Chapter 50: Conflict
Everyone got off at a nearby stop and made their way to the University of Science and Technology. Banners at the gate read things like "Yu Quan's 'Most Beautiful' comes to the University of Science and Technology," and people streamed past in waves. There was a ticket booth right at the entrance. Everyone pooled their money and assigned someone to queue, while most of the group headed over to the little stir-fry stalls beside the university district's eastern campus.
The stir-fries here were famous throughout the area. Although they were still only high school students, they yearned for university life. Quite a few of the diners were high school students in uniform, apparently having come straight from school for the concert without even having time to go home.
Even in those years, Rongcheng already averaged dozens of celebrity concerts a year, though most were relatively small. None of their operations were as polished as they would be in the future. Some publicity for this concert came through television, but more of it came over the radio. Radio still had considerable influence in those days. In the future world of widespread internet access and exploding information, it would gradually become entertainment for a nostalgic minority or students in classrooms, slipping toward the margins of the media. Yet this concert, with no massive publicity campaign, only a handful of security guards and police maintaining order at the entrance, and no blindly adoring, frenzied crowds, felt rather welcoming, in an era when chasing girls was not yet limited to holding a guitar.
Food stalls stretched down the street, bustling with activity. Clay pots sat over roaring flames as stall owners added ingredients. Steam rose, and now and then broth splashed out with a hiss, sending up wisps of steam. It