Su Mu gripped the steering wheel of the Porsche Panamera with one hand, driving through the gates of Shanghai University.
This all-black, top-of-the-line extended executive model glided smoothly along the main road of the campus in the evening.
The deep roar of the engine shattered the evening calm of the campus.
Several girls passing by couldn't take their eyes off the car.
Some secretly raised their phones to take pictures.
One senior in a mini skirt even stopped by the roadside, pretending to tie her shoelaces, her gaze fixed on the car.
Su Mu paid no mind to these heated stares.
The braised chicken with rice he had at the infirmary for lunch hadn't filled him up at all.
By now, the school cafeteria was long closed.
The snack shops on the commercial street outside were too sweet for his taste.
Passing by the small shop at the school gate, he casually went in and grabbed a cup of Old Jar Sour Cabbage Noodles, along with two sausages.
He parked the car steadily in the open space below the Men's Dormitory Building.
Carrying the plastic bag with instant noodles, he strolled up to the fifth floor.
He kicked open the wooden door of dorm room 502.
Wang Hao was sitting shirtless on the lower bunk, lost in thought.
His face, tanned dark from military training, was full of melancholy.
When he looked up and saw the plastic bag in Su Mu's hand, he was stunned.
Wang Hao jumped up from the bed, rushed over, and grabbed Su Mu's arm, his eyes reddening, as he whispered.
"Suzi, did you use all the money from home to help me chase that senior?"
"No matter how low-key you want to be, you shouldn't be eating this stuff."
"I'll transfer back the more than ninety thousand left after buying the phone right now."
Wang Hao took out his phone, ready to open Alipay.
Su Mu, tearing open the packaging of the Old Jar Sour Cabbage Noodles, looked at him with an expression that said he was looking at an idiot.
"Is your brain filled with the Pacific Ocean?"
"I just don't want to eat overly sweet fast food, isn't this pickled mustard noodle fragrant?"
"Stop mocking me, use that energy to get me a pot of hot water."
Wang Hao stared at Su Mu suspiciously for a long time.
Realizing that this guy's expression didn't seem like he was pretending to be poor, he finally took the red plastic thermos and went to the water room at the end of the corridor to fetch water.
Just then, a sharp cry came from the balcony next door.
Liu Qiang, who had earned the title of "Know-it-all" just three days into the new semester, was half-hanging out of the security railing.
Pointing at the black Panamera parked downstairs, he shouted wildly from the balcony in a raspy voice.
"Damn, guys, come quick, there's a top-tier second-generation wealthy hiding in our school."
"There's a top-configured Panamera executive extended version parked downstairs."
"Look at that obsidian black metallic paint, how flashy."
Chen Mo, who had been typing code on the upper bunk, stopped when he heard this.
He pushed up his thick black-framed glasses and climbed down the ladder to take a peek from the balcony.
"This car doesn't look cheap, I wonder if it belongs to a student or a teacher at the school."
Hearing this, Liu Qiang immediately switched to his know-it-all mode.
Rubbing his hands, he turned around and began to educate his roommates on how crazy the options for this car were.
"Chen, it's not just about being expensive, guess how much it costs?"
"Look closely at those wheels, 21-inch sports wheels, just those alone cost tens of thousands."
"And the interior is definitely all leather, I vaguely saw red stitching."
"If you add all the optional configurations, the on-road price definitely exceeds three million."
"That kind of money could directly cover the down payment for a small apartment on the outskirts of Shanghai."
Su Mu, holding the Old Jar Sour Cabbage Noodles that Wang Hao had just made, leisurely walked to the balcony.
He first blew on the rising steam.
Slurped a big mouthful of noodles soaked in spicy and sour soup.
Only then did he look down at his car in the direction Liu Qiang was pointing.
"This car is just okay."
"The chassis is really too low, and this is with air suspension."
"The bumpiness over speed bumps is really uncomfortable."
"And the driver's seat visibility isn't great, it's easy to have blind spots."
Su Mu casually commented, his tone sounding very fair.
This was entirely his firsthand experience from driving back just now.
Dorm room 502 fell into a brief silence.
Liu Qiang turned back, looking at Su Mu holding the noodle cup with a look of pity.
"Suzi, please spare me."
"What do you know about Porsche, eating instant noodles?"
"My cousin's friend has a 718, I'll borrow it someday for you guys to try."
Hearing Liu Qiang's words full of superiority.
Wang Hao, standing aside with the plastic thermos, opened his mouth to say something but stopped.
Wang Hao knew very well.
Su Mu could lend him a hundred thousand without batting an eye.
A rich guy with demolition compensation backing him couldn't possibly be envious.
But if he told Liu Qiang, the notorious blabbermouth of the class, now.
By tomorrow, even the stray dogs on campus would know Su Mu was a demolition beneficiary.
Wang Hao's face turned red with frustration.
In the end, he could only make a completely harmless comment to defuse the situation.
"Such a top-tier luxury car must belong to a teacher, right?"
"Qiang, you're just a keyboard warrior on Auto Home every day."
"Maybe it's really like Suzi said, these sports cars have low chassis and might not be comfortable to sit in."
Su Mu shrugged, not participating in this pointless argument.
He continued to enjoy his noodles.
The red oil dripped from the noodles onto the plastic spoon.
Su Mu thought, he couldn't just pull out the car keys from his pocket and press them towards the car downstairs.
If those headlights really flashed, Liu Qiang would probably hug his leg and sing "Conquer" on the balcony all night.
But he wasn't from Chengdu, and he had no interest in his roommates.
Liu Qiang, seeing Su Mu silent, thought he had won this know-it-all debate.
He took out his phone and excitedly opened the Shanghai University campus forum.
The forum, which had been discussing which instructor was the fiercest, had already exploded.
A hot post with a title featuring three exclamation marks appeared on the homepage.
"A million-dollar supercar spotted below the men's dorm!!!"
"Is this a distortion of human nature or a moral decline?"
The post included several high-definition photos taken from various angles.
The comment section had already reached hundreds of replies.
Everyone was guessing which top young master's ride this three-million on-road car belonged to.
At the same time, in the second women's dormitory building of Shanghai University.
The room full of vibrant young female students was all dressed in cool silk camisoles and ultra-short shorts.
Several fair and slender legs dangled casually over various bed ladders and chair arms.
Lin Zhiyue, who had become a sensation in the boys' circles with just a side profile photo on the first day of school, was comfortably lying on her mat, with an expensive Japanese moisturizing face mask on her face.
She gently patted her cheeks with her fingers to help the essence absorb while idly scrolling through her phone.
Lin Zhiyue naturally saw the hot post being crazily shared and liked by all the students.
She zoomed in on the pictures with her fingers, carefully examining the Panamera.
The perfectly streamlined body and astronomical price symbolized a status far beyond that of an ordinary college student in Lin Zhiyue's mind.
She recalled the boy named Zhao Zixuan from the neighboring class during military training this morning, who deliberately parked an Audi A6 by the sports field to show off.
That guy even tried to get her WeChat through her roommate.
Lin Zhiyue couldn't help but sneer inwardly.
Driving an Audi A6 might not be bad, but she preferred the Panamera.
If she could sit in the passenger seat of that Porsche, she would willingly skip the cafeteria for her entire college life.
Meanwhile, in another old dormitory building.
Mu Changge sat alone in the quiet lower bunk.
Her roommates had all gone out for dates after putting on makeup, leaving the dorm silent except for the cicadas on the sycamore trees outside.
Her phone screen was on the online banking balance inquiry page.
Over three hundred yuan, perhaps enough if she scrimped and saved, but her family urgently needed money too.
She closed her eyes tightly, suppressing the surging emotions.
Exiting the banking interface, her fingers trembled as she opened the so-called high-paying part-time app her roommate had sent her.
As she looked at the screen, filled with suggestive playmate recruitment notices, tears finally fell uncontrollably onto the scratched phone screen.