His phone had run out of battery and shut down automatically. After washing up, Ji Wenyu plugged it into the charging cable and crawled into bed.
Having stayed up extremely late the previous night and not sleeping well, he fell asleep almost the moment he hit the bed, waking up the next morning at dawn.
It was another morning class of Machine Learning.
Since he had already made up his mind to turn over a new leaf and prepare for graduate school recommendation exams, Ji Wenyu did not slack off. At the very first sound of anyone’s alarm in the dorm, he struggled and rolled himself out of bed.
Breakfast was still an egg pancake wrap, and this time he specifically minded the threshold upon entering the classroom. He chose a seat in the back row again, except this time Ji Wenyu deliberately picked a spot where Xu Yuanzhe in the front row could not be seen from any angle.
His phone slowly booted up.
He first went to catch up on unread messages in various group chats to see if he had missed anything. Then, he opened Qinghe.
X had replied to his message last night, and even sent a huge paragraph, genuinely and earnestly explaining the various paths for the graduate stage in Artificial Intelligence.
[X: There are a few ways to classify sub-fields: cross-disciplinary or non-cross-disciplinary, and deep learning or non-deep learning. Cross-disciplinary usually pairs with medicine, biology, marine science, or agriculture; because the entry points are relatively shallow and numerous, it is easier to publish papers. Deep learning generally involves CV and NLP. CV has been quite competitive in recent years, making it somewhat difficult to get into top journals, while NLP relies heavily on laboratory computing resources. Which school’s graduate program are you planning to apply for through recommendation?]
[X: Another thing to consider is your life plan, whether you want to pursue a PhD or enter the workforce directly after finishing your master’s degree.]
Although X did not elaborate further on what kind of differences these two paths would lead to, Ji Wenyu instantly understood.
A master’s degree is a journey, not the final destination. If you want to enter the workforce right after graduating with a master’s, then finding a good direction for easy paper publication while building up internship experience is the absolute priority. If you still want to pursue further studies, then you must carefully consider your research direction during your master’s and start paving the path for future paper publications, because the requirements for papers differ completely between doctoral and master’s degrees.
As for the computing resources mentioned by that person, he was aiming to secure a recommendation for his own school’s graduate program. As a top-tier institution in the country, with its Artificial Intelligence major ranking first nationwide, Bauhinia University had very abundant resources in this regard.
It seemed this wasn’t a problem that could be solved overnight; he still needed to think about it more.
Thinking this, Ji Wenyu’s fingertips slowly typed on the screen keyboard.
[Little Fish: Thank you so much, Great God, for such a thoughtful reply! It is extremely helpful to me! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!]
[Little Fish: I will think carefully about my future life plan right away, but most likely I will go straight to work after graduating with my master’s.]
[Little Fish: Little penguin bowing.GIF]
After the message was sent, the other person did not reply again, probably because they were offline.
The young man switched pages and continued browsing the group chats.
A week had passed, and his ankle was almost fully healed. It was time to start playing basketball again.
He would go to the library to study in the morning, making up for all the overdue professional course assignments, attend a political theory class in the afternoon, go play a game at the basketball court, come back to shower, and head to the library again at night.
Ji Wenyu planned his day fully in his mind, expressing great satisfaction with his daily schedule.
Next came the phase of inviting people.
A basketball session on Tuesday afternoon should theoretically be very easy to find players for. However, after Ji Wenyu asked several basketball friends, he ultimately only managed to recruit Ma Ziming.
When he arrived at the court in the afternoon, he found out that people weren’t deliberately declining; the number of people at the court was noticeably fewer than usual.
Ma Ziming had also called two friends over, but after a long while, they only managed to gather four people in total.
“What’s the situation today? Where did everyone go?”
After two rounds of matches, the court still had no other players, and Ji Wenyu couldn’t help asking out of curiosity.
“Where else could they go? Those who study are studying, and those on dates are on dates.” Ma Ziming tossed the basketball over to him.
Ji Wenyu asked doubtfully, “Don’t they usually study or go on dates anyway?”
“It’s different.” Ma Ziming shook his head. “Vacation is coming soon, and a lot of classes will have quizzes right after we come back from the break, so don’t they have to study in advance? Besides, with so many people going home, young couples have to take advantage of this week to be all clingy, don’t they?”
Ji Wenyu didn’t actually pay much attention to the second half of that sentence. He was completely astonished by Ma Ziming’s mention of the upcoming break.
That’s right, it had already been a month since the semester started. Starting Thursday, it would be the National Day holiday.
Seeing that he didn’t reply, Ma Ziming asked again, “Ji, where do you plan to go for the holiday?”
“Haven’t thought about it yet.” Ji Wenyu dribbled the ball around.
That was the truth. Before today, he hadn’t even realized that the long holiday was right around the corner.
During the previous few days, because of Xu Yuanzhe being depressed in the dorm, he had lived in a daze, unable to even tell what day of the week it was, let alone having the mood to think about the vacation. Over the past few days, although he wasn’t busy with anything major, he hadn’t been idle either, and he hadn’t paid attention to the numbers on the calendar.
“I must say, you’re definitely a ‘P’ type.” Ma Ziming was stunned. “Today is Tuesday, and the break starts on Thursday, with tomorrow being the last day, and you haven’t even thought about where to go for the National Day holiday yet?”
“Haven’t thought about it,” Ji Wenyu replied indifferently.
Ma Ziming: “Then do you want to think about it now?”
Ji Wenyu: “Thinking about it.”
They shot two more rounds of hoops.
Ma Ziming: “Thought of anything?”
The young man stopped in front of the three-point line, raised his hands, jumped up, and shot an exceptionally beautiful three-pointer that went straight through the center of the basket.
“Thought of it.”
“Let’s go take a look around Tianjin.”
Adjacent to Beijing, Tianjin was the closest city and also the only place where train tickets could still be purchased at this point.
With a seven-day holiday, two days for going home, three days at school preparing for graduate school directions, and the remaining two days to visit Tianjin, it was just right.
Staying for only one night meant packing was easy, and Ji Wenyu only bought the intercity high-speed rail ticket after waking up early on the morning of the first. With such a temporary itinerary, inviting anyone else was naturally unlikely, so it had to be a solo trip. However, although Ji Wenyu was usually a social butterfly who loved various gatherings, he didn’t mind being by himself either. Wandering around, stopping and going, eating and drinking entirely on a whim of his own felt quite relaxed and carefree.
Because it was National Day, Tianjin had specially arranged a sea fireworks show on the evening of the holiday itself. Arriving half an hour early at one of the best viewing areas, the entire zone was already packed to capacity. Ji Wenyu casually found a spot to stand, playing on his phone while waiting for the fireworks performance to begin.
He opened his location, took a picture of the ocean in front of him, and right at the second before posting it to his Moments, the young man’s fingertips drew back.
He talked a lot on ordinary days and posted quite frequently on Moments. Yet, for this kind of sharing content, the person he wanted to share it with the most had always been none other than Xu Yuanzhe. It’s just that, because there was no way to send it to him directly, he had no choice but to post it on Moments for everyone to see.
But now.
He swiftly deleted the text and pictures again.
Operating a Moments feed suddenly seemed completely meaningless.
The photo was already taken, and he happened to be stuck standing in the crowd with nothing to do. After standing in place for a bit longer, Ji Wenyu decided to post that share after all. Only this time, he planned to post it somewhere else.
From his recently used apps, he opened Qinghe.
Add a new note.
[Little Fish: Waiting for the fireworks]
[Location: Tianjin Fisherman’s Wharf]
The fluorescence of the phone screen was glaring in the twilight. Ji Wenyu tucked his phone back into his pocket and stood in place until he was almost falling asleep before the music from the seaside speakers finally began to play.
For these fireworks, the Tianjin Tourism Bureau had spared no expense. The aerial fireworks bloomed across the sky in sheets, dazzling and brilliant, lighting up the night sky over the boundless sea. Near the end, they even set off a whole expanse of colorful auspicious clouds, with gorgeous colors overlapping and flowing like auspicious clouds in the night sky.
Ji Wenyu didn’t take pictures, leaving the supremely brilliant spectacle entirely to his most primitive senses to record.
The colorful auspicious clouds slowly dissipated into the night sky, and the music from the speakers gradually quieted down.
People walked in groups of threes and fives, marveling at the magnificent fireworks that had just ended, strolling toward the exit of the viewing area.
After the grand spectacle came an inexplicable sense of lowness. Ji Wenyu walked slowly with his head down following the crowd, and only then did he take out his phone again.
Aside from a dozen or so likes, that note also had an extra comment.
[What a coincidence]
The comment was only two words long, with a photo attached.
The sky blooming with fireworks showed the colorful auspicious clouds.
It was X.
It felt as though a dandelion had drifted across his heart, causing a tickle.
Ji Wenyu was slightly startled.
He and X had watched the same fireworks show, under the same patch of sky.
He subconsciously tapped open the chat box with X.
[Little Fish: You’re in Tianjin too?]
X replied very quickly.
[X: Yeah.]
It felt like asking a stupid question.
Ji Wenyu couldn’t help but curve his lips in a smile at himself.
[Little Fish: Do you go to school in Tianjin?]
Qinghe’s popularity rankings required real-name verification, so users could only be current students.
This time, the reply from the opposite side was slightly slower. Ji Wenyu followed the crowd into the subway station and boarded the train before X’s message came back.
[X: No, just here to visit]
[X: Came from Beijing]