SFS Chapter 1261 Yun Rui's sincerity: finally quiet
Chapter 1261 Yun Rui's sincerity: finally quiet
As he walked through the long boarding bridge, Lin Xu looked back.
Lin Junze's figure was reflected on the glass curtain wall. He was whispering into his cell phone. On the huge display screen behind him, Gu Yunxi's academic lecture poster was playing in a loop.
The roar of the plane engine sounded, and Lin Xu touched the sketchbook in his pocket - the latest page was a picture of Gu Yunxi's silhouette stirring coffee in a cafe. The pencil lines were traced repeatedly, and the paper was slightly fuzzy.
Outside the porthole, the dark clouds grew thicker. Lin Xu pressed his forehead against the cold glass, remembering the trembling of Gu Yunxi's eyelashes when she said, "Let's become better people together."
At this moment, those gentle expectations, together with the safety instructions in the cabin broadcast and Lin Junze's implicit warnings, are intertwined into an impenetrable net at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
As the tires of the Boeing 787 emitted blue smoke on the runway, Gu Yunxi was standing on the metal support of the laboratory, reflecting a cold and lonely light.
She reached out to grab the reagent bottle on the top shelf, and the sleeve of her white coat slipped down, revealing her slender wrist bones - there were still traces of Lin Xu's fingers from the last time he helped her block the splashing liquid when debugging the instrument.
"Professor Gu, this data..." Li Wen's voice came from behind, accompanied by the sound of flipping the experimental record book.
Gu Yunxi withdrew his hand, and the reagent bottle collided with the table with a crisp sound, which scared away the sparrows that were pecking at bread crumbs on the windowsill.
The late autumn wind blew dead leaves into the half-open window, ruffling the strands of hair at her temples.
She stared at the sample under the microscope, and the tracks of cell division blurred into spots of light in her field of vision.
Lin Xu once said that the mysteries of the microscopic world are like a love letter from the universe to humans. But at this moment, this love letter suddenly lacks the most vivid footnote.
"Do it again." She took off her goggles, and the fog on the lenses quickly dissipated. "The temperature parameters of the control group, you missed two decimal places."
At the same time, on the top floor of the Media Building dozens of kilometers away, Qi Ruixiang leaned on the leather chair, looking at the scarlet sunset outside the floor-to-ceiling window.
There was a new issue of "Xiangda Journal" on the desk, and Lin Xu's name appeared in the report "Outstanding students studying abroad in Cambridge".
He twirled the pen, and the metal cap made a rhythmic sound as it hit the table, like some kind of secret celebration.
"Boss Qi, an interview with the Education Department..." He raised his hand to interrupt the assistant's knock on the door. Qi Ruixiang unlocked his phone and pulled up Gu Yunxi's circle of friends - the latest update was three days ago, a photo of a laboratory window sill, with green ivy vines hanging down, weaving a fine net in the light and shadow.
He stroked the image on the screen and suddenly chuckled, his Adam's apple rolling as he swallowed the unspoken words, "Finally, peace."
The lights in the laboratory gradually lit up, and Gu Yunxi was left alone in front of the dissection table. The shadowless lamp cast her shadow on the white wall, making her look particularly thin.
She picked up the tweezers that Lin Xu often used. The cool touch of the metal spread from her fingertips. In a trance, she thought she could still feel the warmth of the boy's palm.
The sound of water flowing in the sink, mixed with the piano exercises coming from the distant teaching building, echoed in the empty laboratory.
Qi Ruixiang unbuttoned his tie and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt.
The whiskey swayed gently in the crystal glass, reflecting the complex emotions in his eyes. He thought back to when he first met Gu Yunxi, she was standing under the spotlight of the academic forum, her words were as sharp as a knife, and now, the boy who always followed her and recorded data was finally pushed away.
"Some positions are destined to belong only to me." He whispered to the air and raised his head to drink the wine in the glass. The spicy liquid burned his throat, but it was nothing compared to the undercurrent surging in his heart.
The plane broke through the clouds, and outside the window was an endless expanse of blue. Lin Xu sat close to the window, watching the city on the ground gradually shrink into a spot of light.
He took out his sketchbook and wrote a line of small words next to Gu Yunxi's portrait. The tip of the pencil scratched the paper, leaving a faint mark.
At this moment in the laboratory and the office, two completely different gazes are traveling through different spaces, outlining the ripples brought about by this separation in their respective thoughts.
Qi Ruixiang twirled the whiskey glass, and the crisp sound of ice cubes colliding echoed in the silent office.
His eyes were fixed on the photo of Gu Yunxi on the laboratory windowsill on the screen of his mobile phone. The vines of the green ivy seemed to have turned into invisible silk threads, entwining his heart.
"Re-plan the interview with the Education Department." He suddenly shouted to the outside of the door, his voice filled with unquestionable authority.
The assistant hurriedly pushed the door open, holding an unfinished manuscript in his hand: "Mr. Qi, the original plan has been approved..."
"I want to add a special topic on the Department of Chemistry of Xiangtan University." Qi Ruixiang placed his phone upside down on the table, his eyes flashing with calculations behind the lenses.
"The focus should be on Professor Gu Yunxi's scientific research achievements, from the national-level projects she led to the innovative equipment in her laboratory. Every detail should be dug into." He paused and added, "The interview will be scheduled for next week, and I will follow up personally."
The assistant was stunned for a moment, then reacted and quickly wrote down the key points: "Do we need to contact the Publicity Department of Xiangda University to communicate in advance?"
"No need." Qi Ruixiang raised his lips and showed a meaningful smile, "Just send a formal letter to Professor Gu's work email address and say that this is an academic publicity project that the Education Department is focusing on."
He stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looked at the endless stream of cars downstairs, and had already started to imagine the scene of the meeting.
Three days later, when Gu Yunxi received the email in the laboratory, he was overwhelmed by the new graduate students.
There was a problem with the debugging of the microscope, and the experimental data failed to meet the requirements for three consecutive days. The experimental notes left by Lin Xu seemed particularly precious at this moment.
She rubbed her swollen temples and opened the email. Qi Ruixiang's name jumped into her eyes, causing her fingers to pause unconsciously.
"Teacher Gu, this interview..." Li Wen came over and looked at the content on the screen. "This interview opportunity with the Education Department is rare, and the other party also specifically mentioned that they want to visit our laboratory."
Gu Yunxi was silent for a moment, and finally nodded: "Reply to them, the time is set for Friday afternoon." She closed the computer and her eyes fell on the green ivy on the windowsill, the withered yellow leaves swaying gently in the autumn breeze.
On the day of the interview, Qi Ruixiang arrived at Xiangtan University half an hour early.
He was wearing a tailor-made dark gray suit, his leather shoes were polished to a shine, and he was holding a carefully prepared interview outline in his hand.
When he walked into the Chemistry Department building, he deliberately slowed down his pace and lingered on the bulletin board in the corridor - there was a message about Lin Xu's study abroad. The young man's high-spirited look in the photo made the corners of his mouth twitch slightly.
"Mr. Qi, Professor Gu is waiting for you." The assistant's reminder interrupted his thoughts.
The door of the laboratory opened and the smell of disinfectant hit me.
Gu Yunxi stood in front of the laboratory table. Her white coat was clean and tidy, but she could not hide the fatigue in her eyes. "Mr. Qi, thank you for coming," she said in a calm voice, "Please take a seat."
Qi Ruixiang sat down on the chair opposite, his eyes swept around the laboratory, and finally fell on the experimental record book next to Gu Yunxi's hand - there were densely packed annotations on it, some of which were obviously Lin Xu's handwriting.