Tang Yan flipped through the comic a few times, closed it, and then asked, “Xiaoyun, I am going to school tomorrow. Did you have any plans?”
“I had already been in contact with a company through a job site before I came to Huadu. It was a sales position. As soon as you head to school tomorrow, I planned to go for the interview,” Zhao Xiaoyun replied.
Tang Yan felt relieved and asked again, “Have you found a place to stay? If not, I can talk to Aunt Ji and see if you can stay here for a while.”
“No, no, that would be too awkward,” Zhao Xiaoyun said with a grin. “If I pass the interview, I can stay at the employee dormitory. It would not cost me anything.”
“Oh…” Tang Yan nodded. “That works. As long as you have a place to stay, I can stop worrying.”
Feeling more at ease, Zhao Xiaoyun gave her thigh a light slap and got ready to head out. “Alright, you should get some sleep now. I need a good night’s rest, too. Traveling by train was too exhausting.” She yawned as she spoke.
“Hey, wait, Xiaoyun!” Tang Yan called out hastily and handed back a stack of comics she had gathered up. “You should take these back.”
A little surprised, Zhao Xiaoyun asked, “You are not interested? They are actually quite good—very raunchy and violent.”
Shyly, Tang Yan shook her head and said with an embarrassed smile, “I am not really into that kind of thing.”
“Alright, got it,” Zhao Xiaoyun said with a grin. “I won’t force you. I am leaving now. Good night!”
“Good night!” Tang Yan stood at the door, watching her head back to the guest room next door. Then she turned around to head back to her own room, only to find herself making eye contact with Ji Yuqing, who stood in the living room holding a glass of water.
“Aunt Ji… you have not gone to sleep yet?”
Caught off guard for a moment, Ji Yuqing raised the glass in her hand slightly. “I was just about to. What about you? Why have you not gone to bed?”
Tang Yan pointed toward the door to her left. “Xiaoyun came over to chat for a while.”
“Oh…”
Two seconds of silence passed, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still.
Finally, Ji Yuqing spoke again. “Go on and get some rest. I will drive you to school tomorrow.”
“Alright,” Tang Yan answered obediently. “You should rest early too, Aunt Ji. Good night.” She took the initiative to wish her a good night.
“Good night,” Ji Yuqing replied, quickly echoing the same sentiment.
They both turned and headed back to their rooms.
Early the next morning, Tang Yan woke up and got her room and the belongings she needed for school all sorted. Zhao Xiaoyun had also risen just as early. They met in the bathroom and stood side by side, brushing their teeth together.
With a mouth full of foam, Zhao Xiaoyun still tried to talk to her. “I am so excited. I get to see your school soon, and I have never seen Huadu University before.”
“It was huge,” Tang Yan answered, foam forming a white mustache around her mouth. She could not think of any better way to describe it, so she left it at that.
“Are there foreign students at your university? When I worked in the south, I met quite a few foreign students there,” Zhao Xiaoyun asked curiously.
“Yes, I ran into lots of them. There must have been quite a number,” Tang Yan replied.
Meanwhile, Ji Yuqing also woke up. It was a Monday, and her company had a regular meeting. As a management-level executive, she needed to attend, so after dropping Tang Yan off at school, she would have to hurry straight to work.
She quickly used a hairdryer to style the ends of her hair so they curled outward, which made her look neither too flashy nor too plain. She applied her favorite bean-colored lipstick—a versatile shade perfect for work—and shaped her eyebrows with a gentle arch that softened her features. Overall, she appeared calm and composed. Finally, she sprayed a light touch of perfume—Guerlain mint grass—on her wrists and the back of her neck. It was not too strong, carrying a fresh scent reminiscent of grass after the rain, enough to lift the spirit.
They grabbed breakfast as usual at a familiar Cantonese dim sum place. Xiaoyun mentioned that in the three years she spent down south, she almost never ate dim sum because it was a bit expensive for her. After sending money back home each month, she had very little left over.
During breakfast, Ji Yuqing’s phone rang. She picked it up, saw it was a message from her assistant, Peiwen, and held down the voice button to reply while holding a spoonful of congee. “Please have the meeting materials printed out. I should arrive at the office in about fifteen minutes.”
“Aunt Ji, if you are in a rush for work, I can go to school on my own,” Tang Yan said softly, as she did not want to affect Aunt Ji’s schedule.
“Yes, yes, I am here. I can go with Tang Yan to her school,” Zhao Xiaoyun chimed in, trying to help.
Checking the time, Ji Yuqing replied, “It is alright. I will make it. There is no rush.” She gave a reassuring smile.
All the same, Tang Yan picked up her pace and finished her breakfast in a matter of seconds, worried she might be late for morning military training.
After breakfast, they drove to the east gate of Huadu University. With Tang Yan and Zhao Xiaoyun out of the car, Ji Yuqing stayed inside, leaning out of the window to say, “Make sure you eat well at school. Call me if anything comes up.”
Tang Yan nodded and waved goodbye along with Zhao Xiaoyun.
With Aunt Ji gone, Tang Yan led Zhao Xiaoyun inside. As they walked, Zhao Xiaoyun kept taking pictures with her phone. “Tonight, I am definitely posting these on my social media to show everyone I have been to Huadu University!”
Tang Yan smiled. “I am here, so you can come visit any time you want.”
They wandered around campus for a while, but the place was enormous, and Tang Yan did not have time to show her everything. She needed to store her luggage and rush to the sports field to meet up with everyone else. Xiaoyun understood and suggested they continue another time; she joked that one day she would walk every corner of Huadu University.
There was a hint of regret and reluctance in Xiaoyun’s eyes.
Tang Yan worried a little. “Do you know which bus to take when you leave?”
Adjusting her bag, Xiaoyun waved a casual hand. “No worries. I have some real-world survival skills. Bye for now.”
“Bye!” Tang Yan waved and watched Xiaoyun walk away, disappearing in the direction of the campus gates.
They had only spent a day together after finally meeting up, but at least they were now in the same city and would have more opportunities in the future.
Throughout the day, Xiaoyun kept Tang Yan updated on her plans. At 9:10 in the morning, she messaged to say she was on the subway, heading to her interview.
At lunch, Tang Yan ate at the cafeteria with her dormmates. Xiaoyun sent another update, accompanied by a selfie. She wore what looked like a work uniform with a name badge on her chest, explaining she had passed the interview and had seen the employee dorm—shared by three people but free of charge, which was no small blessing in an expensive city like Huadu. She mentioned the base salary was 2600 yuan plus commission; if she had a good sales month, she could potentially earn over ten thousand yuan.
Tang Yan sensed Xiaoyun’s excitement through the screen and sent her multiple encouraging emojis to cheer her on.
By the end of that day’s military training, everyone was about ready to collapse. The training had entered the latter stages, and since there would be a final ceremony at the end of the month to show off their progress, each instructor pushed the students harder. Come nightfall, the dorm halls rang with complaints from exhausted girls.
Tang Yan felt she could pass out as soon as she lay down, but a shower refreshed her just enough to keep her awake. At that moment, Xiaoyun messaged her again.
“Tang Yan,” she said, “take a look at my dorm!”
She sent a short video, which Tang Yan opened. Although the environment was fairly basic, it was not bad, especially since it was free in such an expensive city as Huadu.
Tang Yan asked, “Were you the only person there?”
“Yes,” Xiaoyun replied. “Originally it was shared by two, but one quit today, so for now it is just me.”
“Well, that is nice. You will be more comfortable on your own,” Tang Yan responded.
After several minutes without any reply from Xiaoyun, Tang Yan exited WeChat and stared blankly at her phone screen for a bit, uncertain how to occupy herself. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. Acting on impulse, she opened a search engine and typed in two words:
“Baihe.”
Besides the typical encyclopedia entries, there were all sorts of pages about the term. Tang Yan lay on her side, scrolling through one introduction that caught her eye. She spent about ten minutes reading before realizing how much time had passed. A new WeChat message finally arrived, so she exited the browser and returned to her chat with Xiaoyun.
She planned to send Xiaoyun a screenshot of what she had been reading, but right after tapping to send the image, Tang Yan noticed the recipient’s name at the top of the chat window.
“Aunt Ji?”
Oh no, she had sent it to the wrong person.
At once, her mind went blank. She hurriedly long-pressed the image and chose “recall.” Fortunately, less than two minutes had passed, so she successfully retracted it. She felt somewhat relieved.
She backed out of that chat, quickly locked the phone’s screen, set it down beside her pillow, and tried to sleep.
After a few minutes, just as she was drifting off, she heard her phone vibrate against the pillow. She picked it up to see a message from Aunt Ji:
“A lily?”