Qin Hanyue carefully rinsed off the bubbles for her, then turned off the shower head and put it back in place: "Done."
He took out a thick, fluffy towel from the cabinet and wrapped up her wet hair. Qiao Ying stood up straight, facing him.
The towel covered most of her head, only revealing her fair little face. Qin Hanyue's big hands gently patted her long hair dry with the towel, his gaze inadvertently falling from her hair to her face.
She lowered her eyes.
As Qin Hanyue looked at her, his movements slowed down unconsciously. The towel had soaked up most of the moisture and her wet hair cascaded down, her small face hidden under the thick hair and towel, making her look even smaller.
Gradually, Qin Hanyue's movements stopped completely. His lightly pursed lips parted slightly, hot breath spraying from between them.
As emotions ran deep, he couldn't help but slowly lean down, moving closer to her bit by bit.
His sexy Adam's apple slid noiselessly. Qin Hanyue was so nervous that his heart almost jumped out of his chest. Coming closer and closer, just as his lips were about to touch the girl's forehead... she suddenly looked up at him.
Their eyes met accurately.
The atmosphere froze for a moment.
Qin Hanyue was stunned. After a brief silence, he held his breath and pretended to be calm as he asked, "...Can you see now?"
Qiao Ying: "Much clearer."
Seeing that Qiao Ying didn't look abnormal, Qin Hanyue secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's good then."
He straightened up, pulling back the distance between them, and continued to dry her hair. He didn't explain his actions just now, and Qiao Ying didn't ask either.
Qiao Ying watched his focused gaze drying her hair, lightly pursed her lips, an inscrutable look flashing in her indifferent eyes.
She took the towel from him and went out of the bathroom drying her own hair.
Qin Hanyue watched her leave, silently tidying up the sink before following her out to ask about her eyes.
Qiao Ying: "When I woke up this morning, I realized they were much better."
Now that she could see, she naturally didn't need Qin Hanyue's help threading needles anymore. Yet Qin Hanyue either forgot about this or subconsciously still handed them to her.
And Qiao Ying, whether she had forgotten she could see now or was just too lazy, still let him do it for her.
The husky Sack came in with a ball in its mouth. Seeing Qiao Ying busy, it obediently went to play by itself and waited for her.
After Qiao Ying was done organizing the needles, she called out: "Master Sack, come."
Hearing her voice, the dog looked at her but didn't move.
Qin Hanyue, who was helping her tidy up the needles, asked curiously: "Master Sack?"
Qiao Ying smiled at him. "I just gave it that name this morning."
Qin Hanyue was amused and exasperated. "Yet you care about Sack's feelings so much."
Qiao Ying: "I actually quite like the name Sack, but whenever I called out for Sack these past few days, they'd both respond. "
And once that happened, Sack's face would darken and he wouldn't come out again for half a day.
So I had to change the name.
Qiao Ying: "If you don't like the new name I can change it again."
Qin Hanyue earnestly said: "No objections. I'm elated you'd use me as a reference. Just... it's not taking my surname, right?"
He was worried about giving Old Master Qin hypertension.
Qiao Ying: "If it takes any surname, it'll be Qiao."
Qin Hanyue: "Master Qiao Sack?"
He was quite satisfied with this combination of names.
The only flaw was that he wasn't the one who gifted this dog to her.
The next day, with her eyes much improved, Qiao Ying took Master Sack out for a walk. The still-injured Sack tagged along as well.
After renaming the dog, Sack's attitude towards it was clearly much better—at least he no longer looked at it with utter disgust like it was a maggot.
She lived in an apartment complex close to Peking University, so the two of them plus a dog wandered to the PKU vicinity.
It was around dusk at the moment.
Students were coming and going through the different school gates around PKU.
Hearing Qiao Ying call out "Master Sack," Sack casual asked, "You gave it that name, and Qin Hanyue was ok with it?"
Qiao Ying: "Qin Hanyue is mature and steady. He wouldn't fuss over such an innocuous little thing."
Sack: "So you're saying I'm childish and petty?"
Qiao Ying: "Sure, little Sack. You've even learned words like 'petty'. Where did you pick that up?"
Sack: "Humph."
As they were talking, a person crossed the pedestrian crossing in the distance. He was tall and thin, with a sickly pale complexion. He carried a black backpack and had a hairstyle similar to Qiao Ying's, giving off the air of someone who had just entered university from high school.
The young man walked with his head lowered, quietly making his way to the other side.
Qiao Ying's vision was still a bit blurry, so she could only make out his features indistinctly.
Sack followed her gaze and asked, "What is it?"
Qiao Ying watched as the person left. "Nothing."
The next day Qiao Ying returned to school. After missing so many days of class, her reappearance sparked great enthusiasm for studying among her classmates, and there was suddenly much more to talk about.
Qiao Ying sat in the innermost seat by the window in the back row.
The students gradually filled up their seats. Just before class was about to start, a male student rushed in through the back door of the classroom and sat quietly by himself in the back row.
In class, as soon as the teacher saw Qiao Ying had come back, he immediately took out the assignments she had missed over the past few days. He showcased a few of the PPTs she had submitted as templates, and extended his utmost sincerity in inviting Qiao Ying to come up and explain them to the class.
Last semester, as the top student of their major, the teacher had tried more than once, unsuccessfully, to get her to give a lecture.
Later, after finding out about Qiao Ying's relationship with Young Master Qin the Third, the teacher didn't dare disturb her anymore.
Until these past few days—the assignments Qiao Ying had turned in were so flawless and perfect that the teacher couldn't find anything to nitpick. He had shown them to every class over and over.
Compared to the few PPTs Qiao Ying had made previously, these recent ones were much more meticulous, and completely different in style.
Unable to restrain himself any longer, the teacher invited Qiao Ying again. The students echoed their anticipation, clamoring for her to agree. Not expecting her to actually say yes this time, the teacher was overjoyed.
Qiao Ying took out her assignments to look over the PPTs Qin Hanyue had made for her, then carried her laptop to the lectern.
Having the school's goddess student give them a lesson and share PPT design tips—how fortunate they were! The students were so thrilled they might as well have won the lottery. They excitedly took out their phones to record videos.
"Yet another day to make the other classes green with envy!"
Standing at the lectern, Qiao Ying squinted at the screen, leaning in to look over the content.
Her eyes hadn't fully recovered yet, so looking at things was still fuzzy and unclear for her.
The teacher and students wondered what she was looking at, and why she seemed unfamiliar with her own assignment.
The teacher tentatively asked, "Is there a problem, Qiao? If so please let me know, I can solve it right away."
Qiao Ying: "No, just taking a look."
She hadn't seen it before after all, and didn't know what was in the presentation.
Take a look? A look at what?
Lecturing on assignments and such basic, fundamental knowledge was like child's play to her. Having her teach as if she were lecturing kindergarten kids was admittedly somewhat difficult for her. Qin Hanyue was probably more suited for this job.
After quickly skimming through, Qiao Ying projected the content onto the screen for everyone to see, and highlighted a few key points.
The classroom was very quiet, with only the sound of Qiao Ying's fluent lecturing voice. Everyone listened attentively, more focused than they'd ever been in class before. The department chair who was passing by in the hallway kept nodding approvingly when he saw this.
On the podium, Qiao Ying was calm and composed. Her professional terminology was so advanced that her classmates listened in a daze, unable to keep up with her pace at all.
"Although I can't really understand it, judging by the teacher's reaction, it must be pretty remarkable."
"Isn't this already touching on third-year knowledge?"
"The PPT is amazing, I love looking at it!"
The light from the screen hurt Qiao Ying's eyes. Concise and to the point, she quickly covered the main things in four to five minutes.
Just as the teacher was getting absorbed in her lecture, she stopped.
Teacher: "Done?"
Qiao Ying: "Mm."
Teacher: "How about... elaborating a bit more? The assignment from last Thursday was also very outstanding, why don't you walk the class through some of the knowledge points in there?"
"Teacher, we're more curious about how such a nice PPT was made—what software was used, any special techniques... Could you share some of that with us, Qiao?" a student asked.
Teacher: "Qiao, would you mind sharing some of that with the class?"
Under the eager gazes of her classmates...
Qiao Ying stated matter-of-factly: "I didn't make this."
She hadn't produced more than a handful of PPTs herself before. Of course if asked to summarize PPT design tips on the spot she could easily whip up a perfect set of guidelines for the teacher.
She just wasn't certain how useful they'd actually find it.
The teacher was taken aback. "You mean you didn't produce this assignment yourself?"
Qiao Ying: "Mm."
The students immediately broke out in hushed whispers.
Teacher: "Then who made it?"
Qiao Ying was silent for a moment. "Qin Hanyue."
The teacher's eyes were wide open, and his tongue was a little tied: “...Who, who did you say?"
Qiao Ying spoke clearly and rhymatically: “Master Qin.”
Compared to Qin Hanyue's name, this one seemed easier to understand.
The classroom suddenly became quiet.
