ey couldn't help but take his words more seriously than usual. Now when Su Cen mentioned the high school entrance exam, for the first time ever, neither of them scoffed at him. After all, whenever thi...Volume 5: Towards a Happier End Chapter 13: The Result

The third place winner of Xia Hai University's College Film Festival was Lu Wei, the same girl from Wang Dongjian's sports department, "Youqing Ye Eyu" (read: You Qing Ye E Yu). Although it has always been a tradition for male dormitories to watch movies at night, Dorm 602 is rare in that they are actually watching an art film.

Shao Xiang got the DVD from his senior classmate and the guys from Room 6 obviously became interested in Lu Wei due to the incident with the College of Film Arts. In their words, understanding the enemy thoroughly ("knowing them well") means studying every detail about them, including their interests, hobbies, and even physical attributes.

In reality, Su Chan knew that these guys were only interested in this topic out of boredom.

The film was shot against the backdrop of some aged Shikumen (stone gate) houses and old streets in Shanghai. The atmosphere felt very nostalgic, with a strong visual impact. It told the story of two young people growing up in Shanghai, short but powerful. To Su Chan's eyes, the cinematography techniques used were ordinary; however, many people found this film to be quite impressive, hence its second place win was understandable. Lu Wei undoubtedly had some talent.

Among the female students who ranked high at the College of Film Arts, Lu Wei definitely belonged to one of their top flowers.

Some girls weren't famous upon entering school; for example, Lu Wei wasn’t. Over the three years of university, she gradually revealed her talents, which drew quite a bit of attention from others. It was said that in her second year, a senior male student with a good family background pursued her ardently and extravagantly bought snacks worth two to three hundred yuan every week for her through her roommate.

Ultimately, this guy left campus without achieving his wish when he graduated, regretful but still threw himself into drinking and singing, driving away in an exotic luxury car that even his roommates hadn't seen before. He left behind a group of female seniors and juniors who admired him feeling dejected, thus making his story quite legendary.

This incident greatly boosted Lu Wei's reputation at the College of Film Arts, elevating her among the top flowers there.

Due to this precedent, most young men interested in her only took a light taste. Meanwhile, jealous peers secretly spread that she was a girl with strong opinions, and her assertive personality further deterred ordinary students from pursuing her.

Su Chan getting outwitted by her at the College of Film Arts became the subject of much amusement among people; although the student council president had apologized to him with "I'm really sorry," Wang Dongjian hadn't had the face to visit Dorm 602 recently. Nonetheless, since this incident was witnessed by many, Su Chan learned from it that she was a strong-willed girl, which sparked interest in her among people around him.

There's nothing much he could do about it either; after all, when facing Tang Wu, Su Chan had been expelled from his position as president. This disappointed those who originally hoped to benefit by association with Su Chan and made others notice the unusual tension between these two women.

Even though this moment was fleeting, it still allowed some gossips to embellish it further.

"I heard that in the north dormitory of the Film Arts Academy on the fourth floor, there are quite a few rappers. They also said that our batch of freshmen is getting more and more unruly, implying that they're older students who think we haven't suffered enough setbacks and shouldn't be so presumptuous since we haven't been at Nan Da long. To my surprise, one of them I even knew—she was a member of the cheerleading squad whom I once called 'senior sister.' Now, I wouldn't bother with her."

Cheng Congcong, from Tang Wu's dormitory, has a wide circle of friends and interacts with various student organizations at different levels. Therefore, she is well-informed and receives many favors, making it not difficult to obtain inside information in Nan Da.

"I came here to study, not to waste time," said Ruan Sige without any expression, "It's only those seniors who can't graduate on time who think they're untouchable because of their seniority. This is a university, not a gang."

Tong Tong smiled and said, "Never talk about such topics with a group of foolish women, as they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with their rich experience." After saying that, she looked at the three girls from Dorm 302 staring intently at her and covered her mouth giggling, "Oh no, did I swear Sorry, it's really unbecoming of a lady."

Cheng Congcong gave her a thumbs up. She had heard that women can indeed have fierce conversations.

Tang Wu couldn't help but laugh too; although there were conflicts and internal struggles in their dormitory, as was common among many female dormitories on campus, it still felt good to know that her roommates would speak up for Su Can when needed.

Lou Wei had quite a group of supporters in the Film Arts Academy who firmly stood by her side. Therefore, they were not particularly interested in Su Can and his friends. They probably knew some things about Su Can as well, but considering he was someone even Nan Da's baseball team captain couldn't handle, it was best to stay out of his way.

Originally, this incident wasn't a big deal; Su Can had been invited to sit on the guest seats at the Film Arts Academy celebration, only to be forced to move elsewhere by Lou Wei, who is often referred to as an "indomitable golden flower." Although it was just a small matter, it caused discontent among students from various departments towards Lou Wei. Since she only held a position in the sports department of the Student Council and had backing from the Communist Youth League (CYL), she didn't have to care about the faces of the College Student Council. The CYL's disapproval of the Student Council talking to her further escalated the internal conflict, leading many people to blame Su Can.

Someone even posted grievances against Su Can on Nan Da's forum in the school section titled "Talking About What Happened During the Film Arts Academy Celebration, Confirmed by Someone Who Was There."

The post was written by a student officer and detailed how there was indeed someone like Su Can sitting at the front of the guest seats. At that time, Lou Wei was doing CYL work and needed to arrange for a department professor to sit in his place, which led to some conflict with the Student Council afterwards. The poster then lamented and called on everyone to support Lou Wei's dedication and professionalism, stating she is beautiful and has great character; they should protest against the bureaucracy of the College Student Council. He also pointed out that it was probably a student from the school council who sat at the front guest seat initially, someone with close ties to both the college and the department.

When people familiar with Su Can saw this post, they cited some media reports and commented, "The culprit you mentioned sounds like him. But tell me, does our Nan Da's founder not deserve a place at the guest seat"

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The post quickly gained popularity as it sparked a debate between those supporting Lou Wei and those supporting Su Can, a development neither side had anticipated.

However, an unexpected event happened next that completely took Su Can by surprise.

On this day after a public class of two hundred students concluded, as he was thinking about how to arrange his weekend activities—whether it be visiting Lin Guangdong's magazine or finding a good place for dinner with Tang Wu, or perhaps taking a trip to a Jiangnan town—Su Can suddenly found himself surrounded by several choices. His life at Nan Da was always full and fulfilling, but he knew such days were becoming fewer.

The public class that day was held in the north campus; to return to the south campus took quite some time. Several people from his dormitory and others joined him for the walk back, which wasn't unusual. In freshman college classes, there would often be a large number of students who then returned en masse like migratory birds, bustling about on their way to the dining hall or elsewhere across campus. At peak times, groups with over four or five members from different football teams would recognize each other and walk together.

In addition, since Su Cen's dormitory 602 is located in the center of the building and the class, quite a few people returned to the South District together with him. Along the way, they chatted and joked, apart from some girls who occasionally were teased verbally, most of them carried books and followed behind everyone else. Occasionally, several male classmates would cover their mouths giggling at bawdy jokes.

The clearest boundary between the South District and North District is a highway running across the campus, clearly dividing the area into two parts. The road兩側是整齊排列的冬青樹，進校的車輛不多，校園特色之一便是這種寧靜。

冇想到在這條路上遇到了一個熟悉的身影。

Lou Wei carried a black small bag, wearing休閒褲和粉色白色運動鞋，從街道的一端迎麵走來。

很難不注意到Lou Wei，被稱為長腿金花的她確實非常漂亮。南大這所大學不乏美女，也經常能看到像Lou Wei這樣的靚麗女孩出現，成為校園裡一道美麗的風景線。

今天也不例外，儘管Lou Wei可能隻是隨意打扮了一下，但她就像林絡然、唐嫵，甚至是唐嫵寢室裡的程蔥蔥那樣，即使是隨意的穿著，在彆人看來也是精心細緻。所以一路走來，回頭率頗高。最關鍵的是，她正好迎麵撞上了返回宿舍的蘇燦一群人。

Lou Wei看到了蘇燦，而原本麵對周圍目光顯得輕佻的Lou Wei竟然露出一絲緊張。

本來蘇燦不確定自己是不是看錯了，但是看到不動聲色加快步伐，甚至低頭看手錶的Lou Wei，他感覺有些奇怪。身旁的人集體齊刷刷盯著她，這群牲口毫不避諱地注視著輕佻走來的Lou Wei，似乎不願破壞氣勢。

一輛看上去低調內斂的奔馳車從正前方駛來。作為位於中國金融中心上海的一所副部級全國聞名高校，南大裡常見各種豪車，在這個年代也不足為奇，所以所有人都很平常地將這輛車當成是南大無數路過的豪車之一。

然而卻冇有想到那輛車卻在Lou Wei旁邊的街道上停了下來。幾乎所有人都看到原本氣勢洶洶的Lou Wei露出慌張的表情。

緊接著眾人知道了Lou Wei慌張的原因。

車窗正麵的玻璃裡坐著一個四五十歲的中年男子，正滿臉笑容地看著窗外的Lou Wei。

大家冇有說話，但看到Lou Wei走上前去拉開副駕駛門然後坐了進去。

隨即奔馳調轉方向，整個過程中蘇燦看到車窗那頭的Lou Wei一動不動地盯著他。

Su Cen felt that this gaze was familiar; when the girl had sternly criticized him before, she had looked at him like this as well, under the halo of her outstanding appearance and character.

In the end, the car drove away, leaving only a silhouette behind for everyone to see.

"Was that just Lu Wei It really was her! She must be being kept by someone!" Students who clearly recognized Lu Wei were stunned by what had happened moments ago and then began whispering in disbelief as they hurried past Su Cen and the others.

Some of those returning to the campus with Su Cen immediately showed signs of distress. "What kind of world is this We thought it was already shocking enough that there were so many cars waiting outside the school every weekend, but now they're actually bringing people away right inside the school! If the guys from the School of Performing Arts found out about this, would they be so angry that they'd smash the car"

Su Cen subconsciously looked over at Xiao Xue. Originally, he had started to develop feelings for Lu Wei, but now he was lowering his head and saying nothing. Su Cen thought to himself that tonight, he would probably be commemorating another one of his doomed romances.

But in the end, all Xiao Xue did was clench his fist and say, "This Mercedes!" before walking straight across the street toward a road hidden behind some trees leading south.

The news that Lu Wei was being kept by someone spread like wildfire, and it seemed as if her halo had suddenly disappeared. Various rumors flew around in an instant, while all praise for her outstanding appearance and character seemed to vanish overnight.

Su Cen occasionally heard through the grapevine various speculations and doubts about Lu Wei. He thought that some of her friends might start gradually distancing themselves from her now. Su Cen felt that perhaps Lu Wei's biggest mistake was becoming well-known in their department; if this had happened to an ordinary girl, it wouldn't have spread so widely or provoked such malicious, sympathetic, or sinister gossip.

Most importantly, she was famous and popular. The stark contrast between her current status and the rumors that were now flying around about her caused a chain reaction of collapse. People who had once looked up to her started secretly whispering like daggers.

Su Cen, who had seen his fair share of such incidents, thought it didn't matter whether this was right or wrong. People could only use morality as their excuse for condemnation from a moral standpoint. No one was at fault.

The only thing that really irked people was the old man's Mercedes, which hadn't been subtle about picking up Lu Wei in broad daylight on campus. It had shattered so many people’s lingering illusions of college life. If those seniors who had once sung farewell and driven away after failing to win Lu Wei over knew how things would turn out years later, they might feel regret too.

Just when this incident was at its peak, the situation took a sudden turn for the better; Su Cen could roughly quote from A Chinese Ghost Story: The Terror Continues (1995) and guess what happened next but not the outcome.

The real reason he's really lagging behind. He feels very guilty and sincerely apologizes to everyone.

A new chapter needs a grander narrative, a larger framework, and a broader stage. Fortunately, all of this is slowly unfolding; one bottleneck after another is being resolved. Even if it means going slower, he will persevere in tackling any challenge (To be continued). foundation—a natural progression for high school. For others, this seemed unrealistic and abnormal.The art studio next to him had art students drawing under the guidance of their teacher. Some people...