OVTTGTBE Chapter 27

The Meeting

The experiment class began, and Teaching Assistant Xu gave a brief self-introduction on the podium, as well as the experiment content for this semester. He casually glanced and spotted the two male students sitting at the table in the third row.

He picked up the list of students on the podium and glanced at it, then said sternly, “Bai Yao, Liu Yucheng, the lab was used by the biochemistry major this morning. Is there any harmful substance on your table?”

Otherwise, why would they sit so far apart?

The table was in the middle, and the two sat on either side of it, changing directions and chairs, making it look like an old-fashioned wedding photo.

The other students all looked at the two of them, and some even laughed.

Bai Yao’s expression couldn’t have been uglier. He thought, what’s so funny about this? He bit the bullet and replied, “Reporting, Teaching Assistant, no. The harmful substance to me is this classmate next to me whom I don’t know.”

Teaching Assistant Xu was just about to tell them to sit properly again, but before he could say anything, Liu Yucheng, who was sitting in seat number 6, suddenly spoke up:

“It’s not like we’re in military training.”

He gently reminded Bai Yao, “No need to report.”

A few more students snickered.

Bai Yao: “…”

Liu Yucheng actually made fun of him! He actually learned to make fun of people! Who did he learn this bad habit from?

Teaching Assistant Xu glanced at his watch, already 30 seconds behind schedule. Since there were no residual toxic substances on the table, he ignored the two of them and continued to teach his lesson, as well as the experiment content for this class.

The two listened to the lecture for 30 minutes without interfering with each other. When it came to the experimental operation part, the laboratory suddenly became lively—the students at the other tables had already begun to divide the work, who would get the samples, who would get the experimental equipment, both of which required queuing.

Li Jinyang, who was sitting diagonally in front, had already taken the initiative to take care of both tasks, and let his partner sit there and rest. Because his experimental partner this semester was a particularly cute girl, it was obvious that Li Jinyang liked her very much. Ever since she sat down, he had been blushing like a big idiot, Bai Yao could see it.

Bai Yao turned his head and glanced at Liu Yucheng. This person was sitting still, holding a book and not saying a word, as if he was practicing some immortal technique that could burn a hole in the book with his eyes.

He looked at Li Jinyang, who was busy and happily running around, and suddenly had an idea.

“Liu Yucheng.”

Bai Yao gently called him, his eyes wide, and innocently asked, “Why are you ignoring me? Did I do something wrong?”

He took the initiative to talk, and Liu Yucheng did react for three seconds, but still said, “You just said you didn’t know me, and that I was a harmful substance.”

Bai Yao slightly moved his stool, sitting closer to him, and whispered, “Some people also made me have a fever. Those were indeed not harmful substances, they were protein.”

Liu Yucheng: “When did I…”

Halfway through, he suddenly realized what Bai Yao was referring to and had to shut up.

“Li Jinyang and that girl, you saw them, right?”

Bai Yao moved even closer, pinching a bit of Liu Yucheng’s sleeve with his fingers, and gently shook it twice, “The partner took care of everything, I’m so envious.”

If it were normal times, Liu Yucheng really couldn’t resist him like this; but because he had been tricked once at noon, he didn’t know what trick Bai Yao was trying to play again. In short, it was definitely not as simple as just going to queue up. He perfunctorily said, “Okay.”

Seeing that he wasn’t buying it, Bai Yao had no choice but to be frank, “You go queue up, okay? In a while, the good samples and equipment will be taken by them all.”

“What about you?”

“Me? I’ll just hand in the lab report later.”

Bai Yao confidently patted his chest, “I’ve already previewed it, I’ll definitely get a high score. You can copy mine when the time comes… Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?! Damn it! Stop!”

Halfway through speaking, Liu Yucheng directly stood up, grabbing Bai Yao’s arm with one hand, and forcibly snatching the stool that Bai Yao had already warmed up with his butt.

“I’ll warm the stool for you, you go queue up. I know your grades are also good, but let’s write our own lab reports.”

Liu Yucheng said, putting the two stools side by side and sat down.

Bai Yao really couldn’t help it and blurted out a particularly foul swear word.

Whatever, Liu Yucheng doesn’t love him anymore.

Anyway, he was the one who proposed the breakup in the first place, there’s nothing to regret.

While queuing up to get the samples, Bai Yao sent a message to Peach Milk:

[My ex-boyfriend doesn’t love me anymore, are you relieved now?]

Bai Yao waited until he finished queuing and got the samples and equipment, ready to return to his seat, but Peach Milk still hadn’t replied.

Bai Yao stood in the distance and quietly glanced at Liu Yucheng.

Liu Yucheng was currently looking down at his phone, typing quickly. Judging from the frequency of pauses, he was having a lively conversation with the other party, but he hadn’t received any messages.

What’s going on?

Does he really have someone else?

Bai Yao sent another message to Peach Milk: [Are you busy? Why aren’t you replying?]

This time, Peach Milk replied instantly: [I’m busy.]

Bai Yao put his phone back in his pocket.

Okay, very good. In other words, Liu Yucheng is currently logged into the Peach Milk account on Wechat. He read his messages but didn’t reply, because he was happily chatting with someone from who-knows-where.

Bai Yao returned to his seat with a straight face. He placed the things in his hands on the table one by one, not having any further communication with Liu Yucheng, and silently adjusted the microscope in front of him.

“You got them back, thanks for your hard work.”

Liu Yucheng said simply, moving the warmed stool behind Bai Yao.

While observing the sample, Bai Yao opened the lab report page in the book and made some notes on it, then moved the microscope aside.

He just stood there in front of the table, his head down, writing non-stop on the lab report.

“Sit.”

Liu Yucheng looked up at him, pointing to the stool behind him.

The first stage is all observed, why not sit down when writing the report? If he doesn’t sit down, the stool will get cold.

“I won’t sit on a stool you’ve touched,” Bai Yao said coldly, his gaze fixed on the tip of his pen.

Liu Yucheng also stood up, holding the microscope in front of him with both hands, observing for a while at the angle Bai Yao had adjusted, then glanced at Bai Yao’s lab report.

“You need to change this here.”

Liu Yucheng leaned closer to him, gently tapping his lab report with his finger, “The sample isn’t at this stage yet, it needs to be at the next stage before…”

“Get lost, stay away from me!”

As soon as he leaned over, Bai Yao instantly exploded, his arm with an unprecedented amount of strength, pushing Liu Yucheng several meters away, almost knocking over the table of the next group.

Not only was Liu Yucheng stunned, but the surrounding students were also startled by their movements, and they all fell silent, looking over here.

“What are you doing?”

Teaching Assistant Xu was explaining the doubts to the students at the other tables. Hearing the noise, he silently pushed his glasses and said, “Not cooperating properly? If you don’t want credit, you can go home.”

The anger had already been vented, and Bai Yao had regained some sanity—he was indeed a little absent-minded when writing the report just now and wrote it wrong.

“I’m sorry, Teacher.”

In order not to make things bigger and be punished to write a self-criticism, Bai Yao had no choice but to take the initiative to admit his mistake, “We will cooperate well, we definitely want the credits.”

The commotion subsided. Bai Yao timed it and continued to look at the microscope, while Liu Yucheng stood silently in place, holding his lab report, recording while standing.

“Here.”

Bai Yao held the microscope closer to Liu Yucheng with both hands, and said unhappily, “It’s your turn to look.”

After Liu Yucheng finished recording, he found that Bai Yao had not modified the previous record, so he whispered to him, “Aren’t you going to modify the report?”

“Why didn’t I see you talking so much when we were dating?” Bai Yao raised his head, also lowered his voice, and questioned, “One generation plants the trees, and the next generation enjoys the shade, right?”

His ex-boyfriend planted a tree that made Liu Yucheng talk more and more; the next generation is enjoying the shade under this tree, chatting happily with Liu Yucheng.

This time Liu Yucheng was even more confused, “What are you throwing a tantrum about?”

Bai Yao shook his head, silently took down the sample placed on the microscope—he wanted the credits, and the experiment had to continue.

……

After class, Bai Yao still modified his lab report before handing it in. After handing it in, he picked up his bag and left, not even waiting for Li Jinyang, that silly boy who was trying to ask his experimental partner to have dinner together.

In the evening, Bai Yao returned to the dorm with his water bottle after exercising. Yan Hao was sitting at the table alone eating takeout, and the entire room smelled of sauerkraut fish.

Li Jinyang really asked that girl to go to dinner together; but Liu Yucheng hadn’t returned yet.

“Where is he?”

Bai Yao casually pointed at Liu Yucheng’s bed and asked.

“Not back yet.”

Yan Hao drank the soup from the sauerkraut fish and said, “Besides you coming back in the middle to change clothes, Li Jinyang hasn’t come back either.”

“Okay.”

“Are you looking for him?” Yan Hao asked again.

“No.”

Yan Hao hesitated for a long time, wanting to continue to ask, but Bai Yao had already taken his toiletries and change of clothes and entered the bathroom.

Liu Yucheng didn’t come back, and Peach Milk hadn’t replied to any messages all afternoon.

He probably went on a date with the person he was messaging in the afternoon.

……

“We’re here.”

“Take the cloth off his eyes.”

The woman said.

Liu Yucheng groped and got out of the car. After the black cloth covering his eyes was removed, he realized that he had been brought to a villa by this strange woman.

This woman looked to be in her 40s, wearing a long gray coat and black dress pants. Judging from the strength of her grip on his arm, Liu Yucheng guessed that she should be a trained martial artist; not only that, but she was also followed by two men who looked like bodyguards, assisting her.

After entering the villa, Liu Yucheng was led all the way to the outside of the study on the second floor. The woman knocked on the door, and the person inside said, “Come in.”

“You are, Bai Yao’s mother.”

Liu Yucheng asked tentatively in a low voice.

The woman in the room looked very young, probably less than 40 years old, but she was sitting in a wheelchair. When he video chatted with Bai Yao as Peach Milk before the New Year, Liu Yucheng had seen her face.

Looking at her now, she was definitely Bai Yao’s biological mother—Bai Yao’s eyes and mouth were very similar to hers.

“We met before the New Year.”

“You must first promise me that you will not mention today’s meeting to Bai Yao. He should think that I am abroad now. I have other arrangements.”

Bai Junyi’s tone was very calm, but her aura was very stern.

Liu Yucheng knew that she had seen him at that time, and had been uneasy ever since. Bai Yao probably hadn’t come out to his family yet, so he had to pay special attention to his words and actions today.

“Okay, I promise you,” he said.

Bai Junyi then smiled, and stood up, holding the armrests on both sides of the wheelchair, and stretched her legs.

Liu Yucheng was immediately a little surprised—so her legs were fine.

“Don’t mind too much, I’m sitting in a wheelchair because of unavoidable reasons for my work.”

Bai Junyi raised her chin slightly, “Sit down, Xiao Zhou, pour him a cup of tea.”

Liu Yucheng hesitated for a moment, but didn’t sit down. He directly asked her, “Auntie, what do you want to see me for?”

Would she ask him to stay away from Bai Yao?

Or, would she tell him, “Transfer to another school, don’t meet Bai Yao again”?

Liu Yucheng had no idea how she had contacted him, and she had even added his work Wechat account, which was [Peach Milk] on Bai Yao’s side.

As a result, Bai Junyi just took out a photo from her bag, placed it on the table, and pushed it in front of Liu Yucheng.

“Take a look at the person in the photo, do you recognize her?”

Liu Yucheng picked it up and looked at it. His eyes and nose became sour, and his voice trembled a little: “How did you… What do you want from my mother? She passed away a long time ago.”

Bai Junyi was silent for a moment, and said softly, “I know. I attended her funeral.”

“But you weren’t there that day. You didn’t attend your parents’ funeral. Where did you go?”

Liu Yucheng took a deep breath, subconsciously clenched his fists, his fingernails digging deeply into the flesh of his palms.

That day, he was locked in a large iron chicken coop by his aunt, because he accidentally ate his younger cousin Liu Angran’s candy cake.

That day, no matter how much he shouted, no one came to save him.

At that time, he was less than 6 years old.

He didn’t get to see his parents one last time.

“The car accident that your father and she were in was very suspicious. I called you here today just to ask you, I want to reinvestigate the cause of her death, are you willing to help me?”

Bai Junyi took out a piece of paper and a pen from her bag, “But, this matter must be kept absolutely confidential, no leaks allowed. If you are willing to help me, you must sign this confidentiality agreement. Except for the people present here, you cannot reveal any information to anyone, including Dudu… Bai Yao.”