Chapter 120

Chapter 120

Everyone present was stunned into silence by Song Xiyan's words. As the person involved, Bai Xingshu was blissfully unaware, cheerfully greeting the other researchers.

After the introductions, they cut to the chase without further small talk.

Under the guidance of a lab tech, Bai Xingshu put on the equipment to be tested.

The setup was fairly simple—a helmet that looked like a mecha battle system login rig and a single right-hand glove that reached up to his elbow.

This time, they were testing a mecha arm.

Once suited up, Bai Xingshu initially thought he could control it as naturally as his own arm. However, in reality...

One by one, Bai Xingshu mimicked the gestures according to the science team’s instructions, making the mecha arm follow suit.

During the operation, there were occasional pauses or malfunctions. The lab techs jotted down the readings.

Then, someone asked Bai Xingshu how it felt to pilot it.

After detailing his impressions, Bai Xingshu sighed. "When Teacher Song explained it earlier, I thought it would be pure thought control."

The lab techs gave a resigned sigh.

"At the start of the project, that was the idea too. But human neural signals don't include commands like 'open chest turret' or 'activate knuckle laser guns'—actions the human body can't perform."

Thus, after repeated revisions, the research plan evolved into its current middle-ground design.

"At the very least, actions that previously required multiple steps can now be pulled off with one move."

This was still significant progress. Rome wasn't built in a day—step by step, achieving what's feasible is... also the way to secure more funding.

"That's true," Bai Xingshu nodded. Hammering away at the controls was far less comfortable than the current testing method.

After agreeing with them, Bai Xingshu asked, "I’ve pretty much memorized these command gestures. Can I mess around with it?"

In other words, he wanted to experiment freely with the device.

The lab techs naturally didn’t refuse.

Then, they witnessed Bai Xingshu’s trainwreck of commands.

For instance, firing the palm blaster while clenching a fist resulted in the mecha fingers getting jammed inside the cannon.

Or the knuckle machine gun firing directly into the cockpit during a "raise arm" command, which would've blasted the pilot to smithereens.

Or conflicting commands forcing a single finger to move forward and backward simultaneously, frying its servos.

By the end of the test session, the tablets were overheating from all the error logs.

Though they knew live tests would require adjustments, Bai Xingshu wasn’t the first tester—how could he still find this many glitches?!

When Bai Xingshu stepped down from the control panel, the lab techs wore expressions of equal parts thrilled and devastated.

Thrilled, because discovering issues now meant easier fixes.

Devastated, because it meant pulling a late night.

Amidst this scene, Song Xiyan—who had kept his poker face throughout—looked downright cheerful by comparison.

Bai Xingshu felt that the gloomy mood of the others was somewhat related to Song Xiyan's chilly demeanor.

Actually, Bai Xingshu had thought that Song Xiyan was often bullied by other teachers in the mechanical engineering department.

Bai Xingshu had been quite worried about it.

But this time, seeing the situation, it seemed more like Song Xiyan was bullying the other teachers.

Guess this proves "seeing is believing, hearing is doubtful," even though Song Xiyan had always denied Bai Xingshu's suspicions.

At least he knew Teacher Song was doing well in his department!!!

Thinking of this, Bai Xingshu broke into a big grin at Song Xiyan.

Song Xiyan: "...” He looked away, his hand unconsciously drawing random squiggles on his tablet.

The other researchers who saw this looked at each other, then pretended they hadn’t seen anything, suddenly looking busy as they retreated to their workstations to make adjustments.

Unaware of his colleagues' kind intention, Song Xiyan automatically followed them back into the work area.

Colleagues: "...”

So that's why Xiao Song—despite his good looks, excellent family background, and being great at everything—was still single.

How could he not be?!

The interior of the work area was above Bai Xingshu's clearance level.

So, with nothing to do for the moment while waiting for the researchers to adjust the equipment, Bai Xingshu plopped down in the resting area of the testing zone.

Since he had time to spare, he decided to tap the system and have it play a few more training videos for him.

Inside the work area, the testing zone was visible through a one-way mirror—designed for researchers to observe testing scenarios.

At first, no one paid much attention to Bai Xingshu, as everyone was swamped with work.

But Bai Xingshu’s solo scene was just too distracting.

It wasn’t that he was doing anything unusual in the testing zone—rather, it was precisely because he was doing nothing at all.

Bai Xingshu just sat in the recliner in the most comfortable position, lost in thought, resting his chin on his hand as he gazed at the ground, unknowingly radiating an aura of beauty.

As everyone knew, the system had applied a graceful aura filter to Bai Xingshu.

But usually, Bai Xingshu was always joking around and full of energy—no matter what filter, his strong personal style overpowered it, leaving no impression on others.

Now, however, was different.

While using the system for online lessons, Bai Xingshu was completely still. Under the influence of the filter, his appeal just shone through to everyone watching him.

And so...

Song Xiyan, face stern, reached out and changed the wall setting of the work area to two-way opaque.

The meaning behind this action was pretty clear.

The colleagues started giving each other looks, but Song Xiyan had such a commanding presence that most didn't have the nerve to say anything in front of him.

However, since it was most, there were still a few who did.

Song Xiyan was undoubtedly young in this research lab, which meant some of the older researchers were old enough to be his parents.

They would sometimes rib him a little.

"Teacher Song, sometimes people shouldn't be too reserved. Someone that good-looking with a great personality is hard to come by."

"Six years is nothing."

"If you're worried about criticism because you're his teacher and he's a student, you could always quit teaching. Just say you want to devote yourself fully to this research project—I think the faculty would agree." The older researcher eventually let slip his real agenda.

But the speaker also felt that he had a point. "Anyway, it's not like you don't care about him. Just agree first, and figure out the rest later."

Song Xiyan: "……?"

It took Song Xiyan a long moment to realize what the researcher was implying, leaving him completely speechless.

Though he wasn’t sure how the others had interpreted the situation, he was certain…

"It’s not what you think," Song Xiyan said matter-of-factly.

The older researcher countered, "Then what is it?"

"Just a teacher, just an assistant," Song Xiyan replied.

The older researcher didn’t believe him and patted Song Xiyan’s shoulder. "Where there's a will, there's a way. Testing gets old fast—most specially invited testers in the past only stuck around for ten or twelve rounds before requesting a change."

At first, the testing might seem fun, but even interesting things get old when you do them day in and day out. And between tests, there are often these endless boring waits.

The novelty wears off fast.

And young people are usually the most easily bored.

"Just see how long he’s willing to stick with it for you. If he lasts even ten sessions, you might as well give in."

Song Xiyan, never the most eloquent speaker: "……"

Since this was how everyone thought, Song Xiyan gave up trying to explain further.

Anyway…

He hadn’t planned on keeping Bai Xingshu as a long-term tester for his project. He hadn’t forgotten that the reason he invited Bai Xingshu was to let him experience cutting-edge research—not to make him a full-time tester.

Once Bai Xingshu had experienced his project and grew bored, Song Xiyan had already intended to recommend him to other projects.

The Green House had plenty of research projects—Bai Xingshu could spend his weekends over the next semester exploring all kinds of equipment.

Once Bai Xingshu got bored and switched projects, everything would naturally return to "things would sort themselves out."

However, in the first two weekends, Bai Xingshu showed up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed both times, never once mentioning boredom.

The second week, Bai Xingshu came bouncing in, even bringing snacks from the cafeteria that everyone had praised before. During testing, he was practically buzzing with excitement.

By the third week, Bai Xingshu had already clicked with most of the lab staff.

There was no longer any need for Song Xiyan to devise a recommendation strategy. The neighboring research team working on auxiliary loading equipment simply commandeered Bai Xingshu's downtime, recruiting him as a part-time tester for their project.

By the fourth week, many had heard the auxiliary loading project team raving about Bai Xingshu, claiming he was a natural-born tester.

In the fifth week, members from other project groups came sniffing around about Bai Xingshu.

By the sixth week, two research teams got into a tiff over who got priority in borrowing Bai Xingshu.

The seventh week...

The eighth week...

Thanks to his unique sensitivity to metals, Bai Xingshu became the hottest commodity in the Green House.

No matter how many other projects invited him, Bai Xingshu always carved out half a day or a full day to run tests for Song Xiyan's project.

Suddenly, the neural control project team members strutted around.

Bai Xingshu? He’s ours—Teacher Song’s! Eat your hearts out!

Bai Xingshu couldn't help but find it funny.

He wasn’t completely in the dark about the rumors in the institute pairing him with Song Xiyan as a couple.

But he was totally unbothered and assumed Song Xiyan felt the same way.

So, Bai Xingshu just wrote it off as office banter.

After all, making a big deal about it would only put you at a disadvantage. Letting the gossip run its course was the fastest way to settle it.

Thus, Bai Xingshu sometimes even leaned into it, throwing in some playful comebacks.

He never gave it a second thought.

But…

On his way back from another project, Bai Xingshu suddenly heard his name.

Hm?

If someone was talking about him, of course he had to listen!

With his own peculiar logic, Bai Xingshu made a beeline toward the voices.

He could just make out two voices.

One was Researcher Wang’s, and the other…

Was Song Xiyan.

…He had a pretty good idea what this was about. Sure enough, he heard Researcher Wang’s frustrated tone.

"Song, none of that wishy-washy stuff. Just tell me one thing clearly."

"Do you like Bai Xingshu?"

Bai Xingshu blinked, getting this weird sense that the atmosphere inside was a bit strange.

Why ask Song Xiyan about this? They should be asking him! Bai Xingshu cracked his knuckles, poised to swoop in and save Song Xiyan. But just as he raised his hand, he heard Song Xiyan’s reply after a brief pause—without missing a beat.

"I do."