Friends, family, and former teachers thought of Xia Xiaolan, hoping she had adapted to life at Huaqing University and would achieve even greater academic success.

Those who held grudges secretly hoped she would struggle at Huaqing, lose her glory, and fade into obscurity. Of course, they could only console themselves with such thoughts. Take Xia Xiaolan and Xia Ziyu – while both came from similar backgrounds and entered university in the early 1980s, graduating from Huaqing versus Normal College meant vastly different starting points. If Xia Xiaolan performed well during her studies, she would certainly secure placement at an excellent work unit. It was different for Normal College graduate Xia Ziyu – many units preferred students from Huaqing, Beijing University, and University of Science and Technology of China, followed by Renmin University, Beijing Normal University… Beijing Normal College, though differing by just one character from Beijing Normal University, ranked considerably lower.

Wang Jianhua could barely bridge this gap with his father’s position in the Higher Education Department. But Xia Ziyu had no such advantages – her family background wasn’t just similar to Xia Xiaolan’s, they came from the same rural family. Xia Xiaolan’s parents were divorced, with her father Xia Dajun missing for nearly half a year. Xia Ziyu had initially been slightly better off, with their parents running a small restaurant. While this couldn’t help with job placement, at least their finances were stable.

Now, with Xia Dajun missing and Xia Zhangzheng essentially disabled with a severed hand, things had changed. Xia Ziyu would be better off without her father, like Xia Xiaolan – at least Xia Dajun wasn’t a burden, while Xia Zhangzheng was actively dragging Xia Ziyu down. Though she had temporarily defeated her rival Liu Shan, and Wang Guangping valued her highly, when Ran Shuyu offered to repay the Xia family and meet Xia Ziyu’s parents, Xia Ziyu politely declined for now.

The timing wasn’t right – what could be said about her father’s condition? Her mother hadn’t established herself in Beijing either. Appearing before Wang Jianhua’s parents might shatter the goodwill she’d carefully built.

Xia Ziyu definitely wouldn’t let go of Wang Jianhua.

After the tutoring class situation was legitimized through Wang Guangping, Xia Ziyu felt quite proud. With Wang Jianhua’s help, the Normal College students who had considered excluding her and running their tutoring classes fell in line.

Wang Guangping hoped to expand and strengthen the tutoring program to pave the way for his son Wang Jianhua – why would he let students harbor other intentions? He didn’t need to do much; just having someone occasionally show up at the tutoring classes reminded the Normal College students that Xia Ziyu associated with “important people.”

To ordinary students, even a clerk from the Higher Education Department was an important figure.

Backed by influential people, Xia Ziyu ran the tutoring program successfully. After the summer session ended, many students stayed on for the “weekend classes.”

Xia Ziyu’s decision to bring in Wang Guangping had originally been to fend off romantic rivals, but it worked out unexpectedly well. Without Wang Guangping, not only would the Normal College students have been restless, but the school where Xia Ziyu rented space could have easily excluded her… If these amateur Normal College students could earn this money, why couldn’t the school’s experienced teachers do it themselves?

Xia Ziyu wasn’t blind to these undercurrents. But how to resolve them?

Just like when she suggested Zhang Cui sell snacks – while the snack shop did make money, once challenges arose, Xia Ziyu had little experience handling them.

Busy with her ventures, Xia Ziyu had even neglected her studies somewhat. She had no interest in the National Day 35th anniversary parade, though she dared not say so, as the Wang family and others were quite excited about it.

The Normal College had no honor guard, and their parade contingent was merged with other schools, disappointing their students. Wang Guangping was also disappointed – the Normal College still wasn’t good enough. If he hadn’t had his setback years ago, Wang Jianhua wouldn’t have lost those years.

Wang Jianhua had good grades back then, always enjoying the best educational resources – getting into Huaqing or Beijing University wouldn’t have been a problem.

At the time, not yet returned from the farm, Wang Jianhua was satisfied just getting back to Beijing, but now Wang Guangping felt regret – though he didn’t know that if Wang Jianhua hadn’t chosen Xia Ziyu a year ago, he might have had a girlfriend studying at Huaqing now.

Xia Ziyu had revealed Xia Xiaolan’s admission to Huaqing as a preemptive strike before Wang Jianhua, attempting to tarnish Xia Xiaolan’s image.

When Wang Jianhua heard this, his surprise exceeded his anger.

Logically, he should have felt disgust and wariness toward such a malicious Xia Xiaolan.

He did have those feelings.

Yet beneath the disgust and wariness lay more disbelief, curiosity, and complex emotions difficult to articulate.

While Xia Xiaolan was certainly alluringly beautiful, her thoughts had seemed transparent. Wang Jianhua had believed he understood Xia Xiaolan, including her feelings for him.

But after being with Xia Ziyu, Wang Jianhua realized he might never have understood Xia Xiaolan at all.

Xia Xiaolan repeatedly surprised him – no, he shouldn’t be deceived by this beautiful girl with a vicious heart. He was just examining whether those incidents were Xia Xiaolan’s doing!

Both Wang Jianhua and Xia Ziyu were selected for the parade contingent. Several universities together totaled over ten thousand people, gathering in alleys several kilometers east of Tiananmen Square in the middle of the night to prepare. The area was brightly lit, and students from various schools, including Huaqing, could be identified by their uniforms.

Wang Jianhua and Xia Ziyu, by unspoken agreement, both searched the crowds for any sign of Xia Xiaolan.

Huaqing had arranged for first-year students to join the parade contingent – surely Xia Xiaolan would have been selected?

Students from various schools mingled freely, with teachers unable to maintain order. The parade contingents were generally relaxed, unlike the strict training of the honor guard. But after several looks around, there was still no sign of Xia Xiaolan.

Could it be she hadn’t made the parade contingent?

Xia Ziyu felt like laughing – perhaps she had overestimated Xia Xiaolan… Maybe at Huaqing University, someone like Xia Xiaolan wasn’t so special after all.

Xia Ziyu tried not to think about the natural status gap between Normal College and Huaqing. Everything was going well for her now, so she was already better off than Xia Xiaolan. What did it matter if Xia Xiaolan had better gaokao scores and attended a better university – did she have a father-in-law in the Ministry of Education?

With Wang Guangping’s reinstatement, the gap between her and Xia Xiaolan had widened further!

While Xia Ziyu was still basking in self-satisfaction, she heard Wang Jianhua’s roommate exclaim dramatically:

“Jianhua, look at the honor guard – those female students have such incredible presence… The ones in blue are from Beijing University, and those in white are from Huaqing. Look at that girl, she looks like a movie star!”

While the parade contingent was relaxed, the honor guard across the street maintained a much stricter formation.

Wang Jianhua looked in the direction his roommate pointed – the honor guard in white indeed stood out, and there on the edge of the front row – wasn’t that Xia Xiaolan?

How had Xia Xiaolan been selected for the honor guard?

Xia Ziyu bit her lip tightly.

It was just an honor guard – that didn’t prove anything, right?

She tried to convince herself, but recalled Wang Guangping’s sigh: “If only you were at schools like Huaqing or Beijing University.”