Speaking of Nine-Arch Bridge, locals may give a knowing smile.
There are landmarks in many cities that locals will have a tacit understanding of. There is nothing about romance, it is just tacit among the locals. For example, the Nine-Arch Bridge of R City is commonly known for — fake certificates.
Indeed, ID cards, graduation certificates, qualification certificates… Every fake certificate you can tell can be made here. Illegal indeed, it is a “specialized” place.
However, somewhere like this just locates next to the best university in R City.
Lin Luoran gets off the taxi and walks into the University of Chuan through the east gate. Class is over at the moment and a lot of students walk out to have lunch outside. Lin Luoran wears a hat so no one notices her.
In this beautiful university, young students walk past her. It reminds Lin Luoran of her university life. She now feels regret for dropping out of school and losing contact with other classmates other than Baojia as she was having a hard time back then.
Now she may have another chance to go back to school. She really wants to take this opportunity and cherish this experience. Lin Luoran stops a student and asks him the location of the office of the department of Chinese literature. After getting the answer, she thanks the student and heads to the office. The student stays there and wonders, “Since when does our university have such a pretty girl?”
Rong Donglin, who is in the same dormitory with the student, taps on his shoulder, “Yan Feng, hurry up, we’ll have no seat if we are late!”
Yan Feng laughs, “I am your dear friend. I just found a really pretty girl and she asked me about the location of the office of your department… Why are you so dumb? She might be a fresh year student and you’ve never mentioned!” He points at the direction where Lin Luoran goes and sighs.
Rong Donglin has no idea what he is talking about. He doesn’t really care about “pretty girls”, but he looks at the direction Yan Feng is pointing at. He sees the back of a woman who is in normal clothes and whose hair is hidden under the hat. She has a good figure. Rong Donglin cannot see her face so he doesn’t know how pretty she is… However, why does that back look familiar?
Rong Donglin gives up the absurd idea. He spends his time struggling for life and he barely knows anyone that is pretty. It should be a stranger. Rong Donglin thinks that he is free this afternoon and he wants to do his part-time job, so he grabs Yan Feng to the little diner outside school.
Lin Luoran turns around and sees two boys’ backs. She can remember everyone she meets, so she recognizes that one of them is Rong Donglin.
What a coincidence! Rong Donglin, who she met on the train to Chang’an, studies in the university so close to them. When Luodong got back, he talked about this Rong Donglin from time to time. He should be happy about it.
As she has made an appointment with someone else, Lin Luoran doesn’t greet to Rong Donglin. Anyway, they will be studying in the same university, so there will be a lot of chances to meet. Lin Luoran smiles and goes up to the fourth floor.
She asks the location again and knocks on a door.
“Door’s open, come in.” It is the voice of an old man. Lin Luoran opens the door and sees an old man in a tunic suit. He is studying with his glasses circled by a big pile of materials.
“Professor Qi, I have contacted you before… Are you available now?”
Professor Qi wipes his glasses and smiles, “Ah, it’s you. Yes, we can talk now.”
Lin Luoran has contacted Professor Qi several times. She wants to study the ancient characters of Huaxia with him as a research direction. Lin Luoran told Professor Qi that she would pay the tuition fee but she didn’t need the diploma. All she wants is to study the ancient characters of Huaxia and read materials about it. Professor Qi feels truly glad. He hasn’t met a student like her for a long time. After all, in this society, everyone is anxious to achieve quick success and get instant benefits.
She has embarrassed herself many times due to lack of knowledge. What’s more, the harder she works on cultivation, the more ignorant she finds herself is. She has planned to come back to school for a long time. Studying is not wasting time. Knowledge will never leave you and it will give you some profit unexpectedly.
There is another reason. If no one in the cultivation world has heard about the “Soul Wood”, she can only find it in materials about Huaxia culture. During the long history, there must be somewhere mentioning that.
As long as there is a chance, Lin Luoran will not give up.
*******
A public primary school of R City.
It is not a private school, so there is no unrealistic comparison between students. However, because of the restriction to children who do not live here, those whose family is not here in R City all have some connections with the school or the local government. Actually, children from real powerful or wealthy families do not bully others, those who do that are just arrogant and half-baked.
Some children in class three, grade six are obviously the latter. Their parents are either wealthy or powerful, so they become a clique to bully those children whose families are not wealthy enough.
Lin Luodong was not a target at first. His clothes are not luxurious, but with the help of Li Xi’er, who is generous, and Baojia, who has a good taste, even his shirt is selected. Detail matters most. Moreover, he has a good-looking face. Even though he is shy, a lot of girls still want to play with him. Luodong is shy, but he is always polite.
If things go like this, he will be enjoying a peaceful and happy primary school life. One day, however, when the school collected information to get insurance for students, one naughty classmate of Luodong knew that his family was in the countryside. That naughty classmate led others to shunt away from Luodong.
“You are from the countryside—”
“Your clothes are good. Are they bought by your money for food?”
“Didn’t you all call him little prince before?”
“Nonsense…”
Perhaps his appearance didn’t match the fact that his family is in the countryside, many classmates felt cheated by Luodong, so they refused to talk to him anymore.
The emotion of children is simple. Under the guidance of some naughty children, the students of class three gradually isolated Luodong. Some of them provoked him from time to time. Lin Luodong’s school life was not happy. Back then, Lin Luoran disappeared and the Lin family was at a hard time. Luodong didn’t want to bother them so he didn’t say anything. Those naughty children saw that he didn’t have any support and they did something worse.
However, Lin Luodong is different after this summer vacation.
Primary school students have a strong feeling of alertness. As they haven’t figure out what happened to Lin Luodong, they turn to bully someone else.
Inside the classroom, Lin Luodong is reciting English words and sees the clique led by Ma Ming walk to the corner. Luodong clenches his book tightly. He feels sorry for that boy.
In the corner sits Huang Weijian, who just came to this school this term. He is a well-behaved and quiet boy and Lin Luodong feels that he has seen himself in Huang Weijian.
Seeing that Ma Ming directs others to tear Huang Weijian’s book into pieces, Lin Luodong cannot bear it anymore,
“Hey, we are all classmates, don’t be too excessive!”
