e style, although it might have been too strong-handed at times, it did indeed produce tangible achievements.He knew that he always had enemies. Such a prominent and forceful demeanor often led to set...Chapter 25: Contentment

Students from all over the country are currently enjoying their enthusiastic university life.

Su Cen finally gained prominence through his outstanding performance at the freshmen orientation, presenting flowers at the welcoming party, and being protected by a female freshman widely regarded as a campus beauty during morning exercises. Recently, he also added the identity of the class monitor for Class 4, Grade '01, and some interested individuals have been privately probing into his family background, financial situation, and resume.

It is true that one's family background and resume often do not represent much, but people tend to delve deeply into the lives of those they are curious about.

Many freshmen came to a common conclusion: Su Cen merely graduated from an important high school in Rongcheng with an ordinary family background. Compared to families here or even many upper-middle-class households in Shanghai, his might be quite a distance behind.

It was said that someone saw his father driving him to register for school at the beginning of term and didn't find anything unusual about the father, implying a rather average family. Relatively speaking, when compared with families entering Nanda University in private cars, Su Cen's arrival from afar looking weary did not attract much attention.

A part of these students who often felt superior developed an attitude that they had more advantages than Su Cen. They thought to themselves: even though I didn't catch everyone's eye like you did at the start of term, my family is still richer than yours. Furthermore, my family has what kind of connections and influence in this city; just recently, my parents dined with some school leader and promised proper care from them.

Even if one wants to be popular, it's only useful if you can find a girlfriend who comes from an extremely wealthy family and is socially well-connected. After graduation, they would register for marriage and settle in Europe or North America, determinedly become a son-in-law through a reverse marriage alliance, and humbly make do with whatever situation arises.

Otherwise, leveraging alumni resources to find employment after graduation and competing in society to achieve advantageous positions is rather unrealistic.

Just like how one's parents are, these alumni networks will only become valuable around ten years after graduation when both sides have achieved some success and can establish mutually beneficial relationships. Otherwise, it would remain just empty talk. The value of alumni networks lies merely in adding a veneer to existing interests.

After university, unless one finds a beautiful and wealthy girlfriend and relies on her for the rest of his life, or depends on connections in this society-based world, he can achieve within two or three years what other general bachelor's or master’s degree holders might take five or six years to accomplish, even surpassing them.

But where do these connections come from They still rely on the influence and strength of one's family. One's own powerful background indirectly shapes their personal power.

On the other hand, there were some people who felt a sense of novelty and familiarity towards Su Can, privately inquiring about him and hoping to establish connections with him.

As Kuabei's junior staff walked along the Huading Avenue, a silver-gray Volkswagen Golf approached from behind. At the roadside, several girls in light attire waved and shouted for it to stop. The car pulled over, and three people got out. One of them was a young man wearing a black shirt with embroidery patterns who had been driving.

The other two individuals were not strangers to Su Can; they were Fan Qiyi, the president of the Student Council, and Zheng Rong, the captain of the baseball team. They got out of the car laughing and chatting with some girls nearby, but when their eyes caught sight of Su Can, their smiles seemed a bit forced.

Among them, Fan Qiyi, who had dyed his hair golden-blonde, seemed unfamiliar with these girls and was smoking a cigarette while standing off to the side with his eyes half-closed. As he noticed Su Can, he walked over and handed him a cigarette: "You're Su Can, right We met at the freshmen gathering."

"Yes, President Fan, nice to meet you." Su Can smiled but politely declined the offered cigarette: "Thanks, I don't smoke. Jin Nanjing is good tobacco though."

“Where are you from” Fan Qiyi laughed and said, “I brought these cigarettes with me when I enrolled this semester; my grandfather can’t finish them all. There’s only one smoker in our dormitory, so when the guys from adjacent dorms come around, they share a couple of packs. Now we have very little left.”

Su Can was not unfamiliar with the two men behind Fan Qiyi.

The driver of the Volkswagen Golf was none other than the hotshot at Nanjing University who had scored a perfect TOEFL score and was planning to study abroad in the next semester. As for Zheng Rong, he didn’t need any introduction; because of his conflict with Su Can during freshman calisthenics class, Tang Wu sought revenge on him, leaving him embarrassed as the captain of the baseball team.

This was the main entrance through which students entered Nanjing University. Just now, Su Can had bought several CDs from a music store outside that Tang Wu liked very much — she adored Westlife and Mariah Carey. She also loved Chopin’s piano compositions as well as pop music, even heavy metal rock.

Su Can was surprised to learn in his sophomore year that Tang Wu occasionally enjoyed listening to rock music. It had been natural for her to confide such detailed interests to him because their relationship had deepened; before Su Can's reincarnation, she would never have discussed these topics with him.

Su Can believed that enjoying rock music didn’t necessarily mean someone was unconventional and rebellious; in fact, people who appeared very clean and calm on the surface but were as wild inside as a rock musician weren't uncommon.

Upon learning that Tang Wu also enjoyed rock music, Su Can became even more convinced that his assumptions about her, both before and after reincarnation, were absolutely correct. Behind her icy gaze was always a fiery inner world capable of melting others away.

Su Cen was holding a CD that he planned to give Tang Wu today, walking on the main road lined with paulownia trees leading into the school. Facing Muangyi and Qi Yi Fan and the group of girls talking with Zheng Rong beside the golf cart, who were all puzzled and pointing at him, Su Cen chatted aimlessly with Fan Qiyi.

The students passing by also recognized him, so it was not surprising that they paid attention to him.

"There will be a student council-organized speech and debate competition soon. There are quite a few talented people from different departments participating. If you have time, come over to participate. You don't necessarily need to join a club in your first year for training. The key is to focus on the important aspects; it's better to attend such large lectures than aimlessly joining clubs. Oh, right."

Fan Qiyi thought for a moment and rummaged through his pockets before pulling out several tickets simply printed with "South University Student Council". He handed them to Su Cen, saying, "I didn't bring many today. I was originally going to invite some counselors from different departments, but something came up at the last minute, so these tickets are left over. Bring a few friends along."

"Student council activities" Li Han, Zhang Xiaqiao, and Xiao Xu looked at the tickets in their hands.

Su Cen explained roughly what happened when he met Fan Qiyi and his group near the school gate: "I thought about it. Since they have been so nice to us, attending a couple of lectures at university activities isn't such a bad thing. I'll take the tickets first; we can decide later if we want to go or not." Xiao Xu lifted his glasses in confusion and asked, “But doesn’t Fan Qibei get along well with Zheng Rong They live in the same dorm room. Did he think about how Zheng Rong would react by giving us student council event tickets" Furthermore, he belongs to the student car group. Is this event going to be problematic Could it be that something isn't right”

Zhang Xiaqiao said, "The driver of the golf cart is Yang Yang. That particular one is a well-known student car at South University, also one of the thirty student cars registered with the university's security office. Student cars from South University range in price from seventy thousand to ten thousand RMB; although the golf cart isn't the most expensive, it still counts as one of the prestigious cars on campus."

"This car has been used by many seniors to pick up different dates and its reputation even spread beyond our school to other universities. Generally, people in the university avoid lending their cars out because they don’t want others to use them for long trips or show off at parties and dates with girls. But Yang Yang is quite generous; since he bought his car when he was a sophomore, he has been very open-handed, often lending it to many people to pursue girls. However, his family is wealthy enough that they aren't bothered about the golf cart."

Yang Yang and Fan Qiyi, Zheng Rong are all well-known figures on campus at South University. It's said that Yang Yang’s parents are in business with companies in Shanghai and have close ties with some American exchange students in the school who once spent a night at Nantong Road, bonding over an international revolution.

Fan Qiyi was able to become student council president back then partly due to his family background. He managed to secure twenty thousand RMB in sponsorship for one event alone, which caused quite a stir in the student council. Later on, he became president of the student council smoothly thanks to this outstanding achievement and organized several full-school entrepreneurial and inspirational lectures.

The invited guests ranged from the top ten companies in Shanghai’s exhibition industry, managers of multinational corporations' regional offices, famous lecturers from New Oriental, economics experts, to even some celebrities.

Based on Zhang Xiaqiao's suggestion, it was unlikely that Zheng Rong would be so petty and retaliatory. Furthermore, overreacting about such a small matter was quite exaggerated; this was still in school, no one held any significant power, feeling humiliated didn't necessarily mean they needed to regain their face. Back when Tang Wu kicked him, he still had to endure it silently.

Otherwise, would he have to seek trouble from Su Can and Tang Wu in return Unless he thinks his face hasn't been lost enough.

On the contrary, if Fan Qiyi truly favors Su Can, it would be a good idea to get acquainted with him.

After all, as the student union president, Fan Qiyi has extensive connections within Nan University and is well-positioned for resource accumulation. By befriending Su Can, not only can he broaden his social circle and enter what's called the "upper echelon" of Nan University, but also interact with many accomplished individuals.

Zhang Xiaoqiao, Li Han who says "makes sense, impressive," and Xiao Xiu are unaware.

For Su Can, all of this is like clouds passing by.

Nurturing relationships, playing the card of personal connections, making acquaintances with a couple more individuals from prominent backgrounds, and befriending promising and capable figures—though it doesn't necessarily mean exploiting them, in a society driven by interpersonal ties, these can turn into invaluable resources after years of cultivation.

Su Can wouldn't deny this. People with foresight and ambition generally do so; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many people striving to enter the Central Party School either. This is similar to the small world within universities, equivalent to a microcosm of reality.

In this semi-societal "ivory tower," pragmatic individuals are quite common.

However, Su Can still prefers living according to his own whims without overexerting himself. Student union debate contests with brilliant minds everywhere

No concern of mine; I'll go when I want and do what I please.

If he's not in the mood, he might just sleep soundly, read a book, play games, or meet Tang Wu under the wisteria tree at noon for a small date, spending time in the library with twenty dollars' worth of coffee, sipping one cup each—a simple and pleasant existence.

Yesterday and today were packed with events and he had to stay up late; there's only one chapter tonight. Please bear with me.ic and Renhe Spring which introduced fashion to citizens of Rongcheng for the first time, let alone Wangfujing Department Store, which is at the top. Currently, Dunhuang Mall undoubtedly has the least...