Ordinary people often use professors, experts, or even academicians to refer to the entire group of university teachers, believing that everyone in a university has plenty of money, little work, high social status, and a respectable identity. But the truth is, aside from professors, there are also associate professors and lecturers. Associate professors are still fine—at least they’ve already reached the associate senior rank, can retire with decent benefits, and quite a few people choose to lie flat at that point. But young teachers who have just entered the university, like Jin Zhao, have it much worse: the heaviest teaching load, the least pay, having to squeeze their way into applying for research projects, and constantly getting stuck on professional title evaluations.

There is a saying that young people are supposed to do more work. This saying applies to all industries.

Jin Zhao had a full morning of classes the next day—an 8 a.m. public English class followed by third and fourth periods of British literature. In order to be able to climb onto the lectern the next day, she later turned off her phone, closed her eyes, and forced herself to fall asleep.

She didn’t know when she fell asleep. The process must have been a struggle; subjectively, it felt like she hadn’t slept long, but when the alarm rang, she was surprisingly alert.

There was a WeChat message on her phone screen.

Meng Yanxi: 【Still not asleep?】

The time was 3:18 a.m. He must have seen her like.

So he couldn’t sleep either.

That thought made Jin Zhao’s heart feel as if sugar frosting were melting over it.

Holding her phone, she typed a reply: 【I’m awake now.】

It took two minutes to send the reply, and after waiting another three minutes, Meng Yanxi still hadn’t replied—he might not have woken up yet. And five minutes was already the limit of a working person’s snoozing time.

Jin Zhao decisively got up to wash up.

When the phone rang, Meng Yanxi didn’t hear it.

At that moment, he was in the bathroom. The sound of rushing water was chaotic, drowning out the ringtone.

By the time he came out of the bathroom, daylight was already bright. The man was casually bare-chested, with only a bath towel wrapped around his waist.

The tips of his hair were damp, water droplets sliding down along his collarbone, flowing over his firm, well-defined eight-pack abs, then following the V-lines and disappearing into the towel.

He casually wiped his hair, tossed the towel aside, and reached for the phone on the bedside table.

Seeing her message, the corners of his mouth lifted. Someone stared at the screen for a full half minute.

Meng Yanxi: 【Was just taking a shower.】

After the message was sent, he waited a few minutes, but the chat window remained silent.

The restlessness that had only just settled down started to poke its head out again.

He glanced at the time—7:56 a.m. At this hour, she should already be standing at the lectern preparing to teach.

Dating a teacher had this one downside: replies were never timely. Same time zone, yet it somehow felt like a long-distance relationship.

Meng Yanxi resigned himself and exited the chat window.

In just a short while, there were more than ten new Moments updates.

With someone of Meng Yanxi’s status, he had plenty of people in his Moments, but only a handful could actually talk to him. So the vast majority were likes. Only the very last comment was particularly lacking in tact and manners, coming from his biggest anti-fan—

Meng Zhuxi: 【Meng Yanxi, don’t go ruining good girls!】

Meng Yanxi didn’t even blink. His long finger directly tapped delete.

Jin Zhao had actually seen it.

Before class, she glanced at her phone and happened to see Meng Yanxi’s message pop up.

Just took a shower.

He hadn’t slept at three or four in the morning last night—what shower was he taking so early in the day?

Jin Zhao stared at the phone screen, her heart suddenly jumping, her face immediately turning red.

There were surveillance cameras in the classroom. She didn’t know how high-definition they were, or whether they could see the text on her phone screen. She hurriedly locked the screen and placed the phone face down on the lectern.

After that, for nearly two hours straight, she had no chance to look at her phone.

When the first and second periods ended and she had to change teaching buildings for the third and fourth periods, she stole a moment to check her phone on the way. Meng Yanxi’s messages had already updated several times.

Meng Yanxi: 【How did you sleep last night?】

Meng Yanxi: 【I’ll bring your bag over this afternoon. Want to have lunch together?】

Meng Yanxi: 【Why does your class not even have a break in between?】

Meng Yanxi: 【I happen to be free today. I’ll come over now.】

Meng Yanxi: 【Send me your location after class.】

Jin Zhao, striding briskly between two teaching buildings: “……”

She couldn’t send any location at all.

To make matters worse, she was also busy at noon. She got out of class at twelve, and at one the department had a meeting. In between, she only had time to hastily eat lunch.

She should have told him last night… no. Thinking of something, Jin Zhao raised her hand to cover her face.

Yes, she had told him last night. Right there at the dormitory entrance—she wanted to say she had an early class at eight, a meeting in the afternoon, and that the evening would be fine.

But he didn’t wait for her to finish. She had only just said the word “afternoon” when he leaned down and kissed her.

The cold scent of mountain pine and mist surged forcefully into her body. After that, her mind went completely blank. His hand gripped the doorframe, and she clutched tightly at the hem of his clothes. It looked like both of them were restrained, but they weren’t.

The second kiss went deeper than the first.

And they were standing right there at the doorway, separated by a door. The moon silently illuminated the quiet teachers’ dormitory. In the distance, the footsteps of a stranger teacher returning late at night were drawing closer.

Even now, recalling it made her heart pound wildly.

Around her were students just like her, hurriedly changing classrooms, the crowd dense.

No wonder her mind had gone completely blank last night—there was no suspense at all.

The words she hadn’t finished saying were forgotten entirely, and he probably assumed on his own that she had an early class in the morning and would be free to meet him in the afternoon.

On the road, Jin Zhao couldn’t type a long reply. She pressed and held the voice message bar, brought the phone close to her lips, and softly explained amid the flow of people, “During the break just now, students came up to ask about CET-4 questions. They’re taking the exam next month… I didn’t have time to look at my phone. I still have third and fourth period classes, and I have a meeting in the afternoon. In the evening, in the evening is okay?”

The evening was okay.

But the problem was—he was already at the school.

As soon as Meng Yanxi’s car drove into the west gate, he could see from afar the large crowd of students weaving between the teaching buildings ahead.

It was the long break between first–second period and third–fourth period classes. Students packed the entire road, with the occasional bicycle or electric scooter inching through the crowd at a turtle’s pace.

After listening to Jin Zhao’s voice message, Meng Yanxi fell silent.

Hadn’t she meant last night that she was free in the afternoon? Meng Yanxi guiltily rubbed the tip of his nose.

He parked the car under a nearby plane tree by the roadside and glanced at the time. It was only ten o’clock—there were still several hours to wait until evening.

Watching the flow of people ahead, he suddenly remembered that he had a younger sister.

When Meng Yanxi’s call came in, Meng Zhuxi wasn’t very keen on answering. She deliberately let the brother she’d picked up wait for a bit before unhurriedly pressing accept.

“What is it?”

Still remembering how he had deleted her comment that morning, Meng Zhuxi asked coolly.

Meng Yanxi: “Lunch together at noon?”

Meng Zhuxi wanted to refuse. Then she thought of her account balance, and with little backbone left, she agreed.

In fact, she had plenty of pocket money. It went without saying that Meng Huai and Meng Shixu gave her money; even Meng Shijin often stuffed bank cards into her hands. But the problem was, no one ever thought they had too much money. And the more money you had, the more you spent, and it always felt like it wasn’t enough.

Meng Yanxi was her biggest source of funds. All these years, whenever she caused trouble, it was her brother who paid to settle it—this she had to admit. Even though she held Meng Yanxi’s character in utter contempt.

Because his girlfriend had classes and no time to see him, Meng Yanxi eventually drove the car to the downstairs of Meng Zhuxi’s dormitory.

Meng Zhuxi stood outside the passenger window without getting in, twisting awkwardly as she said, “Ge, I won’t treat you to eating out. Let’s go to the cafeteria.”

Meng Yanxi was sharp enough to see through his sister’s intentions at a glance: “Out of money again?”

Meng Zhuxi didn’t say a word. Her beautiful large peach-blossom eyes blinked and blinked as she looked at him.

Meng Yanxi picked up his phone and transferred one hundred thousand to her on the spot. The next second, Meng Zhuxi happily pulled open the car door.

“Ge, why didn’t you come pick me up last Wednesday? I really missed you.”

If Meng Yanxi believed a single word out of his sister’s mouth, he’d be scammed until he had nothing left.

“You really know how to reincarnate,” Meng Yanxi glanced at her and commented with no small amount of sarcasm.

Meng Zhuxi pretended not to understand, lowered her head, and unapologetically tapped to collect the money.

In the end, the siblings still ate at the school cafeteria, mainly because Meng Yanxi didn’t want to go out. In truth, Meng Zhuxi was very generous—having just fleeced the sheep, she had originally planned to treat the sheep, no, treat Meng Yanxi to a good meal.

Past eleven o’clock, the university campus cafeteria had just started serving lunch, and students hadn’t gotten out of class yet. The cafeteria was quiet, and the food was fresh.

The siblings sat by the window. Meng Yanxi looked at Meng Zhuxi thoughtfully.

At this moment, his sister was attentive like a happy little bird. As soon as she sat down, she began picking food from her own plate for him: “Ge, try this rib, this one’s good.”

Meng Yanxi: “Eat it yourself.”

When Meng Zhuxi turned on the sweetness, pleasant words spilled out effortlessly: “You eat it, I don’t like meat.”

Listen to that. Anyone who didn’t know better would think they’d grown up in some terribly difficult family, and that his sister was such a gentle, respectful, frugal, and yielding little sister.

“How’s the pay for teachers at your school?” Meng Yanxi asked.

“Pretty decent, I guess. Otherwise, why would everyone be scrambling to become university teachers?” Meng Zhuxi answered without thinking.

Meng Yanxi tugged at the corner of his lips. “Then if I let you be one, would you go?”

Meng Zhuxi lifted her gaze, blinking her big peach-blossom eyes innocently. “Would I still be your sister? If yes, then I could.”

“You could?” Meng Yanxi let out an unceremonious scoff. “All the greatest ability you’ve used in this lifetime went into reincarnating well, and you still want to be a university teacher.”

Meng Zhuxi, having just received money, didn’t bother arguing with him.

Meng Yanxi asked again, “Do the teachers at your school all get settling-in allowances?”

Meng Zhuxi shook her head. “Counselors probably don’t.”

She shot her brother a shrewd look and said, “But if you’re asking about Teacher Jin Zhao, then she probably does. I heard a professional-course teacher mention it in class before—he’s also a returned overseas PhD, and he has a settling-in allowance.”

“How much?”

“That I don’t know, but probably neither too much nor too little. You can look it up online yourself.”

Meng Yanxi looked at her and didn’t say anything.

He had already checked—that was why it felt strange.

How could Jin Zhao be this poor? So poor that she was even scrimping on rent.

That dormitory of hers… of course, he wasn’t saying it was bad. It was fragrant and soft, quite cozy and atmospheric. But that was on the condition that one ignored the snakes and spiders that had appeared inside.

The university was even willing to subsidize half the rent, yet she still hadn’t moved out.

She seemed to be very short on money.

After a moment of silence, Meng Yanxi suddenly asked his sister, “Do you want to go take the postgraduate entrance exam?”

A bolt from the blue!

Meng Zhuxi jerked her head up and asked in disbelief, “Meng Yanxi, are you crazy, or am I?”

Meng Yanxi seemed to realize himself that the suggestion was a bit unhinged, and compromised instead: “Then how about taking IELTS?”

Meng Zhuxi: “?”

Meng Yanxi: “You don’t need to worry about the score. I can hire a tutor for you.”

Meng Zhuxi: “…Will that tutor happen to be called Jin Zhao?”

Meng Yanxi tapped the tabletop with a long finger. “IELTS 7.0 in exchange for a riverside luxury apartment. I’ll also arrange a housekeeper for you on top of that.”