When Xu Qian returned home, while watering the vegetable garden on the balcony, he casually switched his perspective to his puppet and found it still standing at attention. He gave up on the idea, as he still wanted to stay in the air-conditioned room.
After watering, Xu Qian noticed that two pots were almost full of ripeness, so he simply moved a stool over to squat and watch over them. The empty pots were perfect for planting some honeysuckle and mint. In the summer, they could be dried and steeped in water, which would be a good opportunity to send some to Meng Liangchen at school.
And so, Xu Qian sat on a small stool on the balcony, waving a fan, his hand fanning himself idly. If he were wearing a vest, he would look no different from the group of old men downstairs.
This scene left Pan Rui, who was waiting on the other side, speechless with anger.
Pan Rui is a new entertainment reporter who came with a senior colleague from the company. She was hoping to get some scoops out of the office, but instead, she found herself going to the company or the courier store downstairs whenever she went out. When she got home, she would just plant vegetables on the balcony. Her routine was so regular that it didn't seem like that of a modern young person!
She and her seniors originally thought Xu Qian was just creating a persona, after all, such things happen all the time in the entertainment industry. But they didn't expect that after staking out the place for almost half a month, he really did love growing vegetables. The only person they photographed coming and going was Sheng Huai, and then he even gave him a flowerpot before leaving.
No way, you're a perfectly healthy young man, and all you do is grow vegetables and mint on your balcony at home? Don't you have any other forms of entertainment?
Wang Liang couldn't take it anymore. Half a month in prison was the maximum he could tolerate. There was really nothing to dig up about this person. He might as well dig up another young actress. This one has no substance at all!
"Brother Wang, are you leaving?" Pan Rui asked when she saw Wang Liang get up as if he was about to leave.
"Let's go, there's nothing good to squat here for, let's find someone else." Wang Liang took off his glasses and wiped them. In this sweltering heat, if it weren't for Xu Qian's recent popularity, he wouldn't have come to suffer like this. But he didn't expect to find any interesting information and almost lost his composure.
"Okay, then I'm leaving too." Pan Rui had actually wanted to leave for a while, otherwise, seeing that Xu Qian's face was indeed handsome enough, she wouldn't have stayed for half a month.
Meanwhile, Xu Qian, who was facing them, was happily reaping his rewards, which were all treasures.
He harvested and planted vegetables, and also cleaned the balcony. Since he came to Weicheng, he has basically taken over Meng Ziqiu's balcony, which is full of seasonal vegetables. Now he is no longer limited to growing lettuce.
Just as Xu Qian was about to make himself some coffee jelly, the puppet finally finished standing at attention for the day.
The scene shifts to the playground of Weicheng University.
"At 8 p.m., assemble on the parade ground to practice singing military songs." The instructor uttered the most 'cruel' sentence of the day, which was met with a chorus of complaints from the students.
Qin You sighed slightly. Heaven knows all he wanted was to go back to his dorm, lie down, enjoy the fan, play games, and sing Mao's military songs...
Unfortunately, what's done is done; the instructors have already set the time, so there's no way to escape now.
After speaking, the instructor announced that the class was dismissed, and the students immediately dispersed, rushing forward to retrieve their phones from the boxes.
Fang Zhe took the two people's phones and came over to find Qin You. Because of the height difference, the two were sitting far apart, one in front and one in back.
"Let's go eat!"
Qin You turned to look at him and was surprised to find that Fang Zhe's mental state was surprisingly good, not like a lump of mud. It was truly a miracle.
Fang Zhe didn't notice his gaze and started talking about dinner. He was really hungry. He didn't know how long he had been standing on the playground all day, and his legs felt numb.
"Let's go to the fourth teaching building, it's closer." The fourth teaching building's cafeteria is the closest to the playground. It's almost six o'clock now, and there's not much time left before the eight o'clock assembly. Qin You has already prepared to go back to the playground after eating.
As for resting, he looked around and saw a patch of artificial turf in the center of the playground. He could lie down anywhere he wanted when he came down, and it didn't matter if his clothes got a little dirty.
The two walked towards the cafeteria, and Fu Tianlei and his roommates also came over. The group of six then left in a leisurely manner.
Besides the freshmen participating in military training, there were also some students from other grades on the playground today. Some of them even went so far as to bring cola and fried chicken to eat and drink on the stands, putting the seniors' "advice" into practice without any mistakes.
When the new students flooded into the cafeteria, the noise was so loud that the other students and teachers in the cafeteria couldn't help but look up. It wasn't that they were noisy, but there were just too many people, and at this time, students from other grades had finished their classes, eaten, and left. Although there were still quite a few empty seats, there wasn't much rice or vegetables left.
Upon seeing the long queue, Qin You and his group immediately lost their desire to wait. Fu Tianlei and his roommates decided to go to the supermarket next door and each buy two boxes of instant noodles and two bags of bread to eat by themselves.
"I'll go queue up, I want rice," Fang Zhe said.
"Let's go line up for food," Qin You said, turning to Fu Tianlei and the others.
"Okay, let's go to the supermarket then."
As soon as Fu Tianlei and the others left, Qin You and Fang Zhe went to the cafeteria to queue up for food. There were still nearly twenty people ahead of them, and they weren't sure if there would be any left over when it was their turn.
At this moment, Fang Zhe vaguely sensed a ray of light, like a cell phone flash. He looked in the direction of the light and saw several older girls. As for who they were photographing... he turned to Qin You, who was so calm and collected that he looked like a worldly-wise guy!
Come to think of it, Qin You's brother is an actor, someone who can make a living based on his looks, so he must have had his share of such experiences.
Ah, it's true what they say, birds of a feather flock together.
Fang Zhe took out his phone and searched for his brother. Compared to Qin You, his appearance wasn't exactly stunning, but he was definitely handsome. However, another thing surprised him: his brother had actually filmed a promotional video for "Thousand Demon Records," Feng Tang!
"Holy crap—"
Qin You turned around and saw Fang Zhe staring at his phone with a "WTF" expression, so he leaned over and asked, "What are you looking at?"
Then... Qin You saw his Wan Hua account paired with Sheng Huai, so he looked at Fang Zhe with a very strange look, what's wrong with you?
Fang Zhe was unaware that his image in Qin You's eyes had been ruined. "Is your brother and Sheng Huai really together?"
"...???" Qin You stared at him. "I think you just want to eat peaches."
Fang Zhe clearly didn't get it, scratching his head in confusion, "Huh? Eating peaches? What do you mean?"
"What is the international language for peaches?" Qin You asked him.
For a freshman in college, such a simple international phrase is a piece of cake: "peach".
"Hmm." Qin You raised an eyebrow at him.
You want to eat peaches… Fang Zhe understood, and looked up at Qin You with a frustrated expression, “It’s not, it’s not…”
"My brother may be a bit lazy, but he's very straightforward. He has a girlfriend..." Before Qin You could finish speaking, Fang Zhe pulled him down. If he weren't too short, he would have covered her with his hand.
"How could you say your brother has a girlfriend to his face! It'll get out!" Fang Zhe said nervously, as if he had overheard some terrible secret. "Let's talk about it when we get back!"
"No, everyone knows he has a girlfriend." Qin You was also frustrated. That was a persona he created for himself, so how come no one knows? Why isn't it mentioned on the encyclopedia?
"...Huh? Everyone knows?" Fang Zhe was about to ask further when a female voice interrupted him—
"Are you serious? Old Xu really has a girlfriend?"
Qin You looked in the direction of the voice and saw a short-haired, long-legged girl. She was dressed very fashionably and had a very sophisticated look, especially when she was staring intently at you.
"He really has a girlfriend?" The girl's eyes were a little red, whether from anger or something else, it was hard to tell.
Qin You hesitated for a second, but still felt it was necessary to defend his public image, so he nodded, "Yes."
"You saw it with your own eyes?" The girl was clearly not one to give up so easily.
Qin You nodded again. He had not only seen it before, but also often talked about it.
"Is it pretty?" the girl asked, still unwilling to give up.
"This isn't a question of whether it looks good or not..." Qin You stopped speaking as he spoke, because the other person was really about to cry, and he suspected that he might lose a baby right there and then. "Okay, it does look pretty good."
"...Thank you, I understand." The girl lowered her head, looking utterly devastated. Even if the person in question said it himself, it wouldn't be as heartbreaking as if it came from his closest family. They'd already met each other's families, so why wait to break up?
Soon, the short-haired girl left the cafeteria sadly, leaving behind two people staring at each other in bewilderment.
"What is this...?" Fang Zhe was a little confused. It was the first time he had ever witnessed a fan exodus, and he was extremely embarrassed.
"Sigh, it's all fate." Qin You sighed, not caring about anything else, because when it was his turn to get food, there was still some left to eat.
After dinner, Fu Tianlei and his friends wanted to go back to their dorm to rest for a while, so they didn't go directly to the playground with Qin You and the others.
The playground was much emptier now, as most of the freshmen had gone to eat. The upperclassmen who had finished eating occupied most of the playground, some running, some stretching, and others just sitting in the stands, as if they were simply there to enjoy the breeze and take a walk.
This kind of college life is almost exactly the same as Qin You's memory. The only change is probably the people around him.
The existence of these people, and his own existence, proves that this is an alternate dimension.
Another dimension...
Qin You lay on the lawn, gazing at the darkening sky. The moon seemed no different from those in the 21st century, yet it was completely different.
Humans are animals with complex emotions.
He still remembers how he felt when he first arrived in this time and space, a mixture of novelty, panic, and... relief?
Why did he think of liberation at that time? Was it because of the dean?
Now that he thinks back on it, it seems that's the truth...
It wasn't that the dean treated him badly; on the contrary, he treated him too well.
Out of guilt, the dean devoted most of the rest of his life to Xu Qian, as if he were living for Xu Qian. But in reality, Xu Qian did not blame the dean. His parents' deaths were not the dean's responsibility. Even without the dean's phone call, they... would still have come back, and would have died on the way back.
Strictly speaking, Xu Qian did not believe in fate. However, as time went by, he gradually realized that some things might really be predestined, and no matter how hard he tried to make up for or salvage them, it would be to no avail.
Author's Note: I'll be working on the third update late tonight, as I'm on my period today.
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