Chapter 157

September 9th, Monday, sunny day.

Very early in the morning, the sunlight had already shone on the flowers in the vase on Yunshu's table.

Xiao Qi had already practiced writing characters for an hour.

She called her mom yesterday. Xiao Qi seemed to have endless energy. She just wanted to study well and study hard. She wished she could graduate and start working soon to let her parents stop worrying. Of course that was impossible, so she could only try harder.

On the first day of school, Xiao Qi dressed very neatly - jeans, white T-shirt, also bought last Saturday, very simple, super cheap for the jeans and T-shirt set, only 60 yuan in total. The Meng City mall really deserved to be in a big city. Not only were things cheap, but quality was also good. The clothes had been crumpled by her roommate Mier from a family running a clothing factory for a long time. Mier had scrutinized all kinds of threads and pulled hard on the clothes for a long time. Xiao Qi had also pulled hard. The pants were perfectly fine without any issues. The buttons and seams were solid. There was elasticity. The T-shirt was also thick instead of thin and cool. It also had some shape. Anyway, Xiao Qi felt quite comfortable wearing this set. It was simple. Matched with sneakers and a schoolbag. Her hair had grown a bit longer with bangs in the front. She tied a small puff with a colored hair band, which was the most eye-catching color on her.

Her watch was a sporty Casio, very lively.

Her schoolbag was made of old denim cloth, but retro style was popular now so it still looked nice.

Xiao Qi packed up very neatly. Ever since getting the system, she did things more efficiently, when she used to lose things all the time. Now she had unconsciously corrected this bad habit.

But her roommate Chen Mier in the dorm couldn't. She had already started screaming early in the morning.

Because her alarm clock had rang three times but failed to wake her up. Now getting up was a mess with her running around throwing things. She still wanted to put on makeup but apparently there was no time for that. And she ate barbecue last night. The seasoning was probably too heavy and salty. She had kept getting up at night to drink water. Now her eyelids were swollen.

Gu Yunshu and Wei Cheng had gotten dressed and were ready, Gu Yunshu always slowly without rushing, she kept reading her novel.

Wei Cheng was nervous flipping through her books. It was the first day of class and she was a bit agitated.

They didn't leave the dorm until Chen Mier finally got herself ready.

When they went out, they happened to run into the three girls from the dorm room across. For some reason, Chu Yu, who had looked upset yesterday, was smiling happily today together with Su Li, seeming to be on good terms. Lin Dongqing was walking behind them alone.

They were from the dorm across so didn't know each other well, just nodded and said hi. Then Chen Mier hurriedly pulled everyone to walk away. She had gotten up the latest but was also the most impatient.

Xiao Qi was dragged away by Chen Mier, holding hands. She saw Wei Cheng also pulling Gu Yunshu by the arm. Xiao Qi thought they were lucky to have four people in the dorm, pairwise, unlike having an odd number where someone would end up alone. She somehow felt girls really needed companions, otherwise it could feel lonely.

Maybe they hadn't learned to be alone yet. After hurriedly finishing breakfast, the noodle soup was packed to go.

Xiao Qi found the noodle soup was packed in those milk tea cups with the thick straws. It tasted especially delicious, quite a different flavor.

They didn't arrive late to class after rushing through breakfast.

Everyone sat in their own seats. Last night during self-study, the two boys who sat in front of Xiao Qi didn't show up, while the two boys behind did but left early.

Xiao Qi didn't talk to them, just wore her headphones and studied. She didn't really like taking the initiative to socialize.

And after what happened in high school with Liu Shaowei, she actually felt some aversion towards boys and naturally felt she shouldn't get too close. Back then she had often sat together with Liu Shaowei for self-study at night. Then things went that way with rumors flying around that they were together. Liu Shaowei didn't deny it either, and often brought her food and drinks. She had felt so sweet thinking they were together when actually it was just the romance between a boy and girl, couldn't withstand a word spoken out loud.

Suddenly thinking of Liu Shaowei, Xiao Qi was even startled. Now she practically felt strange hearing any boy's name with the character Wei. She would rather not get involved, thanks but no thanks.

But her deskmate Chen Mier apparently had a different personality, very lively and outgoing. After sitting down, she couldn't stay quiet, first chatting with the boys in front, then turning around to chat with those behind.

Xiao Qi also got to know them since they would be sitting in front and behind them for the next four years presumably.

The boys in front and back were all boys.

The two boys in front, one was actually from the same hometown as Chen Mier, both from Qinjiang Province, though different cities. But coming to Meng City together, they counted as fellow townsmen. The other boy was local, with hometown very close to Meng City, only 1.5 hours by high speed rail reportedly. He spoke very smoothly and looked more mature.

The two boys behind, one was from Fucheng, very skinny. The other was also from around Meng City. He had big grape-like eyeballs and smiled very amiably, seeming to have a nice personality.

After the socializing with front and back desks, the bell rang and the teacher walked in right on time with the bell.

He was a tall middle-aged man wearing leather shoes, pants, and a blue shirt, looking very stern.

He introduced himself as Teacher Wei.

Then without much more, he started teaching right away. Learning English reading and writing was intrinsically rather dull, and the teacher taught in an uninteresting way, like just reading the teaching plan out loud. The classroom was quiet at the beginning, but soon there were murmuring noises, progressively louder and louder.

The teacher ignored them and just kept teaching. He had a microphone so his voice could override the other sounds.

Xiao Qi had previewed and even went over the prep twice. Listening to the teacher's lecture despite the dullness was still somewhat rewarding. The teacher had mediocre spoken English but was very strict about grammar and the like. This was the common way of learning English domestically anyway. Academic English relied more on written expression, quite different from conversational English. Xiao Qi tried her best to listen attentively. Luckily Chen Mier was attentive in class despite her liveliness, she didn't chat and Xiao Qi was surprised to find her dozing off eventually, propping her chin up and swaying on the verge of falling.

During the 10 minute break, the classroom became like exploding. Some went to the bathroom, some just wandered around.

The boy in front who looked more mature immediately ran to the back, probably where his dormmates were.

Xiao Qi's four roommates also went to the bathroom together, lining up a short while outside the girls' room.

By the time they returned, it was already next period as soon as they sat down.

And as soon as class started, the teacher unexpectedly started doing roll call! Perhaps to make an impression as the first day first period, the students were considerate for now, not sure of the teacher's personality yet. After all, it was said if failing three or more courses in EHW University, they had to withdraw even after the make-up exam. Moreover, college grades relied not just on test scores but daily scores. So roll call did matter.

It quieted down quite a bit once roll call started.

Teacher Wei read down the list one by one.

"Su Xiaoqi."

"Present," Xiao Qi raised her hand and saw the teacher nod at her.

Xiao Qi smiled.

Having been a teacher, she knew they could easily tell students' attentiveness from experience. The teacher nodding at her probably meant encouragement.

She had paid attention and taken notes at the key points.

However, when the English teacher called out Su Xiaoqi, Li Weijin, who had been sleeping head down in the last row finally looked up.

Peering over the ocean of heads, all he could see was a slender, fair arm raised.

Li Weijin needed to take the IELTS but really disliked English, particularly this teacher's lesson content today as a total sleeping pill.

By the time roll call finished, over ten minutes had already passed for the period. Teacher Wei resumed teaching. Wails could be heard below since the students figured out in one period that the English teacher had an easygoing temper, completely ignoring them acting noisy.

The teacher kept teaching, drinking from his insulated water bottle twice, basically ignoring the students' ruckus, seemingly immersed in his own world.

Xiao Qi discovered that although this teacher was just reading from the lesson plan, his lesson plans were made very detailed. After previewing them, she could feel that many knowledge points were spoken about by the teacher one by one without any omissions.

After class, Teacher Wei stood up and said, "Those who need lesson plans can come directly to me to get them."

Xiao Qi felt the teacher's lesson plans were well done, but since she had her own listening and note taking records from class, she didn't need them. However, Chu Yu from the dormitory across from hers, who was said to be in poor health, went up to ask the teacher for a copy of the lesson plans, like a very serious and studious student. She even went out with the teacher afterwards, all smiles and exceptionally sweet and sunny.

If she hadn't seen her blackfaced appearance in the dormitory, one would have thought she was a particularly sunny person.

In the meantime, their class teacher came in again to notify that there would be a class meeting during the evening self-study session to elect the class committee members, and absence was not allowed.

The next class was Management Information Systems, with a longer break in between.

By the time the next class was about to start, Xiao Qi had already received new gossip from Mi'er.

"Our English teacher Teacher Wei isn't even a teacher from our school. He's externally hired, which means he just comes to give part time lectures. Our school must pay him handsomely for Teacher Wei to actually be from Qingmeng University. Ah, a teacher from Qingmeng University is even teaching us! However I felt what he taught was too academic and dull, I actually wanted to fall asleep three times during class."

Xiao Qi: ......