Curiosity

After opening WeChat, Su Qi had not logged in for so long that the large WeChat icon sat on her phone screen for six seconds before it finally loaded.

The chat list on WeChat was not even full. A red 99+ notification appeared in the lower-left corner.

From the chat list, it was clear that they were all messages where the owners or administrators of those three groups had @ mentioned her.

One private chat ended with: You have confirmed receipt.

It was probably payment for illustration work.

An Ning said this was absolutely the loneliest WeChat account she had ever seen. Even chats with her own grandma or grandmother were more numerous than Su Qi's.

After scanning the code and adding her as a friend, An Ning discovered that Su Qi's profile was just as sparse. Her username was "Brother Qi," she had not posted a single update on Moments, and she did not even have a personal tagline or background image.

"Our Qi usually uses QQ. She doesn't really use WeChat," Wang Dongxu said, smoothing things over.

"How about you add me on WeChat? You know Qi's phone—WeChat notifications don't pop up. What if she misses your message? Wouldn't that be troublesome?" Wu Wei said awkwardly, wondering if he could use this chance to get An Ning's WeChat.

"Ah, it's fine. If Su Qi doesn't reply to me, can't I just message Han Yixing instead?" An Ning's answer stunned everyone. If you already had Han Yixing's WeChat, why did you need to add Su Qi?

Just then, Wang Zijin returned. Seeing that there were no marks on Su Qi's face, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. She had acted on impulse just now. It was mainly Su Qi's fault—her expression and demeanor had made Wang Zijin lose control for a moment.

She grabbed her bag with one hand, linked arms with An Ning with the other, and pulled Gu Panpan along as they hurried out of the lecture hall.

But all the while, An Ning kept waving her 5.5-inch phone, with its dung-fork keychain, at Su Qi. It was obvious that she wanted Su Qi to keep an eye on her phone at all times, as though afraid Su Qi would forget.

After the girls left, Wang Dongxu and Wu Wei walked over together, both wearing looks of admiration.

"Tell us, how did you hook up with the Campus Belle? And two of them at that!"

"Brother Qi, hurry up and teach me. I want to get a girlfriend too." Meeting Wu Wei's pitiful little eyes on that muscular brute of a body, Su Qi felt a chill run down her spine.

"Wasn't it you two? I asked you to save me a seat, but there weren't any seats, so I had to go over there. Then I got kicked out once and all this nonsense happened. I haven't even settled the score with you two, and you're already turning the tables on me!" Su Qi snapped.

The two of them heard the faint complaint in her tone. What nonsense? That was a blessing, all right? But after Su Qi put it that way, it really did seem to be their fault. The two immediately looked at Han Yixing, deciding to dump the blame on him.

The seasoned Han Yixing instantly saw through their thoughts.

But he was not taking the fall. He had originally wanted to sit in front and listen to the lecture, but these two idiots had called him to the back. Once class began, he never went back.

He pointed at the two troublemakers, Wu Wei and Wang Dongxu.

"They called me over. It has nothing to do with me."

Wang Dongxu and Wu Wei reacted quickly. Perhaps it was the tacit understanding they had developed after living together for so long, but they immediately redirected the blame at Han Yixing.

"Brother Han, that's not very fair of you—"

Su Qi knew perfectly well how this had probably gone down. It was most likely Wang Dongxu and Wu Wei, those two fools, but she did not expose them. The four walked along, tossing blame back and forth.

Laughing and chatting, they left the lecture hall.

Soochow University offered many majors, from financial management to civil engineering.

The emerging internet-related majors of recent years were also quite distinctive. At the very least, Su Qi had chosen the faraway Soochow University because she was interested in the internet field.

Of course, she also wanted to learn programming. After all, creating a work of her own would be impossible without programming.

Su Qi's next class was C language programming. According to Wu Wei, An Ning majored in financial management. The two majors had nothing to do with each other.

So Su Qi and An Ning's group would most likely not see each other in their next class.

"Brother Han, why didn't you apply for financial management? Why did you choose an internet-related major instead?" The distance between the two classrooms was quite long, and walking in silence felt boring.

Wu Wei was the first to start a conversation. Hearing him, Wang Dongxu was drawn in as well.

Although both of them were sophomores, they had looked into financial management back when they were filling out college applications in high school. It sounded like such a prestigious profession.

It was said that this field had an abysmal employment rate, and even fewer graduates ended up working in their major.

All right, be more confident. They could remove the "it was said."

This major had been under intense scrutiny in recent years.

Many people in society complained, "Why should I hand my money over to some finance student who just graduated so they can manage it?"

Su Qi felt that although the wording was rough, the reasoning was sound. Looking at it from another perspective, if she were a boss, she would not choose a finance student armed with nothing but theory to help invest her money.

She would definitely find someone with far-reaching vision, someone who had struggled through society and seen plenty of the world, to make investments.

And if that was the case, then did the finance major not seem somewhat redundant?

At that point, another argument began circulating online: if someone came from a wealthy family, they could study finance and then return to the family company.

Whether it was management or investment, they would be much better suited than graduates from other majors. Besides, if their own child lost money, it was still easier to accept than losing money to an outsider.

Some people asked: "Then isn't this major useless for children from ordinary families?"

Su Qi agreed with one particular answer. It read:

Finance is a field born from the collision of theoretical knowledge and social experience. Like marching into battle, it is ever-changing and unpredictable. Studying finance is like thoroughly reading military strategy manuals.

But reading and doing are two different things. Practice is important, yet most people fail at this stage.

After all, aside from family, who would be willing to put up their own money and let you experiment? That was why both the unemployment rate and career-switching rate were so high.

But it also had to be said that if finance students possessed unique insight, the wealth they could gain was something other majors could not match.

In recent years, many finance students had traded stocks from home and made fortunes. Of course, this was not something being advocated here, but the results were undeniable!

So for someone like Han Yixing, whose family had such vast wealth, not choosing this major was truly baffling and thought-provoking.

They did not think Han Yixing had chosen his major at random. There had to be some deeper meaning behind it.

Han Yixing looked at his two roommates, then at Su Qi, who had not voiced an opinion. Han Yixing had always found this delicate-looking roommate rather interesting.

In Su City, the Han Family's businesses could be considered a local powerhouse. Their enterprises could be seen in every field.

When Han Yixing's parents had explained his family background, it had even drawn the attention of several nearby dorms. Almost everyone wanted to gain some benefit through him, such as help finding a job after graduation.

But Su Qi had not. Thinking carefully, throughout the year they had lived together, apart from becoming somewhat irritable when her family occasionally called, Su Qi had always seemed calm and quiet in Han Yixing's eyes. She would tap away at her computer, looking utterly composed.

"Aren't you curious?" Han Yixing looked at Su Qi with interest.

Su Qi followed his gaze and glanced behind her. So he was asking her.

"What's there to be curious about? Your family is so rich. Just hire a few top finance graduates," Su Qi said. After thinking for a moment, she added self-mockingly, "Every family has its own troubles. Didn't I run away from home and come to Soochow University because I was rebellious too?"

"Brother Qi, you're really tough. But your family is seriously ruthless. If it were me, they would've stormed the school ages ago!" Wang Dongxu continued.

During both summer and winter breaks in her freshman year, Su Qi had not gone home. For the few days when the dorms were closed, she had stayed at a hotel and worked on illustrations. Wang Dongxu, whose home was in the city, would occasionally visit his good roommate. Su Qi had even spent one night at his house.

Su Qi smiled, wanting to end the subject.

Seeing her like that, everyone naturally avoided the topic. They had even forgotten about the question they had originally asked Han Yixing.