The student in front of him sported a trendy sports t-shirt, and though he had yet to arrive, his cigarette was already lit.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Chang Hao! From the Capital city. You're Zhou Yuwen, right?" the boy said with a laugh as he passed the cigarette over.
Looking at the familiar face in front of him, Zhou Yuwen recognized the well-known Xuanhe Clan cigarettes.
Zhou Yuwen couldn't help but smile, "Hello, Zhou Yuwen."
"So our dorm is all here now."
Everything was unfolding just as it had in the previous life. There were four people in the dormitory, Chang Hao from the Capital city, cheerful and carefree. Once everyone had gathered in the dorm, he eagerly voiced his opinions, mentioning that he could have gone abroad for his studies but due to some mishap, he ended up here unexpectedly.
This school really sucks, not even a seat for the toilet.
And the showers were in a communal bathhouse.
"This place isn't fit for living at all!"
Chang Hao was rambling and complaining on the side.
The fair-skinned boy sitting on the bed was called Lu Yuhang, from the Jiangzhe region, a very quiet student. In his previous life, he rarely took part in dormitory activities and was the overlooked one, having gone abroad to study in his sophomore year per his family's arrangement.
At the beginning of college, everyone always thought that Chang Hao from the Capital city was the wealthiest rich second generation in the dorm, until Lu Yuhang went abroad, then everyone realized that he was the real deal—wealthy yet low-key. However, Lu Yuhang seemed not to care about these things, he was always the easiest one to ignore in the dorm.
Listening to Chang Hao's complaints, Lu Yuhang explained that this place used to be the school's guest house but was temporarily converted into a dormitory due to the expansion of school enrollment, so the environment was slightly worse than that of the newly built dormitories.
"Damn! No wonder there's a musty smell! There aren't rats here, are there? I'm terrified of rats!" Chang Hao panicked and exclaimed.
"What's the big deal about rats? I've seen plenty at our place, huge rats, I just stomp on them, and their bellies burst open!" The last one to speak was Li Qiang, simply dressed, tall, and sturdy, from the northern region, very unhappy with Chang Hao's show-off behavior as the semester began.
During the four years Zhou Yuwen spent with them, Li Qiang had complained more than once about Chang Hao, failing to understand what he felt so superior about, as it was his family who had money, not him.
All he did was skip classes and play games, not even sure if he could graduate. Li Qiang wondered which company would ever hire him!
Li Qiang, who came from a less affluent family, deeply believed in the saying "hard work pays off." He always felt that as long as he was willing to work hard, one day he would see Chang Hao struggling to make ends meet.
However, years later, to his disappointment, while he was still struggling for a job that paid eight thousand a month, working nine to five and commuting on the subway, Chang Hao had already returned to the Capital city, easily finding a job with a monthly welfare benefit over ten thousand.
Back in college, Chang Hao had always liked Zheng Yanyan, a girl from the same place as him.
Chang Hao's affection was overt.
He would do anything for Zheng Yanyan, including what he thought was a romantic act of playing the guitar under the dormitory building.
However, Zheng Yanyan always responded with a smile, neither initiating nor rejecting.
Chang Hao liked Zheng Yanyan for four years.
Unnumbered nights, he drank his sorrows away for Zheng Yanyan.
Unfortunately, they never ended up together in the end.
He followed his family's arrangements, married the daughter of a factory owner also from the Capital city, and took over his father-in-law's leather factory. On his wedding day, Chang Hao drank a lot. He had invited Zheng Yanyan to the wedding, but unfortunately, she never showed up.
All she did was ask Su Qing to pass Chang Hao a red envelope.
It read: Wishing you happiness.
During his college days, Chang Hao did all sorts of absurd things, like fighting and brawling, embarrassing himself but taking pride in it, just like in many youth movies.
This made Li Qiang, who never looked up to him, laugh heartily at the jokes every day.
Not even attending Chang Hao's wedding or giving a gift.
The reason was simple, they would no longer be in contact, so there was no need to keep up the pretense.
The past is like smoke, already happened, yet it seemed like it hadn't.
Brother Hao distributed a Xuanhe Clan cigarette to Li Qiang.
Li Qiang, at eighteen, his eyes lit up, "Xuanhe Clan! Nice cigarette!"
"Well, it's just average!"
Brother Hao and Li Qiang, clearly not fond of each other, sometimes seemed as close as real brothers.
Especially when Brother Hao mentioned that he had arranged to play poker with two girls from the freshman group.
"You're both free later, right? If so, come along. I've seen a photo of this girl, she is stunningly beautiful!" Brother Hao said as he pulled out his Samsung phone to show Li Qiang the photo.
"But there's only one here! Where's the other?"
"I'm not sure about the other one. This girl is also from the Capital city. I've been chatting with her all summer. We just agreed to play cards, and she said she would bring a roommate, who is from Xu Huai, hey, wait, Zhou Yuwen aren't you from Xu Huai? Come with me," Brother Hao said.
This was the place.
Zheng Yanyan's roommate was Zhou Yuwen's ex-wife.
This card game was also where the dream began.
Both hailing from the same place, they struck up a conversation and discovered they had once taken a test in the same classroom during a minor quiz. With that connection, it didn't take long for them to get familiar with each other.
The so-called university life, isn't it just occasionally spacing out in dorms, playing games, and sometimes inviting the cute girl from the next class for a stroll?
The two soon established a relationship and, four years later under their parents' watch, successfully entered the sanctum of marriage.
Undeniably, Zhou Yuwen and Su Qing had their sweet moments. After all, Su Qing was a campus beauty during university, not only beautiful but also academically successful, bagging several awards in design even before graduating. As Su Qing's boyfriend, Zhou Yuwen was always the envy of others.
Especially Brother Hao, who was incredibly envious of Zhou Yuwen.
He had pursued Zheng Yanyan for four years without even a touch.
Whereas Zhou Yuwen and Su Qing had pretty much established their relationship within just three months of knowing each other.
How could he not feel agitated?
Okay, university romance was indeed very sweet.
But now, to start over.
"Hey, Zhou Yuwen, are you coming? This is a great chance to meet some girls!" Brother Hao said.
Snapping back to reality from his reminiscence and seeing Brother Hao's eager gaze.
Zhou Yuwen smiled slightly, "No thanks, I'll pass. You guys go ahead."
"Ah? Why not go? Do you have something else?" Seeing Zhou Yuwen declining, Brother Hao felt disappointed.
It seemed like this from the beginning of the semester, actually Li Qiang really hoped to become best friends with Brother Hao, but unfortunately, Brother Hao looked down on Li Qiang. Born in the city was Zhou Yuwen, though not particularly wealthy and not dressed in branded clothes, who always kept himself tidy and clean; he indeed really hoped to become friends with Zhou Yuwen.
Unfortunately, Zhou Yuwen treated his roommates with a bland attitude, neither deliberately cold nor overly enthusiastic. As Su Qing put it, it was as if no one could really get close to Zhou Yuwen's heart.
Perhaps this was what attracted Su Qing to Zhou Yuwen.
It was exactly Zhou Yuwen's lukewarm attitude that made Brother Hao even more obsessed, often saying when drunk, "Old Zhou! You and I are brothers to the bone!"
Zhou Yuwen just laughed, "You're drunk."
Brother Hao really wanted Zhou Yuwen to join him for the card game.
He even said, "Zheng Yanyan is really beautiful."
"Here, let me show you her photo."
"No, I have something else shortly. Let Li Qiang accompany you," Zhou Yuwen said as he packed his things.
"Come on, Brother Hao, if Zhou Yuwen doesn't want to go, don't make it hard for him. I'll go with you; I want to see how beautiful this Zheng Yanyan is."