The nightmare made this class feel endless.

Due to staying up late and being constantly questioned, her stuttering responses only made her more nervous. Even though she knew the answers, she kept stumbling over her words. Xia Xiaolan wished she could find a crack in the ground and disappear into it.

Could she say Professor McCarthy discriminated against Asian students? NO – all students without talent fell within Professor McCarthy’s zone of disapproval. Professor McCarthy probably had his bewilderment: why wouldn’t someone understand such simple knowledge? If they couldn’t grasp this, why study architecture at all? In his mind, those who could understand were his students, those who couldn’t were just idiots. There were only these two extremes in his cognition, with absolutely no middle ground.

When Professor McCarthy announced class dismissal, Xia Xiaolan’s shoulders completely slumped.

“Everyone whose assignments failed must redo them. I’ll check next week. As for this new exchange student, which group wants to take her?”

The new exchange student had been tormented like a dog in her very first class. None of the failing groups volunteered to take Xia Xiaolan, fearing another deadweight member. Professor McCarthy exhaled heavily through his nose:

“You go to that group, Charlie? Chuck? Whatever.”

After casually assigning Xia Xiaolan to a group, Professor McCarthy hurriedly left with his briefcase.

Only after his footsteps completely disappeared down the hallway did the students in the classroom come back to life.

The red-haired student who had been forcefully volunteered by McCarthy wore glasses, had freckles, and was only slightly taller than Xia Xiaolan:

“I’m Richard!”

“…”

So he wasn’t Charlie or Chuck at all. Xia Xiaolan shed a sympathetic tear for her classmate Richard.

Little did she know that Richard sympathized with her even more. “Xia, Professor McCarthy will keep questioning you in cycles until you can answer his questions fluently, or until another transfer student arrives… Anyway, welcome to Cornell University, and welcome to our study group.”

It seemed that torturing newcomers with questions was Professor McCarthy’s usual tactic, and Richard and the others were very familiar with it.

Xia Xiaolan was already late in enrolling – how could there be new students to replace her?

She turned her gaze toward Ning Xue – so her enrollment had saved Ning Xue?

Ning Xue wasn’t considerate. She could have given some warning yesterday – it wouldn’t have killed her.

“Richard, what about the assignments?”

Richard was even more worried than her. Grades were given by the group, so this wasn’t just Richard’s problem.

The group had four people including Xia Xiaolan. Besides Richard, there was Lyle and Daisy.

Lyle was chubby, and Daisy was also somewhat plump.

Compared to Danny’s group whom she met yesterday, the architecture students were more unkempt. Daisy had acne, probably due to hormonal imbalance from stress.

“Did you do these kinds of projects when you studied architecture in China?” Daisy asked Xia Xiaolan.

Making architectural models using concrete, wood, plywood, and plastic? Xia Xiaolan shook her head: “No, I haven’t.”

She hadn’t done it before.

Most of the time, she just gave instructions.

For the laborious and complicated parts, she paid others to do it, with Mao Kangshan as a technical consultant. Why would she build models when her ideas and plans could be turned directly into real buildings?

Xia Xiaolan’s honest answer made Richard and the others wail.

Was this going to be helpful?

Professor McCarthy must be trying to fail their group! To deny them any chance at credits!

“But I learn very quickly…”

Well, Xia Xiaolan’s defense was mercilessly ignored. After all, she was the one who’d been strung up and tormented by Professor McCarthy’s questioning today – her words had no credibility. Until she thoroughly digested this “Structural Elements” textbook, Richard’s group had zero confidence in her!

“Structural Elements” belonged to the architectural engineering category. Xia Xiaolan had come as an exchange student in the second semester of sophomore year.

Last semester, Richard’s group had already completed the “Materials and Methods” portion of architectural engineering. Richard strongly recommended that Xia Xiaolan catch up on the previous courses as well.

“Professor McCarthy’s questions have follow-up implications.”

Well, what could Xia Xiaolan say?

Just study hard.

The textbooks and knowledge here are updated very quickly. Although she had learned some under Mao Kangshan, she still couldn’t keep up with Cornell University’s pace… This was normal – why else would Chinese students want to study abroad? If it wasn’t better, why go overseas?

Xia Xiaolan buried herself in studies for a week, and suddenly it was the weekend again.

During this time, she received calls from Zhou Cheng at the Wen residence every other day.

Most of the time Zhou Cheng did the talking while she listened.

Xia Xiaolan would respond briefly, and Zhou Cheng would be quite happy.

Did Zhou Cheng have this side to him?

But Xia Xiaolan didn’t feel right using the Wen family’s phone for long calls every day, so she and Zhou Cheng usually only spoke for a few minutes. Around eight or nine at night – it would be morning in China, right? Xia Xiaolan wondered:

“Haven’t you returned to the academy?”

Xia Xiaolan remembered that at the academy, students could only use the phone on weekends.

It wasn’t very appropriate for Zhou Cheng to call every other day like this.

Besides, making international calls from the academy must be very troublesome.

“I naturally have my ways. I just want to hear your voice.”

Zhou Cheng spoke casually, so Xia Xiaolan didn’t probe further.

Zhou Cheng was now working hard to maintain this relationship. With them in two different countries, if Zhou Cheng lost contact again, this relationship would probably end without a trace – just because Xia Xiaolan didn’t have the energy to invest didn’t mean she no longer loved Zhou Cheng.

Thinking of how Zhou Cheng had suddenly embraced her when the train was about to depart, Xia Xiaolan couldn’t harden her heart.

If true love counted as first love, Zhou Cheng was Xia Xiaolan’s “first love” across both lifetimes.

Xia Xiaolan just didn’t want to be so considerate about everything anymore.

Since Zhou Cheng said he had ways to contact her, she would just listen.

Even though each call lasted only a few minutes, it gradually improved their estrangement. By Zhou Cheng’s third call, Xia Xiaolan was willing to tell him about life in America… She needed someone to confide in about that fear of being controlled by Professor McCarthy.

Zhou Cheng spoke until he didn’t dare keep Xia Xiaolan from her preview studies:

“You should get back to your books. I know you’re strong-willed and won’t admit defeat. As long as you want to, anyone can like you, right?”

Hearing Zhou Cheng say this, Xia Xiaolan couldn’t help but smile slightly.

She certainly knew how to make people like her – this was Xia Xiaolan’s strength.

No matter how stern and harsh Professor McCarthy was, he would not skimp on praise for truly excellent students – only two words were facing Xia Xiaolan: become stronger!

Looking at it from another angle, since they were all “dull students” not favored by Professor McCarthy, she and Ning Xue were truly at the same starting line this time!

Xia Xiaolan spent that week completely absorbed, attending other classes while digesting “Structural Elements” and meeting with her study group for discussions.

Unfortunately, Richard’s group didn’t trust her. After learning she had never worked on architectural models before, they wouldn’t listen to her opinions.

In this alternating busyness, it was time again for Professor McCarthy’s class…