Chapter 18

  Nowadays, Fan Yizhou appears in front of many young students as a successful person, personally explaining his way to success, which makes me feel not very used to. Especially the characteristics of success he summarized, such as: dreams, attitudes and opportunities, etc., make me feel that this man is talking nonsense with his eyes open.

  The only reason for his success is his dad.

  After the lecture, as usual, Zhang Qiu and I stayed behind to answer questions from interested students. A female student handed us a copy of her resume, which showed that she had excellent grades, rich social activities, and good qualifications, but in the column for applying departments, she only filled in "A City".

  "My name is Yuan Chen. Our company in City A only has a business department and no branch offices. Which department did you apply for?"

  She stared blankly: "I just want to apply for a position in A city."

  "We currently have no recruitment plans in City A. Actually, many good securities companies are located in City B due to the financial environment, I suggest you reconsider the location?"

  She thought for a moment and shook her head: "Forget it. I won't apply."

  Zhang Qiu handed her resume back to her and casually asked: "Are you a local of A City?"

  "My husband is in A city."

  "Nowadays, university students' ideas are different from ours back then. When I was looking for a job, it was the units that chose us, not the other way around. And this young girl is already married so early, before even graduating."

  I smiled: "Others can see clearly, now there are really not many people who are willing to take a loss like this."

  The feelings on campus are still pure and enviable, I liked Lu You at that time, let alone change a city to live, even if it's changing a country to spend the day, I would pack my bags and follow him without hesitation.

  The second time I met Lu You after we met on the train was in the Financial Engineering class of the first semester of junior year. This course is a compulsory course for graduate students, and I went to listen with the mentality of "completely not understanding". As a result, I really didn't understand it.

  Financial engineering is a major course, in the spacious tiered classroom, row after row of seats, Lu You sits in the middle position, not very eye-catching, sometimes with his roommate Du Shaotu and other classmates sitting beside him.

  Lu You rarely skipped class or was late. This class was scheduled every Tuesday morning from 8 to 10, and I struggled to get out of bed every day, carrying a bag of soy milk into the classroom, basically always rushing in at the end of the first period and the beginning of the second period, just as the bell rang.

  There are actually very few people who come earlier and more actively than me.

  For the first three weeks, I didn't have a chance to talk to Lu You, and could only sit in the back row staring at the back of his head. Lu You listened to classes very seriously, his notes were done very neatly, and he was very popular. Later, when it was close to the mid-term exams, I saw more than once that his notes had been photocopied into the review materials of his classmates in the finance class.

  It was the fourth week of class, and Lu You rarely missed a session. Coincidentally, it was the end of winter and the beginning of spring, with a cold snap, and the temperature in City B that day was very low, with chilly winds mixed with rain, making people's faces ache; due to time constraints, attendance for this class was already not high, and with the cold wind blowing, the entire classroom felt desolate, with only the professor and a few scattered classmates present.

  I dozed off on the desk and woke up just one minute before class ended. The professor ended the lecture ahead of schedule, looked around at the deserted classroom with a scowl, opened the attendance book and began to take roll call. The few classmates who had braved the wind and rain to attend class all showed expressions of satisfaction that their efforts had not been in vain.

  I bit my pen and wanted to send a text message to Lu You, but this behavior was too proactive. My motivation for attending the class was gone, so I had to give up. But it's unreasonable that such a diligent student was marked absent. So when the professor read out Lu You's name, I loudly responded with "Present!"

  There are about 50 people in the whole finance class, I guess the professor won't be able to remember who's who.

  The classroom was quiet, and the echo of my loud "Present!" still lingered in my ears. The professor looked up at me with a puzzled expression, and the students in the front row turned around, making me the center of attention for that moment.

  Among the classmates who turned back, I only recognized Du Shaotu's face. He looked at me with a surprised expression, raised his eyebrows, and had an incredulous look on his face. Then I saw his mouth shape saying: Who are you?

  I was still thinking about how to respond when I heard the professor call out Lu You's name again.

  This time I hesitated whether to speak up or not, and didn't know if Professor had already seen through me just now.

  The teacher flipped through the attendance book, slowly asking: "Just now when I called Lu You, two people responded. Now that I've read his name again, one of them is gone?" There was a snicker or two in the classroom.

  I was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized: what I heard earlier wasn't an echo, it was Du Shaotu helping Lu You shout "arrived".

  "Teacher, I'm...I'm Lu You." Du Shaotu turned his head and glared at me, gesturing with his hand for me to shut up, then hastily raised his hand to explain to the professor.

  I also quickly clarified and said: "Sorry teacher, I misheard earlier. I am not Lu You."