The Question of Surnames

When they arrived at the cafeteria, it was clearly much more crowded than yesterday, filled with noisy chatter. Su Yuan subtly frowned. "There are so many people. Ye Hao, there's no money on my meal card. Help me get food; I'll go save us seats!"

After saying that, she headed for an empty table on her own. Ji Yehao froze for a moment upon hearing this. No money? I could lend you some! Why make someone else buy your food too? But with so many students eating here, if they did not claim seats beforehand, they might not even have anywhere to sit. So, though he knew Su Yuan was being lazy, he could only sigh speechlessly and head toward the long line.

After lining up and getting food, he soon came over carrying several dishes and two bowls of rice. Gao Jun had gotten himself a stew, saying that he had been tired these past few days and needed to nourish himself properly.

After eating, they carried their trays over to dump the leftovers into the slop bucket. When they returned, Gao Jun continued working on his software, while Ji Yehao flipped through his textbooks, presumably previewing the material.

Outside the window, rain drizzled endlessly. It was another rainy night. Just like yesterday, Su Yuan moved a chair to the aluminum-framed glass door between the dorm room and the balcony, sat astride it, rested her chin on the chair back with both hands, and stared into space.

After a while, bored out of her mind, she poked someone in the back. "Ye Hao, I'm depressed again..."

"Tell me about it." His thoughts interrupted, Ji Yehao helplessly put down his textbook and turned around.

"Uh, actually, there doesn't seem to be anything to say."

"You're just messing with me." Ji Yehao shook his head wordlessly. "More or less." Su Yuan actually admitted it shamelessly. Ji Yehao was so exasperated that he raised the textbook on the desk as if to smack her on the head, but in the end, he did not bring it down.

Su Yuan burst out laughing, then suddenly thought of something. "Ye Hao, why is your surname Ji?"

"Because my dad's surname is Ji."

What kind of answer was that? She joked, "Actually, I think Ye is a pretty good surname too. Ye Hao sounds much better than Ji Yehao. It flows so much better."

"Our bodies, hair, and skin are gifts from our parents. If you think Ye is such a good surname, why don't you change yours to Ye?"

Su Yuan shook her head. "That's different. I think Su is just a little better than Ye. Oh, right. Your dad's surname is Ji, so what's your mom's surname?"

"Su."

"Ah!" Su Yuan was startled. "Then we're from the same clan! Surnames and clan names—surnames came from the maternal line, clan names from the paternal line. I'd say taking your mother's surname wouldn't be bad either."

Ji Yehao looked at Su Yuan carefully and frowned. "Are you really this enthusiastic about helping people change their surnames? What kind of mental state is that?"

"Hehe." Su Yuan gave an awkward laugh.

Ji Yehao also became interested in joking around. "How about changing your own surname? You can take mine and become Ji, just like me."

"No, no, no! Su sounds better than Ji... Besides, Ji probably doesn't even rank in the top thousand of the Hundred Family Surnames. Who knows what backwater corner it's hiding in. Su is different. It ranks in the top fifty of the Hundred Family Surnames. It's one of the super common surnames. Just comparing them tells you that Su is more prestigious."

So whichever sounded better and was more prestigious was the surname she wanted? Ji Yehao felt extremely depressed.

"Oh, right. Did you buy Huaxin Technology stock?"

Ji Yehao said irritably, "No!" Then his expression stiffened as he asked, "You're so sure I want to buy that stock?"

Su Yuan snorted. "If you weren't going to buy it, why have you been watching it for months?" Ji Yehao looked at her in surprise, then nodded thoughtfully. "I've analyzed it for months. There are finally some signs."

"Did it rise or fall today?"

"It fell. It's been falling for several days in a row."

Su Yuan put on a mature expression and showed off. "Falling is good. Once the big players have accumulated enough shares, it should be time for it to rise."

"Huh. I didn't expect you to know that."

"Isn't that easy? Teach me once and I'll get it!"

My tomorrow

What day is it

Before I can stop missing you

Forget the time

Forget yesterday

So love and hate will never repeat themselves

It turned out Su Yuan felt the atmosphere had gone cold, so she used her knockoff phone to play the female version of "Autumn of Parting" that she had just downloaded.

Just as Ji Yehao had said, the female version had a different sort of charm compared to the male version.

Last night's rain had been soft and gentle, and the temperature had been pleasantly mild. Yet the moment the morning sun showed itself, it put an end to all that. When the curtains were drawn open, the scorching sensation announced the arrival of another hot day. Before long, even the ground was blazing hot.

Early in the morning, the campus was already moving. Students poured anxiously out of the dormitories, and as eight o'clock approached, the fast pace of student life became even more apparent.

Dorm 330 was left with only Su Yuan. Ji Yehao and Gao Jun had gone ahead to save seats in the classroom, while Su Yuan was still wrapping things up in the dorm. It was not that she wanted to dawdle; the changes in her body had made it impossible to do many things as casually as before.

Take washing up and using the bathroom, for example. Before, they would crowd together and take turns. It was busy, but incredibly efficient. Now that was no longer possible. Either Su Yuan had to get up early and finish first, or stay behind until everyone else had left. When she used the bathroom, she had to lock the door, after all.

"This should be about right." Looking at herself in the mirror, she still vaguely appeared as "handsome" as before. She patted her cheeks, looking satisfied. After this morning's "rehearsal," she decided it would be better to wake up earlier from now on.

She wore a white short-sleeved shirt with blue and red trim on each shoulder, along with a pair of thin jeans. The outfit was not afraid of the heat, while also giving Su Yuan a fresher, cleaner air.

That morning's classes were Linear Algebra and College English II, while there were no classes in the afternoon. After checking the schedule, she hugged her textbooks and headed toward Classroom NC210.

Outside the teaching building, students arriving for class crowded together at the stairwell entrance, forcing everyone to slow down. It was almost eight o'clock, yet the classroom was still a long way off. Su Yuan grew anxious and kept craning her neck to look ahead.

Being late was not a huge deal, but it was still the first class, and she would feel embarrassed walking in under everyone's gaze. Just as she was brushing back her hair and looking at the crowd ahead, a hand pulled her aside. "What are you looking over there for? This way!" Ji Yehao was somehow already standing at the back door of a classroom.

Su Yuan looked in surprise at the NA 3 Classroom he was pointing to. "NA 3?"

Like Classroom NC210, it was a large classroom that could hold seventy or eighty students at once.

Spotting Linear Algebra and College English II in Su Yuan's hands, Ji Yehao was somewhat surprised. "Hey, it's Thursday today. We have Physical Chemistry and Human Physiology."

"Ah! No way, isn't today Friday?" Su Yuan asked in surprise.

Ji Yehao laughed. "I think the summer vacation has left you completely muddled. You can even get the day of the week wrong."

"Don't talk about that. Go, go, go." With an embarrassed smile, Su Yuan pushed Ji Yehao into the classroom, deftly defusing her own awkwardness. She had spent the two-month summer vacation cooped up at home in a daze, and even after school started, she had not adjusted yet.

Ring, ring, ring! The class bell happened to sound, interrupting their conversation. "Over here!" Gao Jun waved at her. Their seats were in the middle, toward the back.

Yang Xiaowei was sitting there too. He was a tall young man with a sunny air about him. Though he was their roommate, he barely stayed in the dorm a few days out of the entire year. He stood up and shifted aside to make room for Su Yuan to squeeze in, then greeted her. "Su Yuan, did you come in right on the dot?"

"Purely accidental!"

Su Yuan chuckled, taking that as her response to Yang Xiaowei.