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September 1, 2004, Songjiang Campus of Shanghai International Studies University.

The roar of the Harley-Davidson Sportster drew the attention of students at the orientation area.

The rider took off his helmet, revealing a handsome face with sharp features, and casually pushed his sunglasses up to his forehead.

The rider's eyes scanned the room like they had X-rays, and then he picked out the girl who looked the best.

"Excuse me, where is the registration office for the French department?"

The girl being asked for directions trembled, spilling her new student registration form all over the floor.

The boy in front of me, wearing a black leather jacket, had a faint dimple on his left cheek when he smiled, but his eyes held a maturity beyond his years.

"Handsome!" That's the only word girls can think of.

"I'm in tent number 3." The girl's ears turned red. "I'm Shen Jiayi, a sophomore majoring in Spanish. I'm in charge of guiding the new students today..."

"What a coincidence! I just happen to need a guide." The boy parked the car smoothly and took his bag from the trunk. "My name is Su Ning! Senior, would you be willing to show me the way?"

"Okay!"

"Then get in the car! You can give me directions."

"Okay." Then Shen Jiayi, suppressing her shyness, sat down behind Su Ning.

Soon, Su Ning brought Shen Jiayi to booth number three, where they filled out forms.

Shen Jiayi secretly observed this special freshman. Most of the students were accompanied by their parents with bags and packages when they arrived to register, but he rode an expensive motorcycle alone. Although he looked like a carefree rich kid, his handwriting was as neat as printed paper when he filled out the form.

“Su Ning, have you studied French before?” Shen Jiayi noticed the subject he applied for exemption from.

"I've studied it a little on my own," Su Ning said modestly with a smile, without mentioning that her translation agency had a French affairs group.

Sunlight filtered through the sycamore leaves, dappling the paths on campus.

Shen Jiayi enthusiastically introduced the locations of the library and cafeteria, but she didn't notice that the boy next to her was paying more attention to her.

The dormitory is a four-person room with bunk beds and desks underneath.

Suning chose a bed by the window, and just as she finished making the sheets, her three other roommates arrived one after another.

"Holy crap! A Harley Sportster!" A boy with an earring rushed to the window. "Whose car is that downstairs?"

Su Ning shook the keys: "Mine. Wang Xiaofeng?"

He glanced at the other person's luggage tag.

"Awesome, bro!" He shook hands excitedly. "My dad's car dealership doesn't even have this model!"

The other two roommates are Qi Shugen, a quiet boy from Guangdong, and Shen Han, a burly man from Northeast China.

In less than half an hour, the four young people had become as familiar as old friends.

"How about hot pot tonight?" Shen Han pulled an induction cooker out of his suitcase. "I brought lamb rolls from my hometown!"

"So powerful? Did you bring it from Northeast China?"

"Yes! My parents are worried that I won't adapt to the new environment. You think this is a joke?"

"Indeed! You Northeastern men have the strongest adaptability."

That night, the dormitory was filled with the aroma of hot pot broth.

"Su Ning, I heard you got exempted from French classes?" Li Wei asked, sipping his tripe. "How did you do that?"

Suning poured everyone a can of beer: "I learned from a French chef when I was a kid."

He made up this lie countless times: "Actually, my grammar is terrible, but my spoken English is okay."

"Stop being modest!" Qi Shugen raised his glass. "This afternoon I heard you chatting with that French foreign teacher for ten minutes, like a local!"

"Damn it! You've been spying on me?"

"It's because you're too dazzling! It's hard not to pay attention to you."

"Oh! It's all because of my damned appearance."

"Ugh... Disgusting! Disgusting! Disgusting!" Qi Shugen, Wang Xiaofeng, and the other two were vomiting uncontrollably.

After a few rounds of drinks, the conversation turned to their respective experiences.

Su Ning carefully fabricated her resume: she graduated from an ordinary high school, her father owned a restaurant, and her mother died early.

Even Su Daqiang verified these partially true and partially false pieces of information.

"Actually, I also run a small translation agency, similar to the one Jack Ma started in Hangzhou back then," Su Ning casually mentioned. "Those who need foreign language part-time jobs can contact me."

Wang Xiaofeng's eyes lit up: "How much can we earn?"

“It depends on the project! Simple accompaniment costs two or three hundred a day, while professional documents start at a thousand words…” Before Su Ning could finish speaking, there was a knock on the dormitory door.

When the door opened, the dormitory supervisor and the security officer stood there with stern faces; the power cord of the induction cooker was still whirring.

"Article 12 of the school rules prohibits the use of high-power electrical appliances in dormitories!" The student council member confiscated the hot pot. "You'll be in for a public reprimand tomorrow!"

As soon as the door closed, Qi Shugen burst into laughter and collapsed onto the bed: "We're on the list on the first day of school! Our dorm is going to be famous!"

Su Ning laughed along, but in her heart she was thinking about how to keep Su Daqiang from finding out about this.

If his old-fashioned adoptive father heard that he had been reported, he would definitely come to the school with a spatula.

Late at night, after her roommates had fallen asleep, Su Ning quietly took out her laptop to process emails from the translation agency.

The blue light from the screen reflected his slightly furrowed brow. An email in English asked if he accepted German mechanical drawings, with an unusually high price, but the company listed as the sender could not be found to be registered.

“Strange…” Su Ning marked the email as suspicious, when she suddenly heard Chen Hao, who was in the upper bunk, mutter in his sleep, “Su Ning… lend me your car…”

Then he smiled and closed his laptop.

The anxieties of this ordinary college student, ironically, gave him a strange sense of peace.

……

Under the same bright moon, the corridors of Tangshan People's Hospital were much quieter.

Chen Hongxiong gently placed the carnations into the vase by his bedside, as if handling something fragile.

The woman in the hospital bed was so thin she was unrecognizable, with various tubes connected to monitoring instruments; only her even breathing proved she was still alive.

"Mom, Uncle Qi has been released from prison." Chen Hongxiong held his mother's withered hand. "He said the car accident back then wasn't an accident."

The ripples on the monitor remained stable as usual.

Fifteen years have passed since the car accident that took my father's life, and my mother has never opened her eyes again.

Chen's relatives initially came to visit, but later refused to even pay for his medical expenses.

"Zhao Sanjin was on TV again last week," Chen Hongxiong sneered. "A philanthropic entrepreneur? Bah!"

He carefully wiped away the secretions seeping from his mother's eyes. "Wait a little longer, your son will make him pay for this in blood."

Footsteps echoed down the corridor, and the head nurse pushed in a medicine cart: "Xiao Chen's here again? It's time to pay your mother's medical bills."

Chen Hongxiong handed over a thick wad of cash: "Add another injection to nourish brain cells."

"it is good."

As soon as he stepped out of the hospital, two men in black immediately approached him: "Brother Xiong, Qi Fengnian has arranged to meet at Hongyun Teahouse."

Chen Hongxiong touched the dagger at his waist, his scars on his face appearing even more menacing under the streetlights: "Let's go."

In the innermost private room of Hongyun Teahouse, Qi Fengnian was brewing Kung Fu tea.

This man, who once dominated the northern city, is now as thin as a scholar, with only his hawk-like eyes still revealing a fierce edge.

"Sir, here's your Biluochun tea." Chen Hongxiong, dressed in a waiter's uniform, bowed as he served the tea.

Qi Fengnian didn't even lift his eyelids: "Put it down."

Just as the teacup was about to touch the table, Chen Hongxiong suddenly flipped his wrist, splashing scalding tea directly onto the other person's face!
Qi Fengnian leaned back with lightning speed, his right hand forming a claw as he reached for Chen Hongxiong's throat.

"What a brilliant move, Azure Dragon Probing Claw!" Chen Hongxiong spun back and retreated, the tea tray flying out like a dart.

Qi Fengnian parried the attack, and the porcelain plate shattered with a crack.

The two exchanged more than a dozen blows in the cramped private room, until Chen Hongxiong was finally pinned against the wall, the tip of the dagger less than an inch from his eyeball.

"Xingyi Quan?" Qi Fengnian breathed slightly. "Chen Dayou's son does seem to have some of the true skills."

Chen Hongxiong replied neither humbly nor arrogantly: "Uncle Qi's Yanqing Fist is still as sharp as ever."

The two stopped simultaneously, looked at each other, and smiled.

Qi Fengnian poured a glass of wine for each of them: "Tell me, how do you want this old man to cooperate?"

“Two things.” Chen Hongxiong took out a USB drive from his inner bag. “First, the information in here requires the cooperation of Uncle Qi’s former subordinates; second, we need a witness for the Xu Zhenhong kidnapping case from back then.”

Qi Fengnian's one eye flashed with a sharp light: "You want to settle old scores from nine years ago?"

"What is Zhao Sanjin most afraid of?" Chen Hongxiong sneered. "Not commercial attacks, but the exposure of his precious son's whereabouts."

He pulled up a photo of Su Ning on his phone. "That monster who could kill three kidnappers with his bare hands back then is now an adult."

Thunder roared outside the window, and raindrops pattered against the glass.

Qi Fengnian tilted his head back and drank the wine in his cup in one gulp, then suddenly smashed the cup to pieces:

"Let's do it! I'll give him a big gift at the Zhao Group's board meeting next Wednesday!"

……

In front of the bulletin board at Shanghai International Studies University, Su Ning and her three roommates took a group photo in front of the words "Room 308, Building 4, violated regulations by using electrical appliances" written on the white board.

"Su Ning, what does the department head want with you?" Li Wei asked in a low voice on the way back to the classroom.

"Let me participate in the French speech contest." Su Ning shrugged helplessly. "I said I'd think about it."

In the classroom, a young female foreign teacher is explaining French tenses.

Suning appeared to be taking notes diligently, but in reality, the notebook was listing the translation agency's recent projects:
German Machinery Handbook (To be proofread)

Interpreting at the Japan Anime & Comic Exhibition (Confirmed)

Suspicious German-language emails (IP address needs to be traced)

During the break, Shen Jiayi came over, blushing, and asked, "Su, are you free on Saturday? Our school's French corner needs a host..."

"Sorry, I have to go back to the city to see my father on Saturday." Su Ning politely declined, without mentioning that she was actually going to discuss restaurant expansion.

"Then...never mind."

"Shen Jiayi, why don't you come with me to the city center on Saturday? I live in Hongkou."

"Isn't this...not good?"

"What's there to be afraid of! We're college students now."

"Okay! See you at the east gate of the school at nine o'clock on Saturday morning."

On his way home from school, he received a rare phone call from Su Daqiang: "Don't come home for a while."

"What happened?" Su Ning became alert. There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone: "...The restaurant's range hood is broken, and the whole place smells."

After hanging up the phone, Su Ning frowned, pondering her adoptive father's unusual warning.

As he passed a newsstand, the front page of the Tangshan Business Daily caught his attention: "Zhao Group embroiled in equity dispute, former tycoon Qi Fengnian speaks out after being released from prison."

In the photo, a one-eyed old man is giving a passionate speech at a press conference, while the young man standing behind him seems to be someone of importance.

It's important to know that mosaics aren't used indiscriminately; only the most talented people have the privilege of using them.

However, considering that his biological father had a particularly complicated interpersonal relationship, it was normal for him to have one or two important figures as enemies.
Downstairs in the dormitory building, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle gleamed coldly in the setting sun.

Suning suddenly wondered if twisting the accelerator all the way to the floor would shake off these ever-present troubles.

……

Then Su Ning immediately sent a message to Shen Jiayi, explaining that she was not planning to go back to the city on Saturday and that they should go to the school's French Corner together.

On Saturday morning, sunlight streamed into the dormitory through the sheer curtains.

Suning buttoned the third button of her shirt in front of the mirror, then unbuttoned it, finally deciding to button only the bottom two.

He sprayed some cologne on his wrist and spread it, revealing a valuable mechanical watch.

The phone screen lit up: [French Corner starts at 9 o'clock, I'll be waiting for you in front of Wenlan Building ^_^ — Shen Jiayi]

Suning's lips unconsciously curled into a smile.

I just parted ways with this senior yesterday, and I didn't expect to be so looking forward to seeing her today. It seems that the junior has a good chance of winning her over.

He grabbed the prepared French original of "The Little Prince" and stuffed it into his backpack, when he suddenly heard Qi Shugen's mischievous laughter from the upper bunk:

"Suning, going on a date?"

"French Corner." Su Ning walked towards the door without looking back.

"Wearing such a flashy outfit to the French Corner?" Qi Shugen dragged out the word "corner".

"I think you're the most flamboyant one."

His response was a loud slam of the door closing.

The campus was filled with the fragrance of osmanthus in September.

Shen Jiayi was adjusting her recording equipment by the fountain in front of Wenlan Building.

She wore a light blue dress today, with a silver maple leaf hair clip at the end of her hair, looking like a Monet painting in the morning light.

"Senior." Su Ning stopped five steps away.

Shen Jiayi almost knocked over the tripod when she turned around.

She frantically tried to steady it, but Su Ning managed to stabilize the equipment first.

Their fingers touched briefly, and Shen Jiayi's ear tips immediately turned red.

"The equipment is very professional!" Su Ning naturally took a half step back. "Provided by the school?"

“I…I bought it myself,” Shen Jiayi stammered. “I’m using a French podcast to record some material.”

"Good."

She had a faint citrus scent mixed with the smell of shampoo.

Su Ning suddenly remembered the kumquat tree in the kitchen of Su Daqiang's restaurant, which also had this refreshing yet slightly bitter scent.

The French Corner is located on the lakeside promenade.

Twenty-odd students sat in a circle, with Matthew, a red-bearded Quebec teacher, standing in the middle.

He waved enthusiastically when he saw Suning: "Notre superstar! (Our star!)"

Shen Jiayi blinked in surprise: "Su Ning, you know Teacher Matthew?"

“I helped him translate a paper last week,” Su Ning explained quietly, only to be exposed by Matthew’s loud voice: “Su saved our Quebec Cultural Festival! His translation of folk song lyrics is even more beautiful than the original!”

All the students present turned to look at her, with Shen Jiayi's gaze being the most intense.

Su Ning's ears burned, and she quickly pulled her to sit in the corner.

During the open discussion, Matthew divided everyone into small groups to discuss the opening of "The Stranger".

The person in the same group as Su Ning and Shen Jiayi was a boy wearing glasses and two French exchange students.

“I think Meursault…” Shen Jiayi began, but was interrupted by the blond exchange student Pierre: “Désolé, mais ton accent…”

He made an exaggerated frown, which made his companions laugh.

Shen Jiayi was momentarily speechless, her fingers twisting the hem of her skirt tightly.

“Your French is very charming, like the songs of Stromae.” Suning suddenly interjected, then turned to Pierre, “And you, you speak like an old dictionary.”

Pierre's face changed; in French culture, this was the ultimate humiliation.

Matthew was trying so hard not to laugh that his beard was shaking.

“Merci…” Shen Jiayi whispered, her knee under the table lightly touching Su Ning’s leg before she pulled back as if she had been electrocuted.

The discussion was getting into a good mood.

When Shen Jiayi talked about Camus's symbolism of sunlight, Su Ning was surprised to find that she was reading the first edition from 1942.

The two got along so well that they completely ignored the other group members.

"Have you read Camus's letters to his German friends?" Shen Jiayi's eyes lit up. "In the letters, he said that Meursault actually..."

“Actually, he was the most cheerful depressed patient he had ever met,” Su Ning continued. “That letter is currently in…”

"The Manuscript Department of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris!" they both exclaimed in unison, then looked at each other and smiled.

The event ended close to noon.

Shen Jiayi packed up the recording equipment, her hair clips gleaming in the sunlight.

Su Ning noticed a small mole on the back of her neck, which appeared and disappeared as she lowered her head.

"Senior," he asked, almost as if it were a random question, "I heard there's a new Café called Café de la Seine outside of campus?"

Shen Jiayi's hand trembled, and the microphone fell into her bag: "Ah? Hmm...it seems so..."

“The owner is from Lyon, and the pastry chef used to work in Fauchon.” Su Ning said casually, “Want to give it a try? We can continue our conversation about Camus.”

The dappled shadows of the sycamore trees fell on the stone path between the two people.

Shen Jiayi stared at her white sneakers for three seconds, then suddenly looked up and asked, "Are you treating?"

"of course."

"Then I want to eat the most expensive macarons." She wrinkled her nose, a childlike gesture that made Su Ning's heart skip a beat.

"Okay! I'll grant your request."

They walked along the tree-lined path toward the school gate, Shen Jiayi's skirt occasionally brushing against Su Ning's jeans.

As Su Ning passed by the bulletin board, she was suddenly bumped into by Mu Hongli and her group of girlfriends.

"I'm sorry," Mu Hongli said sweetly, but her eyes were fixed on Shen Jiayi. "Senior Shen, you also study French?"

Shen Jiayi subconsciously took half a step closer to Su Ning: "I...I majored in Spanish."

"No wonder her accent is so heavy." Mu Hongli covered her mouth and chuckled, while the girls around her murmured with laughter.

Just as Su Ning was about to speak, Shen Jiayi suddenly grabbed his arm: "Mais on s'en fout, n'est-ce pas? (But we don't care, do we?)"

Her pronunciation was surprisingly standard, and she strode away, arm in arm with Su Ning.

Behind them, Mu Hongli and her group of girlfriends looked quite unhappy.

As soon as she turned the corner, Shen Jiayi immediately let go, her face as red as the cover of the book "The Outsider" in her bag: "I'm sorry! I..."

"Your French is clearly very good," Su Ning chuckled. "Why are you acting like a little rabbit in front of Pierre?"

Shen Jiayi kicked at the pebbles on the road: "I did it on purpose... to see if you would help me."

She glanced at Su Ning's reaction and said, "Qi Shugen said you're very gentlemanly towards girls."

“That brat Qi Shugen…” Su Ning gritted his teeth in anger.

But then he saw Shen Jiayi's triumphant smile, like a kitten that had stolen a fish.

Under the blue and white awning of the Seine River café, they talked about the sunset.

When Shen Jiayi mentioned wanting to go to Provence to see the lavender fields, Su Ning realized he had noted the place name down in his notes; when Shen Jiayi casually mentioned liking ginkgo leaf bookmarks, he immediately thought of the century-old ginkgo tree downstairs from his company.

As I walked back to school, dusk began to fall.

As they passed Wenlan Building, Shen Jiayi suddenly stopped: "Next Saturday...are we still coming to the French Corner?"

The night breeze ruffled the ends of her hair, and the silver maple leaf hair clip shimmered under the streetlights.

Su Ning recalled a line from "The Little Prince": "If you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, I will be happy from three o'clock onwards."

“Come on,” he said softly. “And I’ve prepared a translation of a Quebec folk song, and I’d like to ask you for your guidance.”

Shen Jiayi's eyes lit up, like the shimmering waves on the Seine.

They said goodbye in front of the dormitory building, both of them walking slowly on purpose, as if that would prolong the afternoon.

When Su Ning returned to the dormitory, Qi Shugen was lying on the bed playing on his phone: "Oh! The French Corner is ending so late?"

"Hmm." Su Ning put "The Little Prince" back on the bookshelf, a smile still on her lips.

"Su Ning," Qi Shugen suddenly sat up straight, "Are you in love?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Hmph! They reek of the sour smell of being in love."

"Jealousy twists the mind! You're hopeless."

"This is infuriating! It's only been a few days since school started, and you're already in a relationship. What happened to our promise to be single together?"

"Boring! Who made a promise with you?"

Outside the window, the clock tower of Shanghai International Studies University struck ten.

Su Ning took out her phone and sent a text message to Su Daqiang: "Dad, is the range hood fixed yet?"

At this moment, Su Ning felt something was strange, and he really began to regard Su Daqiang as his father.

But what's even stranger is that he's actually looking forward to tomorrow's sunrise, just like an ordinary college student looking forward to a date—simple and pure.

Shen Jiayi's goodnight text message arrived just then: [I had such a great day! PS: Pierre said your French sounds like a Parisian street thug, is that a compliment? ^_^]

Suning replied with a smile: "In France, this is the highest praise."

...(End of chapter)