By the following morning, Lu Li-Jun had a meeting with the stakeholders.
"Concerning the biogas project, the Lu Corporation has joined hands with us to start the project in X city. With the materials available from waste materials from all over the country the project will commence in three days' time". He explained while looking at each of them.
Murmurings can be heard all over the conference room, most of them nodding and expressing their satisfaction towards the fast-paced process at which the project commenced.
Concluding the meeting with the reading and opinion concerning the other ongoing project the stakeholders disperse from the conference room to their various activities.
"Get me the recent report about the market value of rice importation and cancel any meeting for this evening. Lu Li-Jun said to Lin Cheng, his secretary while walking towards his office.
But sir, you have a meeting with the representative from the Chen Agroindustry company" Lin Cheng said while putting the file containing the recent report his boss asked for on his table.
I'm having a lecture by 12 pm in the noon and I can't afford to miss the lesson. Ha! I will be having a meeting with my course supervisor, so adjourn any meeting till tomorrow and send director Chang to attend the meeting with Chen's representative on my behalf.
Nodding his head, Lin Cheng responded with an affirmative.
Professor Xu LiNa goes into her cozy office after the class she just had. LiNa Pausing at the doorway she breathed in the scent of old books lining the shelf on the walls, which immediately helped calmed her tight muscles. Putting away her bag and she sank tiredly into the cushion of her chair. Then and only then did she let out a small sigh of delight.
Booting up her Laptop, she chewed on a lip as she waited for her welcome screen to pop up and ask for her password.
Just as it did, a knock came at the slightly opened door to her office. For the briefest moment, her heart leaped into her throat.
Lu Li-Jun arrived on time for his three o'clock appointment with Professor LiNa and was delighted to know that the Professor was inside her office.
Walking into her office he waited by her table, looking around her small office which spotless with books stack on a tall shelf at the corner.
"Good afternoon Professor Xu" He greeted
"Oh Hello, Mr. Li-jun." Professor Xu LiNa attractive voice called to him.
Professor LiNa looked tired. There were purplish circles underneath her eyes, and she was very pale, which somehow made her look thinner. As she was searching her drawer for the file containing the attendance forms, her tongue flicked out and slowly licked her lower lip unconsciously.
Staring at her, Lu Li-Jun was transfixed by her unconscious sensual action. After a moment, through a great effort, he dragged his gaze away from her lips to look at her glasses. He didn't see her put it on during their last meeting; perhaps she only wore them when her eyes were tired. But today, her penetrating eyes were partially hidden behind a pair of black Louis Vuitton glasses.
He realized immediately that not only had he never seen a professor as attractive as her before, he had never encountered a professor who was so deeply put together.
"Please be seated, Mr. Li-Jun." LiNa was feeling flustered seeing Lu Li-Jun looking at her absentmindedly when she raised her head up. Pointing to an uncomfortable-looking metal chair, she asked him to seat down.
Lu Li-Jun walked over to the stiff-looking chair and sat down, drawing the chair towards her table.
"Mr. Li-Jun, did you receive the schedule for your courses and project in your E-mail? Picking up her pen, Professor Xu LiNa asked him.
Lu Li-Jun nodded, making eye contact with her. "Well, apparently, it was stated at the end of the mailed schedule that you are my course supervisor and I should meet you in choosing my project topic." His low brusque voice carried across the office.
LiNa feeling momentarily lost at the sound of his voice was frozen by his stare, shaking herself from her dazed state, she said "hmm... Mr. Li-Jun, You will have to present at least two project topic before I can give you an instruction on what you have to do next.
, "yes, I was notified in the email and I printed out the projects I will like to work on". Li-Jun said while taking out a folder from his bag.
"Oh right, that's good. You can put it on the table." She said while scanning the bio page on the attendance form and confirming his detail.
"May 20th, 1994"
Seeing his date of birth, she was disconcerted about her wayward thoughts towards him making her feel like a cougar.
She reminded herself about the no fraternization rule with a student at the university and that he was way younger than her.
Going through the other details in the form she realized that he had graduated with a PhD and master's degree in business administration at Oxford University. She was amazed that he was able to achieve all these at a young age.
She went ahead and asks him the reason for coming to National Taiwan University to study horticulture since he already has a doctoral degree from such an esteemed university.
"Studying plants had been my dream since my high school days when my grandpa took me to his colleague who was into Plant medicinal therapy. I have wanted to study it because any time I am in the garden or surrounded by plants of different species my mood becomes calm and peaceful," he answered her while closing his eyes briefly at her flowery scent.
Removing her glasses, and setting her hand against her desk she became excited while turning on her counselor mood.
"Having such emotion towards plants are good; flowers or plants give an individual tranquil feeling, plants teach us a lesson about life because no matter their situation or habitation they try to survive, some rely on each other others consuming each other because of their passion. Ha!"
Abruptly putting a stop to her words, she chided herself for being a blabbermouth in front of a student.
"Mr. Li-Jun, I'll mail you the project topic you will work on after going through the ones you've chosen."LiNa smiled softly while putting away the filled-in form and his submitted folder into her drawer.
Li-Jun stared through his eyes across the spotless desk at his supervising professor and her delectable lips, which were driving him crazy since she started talking. He wondered how it will feel when he rubbed his fingers on it, reaching out to her and leaning toward her, he paused a few feet away from her and stared at her face distractedly "gosh, what is wrong with me?" He whispered aloud to himself.
"Mr. Li-Jun, Li-Jun you can go to your next class," Linda said looking composed and smiling softly at him.
"Sorry, excuse me, See you around professor" coming back to himself, he jerked away from the desk and stood up from the chair, taking off towards the door and gently closing the door to her office as he went out.
After a while, LiNa scrambled from her desk bending down and putting her hands on her chest she panted slacked jawed at what almost transpired in her office, still rattled by the way he looked at her she sank back into her chair and blew out a long, shaky breath.
"Calm down LiNa, so my crush on a student had just grown to an epic proportions" she Wondered what her faultless, critical mother would have to say about that? She thought.
Then her cell phone rang. She answered without paying attention to what she was doing due to the fluctuation of her heart.
"Hello, Professor Xu!" the bubbly female voice entered her ear."
"What?" she shook her head. "Who is this?"
"It's, Mrs.Haung , the new department secretary, I'm informing you that there will be a meeting among the department lecturers this late afternoon "
"Oh! Please excuse me, where exactly are we meeting? "She coughed out while standing beside her desk.
Mrs. Haung gave an unclear chuckle. "It's fine. It will take place at the soil science seminar hall in the next twenty minutes."
"Oh! Uh..sure. That sounds great. I'll get there soon".
LiNa said hanging up the call, she picked up her bag and locked the door to her office.