Professor Wu's Ambition
"Who’s sneaking around over there? Come out right now!" Su Li frowned and looked toward the bushes.
The bushes rustled, and sure enough, someone crawled out from inside.
The person wore a scholar’s robe, with a feather fan and headband that should’ve looked dashing, but with grass stuck all over and a clumsy tumble on the way out, the effect was anything but elegant.
She looked up, revealing a girl’s grinning face. "Hehehe, Dean Su..."
"Wu Hua? Why are you hiding in the bushes?" Su Li said with a laugh, remembering the maid had just reported Wu Hua was looking for her, but then Xiao Zetian arrived, and she got distracted chatting, completely forgetting about Wu Hua.
She figured Wu Hua must have been wandering around the prince’s manor and accidentally ended up here.
"Wu Hua, come here." Su Li waved her over. Wu Hua hurried over, and Su Li, half amused, began picking leaves and grass off Wu Hua’s clothes. "So, what brings you to me today?"
Wu Hua tidied her clothes and said, "Dean Su, I heard you're leaving the capital soon?"
Su Li nodded. "That’s right. I’ll be heading to our fief in Qin soon. But the Royal Academy of Mathematics will still have a branch here in the capital—it’ll just be a satellite campus instead of the main one. Once I get to Qin, I’ll move both academies there eventually."
Wu Hua immediately grabbed Su Li’s sleeve, pleading earnestly, "Dean Su, can you take me to Qin with you?"
Su Li looked Wu Hua up and down. "You want to go to Qin with me? Did your parents agree?"
"They agreed, they agreed!" Wu Hua replied quickly. "My parents know both Dean Su and Vice Dean Luo are women, and now that I’ve become a teacher at the academy, they couldn’t be prouder. I even got our family into the hotpot business, and now we’re local tycoons! With me as a female teacher at the Royal Academy of Mathematics, my parents don’t call me reckless anymore—they brag about me to everyone, saying I’m more capable than any son. I told them I want to follow Dean Su, and I’ve convinced them! Dean Su, you’ll need lots of talent when you move the academies to Qin, and I’m your personally trained female teacher. If I go, I’ll be a huge help! Please take me with you!"
Su Li smiled at Wu Hua. "Wu Hua, you’d better think this through. Qin used to be a wild place. To put it nicely, the people there aren’t yet enlightened; to be blunt, it’s pretty uncivilized. Most of the locals rely on fishing and hunting, and there aren’t many scholars—very different from the capital, where education is valued. Moving the academies there will be tough. The branch here in the capital is already well-established and running smoothly. If you stay, I’ll let you run the branch as its dean."
Wu Hua shook her head like a rattle-drum. "No, Dean Su, I want to follow you! I know you’re ambitious, and I want to achieve something big, too. Being dean of a mere branch in the capital doesn’t interest me! You’re the only one who doesn’t judge me for being a woman. I want to make a name for myself in education, to go down in history. Dean Su, I’m sticking with you for life—please take me with you!"
Su Li looked at Wu Hua with admiration and said approvingly, "Good, Wu Hua, I’m glad you have such ambition. You make us women proud! Since you’ve made up your mind, I’ll allow you to come with me to Qin. When I move both academies, you and Teacher Luo will be my right-hand women."