Chapter 53 – Class
Qiao Huaiyao was momentarily stunned by the words he heard, and a smile spread across his face before he even realized it himself.
The scent of roses made his heart beat a little faster, the vigorous thumping resembling a gentle tap on his eardrums.
Having spent so much time together, even a day apart would leave him feeling a bit down. However, Qiao Huaiyao didn’t show it. Everything seemed normal, but Bai Jinyan had prepared roses early in the morning.
Qiao Huaiyao thought that receiving a gift would make a person happy. What was even more delightful was that Bai Jinyan wouldn’t overlook any detail.
A breeze blew through, lifting half of the curtain and filling the room with the fragrance of roses.
Bai Jinyan couldn’t help but curl his lips into a smile. He had ordered roses for a whole year. If they were delivered on time, it would be every morning.
Qiao Huaiyao placed the roses on the table, not in a rush to unwrap them. There was no special nutrition water for roses in the dorm, and there were no vases. He decided to keep the bouquet intact. It would preserve longer than hastily unwrapping it.
He thought for a moment and didn’t leave the roses in the living room, instead placing them on the bedside table in his bedroom. The bedside table was mostly empty, occasionally holding a phone, and never any decorations.
With the roses on it, the bright red color adorned the empty bedside.
In a slightly smaller bedroom, it was easier for the fragrance to fill the air…
The break was over, and the new school year had just begun. Qiao Huaiyao’s name had already spread throughout the entire chemistry department. Those who could get into Qing University were at the top of their class in high school, excelling in academics.
Such students were repeatedly subjected to reexams based on just a few exam papers, a process unfamiliar to new students but well known to the older ones.
A new student like Qiao Huaiyao had achieved a very high score, confirmed by the professor himself, attracting a lot of attention.
In the classroom, Qiao Huaiyao calmly continued to take handwritten notes. Occasionally, he would check his phone and send messages to Bai Jinyan. Qiu Shufeng and a few others sat next to him.
The classroom was crowded, and the front rows were all occupied.
Now they were quite familiar with each other, and Qiu Shufeng and the others didn’t sit with a few seats in between like before. They sat side by side.
Wang Zhan was browsing the forum on his phone. “This is the thirtieth post I’ve seen about the academic genius since the day before yesterday.”
Qiu Shufeng leaned over to take a look. “Strange, why isn’t the moderator doing something about it?”
Generally speaking, forums had moderators to manage them. Many posts with similar discussion topics were usually deleted most of the time, leaving only a few scattered ones to avoid dominating the page and affecting other students’ browsing experience.
But now…
The entire page was filled with posts, not only on the first page but also some with slightly lower popularity were pushed to the second page.
Yu Luofan said lightly, “The one with the blue ID is the moderator posting. He’s too busy posting among the crowd to manage, because he’s one of us.”
He posted even more than others.
Yu Luofan had been active on the forum for quite a while, knowing some details. He explained, “The moderator seems to be a senior in our chemistry department.”
Qiu Shufeng suddenly realized. They might have only heard rumors about the difficulty of the exam papers in other departments, but their own department’s senior had personally experienced it.
Achieving a full score was naturally more exciting than others.
Yu Luofan also looked at a few posts and couldn’t help but laugh. “They even dug up the performance video from our previous military training.”
The forum was filled with screenshots and direct video links.
Having a knack for musical instruments and excelling in academics, Qiao Huaiyao had accumulated a halo that seemed to stack buffs directly on him.
Anyone who saw it would want to ask, “Is there really such a person?”
It’s not that your chemistry department is being pressured by the exams to imagine someone who could score a perfect grade, right? Wang Zhan handed over his phone and said, “Study God, they’re all talking about the passing rate of this exam.”
He jokingly added, “Excluding the seniors who have to take make-up exams, our batch of freshmen has the highest passing rate in recent years.”
In previous years, it was in single digits in terms of percentages. This year, it’s in the tens.
Even those in the single digits in the past have made significant contributions in their respective professional fields after graduation.
With a passing rate in the tens, the professors were in a noticeably better mood than usual.
Qiao Huaiyao wasn’t paying attention to the forum. He glanced and said, “That’s good. Earlier, when the professor expanded the experimental class, did you all sign up?”
“We did,” Qiu Shufeng said, but couldn’t help sighing. “We signed up, but we don’t know if we’ll pass.”
The expansion of the experimental class also required an assessment. Just signing up didn’t guarantee entry. However, because of the expansion, the chances of passing should be higher than the first batch.
Qiao Huaiyao nodded.
Wang Zhan lay bored on the table, browsing the forum. Suddenly, he sat up and asked, “By the way, Study God, there are club recruitments today, and both the student union and the international department are recruiting. Any thoughts?”
“None,” Qiao Huaiyao hadn’t been involved in these activities. He still leaned towards spending time in the laboratory. Besides, clubs often organized events, and participating in a club meant participating in activities. It would leave very little time for himself, which would be inconvenient.
As he casually typed, he said, [Class is about to start.]
Bai Jinyan: [Head-pat.jpg.]
He asked, [No classes this afternoon. Where do you plan to go?]
Qiao Huaiyao: [Back to the dorm.]
He had been at Qing University for a while, but he hadn’t really explored much. Apart from the time when Bai Jinyan was there and they walked to the square together, most of his time was spent shuttling between the dorm and the classroom.
Bai Jinyan: [Wouldn’t you get bored staying in the dorm all the time? Go out for a bit.]
Qiao Huaiyao thought for a moment. [I can organize my notes.]
Immersing himself in studying would keep him from feeling bored. If he went out… even without Bai Jinyan, he would still find it uninteresting.
Bai Jinyan sent a helpless expression. [If you have nothing to do, you can go to the set. They’re still shooting there.]
Qiao Huaiyao still had no strong inclination, but with Bai Jinyan’s suggestion, he remembered that he could edit photos when he had free time.
Photos taken at the set, in various variety shows, and at award ceremonies. The photos were already filling up his new phone, and there was no need to delete them. He could buy another phone just for storing selected and edited photos.
Qiao Huaiyao was thinking about those photos when Qiu Shufeng reminded him in a low voice, “The teacher is here.”
“Yeah,” Qiao Huaiyao noticed the classroom becoming quiet.
After sending a message to Bai Jinyan, he put down his phone
…
One class lasted two hours with a ten-minute break in between. Some teachers would cancel this break and end the class ten minutes early.
Around noon, the sky started to darken.
After the first class in the afternoon, it hadn’t started raining, but it seemed even darker outside.
Walking out of the classroom, Qiao Huaiyao looked up at the impending storm and captured the moment with his phone.
Seeing this, Qiu Shufeng couldn’t help but ask, “Study God? Taking a scenic picture?”
“Yeah,” after the photo was taken, instead of saving it first, Qiao Huaiyao directly sent the picture to Bai Jinyan.
In some coastal areas, you don’t have to wait until the harsh winter; the temperature in October is already colder than in other places. At this time, the temperature is not much different from the onset of winter.
Before Qiao Huaiyao could type a response after sending the picture, Bai Jinyan had already replied with another image. It seemed to be a shot of the sky taken from beside a corridor window. Over there, the sky was still clear, with the leisurely appearance of white clouds.
Qiao Huaiyao said, “Over here, it’s either raining or on the way to raining.”
Under the photo Bai Jinyan took, there was a location tag for their university.
Qiao Huaiyao paused for a moment and then checked his own photo. In the same position, there was also a location tag for Qing University. While taking the photos, he accidentally enabled the automatic location tagging in the bottom left corner, and he hadn’t noticed it himself because both location tags used similar font colors.
Qiao Huaiyao lifted the corners of his mouth and set the image Bai Jinyan sent as the profile picture for his messaging app. Then he typed, [Brother]
Bai Jinyan replied with a nodding emoji, [Mhm.]
With another refresh, his profile picture changed to a sky with the Qing University location tag.
Qiao Huaiyao opened his emoji collection, and similar types of emojis were grouped together. He scrolled through and sent a more playful one: [Cat-spinning.jpg.]
Qiu Shufeng, holding a book, could already hear students from nearby club recruitments shouting. It sounded quite lively. He said, “Study God, that road up ahead leads to the club recruitments. Since you’re heading back to the dorm anyway, why not go take a look?”
Qiao Huaiyao glanced at him and replied, “Let’s go.”
When they reached the end of this road, it split into two paths—one leading to the sports field and the other to the student dormitories. The school had a total of four sports fields, and the one used for displaying club recruitment signs was relatively small. On both sides of the road, there were tables set up like street stalls.
“Hey there, interested in joining the Swimming Club?”
“Snack Club is recruiting members! Join us, and you’ll get free snacks right away. Isn’t that tempting?”
“We’re recruiting for the Dance Club. Our club activities are associated with school festivals, and you can earn credits.”
“How about checking out the Film Club?”
…
As soon as they walked down this road, people immediately approached them with flyers. Clubs underwent assessments every year, and if there were too few participants, the school might consider canceling the club. Fortunately, there was no upper limit on the number of clubs one could join. As long as you were interested, you could join all the clubs on campus without any issues. The only requirement was probably to pay the club fees on time.
“Hey, the Art Club—Hey, you look so familiar,” the student handing out flyers to Qiao Huaiyao paused for a moment, as if they had seen him somewhere before.
“Qiao… Qiao…!” Another student rushed over, “Join our Guitar Club. It’s the perfect fit for you.”
“We saw your guitar performance during military training.”
Students from the Guitar Club closely followed new student performances to inject fresh talent into their club. It was also to ensure that when they participated in group performances, their act would rank high and earn more points.
“If you join our club, you’ll get to participate in all the school-organized events this year. You’ll accumulate so many credits!”