Chapter Twenty-Six: Discussing the Debate
On hot days, Nanjing University students either sat in the library marking up hefty textbooks, enjoyed a satisfying afternoon nap beneath the fans over their beds, or chose to spend the afternoon cooling off in the affordable swimming pool open in the southern campus, listening to little tunes playing on a CD player.
University life was free, after all. Whether they broadened their social circles, pursued individual studies and tackled problems, attended a public lecture to learn something, played games all day, shopped all day, chased girls and went barhopping, tinkered with a few startup plans, or organized two or three evening events, they could follow their own ideas and plans.
Students throughout Nanjing University had always had an easygoing, carefree air, whether they were flowerlike girls sitting in elegant tea restaurants discussing cosmetics, literature, and afternoon tea, or the various heroes who claimed seats and settled into the study rooms. Most retained a leisurely streak, never hurrying themselves.
This was a legacy of Nanjing University's history and humanities. After passing the rigorous selection of the Gaokao, or gaining entry through their own particular talents, its students naturally found their horizons opening up when faced with a life utterly different from the hellish tedium of high school.
Before, they had buried themselves in books under the education system. Now that they were at university, the setting had changed and the atmosphere was free. Haughty beauties occasionally emerged from European-style buildings half-hidden among the trees, and lively events sprang up in one teaching area or another, naturally making the university seem all the more festive and vibrant.
In fact, the activities Nanjing University students flocked to were not campus Singing Contests or ballroom dances. Generally speaking, such events drew very little of a crowd at Nanjing