"Sorry I'm late. I had to make sure Professor Wei was alright before leaving her on her own..." Liu Fengying addressed Hua Shu as she sat down in the chair across from her.
Hua Shu was quite understanding and did not reproach her at all; moreover, the first thing she did was express her concern for the professor's health.
"Was Professor Wei feeling unwell because of the scare from the fall?" she asked.
Liu Fengying was glad to see how considerate Hua Shu was regarding the professor's situation. Not only was this clear proof of mental maturity, showing she was capable of accepting that emergencies take priority even when they go against her own wishes, but it also demonstrated that despite feeling intimidated by Professor Wei, she had a good impression of her. Liu Fengying knew Hua Shu's temperament; not only would Hua Shu not have stressed at all over someone she disliked suffering an accident, but she probably would have rejoiced.
Being still under the influence of the excitement brought on by the ideal scenario she had imagined in Professor Wei's office—in which she managed to win over both beauties who had caught her attention—this realization made a thought cross her mind: an attempt to put together the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage, in other words, to convince Hua Shu to accept Professor Wei as well if she wanted to be in a relationship with her in the future, was not as unlikely to succeed as she had initially estimated.
Of course, Liu Fengying was aware that it was far too early for such calculations; nevertheless, as an experienced cultivator, she had formed the habit of paying attention to any detail that could give her an advantage in achieving her goals. Thus, inadvertently, she found herself applying the same pragmatic principles to her love life, which was still in its infancy.
"No, she wasn't feeling unwell. Maybe at first, but she came to her senses quite quickly. However, when she fell, she put weight too suddenly on one leg, so it's bothering her. But don't worry, when I left her office, she could walk without any difficulty..." Liu Fengying briefly explained Professor Wei's situation to Hua Shu.
Of course, she made sure to censor what needed to be censored; even though Hua Shu was someone she trusted, she could not betray the confidence Professor Wei had placed in her.
Was there also a fear behind this censorship of letting Hua Shu know how close she had become to the professor? Not really. After all, although Hua Shu had shown a fair amount of possessiveness toward her over the past two days, she had not yet implied that she wanted them to be more than good friends, so she had no reason to accuse her of being disloyal. On the contrary, this could even have a positive effect. It was quite obvious to Liu Fengying that, although Hua Shu was attracted to her, she could not decide whether or not to act on this impulse, so a little "sense of urgency" might push her to be more proactive in getting closer to her.
And in the event that Hua Shu were to pout, she would be willing to offer her the option to enjoy the same treatment from her; after all, she had no intention of discriminating against any of her romantic interests.
'It seems my mind really wanders too much...' Liu Fengying said to herself, seeing that she had once again fallen prey to her tendency to overanalyze things; couldn't she just wait for things between her and Hua Shu to evolve naturally?
She began to suspect that the fact that she currently had nothing to challenge her mind also played an important role in why her thoughts had lately been focused solely on romantic relationships. Specifically, in her cultivation, things were progressing smoothly enough for the moment, the plan to take revenge on her father could not yet be launched, and the pressure to get high grades on the upcoming exams was nonexistent. This lack of pressure was not just about confidence in her own abilities, but rather the fact that a result, no matter how good, would not help her in any way in the future—perhaps only to spite her enemies.
'Maybe also to impress Professor Wei...' she added in her thoughts.
The fact that she had to spend almost the entire day at school did not help keep these thoughts in check. On one hand, being unable to focus on cultivation or training, she was bored; on the other hand, in this place, she always had temptation right under her nose. In other words, as long as she had nothing to do, her entire energy was involuntarily directed toward obtaining what she yearned for most: beautiful young women.
Hearing that Professor Wei had been injured, Hua Shu's indignation toward Han Yu was amplified once again.
"It's all the fault of that irresponsible scoundrel. What does Han Yu think, that the school is his property, a place where he can do whatever pops into his head?" she snapped, paying no attention to those who were looking at them at that moment; on the contrary, she wanted everyone to hear her revilement of Han Yu.
Even though Han Yu had been publicly humiliated, Hua Shu believed he had not been punished enough; she told herself that he should also face legal consequences for the fact that his actions had indirectly caused an accident, especially since it was only by a miracle that it had not been a very serious one.
"What did Professor Wei say? Does she plan to take action against him?" Hua Shu asked further.
She was not asking for these details just to satisfy her thirst for justice, but also because she wanted to find out if she could be of help; she was already determined to testify against Han Yu in case Professor Wei intended to involve the police.
"I don't know... we didn't talk about that..." Liu Fengying replied, realizing she had completely forgotten to ask Professor Wei about how she wanted to retaliate against those responsible for her accident.
But how was it her fault that the two of them had much more pleasant topics to discuss? And when two young women flirt with each other, is there any room to mention a young man? Especially since the young man in question was someone they both hated; bringing him up would only have ruined their good mood.
In addition, with her mentality of taking justice into her own hands, her first thought had not been to rely on the rules of society. She had simply put those responsible on her blacklist.
"However, Professor Wei is not the kind of person to accept any injustice done to her, so I'm sure she has already made a plan..." she continued, and it was not as if she wanted to calm Hua Shu down, but she truly believed that Professor Wei did not intend to allow the school to sweep what happened to her under the rug.
How successful Professor Wei would be in getting justice, Liu Fengying had no way of knowing; that depended on how large the gap was between Professor Wei's influence and that of Han Yu's family. What she was certain of, however, was that she would make those responsible have a hard time.
"You're right. Han Yu really accidentally stumbled upon a hard nut to crack—or rather, bumped into an ice cube at minus 100 degrees Celsius..." said Hua Shu, who believed Professor Wei was a highly rigid person.
In the three years she had known Professor Wei, Hua Shu had never seen her show a trace of compassion for anyone, no matter what happened. Someone's grandfather passed away? She believed that had nothing to do with doing physics homework; in fact, she had once said, "Whatever sorrow you may have, it shouldn't affect your performance; after all, almost none of you have a pleasant time while solving physics problems..."
"It's not that Professor Wei is emotionless. Rather, she's the kind of person who doesn't like to complicate things..." Liu Fengying made sure to correct Hua Shu; she truly hoped that over time, she could help Hua Shu stop feeling so intimidated in the professor's presence.
Hua Shu found it a bit suspicious how quickly Liu Fengying jumped to Professor Wei's defense. After all, what Liu Fengying had said about the professor could just as easily apply to Liu Fengying herself; as long as it involved someone she didn't care about, Hua Shu couldn't see her being so protective.
Of course, what made Hua Shu so sensitive to Liu Fengying's attitude toward Professor Wei was the memory of how Liu Fengying had held the professor after catching her; she had been so careful, as if dealing with a very delicate treasure.
Furthermore, it was now almost confirmed to her that Liu Fengying was into women; this made Hua Shu believe there was little chance Liu Fengying wouldn't be tempted after prolonged contact with Professor Wei, who had a downright enticing body.
It wasn't that she suspected something had already happened between Liu Fengying and Professor Wei; due to her preconceived notions about Professor Wei, she imagined that someone would have to put in a mountain of work to manage to capture her attention. However, even if in reality Liu Fengying couldn't do anything to Professor Wei, in her mind she could imagine the professor in all sorts of hot scenarios. Picturing what Liu Fengying might be imagining, she felt on one hand like she was on the verge of getting a nosebleed, and on the other...
'No, no... If I knew Liu Fengying was imagining me in such scenarios, I wouldn't be able to look her in the eye anymore...' Hua Shu stopped her mind, which had begun to run wild. Even if she was attracted to Liu Fengying, it didn't mean she wanted to jump straight into bed with her; if she really decided to try entering a romantic relationship with Liu Fengying, she wanted things between them to progress gradually.
Hua Shu was aware that her suspicions were just suspicions, so she did not intend to let herself be influenced by them. Still, the fact remained that Liu Fengying had contradicted her for the sake of a young woman—something she found quite irritating—so her reply to Liu Fengying carried a bit of a "tit-for-tat" tone:
"If you say so, it might be true. After all, out of everyone, you've interacted with Professor Wei the most closely..."
"...Umm, I guess that's true?" Liu Fengying said, thinking that Hua Shu's argument made sense. And this wasn't just about the close physical contact while carrying her in her arms, but also because she had been Professor Wei's support pillar at a moment when she was truly very fragile.
Yet, rather than mere agreement, Hua Shu's words sounded like an accusation to Liu Fengying; thus, she began to wonder if Hua Shu was perhaps jealous of the care she had shown toward Professor Wei.
Not only Liu Fengying, but Hua Shu as well was taken by surprise by the words that had escaped her mouth; she thought she had managed to come to terms with the fact that Liu Fengying had given more attention to Professor Wei than to her. After all, it was only natural that in a life-or-death situation, the one who had been in danger should be the most important. However, it had taken only a small nudge for her psychological self-counseling to completely lose its effect.
The situation she had gotten herself into was highly stressful. Hua Shu thought that if Liu Fengying caught even a whiff of jealousy from her, she would almost certainly tease her about it or, even more embarrassingly, offer to carry her in her arms too, right in front of everyone. Because of this, Hua Shu racked her brain to the absolute limit, desperately trying to find a way to divert her attention from what she had just said.
To her relief, she came up with a solution fairly quickly. More precisely, what finally got Hua Shu out of the predicament was that, upon locking eyes with the food tray in front of Liu Fengying, she realized she hadn't said anything yet about the gesture she had made.
"Anyway, as you can see, I bought food for you too..." Hua Shu hurried to speak up.
Furthermore, she now looked much more cheerful; this wasn't because she was acting, but because she was genuinely proud of her own initiative.
"It's not as if I wanted to pay you back for last night's dinner. Rather, I thought I'd prepare a feast to reward your heroic deed. After all, I don't think the school administration will have the nerve to thank you, since they almost certainly played a part in the stunt Han Yu pulled..." she explained her intention.
Yet, if anyone had looked into her expectant eyes, it wouldn't have been hard at all to guess that the girl secretly wanted to be praised.
Liu Fengying did not disappoint Hua Shu.
"Thank you, Shushu, you are very thoughtful. Honestly, the attention you give me warms my heart. If I also take into account the help you gave me with Han Yu, I think I should give you a big reward..."
Hua Shu was overjoyed to see how much she had managed to impress Liu Fengying. However, what made her instantly prick up her ears was the word "reward"; she was now extremely curious about how Liu Fengying planned to repay her.