1970s: Hot wife accompanies the army, cold-faced rough man is not easy to tease

Chapter 314 At least thirty years older than her
Lu Youyou told Zhao Xiang about it and then stopped caring. Li Mingyue also disappeared after her outburst.

Before she knew it, it was the end of the second year. Lu Youyou used several times the effort of an ordinary person to complete all the credits for both majors within the normal time. After participating in two thesis defenses, the only thing left for her at Stanford was the graduation ceremony.

Due to the recent continuous rain, the graduation ceremony, originally scheduled to be held outdoors, has been moved indoors.

Lu Youyou was too lazy to use an umbrella and ran into the auditorium in the drizzle. Before she could even straighten her graduation gown, someone patted her on the shoulder.

"Lu, it's been a long time!"

Yu Qingtian came over with a big smile, dressed the same as she was today.

"Long time no see," Lu Youyou nodded.

Yu Qingtian's eyes shone with undisguised admiration. She was already overwhelmed by studying just one major, and she had to work incredibly hard to keep up.

In the circle of international students, Lu Youyou, a super academic achiever, is like a god.

Both marine engineering and agricultural science are notoriously difficult to learn and produce results, yet Lu Youyou handles them with ease, something Yu Qingtian simply cannot fathom.

"Everyone was guessing that you'd have to wait until you graduated because you studied so much, but I didn't expect you to be the first to get your degree! So, what's your PhD major? You're not going to have to take two other courses, are you?"

Yu Qingtian's tone was even somewhat matter-of-fact, and almost everyone who knew Lu Youyou thought she would stay and continue her studies.

Lu Youyou smiled and shook her head: "I'll go back to China after the graduation ceremony."

"Huh?!" Yu Qingtian was completely taken aback, her mouth agape for a long time. "You're not going to continue reading?"

Even she is preparing to apply for an extension of her study abroad period, so why is Lu Youyou going back to China?
Although she wasn't one of the top students in the physics department, one of her professors was of Chinese descent and was willing to give her a spot.

Didn't they say that Lu Youyou's advisor adored her? Why didn't he give her a doctoral spot?
"Okay, I'm not reading anymore."

Yu Qingtian was baffled by Lu Youyou's nonchalant tone. How could a genius like her not care about something that others coveted?

In the end, she could only conclude that the realm of immortals was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.

According to the inside information she had gathered, Lu Youyou's research progress over the past two years was more advanced than that of the average PhD student, so she had every reason not to stay and waste her time.

Everyone else was more or less reluctant to give up the academic atmosphere and living conditions here, but Lu Youyou remained completely unmoved. Yu Qingtian had never seen any envy in her eyes.

"So you're going back and starting work right away?"

This time, Lu Youyou was taken aback. After being away for so long, the word "work" seemed to have been excluded from her life.

After returning to China, government-sponsored students are assigned jobs. Although Lu Youyou had planned to start a private laboratory in the future, she still had to go through the formalities. She could apply for a leave of absence without pay or resign directly later.

"Well, let's see how to assign them when we get back."

According to her own thoughts, she would like to return to Tsinghua University to teach, so that she would have more free time and be able to prepare more for the future.

Although Yu Qingtian didn't understand Lu Youyou's choice, she believed that the academic genius had her reasons for doing things, and that Lu Youyou's lack of understanding simply meant she hadn't reached that level yet. Yu Qingtian was always open-minded about this.

With some time to spare before the ceremony began, Yu Qingtian, unable to contain her excitement, started talking about a recent piece of gossip that had caused a sensation among international students.

"Lu, have you seen Li Mingyue recently?"

"no, what happened?"

Yu Qingtian glanced around and, seeing no one was around, leaned close to her ear and said, "She took more than a month of sick leave before, so she'll probably have to postpone her graduation." Lu Youyou just hummed in agreement; when Li Mingyue graduated was none of her business.

Seeing that she didn't react, Yu Qingtian asked again, "Li Mingyue contacted you before, right?"

It didn't mention borrowing money at all, but it was clearly about borrowing money.

Upon hearing the word "also," Lu Youyou understood immediately that Li Mingyue must have borrowed from other people as well.

"Yes, he did come looking for me."

Yu Qingtian covered her mouth and whispered even softer in her ear, "Do you know why she needs to borrow money?"

Without waiting for Lu Youyou's response, she answered her own question: "Li Mingyue had a miscarriage and heavy bleeding and went to the hospital for surgery. They said it was a uterine perforation or something, anyway, it was very serious."

Lu Youyou was stunned for a moment. Uterine perforation is one of the complications of miscarriage. Since she had been recuperating for more than a month, it was highly likely that she had her uterus removed.

"how do you know?"

This time, Yu Qingtian had even more to say, since she was a firsthand witness!

“We didn’t know she had a miscarriage at first. We only knew that she had borrowed money from a bunch of people she knew. Then, at a party, she suddenly fainted. We took her to the hospital, and the doctor said she needed surgery. We were terrified and immediately contacted the embassy…”

We're just classmates; who would dare make decisions for someone on such a big matter as surgery? Of course, we'd go directly to the leader.

But once Li Mingyue fainted, many things could no longer be kept secret.

Li Mingyue had an abortion somewhere, and due to improper care, it resulted in a uterine perforation. She had to go to the hospital again, and she almost lost her life.

In the eyes of Chinese people, Li Mingyue is considered shameless. The era when having an affair was a public spectacle is only a few years over. Even if the students studying abroad are in the United States, their views have not evolved to the point where it doesn't matter if someone gets pregnant before marriage.

Lu Youyou understood somewhat; she had this premonition when she chose to tell Zhao Xiang.

Li Mingyue said that being bold is not really being bold, but some people are just like that, they won't turn back until they hit a wall, and even after hitting a wall, they still won't turn back.

Li Mingyue paid such a heavy price, ruining her reputation among international students. With such high sunk costs, she has no choice but to go down this dark path.

In other words, if she had any concerns before, now those concerns are gone, and with no way out, she can only try her best to stay.

Yu Qingtian only paired up with Li Mingyue because everyone was in a bad situation. After this incident, even though they didn't draw a clear line, the two of them were obviously much more distant.

In the past, Li Mingyue would definitely have come along, but today Yu Qingtian had arranged to meet another girl from the hometown association, and she and Li Mingyue hadn't seen each other for a long time.

"Lu, I have something to tell you..."

Yu Qingtian suddenly stopped halfway through her speech, and Lu Youyou followed her gaze...

The woman passing by over there looks like Li Mingyue? She almost didn't recognize her.

Li Mingyue looked almost completely different; she had lost a lot of weight and her clothing and appearance had also changed drastically.

She was no longer dressed in black, white, and gray, and her Feiyue sneakers were gone. In their place was a light green dress and a pair of black leather shoes.

More importantly, the man Li Mingyue was leaning on looked at least thirty years older than her!