Originally, the appearance of Xu Jinzhi had already caused a minor stir in the classroom. Her actions only made the students whisper among themselves even more.
Hearing the voices and receiving the glances from the classmates, Xie Yanchuan felt a bit awkward. He pressed his lips together, pretended to be calm, nodded at Xu Jinzhi, and then walked toward the podium.
"Alright, let's start the class," Xie Yanchuan said in a calm tone. When his eyes met with Xu Jinzhi's, he quickly looked away, pretending he saw nothing.
Xie Yanchuan's class didn't take attendance because the failure rate was extremely high. As long as students could pass, he didn't care if they attended or not, so he skipped the roll call.
For the same reason that Xie Yanchuan's class was very difficult, even those who initially were distracted, speculating about the relationship between the teacher and that girl, started to focus on their studies as Xie Yanchuan began lecturing.
Conversely, Xie Yanchuan had to force himself several times to concentrate, since Xu Jinzhi kept watching him, making him unconsciously look at her repeatedly.
Xu Jinzhi kept watching Xie Yanchuan, even though she couldn't understand a word of what he was teaching. It didn't stop her from watching him, and when Xie Yanchuan looked at her, she smiled at him.
Xie Yanchuan could honestly say that this was the first time he felt so nervous in his three years of teaching!
Until the class was over, students' gossiping spirit reignited. Everyone sat in their seats, not in any hurry to leave the classroom, waiting for the two protagonists to speak.
Xu Jinzhi also wanted to tease Xie Yanchuan, so she watched him until his expression became a bit embarrassed.
Xu Jinzhi suddenly felt she was being a bit mean. Wasn't she supposed to be nicer to Xie Yanchuan this time around?
Meeting him and teasing him like this was her fault.
So Xu Jinzhi stood up and walked from the last row of the classroom to stand in front of Xie Yanchuan in just a few seconds.
Xie Yanchuan hesitated for a moment, "Let's talk in my office."
"Alright," Xu Jinzhi agreed without hesitation.
Only then did Xie Yanchuan start walking out of the classroom, with Xu Jinzhi naturally following him. As soon as they left, the classroom erupted with chatter.
Xu Jinzhi turned back at the sound and saw some students curiously following them. Seeing her look back, they didn't even try to hide.
Whether it was because Xu Jinzhi was too captivating or because Xie Yanchuan was always a campus celebrity, as they headed to the office, Xu Jinzhi noticed a lot of people couldn't help but take another look.
Speaking of which, University A was her alma mater. In her previous life, she had returned to University A several times for business, never to see Xie Yanchuan.
This was the first time in two lifetimes she had appeared at University A because of Xie Yanchuan.
When they reached Xie Yanchuan's office, usually when someone visits, he doesn't close the door, but today was different. Xie Yanchuan hesitated.
Finally, Xie Yanchuan closed the door because he thought Xu Jinzhi had come to talk about the arranged marriage.
With the door closed, Xie Yanchuan walked over and invited Xu Jinzhi to sit down while he first put away his teaching materials, politely asking, "Would Miss Xu like some tea or coffee?"
"Don't bother, just some water will do," Xu Jinzhi said.
Xie Yanchuan nodded, turned to pour a cup of warm water, and then sat down himself, "Is there something Miss Xu wanted to talk about today?"
Xu Jinzhi hesitated for a while, "There's nothing particularly important."
After a short pause of two seconds, Xu Jinzhi continued, "You know about our arranged marriage, right?"
Xu Jinzhi thought Xie Yanchuan must have known; otherwise, he wouldn't have reacted the way he did earlier.
Sure enough, Xie Yanchuan nodded, "I know."
"Do you have any thoughts on it?" Xu Jinzhi asked.
In her last life, her initial arranged marriage was with Xie Linchuan, but because he was entangled with his ex-girlfriend, she couldn't bear such a man, so she changed her marriage partner before the wedding.
At that time, she was very dissatisfied with the Xie Family, and Xie Yanchuan was simply a last resort choice for her; she didn't care what he thought.
Xie Yanchuan remained silent, not answering the question, because he couldn't articulate how he felt.
He didn't reject Xu Jinzhi, nor did he like her.
In any case, the arranged marriage was fine, it didn't matter.
Seeing Xie Yanchuan not speaking, Xu Jinzhi guessed what his thoughts were. She continued, "Let me put it another way, would marrying me make you feel any pain?"
Xie Yanchuan slightly furrowed his brows, as if this question was difficult to answer, and he needed to think about it carefully.
Xu Jinzhi wasn't in a hurry, just patiently waiting until Xie Yanchuan shook his head and said somewhat uncertainly, "No."
He had thought about it last night; it was just an arranged marriage, nothing serious. In the future, they could be like his parents, either respectful like guests or simply not interfering with each other.
But there was no pain, at most just some concerns.
"That's good!" Xu Jinzhi immediately smiled.
At this point, Xie Yanchuan still didn't understand why Xu Jinzhi was happy, and she didn't explain either. She took out her phone and earnestly said to Xie Yanchuan, "Since we're going to get married, shouldn't we add each other on WeChat?"
There seemed to be no problem with this, so Xie Yanchuan took out his phone, found his WeChat QR code, and Xu Jinzhi scanned it, allowing them to successfully add each other on WeChat.
Having added each other on WeChat, they smoothly exchanged phone numbers as well.
Xu Jinzhi continued, "Will you be busy later?"
"There's still some unfinished work at the lab..." Xie Yanchuan didn't finish his sentence but directly asked Xu Jinzhi, "Is there something else you wanted to say?"
"I originally wanted to invite you for dinner, after all, since we're going to get married, we should get to know each other. But since you still have work to do, we'll do it another day," Xu Jinzhi said very considerately.
"Alright." Xie Yanchuan nodded. To be honest, he was having some trouble keeping up with Xu Jinzhi's pace,
After finishing their conversation, the two fell silent again. Xie Yanchuan had always been the quiet type, never feeling awkward not speaking.
But being in the same space as Xu Jinzhi now, even such a brief silence was hard for Xie Yanchuan to adjust to. It felt a bit off.