Well, forget it.

The feelings of awkwardness and disdain had already surpassed any sense of rivalry or desire for revenge.

Revenge always needed to be within manageable boundaries and convenient. If it meant sacrificing oneself, wasting time, and causing distress, then it went against the original intention.

Sitting in the corner of the fourth row, just at that distance, even with her standard eyesight, Hu Lai couldn't see Shen Zhengying's face clearly behind her large glasses. Every time she thought she was close to seeing it clearly, she always fell short by a bit.

After listening for fifteen minutes about what psychological health means, she must have yawned at least ten times.

With all those terms like "good adaptation," "free of psychological disturbances," and "strong resilience," Hu Lai felt like she definitely had psychological issues that needed treatment.

Looking around at the other students, they were all propping their heads up, looking limp and relying solely on their spirit and sheer willpower to keep listening. With so many people still attending a class where the teacher just reads off a PowerPoint, it must have been the teacher's strategy to give a lot of weight to regular attendance.

Only that peculiar Wang Baobao sat upright, ignoring Hu Lai's WeChat messages, fully focused on the lecture. She was either a teacher's pet or genuinely too sick to care.

After countless yawns, Hu Lai checked her phone and realized only twenty minutes had passed. This was what it meant for time to drag on endlessly.

Hu Lai shifted in her seat, looking around. Maybe she should just sneak out. What was the point of suffering on such a nice weekend? Those who knew would understand she was there for revenge, but those who didn't might think she was deeply infatuated with Jiang Yuming.

Just as Hu Lai was packing her things and preparing to leave, she felt a piercing gaze from the podium.

Shen Zhengying was scanning the students while continuing to speak: "A primary school student's well-adjusted state refers to social adaptation, learning adaptation, and self-care, while a middle school student's well-adjusted state refers to social adaptation, learning adaptation, and adaptation to puberty," without skipping a beat.

Hu Lai felt like she had been singled out. If she dared to leave, the professor would definitely stop her and ask all sorts of questions. She had never been a good student, but exposing her identity now would jeopardize her grand plan. If it reached Jiang Yuming's ears, he might feel smug thinking she couldn't let go, which would be too embarrassing.

So, she took her pencil case and notebook out again and arranged them properly, and Shen Zhengying returned her gaze to the lecture.

Hu Lai cursed under her breath, calling the professor crafty, and leaned on her desk to scroll through Weibo. The professor's monotonous tone continued without any variation, and before long, Hu Lai actually fell asleep.

She slept soundly until someone nearby woke her, saying, "It's morning, wake up."

Hu Lai clicked her tongue, discontentedly saying, "Stop lying, the rooster hasn't even crowed. It's not morning yet. Mom, let me sleep, stop bothering me."

"...Get up and go to school, you'll be late for class."

"It's a psychology class, I graduated several years ago. It's Saturday, and I'm off. Stop bothering me, let me sleep a bit more."

"Just five more minutes, okay? The janitor is going to lock the door."

Five minutes later, Hu Lai felt someone push her. She kept shifting and reluctantly bargained, "The rooster hasn't even crowed yet."

After a brief silence.

"Ah-oh~ Ah-oh~ Ah-oh~" A piercing scream echoed.

Hu Lai jolted awake, nearly jumping up. "Mom, where did that scream come from..."

Before she could finish the sentence, she saw a woman with large glasses sitting in the front row, looking like a crazed version of Conan. When she noticed Hu Lai waking up and staring blankly at her, she pursed her lips and said, "Well, now the rooster has crowed." After that, she got up and walked to the podium.

—Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

This was too embarrassing. Hu Lai wanted to disappear, she wished for a hole in the ground to crawl into, or at least to jump out the window.

In the classroom, aside from herself and the large-glassed woman, Shen Zhengying, everyone else had left. Checking the time, it was nearly nine o'clock, the hypnosis class should have been over long ago.

This was way too easy to fall asleep in. She had let her guard down completely, even calling out for her mom.

This wasn't scientific.

Hu Lai seriously suspected the woman in front of her had cast some spell on her.

"Are you here in my class to treat your insomnia?" Shen Zhengying turned off the lights in the back row of the classroom, leaned against the podium, casually looking at her, and said lightly, "Wake up and quickly pack your things, don't delay the janitor from leaving work."

—Damn.

Feeling her face burning with embarrassment, Hu Lai quickly stuffed her things into her tote bag and absentmindedly wiped the corner of her mouth.

Damn, damn, damn, she was even drooling! She was so embarrassed she could sink into the Suzhou River!

Shen Zhengying, noticing her embarrassment, teased, "You were sleeping quite soundly."

She knew her own class well, if it weren't for the fact that class attendance counted for 50% of the total grade, hardly anyone would come. She found the class dull as well. But ever since she was assigned this course, it seemed like she was expected to keep teaching it year after year.

What could be interesting about "Psychological Health Education for Primary and Secondary School Students"? Other teachers just repeated the textbook, maybe with a little more group discussion. In her opinion, teachers read from the slides, students write essays, attendance is taken, credits are earned, and aside from a sore throat, everyone would be happy.

She was indeed happy. After all, every year during evaluations, she hadn't fallen into the ranks of the least popular teachers among students. The disdain was real, though—students circulated her nickname: "The Hypnotist," specializing in treating insomnia and defiance.

The nickname didn't affect her professional title or bonuses, and Shen Zhengying didn't care, she treated it as just another campus legend at H University.

This class was dull and normally wouldn't attract anyone to audit. Those who came to sit in were mostly admirers of her son, Jiang Yuming, asking her to pass on love letters, or trying to get on her good side as a potential mother-in-law. She doesn't refuse anyone, and passed them on to her son to deal with himself. If there are questions or queries, sorry, but Professor Shen doesn't know a thing.

Today, as soon as she entered the classroom, she felt a different atmosphere than usual. There was an undercurrent of tension in the normally quiet space, along with a faint scent of sweet perfume.

When she spotted a beautiful stranger sitting in the corner of the fourth row, Shen Zhengying's eyes lit up—it really felt like a breath of fresh air.

Throughout the class, people occasionally leaned over to look at her. The pretty face seemed oblivious to everyone else, fixated on Shen Zhengying, and even seemed to want to leave early. Of course, Shen Zhengying wouldn't let her just walk out. This girl was quite captivating, quickly turning into a sleeping beauty. Thanks to her, the sleep rate in this class hit a historical low.

She thought the woman would wake up after class, but several students passed by her, glancing at her and laughing quietly, yet none could wake her.

In her class "Psychological Health Education for Primary and Secondary School Students", Shen Zhengying had seen countless sleeping faces. While there were others prettier than her, no one slept as soundly.

She originally planned to wait for her to wake up naturally, but she didn't wake up even after everyone left. When she finally did wake up, it was a shock, as she thought it was a university student but turned out to be a working professional. It couldn't be her son's admirer, could it?

Why would a working professional attend her class?

To supervise? Inspect?

Could it be she actually came to attend the class?

As she walked out of the classroom with Shen Zhengying, breathing in the first fresh scent of osmanthus, Hu Lai finally felt alive again. As she took a deep breath, she noticed Shen Zhengying was also inhaling deeply, it seemed they shared a taste for osmanthus. With the streetlights illuminating her, at half an arm's distance, Hu Lai could finally see a little of the true face behind those large glasses.

Usually, sons resemble their mothers, and if her son was quite good-looking, it shouldn't be too hard for the mother to be attractive as well. Plus, the son's looks should be a refined version of the father's genes, so theoretically, Shen Zhengying should be better looking than Jiang Yuming. But with that dowdy, old-fashioned attire...

—Forget it.

Hu Lai thought to herself, just forget it.

"Why do you keep staring at me?" The young woman's gaze was direct and bold, it was hard not to notice. Even though they were about the same height, she tilted her head to look at her. Her big eyes sparkled mischievously, and her eyelashes fluttered along, looking playful. "Did you sleep wrong?"

She hadn't even had a pillow, what a ridiculous question.

Hu Lai ignored her and looked at her again, saying, "I'm looking at you because I'm curious, of course." 

"Oh." Shen Zhengying nodded, offering nothing more. Her voice was as detached as her demeanor.

After walking a few steps, Hu Lai couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you curious about what I'm curious about?"

"Of course, you're curious about me. What else could it be?"

Hu Lai felt a surge of anger in her throat. Fortunately, Jiang Yuming wasn't like his mother, who could kill any conversation and block people completely.

"Are you a primary school teacher?" A working professional who had graduated a few years ago, young, insisted on attending "Psychological Health Education for Primary and Secondary School Students," and was curious about her. Shen Zhengying couldn't think of any other possibility besides a primary school teacher.

"Do I look like a primary school teacher to you? Have you ever seen such a dazzling, gentle, and approachable primary school teacher?"

In Hu Lai's mind, primary school teachers were either like her cousin, scolding students as if they were dogs, accepting red envelopes from parents on a daily basis, constantly assigning homework in the parents' WeChat group, or they were male free teacher trainees who, taking advantage of their gender, could still get accepted with lower grades even if they couldn't teach well, with a high likelihood of being in the news for child moles.tation, often appearing in social news on her Weibo feed.

Shen Zhengying looked at her, paused for a moment, and said, "True, I've never seen a primary school teacher who doesn't care about students and can sleep anywhere, anytime."

"It's not my fault I fell asleep." Hu Lai kicked at the grass by the roadside.

Shen Zhengying nodded, "True, it's not your fault. It's not bright yet, and the rooster hasn't crowed."

—Damn it, can't we have a normal conversation and be friends?

The desire for revenge, thwarted by her down-to-earth attitude, flared up again.

Since they were on the topic of roosters, Hu Lai asked, "Professor Shen, do you carry a rooster that crows with you? Because there are too many people sleeping, can you wake them up anytime?"

Honestly, she asked this purely out of curiosity and had no intention of teasing Shen Zhengying.

Shen Zhengying was momentarily taken aback, feeling a bit flustered, thinking she shouldn't have been so kind to let someone keep sleeping, she should have just had the students wake her up directly instead of saying so much. She had initially thought this girl was quite pleasant to look at, sweet and obedient while sleeping, but who knew she would start causing trouble before even opening her eyes? She couldn't fathom how her mother put up with her.

"Professor Shen, Professor Shen." Hu Lai jumped up and down in place, almost tugging at her sleeve.

Shen Zhengying rolled her eyes inwardly, stepping away from her before pulling out her phone to play the recording.

"Ah-oh, ah-oh..."

With intonation and rhythm, refreshing and invigorating.

Unbelievable, Jiang Yuming's mom was something else.

"Professor Shen, this sound would make a great alarm ringtone. My mom won't have to worry about not waking me up anymore. Can you send it to me? Let's add each other on WeChat—how about you scan my QR code, and I'll scan yours?" Hu Lai pulled out her phone, opened the WeChat QR code, and waved it around. "You scan mine."

Without a second thought, Shen Zhengying refused, "You can find it online. Work is quite tiring, rest well on the weekend."

The implication was clear: don't come to leech off my class, you're just going to sleep anyway. It really wasn't necessary.

"It's fine, it's fine. Today was an accident, I promise I won't fall asleep next time."

Shen Zhengying didn't quite understand the thought process of young people nowadays and wasn't particularly interested in understanding it. She just accepted whatever the girl said.

As they walked through the neighborhood near H University, the girl followed her all the way, showing no signs of leaving. Was she planning to follow Shen Zhengying home as well? As they neared the back entrance of H University, Shen Zhengying stopped and asked, "Why are you following me?"

"I'm just waiting for you to add me on WeChat. Don't judge me based on today, I'm actually a diligent and studious student. I have many professional questions and would like to seek your advice."

Shen Zhengying didn't believe a word of it, but under the streetlight, the girl stumbling to find reasons looked a bit cute. For the sake of her good looks, Shen Zhengying patiently told her, "I don't add students on WeChat. If you have questions, you can email me, the school website has my email address."

After wasting so much effort without adding her on WeChat, Hu Lai felt ten thousand grievances but managed to force a smile. "Alright then, I'll just email you."

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