Tattoo

me a dog? Tsk.” Fang Qimao said this with slight dejection, and his eyes glanced at Xiao Ke while wondering about his relationship with the man who was on the phone just now.

“Then don’t go,” Xiao Ke replied.

“I can’t, I have an appointment.” Fang Qimao retracted his eyes to look at Lu Xiaobei’s circle of friends.
“I guess for me, after I get it, they won’t post pictures since it’s too unsightly.”

Xiao Ke was too lazy to talk to him again so he left him alone on the couch to talk to himself.

Once the weekend had ended, Xiao Ke had to go back to his bland and boring role as a people’s teacher.
He had class on Wednesday afternoon since their school had been in session for two weeks even though other schools hadn’t started yet which made students complain about it as they were reluctant to attend class.

It was not the students’ fault since the weather was still really hot which made even Xiao Ke feel irritated by the heat outside the office.
The first class following the lunch break was the most difficult, but that’s how the class schedule was arranged since he had had to give way to a major elective class.
It was why he couldn’t steal the prime time in the morning.

“Open your eyes if you are sleeping.
In fact, I am also sleepy, but we still have to go to class.” Xiao Ke got his computer ready, but he saw that the majority of the class was asleep when he looked up.
He felt slightly bemused, “Now I’m even sleepier because of you guys.
Let’s kick each other’s desks and chairs so we can wake up to listen to the lesson, it’s my fault if it breaks.” Xiao Ke used the computer to play a song with the sound of heavy metal rock booms that woke up those that were sleeping.

The class president sitting in the first row of seats was a rather jocular boy, but he was also shaken awake.
He sat in a crooked manner on the chair, and he looked at Xiao Ke with half-opened eyes as he said, “Handsome Xiao, don’t be ridiculous.
My head is going to explode.”

“Explode? Well, don’t sleep in my class.
Then the director won’t say that I’m not engaging.” Almost all the sleepers sat up, and Xiao Ke turned down the volume slightly.
“Come on, first listen to this song.”

“You are quite engaging.
If it were any other teacher, not even mentioning rock and roll, they wouldn’t even be able to play suona in my ear.” The class president stood up and clapped his hands behind him before he said in a loud voice, “Come on, let’s get up.
Don’t trigger a snowball effect.” Xiao Ke looked at him, and he smiled at Xiao Ke.
“Handsome Xiao needs a class representative?”

“Forget about the class representative.
I don’t have much to do, I’ll just ask the class president if there’s anything.” Xiao Ke also looked at him before putting away the music to officially start the class.

In fact, students in his class were indeed quite enthusiastic because Xiao Ke’s class was not always stony-faced as he occasionally threw in a few humorous jokes.
Students loved this kind of teacher, especially since Xiao Ke was young which made the generation gap relatively small.
Students also dared to joke with him, and Professor Xiao didn’t mind.

There were very few teachers as young as Xiao Ke in their college, and fresh graduate PhDs usually couldn’t lead class which was why even Xiao Ke now had few classes a week which led to most of his time being spent on experiments, projects, and research.
He was one of those who had started lecturing early, and he had only spent a year teaching before an administrator scheduled him for classes.
Though it was only an elective course, this was already a pretty good thing.
Either way, his salary increased by at least two thousand.　 

Xiao Ke finished his class, and he felt all the pores of his body stretch out as soon as he stepped into the air-conditioned office from the sweltering corridor.
He sat in his chair while he tilted his head and breathed out a long sigh of relief.

“Professor Xiao is out of class?” There were two or three other teachers in the office while the others had either gone to class or went home early.
Little Liang’s desk was next to Xiao Ke’s.
They entered the school in the same year, and they had always had a good relationship.

“Mn, I may have to lie here dehydrated for a while,” Xiao Ke said with a bitter smile.

“Our school arranges for the installation of air conditioning every year, but it might depend on next year since the time for this year has already passed.” Little Liang gave Xiao Ke a glass of water and placed it on his desk.

“Thanks.” Xiao Ke drank half the glass before saying, “I have no hope for the AC.
It would just be nice if we could start school a few days later.”

Little Liang smiled as she didn’t have deep knowledge on this matter since she didn’t lead classes anymore.

Xiao Ke still had two hours to go before he finished his work so he spent the rest of the day preparing the coursework for tomorrow’s class.
Xiao Ke liked to finish his work in one go, and he was not easily interrupted by anything which was why he casually glanced at the phone.
When he saw the number that was on it, the finger that was typing momentarily paused.

He had finished his work before he picked up his phone to check the text message which read, [It was a gift, it’s not expensive.]

Xiao Ke replied to him, [Thanks, no need.]

This number was familiar to him.
From the beginning till the end, Lin An had this one number that never changed.
After the breakup, the contact was deleted by Xiao Ke, but this number was not unrecognizable to him.

It was probably because his mother had already contacted Lin An to ask him to take back his watch and the other things.

“Professor Xiao, it’s time to go.” Little Liang called out to him.

“Mn, you go ahead, I’ll prepare for class.” Xiao Ke remarked.

He was the only person left in the office.
Xiao Ke didn’t have time to be distracted and think about past events.
It had been too hot during lunch, so he hadn’t had much of an appetite then.
However, he was really hungry now, and he wanted to save this file before he got food.　

Xiao Ke stood up to lock the door and head out when his phone once again rang in his pocket at the inopportune time.
He frowned and looked at it to see that it was Lin An.

Xiao Ke hung up the phone to avoid answering it and he then didn’t hesitate to block the number.