Duan Qiyan's face turned pale, as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
In order to avoid talking to Jin Baihui, Duan Qiyan picked up a piece of hot dish with chopsticks and took a mouthful of rice from the bowl. The sour and spicy soup made his throat dry. He coughed three times, but before he could say a word, Jin Baihui turned around and left.
Jin Baihui's first choice was Tsinghua University's Yao Class. The class was full of talented students and the competition was fierce, so Jin Baihui was unfortunately not selected. She settled for the next best option and became Duan Qiyan's college classmate.
Even if Jin Baihui lowered her attitude and apologized to Duan Qiyan in person, Duan Qiyan still had a bad impression of her. Duan Qiyan has now graduated from high school, so he naturally won't bother with Jin Baihui anymore. However, that winter five years ago, he was sentenced to death by Jin Baihui's words and was framed for no reason. In just ten minutes, he experienced breathing difficulties, numbness in his hands, slight tinnitus... He even had a nightmare - if Lin Zhixia, Jiang Yubai, and Shen Fuxuan were not there at noon that day, who would believe him? How could he save himself
The answer is no.
Duan Qiyan sighed: "Forget it, let the past be the past."
Lin Zhixia picked up a pig's trotter for him: "Would you like to eat pig's trotters? The braised pig's trotters in this cafeteria are the best in the whole school."
Duan Qiyan's spirits instantly perked up.
While tasting the braised pig's trotters that Lin Zhixia personally brought to him, he felt Jiang Yubai's gaze on him. He turned his head and looked at Jiang Yubai on the screen.
"You also want to eat braised pig's trotters?" Duan Qiyan came to this conclusion.
Jiang Yubai said, "You are eating very deliciously." He paused and asked, "Is it really that delicious?"
Duan Qiyan tapped the bowl with his chopsticks: "It's much better than my parents' cooking." Speaking of his parents, Duan Qiyan also revealed: "Did your parents send you abroad? My parents took the train back home this afternoon..."
Duan Qiyan took out his cell phone from his pocket while talking.
He opened QQ on his phone and wanted to send a message to his parents, but he accidentally saw the photos of tourists at the Great Wall uploaded by his father at 4 o'clock this afternoon through his QQ space dynamics - it turned out that his parents did not take the train home. His parents really left him at school and went to travel around without any psychological burden.
Alas, his family affection is so fragile.
Duan Qiyan ate two big bowls of rice as compensation for himself.
After dinner, Duan Qiyan said goodbye to Lin Zhixia.
The sunset glowed and everything melted into the night. Duan Qiyan looked at Lin Zhixia's back, recalled all the details, and said with emotion: "Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai... are there any signs?"
"Did you just realize it?" Tang Tingting continued.
Shen Fuxuan said, "He is a bit slow."
Tang Tingting asked again: "Hey, Jin Baihui apologized to you, do you feel good about it?"
Duan Qiyan replied unhappily: "Which eye of yours saw me happy?"
Tang Tingting reminded him of something else: "You didn't apologize for touching my thigh today, did you? You are not as docile as Jin Baihui. You saw it with your own eyes. Jin Baihui even said sorry to me."
Tang Tingting completely lost her patience: "Are you annoying? I accidentally touched you, and you nag at me so much? Boys should act like boys, and don't wear pants so short when you go out. If someone touches you, look for the reason in yourself first. Were you sitting too close to me? Why didn't I touch Shen Fuxuan, but only you? Why don't you reflect on yourself?"
Duan Qiyan frowned: "You took advantage and you're still right... You can't say that, hey, you're even more unreasonable than a middle school student."
Tang Tingting walked away with her head held high, saying, "Okay, go find Jin Baihui. She's much more reasonable than me."
Her light gray skirt fluttered in the night breeze, and the pair of leather sandals with heels on her feet hit the ground, making a "click-click" sound that slowly drifted away.
"What's wrong with her?" Duan Qiyan asked Shen Fuxuan.
Shen Fuxuan smiled: "I don't know either."
"You know everything," Duan Qiyan exposed him, "you just won't tell me."
Shen Fuxuan put his hands in his pockets, half lowered his head, and seemed a little sad: "How can you think of me as that kind of person? You said this morning that I was your best friend."
Duan Qiyan quickly changed his words: "I didn't scold you, I was praising your high emotional intelligence..."
Duan Qiyan followed Shen Fuxuan back to the boys' dormitory.
Compared to Shen Fuxuan, Duan Qiyan adapted to dormitory life more quickly. In less than an hour, he became familiar with the other two roommates. His roommate asked him who the pretty girl he brought with him during the day was. He thought for a long time before realizing, "Are you talking about Lin Zhixia? She was my classmate in middle school, and I know her well."
My roommate asked, "Which college is she from?"
Shen Fuxuan suddenly said, "She is a junior this year and has applied for early graduation. She will graduate next year and study for a doctorate abroad... You can't catch up with her."
Duan Qiyan finally realized, "Our class teacher once said that the best people in science and engineering usually don't study for a master's degree, unless they want to change their major. After graduating from college, the best people either work or study for a doctorate... We just entered college, and Lin Zhixia is about to graduate. What papers has she published?"
Shen Fuxuan's grandmother is Professor Shen Zhaohua. Shen Zhaohua and Lin Zhixia have always been in contact. With this relationship, Shen Fuxuan knows a lot of accurate information about Lin Zhixia.
He told Duan Qiyan: "Lin Zhixia submitted two papers to Physical Review Letters."
"Physical Review Letters?" Duan Qiyan sat up from the bed in shock.
Their roommate said, "There are several undergraduates in the Department of Physics who have submitted their papers for Physical Review Letters. There are so many talented students in the Department of Physics."
Duan Qiyan corrected him, "Lin Zhixia is not in the Physics Department. She is from our Mathematics Department."
The roommate's romantic thoughts disappeared, and he only commented: "She is not a human being."
At the same time, Lin Zhixia sneezed.
She was sitting in the library, preparing her application materials. The paper she submitted to Physical Review Letters had not yet been published, but she was full of confidence in herself.
Lin Zhixia chose a very prestigious professor as her doctoral advisor. She knew that the professor was very busy and it would take some time before she could receive a reply from him.
However, just one day later, the professor wrote back, his words revealing appreciation and affirmation.
Lin Zhixia quickly agreed with him on an interview date—there were two rounds of interviews, both completed online. Lin Zhixia performed very well, and a postdoctoral fellow in the professor's group said to her directly: "I look forward to working with you next year."
In early December of that year, Lin Zhixia received two pieces of good news: first, her paper was officially accepted by the Physical Review Letters, and second, she received a doctoral admission letter from Cambridge.