Fancy Me, Professor!

Zhang Ren and Shu Xian are already in the library—doing their duty. Shu Xian and Zhang Ren are encoding the abstract of the newly feasibility studies that was forwarded to the Theses and Dissertations library since there are quite a lot to encode.

Shu Xian let out a soft chuckle when she noticed that Zhang Ren is typing quite a lot of feasibility abstracts. She made a comment about it, getting Zhang Ren's attention.

"It's like you have no intentions of leaving some for the morning duty," she commented, Zhang Ren, nodding his head enthusiastically.

"Yes! Why would I even leave some for them when they don't leave anything for us to do?"

With that said, Shu Xian chuckled again, seeing that it's already 3:30 in the afternoon. With her looking at the schedule of breaks that they have, she usually has her 30-minute break at this time before Zhang Ren would take his at 4 PM sharp.

"I'll be having my 30-minute break, then," Shu Xian said, already standing up from her seat. "I have bought a snack a while ago. I'll stay in the student assistant's lounge."

"Sure! See you later!"

As Shu Xian got her bag from the desk's cabinet, she got her water bottle and her snack, a baozi, then headed to the student assistant's lounge that is found near the Chief Librarian's office.

The moment she entered the lounge, she closed the door, noticing that she is alone yet again inside.

The student assistant's lounge is exclusively for the student assistants of the library. Of course, other library staffs can enter—except for regular students who aren't even assistants.

This place is for the student assistants to rest and to lounge. They can also come here beyond or before their duty hours just for them to hang out if they want to.

Shu Xian actually thought that the university doesn't have a place like this for their student assistants. But actually when she learned about it, she was surprised to know that there is such a place that can accommodate them for their rest, comfort, and enjoyment.

Of course, it is also their responsibility to keep the place clean and fixed. Since the university gave it to them, then they have to take care of it.

The student lounge has the following: lockers for the student assistants, along with couches and tables where they can hang out and eat or do other stuff. They also have a water dispenser and also a microwave for them to reheat any food if they want to.

Shu Xian decided to heat the baozi for 15 seconds. She wouldn't want it too hot or too cold—just at the right temperature: warm.

As she waited for her baozi to heat, suddenly, someone arrived in the lounge, making her turn her head to look at the person who entered.

It was Zhong Li, her co-student assistant who works in their area in the morning.

Shu Xian gave him a small smile.

"Hey, Zhong Li."

"Hey."

With her greeting him as she got her baozi from the microwave, she sat on the single couch, already opening her phone with her free hand to watch a video to kill time.

Both of them were not talking to each other. With them minding their own business as he sat on another chair so he could do his homework, Shu Xian is across him, watching videos on her phone as she ate her snack.

Zhong Li got his English textbook. The moment he opened it, he furrowed his brows immediately when he saw that his assignments are about gerunds and infinitives, making him confused.

Well, English is not particularly difficult to him since he does understand the language. However, when it comes to grammar, he finds it confusing to comprehend.

As the video on Shu Xian's phone loaded, she noticed that in the student lounge, the data signal is not that strong—making buffering quite slow.

The moment she raised her head, she noticed that Zhong Li had his eyebrows furrowed, making her ask what's wrong.

"Umm… if you don't mind me asking, are you alright?"

With her suddenly talking to her, Zhong Li felt a bit awkward. As he gave her a nod, he honestly told her what he was doing.

"I'm doing my English homework so I would only focus on my major subjects later when I get home."

"Oh!"

Feeling bored at the same time and wanting to know more about what's worrying Zhong Li since it's her field of specialization, she approached him, making Zhong Li's body twitch since he rarely talks to women—except for his co-student assistant in the morning.

"You seem to be troubled! Want help? I'm an English major."

Zhong Li didn't answer her for a while. Shu Xian took his silence as a yes, making her grab a chair to sit beside him.

The moment their arms bumped each other, Zhong Li's body stiffened a bit, Shu Xian, not minding it as she looked at his homework.

"Oh! So it's about infinitives and gerunds. You have a set of activities here, too, that would let you identify which is a gerund and which is an action. It's smart because gerunds are not actually verbs at most times," she said, making Zhong Li turn his head to look at her, confused.

"What do you mean? Both of them have –ing. It's an action, right?"

"Hmm… no… not all words with –ing are verbs," Shu Xian explained, writing on a separate piece of paper that is found in his book.

As Shu Xian got Zhong Li's pen from him, she wrote two sentences, explaining the difference to him.

"Look at these two sentences," Shu Xian instructed, pointing at the two sentences.

1.      I don't like smoking.

2.      Smoking is his vice.

Shu Xian also underlined the word "smoking" in both sentences. With her turning her head to look at Zhong Li, she further asked a question, Zhong Li, not minding that she's teaching him.

"You see, it would seem like an action, but it's not. In the two sentences, which one is pertaining to the action?"

Zhong Li read the sentences again. With him contemplating for a while, he said his answer, making Shu Xian nod.

"The first one. The second one is talking about the vice."

"Correct! So we could say that in the first sentence, smoking there is a verb—while the second one, is a noun—a gerund—talking about a vice!"

With this explained by Shu Xian, Zhong Li widened his eyes as he finally understood it, now doing the gerunds activity as Shi Lian double checked for him.