to prevent the wine from reaching the vice-president before he could eat a few bites.
There were seniors at the table so they did not mean to make things difficult for him.
The vice president himself also drank a lot, but Xiao Ke was the younger one so he had to block the drinks.

After the meal, everyone was really a bit overwhelmed, but the performance they put on was one of normality since they even talked as if they were sober and disciplined while Xiao Ke sent the vice president back to his room.

However, Xiao Ke’s tense nerves were all gone when he returned to his room.
After taking off his suit jacket, he found the back of his shirt already soaked with sweat.
Xiao Ke didn’t even take a shower and went straight to bed which was partly due to the numbing effect of alcohol, and his stomach really hurt like pins and needles.
Xiao Ke’s face went white after thinking about a group of old pedants who could still drink so much.

When Zhou Zui sent a message, Xiao Ke remained in a huddled position as he touched his phone and looked at it.
It was Zhou Zui asking if he had rested.

Xiao Ke called him directly.

Zhou Zui answered quickly and picked up with a nice “Professor Xiao.”

Xiao Ke smiled and felt that the discomfort was relieved.
He took a few deep breaths to calm his breathing and then called out, “Teacher Zhou.”

“Have you been drinking?” Zhou Zui asked him.

Xiao Ke was lying on the bed while clutching his phone and told Zhou Zui, “I drank a lot.”

Zhou Zui asked, “How’s your stomach?”

Xiao Ke heard this question and felt satisfied even though it did not help with anything, but he had only once said that he had a stomach ache after drinking too much wine.
From then on, Zhou Zui thought about his stomach every time he drank which made Xiao Ke feel very warm.

Xiao Ke had never been a hero at such times, and he was the best at buying misery and asking for comfort so he trailed off before he said, “Not very good.
It hurts like hell…”

Zhou Zui paused, and the voice then died down.
Xiao Ke waited for half a day but could not get a word out.

Xiao Ke laughed and asked, “Nothing more, Teacher Zhou? No consolation?”

Zhou Zui whispered, “I haven’t thought of what to say, but I feel like it’s useless to say anything.”

Xiao Ke instantly felt comfortable and warm in his heart.
Zhou Zui was indeed this kind of person where he simply would not say nice things to coax people.
For other people, their boyfriends would be able to give them lots of care, tell them to drink hot water, to take medicine, and to rest early.
However, Zhou Zui was not that type of person as he knew that these words were useless so he simply did not say them since these empty words were ones that he never bothered to use when coaxing people.

However, his voice full of concern as Xiao Ke heard just how worried he was.

Xiao Ke’s nose was covered with cold sweat, and he wiped it with his fingers before he suddenly said to Zhou Zui, “Teacher Zhou, I have a scar on my ankle from a fall when I was a child.”

The topic jumped so fast that Zhou Zui couldn’t follow his thoughts, “Hmm?”

Xiao Ke smiled slightly and closed his eyes before he said, “When I come back home, give me a tattoo as well.”