Chapter 12

The 15 days of military training passed under the scorching sun and the bites of ladybugs. After the final long-distance march and shooting practice, it officially came to an end.

Li Zhen looked at the group of students with a reluctant gaze. This was the first batch of students he had trained, all top university students, who would be considered top scorers in their county.

I was their drill instructor, and if the villagers back home knew, they would be so proud. Li Zhen felt a sweet warmth in his heart. He decided to call home tonight and tell his parents about it. They would surely stand tall in the village.

"Students, you are all excellent students, the flowers of the motherland. I feel very happy and unforgettable to have been your drill instructor for these 15 days," Li Zhen said, his eyes glistening with tears.

Liu Meng didn't feel jealous of Li Zhen for the previous incident; instead, he admired this passionate man from the western region. Last night, he found an opportunity to meet Li Zhen and gave him two packs of Marlboro cigarettes. Most soldiers were heavy smokers.

His brother was a soldier in the port of Zhili and was due to be discharged in a few months. Liu Meng naturally knew the situation in the military camp well.

Thinking of his brother, he felt a bit sentimental. His brother had been in the military for almost two years, always training the hardest to stay in. However, the unit's restructuring prevented him from staying, and he was discharged with many injuries. But his kickboxing skills were top-notch, and no three or five men could get close to him.

Thinking about his brother's efforts, Liu Meng felt a warm feeling in his heart. His brother had dropped out of junior high school, though his grades were not bad, just not as good as Liu Meng's. To ease the pressure on his parents, he dropped out and worked on the farm for two years before enlisting.

In this life, he was determined to repay his brother and make him happy. Liu Meng made up his mind.

At first, Li Zhen refused the two packs of cigarettes Liu Meng offered, but after chatting for a while, they found they had a lot in common, both from poor farming backgrounds. They shared stories of their childhood, like stealing bird eggs, catching crayfish, and playing card games, and they were about the same age.

"Damn, do you look down on me?" Under Liu Meng's persistent persuasion, Li Zhen reluctantly accepted the cigarettes and immediately gave him a small medal in return.

As the farewell approached, the students all hugged Li Zhen, and Liu Meng was no exception. They hugged tightly, and Li Zhen laughed and scolded, "You little rascal, always slacking off and not training properly. You'll have to make up for the military training."

Liu Meng knew he was joking and patted his chest, laughing, "With you hugging me so hard, I still feel a bit sore in my chest."

"Get lost!" Having spent two years in the northeast, Li Zhen had also learned to speak Northeastern dialect.

On the afternoon the military training ended, the results of the English class placement test were announced. In Liu Meng's Class 3, only Jiang Weixin made it to the advanced class, while Lao Ma and Zheng Wen entered the fast-paced class. Liu Meng, however, did not make it.

For top students, grades were their lifeblood; checking grades was like an adrenaline rush.

The entire campus was abuzz with discussion.

"That Liu Thirty is really good at showing off. He handed in his paper so early, and I thought he would make it to the advanced class."

"Even the fast-paced class would be fine, but he's in the regular class like us."

"Damn, if I knew we'd all be in the regular class, I wouldn't have bothered. I wasted so many brain cells, and I could have just handed in my paper like Liu Thirty. The result would have been the same, and I could have shown off too."

For top students, ranking and showing off were more important than anything else!

In the end, they all regretted it, pounding their heads and lamenting their past actions.

However, Liu Meng was puzzled. According to the test, passing meant you were in the fast-paced class, and 75 points or more meant you were in the advanced class. He was sure he scored over 60 points. Could he have filled in the answer sheet incorrectly? That was the only explanation he could think of.

Finally, the real learning and studying began. The top students were full of enthusiasm, and that evening, they all gathered in the main building to study, reviewing the most important course of the four years—Advanced Mathematics.

The new campus was specifically prepared for freshmen, a transition between high school and real university life. Each freshman class had its own study room.

The 7th floor of the main building was the dedicated study room for the Electrical Engineering Department. Class 1 and Class 2 shared one room, and Class 3 and Class 4 shared another. Liu Meng had never liked sharing with Class 4 because the girls in Class 4 were uglier and fewer than those in Class 3.

Class 2 was generally considered the most attractive, with a record-breaking five beautiful girls, including Gu Pan. The others were also quite good-looking, and two of them, Bai Jingjing and Wang Meng, were familiar to Liu Meng.

Bai Jingjing was eventually pursued by Yuan Chaohui, a slightly dark, short, and fat boy from the capital. Initially, Bai Jingjing had a boyfriend from a sports school, but she eventually gave in to Yuan Chaohui's persistent advances and changed her heart.

The sports school boyfriend even found Yuan Chaohui and said, "Take care of my girl, love her and cherish her."

The sports school boy shed a tear and ran away.

That was the gist of it, as Yuan Chaohui later boasted to Liu Meng in the dormitory.

In Liu Meng's opinion, Bai Jingjing wasn't particularly attractive, just very thin with disproportionately large eyes and protruding teeth, which were a fatal flaw.

But Yuan Chaohui, a small-eyed, fat boy, truly loved her deeply. It was like a cat eating fish, a dog eating meat, or Ultraman fighting a monster.

Wang Meng, as her name suggested, was indeed a bit dazed and cute, though more on the dazed side. She later had a twilight romance with Han Zhong from the same class. It was said that Han Zhong was Wang Meng's fourth boyfriend, proving that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Such dazed and cute girls were often the favorites of those who liked to take on other people's girlfriends.

Han Zhong was no ordinary person either. He later went to Jianghai Jiaotong University for his master's degree and lived in the same suite as Liu Meng, becoming very familiar with him.

He later tricked Wang Meng into finding a job in Jiangdu, but three days before graduation, he broke up with her and quickly hooked up with a working girl. After a short while, he quickly hooked up with a friend's daughter and went to Germany together. However, shortly after arriving, the friend's daughter quickly fell for a German man.

This was the first proper study session after entering university, and the enthusiasm of the top students was ignited. It was already 9:45 PM, and the study room for Class 3 and Class 4, Room 702, was still packed, with no one missing.

Liu Meng didn't really want to come. Did he need to study? But he couldn't resist his dorm mates' urging. He couldn't just say, "I've already studied this." So he came along, but he was working on the main plot outline of "Return to Ming."

He had always felt there were some flaws in "Return to Ming," and the ending was a bit rushed. He planned to improve it and add another 500,000 words.

Lao Ma carefully flipped through the Advanced Mathematics textbook, feeling a bit teary-eyed. He was overwhelmed with emotion, thinking that it had been two years since he last studied in a university study room. When he dropped out of Kyoto University and returned home, he had faced immense pressure.

Getting into Kyoto University was a big deal in a small place, often featured in the news and serving as a role model for high school students and a source of pride for teachers.

Returning to school, the teachers who once admired him were no longer as kind, and the students who once looked up to him now gave him strange looks. Some classmates even tried to find out why he was expelled from Kyoto University.

The pressure was immense, and Lao Ma secretly resolved to return to Kyoto University and rise again where he had fallen.

Top students were always incredibly persistent.

However, fate did not go as planned. He performed poorly in the college entrance exam and didn't get into Kyoto University. Fortunately, he was accepted into H University, which was a stroke of luck.

Having experienced a setback, Lao Ma quickly regained his composure and was determined to achieve his super-student status at H University and then pursue a master's degree at Tsinghua University.

Dong Dong flipped through the "Advanced Mathematics" textbook, frowning. It was so difficult—integrals, single integrals, double integrals, triple integrals, line integrals, surface integrals. Oh, how many integrals were there?

If only the exam scores could be integrated.

In the entire study room, Liu Meng was probably the only one who was relaxed. It was almost 10 PM, and no one showed any signs of leaving. Liu Meng decided to pack up and leave, as staying any longer would be purely boring.

Top students always liked to compete, comparing their endurance. No one wanted to be the first to leave, but once someone led the way, everyone quickly started packing up to return to the dorm and sleep.

They didn't even want to wash their feet. After a night of studying, their heads were already a mess.