After classes began, Qing Ye officially entered university life, which differed somewhat from her expectations.
Back at An Zhong, she had left the second-place student far behind. Even at the international school, she had always been an academic goddess. But after coming to Q University, that sense of superiority she had built over many years was instantly crushed to nothing. Looking around, every classmate she could see was equally talented, and some people excelled not only in academics but also in other comprehensive abilities.
So she became just an ordinary person among many outstanding individuals. The freshman academic life entered an intense, fast-paced state right from the start, which left her somewhat bewildered, but with everyone around her working so hard, she had no reason to slack off.
Top students become top students because each has some peculiar habits that ordinary people can’t understand.
Especially their dormmate Sun Wan Jing – after the unified lights-out at eleven every night, her emergency light would persist until one or two in the morning. Sun Wan Jing’s mother was a professor at B University, and her father worked at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her family was extremely strict about her studies.
Qing Ye was among those who slept earlier in the dorm, besides the provincial top scorer Miss Xie. Sometimes she wanted to invite everyone to go shopping together to relax, but seeing everyone in such an intense study mode, it seemed like not having an emergency light would fail to demonstrate one’s status as a quality top student.
The most talkative in the dorm was Qu Bing. After getting to know her for a while, Qing Ye discovered she was quite unique too. She would follow celebrities, analyze CP relationships, watch dramas, and gossip about everything, yet none of this affected her ability to instantly enter a state of complete absorption in studying.
She told Qing Ye that the craziest thing she had done before the college entrance exam was secretly traveling two hundred kilometers to Xi’an to attend her idol’s concert, then rushing back overnight for the second mock exam. Even so, she scored full marks in math on the college entrance exam – how could anyone explain that?
According to Qu Bing, most people who entered Q University’s School of Economics and Management came with simple and unadorned goals like earning an annual salary of one million and approaching CEO status within five years after graduation.
Later, Qing Ye found she hadn’t exaggerated at all. Take her family’s business scale for example – forget about within five years after graduation, becoming CEO immediately upon graduation would be a casual, easy matter.
Of course, the most unique had to be that surname Xie, given name Qian Qian, the college entrance exam top scorer.
This girl was the quietest in the dorm. Whether they were gossiping or discussing serious professional issues, she never participated, seeming somewhat unsociable. Moreover, she was absent from the dorm most of the time, often returning at night covered in sweat, taking a shower and falling straight into bed, falling asleep immediately, and sleeping very deeply – she didn’t even wake up when Qu Bing broke a glass one time.
Her family background was even more mysterious. If you said her family wasn’t well-off, she carried a blue embroidered D-brand backpack that Qing Ye had only seen in limited edition pictures. If you said her family was well-off, she always wore canvas shoes that cost just twenty-something yuan from street vendors and always kept sausages and pepper-salt baked flatbreads in her bag – quite an unusual style.
Qing Ye paid attention to her mainly because her college entrance exam score was two points higher than her own. Originally, Qing Ye thought she was among the less studious ones in the dorm, but Xie Qian Qian was even more extreme – in the first week of classes, she was never seen studying in the dorm, and no one knew what she was busy with all day.
Xie Qian Qian wasn’t tall, had a sweet face, and looked delicate and fragile. Qing Ye thought so too, so during the first few days of school, she looked after her quite a bit, sometimes helping her carry things when she saw her thin arms and legs.
However, a week after classes started, one day their dorm decided to go out for a meal to strengthen their dormitory friendship. The usually unsociable Xie Qian Qian went too. Although Qu Bing very skillfully tried to probe her background indirectly, Xie Qian Qian even more skillfully deflected her questions. Qing Ye found the verbal sparring between the top students increasingly interesting, so throughout the meal, Qu Bing couldn’t get anything out of her.
But when leaving the restaurant, the neighboring liquor store was unloading cargo, and a worker carrying two boxes was struggling. Just as he was about to reach the door, the top box tilted and fell straight toward Xie Qian Qian’s head. Qing Ye was about to cry out in alarm.
But before she could make a sound, Xie Qian Qian caught sight of it in her peripheral vision and immediately jumped down the stairs.
More than ten steps! She did a neat mid-air flip and landed steadily, with the box crashing where she had been standing. Not just the three of them, but even passersby were stunned, and the delivery worker was scared into a cold sweat.
At that moment, Qing Ye had only one thought: this girl knows martial arts!
Whether she knew martial arts or not, nobody knew for sure, but Qing Ye figured out that this girl wasn’t someone to be trifled with. She looked delicate and petite, quite deceptive, but was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
After returning to Beijing, Qing Ye went with her father to thank the Meng family in person, so she and Meng Rui Hang resumed contact. After the college entrance exam, He Le Ling finally completely awoke from her obsessive state, and her family planned to send her abroad.
When Meng Rui Hang heard Qing Ye was staying in China, he had an impulse and didn’t want to go abroad either, instead applying to Q University’s Foreign Languages Department. Qing Ye directly warned him not to fantasize about having any chance with her.
But Meng Rui Hang asked her in return: “How far have you gotten with that person?”
Qing Ye naturally wouldn’t tell him how far, but Meng Rui Hang chuckled and said: “I’ll keep it secret for you.”
Speaking of secrets, Qing Ye did owe Meng Rui Hang a favor, because not long after, Qing Hong Zhi personally sought out Meng Rui Hang to ask if Qing Ye had gotten a boyfriend while away.
He felt something was different about Qing Ye after she returned this time. Qing Hong Zhi was ultimately a businessman, skilled at reading people, and with just one daughter, naturally paid extra attention to Qing Ye. However, Meng Rui Hang loyally kept the secret.
The busy university life didn’t leave Qing Ye much time for random thoughts, but some people can’t simply be erased from memory by not thinking about them.
After returning to Beijing, she didn’t contact Xing Wu again. Although they had never discussed anything, not even saying the words “break up,” it was like a silent agreement, agreeing that someday in the future, they would find their way back to each other.
Qing Ye still received money every month, a substantial amount – profits from Qing Gu.
Qing Ye wasn’t short of money now, and the money for building Xing Wu’s family house had been fully repaid, apart from the 150,000 yuan Xing Wu had paid her in one lump sum. But every month on the tenth, Du Qi Yan would still punctually transfer money to her, never missing once.
Although she had told Du Qi Yan there was no need to send her money anymore, Du Qi Yan had only replied: “Don’t make it difficult for me.”
She knew it was all that person’s intention.
So Qing Ye became quite wealthy after starting university as if money was falling from the sky.
Besides Du Qi Yan, because she had introduced a doctor to Pang Hu, Qing Ye still kept in touch with him. She heard he now spent four hours every day on recitation practice, which greatly impressed Qing Ye – it meant that besides attending classes, sleeping, and solving problems, he used all his remaining time on speech correction. Such perseverance wasn’t something ordinary people could maintain.
Initially, there wasn’t much effect, and Qing Ye was quite anxious for him. She made various inquiries in Beijing and told him all the methods she could find out about. During about a month when Qing Ye was quite busy and hadn’t contacted Pang Hu when they next spoke on the phone, he could complete entire sentences, with at most one pause in between – he had made tremendous progress.
When Qing Ye heard that Xing Wu and Pang Hu were repeating the year, she mailed two boxes of review materials from Beijing. Of course, this included the eight-province real exam questions that Xing Wu was very familiar with. Although they were nominally sent to Pang Hu, all materials were prepared in two copies, and although Qing Ye didn’t say anything, Pang Hu very conscientiously delivered one box to Xing Wu’s house.
Worth mentioning is that every time Qing Ye called Pang Hu, she would always ask, “Where are you?”
If Pang Hu said “I’m at home,” then he was at home or alone. If he replied “I’m outside,” then Qing Ye knew that person was beside him – it was like an unspoken understanding.
If Pang Hu was next to Xing Wu while talking to Qing Ye on the phone, he would kindly put it on the speaker to let Xing Wu hear Qing Ye’s voice, although he knew Xing Wu wouldn’t take the call.
Every time, Xing Wu would appear not to be listening, seeming indifferent and busy with his things, but often when Pang Hu and Qing Ye got to something funny, he would turn around to see Xing Wu with a slight smile on his lips.
Pang Hu wasn’t very clear about what was going on between Xing Wu and Qing Ye. To say they had broken up – well, they both seemed to care about each other in some intangible way. To say they were still together – well, they had gone so long without contacting each other, as if both were being stubborn.
One night after National Day, as Pang Hu was leaving Xing Wu’s house, he couldn’t help asking: “Brother Wu, if… if, I mean hypothetically, if you don’t get into Q University, does that mean you’ll never look for Qing Ye again?”
The autumn wind lifted the hem of Xing Wu’s clothes as he leaned against the doorframe, looking at Pang Hu. His eyes were as black as ink, like a bottomless pool, impossible to fathom.
Pang Hu gave an awkward smile: “Hey, forget I said anything.”
Even after Pang Hu had turned and left, Xing Wu still stood there watching his retreating figure, suddenly shouting: “There is no ‘if’!”
After that day, Pang Hu never asked such a foolish question again. He gradually understood why Xing Wu had to act this way – perhaps only by doing so could he force himself to keep advancing toward that goal. As he had said, he wouldn’t give himself the chance for “ifs,” much less let himself live with regret forever.
…
For a while, after classes started, Meng Rui Hang indeed hadn’t sought out Qing Ye. He was probably quite busy too, but in the period before Christmas, he suddenly started frequently looking for Qing Ye and often invited her to the library together.
So one fine afternoon, Qing Ye earnestly told him: “We can never be together.”
Then Meng Rui Hang seriously replied: “I’ve taken a liking to your dormmate Xie Qian Qian. Help set us up?”
They both stared at each other blankly, then burst out laughing.
Qing Ye finally suppressed her laughter enough to ask: “What do you like about her?”
Meng Rui Hang said very seriously: “She’s very cute, kind of like a girl from anime, quite shy, right?”
“…” Qing Ye couldn’t hold it in anymore and covered her mouth, laughing hard.
Seeing Qing Ye’s unusual reaction, Meng Rui Hang frowned and asked: “Is there a problem?”
Qing Ye quickly waved her hands: “No, no problem. I’ll find a chance for us all to have a meal together, and you can get to know her yourself.”
Meng Rui Hang felt quite gratified that Qing Ye was being helpful.
The sunlight was particularly gentle that day as they sat by the window. Perhaps because the new year was approaching, Qing Ye’s mood had improved somewhat lately. She suddenly realized she hadn’t posted on Moments since starting university, so she sat up straight, smoothed her hair, and asked Meng Rui Hang to take a photo of her.
In the photo, Qing Ye sat in the elegant library, her long hair falling over her shoulders, the moment peaceful and beautiful, with a serene smile on her face. Everything looked perfect.
So Qing Ye posted this photo on Moments with the caption: “Long-awaited sunshine.”
As soon as she posted it, her Moments exploded. The friends from Zha Zha Pavilion all liked and commented, asking how she had been lately, saying they hadn’t heard from her in a long time, asking when she would come back to visit them, and so on.
But after Yellow Hair’s comment: “Holy crap, I zoomed in and can see in your pupils it was a guy taking the photo! Did you get a new boyfriend so quickly?”
After that, the comments under Qing Ye’s post went quiet as a chicken – no one dared to say anything more.
Pang Hu thought that since Brother Wu rarely posted on Moments anyway, he probably wouldn’t notice this update.
However, the next morning, he saw Xing Wu with a dark face, and he didn’t speak a single word to anyone all day.