Chapter 147: No taking advantage
Christmas of 2002 soon arrived. In Shanghai, a city nurtured by the Haipai Culture of its cosmopolitan streets, the Christmas atmosphere was stronger. Su Can thought of Rongcheng, where this biggest of foreign holidays had been lively too, though that liveliness came mostly from the locals' love of fun. For the most part, it was simply an excuse to enjoy themselves.
A week after Christmas came New Year's Day. And just like that, 2002, with all its ups and downs, passed, ushering in a 2003 with a different landscape.
As always, Shanghai's universities held grand New Year's galas, just as they had the year before. At night, the sleepless metropolis of the East glittered like a field of stars, and red taillights filled its crisscrossing roads like long dragons swinging their tails.
On New Year's night, Su Can and Tang Wu did not stay at Nanjing University. Instead, at Lin Luoran's invitation, they went to Shanghai International Studies University to watch the performance put on by her School of International Trade. Li Pengyu, Li Han and his girlfriend Chen Jia, Zhang Xiaoqiao, and Xiao Xu came along too. Lin Luoran stayed with them throughout, and when the play she had directed went onstage, she was particularly pleased with herself, giving everyone a running introduction.
In the audience at the New Year's gala, they also ran into Dong Xiaojia, who had led Shanghai International Studies University's debate team to Nanjing University a year earlier. They still remembered how Su Can had wound up onstage through a series of accidents and ultimately faced off against Dong Xiaojia and Lin Luoran. It was a memory well worth revisiting.
Dong Xiaojia would graduate that year, so this was probably her last New Year's visit back to Shanghai International Studies