Apple left. The next morning, Xu Tingsheng received a message from her.

  She asked: Xu Tingsheng, I’m leaving. We’ll still meet again, right?

  Xu Tingsheng replied: Of course. Have a safe journey.

  Apple said: Right, I had an erotic dream yesterday night. Want me to describe it to you?

  Xu Tingsheng replied: ……Please have mercy on me. Any more of this and I’ll explode.

  Apple said: It was exciting. My shorts are so short today. That scoundrelly-looking uncle sitting beside me has been constantly peeking.

  Xu Tingsheng replied: Cover it.

  Apple said: I’ve covered it. I’ll think of you.”


  Xu Tingsheng said: Okay.

  Apple asked: Will you think of me?

  Xu Tingsheng replied: I can have those dreams too.

  Apple said: How exciting……

  Apple left. He heard that no one had gone to send her off. Still, she was not depressed by that. For some people who were used to being lonely, as long as others provided them with some warmth, they would preserve it well, afterwards relying on it to nourish themselves.

  During the summer holidays, some of the graduates would get together for a meet-up once in a while. There were always some who would ask curiously about Fu Cheng’s howl towards the stands that day. Who had he been confessing to?

  This question was destined to remain unanswered.

  Xu Tingsheng asked Fu Cheng in private whether he had phoned over afterwards to finish the rest of what he had wanted to say back then. Fu Cheng said that Ms Fang had continually refused to pick up her phone for the rest of that day.

  “I think that she’s just confused,” Xu Tingsheng said, “This is still better than her rejecting you or counselling you patiently.”


  Time flowed by just like this. The results of the university applications would soon be released in succession by the respective universities.

  One day, Xu Tingsheng received a very unexpected call.

  It was the principal who was looking for him as he said in a rather dismal tone, “I’m sorry.”


  “Principal? ……What’s wrong?” Xu Tingsheng asked puzzledly.

  “Nearly, so very nearly……You missed the cut-off by just two marks. Sorry,” The principal said.

  Hearing that he had just been two marks away from getting accepted, Xu Tingsheng actually broke out into a cold sweat. Phew. Luckily, he had not scored two marks higher. Otherwise, what would he have done if he had been accepted into Qingbei? Everything was good there but just for the fact that it was too far away from Xiang Ning. Therefore, it would not have been good at all.

  He said, “It’s fine, I was mentally prepared……Still, are the results already out?”


  Principal Xu sighed, “I got someone to check it for me, and found out through him that you failed just by those two measly marks……Sorry, if not for us back then……”


  “Even if not for you, I would still have taken that risk,” Xu Tingsheng said, “Therefore, you don’t have to blame yourself, Principal.”


  Over the next few days, Xu Tingsheng received calls from many of the school, Vice Principal Lou and Old Zhou amongst them. All of them said what a pity it was whilst also professing the deep guilt that they felt over the matter. Xu Tingsheng could only comfort them one by one.

  Of course, Old Zhou said something else as well, “Still, I just don’t get why you chose Yanzhou University to cover your bases. It’s merely ranked around 9th or 10th in the province. That’s just too much of a waste.”


  Xu Tingsheng could only say, “At the time, for fear of not being able to get into any university at all, I covered my bases a little too thoroughly.”


  Perhaps this trash excuse of his was believed, or perhaps it was not. Whatever the case, this matter was already set in stone. Xu Tingsheng became the student with the highest ever marks to be accepted by Yanzhou University, its higher-ups excited to the point of calling over in the middle of the night just to confirm, “Will you really be coming?”


  “Rest assured, I will. I can’t wait,” Xu Tingsheng said.

  Why Yanzhou University?……Xu Tingsheng could not tell anyone the reason, that it was because there had once been a girl who had said: When I was bullied and huddled in a corner crying, you weren’t there to protect me.

  As the image of a little girl huddling in a corner and weeping arose within Xu Tingsheng’s mind, his heart felt like it was being viciously shredded apart.

  Therefore, Xu Tingsheng definitely had to go this time. He definitely had to go to her side.

  Xu Tingsheng just couldn’t wait.

  The students and teachers all felt that it was a great pity, though. He even received calls of consolation from Yao Jing, Apple and Ye Yingjing.

  Wu Yuewei said, “Yanzhou University is pretty good. It’s right by the sea, I rather like it.”


  Xu Tingsheng said, “You have to get into Qingbei. As for everything else, it can wait till later,” As he saw it, the period of a year should be sufficient to change many things.

  Comparatively speaking, Mr and Mrs Xu were better able to take it in their stride. As they saw it, Xu Tingsheng had done very well already. Qingbei? They had never heard of anyone successfully getting in before, not in a hundred lifetimes.

  As for Fu Cheng, Huang Yaming and Song Ni, they rather ‘rejoiced at his misfortune’ a little instead, because that person they had thought they would no longer be able to hang out with actually……suddenly……might very possibly still be remaining by their sides.

  Fu Cheng had applied for a normal course in Yanzhou University, while Huang Yaming and Song Ni would also be studying in the same university cluster.

  When filling in their aspiration forms, they had said, “There’s only us three poor souls relying on whilst also supporting one another now. Someone’s achieved great glory and made off without us.”


  Now, Huang Yaming felt this to be very suspicious as he asked, “Out with it, is it because you saw our aspirations that you filled in Yanzhou University? Are you gay, and if so, is it me or Fu Cheng whom you like?”


  Having before experienced an era in which the term ‘gay buddies’ had been very commonly used, Xu Tingsheng’s resistance to this sort of teasing was actually very good as he directed a slightly heated glance first at Fu Cheng and next at Huang Yaming before shyly lowering his head, “I like both of you.”


  With that, Huang Yaming and Fu Cheng collapsed.

  Ye Yingjing was successful in her application to Jianhai University. She said that she had to thank Xu Tingsheng for his reminder to apply for specialisation flexibility, because she had merely been above the cut-off for Jianhai University by a single mark.

  Huang Yaming would go to Jianhai Technological University, separated by Yanzhou University by a single river. Fu Cheng would specialise in finance in Yanzhou University. Song Ni would be studying accounting in an economic-based institute in Yanzhou.

  This had all come together perfectly, or at least, such was what Xu Tingsheng thought.

  In Xu Tingsheng’s previous life, it had been Huang Yaming who had been in the same university as him. However, he had become a junior due to having repeated the year, and it came to be that the junior, Huang Yaming, led the senior, Xu Tingsheng, astray. This time, it was Fu Cheng who was in the same university as him. Xu Tingsheng would now be leading him astray.

  Song Ni’s problem lay with the fact that she had already lost her freedom of looking for a boyfriend. It was not that she was not allowed to. Rather, it was that the boy would first have to undergo a joint inspection and be approved of.

  Yao Jing would be attending an educational institute in Xihu City, this leaving Xu Tingsheng very surprised. In his previous life, it had been him who had gone into the field of education. This time, however, it was Yao Jing who would be doing so. The flapping of the butterfly’s wings had finally changed yet more things.

  “I wonder if many years later, standing before a class, she will still appear that tomboyish,” Xu Tingsheng thought with some relish.

  Apple called to tell Xu Tingsheng that she would be attending a specialisation college in Shenghai City, her specialisation being English. She said that she actually really wanted to leave Shenghai. Still, her mother was there and she was afraid that she might be lonely.

  Xu Tingsheng didn’t know which university Apple had attended in her previous life or how her life there had been. He only knew that she had eventually ended up marrying a rich guy, a very gentlemanly British man, next having emigrated to Australia.

  Australia belonged to Britain in name, and that man actually even had a position of nobility bestowed upon him by the royal family.

  This time, it was unknown whether they might still meet.

  Xu Tingsheng said over the phone, “How good is that? Mastering a foreign language, with it also being in a big city. That way, you can date a foreigner, with golden hair and blue eyes.”


  Apple said, “But I like those with black hair and black eyes.”


  Xu Tingsheng said, “Relax, there are these types amongst foreigners as well. Let me ask you a question. If sometime in the future, you make up your mind to emigrate, which country would you most want it to be?”


  Apple thought before replying, “Australia.”


  Xu Tingsheng felt that it was great that this was so.

  The graduates would be heading to various different places. Whether they were overjoyed or desolate, they would soon be embarking on a whole new journey. University-herein lay the some of the most blissful times of one’s life.

  Having received his letter of admission, Xu Tingsheng suddenly thought of his university classmates of his previous life.

  Amongst them had been good bros of his whom he had hung out and played around together for four years with.

  This time, Xu Tingsheng would be going someplace else, and perhaps they would no longer meet. Even if they met, while Xu Tingsheng would know them, they would no longer know Xu Tingsheng.

  There were also his two ex-girlfriends whom he had been in a relationship with in university. Xu Tingsheng wondered: If he were to return to his university of his previous life one day to look around and he saw her and her, how would he feel?

  If he went up and told her, “With but a few calculations of my fingers, this old man knows all. Beautiful lady-there is a red mole at the back of your waist.”


  Would he be worshipped as a divinity or beaten painfully up as a jerk?