Chapter 1106 - 826: Why Did These Two Become Like This? (Part 2)

"And Teacher Bai—" Chang He sighed. "He always carries weight. If he’s putting in this much effort, that student must really be quite good; and even if that student has issues, as long as Teacher Bai cares, then it can’t be wrong."

"Once we approve this student in the re-review, nothing will happen. If it doesn’t work, I’ll go talk to the dean and to Teacher Bai. It’s fine, you don’t need to worry about it anymore."

Chang He fit very well the public image of a "psychology professor": regular features, a gentle temperament, attentive to others’ feelings in social interaction, and usually soft-spoken with his wife.

"But—I just feel that student’s research is so hollow!"

As Bi Yanling spoke, her eyes turned red.

Chang He sighed, got up and sat down beside his wife, putting one arm around her shoulders while lifting the bowl of soup with the other hand. "The soup you made today is really good. Don’t you want to taste it yourself?"

Bi Yanling lowered her head and sniffed twice, saying nothing. After a long moment she finally reached out and took her husband’s hand. "I just feel uncomfortable."

Chang He nodded gently and patted Bi Yanling’s back lightly, like soothing a child. "I know, I know..."

"Mainly because a few days ago Weng Pinting called me, about that student. The way she talked was really nasty, she—"

Bang!

The light pats with which Chang He had been soothing her suddenly turned into hard slaps like trying to induce vomiting.

Caught off guard, Bi Yanling directly sprayed the soup in her mouth all over, splattering across every corner of the table in front of her. If they weren’t family, that whole table of dishes would have been ruined.

But right now Chang He couldn’t care less about the food. He first fumbled for some tissues and hastily wiped at Bi Yanling’s face twice, then said in disbelief, "How come Weng Pinting—wait, she’s back in Beidu?"

Bi Yanling glared at her husband. "What’s wrong with you? What about it if Weng Pinting came back?"

"You saw that Weng Pinting came back?" Chang He was still stuck on this question.

"She’s probably back." Her husband’s expression made Bi Yanling answer despite herself. "She called me using Bai Qinghua’s phone."

Chang He’s brows twitched slightly as he sensed something was off.

"Have you been having some sort of conflict with Teacher Bai’s research group lately? Tell me clearly, we’ll think of a way together."

Her husband’s suddenly serious expression stiffened Bi Yanling’s own. She recounted everything as it had happened: from borrowing the lab, to the opening report process, to what Weng Pinting had said recently, and the dean’s inquiry today.

Chang He made no comment on how Bi Yanling ran her research group; what he focused on was how his wife had been getting along with Bai Qinghua’s group.

His first reaction was disbelief, but since the person in front of him was his own wife, he softened his wording. "What were you thinking?"

He saw Bi Yanling’s eyes light up. "I was waiting for you to come back."

Chang He was stunned. "You were waiting for me to come back... for what?"

"Don’t you think this is an opportunity?" Bi Yanling countered.

Bi Yanling’s eyes brightened. "Look at Bai Qinghua—how many years has it been since he landed a good project? He’s only in his early forties, and he’s already started to coast—yet he’s sitting on so many resources!"

Chang He was stunned again. "...Huh?"

"He did get here a bit earlier, but have you seen him do anything in this period? You haven’t, right? It’s like he’s just put research aside altogether."

Bi Yanling grasped her husband’s hand. "Honey, you’re already a Distinguished Young Scholar and a Young Changjiang Scholar, but you’re still a bit short of the Ten-Thousand Talents Plan, aren’t you?"

"Someone like Bai Qinghua... it’s just that the policies were too loose back then. And it happened to be when psychology was only just starting to develop in China; he grabbed a good spot and now he’s living off his past achievements."

"If you had been born ten years earlier, your achievements now would definitely surpass his. You’d absolutely go further than he has!"

"Don’t you think someone like Bai Qinghua is basically there for us? If we take his resources, wouldn’t that secure your path?"

Chang He almost couldn’t muster any expression. "...Huh??"

"If Bai Qinghua were ten years older... even if he were coasting now, we’d still have to hold him up." The more Bi Yanling talked, the brighter her eyes became. "But look, he still counts as a young professor, doesn’t he? His top disciple, Weng Pinting, is now just a Psychological Consultant. As for his other students, even if they’ve gone into universities, they’re just lecturers, and not many have even made associate professor."

Chang He mechanically repeated her words. "Weng Pinting... is just a Psychological Consultant?"

"Yeah." Bi Yanling nodded.

She held a lingering resentment about many of the things she’d mentioned. "It’s because the policies are too tight now, there are too many PhDs. For me to get into a university... it took you working this hard."

"If it were ten years earlier, not to mention you, even I would have..."

"Stop, Yanling, stop for a second!"

Chang He finally managed to pull back some of the reason his wife’s words had knocked out of him, raising a hand to stop Bi Yanling from continuing to vent what was on her mind.

He stood up from his chair as if the seat had suddenly turned hot. "Yanling, have... have you always thought this way?"

Bi Yanling blinked. "Yes... what’s wrong with you?"

Chang He took a deep breath. "Do you have any idea what Teacher Bai used to be like?"

The topic was a bit abrupt, but Bi Yanling habitually followed her husband’s train of thought. "To have reached where he is now... he must have worked very hard in the past, right?"

She ventured, "As hard as you’re working now? Even so, hasn’t he started coasting now too?"

Chang He shook his head. "Then do you know why he doesn’t bother with anything now?"

This was a question Bi Yanling had truly never thought through. "...Why?"

Chang He drew another deep breath. "I graduated two years before you. When I first joined the university, Weng Pinting was still there—so let me ask you this: do you know what Weng Pinting was like when she was still in Beidu? Do you know how many results she had when she was still doing research?"

Bi Yanling opened her mouth, her voice weakening a notch. "Even if she... had lots of papers back then, now she’s just doing Psychological Consultation, isn’t she? Even if she comes back to a university, at her age she won’t have much of a future, will she?"

A thousand words clogged in Chang He’s throat, but for a moment he couldn’t say any of them.

In the end, he only said, "What you just said about an opportunity... you were thinking that way for my sake?"

Bi Yanling nodded.

His chest heaved violently twice. "If you’re really thinking for my sake... don’t get involved in this, and don’t bring it up again in the future."

Bi Yanling stared at him wide-eyed in disbelief.

"I’ll go see Teacher Bai later and explain things to him. As for the dean... I’ll give him a heads-up too, but you have to come along."

Hearing her husband’s arrangements, Bi Yanling fell silent.

Chang He glanced at her, took a deep breath, and tried his best to speak gently. "I know what Weng Pinting’s style is like... with things having gotten to this point, you must have suffered a lot of grievances..."

"But what’s behind Teacher Bai is really... deep. If you’re uncomfortable, we can just keep our distance from him in the future, but we absolutely cannot have any more major clashes with him, okay?"

Bi Yanling pressed her lips together, then suddenly said, "He has a student, first-year master’s, who took a full year off to work as a Psychological Consultant at our university’s Jingwei. Whether you look at it from the student training plan or from qualifications, that’s..."

"Yanling!" Chang He’s tone turned stern in an instant. "This is exactly what I meant by ’major clashes’!"

Bi Yanling fell silent again.

Having just come back from a business trip only to run into this mess, Chang He hurried back to the bedroom to make calls.

Bi Yanling stayed at the dining table, listening to her husband’s voice coming from the bedroom, her eyes clouded and shifting.