Chapter 16 Gratitude of an Ungrateful Female Lead 16: When Humanity Evolved

The kindness and earnest advice from the department chair had caught Zhou He completely off guard. She had only ever thought of her as strict before, but after hearing her out, she couldn’t help admiring her broader perspective.

“It’s a good thing when a young married couple has a strong relationship. When the family is harmonious, work goes more smoothly too. The two support each other.”

How did she know their relationship was good? Just polite small talk?

The department chair smiled, took out her phone, searched for a moment, and handed it to Zhou He.

“If I’m not mistaken, this is you, right?”

A vertical short video was playing on the screen. The scene was a crowded train station. A sweet-looking girl holding flowers ran straight toward a tall young man in a black shirt who had just emerged from the station into the crowd.

The video had been edited with a recently trending song, and it had captured the change in the young man’s expression with remarkable clarity.

Caption: Someone else’s girlfriend.

Zhou He could not help being surprised.

The two people in the video really were her and Xie Qingjia.

They had been filmed that day at the station.

The editing and music were both excellent, and the whole thing had a very romantic atmosphere. Even she, one of the people involved, thought it looked sweet and incredibly shippable¹.

And when she checked the numbers, it actually had more than eight hundred thousand likes.

She normally didn’t watch short videos, so she had never come across it before.

The department chair said, “I recognized you right away.” Then she teased, “Your husband is very handsome~”

Even Zhou He felt a little embarrassed.

She had a very pleasant conversation with the department chair, and this matter could finally be considered a weight off her mind. Now that there was a clear decision, he could focus on preparing for the new semester and the baby with peace of mind.

After saying goodbye to the department chair, she even noted down the blogger’s name, planning to show it to Xie Qingjia when she got home.

“So this is what we look like from a third-person perspective.” Xie Qingjia also found it hard to believe.

“Should we have it taken down?” he asked.

“No need. It’s not like it’s anything shameful.” Zhou He didn’t care about that. “Did you read the comments afterward? The netizens are shipping us like crazy. We’ve provided them with a lot of positive emotional nourishment. That’s merit, you know. Look at what this commenter said, it’s so good. He said we’re one of the forms love takes in the human world.”

Xie Qingjia laughed. “As long as you’re happy.”

He had never seen anyone ship their own couple this enthusiastically.

Still, afterward he contacted the uploader and got the original video from them.

“As the main characters, how could we not keep a backup for ourselves?” he said.

Once the uploader got in touch with the real people involved and confirmed they were genuine, they even made a suggestion. Since the two of them didn’t seem to mind appearing on camera, the uploader wanted to interview them. It would also serve as a way to keep the traffic going.

After thinking it over, Zhou He declined.

Getting filmed in that moment had been a happy accident. If they accepted an interview, it would make the whole thing seem deliberate and affected.

The uploader tried to persuade them again and again, but still failed to change their minds.

Zhou He treated it as one of life’s little lovely moments and tucked it away with care.

Life continued in an orderly rhythm.

Very soon, the semester began.

Most of her current colleagues were teachers who had taught her in the past, which felt quite strange in a pretty interesting way.

Officially, she was a teaching assistant, but in reality her work was rather miscellaneous.

Helping prepare lesson plans, grading homework after class, tutoring students…

It wasn’t exactly effortless, but she was at least familiar with it all. She had assisted her advisor with these things before. She had even taught classes to undergraduate juniors herself.

Most of the teachers were quite considerate toward Zhou He, their former student and now new colleague, with one exception.

This teacher’s surname was Liu. Among students, Teacher Liu was infamous for teaching watered-down classes².

He only taught electives. Even so, students still didn’t like choosing his courses, because his failure rate was extremely high.

Zhou He herself had never taken his classes, but back in undergrad she had heard plenty of complaints from classmates.

Now that they were colleagues and spent more time together, she finally understood why the students disliked him.

Actually, it wasn’t just the students. His colleagues didn’t think much of him either, especially the female teachers.

Teacher Liu had many of the classic faults of middle-aged men. He loved lecturing people, loved bragging about his past, and was especially fussy.

As the newcomer in the office and also the junior among them, Zhou He became one of his main targets.

Every so often he would come over holding his teacup to “guide” Zhou He in her work, or share his “successful” life experience.

Zhou He found it deeply annoying and avoided him whenever she could.

Later, she realized it wasn’t just her trying to avoid him. The students were suffering too. In every class, at least twenty percent of the time was spent listening to him boast about his glorious college years, his outstanding family background, his outstanding wife, his outstanding son…

So many students would secretly roll their eyes while listening.

Ever since Zhou He became a teaching assistant, Teacher Liu had begun repeatedly asking her to assist him during class, and he was the only teacher who made this request.

Being an in-class assistant was actually simple enough. She just handed out materials to students, then recorded absences when Teacher Liu called roll, or noted down students who performed well in class and would receive a small amount of bonus credit.

He could have done all of that himself! Yet he insisted on dragging in a teaching assistant.

The leadership turned a blind eye, so Zhou He didn’t voice any objections and simply went along to slack off in plain sight.

She had even overheard female students in the restroom complaining that he was putting on airs. A teacher who only taught electives actually brought an in-class assistant with him.

Tsk tsk… that really spoke to Zhou He’s heart.

Assisting during class would have been one thing, since it still fell within the scope of teaching, but Teacher Liu was perfectly capable of broadening the boundaries of her duties.

For example, having her go to the cafeteria at noon to get his lunch, even though he himself had absolutely nothing to do. The first few times, out of respect for a senior colleague, Zhou He did it anyway.

At those times, Teacher Liu would list out all sorts of food preferences and taboos in great detail. Anyone listening would think she wasn’t just going to the cafeteria for a tray meal, but arranging a high-level banquet.

And that still wasn’t the end of it. After giving his instructions, he would magnanimously say, “Xiao Zhou, use my card for your meal today.” Then, thinking himself very funny, he would add, “Don’t you young girls all love having someone swipe a card for you?”

The first two times, she held back and simply said she didn’t need that. Later, she realized he had gotten addicted to the act, especially when students came into the office. He would say it with even more enthusiasm.

What the hell, how did this man get into the teaching profession?

Inside, she was cursing him out. On the surface, she smiled brightly. “Teacher Liu, where did you even hear that outdated joke? Don’t say that to other people, you’ll only make yourself a laughingstock.”

“Oh? Then what’s popular now?”

“Now what’s popular is showing concern for others. For example, greeting someone by asking: when humanity was evolving, why did you hide away by³ yourself?”

The student who had witnessed the whole thing remained expressionless, his eyes dull, lips pressed together, the muscles at the corners of his eyes twitching…

Very clearly, he was holding it in with great difficulty.

Teacher Liu probably had not expected Zhou He to say something like that. The expression on his face stiffened for a moment, then he let out a dry laugh and tried to smooth things over. “Hahaha, I couldn’t tell, Xiao Zhou, you’ve got quite a deadpan sense of humor. Ah, young people really do know how to have fun. Even your jokes are especially different.”

After that incident, the good news was that Teacher Liu never asked her to bring him food again. The bad news, or what Teacher Liu probably thought was bad news for Zhou He, was office ostracism.

Well, it was only him ostracizing Zhou He. And his methods were low-level and childish, like pretending not to hear her when she greeted the other teachers in the office and ignoring her…

That made her even happier, okay?! She really had no idea what went on in this man’s head.

Zhou He treated these matters as funny office stories and told them all to Xie Qingjia.

Every time, she found it amusing to see the pained look on his face. “What’s with that expression? It’s not like I can’t handle something this minor. I’m just telling you about it. Don’t you think it’s hilarious?”

Xie Qingjia didn’t think it was hilarious. He thought she had been wronged.

Zhou He looked at him warily. “You’re not going to do something bizarre like calling your wife’s coworker to warn him off, are you?”

Xie Qingjia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “What are you thinking?”

“You never know. I’ve seen enough now to appreciate the diversity of humanity. The way you men think can be really weird, and sometimes your confidence gets way too inflated. What if your brain short-circuits too?”

Xie Qingjia: “…”

And you’re talking about other people’s thought processes being weird?

He said, “My wife’s amazing. I trust her to handle these tiny little work issues just fine. You should have confidence in my confidence.”

The wording was a little roundabout, but Zhou He was thrilled.

Xie Qingjia said she was amazing! So happy~

She really was pretty easy to coax.

Come to think of it, Teacher Liu really had quite a presence. He basically came up at the dinner table every day, mostly because Xie Qingjia always took the initiative to ask whether he’d stirred up any new trouble.

Zhou He said, “Anyone who didn’t know better would think you were interested in him…”

Xie Qingjia put on a show of being angry. “Prenatal education⁴, watch the prenatal education. What nonsense are you spouting?”

“Hmph. Right now it’s only the size of a Little Potato. What could a Little Potato understand?”

Little Potato was very well-behaved and basically never tried to make its presence known while she was at work. Zhou He hadn’t deliberately told anyone either, so aside from the department chair, who already knew, the other coworkers probably still had no idea.

When Xie Qingjia brought up Teacher Liu again, Zhou He thought for a moment and said, “Now that you mention it, it is kind of strange. I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately, but his attitude toward me has done a complete one-eighty. At lunch today he even gave me an apple. None of the other teachers got one. Do you think he somehow found out I’m pregnant? Maybe his conscience kicked in and he wants to shine a little warmth on me by taking care of me?”

“None of the other teachers got one?” Xie Qingjia dropped a bombshell. “Could it be he’s trying to pursue you?”

“Don’t scare me.” Zhou He patted her chest, then added, “Doesn’t seem like it. The way he looks at me isn’t sleazy. It’s actually kind of benevolent.”

Their speculation hit a dead end.

The husband and wife stared at each other, wide-eyed.

Who knew what that oddball Teacher Liu was thinking.

The next day at school, after watching him for a while, Zhou He still felt like it didn’t seem he was interested in her that way. But he really was unusually enthusiastic.

She went to the water dispenser to get some water.

Teacher Liu called from beside her, “Little Zhou, just plain water? Want some tea instead? My nephew brought me some Wudong Dancong⁵ straight from the original growing region. Want a little?”

Zhou He was flattered and politely declined, saying she was too uncultured to appreciate tea.

But that kind of enthusiasm from him made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

The school needed the faculty and staff to submit a signed file document.

Their department had Zhou He in charge of collecting them.

She had printed the forms early and handed them out to all the teachers, then collected them again after they filled them out and signed them.

It was really something that should have taken ten minutes at most. The other teachers had turned theirs in long ago. Teacher Liu alone dragged it out until the deadline.

The day before submission, Zhou He reminded him three times online. He kept saying yes, yes, yes, but never turned it in. The last time she called, he said he’d taken it home, and if it was urgent, she could go to his house to pick it up.

It was already seven in the evening by then. There was no way Zhou He was going to a male teacher’s home.

Without hesitation, she placed a courier errand order and had the runner go to his place to pick it up.

When the runner delivered the documents, she asked a couple of questions. After thinking back, the runner said, “He seemed pretty unhappy. When I asked him for the pickup code, he was especially impatient.”

Well then, who knew what kind of medicine he had in his gourd⁶.

Translator’s Notes