Ye Ying understood that Li Jingfei was afraid that he would not be used to sleeping on the upper bunk, so he let him choose first.

"That's all right," he said immediately, "I can sleep on it."

Then he added, "Thank you."

To be honest, looking at Li Jingfei's appearance, I thought he was the cold type who was not easy to get along with, but I didn't expect him to be so considerate.

Li Jingfei didn't say much, just nodded and went to make his bed.

After a while, the dormitory door opened, and a brown-haired boy with slightly curly hair walked in dragging a lot of bags. When he saw Ye Ying, his big eyes lit up immediately. He threw his bag and rushed over, grabbing Ye Ying's arm and excitedly said: "Wow, you are in this dormitory too! ! That's great!"

The curly-haired boy had a pair of cat-like almond eyes, long and dense eyelashes, and fair and tender skin, so cute that he didn't look like a real person. Ye Ying was stunned by his pounce, and before she could react, she heard him open his mouth and couldn't wait to talk: "I like your first stage so much, your voice is so great! Oh, by the way, didn't I introduce myself yet? My name is Xu Qiongzhi, I'm also a vocalist, and I'm also in class B. We can go to class together!"

After Xu Qiongzhi finished speaking, she seemed to realize that she was too enthusiastic. She let go of her hand and stuck out her tongue embarrassedly: "Don't be scared by me, I'm just too excited... I really like you very much!"

Ye Ying rarely faced such straightforward and enthusiastic praise. She subconsciously lowered her eyes and avoided Xu Qiongzhi's enthusiastic gaze: "Thank you... I like your performance too."

Xu Qiongzhi opened her eyes wide, "Huh? Really?"

Ye Ying nodded: "Your Chinese style performance is great."

On the first stage, Xu Qiongzhi and three teammates performed a Chinese-style dance. The four teenagers were dressed in festive Chinese red. During the ending pose, each of them unfolded a big red banner from their hands, which read "Congratulations on making a fortune" and "All the best". They looked like a few New Year picture dolls bringing blessings, and the people who watched them smiled happily.

Xu Qiongzhi blushed a little after receiving the compliment. She wanted to pull Ye Ying to continue talking, but when she saw a new roommate coming in from behind, she had to stop talking.

The other three roommates are Luo Zihui from Class B, Fu Yulin from Class C, and Zhao Sinuo from Class F.

Everyone seemed to be easy to get along with, greeted each other cheerfully, and started packing their luggage.

"Ye Ying, where is your suitcase?" Xu Qiongzhi was busy and sweating. She glanced at Ye Ying with empty hands and asked casually.

Ye Ying was just wondering how to answer when someone suddenly knocked twice on the open dormitory door. A tall, long-legged, handsome boy leaned against the door, raised his chin and greeted Ye Ying: "Hey."

Luo Zihui jumped up all of a sudden: "Hey, isn't this my brother He? Why are you here? You just separated from me and you miss me so much?"

"Go wherever it's cooler." He Xizhou didn't even look at him. He walked in pushing a silver-gray suitcase and smiled at Ye Ying: "I'm sorry, I was in a hurry that day and recognized the wrong person. Did I cause you trouble?"

"It's okay," Ye Ying took her box, "Thank you."

He said thank you even after being bullied. This character is too obedient.

He Xizhou looked at the boy's drooping eyelashes and handed him the thing in his other hand.

Ye Ying was caught off guard by something stuffed into her arms. She looked down and saw that it was a giant Want Want gift bag.

"Apology." He Xizhou said naturally, "Eat as soon as possible. If you can't finish it, share it with your roommate. The production crew will check the snacks later." After saying that, without waiting for Ye Ying to refuse, he waved and left.

When the two talked, the room was completely silent. Everyone was staring at them silently. After He Xizhou left, Luo Zihui asked in surprise: "Huh? Ye Ying, do you know Brother He?"

"No. I accidentally took the wrong box." Ye Ying explained briefly, holding up the half-person-high Want Want gift bag in her arms, "Do you like this?"

"I like it!" Xu Qiongzhi remembered something and immediately started to pick up her luggage. "Oh, by the way, I also brought some delicious food, a specialty from my hometown, duck wings in sauce, they taste great!"

The other roommates also brought some local specialties and snacks from their hometowns, and the scene soon turned into a snack exchange party. The luggage became more and more "messy" as they packed, and in the end no one cared. Everyone gnawed on a braised duck wing and chatted while eating.

"I found that the students here have good personalities," Fu Yulin said with a smile, "Before coming here, I thought the atmosphere would be very tense, after all, the competition is so fierce."

"We are all about the same age and have the same interests and hobbies, so we have common topics," said Zhao Sinuo.

"Besides, not everyone is here to make a debut!" Xu Qiongzhi said, "For example, me."

Everyone looked at him curiously.

"I had just finished the college entrance examination and had been at home for less than a month when my parents started to get annoyed with me!" Xu Qiongzhi complained crazily, "They saw the recruitment advertisement for 'Dream Maker' that day and immediately said to me, 'Don't you like singing? Go and join the show. It will provide food and accommodation for three months. We will have some peace and quiet after you leave.' Then they packed me up and threw me out! Tell me, did they pick me up?!"

The dormitory suddenly burst into laughter, and Ye Ying couldn't help but smile. Xu Qiongzhi was sitting on Ye Ying's right. She saw his fleeting smile from the corner of her eye and was stunned for a moment. After a while, she blinked and said, "Ye Ying, you are so beautiful and sing so well, you will definitely make your debut."

Ye Ying: "Well...I haven't thought about making a debut."

Except for Xu Qiongzhi's ridiculous situation, most of the students who came to participate in the competition were aiming to debut as a group and embark on a star journey. Hearing Ye Ying say so bluntly that she had no plans to debut, others were a little curious: "Then why did you come to participate in the talent show?"

Ye Ying had nothing to hide: "The recruitment advertisement said that there would be a bonus if I passed the selection, which was just enough to pay for my university tuition, so I signed up."

Li Jingfei, who was sitting opposite him, looked up at him.

Most of the students who were able to participate in the talent show came from well-off families. The other boys didn't think that Ye Ying was participating in the show just for tuition. They thought he was just taking the prize money for fun. They all laughed: "That's good. So you just finished the college entrance examination? Which university did you apply to?"

Ye Ying said the name of a school.

The dormitory suddenly fell silent.

"Well, even though I'm a poor student, I vaguely remember that this school seems to be one of the top 3 in the country?" Luo Zihui asked tentatively, "How many points did you get in the exam? Is this the only choice you applied for?"

He asked this out of kindness. Most of the students who studied dance and music were art students, and their academic scores were generally not very high. The school that Ye Ying mentioned was too good, and Luo Zihui was afraid that he didn't understand the situation and applied for the wrong school.

“695. I checked the passing scores in previous years and I should be able to be admitted,” said Ye Ying.

The dormitory fell silent again.

After a long while, Fu Yulin tremblingly raised his thumb and said, "God of Study!"

"Oh my god, with such a high score, why are you still participating in the talent show?"

"I won't meet a real top scorer in the college entrance examination, will I?!"

"That's not the case," Ye Ying explained, "I'm just the second in liberal arts in S City."

Just second place...

"What I hate most," Luo Zihui muttered, "is you Versailles academic bullies."

Besides, this top student doesn’t look like a top student at all! Aren’t top students supposed to be bald and wear high-power glasses with beer bottle bottoms? !

Ye Ying was silent for a moment, wanting to ask what Versailles was, but everyone had already moved on to another topic.

The dormitory was always bustling at night. Several older boys chatted until almost the early morning. Finally, they couldn't bear it anymore, so they said good night and climbed into bed to sleep.

Ye Ying changed into pajamas and lay flat on the bed, but she couldn't fall asleep for a long time.

His sleep quality has always been poor, and he would be awakened by the slightest noise. This was a sequelae left over from his second year of high school. That time, his mother brought a man home as usual, and drank a lot of wine. In the middle of the night, the man broke the door lock of his house and broke in, and even tried to touch him on the bed - since then, Ye Ying no longer dared to sleep soundly at night.

Several boys in the dormitory were snoring, and someone could be heard talking in his sleep. Ye Ying had no desire to sleep, so she turned over and faced the wall, hugging her little blue starfish.

The little starfish was caught from a claw machine when his parents took him and his brother to an amusement park when he was in primary school. His was blue, and his brother Ye Yi's was yellow. The two brothers loved to put the little starfish at the head of their bed when they went to sleep, and they had this habit until junior high school.

When he was in middle school, his mother Zhao Li cheated on him and his father Ye Mingyuan filed for divorce. The court ruled that each of the couple would raise one child, and Zhao Li asked the two brothers who was willing to be with her.

She actually didn't agree to divorce, after all, Ye Mingyuan was successful in his career and could provide her with a very comfortable life. But Ye Mingyuan was very determined, so she yelled and cursed at him at the top of her lungs every day, and when she was tired of yelling, she lay on the sofa, crying and drinking. The strong alcohol mixed with the expensive perfume on her body had an indescribable strangeness and pungent smell.

Ye Yi was one year younger than him. He could hardly hide the fear in his mother's eyes when he saw her pale and tired face soaked in alcohol. Ye Ying said, "Mom, I'll follow you."

Ye Mingyuan took Ye Yi abroad, but they still kept in touch. Ye Yi would fly back to see him every time he had a holiday, and his father also kept transferring a considerable amount of child support to his card.

But Zhao Li became even more extravagant after the divorce. She used the money in the card to drink, go to bars, and sleep with men. Ye Ying couldn't stop her at all.

She liked to bring those people home, often making noises until three or four in the morning. She seemed to have completely forgotten that she had a son who was nervously preparing for an exam, and she indulged herself in the world of luxury day after day.

The money Ye Mingyuan sent was not enough for her to spend, so she gradually changed from flirting with men to hanging out with men. When she was in the second year of high school, she brought home a director who was a little famous in the entertainment industry. He said he could let her appear on camera in a movie. She wanted to please him, but that night, the man was hit in the head by Ye Ying with a desk lamp.

In the hospital corridor, the man covered his head with more than a dozen stitches and cursed: "Stinky bitch, the son you gave birth to is also a little beast! I was just drunk and walked into the wrong room, and he hit me on the head with a desk lamp!"

Zhao Li hugged the man's arm to try to calm him down, but was pushed away forcefully. The man cursed her "bad luck" and walked away.

Seeing that the tall branch she had just climbed had turned yellow, Zhao Li angrily raised her hand and slapped Ye Ying, screaming: "Look at what you have done!"

Ye Ying had a momentary ringing in his ears, and then he felt a burning pain on half of his face, which seemed to quickly become red and swollen. He raised his eyes under the glaring incandescent light in the hospital corridor and looked at his mother: "I locked the door, and he deliberately pried it open. He wanted to violate me."

Zhao Li couldn't believe it, and looked at him as if he was crazy: "Violated you? You're a man and he violated you? Do you think I'm stupid!?"

Ye Ying did not explain anything further. He suddenly could not even feel the pain on his face. He only realized that at this moment, the little affection between them as mother and son was completely severed.

Zhao Li seemed to have long wanted to get rid of the burdensome title of "mother". From that day on, she disappeared from home and from Ye Ying's life.

Until a while ago, when Ye Ying had less than a week left before the college entrance examination, she suddenly returned home, and while Ye Ying was away, she took away all the savings her son had accumulated in the past two years and sold the house.

When Ye Ying came back from school, she only saw a note.

"Mom is sorry for you, just pretend that I don't exist as your mom. Go live with your dad, I will never bother you again."

Ye Ying broke down for the first time in several years. He held the note and cried until midnight. The next day, he had a splitting headache, followed by a high fever, and fell ill.

He did not contact Ye Mingyuan, because he vaguely knew that his father was resentful of him for not choosing to follow him. Over the years, Ye Yi and him were still as close as ever, but his father only called him a few times and never came back to see him.

Besides, the college entrance examination was just around the corner, and this was his only chance to change his current situation. No one could help him, he could only rely on himself.

The boy dragged his sick body to the examination room and completed every test paper carefully. His efforts paid off in the end, and the score he got was enough for him to go to any university he wanted.

The head teacher was also very happy after learning about his results, and then, considering his current situation, she said she could help him pay for his university tuition and let him live in her home temporarily. Ye Ying was very grateful to her, but still politely declined.

He will soon be an adult, he has both hands and feet, he can work to earn money, and he can also apply for student loans, so it is not too difficult to solve the tuition problem. However, accommodation is indeed a headache, so he browsed the summer job information, intending to find a job that can provide accommodation, and by the way, he can get some tuition and living expenses.

It was at this moment that the recruitment information of "Dream Plan" quietly caught his eye.

The program recording lasts for three months, and not only is there a bonus, but food and accommodation are also provided... This is really the best "job" Ye Ying has been able to find so far.

The air in H City was humid and a little chilly at night. Ye Ying silently pulled the blanket over her shoulders, hugged the little starfish tightly and closed her eyes.

He could live here during the summer vacation and move into the dormitory after school started. He no longer had to worry about accommodation, but a stark reality lay before him.

He has no home anymore.