In the second class, Xiao Qi gathered her mind and stopped her random thoughts.
She obediently listened to the class.
In the last five minutes of the previous class, Xiao Qi's mind was distracted, but it was almost time to get out of class anyway, so the teacher didn't say anything important.
After taking a break when class was over, she was a little more spirited when the next class started.
Near the end of school, Xiao Qi's phone rang. She didn't answer during class, so she called back after school let out.
It was the 4S dealership where Xiao Qi had bought her car calling to tell her that the model she wanted had arrived and she could pick it up.
Although it had only been a little over two months, it felt like forever. If they hadn't called, Xiao Qi would have forgotten all about it. Xiao Qi felt that sometimes she was still quite impulsive and vain. How could she dare to make buying a car the first thing she did after coming to school? It was unbelievable.
Luckily she had her driving test scheduled for this Friday, so she should be able to pass it.
After getting her license, she could go pick up the car.
Now that she was at school, she realized the car wasn't really that useful. The new and old districts had buses, and it was convenient to walk around. When she bought it, she was probably just caught up in the heat of the moment. She thought of Zhang Juan, her old classmate, who actually had a car already, so she wanted one too.
It was human nature to compare yourself to others.
Xiao Qi felt she hadn't matured at all. Now when she saw Yunshu's jade pendant, she really wanted to buy a jade pendant too.
It seemed she was constantly influenced by the people around her and unconsciously followed them.
No wonder in ancient times there was the story of Mengmu's Mother Moving Three Times, and nowadays there were super expensive houses in elite school districts. People around you really had a huge influence.
It wasn't scary to have desires and ideas, as long as you could fulfill them through your own ability without forcing it.
This was the best kind of growth in Xiao Qi's opinion. She wanted a car and could afford one. She wanted a jade pendant and could afford one too.
This was the meaning of striving, she felt.
When she heard Xiao Qi had actually bought a car, Mi'er was excited to death.
"We have to go for a drive this weekend. Wow, next time we go shopping in the city, we won't have to line up and wait for the bus. We can take Xiao Qi's car to get back. Now I want to get my license too."
Wei Cheng smiled and said, "How nice."
Yunshu's family had cars and drivers, so she had never thought about driving herself. But seeing how excited and thrilled her roommates were, she felt she could get a license too.
She decided to take Wei Cheng to get their licenses. She didn't bother with Mi'er. Although they shared a dorm room, there was still a slight difference. Xiao Qi and Mi'er were deskmates with a closer relationship. Similarly, Yunshu and Wei Cheng were closer to each other.
Another thing was that Mi'er took a lot of initiative, while Wei Cheng was always hesitant. And Wei Cheng really liked helping others, so Yunshu thought it would be much more convenient for her if Wei Cheng went with her to get their licenses. She was thinking she could lend Wei Cheng the money for the license test fee and have her pay it back in installments.
Although it wasn't a large sum of money and she didn't care about lending it out, Yunshu still had a sense of propriety. Borrowing was equal, but just giving it would change the nature of their relationship over time, and Wei Cheng wouldn't accept that either. She didn't want it to be that way.
The four roommates chatted and laughed as they headed to the cafeteria. Mi'er always rushed in first to grab a window seat and opened the window to let in the cool breeze, making the food taste even better.
Li Yu was a third year now and rarely ate in the cafeteria, usually opting for the restaurants on Student Street instead.
It was usually just freshmen who ate in the cafeteria every day. No matter how good the cafeteria food was, you'd get tired of it after a few years.
But today she had come with a close girlfriend. It wasn't because she wanted to relive her freshman days; according to her intel, the girl the student council president had been seen with lately was a freshman who worked at his horse farm as part of the work-study program.
Many people were very excited to see the legendary campus belle Li Yu in the cafeteria.
Not only was Li Yu the backup chair of the student council, she was also a celebrity at Enhua University and the undisputed campus beauty.
Many people said Wu Xinyue, the freshman in the English department, was quite good-looking, at most calling her the beauty of the English department or the freshman class. But no one called her the campus beauty.
But Li Yu was acknowledged by all to be the beauty of the entire school. She had an elegant and dazzling demeanor, a top-notch family background, and extremely strong personal abilities. At school events and galas, she was always the headliner. Everyone knew about her.
Xiao Qi and her roommates also knew about the third-year senior Li Yu, but had never met her. The school was so big with different majors and grades, so it was normal they hadn't crossed paths.
They didn't expect the legendary campus belle to show up in the cafeteria today. Of the roommates, only the outgoing Mi'er loved to watch the excitement, but when it came to eating, even Mi'er was quite focused and paid no attention to the brief chaos in the cafeteria, wholly devoted to the battle with her food.
Xiao Qi had a big appetite. After running laps in the library early in the morning and two demanding applied statistics classes, she was starving by now and eating very seriously.
Wei Cheng also ate steadily without glancing left or right.
Yunshu even more so, glad the school day was finally over. She liked to read novels on her phone while eating, eyes never leaving the screen.
The four of them ate in peace.
Li Yu and her friend came to eat and sat at a table not far from Xiao Qi and the others.
A male student had given up the window seat for them.
It just so happened to give them a view of Xiao Qi.
After Xiao Qi finished eating with her roommates, they went back to the dorm to relax in the cool air after buying some fruit.
Li Yu and her friends sat in their seats. The rice they had taken was barely touched, just a few bites, and now they were drinking beverages. The mung bean soup provided by the cafeteria was quite good for cooling off on a hot day. The mung beans were cooked until they split open and chilled over ice.
"That's the girl the student council president likes? I think she looks really ordinary. Fifty-yuan cheap white shoes, jeans, white t-shirt, her whole outfit wouldn't cost more than 300 yuan. Her face is plain too, looks delicate and weak. Would the president like that kind of Cinderella-type girl? I can't believe it."
One friend complained.
Another friend chimed in, "I know, she looks so bland, not one-tenth as pretty as you, Ah Yu. The president is so wise, his taste can't be that bad, can it? It can't be like in novels where he likes an ordinary common girl, attracted to a Cinderella."
Li Yu bowed her head drinking mung bean soup without making a sound, letting her two friends chatter on.
Her friends all knew she had liked the student council president for many years. The president had never been close to other girls and was always proper with them, but made an exception for her. The two of them worked together organizing student council events and had quite an intimate relationship.
Her friends would tease her about being a couple with the president, and she didn't deny it, giving the impression they were together.
But now the president had said there was a girl he liked.
Li Yu had always been outstanding and almost never suffered setbacks at school, used to being admired. But when it came to romance, she lost her rationality for a bit. She was very curious what kind of girl the president liked.
She saw her, dressed very ordinarily without any luxury goods, looking very beautiful when she smiled, an innocent, clean smile that gave people a good feeling. Even though she was here in an adversarial role, Li Yu still felt the girl's smile was warm.
Her temperament was also very good. She sat up straight when eating, not glancing around, not noisy or obtrusive, completely unlike the country bumpkin from an impoverished mountain village background she had imagined. She didn't give off the greedy ambitious social climber vibe she had pictured either. There was none of that greasy power-grasping flavor about her.
But at first glance she did look quite plain, delicate and weak, a simple, innocent girl.
Listening to the two friends talking more and more outrageously, she interjected: “You’re wrong, she’s no Cinderella. She can speak four foreign languages - English, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. Her calligraphy has reached grandmaster level; she’s the youngest member of the Meng City Calligraphy and Painting Association. She’s an amazing singer, voted one of the top 10 campus singers. She’s great at running, breaking this year’s national marathon record. She’s also an incredible swimmer, winning this year's Jing City Women’s 200m freestyle championship. Her English is superb - she won the Meng City freshman English speech contest, beating students from Qingmeng University. She can also ride horses, becoming the youngest female national equestrian style riding champion. The total prize money from all these competitions is one or two million yuan. If these are things a Cinderella can do, then Cinderella would be too difficult."
Li Yu’s two good friends were dumbstruck upon hearing all this. They had only come to stand up for Li Yu, feeling that the Student Council President must have problems with his eyes to be seduced by a freshman. He should be with Li Yu instead, which was why they were filled with righteous indignation and had to come see for themselves.
At first glance, although the underclassman was quite pretty, compared to the gorgeous Li Yu she was clearly lacking. With different perspectives came different views – they found her very unpleasant. Why should a nobody who’s good at nothing be able to attract the Student Council President?
The President wasn’t especially handsome – he didn’t have the delicate pretty-boy looks that were currently in fashion. But he always had the bonuses of status, family background and connections. If it weren’t for Li Yu blocking their way, those girls would also like the President.
But now, upon hearing what Li Yu said...
The slight unwillingness in their hearts silently dissipated.
All that was left were exclamations of “WTF, where did this freaky underclassman come from, she’s so arrogant...”
It turns out TV shows and novels were lying about school royalty destined to be attracted to a shabby, common-born Cinderella who was good at nothing... it was all fake.
Reality is, outstanding people are attracted to other outstanding people.
The legendary Cinderella was actually an elite student.
Come to think of it, when Li Yu first entered the school, she wasn’t as overwhelmingly impressive as now either.
The two girls lowered their heads, noisily sipping on their green bean soup.
