“Start-of-Term Ceremony?”
“Perform with Jiang Miaoyu?”
Fang Qiu gave a small scowl and asked, “How long will the rehearsal take?”
Liu Feifei’s eyes rounded, as though she just met Fang Qiu for the first time. She eyed him from head to toe and said unbelievably, “Seems that I need to thinking afresh about you. You’re performing with the campus belle, but your face is saying that you don’t want it, isn’t it?”
“Well, I just want to focus on study.”
Said Fang Qiu in resignation.
“Good boy!”
Liu Feifei clapped Fang Qiu on the shoulder in pretended solemnity. “There are two rehearsals. At the last one, we will go through all the shows, which shall take up a whole afternoon. As for the specific duration of your rehearsal, it depends on the cooperation between you and Jiang Miaoyu.”
“Since your first joint performance turned out to be flawless, I assume you won’t have problems on cooperation.”
“Without the need of a breaking-in period, the time you have to spend on it will be minimum. The main issue is which song you two should perform. Love songs are out of the question. You must choose something that can promote the positive vibe.”
Hearing that it would not take up a lot of time, with his pretty senior staring at him hopefully, Fang Qiu could only agree on it.
“OK.”
“Cheer up, young man. How many people are yearning for an opportunity to cooperate with the campus belle but can’t have one! You two contact each other about the rehearsals. I’ll leave the rest to you two. Good boy, go for it!”
Liu Feifei patted Fang Qiu on his shoulder again, and then, said in a grave and earnest tone that only mothers would adopt. “Don’t merely focus on study. To really enjoy your adolescence, you should experience love and romance.”
After finishing those words, she winked at Fang Qiu and gracefully walked away.
Watching the back of Liu Feifei fading from sight, Fang Qiu opened his mouth in the hope of asking for Jiang Miaoyu’s contact information, but suddenly the whistle for military training called.
“Seems that I have to figure out other ways to contact Jiang Miaoyu.”
Thought Fang Qiu, as he trotted to join the line.
In the morning, each class’s military training on square formation continued.
During the whole period of military training, Chen Cong did not pay much attention to Fang Qiu. He only concentrated on training with his team.
Observing that, Fang Qiu gave a smile.
“It appears that Chen Cong has not found out I am the mysterious man. He thinks the mysterious man is some other guy, so he has stopped suspecting me.”
“For me, it’s a good thing.”
Time always went slowly during military training. Finally, it came to the time for a break.
The whole Class Three sat down at the same time—they were too exhausted.
During the break, drill masters all left. But soon, a drill master respectfully ushered in a young military officer in military uniform who was wearing a smile and walked towards them.
“Chen Cong, step forward!”
The drill master came to a halt at a place very distant from Class Three and yelled at them.
Chen Cong immediately got to his feet and walked up to the drill master.
Everyone of Class Three, who was sitting on the ground to take a rest, looked at Chen Cong and the drill master, perplexed.
But Fang Qiu eyed the young military officer the drill master brought and smiled.
“He is a martial arts practitioner!”
“And the aura I detected in the woods at three o’clock in that morning was exactly his.”
“Never thought he could be a military officer.”
“It looks like he is here for some request.”
Thought Fang Qiu.
The young military officer shook hands with Chen Cong of his own accord. The two exchanged a few words. No one knew what the young military officer said, but Chen Cong’s expression gradually turned from surprised to solemn.
Quickly, the two shook hands again. Then, the military officer took off and Chen Cong went back.
“Why did the drill master call you?”
A boy in Class Three asked Chen Cong curiously.
Chen Cong merely shook his head, lowered his chin, lost in thought.
Seeing that, others could only stifle down their doubts and curiosity.
But Fang Qiu was not interested in what on earth the military officer had told Chen Cong, so he did not eavesdrop.
He was here for a sole purpose—master medical skills. Nothing else shall disrupt him, and he truly had no interest in anything else.
Soon, the break ended, and the military training went on.
After pulling through two more hours, the morning session of their military training was over. Freshmen hurtled towards the canteen like hungry tigers that were just released from cages.
After such a training session for all morning, anyone should be starving!
Fang Qiu was on his way to the canteen along with Zhu Benzheng, Sun Hao, and Zhou Xiaotian, chatting as they went.
With an accidental glance, Fang Qiu noticed a fluster of lovely girls ahead of them.
After giving it a thought, Fang Qiu asked his three roommates to have lunch first, while he himself headed for those girls.
Seeing Fang Qiu coming towards them, the girls obviously froze for a second.
Among them, a sweet little girl even blushed.
Other girls around her also looked her way in somewhat ambiguity.
Fang Qiu glanced at the sweet girl and immediately knew what it was about. But he pretended he had known nothing and stroke straight towards Jiang Miaoyu before saying, “Excuse me, Jiang Miaoyu, could you have a word with me?”
“Huh?”
Jiang Miaoyu did not expect that Fang Qiu was here for her. She looked a bit surprised, and then, she cast a look at the sweet girl among the crowd, eventually nodded and replied, “Yes.”
With the throng of girls and many passing-by students staring at them curiously, the two went to the small garden beside the road.
When they came to the shade of trees, Jiang Miaoyu opened her mouth to speak before Fang Qiu could tell her his intentions.
“Fang Qiu, you’re here to discuss the show for the Start-of-Term Ceremony, am I right?”
Fang Qiu nodded.
“Then, as for the song of the performance, what do you have in mind?”
Asked Jiang Miaoyu.
She fully acknowledged and admired Fang Qiu’s talents in art, so she was quite eager to hear the opinions of the student before her who was a bit mysterious.
But she was bound to be disappointed.
Fang Qiu shook his head and said, “I have no opinion. We totally can go with what you want.”
“If I pick something you haven’t sung before, is it OK?”
Asked Jiang Miaoyu beamingly.
“Yes.”
Fang Qiu nodded rather positively.
Now, Jiang Miaoyu felt a little astonished. “How could he agree to sing a song he hasn’t learned without thinking?”
“Is his boldness a result of his great talent or his recklessness?”
“Then, I’ll pick the song. When I’ve made my decision, I’ll go to discuss the performance with you.”
After that, Jiang Miaoyu took out the letter from her pocket with a halfhearted smile, and then, she rested her beautiful eyes on Fang Qiu and asked, “How do you explain this letter, Fang Qiu?”
At the sight of the letter in Jiang Miaoyu’s hand, Fang Qiu laughed and said, “It comes back to where it is from.”
“Fang Qiu, don’t you think you’re a bit heartless?”
Fang Qiu did not comment.
At that, Jiang Miaoyu could only heave a sigh in her mind, put away the letter, and then, looked at Fang Qiu.
She just stared at him quietly with a halfhearted smile.
It made Fang Qiu feel awkward.
“Why is she doing this?”
The two just stayed in silence like that for half a minute.
Then, Jiang Miaoyu gave a soft sigh and said helplessly, “Fang Qiu, aren’t you supposed to ask me for my phone number? If not, how can we contact each other to discuss the affairs of the Start-of-Term Ceremony? Are you still going to block me on my way to have lunch like you did today?”
“Oh? Oh!”
Fang Qiu now realized what he should do, and hastily grabbed out his mobile phone and recorded Jiang Miaoyu’s phone number.
Jiang Miaoyu murmured a comment in her head.
“Seems that this Fang Qiu has little experience of dealing with girls.”
“Shouldn’t the boy ask for the girl’s phone number of his own accord? How could it be the reverse?”
After exchanging their phone numbers, the two strolled towards the canteen while chatting.
Students passing by all googled at the two in amazement.
“The campus belle is walking along with a boy?”
“What a heartbreaking piece of news!”
“Could the campus belle fall in love so rapidly?”
“Who is the boy beside our campus belle? Though you look pretty handsome, you’re not good enough for our campus belle!”
Nearly all the boys threw the most vicious words they could think of onto Fang Qiu.
In just a few seconds, in their minds, they had criticized Fang Qiu as if there were nothing right about him.
However, the two did not care for the eyes around. They parted at the gate of the canteen—Jiang Miaoyu went to look for her classmates, while Fang Qiu left to search for his roommates.
Finally, when he found his three roommates, the three were so busy eating that they did not keep him a seat.
“You three foodies!”
Fang Qiu gave the three a good dressing-down in his mind. Then, he looked around only to find out that the first floor of the canteen was already packed. Many were still standing, waiting for others to finish their meals and empty their seats.
Helplessly, he could only go up to the second floor that provided dishes with special care.
There was originally not much money left in his pocket. Now, he had to spend more.
He came to the service window and ordered the cheapest stir-fried potato shredded.
Seeing the digital number in his canteen card decrease, Fang Qiu felt his heart aching.
In fact, he did not carry much money to go to college. He thought he should be able to make a living by himself and he was mature enough to repay his parents. He just could not stand spending more of his parents’ money to go to college.
Therefore, he only brought the sum of money that was just enough for him to live on campus for a month. However, in less than ten days since the term started, he had already spent almost two-thirds of his money.
“Money is slipping away a little too fast!”
“It seems that besides learning medical skills, I have to come up with a way to make money.”
As he ate, Fang Qiu contemplated it.
Halfway through his meal, a man came scuttling towards him and yelled with joy and surprise. “Brother? You are here, too!”
Fang Qiu looked up.
It was Tang Heng, a silver spoon kid.
He was holding a plate of meat and staring at him with a stunned happy look.
Tang Heng glanced the dish in front of Fang Qiu and tried to flatter him. “Brother, you’re so thrifty!”
Fang Qiu threw Tang Heng a helpless look.
“How do you know I’m living thriftily?”
“I’m broken. If I had money, how could I be eating this!”
Fang Qiu decided to lower his head and ignore him. He continued to eat.
Tang Heng did not mind Fang Qiu’s cold attitude. He directly sat opposite him and said, “Brother, where is my sister-in-law?”
With that question, Fang Qiu could instantly conclude that the silver spoon kid sitting in front of him definitely needed his head examined!
To prevent the deepening of misunderstanding, he could only patiently explain, “She is neither my girlfriend nor your sister-in-law.”
“Sooner or later she will be!”
While eating, Tang Heng said with assurance, “According to my observation, in our university, the most beautiful one is my sister-in-law. I think only she is worthy of you, my Bro.”
“Sharp vision!”
Fang Qiu immediately overturned the previous conclusion. He was sure that Tang Heng did not need his head examined. At least, his vision was fine.
He swallowed the last spoonful of rice.
Then, Fang Qiu wiped his mouth with a tissue and observed Tang Heng’s sitting posture. He said, “Your right shoulder joint is a bit dislocated.”
Tang Heng was so shocked that he directly froze in the middle of eating.
“Bro, how do you know? I do feel it a little difficult to lift my arm.”
“Yesterday, I drank your two bottles of water. In return, I’ll give you a treatment.”
Fang Qiu stood up and approached Tang Heng. He softly tapped on his shoulder joint and said, “Done.”
Tang Heng merely heard his shoulder let out a clatter. Then, when he moved his shoulder, the discomfort really disappeared!
He looked up at Fang Qiu, astounded, incredulity filled up his eyes.
“He healed me with just a soft tap like that?”
Although Tang Heng was used to behaving eccentrically, he did know what was normal and what was not.
“In a normal case, how could my shoulder be healed simply with a gentle pat?”
He just stared at Fang Qiu, dumbstruck, while Fang Qiu’s image instantly grew magnificent in his mind.
