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Chapter 2: Interview
Zhou Wenyu sighed, looked up at the ceiling, and reminisced with a profound expression, “In everyone’s high school life, there’s usually that one representative figure, right? In our high school, there were two.”
“Actually, nobody really knew why they didn’t get along in the first place. By the time everyone found out, their relationship had already tied itself into ten thousand knots.”
“It was absurd to the point where they couldn’t even breathe the same air in the same space.”
“One time, they both had mid-term exams in the same exam room. We were all betting on whether they would show up for the exam or not and who would skip. I remember; I bet two hundred yuan on them, but guess what? Neither of them showed up for the exam—the two who usually ranked first and second in the grade both skipped the exam.”
“The headmaster was almost going crazy. It was a sunny noon, and the headmaster’s breakdown could be heard throughout the entire floor. He yelled at the top of his lungs, ‘What do you two want to do? If you have the ability, if you end up in the same exam room for the college entrance exam, you won’t even take the exam; you might as well repeat the year!'”
“…”
“But the person who ranked third was quite happy.”
“…”
“Because that time, he finally ranked first in the grade.”
The bystanders from earlier: “…”
To be honest, they had thought about many possibilities, but they never thought it would be this absurd.
“Well, this is indeed scarier than breaking up from early relationships,” someone nodded. “At least with early relationships, it usually doesn’t escalate to skipping exams.”
Zhou Wenyu: “Who says it doesn’t?”
He reached out to grab a bottle of water, but belatedly remembered that the last bottle had just been offered to Yun Ci.
He retracted his hand.
Someone couldn’t help but ask again, “Is there really no one who knows why they didn’t get along?”
Zhou Wenyu scratched his head, “I really don’t know, but there are plenty of rumors circulating. There are dozens of versions. Some say they went to the same middle school and started fighting since then, but that was debunked later. There are also rumors about them liking the same girl, but that’s unlikely since they seemed too focused on each other. Some people even analyzed their astrological charts and claimed that they had unresolved grudges from past lives and must settle scores in this life… I think we should still believe in science.”
***
Yun Ci dragged his suitcase towards Building 5.
He had always had a strong sense of direction and remembered the way he came.
Initially, he had a slight fondness for the new school. After all, Nanyang University was indeed good, with high entrance scores and excellent majors, and the overall environment was also decent. But now he felt like the school was no longer clean.
Li Yan remained silent at first, just trailing behind him, until Yun Ci asked him, “Did you know about this earlier?”
Li Yan responded with two interjections, “Yeah, uh.”
Yun Ci paused slightly, “Hmm-uh?”
Li Yan clarified, “Hum-uh means yes, that’s right.”
“We have a freshman group, consisting of all the freshmen from this year, mainly for mutual assistance and early support to adapt to the new environment. I found out about it in that group.”
Yun Ci remarked, “Oh, why didn’t anyone invite me to join for support in the unfamiliar environment?”
Li Yan retorted, “The group is noisy with too many people. Weren’t you complaining about such groups?”
“What about the surname Yu?” Yun Ci casually asked, lifting the corner of his eye, “Does he belong to the group?”
……
You two haven’t had enough fighting for three years. Do you even have to compete in this?
Li Yan rolled his eyes inwardly and truthfully said, “Nobody invited him.”
As expected. Hearing this response, Yun Ci’s complexion slightly improved, and the raised corner of his eyebrow lowered again.
Li Yan comforted him, “I really feel that someone like Yu Xun is nothing to fear.”
“You’ve been at odds for three years in high school. Although the battle has always been evenly matched, he knew how formidable you are long ago, and knowing that you’re also at Nanyang University, he’ll definitely behave himself.”
“Fear?” Yun Ci smiled again, “Am I afraid of him?”
“No,” Li Yan said, “That’s not what I meant.”
Yun Ci repeated word by word, “Evenly, matched, battle?”
“…”
No. Why are you so petty, Cousin?!
Li Yan felt like no matter how much he tried to comfort him, it was useless. “In my heart, you’ve already defeated him.”
Yun Ci replied, “It seems you’re the only one who thinks so. It can only remain in your heart, am I right?”
“…”
Li Yan said, “Your understanding could be called epic.”
Yun Ci raised his hand, fingers together, and lightly shook it, “No need to follow me up; I’ll go up by myself.”
***
When Yun Ci went upstairs, unpacked his things, and tidied up a bit, his emotions had calmed down quite a bit.
In fact, when he walked to the dormitory door, pushed it open, and greeted the unfamiliar roommate who had arrived earlier, you couldn’t tell that he had just squeezed a water bottle.
The layout of the dormitory beds and arrangements were the same as in Li Yan’s dormitory, with bunk beds and six beds in total.
He arrived relatively late, and there was only one person in the dormitory when he got there.
“Yun Ci,” he introduced himself briefly, “Ci as in words. Mind if I squeeze past?”
He was in the innermost spot, stopping in front of the bed near the balcony, and said to the person sitting on the bottom bunk, “I’m on the bunk above you, so it might be easy to bump into you when I’m putting my things away.”
There was nothing on the bottom bunk, just a bedboard.
It wasn’t clear if the person sitting on the bed hadn’t started organizing his things yet. He was dressed very stylishly, with large silver chains and rings adorning him, deeply engrossed in playing games. At the end of the game, he cursed, “Idiot teammates.”
The treandy guy lifted his head, saw Yun Ci, and was stunned for a moment, and then cursed again, “Damn, handsome.”
“…Okay handsome,” the trendy guy stood up, “I’ll sit opposite.”
Yun Ci avoided him, carrying the blanket and three-piece set he had just bought downstairs and effortlessly throwing them onto the bed.
Trendy Guy: “By the way, I don’t live on the bottom bunk; I’m across from you, just coming down to play games for a while.”
After saying that, he added, “…There seems to be no one on the bottom bunk; we have five people in our dorm, and one bed is empty.”
Yun Ci glanced at him, feeling like he looked like the type with a lot of information channels, so he casually asked him, “Which channel did the news come from?”
Trendy Guy: “The hallway.”
“…”.
“The dormitory manager downstairs posted a list, so the information should be authentic.”
Yun Ci met Trendy Guy’s clear gaze and was momentarily speechless.
Alright. The hallway is indeed a damn channel.
He had few belongings, so he packed up quickly. But for the many daily necessities that were missing, he still needed to go buy them near the school, which would probably take a while.
He and Li Yan were busy tidying up their respective dorms, and it wasn’t until approaching dusk that they had time to check their phones.
Li Yan: [Cousion, how’s the packing going?]
Li Yan: [Want to grab dinner together later?]
Li Yan: [There are around four or five people, all old classmates; if you’re coming, I’ll send you the address.]
Yun Ci scanned down, and his gaze settled on the last message.
Li Yan: [He’s not coming.]
Yun Ci’s gaze lingered on the words “he’s not coming” for a moment. After a while, he replied: Where at? What time?
Li Yan: [Near the school. 7 o’clock, I’ll send the location.]
The university town was vast, with several well-known universities crowded together, and Nanyang University alone had two campuses. Due to the large flow of people, commercial streets were almost everywhere.
For the freshman welcome, these streets had brought out all possible decorations, hanging decorative lights everywhere. Even as darkness fell, the streets remained brightly lit.
When Yun Ci arrived, they were just looking at the menu.
They were all familiar faces from high school, and Zhou Wenyu, whom he had seen during the day, was also there. He glanced over and greeted him briefly.
“Uncle, what do you want to drink?” Li Yan asked.
Yun Ci had just showered, his hair still half-dry: “Water; mineral water is fine.”
Li Yan pointed to the others on the table and said, “Finally got rid of supervision; they all want beer, and you want mineral water?”
Yun Ci nodded, “Oh, then bring a bottle of vodka. What’s the point of beer?”
Li Yan: “…”
Impressive.
However, the jokes at the dinner table passed quickly. In the end, none of them even ordered beer; each had a glass of orange juice and focused on eating.
As old classmates, the conversation at the dinner table was ongoing, with the most discussed topic being about their majors.
“My major seems to have a poor job outlook at the moment. I’m afraid of ending up with a lonely degree…”
“Don’t even mention it; can it be lonelier than studying philosophy like me?”
“…”
As they talked, someone redirected the topic to Yun Ci, “What major are you in, Ci-ge?”
Over halfway through the meal, Yun Ci’s half-dried hair had dried completely, his fine fringe covering his eyes, “Law.”
The Law School of Nanyang University has always held a stable position in the industry due to its early establishment and was considered one of Nanyand’s flagship programs. But thinking about Yun Ci’s usual grades, this answer wasn’t too surprising.
However, there was a subtle moment of expression from the person upon hearing this answer. Yun Ci asked him, “What’s up?”
The person replied honestly, “I dare not say.”
“…”
Yun Ci raised an eyebrow slightly.
“If you really want to know, it’s my awe of top students and deep-seated inferiority about my own college entrance exam scores.”
Forget it.
Yun Ci vaguely felt that the real answer, most likely, was something he didn’t want to hear either. He had no interest in pressing others for answers, so he simply didn’t continue to pursue the matter.
After the meal, someone suggested, “After dinner, why don’t we take a stroll nearby?”
“The campus is so big, we’ve been busy packing all day and haven’t had a chance to explore properly.”
So, the group walked back toward the campus along the path they came from.
Yun Ci walked at the back, leisurely following them. He absentmindedly played with the dorm key; the slender silver key ring looped around his fingers, spinning around in circles.
Amidst the bustling crowd, his gaze fell on the key ring in his hand, unaware that there seemed to be something unusual ahead.
At the same time, not far ahead, the student union’s filming task was still ongoing.
At that moment, the familiar camera was pointed at someone for an interview, with the person holding a bottle of cool water in one hand.
“Could you give us a brief introduction of yourself, and how was your first day at Nanyang University?”
“…”
The individual was quite tall, and the camera almost missed his face.
He seemed to cooperate, bending down to get closer. “An interview, huh?”
Then, in a casual yet flamboyant tone, he said, “There’s not much to introduce about me. Average appearance, average grades. Let’s leave this opportunity for someone else.”
Although the camera revealed a very subtle expression upon hearing the words “average appearance,” he continued speaking, even raising his hand to tilt the camera angle slightly backward, focusing on someone playing with a key ring.
He introduced without any guilt to the camera:
“For example, this person.”
“The former top student of Xi Cheng High School, ranked top in the entrance exam, the future star of the Law School.”
Clang.
The key ring stopped spinning.
Yun Ci halted his steps. The familiar camera was quickly pointing at him again.
He looked up, but this time he wasn’t looking at the camera but at the person behind the camera.
The sky had already darkened. The person stood under the streetlight with a face unrelated to “average appearance,” featuring well-defined facial features. Each contour was highlighted by light and shadow, the interplay of shadows and light seeming to favor him, casting on his features.
His eyes were particularly unique, with a hint of a smile and a mole at the corner of his eye. With the changing light, he appeared somewhat enchanting.
The person stood up straight, tall, and slender, meeting Yun Ci’s gaze.
The two stood facing each other, separated by a camera. Whether it was due to magnetic attraction or some other reason, an invisible tension spread between them, like a silent confrontation.
“He must have a lot to say.”
The person spoke as if he hadn’t done this himself, his voice trailing off, “…right, Xiao Ci?”
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