Chapter 31
Josephine rushed to the hospital room, no longer caring about past grudges and arguments. She just wanted to see her teacher.
The moment she pushed open the door, she was stunned.
Oscar Carter was lying in the hospital bed, with Cedric and Kenneth standing on either side. Noah looked at her sympathetically.
She'd been tricked.
Oscar looked so healthy and ruddy—he didn't look like he was critically ill at all. In fact, he seemed even more energetic than she was.
Oscar's face darkened. "Who told her to come?"
Kenneth paused. "Mr. Carter, I did."
"I don't want to see her. Make her leave right now." Oscar was as stubborn as ever. He'd said they'd never see each other again, and for the rest of his life, he wouldn't even look at her.
When Josephine hadn't seen her teacher yet, she could still pretend not to care. But now that she'd seen him, how could she just turn and leave?
"Mr. Carter, you clearly want to..."
Before Kenneth could finish, Oscar cut him off harshly.
"What do I want? How would you know? Did you plant a bug in my brain?"
Kenneth fell silent.
He was never good with words and could never out-argue his teacher.
"If you still consider me your teacher, follow my orders."
Kenneth stood there motionless, his legs seemingly nailed to the floor.
"Josephine is worried about your safety too."
"If she really cared, she would've called me at least once in all these years."
After saying this, Oscar regretfully shut his mouth, turned over in bed, and pulled the blanket over his head.
Here he was, at his age, acting as childish as a kid.
Josephine sighed and slowly walked in.
She tugged at the blanket. Of course Oscar wouldn't cooperate—he wrapped himself up tightly.
"Mr. Carter, how old are you? There are other people here. Aren't you afraid of making a fool of yourself?"
Cedric tactfully said, "You two talk first."
He left with Noah, thoughtfully closing the door behind them.
"Old man, if you don't come out, I'm leaving."
With the outsiders gone, Josephine showed her true colors.
Oscar threw off the blanket and glared at her. "You're still as impatient as before! Would it kill you to say something nice? It was your fault to begin with! I'm sick now because you made me so angry!"
Oscar had been holding this in for a long time, firing off like a machine gun.
Josephine was exasperated: "I haven't been in touch with you for months. How is this my fault?"
"If you hadn't insisted on quitting research back then, if you hadn't given up your bright future just to get married—and to marry that piece of trash—would I have gotten angry?"
He hit the nail on the head. Josephine couldn't argue back.
However, seeing his student with her head down, Oscar felt bad again.
"When you're out there, don't tell people you're my student. You used to work day and night on the toughest research projects and pull them off. How come now you can't handle one man?"
Oscar slapped the bed rail: "If you can't let go, then go back and fight for him. I don't believe any other woman out there is better than you!"
Josephine kept her head down the whole time.
Hearing this, she couldn't help but laugh.
Oscar glared. "What are you laughing at?"
Josephine looked up, and Oscar immediately fell silent.
Her eyes were red.
This was the student he valued most, loved most, and had taught everything he knew.
Oscar sighed, his tone softening. "What are your plans now?"
Those who truly loved her would always think of her, no matter when or where.
Josephine said, "This time, I don't want to disappoint you again."
"What?" Oscar caught the hint. "Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"You won't make the same mistake again?"
Oscar didn't oppose his students getting married, but he didn't approve of giving up careers during their prime to return to family life. Facts had proven that Josephine's previous decision was wrong.
Josephine said firmly, "I won't."
She wouldn't fall into the same trap twice.
When Cedric returned to the room, the atmosphere was completely different from before.
Oscar had a faint smile on his face the whole time.
But in fact, this old man was known everywhere else for being rigid and serious.
Today, Cedric got to see a different side of him.
He glanced at Josephine.
Thanks to her.
"Cedric, perfect timing." Oscar opened the bedside drawer and pulled out a document. "That NGRAS you showed me last time—I ran some data on it."
When Cedric opened it, the pages were filled with dense text, all professional terminology.
Even though he had some knowledge in this area, looking at this gave him a headache.
He handed the document directly to Josephine.
Josephine didn't hold back. After scanning through it quickly, she suddenly laughed.
What could she say—they really were teacher and student.
They'd thought of the same approach.
She'd only had a rough idea initially, but Oscar's data had turned that rough idea into something concrete. Now they just needed to fill in the framework with data and programs that would make it run stably.
And everything would be ok.
"Mr. Carter, even though we haven't been in touch for years, it seems our connection as teacher and student is still there."
"You already thought of this?"
"I had an idea last night."
Oscar smiled. "At least you haven't thrown all that knowledge away. If I found out you'd forgotten it all, I wouldn't let you off easy."
Josephine smiled, "Then maybe I should leave this data for you to work on."
But Oscar refused.
"Jojo, I'm old. Many things are beyond my ability now. I hope you young people will try more. The future path is for you to walk."
Though he didn't want to admit it. But his temples were already gray, his blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar were all high. These were gifts from time that he couldn't refuse or escape.
Cedric said slowly, "Just yesterday, I handed this entire project over to Josephine. Originally I wanted to ask Professor Carter to assist Josephine... but looking at things now, I don't need to make that request anymore."
After all, they were teacher and student—of course he would help.
Oscar was shrewd. "That won't do. If you want me to work, you have to pay me. If I help as a favor, I don't charge. So I'll choose the former. I'm old now, I need to earn some money for my retirement."
Josephine and Kenneth exchanged glances.
Their teacher had always been like this—a playful old soul. He'd devoted his life to research and lacked neither honors nor money. He had status and connections too.
Cedric agreed readily, "Sure, name your terms."
Oscar got so excited he threw off the blanket: "Then what am I still doing in this hospital? Come back to my place, all of you. Let's have a good meal at my house and talk about the project."
Josephine looked at Oscar. "Aren't you sick?"
Only then did Oscar realize, coughing awkwardly. He said seriously, "Good news is the best medicine. My illness wasn't that serious to begin with. I got happy and recovered."
But Josephine wasn't reassured and went to ask the doctor.
The doctor said Oscar just had high blood pressure. This hospital visit was to adjust his blood pressure—other than that, there were no other symptoms.
Great.
Oscar had faked being sick again!
On the way back, Josephine didn't say a word.
Oscar anxiously kept glaring at Kenneth, hoping Kenneth would speak up for him.
But Kenneth had no solution either.
He was never good with words or comforting people, especially when Josephine was angry.
He was scared too.
Josephine suddenly said, "Stop the car."
Noah hit the brakes, and Josephine opened the door and got out.
Oscar panicked and quickly got out of the car. Cedric moved fast and stood in front of Josephine.
"Where are you going?"