Chapter 15.2 - The Fragrance of that Tea (Part 4)
“He... doesn’t seem like someone who would mix personal and professional matters.”
“Mrs. Teacher!” Zhou Wen wailed.
That term made Zeng Li flinch, almost dropping her phone. “Stop calling me that.”
At that moment, the beautiful woman who had made tea earlier walked over from the other side of the yard, smiled at Zeng Li, then knocked on Ai Jingchu’s door, saying “Sorry to disturb” before entering with a teapot.
Zeng Li moved aside to avoid her and happened to see Ai Jingchu’s face through the crack in the door.
“Mrs. Teacher.” Zhou Wen saw that Zeng Li wasn’t saying anything and shouted again, “Today, Ai Teacher hurriedly went to change clothes after work without saying a word. Then, when we went back to the dorm, we heard from other junior sisters that Ai Teacher’s car seemed to have a beautiful woman in it. Could it be you? If it’s not you, we’d better investigate thoroughly. Our boss never…”
“Stop, stop.” Zeng Li felt a headache coming on. She rarely lied and didn’t dare to make things up, so she wasn’t sure how to respond and quickly gave a vague answer before hanging up.
The woman poured a second round of tea and quietly left. At the same time, Zeng Li returned to her seat.
“Drinking tea here made me think of the coffee shop my friends and I opened together.” She remembered Zhou Wen’s request and casually started a conversation with Ai Jingchu.
“Where is it?” Ai Jingchu added some water to his cup.
“It’s just outside your school’s main campus.” Zeng Li replied. “Compared to this place, it feels like being in the mundane world.”
Ai Jingchu didn’t respond, so Zeng Li sighed inwardly and continued, “Why is it called ‘Yi Wei’?”
“Maybe it’s derived from the phrase ‘Zen Tea, One Flavor’.”
“Our coffee shop is more ordinary, we just used my English name.” Zeng Li said, suddenly remembering something, and her expression softened a little.
Ai Jingchu then asked, “Is business good?”
“Barely making ends meet. It was just to fulfill a dream we had back in college,” Zeng Li muttered. “Back then, we thought doing what we loved, with the people we loved, and running a small coffee shop for the rest of our lives would be the happiest life in the world.” As she said this, a smile appeared on her lips, but it was tinged with a sense of helplessness.
Zeng Li suddenly felt an emotion she shouldn’t be feeling. She quickly changed the topic and said, “A student from your medical school works at our shop. She knows you and always says you’re too harsh on students.” Finally, she got to the point.
“What did she say?” he asked.
“She said that once during a thesis defense, you made a female student cry.” Zeng Li didn’t want to betray Zhou Wen, so she had to include Dou Dou in the story.
“Actually, it wasn’t just once,” Ai Jingchu honestly replied.
Zeng Li was stunned. “So harsh. When we had our thesis defenses, the teachers were always very kind, just going through the motions.”
“This is different,” he said.
“How is it different?” Zeng Li didn’t understand. Was it the difference between a prestigious university and a third-tier one?
He didn’t answer immediately. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and placed them on the table, staring at his teacup.
The tea leaves had already unfolded and were no longer floating on the surface but standing upright in the water.
Then, he gently tapped the glass with his finger, making a “thunk, thunk” sound. The vibration caused the leaves to float up and down in the cup, and the tea’s color became even darker.
While Zeng Li was immersed in this, Ai Jingchu slowly began to speak: “A Greek mathematician named Proclus once said, ‘Where there are numbers, there is beauty.’ Later generations extended it into ‘The beauty of science.’ But my former teachers and I believe that scientific beauty doesn’t only include ‘beauty’ but also ‘truth.’ Medicine, as a science, especially, must leave no room for negligence. Sometimes, system problems are beyond an individual’s control, so all I can do is teach my students as best as I can.”
After he finished, he said nothing else.
At this moment, all the tea leaves in the cup had fully opened and sank to the bottom, blending with the green tea, almost resembling a piece of jade dissolved in the water.
He put away his long, ink-like eyes and quietly took a sip of tea.
The fragrance of the tea spread as the cup gently rocked.
Suddenly, Zeng Li felt that the man in front of her was like the tea, bland and tasteless at first, but as time passed, becoming more aromatic and rich.
