You Sound Sleepy

Staying true to her word, she really slept.

She slept peacefully. Her inky black hair scattered and stuck to her cheeks, and her long eye lashes pressed down, forming a shadowy arc. Wearing a tranquil and innocent face, it seemed that she couldn’t possibly be the same person who had just tearily apologized.

Not only was her ability to admit her mistakes strong, her ability to unapologetically commit the same mistakes was even stronger.

After completing a section of his lecture, Que Qingyan, his fingers twirling a silver remote control for the projector, paused his movements. He curiously glanced at Lin Mian.

Class was halfway done. In the large bright lecture hall’s back seats, the DSLR camera girl excitedly focused her camera on Que Qingyan, staring at him through the lens.

She was trying to take a sneaky photo right when he turned the page. Through the lens, she saw Que Qingyan raise his arm and pinch his brow. It seemed like, for an instant, a small smile flashed on Que Qingyan’s face.

Sleeping well, Lin Mian woke up long after the lecture ended.

The class was completely empty. She looked at the time and thought to herself, Class ended 40 minutes ago, and I just now woke up…

Slowly rubbing her numb face, Lin Mian struggled to remember what exactly happened before she slept. Her forehead rested on the edge of the table. 

She seemed to…

Following the span of a few moments, Lin Mian lifted her head from the table, snatched her notebook, and opened it.

After somewhat soberly reading the 4 pages, Lin Mian finally turned back to the notebook page that read “40,000 word reflection paper.” That page. She reflected solemnly for two whole minutes. She was on the verge of sobbing tears from regret.

This was definitely written by her. The bright pink words made it extremely obvious. These words were blatantly put up in front of Que Qingyan’s eyes. He definitely saw it.

The originally 20,000 words reflection paper was now doubled into 40,000 words and it had to be turned into him next week.

“…”  Lin Mian slowly tore up the paper and serenely rolled the paper up into a ball.

Must destroy the evidence.

After leaving the lecture hall, instead of immediately returning to her apartment, she decided to take a casual stroll through the campus.

Seeing that nearby the campus’s library was a nest of kittens on a grassy field, Lin Mian found the pet food bowl hidden in the shrubs, lowered her head, pulled out cat food from her handbag, and squatted down.

Bathed in sunlight, the tiger spotted cat noticed Lin Mian and meowed, knowing that the time for food had arrived. Afterwards, the other cats, with great familiarity, began to surround the food bowl.

Lin Mian would regularly come here to feed the cats. Most of the cats within 100 meters were already familiar with her, so they began to crowd and rub her feet. The cats, demonstrating a sense of puffed up flattery, would lightly lean their soft, fluffy tails on her ankles.

When she was halfway done with feeding the cats, her phone suddenly vibrated. 

“Author, Mu Mian.” It was her editor’s voice on the phone. She appeared to be in a good mood and said, “I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”

As she was feeding the cats, Lin Mian outright rejected the question. “I won’t listen. I won’t listen. I won’t listen.”

“…” Used to Lin Mian’s behavior, she pretended to not hear it. Folding her feedback forum in her hands, she said, “The good news is that the editorial board just met and due to the great reception by the readers of the manhua《Contracted Love》, we’re gonna start planning to serialize it into a book…”

Hearing these terrifying yet familiar words, Lin Mian’s heart jumped. She said in a trembling voice, “Don’t -”

As expected, a dreaded sentence soon followed. “The bad news is that this new book is planned to have some colored pages. This – this will take a couple of weeks.” Her editor hummed a little tune and said, her voice containing countless fluctuations, “Author Mu Mian, send it to me – when you’re done. Cheer up.”

Originally she had to write a 40,000 word reflection paper and now she had to draw additional colored pages…

Lin Mian was speechless. She retracted a little fish that was dangling over a cat’s mouth and with an ashen face, bit down on the dry fish. 

The kitten raised its head and meowed.

Unable to bear the dismal silence, her editor added, “By the way, the fan mail and gifts are still in the editorial office. I’ll bring it to you someday when I’m free.”

Dead silence. Her editor curiously took a look at her phone. The other party had already hung up.

Editor: “…”

Her hands shaking after hanging up, Lin Mian crouched on the grass field beside the cat food bowl, numerous cats whining and meowing next to her feet. Coincidentally, her line of sight encountered Que Qingyan walking close by.

Judging by the direction he’s walking, he’s gonna go through here. Wait, he’ll surely encounter me.  

This was unexpected. The matter from before regarding her falling asleep in his class had not been resolved. Now, it appeared that she would be confronted here. In addition, she had basically grabbed a blank check and handed it to him at his front door, saying “Professor Que, you can make me write as many words as you want, just write it down here.”

Lin Mian, thinking about what transpired in her mind, was close to crying. 

Besides an old professor, Que Qingyan leisurely took steps, his body tall and upright. His slender legs were wrapped in deep black slacks. Lin Mian slightly raised her face and looked at him walking over and her emotions began taking over her reason. Those budding indecent thoughts that slipped through were soon decisively nipped.

The two people still haven’t noticed the person crouching in the grass. Then, the old professor gave a surprised “ah” sound. Que Qingyan’s eyes followed where the old professor was looking.

Lin Mian was crouching five steps away from them, still holding canned tuna fish in her arms.

Her eyes flashing with a guilty conscience, Lin Mian’s gaze paused on Que Qingyan. Her mouth opened in a half cute, half cautious manner. 

“… Meow?”

Overcome by an inexplicable sense of joy from her “meow” sound, the old professor smiled with squinting eyes. “Little Miss, are you feeding the cat?”

“Hello, professor.” She nodded her head and stood up, patting her skirt. She then respectfully gave her greetings. “Hello, Professor Que.” 

Sweeping through the many cats that were still beside her leg and finally focusing on the food bowl, Que Qingyan, his eyelashes coming down, casually asked, “How long have you been feeding the cats?”

“Almost two months.” Lin Mian, mind racing with the matter of admitting her mistakes, reflexively turned around and said in a low voice, “I started feeding them this semester. They’re just kittens, so they don’t eat much and are always fed well. Sometimes I feed them canned tuna and sardines, but they still eat cat food more ….”

After finishing her speech without a single pause, she thought for a bit and then signaled at the canned cat food in her arms. Blinking, she asked, “You want to feed them?”

Lin Mian’s ability to act endearing was top-notch and when in front of Que Qingyan she was sweet to the extreme. The words “I know everything you want to ask, please say no more” were clearly written in her eyes.

A few steps away, the stupefied Que Qingyan couldn’t help but chuckle, his eyebrows long and pupils as dark as ink. Due to her teenage girl hormones raging, she was treading on thin ice. She was trembling from how handsome he was.  However, in other people’s eyes it was like she was trembling from facing a strict teacher. 

For a long time, Que Qingyan taught graduate students. He had long grown accustomed to educating these students who were experienced and stood out. It’s been a long time since he had taught undergraduates. When he caught Lin Mian sleeping in class before, he casually assigned a punishment of a 20,000 word reflection paper, not thinking much about it.

She was only a sophomore, yet he punished her with the same demands of a graduate student. Maybe he was a little too harsh.

The old professor on his side asked, “Qingyan, is this your student?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s great, oh that’s great.” The old professor was happily surprised. “I have a pile of law papers and resources, and there is a lack of people to sort through the papers. I was just going to ask to borrow a student from you. Unless of course…:”

Letting her arrange law papers….

Wincing from his words, Lin Mian was just about to open her mouth, but Que Qingyan’s deep voice interrupted her. “She can’t.”

He had helped her refuse the offer.

Those simple words helped relieve her from a great deal of trouble. He had helped her. She was startled, and her heart began to flutter.

She watched him take out his phone and begin to call, glancing at her in intervals. “I’ll borrow a Ph.D student. She’s too young.”

She’s too young.

“…”

No matter how you interpreted this sentence, it seemed like he was saying, “She’s too useless.”

Combining all the previous events, it appeared this sentence had a great deal of solid evidence. It was hard to refute her uselessness. 

Staring down at the cats that were turning at her feet, Lin Mian felt a sense of bleakness creep up on her. She felt a little aggrieved. 

The student who coincidentally answered the phone was already in sight after 10 minutes. He was a male student. Wearing glasses on the bridge of his nose, he was skinny and tall. Lin Mian felt he looked familiar, but didn’t fully realize it until he arrived.

The male student took the initiative to greet Que Qingyan first, cordially yelling out, “Teacher!” Then, he turned to see Lin Mian, his face pleasantly surprised, and began to open his mouth.

Seeing the word ‘Lin’ about to slip through his mouth, Lin Mian tensed up and swiftly cut him off. “Brother!”

Brother? What?

“…” Lin Mian slyly winked at him. Xu Zhu, surprised by the sudden outburst of ‘brother’, fortunately got the hint from exchanging glances with Lin Mian and reacted quickly. “Hahaha, little sister you’re here too?”

Lin Mian immediately changed back into her endearing behavior and whispered, “Yeah, I came to feed the cats.” 

She was still pretending to be Xu Tong and was almost exposed in front of Que Qingyan just now. Sighing guilty, Lin Mian thought, luckily, he only looked at me and didn’t ask questions.

Only arriving to help the old professor, Xu Zhu began to silently leave. However, every step he would turn his head to look at Lin Mian, his curiosity raging, desperately trying to use his eye movements to spiritually exchange information with Lin Mian.

Lin Mian, on the other hand, decided to not communicate further, burning the spiritual exchange between them. Attractively standing in place, she didn’t even glance back at Xu Zhu.

Que Qingyan was still standing by her. Lin Mian began to think. He appeared to not mention a single word about that sleeping matter. Could it be that he’s planning to let me go…

After sufficiently thinking it over, Lin Mian became emboldened, and her courage returned. Her resolve to be outrageous and direct was also reinvigorated. 

“Professor Que.” Lin Mian suddenly raised her eyes to look at him, her eyes glittering. “Are you going home?”

Que Qingyan turned his face towards her. Already dusk, his eyebrows appeared to be lightly smothered in a gentle, warm halo, and his once indifferent, frosty expression appeared to carry warmth. 

He didn’t speak. Lin Mian in a small voice continued. “If you’re going home…  I can accompany you.”

Que Qingyan’s gaze fell on Lin Mian.

The intimacy in her words was too obvious.