May your words come true

The lingering clink of glasses still echoed through the private room. Liu Xinyu let out a heavy sigh as the alcohol went to his head, adding a drunken flush to his already reddened cheeks.

"Honestly, I really wish us guys could go into something together." He picked up the bottle and refilled his glass and Wang Xiaoliang's. "I really don't want to go home and help with the family business. It's boring."

Li Jun, who had been drinking in silence, suddenly scoffed. He was even drunker than Liu Xinyu, his words already slurred, but their meaning was sharp.

"You really don't know how fucking lucky you are."

Li Jun raised his head and glared at Liu Xinyu with bloodshot eyes. "Go home? You've got a home to go back to and money to make. What more do you want? What about us? We graduate straight into unemployment!"

Li Jun's words made Liu Xinyu realize how ill-timed his complaints were. Embarrassed, he said nothing.

But Li Jun seemed to have opened the floodgates and began venting without restraint.

"This world is fucking made for cheaters and people who take shortcuts! What the hell is the point of being honest like us?"

Wang Xiaoliang frowned. "Isn't that a bit too sweeping?"

"Sweeping?" Li Jun sounded as though he had heard the biggest joke in the world. He pointed at his own nose. "Let me give you an example. Take this makeup exam! You, Wang Xiaoliang-how long did you study? And me, Li Jun-how long did I study? You were sure I wouldn't pass, weren't you?"

He paused and leaned forward, lowering his voice, though the resentment in it only grew stronger.

"Well, you were wrong. I passed."

"I threatened Feng Yuan."

"I told him that if he didn't help me, I'd report him to the higher authorities! I'd report him for making me give false testimony about what happened to Old Third!"

"Are you out of your mind?" Most of Liu Xinyu's drunkenness vanished in an instant. He shot to his feet and hurriedly shut the door to the private room tight.

Watching Liu Xinyu, Wang Xiaoliang grew nervous too.

He had never imagined Li Jun would do something like this. This was no longer simple cheating. It was blatant coercion. It was a crime.

Liu Xinyu turned around, still visibly shaken, and hurried back to the table. He lowered his voice. "Do you have a fucking death wish? How can you say something like that out loud?"

He probably wanted to steer away from this dangerously sensitive topic. Grabbing his glass, he forced himself to put on a carefree air.

"Come on, enough of that! What a fucking waste. Four years of college and only one proper relationship. Looking back, I really missed out!"

He pulled an exaggerated face.

"Now when I see all those pretty younger girls on campus, I feel old already. I'm too embarrassed to make a move!"

Wang Xiaoliang watched him without a word.

Liu Xinyu was changing the subject. What Li Jun had said was far too dangerous. Walls had ears. If word got out, Li Jun would be finished.

But Li Jun refused to take the hint. Swept along by his resentment and the alcohol, he couldn't take in anything anyone else said.

"Missed out, my ass!" He snatched the bottle from Liu Xinyu and took a huge swig. "Dating? Dating is too fucking expensive!"

"Go find a hooker, and two hundred yuan takes care of it! Go four fucking times a month, and that's only eight hundred. A thousand at most!"

"And dating? Is two thousand enough?" He counted the expenses off on his fingers. "Valentine's Day, her birthday, Christmas, New Year's Eve, anniversaries... every fucking holiday, every fucking excuse, every fucking gift! My monthly allowance is only two thousand! Even throwing all of it in wouldn't be enough!"

Liu Xinyu and Wang Xiaoliang exchanged a glance, each seeing helplessness and a trace of pity in the other's reaction. Both shook their heads.

When no one answered him, Li Jun's anger seemed to burn even hotter. He staggered to his feet, knocking his chair backward with a grating crash.

"I've got something to do. I'm leaving."

Wang Xiaoliang instinctively reached for his arm.

"You've had too much. Sit for a while longer. We'll leave together."

"Fuck off!"

Li Jun flung Wang Xiaoliang's hand aside with surprising strength. Without even glancing at either of them again, he staggered over, pulled the door open, and walked out.

The door wasn't fully closed, letting the noise from the corridor spill inside.

Liu Xinyu sighed and got up to shut it properly. Their little world fell quiet again.

"Forget it. Let him go back and sleep it off." Liu Xinyu returned to his seat and lit a cigarette. "He'll probably wake up tomorrow with a blank where tonight should be. He won't remember a thing."

Wang Xiaoliang said nothing. He simply picked up the bottle and refilled their empty glasses.

Li Jun's words had left him feeling deeply unsettled.

He understood Li Jun's despair and frustration, but he completely disagreed with his methods.

"What about you?" Liu Xinyu took a drag, the smoke he exhaled obscuring his expression. "What are your plans after graduation?"

Wang Xiaoliang fell silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"I'm... a little slow on the uptake. I always catch on too late and miss the boat." He raised his glass and took a sip. "But I do have a plan now."

He looked at Liu Xinyu.

"I've already rented a room in the university's staff housing compound. I want to stay in Jiangcheng instead of going back to my hometown for now."

The decision surprised Liu Xinyu a little. "Got any leads on a job?"

Wang Xiaoliang shook his head.

"No," he said honestly. "But if I stay near campus, I can keep selling drinks and collecting recyclables. At least I won't starve, and I won't have to ask my family for money anymore. That way, I won't have to rush into finding a job. I can take my time."

Liu Xinyu's cigarette-holding fingers paused as something suddenly occurred to him.

"You can sell your calligraphy online too, right?"

Wang Xiaoliang's heart gave a little jump.

He wasn't deliberately trying to hide it. For some reason, he just felt a little embarrassed to bring it up, as though it were something shameful.

Since Liu Xinyu had mentioned it, he didn't keep it to himself any longer.

"Yeah, I'm doing that too. But it hasn't really taken off yet, and I'm barely making anything, so I'm not counting on it for now."

Liu Xinyu stared straight at him and smiled.

"Xiaoliang, let me tell you something honestly. Don't take offense."

Liu Xinyu's voice was calm. His earlier drunkenness had disappeared, leaving him remarkably clearheaded and serious.

"Actually, I used to... think pretty poorly of everyone in your dorm."

Wang Xiaoliang's hand stopped in midair, still holding his glass.

"And yes, that included you," Liu Xinyu added.

Wang Xiaoliang wasn't angry, just surprised. He quietly waited for Liu Xinyu to continue.

"It wasn't about your character," Liu Xinyu quickly explained. "I know everyone in your dorm is decent, especially you and Zhou Tao. You two are the best of the bunch. When I say I thought poorly of you, I mean something else."

He seemed to be searching for the right words.

"It just felt like... none of you had any thoughts about the future. You took each day as it came. Classes, games, sleep, living on the money your parents worked so hard to earn, and drifting through all four years like that. Just watching you made me anxious."

Something seemed to prick gently at Wang Xiaoliang's heart.

He couldn't argue.

Because what Liu Xinyu had said was true. At least, it was an accurate picture of him and his roommates a few months ago.

"But," Liu Xinyu changed tack, "you've really impressed me during these last few months before graduation."

He looked at Wang Xiaoliang with a complicated mixture of surprise, puzzlement, and admiration.

"From selling drinks to making videos, then selling calligraphy online, and now you're even collecting recyclables."

Liu Xinyu shook his head, as though marveling at something incredible.

"You've really surprised me."

He paused, his voice dropping a little.

"I know Old Third's death hit you hard."

Liu Xinyu leaned forward slightly, looking Wang Xiaoliang in the eye.

"Can you tell me what's really going through your head?"

Wang Xiaoliang was caught a little off guard. Liu Xinyu had been watching him all along, thinking about his actions.

Tell him I got a miraculous book that can change fate? Tell him everything I've done has been about following the Book of Fate's guidance and going with the flow?

"I used to think that once I got into a good university, everything afterward would be smooth sailing. In high school, our parents and teachers kept an eye on us, and I assumed college would be the same. I never expected that if I didn't study or put in the effort, nobody would care. Basically, I was slow to catch on. By the time I figured it out, two years had already passed."

"Old Third's death really did make me start thinking about a lot of things. I used to feel like death was far away from us. After that, I realized how short and fragile life is."

"I started asking myself what kind of life I actually wanted. I knew one thing clearly: I didn't want to keep drifting like I used to."

"The university happened to ban food deliveries around then. I thought it was an opportunity, so I acted on it."

"As for collecting recyclables and selling calligraphy... those just happened to come up. I thought I could do them, so I did. I didn't think that much about it."

That was part of the truth.

Wang Xiaoliang left out the Book of Fate's existence but kept the urgency and drive that had come from confronting death.

Liu Xinyu listened quietly without interrupting.

When Wang Xiaoliang finished, he fell silent for a moment, then spoke with remarkable certainty:

"Xiaoliang, I can tell you this with complete confidence."

"Your good luck has arrived."

Wang Xiaoliang froze.

Liu Xinyu continued, "Whatever you end up doing in the future, the things you're doing now and this whole experience will be among the most valuable assets of your life. Plenty of people go their entire lives without ever starting from scratch and swallowing their pride to earn money."

Warmth welled up in Wang Xiaoliang's heart at those words.

Being recognized really did feel good.

But then he found it a little funny.

You're in your early twenties, just like me. You're a classmate who sleeps in the dorm next door. What makes you think you can act like some seasoned veteran and make pronouncements like a fortune-telling charlatan?

It was as though Liu Xinyu had already seen his future.

That sense of absurdity diluted the emotion that had just risen in him.

He suddenly felt like laughing.

The world really was getting more and more interesting.

A rich kid who had kept his background hidden was talking at length about good fortune arriving to a poor boy who relied on a "cheat" to survive.

Wang Xiaoliang picked up the bottle and filled Liu Xinyu's glass again.

"May your words come true."