Shi Niannian certainly wasn’t foolish enough to ask what he meant by “learn”—even an idiot could guess it wasn’t anything proper. Red-faced, she pushed him away, picked up her backpack, and went to sit on the sofa to read.

Jiang Wang curved his lips but didn’t tease her further. He turned on his computer and began checking his emails.

After a while, he tapped his fingers on the desk twice: “Come sit over here.” He gestured with his chin toward the position across from him.

The desk was quite wide, with a considerable distance between them. Shi Niannian estimated a safe distance, then moved over with her book and pulled out the chair in front of him to sit down.

Jiang Wang’s gaze scanned the book cover, and he raised an eyebrow: “What area of clinical medicine?”

Shi Niannian paused, feeling embarrassed: “…Otolaryngology.”

Jiang Wang hadn’t failed to investigate her university situation—he had specifically had someone look into it. He knew where she lived, knew she hadn’t dated anyone in college, and knew she had studied medicine, but he didn’t know exactly what her specialty was.

His voice deepened as he laughed softly: “Because of me?”

“Yes.”

Jiang Wang could hardly describe what he felt. Shi Niannian always surprised him.

She sat across from him and asked: “Is your ear better now?”

“It’s fine,” he said.

After a moment, someone knocked on the door. A man entered and was startled to see the young woman sitting across from Jiang Wang.

Jiang Wang was displeased with him staring and spoke up: “What is it?”

“Ah, oh.” The man quickly looked away and handed over the report in his hand. “This is the project assessment for the Sheng Corporation collaboration. Please review it.”

“Alright, leave it there,” he said indifferently.

Shi Niannian glanced at it. It was full of dense statistical charts and complex data. She had been good at science subjects before, but after studying medicine in college, she hadn’t dealt with such numbers again. Now, looking at them, they seemed like hieroglyphics.

Jiang Wang brought the assessment report in front of him, flipped through it quickly, and looked serious.

“A man is most handsome when he’s serious.” This cliché was indeed true.

Shi Niannian read her book for a while, secretly glancing at him from the corner of her eye. The empty space in her heart was finally filled.

Lunch was eaten at the company. His work was very busy—Shi Niannian could tell just from spending half a day there. No wonder Professor Chen had said he was working himself to death.

After a short break, it was noon, and she needed to go to B University.

Seeing her check the time on her phone, Jiang Wang stood up: “I’ll take you.”

Shi Niannian saw the pile of unfinished documents on his desk and thought it would be good for him to take a short break, so she went downstairs with him.

Jiang Wang had attended B University, majoring in Finance, but he had barely spent time at school due to company matters. Even the medical school that Shi Niannian was going to needed navigation to find.

“Is graduate school tiring?” Jiang Wang asked.

“It’s okay,” Shi Niannian smiled. “My advisor is quite strict, but for our specialty, that’s probably necessary.”

Jiang Wang thought for a moment and said: “You’ll probably have internships while studying, right?”

“Yes, but that will be a bit later. At that time, I should be interning at B University’s affiliated hospital.”

“That’s far from where you live.”

“It’s not too troublesome. I can take the subway with just two transfers, and I won’t have to be in the sun.”

Jiang Wang smiled slightly without saying more.

The car arrived at the medical school entrance. The black luxury car appearing on campus attracted many glances. Shi Niannian gathered her backpack, said “goodbye,” and was about to get out.

But before she could open the door, he grabbed her wrist. Her seatbelt undone, the man’s scent aggressively enveloped her as Jiang Wang kissed her lightly on the corner of her lips, creating an intimate moment.

He raised his hand to touch her ear and said hoarsely: “I’ll pick you up tonight.”

She responded with an “Mm,” inexplicably breaking into a sweat, and quickly got out of the car.

She had only walked a few steps with her head lowered when she ran into someone familiar—Huang Yao. They had actually seen each other at the wedding yesterday, but there were too many people then, so they had only exchanged greetings without chatting.

Huang Yao had seen who had dropped her off. She winked suggestively and teased: “You two are moving pretty fast.”

The girl who had once only known how to study diligently in high school now knew how to joke.

Shi Niannian waved to greet her and looked at the book in her hand: “You studied medicine too?”

“Yes, I did my undergraduate at B University and got admitted to the graduate program without taking the entrance exam.”

“That’s impressive.”

“Your undergraduate clinical specialty is even more prestigious than B University’s. You’re more impressive,” Huang Yao said with a smile. “And you gave up your school’s direct admission, right?”

With some time before class, the two sat together and chatted for a while.

Huang Yao said: “Jiang Wang came to B University with the top score in the college entrance exam. From the moment he entered school, he was a legendary figure here. Back then, three girls in our dorm all liked him. I told them I knew Jiang Wang’s girlfriend, and they all wanted to meet you.”

She hadn’t been part of any of this past and didn’t know how to respond, so she just smiled faintly: “Is that so?”

“Yes, but my roommates were just casually interested. The one who pursued Jiang Wang aggressively back then was Sheng Xiangwan,” Huang Yao said. “Do you remember Sheng Xiangwan? That girl from Second High at the competition training center.”

Shi Niannian: “I remember.”

“Her grades were good, too. She also went to B University, same major, though I’m not sure if they were in the same class. Her pursuit techniques were something—almost the whole school knew about it.”

Shi Niannian listened quietly, her smile unchanged, appearing calm and unruffled.

“But Jiang Wang never agreed,” Huang Yao took a sip of water and sighed. “I thought back then that he must still like you.”

She jokingly patted her shoulder. “I never expected I’d continue to be a friend of the campus heartthrob’s girlfriend.”

The graduate courses were still packed. It wasn’t too bad since not all classes had officially started yet, but in a while, she would be busy all day, probably with little free time during the week.

Today she had four classes in the afternoon. B University moved quickly through the material, and the crossover between courses was different from her undergraduate experience, so there were parts she had already learned and parts she didn’t fully understand.

All four classes required her complete attention. She filled an entire notebook with notes, with many sentences marked with small question marks—things she needed to understand better after going home.

This fulfilling and striving life made Shi Niannian content. She felt tired too, but more than that, she felt at peace.

She had once seen a quote—

“Let’s meet at the highest point of life. Although I can’t stand beside you now, someday in the future, I will walk up to you.”

Those initial years abroad had indeed been very difficult. But when she thought that those exhausting and hopeless days would eventually give her the courage and confidence to reach for the moon, she found meaning in perseverance.

After class, Jiang Wang came to pick her up.

Shi Niannian was tired from studying and fell asleep soon after getting in the car. Jiang Wang glanced at her, silently turned up the air conditioning, and draped his suit jacket over her.

When she woke up, it was because Jiang Wang called her. Shi Niannian blinked, looking at the surroundings for a good while without recognizing where they were. Her mind wasn’t fully awake yet, and she turned her head to ask: “Where is this?”

Jiang Wang said: “Where I live.”

Shi Niannian was stunned.

Before them was a “lake island” style detached housing area, with distinct European architecture and landscaping. In front of the house was a clear artificial lake, creating beautiful scenery. Unlike the bustling commercial areas with pollution everywhere, this place was like a paradise in this expensive city, where land was worth its weight in gold.

Shi Niannian looked up, a bit surprised: “So you live here now.”

Jiang Wang said indifferently: “Yes, let’s get out.”

She had no choice but to follow him out of the car, still holding her backpack, curiously looking around as she walked. She had realized where this was—a Chinese undergraduate roommate had mentioned it to her before.

Shi Niannian had seen pictures of her at that time. It seemed to be one of China’s top 10 luxury residences. That girl had complained to her that these capitalists were all bloodsuckers, living in such utopias.

The “bloodsucker” walked in front, carrying his suit, his shirt and trousers outlining an extremely proportioned and smooth physique.

Sensing that the footsteps behind him weren’t keeping up, he turned around and stopped, skillfully taking the backpack from her hand: “Is it heavy? You’re walking so slowly.”

The man carried her light green backpack, with an expensive silver watch above it, his fingers bony, looking incongruous.

Shi Niannian quickly took a few steps to catch up with him and asked softly: “Why did you bring me here?”

“For dinner.”

Jiang Wang was busy with work. Sometimes he simply slept at the company and didn’t return home every day. He only had someone clean the place every other day, but today he had specifically called to have dinner prepared.

He entered with his fingerprint.

Jiang Wang’s residence was consistently clean and spacious, filled with black, white, and gray colors, showing no signs of everyday life. The larger the space, the more desolate it seemed.

He casually tossed Shi Niannian’s backpack onto the sofa and walked to the dining table on the other side.

Several dishes were already on the table, freshly made and still hot.

Naturally, they weren’t bad. Shi Niannian was already hungry. She ate very attentively, and it wasn’t until she had been eating for a while that she realized she might have eaten too much and began to feel a bit full.

She looked up at Jiang Wang, who was quietly watching her.

The man leaned back in his chair, his gaze mild yet mixed with certain indescribable emotions.

They didn’t speak throughout the meal. Shi Niannian was thinking about what to talk about when she suddenly remembered what Jiang Ling had just discussed with her.

“By the way, Jiang Ling met Teacher Xu Zhilin at her university. He’s a mathematics professor there,” Shi Niannian said.

Jiang Wang was casual, his shirt unbuttoned three buttons, his sleeves visibly wrinkled after a day’s wear. Leaning back in his chair, he had a relaxed posture.

“Ah, she used to like Xu Zhilin, right?”

“Yes.” Shi Niannian nodded. “How do you know Teacher Xu?”

“His parents are like an uncle and aunt to me.”

“Does he have a girlfriend now?”

Jiang Wang had a cigarette between his lips but hadn’t lit it. The cigarette pack lay on the table. The aura of “Mr. Jiang” from earlier in the day had gradually receded, making him more like the Jiang Wang from before.

“I don’t think so. I heard he’s being pressured to get married,” he said indifferently.

She sighed in relief: “That’s good.”

He raised an eyebrow: “Hmm?”

“It’s Jiang Ling. After she went there, she met Teacher Xu at a bar,” she said with some hesitation. “She had drunk too much, and then the two of them…”

She didn’t continue.

Jiang Wang smiled: “Then what?”

She said matter-of-factly: “…They slept together.”

In Jiang Ling’s words, she had slept with Xu Zhilin. Shi Niannian had modified it a bit.

“Oh.” He propped his face with his hand, laughed ambiguously, and suddenly asked, “Are you going back tonight?”

“…” By now, Shi Niannian had realized he was setting a trap for her. “All my clothes are still at home, and us being like this… isn’t appropriate, right?”

“It would be more inappropriate if we weren’t like this.”

Jiang Wang’s fingers rested on the third button of his shirt, repeatedly unbuttoning and rebuttoning it as he said leisurely, “Living separately on the first day after getting our marriage certificate?”