Apart from Zijing University, the best university in Beijing is Capital University, which is separated from Zijing University by only a single street.
Although Capital University’s Artificial Intelligence program ranks slightly behind Zijing University’s nationally, it is still exceptionally good. Looking at it this way, X should be the top student in Capital University’s Artificial Intelligence department, existing on a similar level to Xu Yuanzhe.
Unintentionally thinking of Xu Yuanzhe again, Ji Wenyu let out a light sigh.
[Little Fish: I’m also visiting from Beijing.] [Little Fish: What a coincidence.]
He typed out two lines, ending his conversation with X.
After casually strolling around the streets on the first day and watching fireworks at night, Ji Wenyu slept in naturally the next morning at his hotel in Tianjin, went out to find a small shop to try some Tianjin specialties, and returned to Beijing right after eating.
Instead of returning to school, he took a taxi straight home from the high-speed rail station.
The car drove all the way from the south of the city to the north, passing beyond the Fifth Ring Road. Ji Zhiming and his wife have not been very busy lately and usually live in their villa in the northern suburbs.
All external vehicles are stopped at the main entrance of the villa area. Ji Wenyu got out of the car and took a security guard’s shuttle vehicle to the front of his family’s courtyard.
Backed by the famous Qianling Mountain in the northern suburbs, the villa area is a natural oxygen bar.
The flowers and plants in the courtyard are meticulously and neatly tended, and a faint floral and herbal fragrance floats in the air.
The courtyard was originally quiet, but as soon as Ji Wenyu got close to the family’s front door, he heard noisy music playing inside.
“The Wumeng Mountains are connected to mountain beyond mountain, and the moonlight spills over the Xiangshui Shoal.”
Without even thinking, he knew that his parents had invited friends over as guests at home again.
One of the great hobbies of Ji Zhiming and his wife is to gather friends and companions when they have free time, inviting a large group of friends to their home as guests to host exclusive middle-aged and elderly parties.
Ji Wenyu helplessly patted his forehead and bit the bullet as he pulled open the door.
“Xiaoyu is back!”
As soon as he stepped inside, he was spotted by two aunts chatting near the entrance.
Of the two, one was Auntie Xue, his mother’s best friend for many years. Auntie Xue’s husband is also a frequent business partner of his father’s over the years. The other person looked familiar to Ji Wenyu, but his parents have so many friends that he truly couldn’t recognize who she was.
“Auntie Xue.” The young man nodded obediently to greet her.
Xue Yaning, dressed in a burgundy cheongsam, smiled and responded, gesturing to the other woman beside her: “Xiaoyu, this is Auntie Zhang, do you remember her? You met her at the golf course last year.”
“Hello, Auntie Zhang.” Remembering was impossible, but fortunately, no one cared. Ji Wenyu wore a smiling face as he finished his greetings and peeked his gaze into the hallway.
Seeing that he was looking for family members, Xue Yaning understandingly said, “Your parents are chatting inside. You can go up to the third floor to rest for a while first; our gathering probably won’t break up until evening.”
As for the group of uncles and aunts in the living room, eight or nine out of ten were people he didn’t know. Naturally, Ji Wenyu wouldn’t go out of his way to join a gathering of middle-aged and elderly people. Every time Ji Zhiming and his wife make a big fuss, even someone as socially outgoing as he is would still feel socially anxious in front of this group of uncles and aunts.
“Alright, thank you, Auntie Xue.”
Along the way, exchanging smiling nods with several uncles and aunts who greeted him, Ji Wenyu finally let out a sigh of relief once he stepped into the elevator.
If he had known his parents were throwing a party at home today, he would have come back tomorrow instead. But then again, it’s possible that the gathering organized by Ji Zhiming and his wife isn’t just for today; the National Day seven-day holiday, or even a continuous half-month party, is entirely within the realm of possibility.
The elevator doors opened on the third floor, and Ji Wenyu headed straight to the computer room that belonged to him. Just as he reached the doorway, he suddenly heard the sound of a television drama seemingly drifting out from the room.
Someone’s inside?
The young man knocked on the door, and a familiar female voice came from within.
“Come in.”
He should have realized earlier that since Auntie Xue and her husband both came, they naturally brought their daughter along, the younger sister and childhood friend he grew up playing with.
“Wang Xinnuo, why are you sitting in front of my computer?” Stepping inside and seeing Wang Xinnuo sitting on his black gaming chair, Ji Wenyu walked toward the sofa on the side.
“Of course it’s because Uncle and Auntie brought me over,” Wang Xinnuo said as a matter of course, glancing at him briefly without pausing the television show playing on the large computer screen.
Having known each other since childhood, to Ji Wenyu, Wang Xinnuo is no different from a biological younger sister.
Since Wang Xinnuo was using his desktop, he had no choice but to go to the desk next to it to grab the spare laptop.
Ji Wenyu pressed the power button: “You’re about to take the gaokao, and you still have time to come play at my house?”
“I’ve already gotten my bonus points as an art student; passing the tier-one score line is enough to get me into Capital University, so what’s there to rush?” Wang Xinnuo let out a chuckle.
What she said sounded quite arrogant, but it was also the truth.
The daughter of Auntie Xue’s family has possessed extraordinary talent in art since childhood. Coupled with Auntie Xue and her husband’s dedicated cultivation and heavy financial investment, Wang Xinnuo has scooped up artistic awards left and right over the years, and even secured a direct recommendation quota for Capital University’s tier-one score line during her second year of high school. It’s not like Zijing University, tied for top 2 domestically, didn’t throw out olive branches to her; she was simply rejected directly by Miss Wang on the grounds of too weak a cultural atmosphere. After all, as everyone knows, Zijing University leans toward science and engineering, while Capital University leans toward humanities and science.
“For that admission of yours, can you choose your major yourself?” Ji Wenyu grabbed a throw pillow, leaned back against it, and lazily asked offhand.
“Yeah.” Wang Xinnuo nodded. “I can pick whatever I want as long as I meet the conditions. But the subjects chosen for the gaokao still have to satisfy the school’s major requirements.”
“Which subjects did you pick for your gaokao?”
“Physics, chemistry, and geography.”
Ji Wenyu gave an acknowledging hum. Generally speaking, as long as one chooses physics and chemistry, most majors are freely open for application.
“What major are you planning to choose?”
“Artificial intelligence, I guess.”
Ji Wenyu: “Huh? You’re interested in my major?”
“Stop being so narcissistic.” Wang Xinnuo finally deigned to pause the TV show this time, rolling her eyes at Ji Wenyu. “I’m choosing based on Qinghe’s big boss.”
“What big boss?” Ji Wenyu couldn’t believe his ears.
“Qinghe. You don’t know Qinghe?” Wang Xinnuo looked at Ji Wenyu as if he were a monster. “This is currently the hottest app on university campuses. All of us high school seniors know about it, and you actually don’t? Isn’t it developed by your Zijing University?”
“I know. I’m just surprised that you know.”
“I heard that the number one big boss on Qinghe’s popularity ranking is a huge handsome guy,” Wang Xinnuo said with complete honesty. “He’s in the artificial intelligence major, so I want to study artificial intelligence too, so I can ask him questions in the future.”
“Ahem, ahem, ahem.” Ji Wenyu almost choked on his saliva. “Dude, just because of this?”
“Otherwise?” Wang Xinnuo raised her eyebrows. “Isn’t this enough?”
“Why don’t you look at your own identity first? Little Wang, you’re an art-track student, and you want to study artificial intelligence? Ah? This has zero connection to your art,” Ji Wenyu disapproved.
Although writing code didn’t seem difficult to him, when he got into Zijing University back then, it wasn’t by relying on specialty bonus points. If he had competition bonus points, it was for the math competition, and it was only 10 points anyway.
“My dear brother Wenyu, it seems you haven’t been home to chat with Uncle and Auntie for too long. Didn’t Auntie Zhu tell you that your childhood friend’s ranking in Beijing No. 1 High School is currently no worse than yours back then?” Wang Xinnuo blinked her eyes. “I can get into Capital University even without using my art-track student status.”
Ji Wenyu genuinely didn’t know about this.
In the past, his parents only ever heard Auntie Xue talk about what kind of awards Wang Xinnuo won in art competitions; they didn’t seem to mention her grades at school much.
Looking at it this way, Wang Xinnuo studying artificial intelligence didn’t seem to have any problems. But wait, what did she just say? She chose artificial intelligence because of what?
“Which big boss on Qinghe are you talking about?”
“Just that X person,” Wang Xinnuo said without hesitation.
“X?” Ji Wenyu said as he took out his phone, opened Qinghe, and began browsing X’s homepage. “What does he look like?”
Being both the number one god-level student on the popularity leaderboard and so helpful that he answers questions every day, is X also a huge handsome guy? How come all the fine qualities in the world are gathered in this X?
Ji Wenyu quickly scrolled through X’s homepage for a long time, but didn’t see X post any photos related to himself.
“He doesn’t have any on his Qinghe account. It was posted by Senior Yan Qiong from Capital University before; it’s a side-profile picture, I’ll find it for you.” Wang Xinnuo flipped through her phone’s photo album for a moment, then handed it right under Ji Wenyu’s nose. “There, look.”
“What on earth is this.” Ji Wenyu frowned speechlessly.
The side-profile photo looked like it was taken on that street where Zijing University and Capital University face each other. It was so blurry that forget facial features, even the arm couldn’t be seen clearly; all you could tell was that the male was wearing black clothes, looking like autumn.
It seems X really is from Capital University. Ji Wenyu grew even more certain of his guess.
“From this photo, how can you tell he’s handsome?”
Without being able to see his looks, if someone claimed this photo was of him, people would probably believe it. Why are young girls so easily fooled?
Wang Xinnuo let out a cold snort: “Do you understand atmosphere? Atmosphere.”
Ji Wenyu: “”
“Eleven months from now, once I enroll, I’ll be able to get verified on Qinghe,” Wang Xinnuo said happily. “By then I’m going to go chase God X.”
Ji Wenyu once again: “”
As if suddenly remembering something, the girl raised her head: “Brother Wenyu.”
When the little girl calls him that obediently, it’s definitely never anything good.
Ji Wenyu looked alert: “What?”
Wang Xinnuo: “Do you have a Qinghe account?”
Ji Wenyu: “I do.”
“Did you follow God X?” Wang Xinnuo said as she casually snatched his phone away.
The two of them were used to bickering like this since childhood, so Ji Wenyu just let her do as she pleased; there weren’t any secrets in his phone anyway.
Wang Xinnuo was just casually flipping through it the second before, but the next second her eyes widened in surprise.
“Ji Wenyu!”
The male shrugged helplessly: “What is it again?”
“You know God X? You two are actually mutual friends who follow each other ahhhhhh.” Wang Xinnuo bounced right up from the gaming chair.
“Yeah, we just added each other as friends a few days ago,” Ji Wenyu said slowly.
“Have you ever chatted with God X.” Wang Xinnuo asked as she started flipping through it herself, “Goodness! God X actually replied to your message! Brother Wenyu, can you sell me this Qinghe account of yours?”
Ji Wenyu curled his lips: “Do you really like it that much?”
“Of course!” Wang Xinnuo blurted out.
“Then I’ll change the password, and you can log in and play with it normally.” Ji Wenyu has always been generous.
The girl thought about it for a moment, then shook her head: “No.”
Ji Wenyu was puzzled: “Why?”
Wang Xinnuo: “God X only added you as a friend because the person on the other end was you. I don’t want to chat with him under your name.”
Ji Wenyu: “Then what do you want to do?”
Wang Xinnuo clicked a few times randomly on the screen interface and tossed the phone back into the young man’s hands.
“Of course I’m going to wait until I enroll in Capital University to formally get to know God X.” The girl flicked her ponytail, turned her back, and looked back at the paused TV show on the computer screen. “But during this time, if you chat well with God X and meet up in person, I don’t mind you taking me along.”
Ji Wenyu: “You don’t mind. If you want me to take you, just say so directly. Fine, if there’s a chance, I’ll definitely take you. But I guess there won’t be this chance. X and I just mutually followed each other and became friends, and I don’t plan to chat about anything else.”
“That was before; who knows what’ll happen after.” Wang Xinnuo shook her index finger with her back to him. “I helped you sign up for Qinghe’s autumn/winter check-in event, grouped in pairs, and I checked God X as your partner. As long as he agrees, the two of you will be Qinghe online task partners from now on.”
“What online task? Check-in? Check in for what? With X? Why would he agree to be my partner with me? Partner for what?” Ji Wenyu’s face was full of question marks.
The phone rang with a ding notification sound, and Wang Xinnuo reacted faster than him, turning around to pick up his phone again.
“Not bad, Brother Wenyu.” The girl let out a click of her tongue. “God X confirmed it on his end. From now on, you, Ji Wenyu, are God X’s study partner.”