ing virtue leads to wisdom and divine knowledge, thus becoming a sage. Without accumulating small steps, one cannot reach a thousand miles; without accumulating small streams, one cannot form a river...Chapter 24: Never Lost

The altered tune is like hearing the spring of willows, with the blossoms in the imperial garden appearing fresh and new.

This verse by Tang Dynasty poet Li Qi profoundly reflects the gradual transformation between emerging and disappearing elements in Shanghai.

As a central hub of China's coastal economic zone and an economic giant, Su Cen, who is based in Shanghai, feels the proximity of the changing times even more acutely.

Picking up today’s newspaper from the owner of a small store within the Nan Da campus area, one would see news about Shanghai Telecom starting to dismantle all paging telephone stations across the city. These stations once occupied half a century of life for all Shanghainese, but now they have retired gracefully before the widespread use of home telephones.

The "temporary pass" and "temporary parking permit," used in Shanghai for nearly two decades, are being phased out as the city’s traffic situation improves and critical projects progress. The negative impacts of these permits are becoming evident, leading to their cancellation by the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, which has sparked enthusiasm among citizens.

The term "hearing session" is appearing as a new concept in the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, making ordinary people feel that laws and regulations are closer to everyday life rather than something remote and intimidating.

As a city with 13 million residents at present, its five million mobile phone users base is quite substantial. However, the radiation from over 1,700 mobile phone base stations in Shanghai’s urban area has raised public concern. Su Cen knows that this issue, along with air pollution and global warming, will continue to be challenging problems as civilization advances.

And we are still in the year 2001.

Among the new students at Nan Da University, Su Cen is elected class monitor. This seems like a fitting outcome for him within his class.

Surprisingly, Su Cen has such a high level of support—out of around 140 classmates, more than 110 voted in favor of him. It’s hard to connect the eager and enthusiastic looks on their faces during voting with how they previously seemed indifferent to Su Cen.

The entire class seems to have become closer, with some initial barriers breaking down as a result of this election process.

The Room 602 immediately started celebrating, of course not without characters like Wang Dongjian who always join in for the fun. He reached out and pinched Su Can's shoulder, saying, "Look at you! You're quite capable; before we know it, you've become your class president. It’s said that new student class presidents receive a monthly subsidy of two hundred yuan. Usually, decent grades can earn some scholarships, so the benefits are definitely significant. Nan Da University distributes nearly seven million yuan in scholarships annually, and you could easily get four or five thousand yuan just like that. That would offset half of your college tuition."

Su Can lay down on his bed with both hands behind his head, stretching lazily as he said, "I'll do my best within the limits of my energy. My purpose in becoming class president is simply to make things easier for us. Occasionally skipping classes without it being recorded on attendance lists shouldn't be a problem. As for Vice President Qin Lu, I see that he's quite enthusiastic about the role. So leaving our class under his charge wouldn’t necessarily be bad."

With the advantage of reincarnation, Su Can naturally had no interest in this highest class position before him, not even with its potential to become an advantageous identity for dating girls on campus. For matters that required responsibility within the class, he would just get involved and handle them. Being overly enthusiastic about it was more a concern for freshmen who hoped to make a big impact or for those trying to improve their resume after graduation to gain an edge in job hunting.

Zhang Xiaqiao nodded, "It's better not to bother with it then. Being class president has its pros and cons. The drawbacks lie in sometimes having to put in effort without getting recognition from the students—though you can benefit personally, it’s rare for them to really remember your kindness. Moreover, if you don't build good relationships, you won’t earn a good reputation either. However, the benefits are that the school tends to prioritize those with experience as class presidents, party members, or student union chairs when offering scholarships and internships. I doubt Su Can has such intentions."

Lǐ Hán said, "Of course not! Miss Can won’t stay on campus after graduation; why should he When they graduate, they’ll definitely fly off to their new life together."

The group laughed heartily.

By around eight in the evening, Wang Dongjian, who was quite adept at handling situations, saw that it was time for them to leave. With a wave of his hand, he commanded everyone to clear out.

Those reluctant visitors from neighboring dorms were also carried or dragged away.

If they truly stayed in someone else's dorm room long-term without giving the residents any space, it wouldn’t be right. Unlike Su Can’s actions that once shocked all freshmen upon his arrival, or major events like European Cup and World Cup soccer tournaments, nothing significant had happened on their side since Su Can became class president. There wasn't a reason for everyone to stay indefinitely. While they could have turned this place into a youth entertainment center, it was still relatively temporary.

With the dorm finally quiet after everyone left, without the noise and the guys playing with their computers, Su Can felt rather idle.

Lǐ Hán sat by his desk, lifting dumbbells and doing push-ups continuously as he began exercising. While Xiǎo Xù read a self-taught philosophy textbook titled "A General History of Western Philosophy," he chatted intermittently with Su Can.

Zhang Xiaqiao laid out some A4 sheets on the desk, sketching exquisite pencil-drawn illustrations. When Zhang Xiaqiao’s father started nurturing his interests at the age of ten, one day his assistant invited him to dinner and showed him her eight-year-old daughter in a cake skirt playing the violin with a Brazilwood bow, producing beautiful music. His father imagined Zhang Xiaqiao, wearing a suit and tie, performing Handel's "Air on G String" in front of everyone and winning applause.

The next day after Zhang Xiaqiao's father came back home, he forced her to attend a full package of training for piano, painting, saxophone, and violin.

Zhang Xiaqiao didn't learn anything other than basic painting skills. The rest fell by the wayside. This disappointed Zhang Xiaqiao’s boastful father, because painting couldn’t be performed on the spot like music, which was very different from what he had expected. As a result, Zhang Xiaqiao's father felt that his son didn't live up to him.

During her free time, Zhang Xiaqiao would paint. Su Cun once saw her paintings and thought they were quite good. However, some of the drawings in her sketchbook had delicate handwriting at their bottom right corners, which seemed to be written by a girl.

Su Cun sighed inwardly and guessed that there must be some secret between Zhang Xiaqiao, Qian Zhongyuan, and this girl, explaining why they made such a ruckus in the cafeteria. Yet Su Cun wasn't nosy and didn’t care to know more about it.

When the lights went out at night, the girls' dormitory building fell into darkness.

The girls resumed their pillow talk.

Tang Wu's phone lit up with a message from Su Cun. Usually, these messages were sent after lights-out to check on her well-being or inquire about food in the campus that they could go eat together.

With her black hair scattered over her pillow, Tang Wu’s face turned rosy under the dark and the phone's sudden blue screen light when she saw Su Cun’s message. She bit her lip; he was getting bolder by the day, reminding her to cover up in this hot weather while asking what kind of pajamas she wore!

Usually, Tang Wu would ignore such messages, but now she recalled their encounter with her parents at the swimming pool.

The shock when her parents suddenly appeared was too great to describe. In front of them, Tang Wu always tried not to make Su Cun feel uncomfortable and only maintained a cool relationship in public without any affectionate gestures or ambiguous conversations that might reveal how close they were. To an outsider, they would appear as strangers.

However, when she was holding Su Cun's hand and bumping into her parents at the swimming pool, it had been a shock beyond imagination.

In the dining hall, when Li Ying and her family discussed with Tang Wu’s parents, Su Cun handled himself well, giving Tang Wu an odd sense of warmth. He had quietly accompanied her all along, regardless of whether she was cold to him or not, or during the calm but meaningful days they shared.

From Xiahai to Rongcheng, and from Rongcheng to Shanghai. Even under foreign skies.

He had never lost himself in the distance and boundaries of time and space.

Luckily, he had never gotten lost; otherwise, Tang Wu wouldn't know if she would still feel this warm affection on her bed now. She didn't know that holding a man's hand silently within the park, watching him walk ahead of her, could be so reassuring to her heart.

Like the equally important figure in his life as her own father.

Tang Wu forcibly held back tears inexplicably welling up inside the quilt and quickly typed a string of square characters. Then she buried her head under the covers, biting her lip but also feeling an emotional surge.

The three people in Tang Wu's dormitory were actually still wide awake, listening intently to any sounds from Tang Wu’s side, wanting to ask about the status of her relationship with Su Can. However, fellow roommates like Cheng Congcong and Ruan Sige remained silent despite their wide-open eyes.

Su Can, who had just sent a daringly bold text message asking about "purple, satin gauze," felt as if he couldn't feel the character for “death” and was awaiting judgment. Even the late-night discussions among dorm mates about how charming certain beauties were in the music college seemed uninteresting now.

The phone screen lit up; Tang Wu had texted back:

"Purple, satin gauze. If you're by my side, I'll let you see it. But alas. :)"

Seeing Su Can spring to attention like a corpse being resurrected startled Zhang Xiaqiao so much that she quickly said, "Boss, we haven't even started talking about the girl's figure yet, and you're already excited"

Su Can pulled back his covers and leaped out of bed with more agility than Li Han. "Who wants to go buy some alcohol I can’t sleep tonight."

(To be continued)y indicating that these people were more familiar with Xue Yi Yang, Mao Xiaoshi, and others than Su Can.Li Lumei rushed up, followed by several classmates who were close friends of Chen Ling珊 (Note: T...