Registration and opening the door to 504
Early the next morning, Lu Chuan woke up in the master bedroom at Quiet Garden.
The curtains weren't drawn all the way, and morning light slipped through the gap, falling across the foot of the bed. The new bedding he had put on the night before was quiet against his skin, with barely any friction even when he turned over. Lu Chuan lay there for a few seconds before getting up.
After washing up, he stood in front of the walk-in closet and picked out an outfit.
A light gray T-shirt, dark trousers, and a simple pair of shoes.
They had all been bought the day before, with no logos and subdued colors. Once he put them on, the line of the shoulders, the cut of the trousers, and the way the fabric draped all came through at once. Standing there, he looked effortlessly neat.
Lu Chuan glanced in the mirror, didn't fuss any further, and picked up his phone and document pouch before heading out.
At the entryway, he glanced at the car key on the counter.
The Continental GT's key lay there quietly.
Without even pausing, Lu Chuan left the key where it was, turned, changed his shoes, and went out.
It was the main registration day at Jiangcheng University. He didn't need to think twice to know what the area around the school would be like. New students, parents, taxis, private cars, and small trucks delivering luggage would all be crammed together. Driving that car over would accomplish nothing except getting stuck in traffic and making a spectacle of himself.
In his previous life, that had been exactly the kind of thing he loved doing most.
He would rent a convertible sports car and deliberately slow down as he drove through the school gates, waiting for people to look, waiting for them to guess, waiting for someone to come over and ask.
Back then, he had thought going to university wasn't about registering. It was about making an entrance.
Thinking about it now, he had simply been making life harder for himself.
Standing by the elevator, Lu Chuan looked down and ordered a ride on his phone.
A little over ten minutes later, the car stopped on the outskirts of Jiangcheng University.
It couldn't get any farther in. People filled the roadside, and the rumble of suitcases being dragged over the ground, parents calling to their children, and volunteers holding signs and calling out department names all mixed together. Early September was still hot, and with so many people around, even the air felt stifling.
Lu Chuan got out with the Aethel suitcase he had bought the day before and a backpack on his back, then followed the flow of people toward the school gates.
He hadn't brought much.
His documents, a computer, a few changes of clothes, and a set of bedding. He could slowly pick up whatever else he needed later. He was just going to live in the dorm, not move house. A lot of people wanted to stuff their entire homes in there on the first day, but he didn't think it was necessary.
The school gates were as lively as a makeshift market.
New students dragged their suitcases around, drenched in sweat as they looked for directions. Parents talked on their phones while giving their children last-minute instructions, all the while remembering to wipe the sweat from their faces.
Several red sun canopies had been set up by the roadside, with signs for the different colleges held high. Upperclassmen shouted themselves hoarse keeping order, and piles of bottled water and campus maps were spread out on the ground.
Lu Chuan walked through it all at an unhurried pace, without pushing.
The colors he was wearing today were so ordinary that, by rights, he shouldn't have stood out. Yet once he was in the crowd, he was still easy to spot.
Everyone else was busy and rushing, carrying the nervousness and confusion of their first day in an unfamiliar place. He, on the other hand, looked as if he had merely come to take care of a small errand whose procedure he already knew.
The light gray T-shirt gave his shoulders and back a clean line, while the cut of his trousers made his legs look straighter. There was no visible brand on the clothes, but the fabric didn't lie; it draped lightly as he walked. Add to that his handsome face and refined features, and he seemed to have a layer around him that automatically shut out the noise of the crowd.
He wasn't flashy.
But he was hard to overlook.
The finance department's welcome station was beside the sports field.
Lu Chuan followed the signs over and waited in line for less than ten minutes before it was his turn. The student handling registration was a junior with her hair tied back and a volunteer vest on. She had been looking down, sorting through forms, and only looked up when he gave his name.
Then she visibly froze for a moment.
"Lu Chuan?"
"Yes."
The upperclasswoman looked down to find his form, then couldn't resist looking up at him again.
It wasn't as if she had never seen a good-looking junior before, but the one in front of her was a little different.
He wasn't merely handsome; his bearing was even more captivating than his face. Standing beneath the canopy, surrounded by a noisy crowd of new students and parents, he showed no awkwardness at all. Even his voice was calm.
She handed him a pen.
"Sign here, and let me have your admission letter."
"Okay."
Lu Chuan took the pen and bent his head to sign the form. His movements were quick, and his handwriting was crisp. Sitting across from him, the upperclasswoman watched his profile as he looked down, and the tips of her ears grew a little warm. She was even a beat slow with the stamp.
Another girl helping hand out materials beside her stole a couple of glances at him and asked quietly, "Which class is he in?"
The upperclasswoman ignored her and handed him his campus card and dorm information.
"You're in building five, room 504."
"Thank you."
Lu Chuan took the materials and was about to leave when the upperclasswoman seemed to finally make up her mind and hurriedly took out her phone.
"Um... junior."
Lu Chuan stopped.
The upperclasswoman pressed her lips together, trying to look a little more natural.
"I'm an upperclasswoman in your finance department. If there's anything you don't understand later about the course schedule, choosing classes, or the teachers, you can ask me. How about we add each other on WeChat? I can send you some materials ahead of time."
She displayed her QR code.
In his previous life, Lu Chuan would most likely have scanned it without a second thought. Back then, he had been best at building a "network" for himself. Whether a contact was useful or not, he would add them first and keep them around. If they could chat, they would chat, and once they got to know each other, they might come in handy someday.
But now he only glanced at it before gently shaking his head.
"Thank you, senior, but it's not very convenient right now."
The upperclasswoman was taken aback.
Lu Chuan's tone was still gentle.
"I'd like to get familiar with the place first. If I really have any questions later, I'll come to the department and ask you."
He had already given her plenty of face with that answer.
He hadn't embarrassed her, but he hadn't left the slightest opening for ambiguity either.
The hand holding her phone paused, and in the end, the upperclasswoman smiled.
"All right, go on and take care of your things."
"Thank you."
Lu Chuan nodded, took his materials, and turned to leave.
What he didn't know was that, not far away at the campus media's new-student coverage station, a camera happened to be trained on the scene.
The shutter clicked softly.
The image froze.
In the background were the red sun canopies, the crowds weaving back and forth with their luggage, and the September sports field, where volunteers were busy and sweating. Yet the young man at the center of the frame seemed separated from it all by a layer. His profile was clean-lined, his wrist resting lightly on the form as he bent to sign it, his expression almost excessively calm.
The moment when the upperclasswoman held up her phone was also captured in the frame.
The girl behind the camera glanced down at the screen and raised her eyebrows slightly.
The candid shot was too complete.
It wasn't simply a good-looking picture.
It was as if the person in the image didn't belong on this sports field at the start of the school year.
She looked down again at the profile shot she had just taken. She didn't delete it right away, nor did she continue taking pictures. She merely hitched the camera strap up on her shoulder, letting her gaze linger for another two seconds in the direction Lu Chuan had gone.
Lu Chuan knew nothing of this.
Holding his dorm assignment sheet, he crossed the tree-lined path beside the sports field and headed toward the men's dorms.
He had walked around Jiangcheng University's campus many times in his previous life. He knew exactly where every building stood, which road led to the dining hall, and where the crowds gathered at night. Yet walking through it again felt a little different.
Gone was the old urge to figure out how to steal the spotlight.
And there was no deliberately affected maturity, either.
He was simply back at school.
There were a few fewer people downstairs at the men's dorm than outside, but it was still lively. Suitcases were piled by the entrance, and the corridors were full of people carrying things up and down. The rustling of plastic bags, boys calling "Coming through," and parents not far away reminding their children to "wipe down the bed board first" all blended together in a noisy, lived-in bustle.
Lu Chuan carried his luggage inside without letting anyone help.
Bits and pieces of his previous life in the dorm were gradually stirred up along with it.
504.
Lu Chuan stepped out of the elevator, his gaze falling on the number plate.
The numbers weren't large.
But they were very clear.
He stood at the door with his luggage and paused.
The other end of the hallway was still noisy. Someone carrying a cardboard box bumped into a door, while someone else was on a video call with their family, saying the dorm was all right. Wind blew in through an open window, carrying a hint of early autumn dryness and the smell peculiar to school dormitories.
Lu Chuan stood there for two seconds and pushed down all the jumbled emotions from his previous life.
Then he raised his hand and pushed open the door to 504.