The self-introductions soon reached Shi Jing.
Shi Jing had absolutely no interest in becoming a class officer or building relationships with his classmates. When he went up to the podium, he only said two sentences.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Shi Jing.”
“I’m from Lingcheng Province.”
After the introductions ended, the main event of the class meeting finally arrived—the selection of a temporary class representative.
The Academic Counselor said, “Tomorrow is the opening ceremony. After that, we’ll have military training, so we need to select a temporary representative first.”
“This time, we won’t do self-nominations. Instead, write down the name of the classmate who left the deepest impression on you during the introductions.”
It was a rather unexpected way of choosing a representative.
The problem was that Shi Jing had spent the entire time scrolling through Douyin while everyone else was introducing themselves. Forget making an impression—he hadn’t remembered a single person.
Pulling a black pen from his pocket, he casually scribbled the character None onto the paper.
After the papers were collected from the back rows and passed forward, he leaned comfortably against his chair and waited for the class meeting to end.
The Academic Counselor selected a male student to read the votes and a female student to record them.
The classroom fell silent for a moment before the boy began counting.
“Shi Jing, one vote.”
What the hell?!
Shi Jing froze and immediately sat upright.
For a moment, he thought he had misheard.
The boy continued.
“Shi Jing, one vote.”
The girl drew another tally mark beneath Shi Jing’s name.
Shi Jing: “…”
What was going on?!!!
Shi Jing could barely stay seated. It felt as though his backside had caught fire. He shifted restlessly in his seat.
“Zhuang Congnan, one vote.”
The name sounded familiar.
Shi Jing opened the class WeChat group and, sure enough, the group owner was Zhuang Congnan.
The guy was quite active in the class chat.
Now that was how a class representative was supposed to be.
Scrolling through the group members, Shi Jing despairingly discovered that nobody in the class shared his name.
His last hope shattered.
Hope destroyed.jpg.
As the vote counting entered the second half, more and more names appeared on the blackboard. However, the two students with the highest votes remained Shi Jing and Zhuang Congnan, and the gap between them stayed incredibly close.
“Shi Jing, one vote.”
When the final slip of paper was read, Shi Jing secured first place with seventeen votes.
After the class meeting ended, he left the classroom with a dark expression.
The next day was the opening ceremony.
Seven in the morning was already painfully early for Shi Jing. He was so sleepy he could barely walk straight. It felt as though every internal organ in his body was aching.
Even though the dormitory was only on the second floor, he couldn’t be bothered to take the stairs and simply stood in front of the elevator waiting.
The elevator slowly descended.
When it arrived at the second floor, the doors slid open.
Yawning, Shi Jing shook his head and stepped inside.
There was only one person in the elevator.
The man stood in the corner, adjusting the cuffs of his suit.
He wore a perfectly tailored black suit. His eyes were lowered as his fingertips casually brushed against his cuff.
The entire movement was smooth and elegant, yet carried an air of arrogance that seemed to look down on everyone.
Shi Jing’s mind abruptly cleared.
Why did this insufferably arrogant aura feel so familiar…?
Turning his head, his gaze slowly traveled upward and met a pair of pitch-black eyes.
“…”
Jiang Yu tilted his head slightly.
“What a coincidence.”
Coincidence my ass.
Shi Jing’s face darkened with bad luck. He shuffled sideways and, using the same precise brain he applied to physics and mathematics, found the spot farthest possible from Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu lowered his gaze and continued adjusting his cuffs.
His suits were professionally pressed. There wasn’t a single wrinkle on them.
His cuffs were neat and immaculate. There was absolutely nothing that needed adjusting.
Yet he continued doing it.
More absentmindedly than before.
After leaving the elevator, Shi Jing headed toward the conference room.
Less than ten minutes later, he turned around and looked at Jiang Yu, who was still walking behind him.
“Why are you following me? Are you sick or something?”
Jiang Yu fell silent for a moment.
“I’m not following you. I’m going to a meeting.”
Shi Jing’s right eyelid twitched.
“What meeting?”
“The representatives’ meeting.”
“…”
Shi Jing turned around and walked off without another word.
The meeting lasted only half an hour.
Afterward, Shi Jing grabbed breakfast at the nearest cafeteria, and by the time he finished eating, the opening ceremony was about to begin.
Students gradually entered the venue.
Shi Jing sat beside the sign for Chemistry Class One and waited until most of the students had arrived before taking attendance with the class roster.
After finishing, only one person was missing.
—Zhuang Congnan.
Since the ceremony hadn’t started yet, Shi Jing wasn’t particularly concerned. Bored out of his mind, he opened a game.
Halfway through the match, someone beside him called out.
“Classmate Shi.”
Shi Jing instinctively looked up.
A group of girls sat nearby, smiling brightly at him.
They all had their hair down, looked quite pretty, and wore department-issued uniforms.
Shi Jing couldn’t even tell which one had spoken.
Politely, he asked,
“What is it?”
“Hehehehehe.”
After a burst of suspicious laughter, the girls all started talking at once.
“We all voted for you yesterday. Are you happy? Excited?”
“That’s right! All the girls in the class voted for you.”
“Classmate Shi Jing, you’re really adorable.”
“You’re hitting every single one of my cute triggers.”
“Can we add you on WeChat?”
Shi Jing: “…”
His face went blank.
Like Tang Sanzang falling into the Spider Demon Cave, he looked completely lost.
His lips pressed together again and again.
What was happening???!!!
Were university students really this socially fearless the moment school started???
And besides, look at these dark circles under his eyes.
Did he look happy to them?
Countless comments flashed through Shi Jing’s mind. The more he thought about it, the more impatient he became.
A few seconds later, he pulled out his phone and directly displayed his QR code.
The girls took turns scanning it.
Ten minutes later, Shi Jing was describing the incident to Qin Yu on WeChat.
Qin Yu: 【?】
Qin Yu: 【What’s going on, little bro? Shouldn’t you be happy? So many pretty girls added you.】
Shi Jing: 【Happy my ass.】
Shi Jing: 【For one brief moment, I felt no different from an uncle selling candied hawthorns on the street.】
Qin Yu: 【What does that have to do with a candied hawthorn vendor?】
Shi Jing: 【Because I like eating candied hawthorns.】
Qin Yu: 【666】
A few minutes before the opening ceremony began, Zhuang Congnan hurried in from outside, looking flustered.
He sat down in the empty seat on Shi Jing’s other side, still catching his breath.
“Sorry, I’m late.”
“It’s fine.”
Shi Jing casually checked his name off on the roster.
A few minutes later, the opening ceremony officially began.
The sky was blue, the grass was lush and green, and dozens of drones buzzed overhead.
From the university president to the department directors, everyone took turns giving speeches.
With his legs crossed, Shi Jing reluctantly straightened his back and sat a little more properly.
The roster dangled loosely from his hand. As he idly waved it around, the pages rustled together with crisp sounds and even stirred up a small breeze.
Zhuang Congnan glanced down at it briefly before looking away.
The speech from the university leadership alone lasted a full hour and a half.
They talked about the university’s history, the contributions of distinguished alumni, and future aspirations.
In the end, it was still the same old empty rhetoric.
As time passed, the sun climbed higher.
The summer sunlight carried a scorching heat that drained everyone’s energy.
The growing impatience among the students suddenly vanished when the announcement came that the freshman representative would take the stage.
At least, that was how Shi Jing felt.
The girls sitting beside him had been quietly complaining about the school’s obsession with ceremony just moments ago.
Yet the instant they heard the name Jiang Yu, they all perked up with renewed energy.
As though they had been brought back from the dead.