It was rare to see Xia Xiaolan and Ning Xue walking together.

They weren’t close and were even rivals for the “Military Training Excellence Graduate” award. Ning Xue’s sudden withdrawal from the selection would have caused widespread discussion among students if not for the holiday break.

“Classmate Ning Xue, do you have some issue with me?”

With Ning Xue’s personality, waiting for her to speak first might mean circling the playground ten times without an answer, so Xia Xiaolan got straight to the point.

Ning Xue was equally direct: “You want to ask why I withdrew from the ‘Military Training Excellence’ selection, right? It has nothing to do with you. I just found it meaningless and didn’t want to waste time on such trivial matters.”

Awards and honors?

It depended on what kind.

New student representative, and model student – these were all wastes of time to Ning Xue.

If the school insisted on finding her, she’d avoid it if possible. Like speaking as the “new student representative” – she was just cleaning up after Ji Jiangyuan. Ji Jiangyuan didn’t understand the domestic situation and acted freely like he was still in America. The “new student representative” was the school’s trust, but Ji Jiangyuan had bluntly refused!

Xia Xiaolan was stunned by the academic star’s dominance:

“What kind of awards are meaningful then?”

Ning Xue smiled, “What do you think?”

Xia Xiaolan knew – this girl was the granddaughter of the architectural master Ning Yanfan.

For Ning Xue, meaningful awards could only be architecture-related!

Xia Xiaolan studied architecture for future business purposes, while Ning Xue probably studied it for dreams or certain beliefs… Xia Xiaolan’s thoughts were too scattered to reach such focus, but she respected Ning Xue’s purity of purpose.

The straightforward Ning Xue spoke directly:

“It seems I had some misunderstandings about you before. I thought you were abandoning the essential for the trivial, wasting your intelligent mind on unimportant matters. I apologize for that. Otherwise, I have no issues with you – you’re just like any other classmate to me.”

Ning Xue wasn’t lying.

She was indifferent to other classmates, hiding this indifference behind “politeness.”

For a “genius,” ordinary people’s thoughts didn’t matter.

Whether Xia Xiaolan had talent in architecture, Ning Xue didn’t know, but she knew Xia Xiaolan wasn’t stupid.

But she wasn’t worthy of being Ning Xue’s rival, especially in architecture – Xia Xiaolan had too many basics to learn! If not for Ji Jiangyuan, Ning Xue wouldn’t have particularly noticed Xia Xiaolan or felt “disdain.” Now that this thought was cleared up, Ning Xue naturally categorized Xia Xiaolan back among “other classmates.”

She came to the playground to explain her previous attitude.

Having explained clearly, she would treat Xia Xiaolan the same way she treated other classmates.

Ning Xue left immediately after speaking, leaving Xia Xiaolan standing on the playground questioning life.

Young girls these days were too formidable!

Xia Xiaolan kept getting lectured about life.

In her previous life’s world, there must have been a Ning Xue too. But not only was there an age gap between them, Xia Xiaolan hadn’t gotten into Huaqing then and had no idea what achievements this girl would make… They must be extraordinary, but to what extent?

So Ning Xue’s unusual attitude was for this reason – no wonder her look was identical to how her professors had looked when they learned she was giving up four years of study to become a sales representative!

It wasn’t just disdain, it was disappointment in wasted potential.

Being disappointed in a girl under 20 felt very strange to Xia Xiaolan.

“That’s just how Ning Xue is. She doesn’t mean any harm.”

A voice suddenly emerged, startling Xia Xiaolan.

“Ji Jiangyuan, why are you hiding?”

Ji Jiangyuan stepped out from the tree shade, looking helpless. Sometimes he liked thinking in quiet places and always ended up learning others’ secrets. Last time he saw Xia Xiaolan with Zhou Cheng, and this time he overheard Xia Xiaolan and Ning Xue’s conversation. Ji Jiangyuan felt he might have what Chinese people called “fate” with Xia Xiaolan.

“Don’t be so surprised, OK? I was here first – you stopped to talk right in front of me. Should you blame me for eavesdropping? Classmate Xia Xiaolan, I came out because I felt ‘eavesdropping’ wasn’t very polite!”

The last time Zhou Cheng and Xia Xiaolan were kissing, Ji Jiangyuan thought he shouldn’t watch and only appeared when Zhou Cheng called him out.

This time, seeing Xia Xiaolan questioning life, Ji Jiangyuan thought he could help explain things.

A gentleman should help solve ladies’ problems, especially beautiful ladies!

Ji Jiangyuan spoke matter-of-factly, and Xia Xiaolan wasn’t angry. She was now very curious about Ning Xue:

“You know Ning Xue, right? Not just know her – you must be quite familiar.”

Ning Xue didn’t care about anyone, yet knew about Ji Jiangyuan’s situation. During military training, when Ji Jiangyuan’s group stayed too long in the woods, Ning Xue advised Xia Xiaolan not to look for them. Xia Xiaolan hadn’t cared whether Ji Jiangyuan was in camp, but Ning Xue had… The world was amazing – even the most rigid, coldest girls had someone they cared about in their hearts.

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t been sure whether Ning Xue was interested in Ji Jiangyuan or Xiong Baiyan, but now that Ji Jiangyuan stepped forward himself, everything made sense!

Ji Jiangyuan raised both hands in surrender:

“Huaqing’s female students are too smart, beyond my imagination! Yes, I know Ning Xue. Our families are even old friends, though Ning Xue and I hadn’t been in touch for many years until she came to America during her senior high summer break when we renewed our friendship.”

Speaking of “renewed friendship,” Ji Jiangyuan seemed reluctant.

He kept his distance from Ning Xue precisely because of her personality. Ning Xue held herself to “genius” standards and even applied the same standards to her friends – if she truly had any. But Ji Jiangyuan considered himself ordinary – although his SAT scores could get him into northeastern elite schools, he still didn’t think he could be called a genius.

It was painful for an ordinary person to be friends with a “genius” like Ning Xue.

Due to their families’ friendship, he had to force himself to be friends with Ning Xue, though he instinctively resisted.

But while he kept his distance from Ning Xue, he didn’t want others to misunderstand her. Ji Jiangyuan stepped forward to explain:

“I think Ning Xue might have considered you a genius at first, perhaps because of your college entrance exam scores, or something else. And all your school-related discussions that weren’t about academics were seen by Ning Xue as wasting talent, which made her angry…”

“Then she realized I was just ordinary and not worth her attention?”

Was it because Classmate Ning Xue didn’t want to compete with ordinary people for “Military Training Excellence” that she withdrew?

Seeing Ji Jiangyuan’s expression, Xia Xiaolan knew she had guessed right.

It wasn’t that complicated – she had overthought it. Well, knowing she wasn’t a genius was one thing, but being looked down upon by a “genius” still made Xia Xiaolan feel very complex!

She was being dismissed by a girl not yet 20.

This girl had scored 4 points higher than her in the college entrance exam and was the national top scorer.

This girl ignored all ordinary people and only befriended geniuses.

– All these reasons combined still couldn’t make Xia Xiaolan calmly accept being dismissed by a genius!