"His name is Chu Yang. Is there a problem?" Li Qian asked with a puzzled look.
"No, nothing..." Lin Qingxue shook her head, looking a bit dejected. "Which way did he just walk?"
Li Qian pointed in the direction Chu Yang had gone.
By the time Lin Qingxue looked over, the backs of Chu Yang and a sophomore senior had just turned into a small alley.
Yet at that very instant, in a daze, Lin Qingxue felt as though she had caught sight of that boy's back from years ago.
She quickly shook her head the next moment. "No, impossible. It's probably just someone with the same name."
During the summer vacation three years ago, she had quarreled with Chu Yang and declared that she would never speak to him again.
Yet after calming down for two days, she sent Chu Yang a message anyway.
Ever since that day, however, Chu Yang seemed to have vanished from her life.
Neither her classmates nor her teachers knew where he had gone.
She even went to Chu Yang's home to look for him, only to find that his family had already moved away.
Having no other choice in the end, she cried and begged her father, using family connections to check Chu Yang's ID information at the police station.
To her shock, she discovered that Chu Yang's ID records had been completely erased!
At that time, a single thought took root in Lin Qingxue's mind: Chu Yang was dead!
For the past three years, she had held onto this belief with absolute conviction.
Therefore, in her eyes, that figure could not possibly be Chu Yang.
At most, it was just a coincidence of names and a vaguely similar silhouette.
After all, he was not the one she held in her heart!
Ultimately, with a slight tremble, Lin Qingxue pulled back the foot she had instinctively taken forward to chase after them.
***
After leading Chu Yang to the dormitory building, the sophomore senior completed his guiding task.
Following the room number marked on his dorm key, Chu Yang pushed open the door to the dorm where he would spend the next four years—Dormitory 319 in Building 3.
Sunlight streamed through the windowsill into the dim room. A thick layer of dust filled the air, coating the floor in a visible gray film.
Clearly, Chu Yang was the first to arrive.
Locating his bed and setting his suitcase aside, Chu Yang walked over to the balcony and pushed open the wide windows for ventilation. Then he dug a face mask out of his backpack.
Putting on the mask, he picked up a broom from the room and set to work cleaning.
In just over half an hour, Chu Yang had the entire dormitory spotless.
Shortly after, a solidly built guy walked into the room. Glancing at the clean floor and then at Chu Yang, who was resting on his desk, the guy immediately flashed a smile. "Bro, did you clean all this by yourself?"
Chu Yang gave a calm nod. It was just cleaning; nothing worth taking credit for.
"Hard work, really appreciate it!" The sturdy guy walked up to Chu Yang with a grin and said, "I'm Zhu Pengfei from Northeast China, and I'm in this dorm too. We're roommates from now on."
Chu Yang stood up slightly. "I'm Chu Yang, from Xiangnan Province!"
Before long, the remaining two members of the dorm arrived as well.
One was a short, thin guy wearing black-rimmed glasses who, like Chu Yang, came from Xiangnan Province. His name was Wang Lei.
The other was a local from Beijing named Zhang Mingyang.
The four of them established their seniority based on their birth dates:
Zhu Pengfei was the eldest, Zhang Mingyang the second, Chu Yang the third, and Wang Lei the youngest.
To thank Chu Yang for his hard work in cleaning the dorm alone, the other three unanimously decided that Chu Yang didn't need to fetch his daily necessities himself.
Aside from carrying a water bucket containing a toothbrush and a rinsing mug, all the other items, like bedding and mattresses, were handled entirely by Zhu Pengfei and the others.
Finally, once all four had made their beds, Zhu Pengfei took the initiative to ask, "Lads, tell us—how did everyone get into Peking University, and what were your gaokao scores?"
Zhang Mingyang answered first. "The gaokao? I never took it. Did you guys actually have to take the gaokao? I was recommended for admission during my second year of high school."
Wang Lei pushed up his glasses. "I didn't take the gaokao either. I was a member of the national IMO training team, and after the IMO ended, I received my admission offer to Peking University."
The two of them looked at Zhu Pengfei. "What about you, Boss? How did you get in?"
Zhu Pengfei awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "I just barely scraped by. I had cranial surgery when I was a kid, and somehow my brain became super sharp after that. I scored 694 on the gaokao, became the top science student in my province, and ended up here."
The corners of the others' mouths twitched.
Cranial surgery... was all it took to get into Peking University?
Immediately after, all three turned their gaze toward Chu Yang. "Third Brother, how did you get into Peking University?"
Chu Yang thought for a few seconds. "I didn't take the gaokao either. It counts as a recommendation, I suppose. I came to Peking University because I didn't want to go to Huaqing University."
Huaqing University had invited him to become a professor and supervise doctoral students.
He declined.
And then he came to Peking University.
Saying it like that was completely reasonable, too!
Of course, Chu Yang was already mentally prepared for the fact that there wasn't a single ordinary person in his dorm.
As one of the nation's top institutions, Peking University admitted only about 20% of its students through the traditional gaokao each year.
Every single one of them was the cream of the crop.
As for the remaining 80%, most entered through recommendations or special admissions after participating in various domestic and international top-tier competitions.
Zhang Mingyang laughed. "It's not easy for us all to gather here from all over the country. I'm a Beijing local, and I know this area pretty well. It's my treat tonight—let's go out and have a proper meal together, what do you say?"
Zhu Pengfei quickly chimed in, "Treating us is going too far, we can just go Dutch. But since you know the neighborhood well, you can pick the spot, haha!"
Wang Lei and Chu Yang nodded in agreement.
Just then, Wang Lei's phone chimed with a notification.
He quickly glanced down at the screen, then raised the phone and said to the others, "Lads, have you joined the class group chat yet?"
"The counselor set up a group chat, and the message inside says that our teaching assistant this year is Lin Qingxue!"
"You guys know who Lin Qingxue is, right?"
Zhu Pengfei and Zhang Mingyang were the first to react. "Holy crap, seriously? Lin Qingxue is our teaching assistant?"
Chu Yang raised an eyebrow slightly.
From the information he had someone dig up earlier, he already knew that Lin Qingxue was quite popular at Peking University.
He hadn't expected her to be *this* popular, however.
After reading the messages in the chat, Zhang Mingyang let out a sigh.
"What a shame. As the undisputed campus belle of Peking University..."
"Our Senior Sister Lin is still hung up on her ex-boyfriend who died three years ago."
"Otherwise, with her status as our teaching assistant, a veteran player in the romance game like me would definitely pursue her and give it a try!"
Chu Yang's heart stirred, and he looked up to ask, "An ex-boyfriend?"
An ex-boyfriend from three years ago?
Three years ago...
Did Lin Qingxue have a boyfriend?