77 - Meeting Classmates Again

Translated by rabbitrisu

Jiangdu Institute of Design was a well-known institution of higher education in Jiangdu, and its name had also gained some renown. However, the key to the school’s fame wasn’t how many outstanding designers it’s trained, but rather the school’s low scores, luxurious on-campus amenities, and all kinds of extremely expensive fees. The students entering and exiting through the school gate were a local source of gossip. There was even an underground garage for students.

Although there weren’t any particularly fance cars, and not all students drove to and from, the nickname of ‘Little Noble School’ was still widespread. After all, most of the students studying here had average grades but money to spare.

And here resided Su Zimo’s and Zhang Xiaoqing’s goal.

“It seems that they really wanted to completely avoid any news related to you.” Su Zimo stood outside the entrance of Jiangdu Institute of Design where its sense of design couldn’t be seen, and said to her with some emotion.

Because ordinary people couldn’t see ghosts in ordinary environments, naturally no one knew that Su Zimo was speaking to Zhang Xiaoqing, who stood next to him.

According to Zhang Xiaoqing, she and the three pranksters originally lived in a small town thousands of miles away from Jiangdu. ¹ Although Hua Xiaowan’s grades weren’t very good, there were no issues about entering the ordinary undergraduate programs near their home. The reason they went to such a distant and expensive school to study, in the end was probably because of their thorough escape from Zhang Xiaoqing’s shadow.

“You said they may have forgotten you?” Su Zimo looked sideways at Zhang Xiaoqing, then smiled and shook his head. “This kind of thing isn’t so easy to forget. They must still remember it.”

Then, Su Zimo started walking into the school.

For Su Zimo, it was actually a somewhat strange experience. No matter how many things he’d experienced since childhood, he was someone who had never formally stepped onto a university campus. His study career had come to a halt since his third year of high school four years ago.

Although Su Zimo didn’t enjoy the atmosphere of the school in front of him very much, deep down in his heart he was actually eager to live a university life. He imagined a university class, some new university friends, and even imagined that, after saying goodbye to his ‘lone ranger’ high school career, he should maybe join a club?

But all that turned into a cloud of smoke because of the weird car accident four years ago. Even if the Su family used their relationships to help him enter university, Su Zimo wouldn’t be happy.

Su Zimo took another peek at Zhang Xiaoqing, who was next to him, and found that the bloodstained cloth strip on her eyes had disappeared when he wasn’t looking. She was gazing around the entire campus with a look of longing and envy. She watched the students passing by, even touching a student’s book, then passed through his body.

This high school girl with good grades seemed even more eager to enter university than Su Zimo.

“Let’s go in.”

According to the information collected by Ye Ning, Su Zimo was walking on the road leading to the library. He knew that the school dormitory was behind the library.

Along the way, Su Zimo could see that the school environment was well planned, but because of the outdated national historical sites on campus, there wasn’t much greenery. Many of the trees were still young saplings that were just planted in the ground, so the entire campus didn’t seem secluded at all – more like a mishmash of artificial scenic areas without any cultural characteristics of its own.

Even Zhang Xiaoqing’s expression looked disappointed.

But unlike the environment, the students on campus were all dressed up and ‘chatting’ in groups, forming small circles of many students.

As an unfamiliar face on campus, Su Zimo received a lot of attention from the students.

Being eye-catching has always been a characteristic of Master Su. Among the groups of male students who relied on clothing and dress up to highlight themselves, he was rare and refreshing. The first time they saw him, their eyes were bright, and he naturally attracted some shy expressions.

Some people even wanted to try to talk to Su Zimo, but Su Zimo was smiling and seemed unable to see the living people in the school at all. He walked toward his destination with ignorant eyes, uncaring that the people around him were whispering.

It wasn’t until a certain young man in a particularly formal collared shirt and suit walked in front of Su Zimo and directly blocked his path. Su Zimo looked up to see the young man who he seemed to have met at some point, somewhere.

“Su Zimo, are you studying here?”

“……” Su Zimo wanted to walk away from the other party, but because he called out his name, he could only stop and try to dig out the ‘stranger’ from his memory.

Although he didn’t know the person in front of him, Su Zimo remembered that he had actually seen him not long ago.

Right at the doors of Qin Yange, this young man was standing with the class leader, Wan Yu, and said some nonsense about him.

“How, you just saw me yesterday, but you don’t remember me today?” The young man was pushing a small metal suitcase. It looked like he had just arrived in Jiangdu from Shoushan.

“Sorry, it’s not that I don’t remember your name.” Su Zimo said with a mildly embarrassed smile. “I have an urgent matter to deal with, so I’ll leave your company first.”

“Wait!” As soon as the other party saw that Su Zimo was about to detour around him, he moved and stopped in front of him again. “I’m Qi Yang. It’s a bit too much to forget that I was in the same class as you for two years, right?

“It’s okay.” Su Zimo furrowed his eyebrows slightly. “I don’t remember the others very much.”

“……” Qi Yang was speechless for a while.

Seeing the other party in a daze, Su Zimo walked around him again, planning to continue searching for Hua Xiaowan in the dormitory. According to Zhang Xiaoqing, as long as he finds Hua Xiaowan, Zhang Xiaoqing could find the other two people.

“Qi Yang, what are you doing here?”

But at that moment, a young woman’s voice came from behind them. The young woman who walked up to Qi Yang, had a smooth pear blossom hairstyle, wore a short skirt, and also wore a lot of jewelry… It was clearly the Hua Xiaowan that Su Zimo had seen in Zhang Xiaoqing’s illusion!

Such a coincidence.

Something different from Zhang Xiaoqing’s fantasy world is that in the fantasy world… the Hua Xiaowan of her imagination ended up with Lin Zhe. Her hairstyle and clothes may also be what Zhang Xiaoqing remembered.

But the Hua Xiaowan in front of him, as soon as she walked up, took Qi Yang’s wrist affectionately, and her tone was a bit playful. She apparently had some kind of relationship with Qi Yang.

“Ah!”

As soon as Hua Xiaowan came over, she suddenly let go of the phone in her left hand, almost dropping it. She groaned inexplicably.

“What’s the matter?” Qi Yang responded to Hua Xiaowan’s intimacy, and helped her sort out her bangs that were somewhat messy after coming over.

“I don’t know. I just felt that my phone suddenly heated up.” Hua Xiaowan was also confused. She picked up the phone again and watched for a while, but couldn’t find anything abnormal. She could only hold her hand in front of Qi Yang coquettishly, “It hurts, please help me blow on it.”

“Wait a moment, there are outsiders here now.” Qi Yang motioned with his eyes for Hua Xiaowan to look at Su Zimo.

And Hua Xiaowan, who understood Qi Yang’s gesture, was shocked as if she had just discovered that a stranger was still in front of her. After recovering her senses, she stared at Su Zimo’s face in a daze.

“Are you Qi Yang’s friend?” Hua Xiaowan asked curiously.

“He’s my high school classmate.” As if sensing something, Qi Yang rested his hand on Hua Xiaowan’s shoulder and asked her to turn her head to look at him. “If he’s going to school here, he should be in the same year as you.”

“Impossible, right?” Hua Xiaowan widened her eyes and looked at Su Zimo. “We’re in our senior year. What kind of split jujube are in the same year? I’ve never seen him anyway.” ²

“That’s normal. I think he doesn’t belong to this school.” Qi Yang said, then whispered something in Hua Xiaowan’s ear.

“He’s the top-ranked classmate that you said could only drop out of high school because of family reasons?” Hua Xiaowan said, and winked at Qi Yang again. “You never said he looks like this.”

Su Zimo couldn’t hear what Qi Yang said to Hua Xiaowan, but he could feel Hua Xiaowan’s eyes instantly change when she looked at him. She was no longer as focused as before. She even glanced at him with a smile on her face before talking to Qi Yang.

Originally Su Zimo could’ve left, but Hua Xiaowan’s appearance changed his whole plan, so Su Zimo could only look at Zhang Xiaoqing standing beside him out of the corner of his eye.

[I need some time.] Zhang Xiaoqing closed her eyes tightly, so Su Zimo couldn’t see how she reacted to seeing Hua Xiaowan at that moment. [There are two others. They will come soon and can’t leave.]

Hearing what Zhang Xiaoqing said, Su Zimo could only stay silently in front of Qi Yang and Hua Xiaowan.

“You’re here so late, I’m so hungry.” Hua Xiaowan flirtatiously attached herself to Qi Yang’s body. “Didn’t you say you reserved the restaurant I’ve wanted to try for a long time?”

“Yes, it’s near the school.” Qi Yang just wanted to take Hua Xiaowan away, but found that Su Zimo, who had been trying to ‘avoid’ him just now, didn’t intend to leave. For some reason, he was still standing and watching them.

“That…” Qi Yang, who held his girlfriend, didn’t want to stimulate Su Zimo’s interest at first. He just watched his old classmate stay away, and could only ask politely. “Su Zimo, why don’t you come with?”

“En. I can pay by myself.” Su Zimo nodded unceremoniously.

“……” Qi Yang was silent again. After a moment of awkward eye contact with his girlfriend, Hua Xiaowan, he could only pretend to wave his hand politely and said, “It’s rare to invite old classmates to dinner. How could you pay the bill? Anyway, you didn’t attend the class reunion yesterday, just think of this as making it up. Let’s go!”

“Then I’ll have to trouble you.” Su Zimo smiled, not caring about Qi Yan’s mood, only thinking that Zhang Xiaoqing would truly be relieved.

Footnotes

<ol>十万八千里 is an idiom meaning a very long distance away, but its first use (afaik) was for 108k miles when translated from 西游记 (journey to the west) which is one the four most famous classics. Putting thousands since it flows best, and miles not km because of that reference. 歪瓜裂枣 (split jujube) is an idiom meaning someone or something ugly.</ol>