I’ve Got this Cannon Fodder’s Back

Chapter Ch29.2 - I’ve got this Scholar’s back (11)

Hearing that Lu Jingmo had already submitted his paper, Zhan Pei’s heart that had been worried for many long days finally felt relieved.

These days, he hadn’t heard of the Botany lab borrowing any equipment. The experimenter he’d bribed gave him his most confident reassurance that Lu Jingmo hadn’t found any problems with the data. As long as this paper was sent up and it passes the review, it would be a bomb that could blow up at any time in Lu Jingmo’s hands.

He wanted fame, as does Lu Jingmo. Both people have problems with the data in their papers. They would have to spare each other’s dignity and it would now be much easier to negotiate.

Taking a sip of the fine coffee ground by his graduate students, Zhan Pei leaned back against his office chair, slowly flipping through the latest weekly report.

There was a light knock on his door. Zhan Pei frowned and raised his eyes impatiently. “What is it?”

“Boss, people from the school are looking for you. In the laboratory, they’re saying — talk…”

The one who came in was a third year graduate student with a pale face and cautious tone. However, his eyes flashed with an unusual light.

Accustomed to these graduate students keeping quiet out of fear in front of him, Zhan Pei was pierced by his unusual gaze and he narrowed his eyes. He snapped the weekly report off the table unhappily. The student shivered immediately, lowered his head and stepped back.

Seeing that his ability to awe was still there, Zhan Pei snorted with satisfaction and told him to clean up the office. He got up and pushed open the door, heading out.

His graduate students have recently lost morale. They haven’t produced any valuable results for a long time. The people from the school weren’t ones sent there to urge him to produce results rather it was Lu Jingmo, that despicable guy had already seen through him.

The former was so very easy to handle and even the latter was too. This wasn’t the first time his paper had been exposed. If back then, he’d been able to deceive his way through once, he could deceive his way through a second time. As long as the tampered paper was published in time before Lu Jingmo submits the results of his repeated experiment, he wasn’t afraid that this baby professor, not even old enough to grow facial hair, would dare make trouble.

Before entering the laboratory, Zhan Pei adjusted his expression and put on an enthusiastic smile.

You shouldn't hit a smiling face. He was already a veteran in this university and everyone has to show him some face. If there was really anything wrong, they would mutually trade explanations, show consideration for each other and let things pass.

Thinking thus with a smile on his face, he opened the door to call out a greeting. But his smile suddenly froze on his face and a look of slight anxiety flashed in his eyes.

Gu Chuanbai hadn’t been to the cryo-electron microscopy laboratory for a long time. He didn’t want to ruin his future because of such an insignificant graduate student, so he had been letting him do as he wanted, half-pretending not to know of his activities.

But this time, Gu Chuanbai was brought here by the university leaders.

Lu Jingmo was also there, sitting in front of the test bench, his eyes quietly staring at empty space.

His face seemed to be pale, but still looked calm and unconcerned. No one could make out what he was thinking, but he still shifted half of his body unobtrusively and stubbornly guarded Gu Chuanbai, who was behind him, with his body.

If there were only these two people, it would be fine. What made him feel intensely uneasy was that researcher he’d bribed was also standing amongst the crowd.

The university president only focused on scientific research and was usually not on campus. The vice-principal, who was in charge of administration, walked slowly over, hands behind his back. The look he directed at him even had a bit of bitter hatred.

Zhan Pei grinned, and said with a smile. “Old Ding&#k2014;&#k2014;”

As soon as he uttered the words, he felt that the atmosphere was not right and he met the other’s gaze. His usually fluent speech suddenly stumbled and he changed his words stiffly. “Ding, Principal Ding&#k2026;”

“Professor Zhan, your students are all outside, do you want us to say more?”

The evidence was so conclusive that it couldn’t be resolved privately. The information, images, transfer records and how the researcher appeared absolutely scared out of his wits; he’d said everything that he needed to say and sold out Zhan Pei completely without any reservation.

The vice-principal sighed again and again. He continued speaking in a deep voice.

“Professor Lu’s research does not conflict with yours. What were you planning with this? If it weren’t for Teaching Assistant Gu’s careful verification and helping him to find out the mistakes and omissions, urgently redoing the experiment, there would have been a problem with Professor Lu’s paper——Professor Lu was personally invited back by the principal. Do we also have to persuade others to retire?”

That word “also” made Zhan Pei’s eyes contract. Zhan Pei took a deep breath, and his voice trembled, “Principal Ding, what do you mean?”

The vice principal did not speak, but pushed a document over. “Sign it. Letters of accusation against you are already piled up in my office. As far as we know, apart from falsifying thesis and maliciously tampering with other people’s experiment data, you also have also been maltreating your graduate students for a long time. This kind of behavior has persisted for so long in broad daylight. We should reflect on…”

“Who said that!”

Zhan Pei’s eyes were already bloodshot. H suddenly slammed open the door of the laboratory. Outside was a group of graduate students, suddenly standing upright in shock.

Zhan Pei glared furiously, and said in a cold voice. “Who said that?! Who am I maltreating! If you have the guts then stand up now—”

Before he finished his words, the youth leading them had already stepped forward and bowed silently to him.

More and more graduate students followed, most of their eyes were red. Several girls couldn’t help squatting on the ground, covering their face and crying bitterly.

“If our future prospects come at the cost of future students jumping into the fire pit then we no longer want these future prospects.”

The young man heading them had his lips pursed, his eyes filled with unshed tears. Nevertheless, he still walked to the vice principal, took out a letter of accusation and handed it over.

“This is the last letter of accusation. My name is Bi Song. I use my real name to report that Professor Zhan has been oppressing and insulting the graduate students. He collects the students’ internship salaries and holds the students’ papers hostage by withholding his signature…”

They didn’t know exactly what happened that caused Zhan Pei to run into bad luck, but Gu Chuanbai came to them and asked if they would be willing to report Zhan Pei, saying that there was a way to submit it.

They only thought about it for one night and they all agreed to sign their names on letters of accusation.

Rather than saying they were willing to believe in Gu Chuanbai, it was better to say that they were willing to believe in Lu Jingmo. That night, when they watched Gu Chuanbai being led away by the young professor who had rushed to defend him, a great many of them lay sleepless afterwards. Throughout the night, there was a faint but inerasable envy and longing in their hearts.

If there was still a last ray of light in this very gloomy time as students, even if they were just moths flying into the flame, they will still pounce on the chance.

Before his words finished, Zhan Pei rushed over in anger. He raised his hand to strike, but was immediately firmly held back by several people.

“Z University wanted you. Your future prospects, Z University gave you!”

The vice principal pressed his shoulder tightly and spoke loudly. Seeing Zhan Pei fighting and struggling desperately under their hold, his eyes finally darkened, knowing that he was completely hopeless. With a trembling hand, he finally signed the document and let out a deep sigh.

Someone pushed Zhan Pei. The person sitting at the table seemed to suddenly collapse. It took a long time before he got up in confusion and staggered out the door.

They could hear the sound of intermittent footsteps in the corridor fading farther and farther away.

Zhan Pei was dismissed from his position as professor and his original graduate students could choose a new tutor to apply for transfer. Suddenly he noticed a lot of scorching gazes and Professor Lu, who was still pretending to be an aloof genius, suddenly felt a shiver down his spine. Having a belated realization, he raised his head and looked at Gu Chuanbai with a vague cry for help in his eyes.

He wanted to recruit graduate students but he never thought of having so many.

He had taken a whole day to give his comments on Gu Chuanbai’s fifty question application test. Only when he had finished, had he been allowed to get out of bed. If each person had another fifty questions, even if they were handed over to the system——

This thought just came to mind when there was a chaotic mechanical sound in his head. The system went black with a pop, probably because it had stalled due to insufficient memory.

Lu Jingmo sighed anxiously and chose to restart the system. There was suddenly a light hold on his shoulders.

Raising his gaze, he was greeted by the warm smile in Gu Chuanbai’s eyes. “I can help the professor check the application tests.”

They prepared for today’s battle for a long time. Only after repeated experiments proved that the data was falsified and the paper was successfully published, did they submit the evidence they had collected.

The academic circle was deep and quiet but only because they were afraid of causing too much of a commotion. These were all timed bombs that would explode with the slightest touch. The students’ letters of accusations made a bad situation even worse. If they were unable to pacify every party, this scandal might detonate online and it would be a deadly strike to Z University.

Universities must properly and clearly document the situation when punishing professors. Thus, Zhan Pei probably has no chance of even going to a lower level university.

A lot of people had come and the pair were trapped behind them. Gu Chuanbai grew bolder and he moved his hand. He fumbled for Lu Jingmo’s hand and wrote on his palm “a kiss for every ten questions”.

He had written only six words when the crowd began to disperse.

Gu Chuanbai withdrew his hand in time and before the graduate students could surround Lu Jingmo, he took his little professor and broke out of the blockade by following the flow of people.

The brightness of the sun was just right, without a cloud in the sky. It was a rare day of perfect weather.

*

During a certain year, at the turn of spring and summer…

The train rumbled along. The patterns of light and shadow kept constantly changing. On the seat by the window, the young professor was looking at the applications for a new batch of graduate students when suddenly someone gently held his other hand.

Lu Jingmo raised his head, met the other’s gaze and smiled warmly. Gu Chuanbai said, “It’s not good for your eyes, wait until you get to the hotel.”

Although he doesn’t engage in taxonomy, Lu Jingmo was still given funds for study trips. He would often take along his graduate students on these trips, nominally to investigate new plants in the mountainous area, but in fact was also to allow these hard-working graduate students some time to breathe.

Gu Chuanbai originally wanted to book a soft sleeper for him, but at Lu Jingmo’s insistence, he changed back to a hard seat. One trip was almost 10 hours; his little professor didn’t know what it meant to be tired.

He put the stack of papers on the small table, took out a cup of mung bean soup from the thermos and passed it over. Seeing Lu Jingmo accept it and take a sip it, Gu Chuanbai’s eyes revealed a smile once again. “Is it good?”

Lu Jingmo raised his head to look at him, curled his eyes into a smile and nodded lightly. Taking advantage of his inattentiveness, he took out a pen and wrote a reply on Jiang Zhou’s application. He marked down, “Cannot be admitted due to full quota.”

Jiang Zhou was the protagonist of this world. He was a graduate student who should be studying under the head of the Biology Department, who was an industry leader. Unexpectedly, he’d been tempted by his program for graduate students.

Everyone else can be considered, but this one had to be rejected as soon as possible so that the plot line could be corrected.

Before the two set out on this trip, they had just finished a small revision for a paper for “Science”. Seeing the faint tiredness on Lu Jingmo’s brows. Gu Chuanbai covered him with a thin blanket and had him lean against his arm. “Would you like to lie down for a while?”

“No need. I’ll lie down when we get to the hotel.”

Lu Jingmo sipped his mung bean soup and shook his head slightly. He looked curiously at the ever-changing scenery outside the window.

He was born from data and has traveled between various worlds. He had gone to many places, but he rarely experienced going on a long train journey like this. The scenery outside the window flashed past and kept changing. The flora was getting more and more luxuriant and the sunlight was dazzling. The north was barren of greenery but as they headed south, the surroundings became verdant and lush.

Lu Jingmo was looking intently at the scenery but Gu Chuanbai was looking at him.

Gu Chuanbai’s been following his little professor for five years, from his graduate studies to his PhD. And all through that he’s never been able to change the habit of peeking at the other.

The train passed through the light and shadow, and the sunlight jumped onto his gentle and handsome features, reflecting in his dark and gentle eyes. Gu Chuanbai looked forward and suddenly couldn’t help smiling.

Perceiving his chuckle, Lu Jingmo turned his head curiously, but his vision suddenly went dark.

The train was passing through a tunnel, the rumbling sound instantly echoed.

This was a tunnel through the mountain. With the lighting only available in front, and there was no light in the train car for nearly a minute.

Lu Jingmo had already overcome his initial trauma of the dark, but Gu Chuanbai still held his hand firmly, holding him between his arm and the seat.

Taking advantage of the darkness in the carriage, amidst the increasing excited chatter and laughter and the deafening roar of the train, Gu Chuanbai gathered him close and kissed him softly.

Lu Jingmo smiled and closed his eyes, leaning forward and pressing in closer. He then raised his head and gave a quiet hum.

The keys swayed in his pocket, and the bell gave out a crisp ring.

Translator’s note: And so ends this arc. It was a nice, sweet balm to the heart-racing events of the last arc. Next chapter, we’ll be starting a futuristic, superpowers, supernatural arc. But unfortunately, RL stuff has caught up with my procrastinating as* and so I will have to take a week off from translating to deal with it. Next chapter will be on Nov 4 (Wednesday). See you then! =)