Stuttering Big Boss’s White Moonlight - Chapter 10
I’ll be busy with finals and exams so I can’t update the next and the following weeks. But I promise that I’ll update more frequently once I’m free. Sorry for the inconvenience.
The gentle morning light shone through the window as the clanging of equipment echoed in the laboratory.
The students in front passed down the experiment recording sheet. Cheng Chu glanced down and copied the confusing directions according to the textbook.
Just as she was filling out the column listing the quality of the required materials, she turned her head and glanced at Gu Miao: “Are you done?”
Gu Miao nodded.
“How much?”
Suddenly, the words seemed to be stuck in his throat, unable to be voiced. Only his lips moved silently.
“What did you say?” Cheng Chu couldn’t hear clearly and moved closer to him.
The lights in the lab flowed like moving water, seemingly dancing in her eyes.
Gu Miao’s fingers stiffened, he lifted his eyes and collided with her clear eyes.
His heart involuntarily jumped wildly, and he was suddenly reminded of that year when he worked at the restaurant; the girl looked at him with the same clear eyes.
“”
It was at that moment that she quietly walked into his heart and stayed there permanently.
Gu Miao felt his heart slowly calming down. In a dark corner of his heart, a thought was secretly developing—
She might not ridicule him.
The sudden thought flourished like a weed, taking root in the depth of his heart. Gu Miao clenched his fist tightly and inwardly cheered himself up.
She is different from everyone else.
The laboratory was noisy with all sorts of sounds. Cheng Chu blinked and asked again in a low voice: “Gu Miao, what’s the measurement?”
The girl’s tone was soft, like warm water, unknowingly soothing Gu Miao’s anxiety.
He focused and replied: “F-Five-Five point e-eight five.”
“Fifty-five point eight five?” Cheng Chu was a little confused, why is it so much?
But she chose to trust Gu Miao and wrote down 55.85g with confidence.
“N-no, no.” Gu Miao repeatedly said.
“What is it?” Cheng Chu stopped writing and looked up curiously.
Gu Miao raised his eyebrows and said: “F-Five-Five point e-eight five.”
“Isn’t that what I wrote?”, She thought.
Cheng Chu looked at her experiment sheet in confusion and she indeed saw ‘55.85’ written in her handwriting.
Gu Miao anxiously opened and closed his mouth silently in an attempt to speak, but he couldn’t. What he meant to say was 5.85, but because of his stuttering problem, he said it as 55.85.
But the more anxious he is, the harder it is to speak.
He knew that his stuttering disorder was mostly due to psychological problems. Whenever he gets nervous or anxious, it becomes more difficult to speak.
The late autumn wind was colder than ever but a thin layer of sweat broke out on Gu Miao’s forehead.
Cheng Chu saw his anxious look and comforted him softly saying: “Don’t worry. Speak slowly. It’s alright, you can write it down instead.”
Her eyes were gentle and calm; her soft voice was gentle like a spring breeze.
Gu Miao’s tense nerves loosened instantly and his frantic heart relaxed.
After a while, he raised his eyes, looked deep into the girl’s eyes, and said: “It’s five point eight five.”
This time, he didn’t stutter.
Cheng Chu nodded with a smile and then re-written the numbers on the record sheet.
The following step is the doing experiment.
The experiment isn’t complicated at all, but there were times the two of them must communicate.
Cheng Chu usually speaks first. Her attitude was considerate and calm, even if Gu Miao stutters sometimes, she listens patiently.
Gradually, Gu Miao was also responding with a few words. Although most of the time he stutters, he can still speak smoothly sometimes.
The atmosphere was harmonious, and the two perfectly divided their work to finish the experiment efficiently.
But still, there was a delay. By the time they reached the final step, most groups had already completed their experiment.
The teacher was standing at the first station, busily checking the first group’s experimental procedures, and didn’t have time to maintain order within the classroom.
The laboratory was noisy and chaotic. Some people were wandering around, pointing fingers at other group’s results.
Under the bright incandescent lamp, Gu Miao was holding a flask in one hand and shaking it gently.
His well-defined hands made it seem as if he was showing off a beautiful piece of jewelry rather than holding a flask for a lame class experiment.
Cheng Chu stared at his slender and lean fingers and suddenly felt that such hands are extremely suitable for playing the piano.
The transparent solution in the flask swirled around, slapping against the wall of the flask, making a pleasantly soft sound.
But at this time, a not so pleasing voice appeared out of thin air.
“Hey! Let me see. Your answer is wrong here.” Yu Yin grabbed the experiment sheet from the table and started listing off his unneeded comments.
Cheng Chu wanted to roll her eyes at him.
But doing so would harm her image, so she didn’t. She just reached out and pulled the sheet out of Yu Yin’s hand. Then she sneakily glanced at Gu Miao and found that he was intently staring at the volumetric flask, and haven’t noticed what just happened.
Cheng Chu relaxed a little.
She thought back to a couple of days ago when she confronted Yu Yin in the classroom. Gu Miao probably didn’t see her kicking Yu Yin’s water bottle and causing chaos.
She silently thought: “I think I maintained my gentle goddess image.”
She forced out a restrained smile, opened her mouth, and silently said to Yu Yin —
“Leave.”
Either it was because of his grudge with Cheng Chu that took place a few days ago or because she just rudely said, “Leave”, Yu Yin was rowdy again.
He smiled contemptuously at Cheng Chu and said mockingly: “How is your group cooperation? Can your partner even speak?”
Cheng Chu desperately wanted to slap his big ugly face. She took a few deep breaths, and just when she was about to speak, she heard Gu Miao put down the flask with a loud “Pah!”
“Leave.” He raised his dark eyes, his voice cold as ice, and there was no trace of emotion in his serene eyes.
“F*ck! Stupid stutter! You finally spoke? Impressive, you didn’t stutter this time. Ha-ha!” Yu Yin stood near the lab table and applauded mockingly.
Cheng Chu’s face stiffened, glanced at him coldly, and said: “I will call the teacher if you don’t leave.”
Yu Yin sneered and said: “What a snitching little girl.” Yu Yin loves to bully his fellow classmates, but once confronted by a teacher, he’s as meek and scared as a mouse.
He glared at the two of them and teasingly asked before leaving: “How is it? Does stuttering sound pleasant? Does it sound like ‘a-bah a-bah’?” [Yu Yin was imitating a baby’s sound.]
After saying this, he turned around and waved his hand arrogantly.
This hand wave caused a volumetric flask placed at the corner of the table to tip over.
The glass flask fell to the ground with a loud, “CRASH!” The shards and solution scattered around and splashed on the floor.
The entire laboratory seemed to be on mute, and instantly everyone’s eyes gathered to where they stood.
Cheng Chu wanted to swear.
She took a deep breath and lifted her eyes to see Yu Yin at a loss of what to do.
“”
“F*ck! I didn’t do it.” He looked down at the debris, his eyes overflowing with panic.
Cheng Chu snickered at this. Even if it wasn’t intentional, the price must be paid.
Cheng Chu met the puzzled eyes of the chemistry teacher and said loudly so all could hear: “Teacher, while we were doing the experiment, Yu Yin kept coming over and bothering us. We told him to go away, and then he deliberately broke our volumetric flask.”
The chemistry teacher slowly stalked over to the station, looked at the debris on the ground, and asked in a solemn voice: “Is that the case?”
“N-no, no sir. I didn’t intentionally break it.” Yu Yin squabbles to defend himself.
“Then it’s true you bothered them?” The teacher pushed up his glasses; his sharp eyes shot at Yu YIn like a poisonous arrow.
Yu Yin meekly said: “Teacher, I just made some suggestions.”
Cheng Chu looked at the teacher, with no trace of fear in her clear eyes: “Teacher, you can ask other students if you don’t believe us, they heard it all.”
The teacher turned his head and asked another girl in front: “Did you heard what Yu Yin said to them?”
“Umm… He said something like stupid stutter and other bad words.” The girl hesitated for a moment before she replied.
The chemistry teacher is a middle-aged man. He has been teaching for most of his life. When he glanced at the students’ hesitating eyes, he understood immediately.
He looked at Yu Yin’s wavering eyes and after hearing the words of other students, he made a conclusion in his heart instantly.
“Humph.” He snorted coldly at Yu Yin who had his head down, and said coldly: “Other people’s experiments needed your commentary? Who do you think you are? With your grade on the last chemistry exam, you have the guts to mock the student who got first place?!”
Gu Miao’s scores in science classes were very good. He has always been first place in the class for chemistry and physics. The teacher previously thought he was just an introvert who was withdrawn and indifferent towards others. But he didn’t know that Gu Miao has a speech disorder.
But now, after listening to what others said, he couldn’t help but feel pity for this outstanding student.
In contrast, towards those that mocked and bullied Gu Miao, he felt overwhelming disgust and hatred.
He frowned and sternly said: “Since you ruined their experiments, you will stay after school and redo it for them. By the way, also have all the tables and chairs in the lab arranged neatly, and clean up all the debris on the ground.”
“Oh! Also, compensate for the price of the broken flask.”
Yu Yin was like a defeated chicken, drooping his shoulders and nodding meekly.
The teacher coldly glared at Yu Yin and then continued in a solemn voice: “That’s the end of class. Hand in the experiment record sheet and you can leave. Yu Yin stays.”
Cheng Chu couldn’t suppress her wide grin. She handed the written record sheet to Luo Qian Qian, and said to Gu Miao: “Let’s go.”
“Mhmm.” Gu Miao nodded and followed Cheng Chu and Luo Qian Qian out of the classroom.
The break between the first and second periods was only ten minutes; not enough for Yu Yin to redo the experiment and clean up. When he returned to the classroom after finishing his punishment, the second period had already started fifteen minutes.
His second class happened to be the homeroom teacher’s class. She had always been most annoyed at the troublesome students, who always showed no desire to learn. Having seen that he was late for almost half of the class period, she was furious.
“Why are you coming to class if you’re 15 minutes late? You might as well not come.” The homeroom teacher glared at the classroom doorway, where Yu Yin stood, having just entered the room.
Yu Yin wanted to open his mouth and explain, but found that he had nothing to say. He couldn’t just say that he provoked Cheng Chu and Gu Miao and was punished by the chemistry teacher.
That would simply be asking for more punishment.
So he could only bow his head in apology and resignedly listened to the homeroom teacher’s scolding.
“Come in, stand at the back of the class, and listen”, the homeroom teacher finished coldly.
Yu Yin pursed his lips, frustratingly drooped his head and took out his textbooks from his desk, and stood at the back of the room.
As he walked past Cheng Chu’s seat, he shamefully bent his head lower. He saw the girl looking at him with her bright doe eyes and a mocking grin on her mouth.
He gritted his teeth in hatred, but he could only stare back at her fiercely and not do anything.
The back of the room happened to be closest to Cheng Chu and Gu Miao seats. Yu Yin glared at the back of them, with evil thoughts conjuring in his heart.
But Gu Miao, who was less than a meter away from Yu Yin, didn’t care about the serpent-like glare behind him.
He lowered his eyes and looked at the light pink note in his hand. The ice and snow in his dark eyes melted away in an instant.
The palm-sized note was written in neat and elegant handwriting that reads–
“Don’t bother with him, your voice is nice.”
