Chapter Thirteen: Welcoming the New Students
Lin Yu's four-person dormitory was old and cramped, and on rainy days it often smelled faintly of camphor. Two iron bunk beds stood facing each other against the window, close to the walls on the left and right sides.
The remaining space was almost entirely occupied by a long table in the middle of the aisle. Water cups, magazines, and skincare products were piled on it, making the already cramped space feel even more crowded. If you wanted to study in the dormitory, you would most likely have to curl up on your bed and set up a small table.
Of the four girls in the dormitory, only Lin Yu and her bunkmate Yao Fangfang were in the same class. Zhang Yimeng, who was on the upper bunk opposite Lin Yu, and Qian Zan, who was on the lower bunk opposite Lin Yu, were assigned to a different class in the same department. Such an arrangement is quite normal in a science and engineering university where there are more men than women.
At that time, Lin Yu was a young girl who had never even left her town. Her experience of the world was quite limited, even before her parents divorced. She was short and thin due to excessive dieting and not very outgoing. She was the type of person who would be instantly lost in a crowd.
Because she had successfully lost weight during the summer vacation, all her old clothes that used to fit her had to be packed up and thrown away. In preparation for the start of the new school year, she went to the clothing market in the town center and picked out two new outfits to wear. One was a mid-length red and black plaid shirt that covered half of her thin legs, which were encased in dyed jeans. Her waist-length hair was tied back and had a sallow, malnourished look.
Her thick, straight bangs looked like a failed attempt to evolve from a high school non-mainstream style. Only her large eyes, two-thirds of which were covered by the bangs, revealed a hint of innocent naiveté. Apart from that, she exuded an air of meticulously crafted rusticity.
As she dragged her luggage and pushed open the dormitory door alone, Zhang Yimeng and Qian Zan across the hall had already made their beds and started unpacking their belongings. Because they were in the same class and both locals, the two naturally felt closer. Seeing Lin Yu enter, the girls introduced themselves in a friendly manner.
Lin Yu's first impression of Zhang Yimeng was that she was capable. She was thin and spoke quickly with an unconsciously rising tone, giving people a strong sense of pressure, like a tireless perpetual motion machine.
She ranked fifth in her major and came from the wealthiest family in the dormitory. Both her parents were high-level executives at foreign companies, and she was even driven to her dorm room by her family's driver in a Maybach. If she hadn't explicitly refused, the nanny might have come along to help her clean the dorm.
In contrast, Qian Zan seemed rather mild-mannered. Her family background was relatively ordinary, but the family relationship was harmonious, and her parents had a close relationship and doted on her. The table was piled high with all sorts of food that her parents had prepared for her, fearing that the food in the cafeteria might not suit her taste and that she would go hungry.
She was short and plump, with a friendly smile. Her eyes weren't large, but her eyelashes were thick and long. She often looked around with a kind and gentle gaze through her thick glasses. Like Lin Yu, she loved to study all kinds of food and was well-versed in the I Ching and Bagua. She always carried a tortoise shell in her bag. Before Lin Yu had even settled in, she warmly greeted him and offered to tell his fortune for the day.
Yao Fangfang was the last to arrive at the dormitory, but her name was known to everyone in the dormitory, not for any other reason than that she had a stunningly beautiful face.
Before the start of the semester, someone leaked her ID photo from her registration document. Before she even met her in person, the online forum was already buzzing with discussion about her. Lin Yu hadn't even reached the dormitory building when she saw various flowers and gifts signed Yao Fangfang in the lobby on the first floor.
When I actually met him in person, I instantly realized that what was said on the forum was absolutely true, and even overly conservative.
Yao Fangfang has a slender and curvaceous figure. Her head is smaller than Lin Yu's knee. Her small face, no bigger than a palm, is covered with exquisitely sculpted features in perfect proportion. She possesses both the sharp and outward-looking bone structure of a Scandinavian person and the subtle charm of an Eastern ink painting, making her intense yet not vulgar.
Although she wasn't as outgoing as the other two, she was still quite polite and considerate in her interactions. This aloofness, this sense of distance, actually matched Lin Yu's ideal of a school beauty.
The school announced that a welcome party would be held in the auditorium at 3:30 pm. Yao Fangfang's boyfriend had someone reserve a few seats in the second row for her so she could bring her roommates. Zhang Yimeng and Qian Zan had already made plans to go grocery shopping together, leaving only Lin Yu, who was in the upper bunk, in the dormitory. Yao Fangfang then took the opportunity to invite her along.
Lin Yu sat in her seat in the huge performance hall. The sound and light from the stage felt like heavy punches to her retinas, giving her a considerable shock. But she didn't show it on her face. Her emotional expression was dull and wooden, as if this could protect her from the ridicule and harm from the outside world.
During the intermission, she suddenly nudged Yao Fangfang next to her with her elbow. "That boy on stage looks like the male lead in a summer TV drama!"
At that time, Yao Fangfang and Lin Yu were not familiar with each other. They came to the ceremony together purely to escape the suitors who were chasing after them at school. On the way there, Lin Yu heard her tell him that she had a first love boyfriend she had been with since high school.
But her looks gave her an overwhelming advantage in this predominantly male science and engineering school. She often caused a stir when she passed by the sports field, her Renren.com was flooded with friend requests from strangers every day, and there were even threads dedicated to her on the school's online forum.
So even though she was already taken, she would still receive love letters and flowers every now and then, and her roommates, thanks to Yao Fangfang, often enjoyed the privilege of soaking their feet in rose petals.
Yao Fangfang followed Lin Yu's gaze to the stage, listlessly picking at her newly done nails. "It's alright, but she's too pale and too thin, not my type."
On stage, Zheng Qi wore a loose white casual shirt, the collar slightly open revealing his collarbone and a small patch of skin on his chest. He held his saxophone in place with a wide black crossbody strap, and stood bowing in a corner of the stage, playing a soothing and flowing melody alongside a girl playing the piano. His hair partially obscured his delicate eyebrows and eyes, and under the stage lights, he radiated a warm, soft glow.
"How did you know who I was talking about?" Lin Yu asked in surprise.
“There are only two people on stage, a boy and a girl.” Yao Fangfang raised an eyebrow, giving her a look of concern for someone with intellectual disabilities. “I not only know that you are talking about him, but I also know that his name is Zheng Qi, from the next class. I heard that his father is the head of the school’s admissions office.”
"Who told you that?"
Yao Fangfang propped her head up with her hand, her attitude languid and nonchalant. "Before the show started, a few girls in the back were whispering to each other, didn't you hear them?"
"Didn't notice? He's from Linjiang, just like you?" Lin Yu asked curiously.
"I'm from Linjiang, but we're not the same kind of people. They come from a prominent family, while I come from a humble one," Yao Fangfang said self-deprecatingly.
"I'm from a mountain village. I make a living by hunting every day." Lin Yu chimed in to ease the tension, "The college entrance exam is about archery. There's a target at fifty meters and a target at one hundred meters. The farther you shoot, the better the school. I'm nearsighted, so I ended up here."
"Lin Yu, you're really something." Yao Fangfang gently pinched the soft flesh on Lin Yu's cheek and smiled. "I think we'll definitely get along well during our four years of university."
......
Lin Yu remembers that during the second semester of her freshman year, several neighboring classes were always taking classes together. Her opportunities to interact with Zheng Qi increased passively, and her liking for him also grew exponentially, as if she had been bewitched by summer TV dramas, or perhaps she was looking for an anchor point for her suddenly relaxed life.
When they had a general education class, she would always drag Yao Fangfang to sit behind Zheng Qi and trace his back with her eyes over and over again, like a perverted subway stalker.
Zheng Qi was a man of few words, and Lin Yu had hardly ever seen him joke or play around with other classmates, only getting close to a few people in his dormitory. But he never missed a class, quietly taking notes during class, and sleeping alone on his desk during breaks.
Lin Yu had no intention of bothering Zheng Qi, nor did she ever initiate conversation. Sitting so close to him, able to occasionally see what he was doing, was already enough to satisfy her. After all, if she took the initiative to speak, there was the possibility of rejection, a possibility that tormented Lin Yu, trapping her in a Schrödinger's cat-like state of rejection from which she could not extricate herself.
Lin Yu had never told anyone about his crush on Zheng Qi; only Yao Fangfang knew. Of course, Yao Fangfang didn't hear it from Lin Yu herself, but rather figured it out slowly through her years of dating experience and spending time with him.
As time went on, Yao Fangfang couldn't stand Lin Yu's awkward and passive nature any longer. Finally, during a break between classes, she went up and poked Zheng Qi in the back without saying a word. Yao Fangfang was invincible; there was no one, young or old, male or female, whose contact information she couldn't get, it just depended on whether she wanted to or not.
"Zheng Qi, I heard you're pretty good at linear algebra. Finals are coming up soon, want to study together?"
Zheng Qi was clearly still half asleep, with a thick head of messy black hair. When she turned her head to look over, you could catch a glimpse of the wrinkles on her cuffs and the red marks imprinted on her smooth, jade-like skin. Her almond-shaped, dark pupils looked blankly at Yao Fangfang, and then glanced at Lin Yu's face.
He nodded slowly, his wisps of hair obscuring the reddened corners of his eyes. "When? I can't get up too early."
"Come over to the lecture hall on the top floor of Building 2 when you wake up."
Lin Yu clearly hadn't expected things to go so smoothly. "Lin Yu will bring you breakfast. You two can add each other on WeChat, and tell her in advance what you want to eat," Yao Fangfang said, patting Lin Yu on the back.
Zheng Qi finally looked at him properly. "Okay."
Facing two unfamiliar classmates, he neither expressed gratitude nor refused them, like an open door, maintaining a proper degree of sincerity towards everyone. Lin Yu knew that this was the unique way of dealing with things of a child who grew up with a sense of superiority—restrained and composed, reminding her of her former self.
“Our Lin Yu is very good at English, you can tutor each other.”
Zheng Qi gave a nonchalant laugh, turned around, took out her phone from her bag, and opened WeChat QR code. Lin Yu placed her phone over Zheng Qi's QR code, her whole body trembling slightly with excitement.
His lips were full and red, as if kissed by the sunset, and when they turned slightly upward, they carried a hint of untamed joy, as if everything in the world had been rendered insignificant by his lips. This made his skin appear even whiter and more translucent.
With Yao Fangfang's encouragement, Lin Yu and Zheng Qi gradually became acquainted, and in addition to studying, they occasionally chatted about trivial matters in their lives.
Zheng Qi is a person with little drive. He is intelligent but not aggressive. He is neither outstanding nor a hindrance in his studies. Once he sets a clear goal, he will never exert any extra effort. His life is like a steel ball on a track. His parents have planned everything for him. All he has to do is move steadily forward along the predetermined path.
After Yao Fangfang introduced the two, she consciously disappeared from the public eye. Lin Yu initially had some concerns, thinking that Zheng Qi might have agreed to come to study with her to save face for Yao Fangfang. However, as time went on, she discovered that Zheng Qi treated all girls, or rather all classmates, equally.
Humans have a selfish and greedy nature, and Lin Yu was no exception. Over time, she vaguely felt that she must be somewhat different in Zheng Qi's heart, even if this difference wasn't based on affection.
Perhaps she was at best a female classmate he was slightly closer to at school; they would occasionally study together, have lunch together, and sometimes play games on their phones together. But at least in Zheng Qi's mind, she was different from other girls, even though Lin Yu subconsciously knew that he didn't deserve this special treatment and didn't really have any outstanding qualities at the moment.
After meeting Zheng Qi, Lin Yu began to pay extra attention to her appearance. She would often ask Yao Fangfang to discuss popular skincare products and the latest fashion trends, and she would also spend time going to the hair salons around the school to fix her originally frizzy and messy hair. She also became more cautious and careful when she spoke.
Although she took many detours along the way, she has to admit that in just six months, she has shed the naivety and awkwardness she had when she first entered school.
Liking someone and unconsciously making changes for them—this kind of change has a powerful driving force. The surging passion washes over Lin Yu's heart like a torrent, giving her a new lease on life from the inside out.
Lin Yu also fell in love with studying, and obsessively looked forward to the end of the semester and exam week. Whenever he sat down in the study room, he felt a kind of unreal satisfaction.
Seventeen-year-old Lin Yu, having broken free from the constraints of her oppressive family environment, finds her dull yet fierce emotions eroding her heart, until Chen Guang's appearance disrupts everything.
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