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Daily Professor He @professorhenews
there were flowers on his desk today?? who would send prof he flowers and how can we get in on it,,, asking for a friend
The vase is beautiful.
Medium-sized, celadon, and — if you looked close enough — its crackled blue-green glaze shone back at you.
But what really catches the students' eyes, forget the vase, are the flowers spilling out of it.
They’re a mishmash of things, stems tangled up in each other and clashing colors of petals trying to outshine the others as if it were a competition. But the bouquet is beautifully composed and the note tucked in its petals does not go unseen either.
Professor He had blushed — yes, blushed — when he unfolded the note. Only those with the tacit understanding that getting to world literature class early yielded a calm professor were privy to the way their teacher’s cheeks tinged red.
Whispers jump from student to student, heads bunch together, and money passes through hands as the guesses build up — just who were they from?
“Nice flowers you got there, Prof.” Pei Su, who had only taken the class for the credit but found himself enjoying it more than he’d like to admit, smirks. The implied question is not lost.
“Thank you,” He Xuan responds.
…And that’s all his students get on it. Their professor waves around the assigned reading and the topic is dropped.
Professor He is an enigma to both students and faculty at the university. He dresses like a student, yet has a refined, blunt way of speaking that sounds like he’s lived through multiple lives.
He has five piercings, but Pei Su swears he’s seen a sixth one outlined at the professor’s belly button when he had come to class in a rather tight turtleneck.
However, as good-looking as their professor was, his students were convinced He Xuan was, hm, lacking in the love department.
“Professor He, did you get asked out a lot in school?”
It’s undoubtedly a bold question, but one that had been at the back of many people’s minds for a while.
His answer only further proved their suspicions. “What kind of a question is that?”
And then, “Do you ask all your professors this?”
The student had flushed, quietly shaking their head and the room was once again left to their musings.
He Xuan gave riveting lectures, could take apart novel scenes like he was picking out fishbones with chopsticks, and had students sighing when he rolled his sleeves up, yet they just could not imagine him being romantic.
He was a fucking book nerd for goodness sake — his love seemed to be directed more at people with syntax for brains than anything else.
“Hey, guys, what are we learning today?”
The students wave at the newcomer — late by their class’ standards, but otherwise on time — and Shi Qingxuan practically skips inside with a sunny grin on his face.
To everyone’s understanding, Shi Qingxuan is a student in some way or another. Everyone had grown used to seeing students of all ages around campus, so the class had welcomed him with open arms the day he sauntered into the lecture hall.
He teaches at the preschool down the road, evident from the stickers on his clothes and marker streaks on his arms. Shi Qingxuan is easily the number one gossip in the class (Pei Su a close second) and perhaps the only one unafraid of Professor He’s cold gaze. He babbles about anything and everything, from what out of this world thing he’d heard from his preschoolers to his intensive yoga routine.
And while one might think his stories could get annoying, they somehow never do. Shi Qingxuan has this magical ability to grasp all the attention in the room and hold it in his finger-paint-stained hands.
“I don’t know, I didn’t do the homework.” Pei Su mumbles, avoiding his professor’s unwavering stare. But then, “Oh hey — you missed it though — the other day, Professor He had flowers on his desk.”
“Did he, now?” Shi Qingxuan arches a brow, a faint smile curling on his face. “Who were they from?”
“That’s the thing dude, no one knows.” Pei Su shakes his head.
“Huh. Interesting,” Shi Qingxuan muses.
Before he has a chance to say anything more on the topic, He Xuan enters. He looks as handsome as ever in his own emo-nerdy way, dressed in all black with wire-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.
“Alright so we’re going to follow up on the topics we discussed last class. If I could have one person from each group share what they talked about.”
Shi Qingxuan takes out his own notebook and pen, staring attentively up at the professor. While Shi Qingxuan’s very pretty handwriting was identifiable to the whole class by now, everyone thought it was sort of comical at how much nonsense got scattered in his notes.
Pei Su had witnessed the preschool teacher doodle flowers in the margins as well as cheesily circle hearts around what seemed to be his initials and someone else’s. On more than one occasion, Shi Qingxuan had been caught with his grocery list scrawled out instead of the required classwork.
“Wait, Professor,” Pei Su sits up straight, abandoning his normal slouch, and Shi Qingxuan can tell he’s about to throw the class entirely off-topic. “I wanna hear how you express love.”
He Xuan stares blankly at Pei Su, as if the boy had just confessed to being a god. He opens his mouth, pauses, and surveys the room.
“Well, I mean —”
“Come on, Prof, we all wanna know!”
He Xuan sighs and pushes his well-worn glasses up his nose, before shifting to lean against his desk. “Don’t think I don’t know what you're doing.”
“Go on, Professor, I’m curious too.” A grin worms its way onto Shi Qingxuan’s face.
Shooting the preschool teacher a withering glare, He Xuan begins. “I’m not good at expressing love.”
“Oh come on!” Pei Su interrupts. “Any of us coulda guessed that.”
“I could just carry on with the lesson.”
“Sorry, sir.”
He Xuan massages his temples before beginning again. He’s unaware of the curious eyes trained on his every move, how the entire class seemed to have risen from their glazed-eyed stupor, and now have their complete attention on the enigma that is their literature professor.
“Love is messy. I hate it to be honest, or at least the foundation of it.” The beginnings of a frown etch onto his face. “When the pining claws at your throat, forcibly closes it with its grip, and you think perhaps it would be better if you just… didn’t. Or when you can feel exhaustion creeping up on you, crawling up your spine, because god why should you exert so much of yourself into something that you do not even deserve.”
“And the worst of it — when you think you can settle for just being friends, because you would rather keep the painful closeness you have as friends than walk away as strangers who know everything about each other.”
“But, Professor…”
He Xuan snaps out of his ramblings to stare at the forlorn faces of his students.
“It can’t be all that bad, right?”
A small smile graces his features. He shakes his head. “No, it certainly isn’t.”
The students don’t push for anything more and a silent understanding, that could perhaps be read as pity, settles over the room. Because despite their teasing and probing curiosity (that had now mutated into the form of a Twitter fan account), the students cared for their professor.
Even with a class size of forty, each student could assuredly say that Professor He had changed the course of their college career for the better. Whether it be the exact words of feedback needed to improve an essay or flourishing letters of recommendation they would argue secured internships, in his quiet ways Professor He cared for his students.
Naturally, they desired nothing less than the best for their professor — be it in romantic relationships or not. To some, perhaps his lack of a love life was a good thing. He Xuan was unparalleled! Unmatched! No one in their college bubble was deserving of their professor.
Then again, wouldn’t a significant other be exactly what the professor might need? It was a real toss-up. A back and forth seesaw conversation that existed only in internal debates and the replies of Twitter dot com.
The next time that the students bring up Professor He’s love life is only a week later. It is an admittedly more lighthearted conversation, sprung from Pei Su’s latest sulking session.
“I just don’t get it, guys.” He buries his head into crossed arms, voice coming out muffled. “How can she be so dense?”
“Maybe you’re the one who’s not being straightforward enough,” Shi Qingxuan points out, a stray lock curled around his finger. “When you asked her out, did you say it was a date?”
“Well I asked her to go see a movie with me,” Pei Su mumbles.
“I’ll ask one more time,” Shi Qingxuan leans forward to tug Pei Su up from his self-imposed wallowing and lock their gazes. “Did. You. Say. It. Was. A. Date.”
“No sir, I didn’t,” Pei Su stumbles over his words and, for a moment, the college class is reminded they have more than one teacher in the lecture hall.
“And there’s your problem!” Shi Qingxuan smacks the table with a resounding whack, all traces of previous seriousness gone. “You have to be clear about these things.”
“You got experience with this stuff, dude?” Pei Su shoots Shi Qingxuan an incredulous look.
Shi Qingxuan crosses his arms smugly, puffing up his chest like a bird whose feathers demanded to be ruffled. “I’m flattered you think I look young —”
“That was not what I was implying, but go on,” Pei Su interrupts only to wince at another one of Shi Qingxuan’s scathing glares.
“I have plenty of experience in the dating department.”
“Ooh, do tell.”
“I wasn’t aware that Mr. Shi’s dating life was the topic of class for today,” He Xuan speaks from where he had been silently typing away at his desk.
“Sorry, Prof, curiosity got the better of me.”
“Do go on, though,” He Xuan nods in Shi Qingxuan’s direction. “I am curious about this… experience myself.”
With a smirk on his face, and the charm of a bard in a packed tavern, Shi Qingxuan begins. “So there was this guy in college, right?”
His eyes flit over the captivated expressions of the students. Shi Qingxuan laughs to himself — it seems that no matter the age, students will always love a good story.
“The hottest thing to walk the planet.”
A collective groan rises from the students and Shi Qingxuan’s shoulders shake from laughter. “Sorry, sorry, but it’s true! We met at the gym and he was hauling his sexy ass out of the pool and I nearly died. ”
He lets himself cackle a moment longer before composing himself. “I digress. But I wanted him! And, I mean, y’all can probably tell but I’m the type of person who would make this known immediately. And I did — or, at least, I tried.”
Shi Qingxuan sighs, “I did everything from increased skinship to pulling him out for dates and he still thought we were only friends! You wanna guess how long we played cat and mouse for?”
“A couple months?” One student pipes up.
“More.”
“Half a year!”
“More.” Shi Qingxuan turns to stare at He Xuan, a smugness twinkling in his eyes. “You wanna try and guess, Professor?”
He Xuan shakes his head in exasperation but caves. “Year and a half.”
“Bingo!”
“A whole year and a half! Of me flirting and him being like ‘oh, hehe, we’re just friends.’”
“Maybe he was nervous,” He Xuan supplies as the silence that floats through the room becomes just a tad unbearable.
“Nervous my ass, I made him go to couples yoga with me!” Shi Qingxuan huffs indignantly.
“Oh yes, there was that, wasn’t there…” He Xuan mutters under his breath, just quiet enough for those in the front row to catch it.
“Anyways!” Shi Qingxuan claps his hands twice, carrying the same tone he probably uses to round up his preschoolers. “That’s all over now and it worked out, so it’s fine. ”
“Shi Qingxuan, you have a boyfriend?!”
“Nope!” Shi Qingxuan pops the ‘p’ with a grin so bright the students’ brows knit in confusion — did he enjoy the single life that much?
But the following, “I have a husband!” causes jaws to hit the floor.
“You’re married?!” Pei Su exclaims, speaking for the class.
“Mhmm,” Shi Qingxuan nods as a sly smile makes its way onto his face. “Your professor is too.”
“WwHAT?!” Their collective shout is so loud Shi Qingxuan has to shrink away, his smile only growing bigger.
He Xuan, on the other hand, looks worse for wear. He massages his temples and the frown that was etched onto his forehead darkens.
“To who?” Pei Su all but yells and Shi Qingxuan snickers at the vein threatening to burst on his neck.
“To whom,” He Xuan corrects, then he shrugs, arms crossed as he sighs. “None of you ever asked. And I assumed you already knew.”
Shi Qingxuan muffles his giggles behind a hand, “Sorry, I had to.”
He Xuan shoots the preschool teacher one of his infamous glares, opening his mouth to reply.
“But who is it?” Pei Su asks. “Wait — don’t tell me. We should guess ourselves.”
He Xuan sighs, the ruffled hair on his head indicative of his declining resolve. “Go ahead.”
“Hmm, is it the head of the literature department, Professor Ling Wen?” one of the students near the front muses. “You guys always seem to have engaging conversations.”
“Yes, about literature, ” He Xuan shuts her down.
“What about Hua Cheng? He always complains about you during sculpture class,” another chuckles.
He Xuan wrinkles his nose in distaste. “I don’t even want to know what he says about me. And besides, doesn’t he talk about his husband Xie Lian a lot more?”
“They’re married?!” the student exclaims, and then, “He always talks about how you ‘owe him’ I don’t know.”
He Xuan shakes his head. “An old college thing. Nothing to concern yourselves with.”
His response reveals nothing but there’s a warmth in his tone that does not go unnoticed.
“I’ve got it!” Pei Su, who had been unusually quiet up until now, cuts off the conversation. “I bet it’s the business professor, uhh, Professor Shi?”
Shi Qingxuan, who had gleefully been observing the back and forth between He Xuan and his students like a tennis match, coughs loudly.
He Xuan reacts a little more strongly. He turns away from the students to gag, waves of displeasure rolling off his shaking frame.
“How could you — I can’t believe —”
They’d really done it. The students of Professor He’s literature class had rendered their beloved professor speechless.
“What the fuck, no.” He Xuan pinches the bridge of his nose, “I’d rather be married to Hua Cheng than Shi Wudu, thank you very much.”
“My, aren’t you being a bit dramatic, Professor?” Shi Qingxuan rests his chin on his hands, head tilted in catlike curiosity.
“Not. In. The. Slightest.”
“Am I missing something?” Pei Su butts in yet again. “He’s pretty handsome — and I’m sure the dude’s loaded.”
“Exactly,” He Xuan bursts out. “That’s the whole point, he’s a conceited and pompous asshole.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Shi Qingxuan mutters.
“Quiet, you,” He Xuan shoots back.
“Hey, I hear enough of your complaints during dinner!” Shi Qingxuan’s voice only grows louder.
He Xuan runs a hand through his hair for the umpteenth time. “Can we talk about this some other time?”
“No, I’m participating in this lovely conversation you’re having with your students,” Shi Qingxuan snarks.
“Please, love?”
“I’m sorry,” Pei Su interrupts, bringing He Xuan and Shi Qingxuan back to the reality that they’re currently in a college lecture hall. “Am I missing something?!”
“Oopsie.” Shi Qingxuan taps his mouth with a hand as if to scold it for letting him get so heated. He looks to He Xuan with a crooked grin. “Come on, they deserve to know, it’s fine.”
“Are you sure?” He Xuan asks in a tone so soft, the students recoil in surprise.
And with only a single nod from Shi Qingxuan, He Xuan takes a deep breath, gesturing to the preschool teacher in the third row. “Everyone, this is my spouse, Shi Qingxuan.”
“No way.” Pei Su claps a hand over his mouth. “No fucking way. You two?!”
His head swivels back and forth between the two teachers. The rest of the class has similar reactions — eyes flitting between the two while others look shell shocked, all words stolen from their tongues.
“So the guy you were talking about earlier…” Pei Su falters as if he doesn’t want to finish his question.
“Yup! Your dear professor.” Shi Qingxuan winks, his pink tongue poking out of a smile.
“We don’t need any more mental images from your university days,” a student in the back hollers.
“Hey, you guys asked and I delivered!” Shi Qingxuan shrugs.
He Xuan’s shoulders droop as he circles his desk to collapse into the comfort of his chair. “Are you all happy now?”
“Splendid, sir,” Pei Su smiles. “I’m glad to know you’re not living like a hermit who wallows in his own feelings.”
“Who said he wasn’t?” Shi Qingxuan giggles.
Energy drained, He Xuan casts one more tired glare at Shi Qingxuan. This one, however, the students can tell is different. There’s a softness to it that curls around his features, only growing with the sunny smile Shi Qingxuan shoots back in return.
This, they suppose, is the missing piece of their professor’s love life that had been under their noses the whole time. For only the one who could stir He Xuan’s heart with a crook of a finger and exasperate him in such ways that his foul glare became a fond one, would send Professor He flowers.