The Wenhe Building belongs to the School of Literature, some distance from Ye Qiusuo's laboratory, but it's empty on weekends. Xie Xi is a major celebrity; as long as the news doesn't leak, no one should go there to cause a commotion.
After spending the morning in the lab, Ye Qiusuo went out for lunch at the cafeteria. Preparing to return and check the test data, she suddenly noticed someone bundled up tightly, crouching at the entrance of the laboratory building.
They had agreed to meet at two o'clock. Xie Xi arrived at the university's main gate at one. He sent his assistant and personal manager away, thinking he could squeeze in an extra half-hour of gaming. However, once inside, he realized he didn't know where the Wenhe Building was. After navigating for a long time, he ended up circling near the laboratory building.
At the front of the lab building, there was a bulletin board. Xie Xi glanced at it; large swathes of swirling, distorted characters jumped before his eyes, giving him a headache. He shifted his gaze to the photos on the board.
Xie Xi looked over and found quite a few people who were 'bald from being too clever'. Reaching the last section, Ye Qiusuo's photo seemed out of place, glaringly incongruous among the doctors and professors in their forties and fifties.
He tried to read about Ye Qiusuo's achievements, but the characters in his vision were fragmented and seemed to move.
Xie Xi simply took a photo of it and sent it to his assistant, asking him to read it out loud via voice message.
The assistant replied quickly: "Bro, is this what they call a genius?!"
Xie Xi: "I asked you to read it, not to look at it yourself."
Assistant: "Oh, it says Professor Ye entered the doctoral program at nineteen, graduated four years later, and stayed on to teach at the university the same year. During that time, she received awards... well, a lot." The assistant stared for a long time; these terms were too convoluted for a non-specialist to read aloud.
Seems pretty impressive.
Xie Xi raised an eyebrow. Someone like that probably has no entertainment life to speak of; her focus is likely entirely on research. Whoever ends up with her in the future is in for a rough time.
That dean last time mentioned Ye Qiusuo is always in the lab. Xie Xi decided not to go to the Wenhe Building either, opting to wait right at the entrance of the laboratory building.
After waiting a while, he couldn't resist taking out his phone, crouching down to play a game.
Until Ye Qiusuo stood before him.
"Didn't we agree on the Wenhe Building?" Ye Qiusuo couldn't see his face, hidden as it was by a mask and hat, but those slender, clean hands holding the phone in a gaming posture instantly reminded her who it was.
Xie Xi looked up, stating matter-of-factly, "I got lost."
"Wait here a moment. I have a set of data to record." Ye Qiusuo walked past him, heading upstairs as she spoke.
By the time Xie Xi looked down again, his game character was already dead. He stopped playing, put his phone in his pocket, and quietly stood guard like a door god.
Students coming and going nearby would instinctively glance at him. Some people, even with their faces unseen, have a presence different from ordinary folks.
Ye Qiusuo finished recording the separated data, left a message for the students in the project, and then went downstairs carrying a stack of books she had prepared.
"This is your assignment." Ye Qiusuo handed a thick stack of loose-leaf notebooks to Xie Xi.
Xie Xi's eyes, the only part visible, held a clear question: "I haven't even had a class yet." To already have homework.
"We can have class now." Regardless of his mood, Ye Qiusuo took the lead, walking ahead to show the way.
He had chosen this teacher himself; it was too late for regrets now. Xie Xi could only follow her to the Wenhe Building.
Because Xie Xi has dyslexia, Ye Qiusuo didn't test his knowledge reserve with written exams, only using verbal questions.
After over an hour, she found he had a decent grasp of basic foundational knowledge. It was just that his handwriting was a mess, and reading was a struggle for him.
Successfully completing his studies in this condition would indeed be difficult.
"Did you have specialized tutors before?" Ye Qiusuo asked, standing in front of Xie Xi.
"Yes," Xie Xi replied lazily, leaning back in his chair. "One tutor, and one narrator for reading."
Many of his books and knowledge were acquired by 'listening'.
"Since you understand those basics, there's no need for me to teach you that." Ye Qiusuo now understood why the Xie Xi in the book only went through the motions with that professor from Tsinghua or Peking University.
"Can I skip this homework then?" Xie Xi pushed the thick stack of notebooks forward. After Ye Qiusuo's oral questioning earlier, he thought his manager had already told her about his dyslexia.
Ye Qiusuo pushed the homework back, rigidly stating, "No."
Xie Xi frowned. "You just said there's no need to teach." He had hoped to just come here every weekend to slack off and play games.
"The notebooks are specially made. Write down the characters you see on them once a week."
The structural components used in Chinese characters are finite. Even with reading difficulties, one can perceive some elements. If he could write down the structures he sees, perhaps some patterns could be summarized.
"This kind of copying is for elementary school kids." Xie Xi didn't want to do it.
Professor Ye stood in front, unmoved. "Seven pages a week. Bring them to me for correction every weekend."
The facts proved that a certain someone was all bark and no bite. In the end, he still picked up a pen and wrote down the characters as he saw them.
Xie Xi sat in the classroom copying. Ye Qiusuo leaned against a desk, looking down as she texted the company's data researchers, asking them to collect data on how text appears to people with dyslexia.
Someone from the lab asked if she was starting a new project.
Ye Qiusuo replied it wasn't for now.
"I don't want to write anymore." Xie Xi put down his pen after half a page, his foot tapping the table leg intermittently, creating a rhythmic sound.
Ye Qiusuo turned around, picked up the loose-leaf notebook from his desk. It was filled with various chaotic strokes. Only half an hour had passed. "Finish it."
"I'm dizzy," Xie Xi said, half-truthfully. "Looking at so many characters for so long is uncomfortable."
Ye Qiusuo doesn't have dyslexia; she can even read ten lines at a glance. Holding the notebook, she thought for a moment and said, "You have a ten-minute break."
Seizing the break time, Xie Xi immediately pulled out his phone and started gaming.
Ye Qiusuo watched him for a while. "Playing games doesn't make you dizzy?"
"Games don't have many words," Xie Xi said, thinking Ye Qiusuo was being lenient. Young professors like her probably don't know how to teach students. He even began to imagine how he could turn these weekend afternoons into his personal gaming sessions.
Ten minutes later.
"You can continue copying now."
"Let me finish this round," Xie Xi said without looking up.
Ye Qiusuo stood up, took the phone from his hand, directly exited and closed the game. "Break time is over."
This celebrity couldn't even focus for an hour.
Xie Xi: "...I was still rescuing someone."
Ye Qiusuo took the phone from his hand, tossed it onto another desk, and watched him quietly.
In the end, Xie Xi could only pull the notebook back and continue copying, muttering under his breath, "What's the point of copying this?"
If he had known earlier, he wouldn't have chosen her. So rigid and inflexible.
It took Xie Xi two hours to finish one page. By then, his assistant and personal manager had already arrived outside the campus to pick him up.
"Come directly here next week. The lab building has people on weekends." Ye Qiusuo didn't want to see him causing a stir on campus.
Xie Xi responded half-heartedly, casually putting on his mask and hat, inwardly complaining about Ye Qiusuo for being an old fuddy-duddy despite her young age.
Seeing that Ye Qiusuo was about to leave, Xie Xi reached out and grabbed the collar of her clothes from behind. "Professor, let's exchange contact information."
Nearly stumbling from the tug, Ye Qiusuo said expressionlessly, "...Let go."
Professor Ye, who spent her days and nights in the lab and was highly respected by researchers and students alike, had never had her collar suddenly grabbed like this before. She felt a subtle sense of her dignity being violated.
Xie Xi slowly loosened his fingers. "Will you add me?"
Ye Qiusuo turned around, raised her hands to meticulously straighten her collar, and then, still without expression, reached out to take his phone, inputting her number.
"And WeChat." Xie Xi preferred voice messages; typing was troublesome for him.
Ye Qiusuo added him on WeChat as well, entered her name in the contacts on his phone, then shoved the phone back to him and turned to leave.
Watching Ye Qiusuo walk away, Xie Xi raised an eyebrow and slowly changed the contact name she had saved.
...
The program was recorded on Sunday evening. Yesterday, the ratings for the fourth episode of "Knowledge Q&A" soared once again. As netizens grew increasingly curious about Professor Ye, the show's success became more assured.
This led to a shift in the director's attitude. What he pursued was the show's ratings and audience acclaim, not promoting any particular person. Naturally, the focus was now fully on Ye Qiusuo. The host's script changed repeatedly, and the central figure had already shifted from the original Wan Yurou to Ye Qiusuo.
During the recording of the fifth episode, everyone present could sense the change.
The host sought opportunities to converse with Ye Qiusuo more and more frequently, especially as the number of non-celebrity guests kept dwindling.
"Professor Ye, you're usually knowledgeable about this area as well?" the host asked after Ye Qiusuo explained a piece of traditional Chinese literature knowledge. "If I remember correctly, your specialty is purely in the sciences."
"I've looked into it occasionally." Ye Qiusuo was also surprised by the program team's actions. She hadn't watched the previous episode, but in the original book, Wan Yurou would trend on social media after each episode, solidifying her public persona firmly.
Last night, she had glanced at the trending list. She didn't see Wan Yurou's name, but she did spot a trending topic about herself. However, Ye Qiusuo didn't click to see; she had no interest in knowing.
In fact, had she watched the recent episodes, Ye Qiusuo would have noticed the program team gradually reducing Wan Yurou's screen time without it being obvious.
Halfway through the recording, there was a mid-session break.
Seeing a message from a student asking a question, Ye Qiusuo walked out directly to call the student and explain in person.
"Right, the C-band isn't sufficient. Try switching to the L-band..." Ye Qiusuo pushed open a door and walked to a corner of a stairwell, which was slightly quieter.
Listening to the student's reply, Ye Qiusuo suddenly looked up towards the floor above. Someone was also on a phone call up there.
"...It all comes down to that one vote from Xie Xi. He won't listen to the director," the person upstairs was still saying, voice lowered. "Next week, arrange the revival segment. I need to get in. Then, after being revived, I'll win the championship. Isn't that kind of dramatic twist exactly what the audience wants to see?"
"Just steer the online discussion a bit. They'll definitely want me to win the championship... He's so arrogant only because he got famous early."
"I know. I haven't told anyone about my connections. That person who had the voting dispute with Xie Xi before was the director's person."
Ye Qiusuo suddenly realized who the person on the phone upstairs was.
—Lu Mingzhe, the male lead from the book.
