Chapter 146

After lunch break.

The weather was still a bit hot.

But finally I don't have to wear the military training uniform anymore. The military training camouflage uniform was very thick, not to mention breathable. Xiaoqi felt it was more suitable to wear when going to the mountains at her hometown to work. There would be some insects in the mountains, and those dense forests, the branches would often tear clothes. Wearing the military training uniform would probably be fine. She washed and hung up the military training uniform to pack it up later. If she didn't need it anymore, she would send it back home.

She could wear it at her hometown.

She also took a shower at noon. Enhua was especially stuffy and hot.

Now the order of taking showers in the dormitory was more or less settled. Gu Yunshu and Chen Mier went first, taking turns, while Xiaoqi and Wei Cheng went after, also taking turns. The personalities of the girls in their dorm were pretty good, without any conflicts.

After taking off the military training uniform, Xiaoqi changed into the jeans and T-shirt her aunt bought for her, light washed jeans, and a pale pink T-shirt that could be pulled down to reveal her shoulders if pulled hard, but Xiaoqi didn't like revealing her shoulders, so she wore it normally. After military training for a few days, she didn't tan at all. Wei Cheng had a tan ring around her neck and chin. Chen Mier originally had wheat-colored skin, so she didn't get whiter or darker. Gu Yunshu darkened by a shade, but it made her look healthier, otherwise when they first met, she always looked a bit sickly pale.

The school girls liked to use umbrellas, but Xiaoqi didn't. Carrying an umbrella was too cumbersome for her. She wore a duck bill cap instead.

In the afternoon, her roommates were all taking naps in the dorm, so she went out alone.

She took the school bus to the New District, then found the place according to the advertising posters she had taken pictures of. Indeed there was a driving school on the outskirts of the school. After walking down a stretch of road, you could see a field, but it didn't seem to be used for growing rice, more like a farm stay used for fishing.

After passing this field, there were two roads, one uphill road, and the driving school was up there.

Xiaoqi walked for a while and found that there were not only her but also many students along the roadside. She had just looked at the road signs at the intersection. Besides the driving school, there seemed to be a temple up the mountain.

Enhua University had very strict management of students dating. You basically couldn't see any hand-holding students on campus, but on this somewhat desolate road, there were surprisingly pairs after pairs of hand-holding boys and girls.

The boys' faces were young and a bit pretended to be mature. The girls generally felt more mature and dressed up nicely.

Xiaoqi came with a backpack. The backpack was homemade by her mother with colorful homespun cloth and army green canvas, very unique. She thought the driving school might need some documents and stuff, so she brought everything.

After turning another bend, she finally saw the sign for Yuandai Driving School. There was a small building at the entrance, followed by a huge square. There were cars driving slowly around the site.

Xiaoqi went in and found a registration office on the first floor. She said she had come to sign up for driving lessons. The receptionist was a boy who also seemed to be an Enhua student. As expected, when he saw Xiaoqi, he enthusiastically introduced himself, saying he was a sophomore majoring in finance. Xiaoqi handed over all the documents she needed to submit, as well as the tuition. The other party said they would confirm her instructor for her tomorrow, and also added her on WeChat.

After everything was done, Xiaoqi watched outside the square for a while. From time to time there were men's loud shouts, which seemed to be scolding. It seemed the instructors were not very good-tempered. But this was the driving school closest to the school surroundings.

So Xiaoqi just hoped everything would go smoothly for her and she could get her license done quickly.

After signing up, Xiaoqi walked back to the New District. Unexpectedly, she ran into her classmate, Chen Daen, on the road. Chen Daen was also very surprised to see Xiaoqi and stopped to say hello.

There was a group of boys and girls around, exchanging glances.

"They are my fellow villagers. There are new students this year as well as upperclass sisters and brothers. We went out together to walk around. What are you doing here alone?"

Enhua University was so big, and because the school was located next to a mountain, there were also some bad rumors that single female students were assaulted by hooligans from society when they were outside alone.

"I heard freshmen are quite free, so I came to sign up for a driver's license." Xiaoqi replied. She had walked alone on remote mountain roads at her hometown, so compared to that, here was a highway in broad daylight, and she was not afraid, besides now her physical strength was much better than before, and she was quite strong. If she didn't encounter anything too tricky, there probably wouldn't be any problem.

Chen Daen didn't expect that Su Xiaoqi had actually come to sign up for driving school. He wanted to ask her if she wanted to go up the mountain to the temple to walk around together. It was said that the temple was very spiritual. Worshipping before exams would guarantee a pass.

But looking at Su Xiaoqi's clean and delicate face, he who never blushed actually blushed. His skin was dark, tanned darker during military training, so it was not noticeable.

"Then I'll go first with my fellow villagers. Pay attention to safety on your way back alone." Chen Daen said in his naturally loud voice.

"Okay, goodbye."

Xiaoqi had heard of fellow villager associations. It seemed they also had one in Lüshan City where she was from. There were advertisements on the bulletin board at the dormitory gate, but she was not very keen on such socializing. She felt that now she had three new roommates and so many new classmates in her class. Her life was already very fulfilling and busy, so there was no need to add things like fellow villager associations.

She walked back to the New District alone, and also went to check out the place for Japanese lessons. It was on the second floor of a building on the student street, with a shopfront downstairs selling jewelry and clothing. There were stairs leading up from the back.

She went up and saw it was just an ordinary room with some tables and chairs. It didn't look very formal. The teacher she chatted with was an upperclass sister from Enhua. Xiaoqi had some foundation in Japanese, and her speaking seemed quite good too. Maybe her expectations were too high, or Teacher Zhou had left too good an impression on Xiaoqi. This Japanese teacher obviously didn't seem professional enough. Xiaoqi didn't feel great about it and just said she would consider it without intending to sign up there.

Luckily, there was more than one place to sign up for Japanese lessons. She would go check out several others.

Xiaoqi intended to walk back through the campus, so she could also go to the library.

Unexpectedly, while walking on the student street, she suddenly heard animal cries, which sounded like a horse's whinny.

She had never seen a real horse in her life before, so she was a bit curious and followed the sound.

Then, unknowingly, she walked to the end of the student street.

At the end there were no buildings, but a grassy area connected to a lake, very wide.

Green grass, very comfortable at a glance.

At the moment there were quite a few horses on the grass, walking around. Xiaoqi's vision was very good now. She could see brown horses, grayish white ones, and pure black ones. Some were trotting, some were ambling. The one closest to the fence on the edge was surprisingly a very small pony, tiny, looking white, with a pinkish hue in the sunset.

Xiaoqi felt like she had stumbled into another world.

The little pony wandered leisurely.

She saw not far away a horse seemed to have run to the lake shore to drink, also rearing up and whinnying, very free and easy.

There were also people in the horse paddock, taking pictures with cameras. The reason for the horses' whinnying seemed to be that the photographers wanted to capture the sense of horses galloping across the water surface, plus the sunset and lake water, so someone was whipping the horse.

Besides taking photos, some people wearing white suits, legs tight, were riding on horseback, clip-clopping as they galloped down the middle track of the grassland.

There were both boys and girls.

This was a completely unfamiliar world to Xiaoqi, horse riding, photography, leisurely and carefree.

Xiaoqi looked at the tall fence, walked for a while but didn't find where the door was, just reluctantly looked at the little pony.

Perhaps every little girl had princess dreams when young, watching cartoons and fairy tales where the female protagonists had horses, just a sentence in the story, but growing up, she realized it was so damn difficult. Forget having a horse, you don't have a castle, no servants, you are not even as good as Cinderella, at least Cinderella still had stunning beauty that attracted the prince at first sight. You have nothing.

Those fairy tales were all lies.

But one day when seventeen-year-old Xiaoqi realized that fairy tales were not lies, they just weren't written for you.

You were not the protagonist.

She stood in a daze for a while as the little pony briskly sauntered away to look for a patch of grass it thought was sweeter.

Xiaoqi left the paddock and returned to campus, walking along the lakeside road, on and on, until she arrived at the library. She looked at the sign and swiped her student card to enter, discovering the library had five floors.

The first floor was full of all kinds of magazines.

The second floor had all kinds of books for exam preparation.

The third floor had fiction, self-help and motivational books.

The fourth floor had many reference books and documents.

The fifth floor had all kinds of random books, even books on fortune-telling.

At a quick glance, the categorization was roughly like this. The environment here was much better than the city library, with many new books that seemed to be updated frequently.

At this time, there weren't too many people reading in the library, but still a decent amount, especially on the first floor, where many people seemed to be studying.

Everyone was quiet and well-behaved, in contrast to the unrestrained spirit seen earlier at the racetrack. Here, the atmosphere was introspective and disciplined, diligent and aspiring.

Xiao Qi felt the library's atmosphere suited her well, and decided to come to the library every day when she had time.

She went back to the first floor. As her mind was not completely at ease, she just picked up a magazine and found a corner to read it in.

She rarely read magazines normally, but the library's magazine classification was very good, with the most recent issues and archives of previous issues.

Flipping open to the first page, it introduced a currently popular female celebrity - a studious star from a celebrity family. The picture showed a long-haired girl wearing leather shoes, jeans, a tank top, with loose long hair, walking down the street carrying a cello on her back.

It gave off a feeling of purity, talent and impressiveness.

Xiao Qi's delicate fingertips touched the picture, her gaze falling on the cello on the girl's back.