The phoenix flowers at Xiamen University bloomed again in the blink of an eye.
It's said that Phoenix Wood is the most humane presence at Xiamen University.
It blooms twice a year, once when freshmen arrive in September and again when seniors leave in June.
Since the 1920s, the phoenix flowers of Xiamen University, with their fiery enthusiasm, had been welcoming and bidding farewell without ever missing an appointment.
It was the season when the phoenix flowers bloomed again.
Freshmen were about to put a period at the end of their first year, and seniors were about to leave the campus.
Lei Pili came again.
He probably wanted to confess his feelings one last time before he left for Beijing.
Lei Pili called Yan Yan, telling her he was going to the Furong canteen at school for the "last supper" and asked if Yan Yan could join him.
Yan Yan gladly accepted.
Lei Pili, Yan Yan never disliked him, and since it was the last supper, both emotionally and rationally, she should go.
"Yan Yan, would you..." Lei Pili, seeing Yan Yan sit down, couldn't wait to again broach the question he cared about the most.
"Stop right there, I don't mind, but don't spoil your mood for eating," Yan Yan cut off what Lei Pili was about to say.
"As long as it doesn't affect your mood, my resilience, it's already been tested by you. Do you really not want to be my girlfriend?" Lei Pili still asked unabashedly.
"You're really disgraceful, turning a proper farewell meal into a moment where you force me to think of another reason to reject you," Yan Yan looked at Lei Pili with a speechless expression.
"I'm actually quite looking forward to your reason for rejecting me this time," Lei Pili said with a helpless smile.
"Utterly shameless wins the day." That was the most fitting comment Yan Yan could think of at the moment.
"I'm serious, the first time you rejected me, you said that I wasn't yet the president of the Foreign Languages Student Council. Then I ran for it and won. I was already the vice president, so it wasn't hard for me.
The second time you rejected me, you said I hadn't passed the Professional Level 8. I wasn't much of a studious person, which made it a bit difficult for me. But I still passed.
The third time you rejected me, you said I hadn't been accepted into the national ministry. That was asking a bit too much since our department only had a couple of people get into the Foreign Affairs Ministry each year. But still, I made it.
Your rejections, they don't depress people; instead, they spur them on.
I achieved many things I never even dreamed of.
Why won't you be my girlfriend? After all, I am quite a 'notable personality' popular among the girls in school," Lei Pili remembered the reasons he had been rejected very clearly.
"The real reason, didn't I make it very clear the fourth time I rejected you?" Yan Yan felt that Lei Pili was feigning ignorance.
"You don't have feelings for me, do you?" Lei Pili recalled the most "common" reason among those Yan Yan had given.
"Yep, and besides, a notable personality or whatever, that really doesn't suit someone like me who attracts negativity," Yan Yan said earnestly.
"Do I really stand no chance at all?" Lei Pili asked again for confirmation, knowing the chances were slim but still not quite ready to give up.
"It's not that, didn't I give you a chance the last time you confessed? Whenever you shrink by two centimeters, remember to let me know~" Yan Yan said humorously.
Before, Lei Pili had achieved every challenging reason Yan Yan had whimsically set.
So that's why she came up with a "god-level reason" that one's height cannot exceed 178 centimeters.
"I recently grew another centimeter, and if I have to wait until I shrink significantly, it would be at least forty or fifty years, can't you give me a reason that's easier to achieve?" Lei Pili, despite being continuously rejected, was not very disheartened.
"Who haggles over the reasons they were rejected?" Yan Yan was not the type who would string someone along if she wasn't interested.
"Can't I negotiate? I just confessed again, how do you plan to reject me this time?" Lei Pili couldn't help but be curious.
"Wasn't the last reason good enough? We can keep using it. Why bother changing?" Yan Yan was quite satisfied with her excuse that one's height should not exceed 178 centimeters.
Because after she gave that excuse, Lei Pili did not confess again for a long time, signifying the effectiveness of that excuse.
"Considering I am leaving tomorrow, you should at least give me a new reason." Lei Pili mentioned a bit self-mockingly.
"Okay, let me think. I don't really like my current major; I feel I don't belong to that world. It's like choosing the wrong person; you should cut your losses in time. But I can't take the college entrance exam again, so I am going abroad." Yan Yan said to Lei Pili after some thought.
"And then? That's not the reason you're planning to use to reject me, right?" Lei Pili felt that this reason was too ordinary and didn't match Yan Yan's style of rejection.
If Lei Pili seriously reflected on his thoughts at the moment, he would have a new understanding of his own despicableness.
"Well then, I'm going to Melbourne. If one day you become the Consul General at the Melbourne Consulate and I'm still in Melbourne, come and find me," Yan Yan offered a new reason.
"Hahaha, that reason sounds exactly like something you would come up with. For us newbies, if we're truly sent abroad, for the first three to five years, we would likely be sent to places like Africa.
Consul General, especially in Melbourne, no matter how hard one works, it would probably take at least twenty to thirty years.
But, thanks for your kindness; this is much more achievable than waiting forty or fifty years for osteoporosis or whatever."
This freshly minted reason considerably improved Lei Pili's mood.
"I hadn't heard you were going abroad before." Lei Pili started a normal conversation.
"Right, no one heard about it. I'm the first to tell you, to encourage you to forge ahead in your path to becoming a Consul General!" Yan Yan knew Lei Pili was already well aware of her true feelings.
"Thanks for your encouragement. When I get to Beijing, I will give you my contact information, and we can keep in touch," Lei Pili accepted the reality of being rejected again.
He had decided to ask Yan Yan for a meal today, knowing she definitely wouldn't accept to be his girlfriend. Not to mention Yan Yan going abroad. Even if she didn't, Beijing and Xiamen were still incredibly distant.
"What contact? You're going to Africa, all dark and murky, what's there to keep in touch about? Wait till you become a Caucasian, then we can resume our past connection." Yan Yan outright rejected the suggestion to keep in touch, not wanting to leave Lei Pili with any undue expectations.
"So depending on which country you go to, you turn into that ethnic race, huh? Then I look forward to someday in some year, renewing our past connection in the land of Caucasians." Lei Pili's college days were about to end, having loved was enough.
Yan Yan set a rule for herself not to date in her freshman year.
Sometimes Yan Yan wondered if she were not a freshman but already a sophomore, would she accept Lei Pili, whom she quite liked?
The answer would probably still be no.
Yan Yan initially thought Xiamen was far enough from her home and Beijing, but now she didn't want to stay in the northern hemisphere anymore.
Freshman year was almost over, and she should be starting a new life already, why did she still want to flee?
Is it really because her current classmates were not from her world?
Isn't there Ning Xuan?
She never thought about fleeing when she had no friends before.