They're already in university, and the primary school system is only just starting out?

Chen Lin couldn't help but mutter a complaint to himself.

It only took thirty minutes to get it done. If I were to do it myself, I'd be grateful if it could be done within three days.

However, he still put away his phone and sincerely thanked Director Kong and the two busy teachers.

"Next is graduating early," Chang Kai patted Gu Ming on the shoulder and instructed him again, "Gu, please take this matter very seriously. I will personally call Dean Zhuang of the School of Mathematics and Director Guo of the Department of Mathematics to make sure there are no problems."

"Don't worry, Principal." Gu Ming nodded solemnly.

"Alright," Chang Kai glanced at his watch, a concerned look on his face. "Chen Lin must be exhausted from traveling all the way back from the capital today. Go and rest first."

Chen Lin did want to put his luggage back in the dormitory first, so he said goodbye to Chang Kai and Gu Ming, and walked out of the office building alone with his suitcase.

……

Returning to the familiar 406 dormitory room, I pushed open the door and a familiar breeze rushed towards me.

The dormitory was empty. Wang Tao and the others' beds were neatly made, and there was a thin layer of dust on the table, indicating that no one had been there since the start of the holiday.

Chen Lin propped his suitcase up against the wall, unzipped it, and stuffed a few changes of clothes into the closet.

Then, he carefully took out the heavy gold bar from the inner pocket of his backpack. After thinking for a moment, he put it back in the wooden box along with its outer packaging. He figured he was only staying there temporarily and didn't want to forget about it later.

He took out his phone, glanced at the time, and it was just before four in the afternoon.

After a long day of running around, I didn't even have time for lunch, and now a strong feeling of hunger is hitting my stomach.

I need to find something to fill my stomach.

Chen Lin thought for a moment. During the summer vacation, although the school cafeteria was still open, its opening hours were greatly shortened, and it wasn't open yet at this time. Moreover, the specialty stalls on the third floor and the hot pot and barbecue stalls on the fourth floor were also closed.

Forget it.

Chen Lin patted his pockets, and instantly felt more confident.

He's a man with nearly 40,000 yuan in his pocket, and a prospective company founder, so how can he be so stingy?

You have to be good to yourself!

Chen Lin decided to splurge at a McDonald's near the campus.

This is also a celebration for myself, as I successfully changed my major today.

As soon as I stepped out of the dormitory building, the summer afternoon sun shone down, almost blindingly bright.

Chen Lin subconsciously raised his hand to shield his eyes, but out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a beautiful figure standing under the shade of a tree in front of the dormitory building.

Chen Lin stopped in his tracks, a look of surprise appearing on his face.

Today's Yun Qing seems somewhat different from the fashionable, charismatic beauty Chen Lin remembered.

She was wearing a JK uniform, with a dark blue sailor collar top, paired with a white shirt and a bright red scarf, and a matching pleated skirt that stopped just above her knees.

She wore white mid-calf socks on her straight, slender legs, and small brown loafers on her feet.

Her usually slightly wavy, brownish long hair was tied into a high ponytail, which drew an arc in the air as she turned her head.

She has lost some of her usual charm and sophistication, but gained more youthful energy.

Chen Lin was somewhat stunned when Yun Qing noticed him. Her bright eyes instantly curved into beautiful crescent moons as she walked towards him with light steps.

"Hi!" She stopped gracefully in front of Chen Lin, tilting her head and smiling.

Chen Lin snapped out of his daze, still slightly surprised, and subconsciously asked, "Senior, you weren't waiting for me, were you?"

"Of course!" Yun Qing answered crisply and decisively, without the slightest hesitation.

After saying that, she twirled in front of Chen Lin as if presenting a treasure, the hem of her pleated skirt rising and falling gently.

"How is it? How is it?" She put her hands behind her back, leaned forward slightly, and looked at Chen Lin with bright, sparkling eyes. Her voice carried a hint of playful pride. "Doesn't it look good?"

Chen Lin noticed her expression; she seemed to be eagerly awaiting his answer.

Chen Lin does have that much emotional intelligence.

Moreover, he had absolutely no reason to lie.

"Beautiful, so beautiful." He nodded repeatedly, his tone incredibly sincere. "Senior, your looks, combined with this outfit today, are simply unbeatable."

Although the praise was straightforward, it was clearly very effective.

Yun Qing's smile instantly became even brighter.

Seeing her like this, Chen Lin became even more curious and couldn't help but ask, "But how did you know I was at school? I don't think I told anyone."

"Hehe," Yun Qing proudly waved her phone, "This morning, someone already posted about it on the forum! They livestreamed the whole process of you heroically rescuing the damsel in distress at the competition and then solving the academician's difficult problem in 10 minutes!"

"When I saw the post, I was thinking that if you were still in Beijing tonight, I would rush over to find you and Yan Yan. But when I asked Yan Yan on WeChat, she said that Principal Chang had already taken you back to school."

Chen Lin understood. So he had seen Li Zihan's post and followed the clues to find out.

He then asked another question: "How did you know I was in the dorm?"

Yun Qing blinked naturally and replied, "I'll try my luck. I figured you just got back, so you'd probably go back to your dorm to drop off your luggage first. If I couldn't find you here, I'd just call you and ask where you were."

Chen Lin: "..."

"So you're all packed now, are you getting ready to go out?" Yun Qing asked curiously, looking him up and down. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, I didn't have lunch on the way back, I'm starving." Chen Lin pointed in the direction of the school gate and said honestly, "I'm going to grab a bite at McDonald's."

Yun Qing's eyes lit up, and she immediately waved her hand with a smile, "That's perfect, let's go!"

As she spoke, she naturally stood next to Chen Lin.

Chen Lin was a little confused and subconsciously asked, "Senior, haven't you had lunch either? It's not even four o'clock yet."

"No, I already had lunch." Yun Qing tilted her head and looked at him with a sly smile. "I'll just go with you and hear you, the person involved, tell me about this incident yourself, is that not allowed?"

What else could Chen Lin say?

"Alright, let's go then."

......

......

Twenty minutes later, at the McDonald's closest to Yannan University, on the second floor, by the window, was a row of seats.

Chen Lin looked at the overflowing food on his plate and couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.

He couldn't remember the last time he ate McDonald's. In his memory, it was probably in his first year of high school, after the end of the semester, when he went with his classmates. That was four or five years ago.

Considering that he would most likely have to eat off-campus for the next month or so, and would inevitably have to deal with fast food restaurants, Chen Lin got a membership card before ordering food through the mini-program.

As a result, I ordered a member-exclusive four-piece set meal: grilled chicken burger, medium fries, a pair of spicy chicken wings, and a medium Coke; I also added a combo meal: five chicken nuggets with a chocolate sundae.

When he scanned the code to pay, the number "38.4" that popped up on his phone screen still made his eyelids twitch violently.

Chen Lin almost subconsciously did the mental calculation.

At this price, if you add a few more dollars, it would be enough for him to go to "Aunt Wang's Stir-fry" on the third floor of the school cafeteria and have two meals of two meat dishes and one vegetable dish!

He sighed silently, picked up the plate, and pushed the untouched chocolate bar in front of Yun Qing.

Yun Qing didn't stand on ceremony, and happily took it, scooped out a large piece with a small spoon, and put it into her mouth with satisfaction.

"Senior." He tore open the hamburger wrapper, took a big bite, and mumbled something indistinctly.

"Hmm?" Yun Qing looked up, her head still covered in a little white cream, like a kitten that had just stolen a bite.

"You have some on your lips." Chen Lin said, raising his hand and pointing to his upper lip with his index finger to show her the location.

Yun Qing was taken aback upon hearing this, and a blush flashed across her fair cheeks.

She subconsciously pursed her lips slightly, then quickly pulled out two tissues and wiped her mouth haphazardly.

Not satisfied with wiping it clean, she hurriedly pulled out her phone and used the black screen as a mirror, afraid that there might still be any residue.

This was the first time Chen Lin had ever seen this stunningly beautiful woman, who was always poised and radiant in any situation, display such an adorable, slightly bewildered and flustered demeanor.

"Alright, alright, that's all for now," Chen Lin said with a smile.

Yun Qing breathed a sigh of relief and put down her phone.

To cover up her embarrassment, she immediately changed the subject.

"So, what you said on the way here was that Yan Yan contacted you on her own initiative to go to the capital?"

"Yeah," Chen Lin took a sip of his cola, feeling quite satisfied. "But she said she'd give me six thousand yuan of the prize money after winning the championship. It's only right to do something for money, so it's reasonable for me to go and support her, isn't it?"

Yun Qing gently stirred the new earth in the cup with a small spoon. Hearing this, she chuckled, her bright eyes curving into beautiful crescents as she looked at Chen Lin with great interest.

"Junior, I'm finding myself getting more and more curious about you." Her tone held a hint of amazement. "Knowing you sing so well and have such great physical abilities was already surprising enough. But now, you're even this good at math, and you're a humanities student... You're just too versatile!"

"Ahem, keep it low-key, keep it low-key."

He waved his hand dismissively, but Chen Lin was still quite pleased with Yun Qing's undisguised praise.

"But to be honest," Yun Qing's smile faded slightly, and her tone turned serious, "you did the right thing by stopping short of making your point on stage today. This kind of thing should be handled by the school."

She seemed to have thought of something, and her tone carried a hint of warning: "If you go to her privately and try to reason with her, that'll be a real problem. Yang Han might be incredibly nice to your face, even crying and saying she was wrong. But the moment she turns her back, she'll write a long essay about it on her social media."

"Then, they'll mobilize a bunch of weirdos to expose all your private information. You'll be driven crazy by the harassing phone calls and spam texts every day."

Chen Lin was stunned and subconsciously gasped.

That's way too dangerous!

However, upon further reflection, he felt something was amiss.

"Senior," Chen Lin asked, frowning, "I've heard my roommate mention girls like that online. But aren't they usually all about 'girls helping each other out'?"

"Then why would Yang Han make baseless accusations against Shen Yan in public? Isn't she clearly trying to ruin Shen Yan's reputation?"

After listening to Chen Lin's words, Yun Qing gently stirred the cup with a small spoon, mixing the last bit of melted sundae and chocolate sauce together, and then put it in her mouth.

Those beautiful eyes looked at Chen Lin with a smile that said, "You're still too young."

"You only know one side of the story, not the other."

She spoke slowly:

"You're right. These kinds of girls do love to say 'Sisters, let's stick together' when they're attacking or confronting certain guys, sticking together for warmth and encouraging each other both online and offline."

Yun Qing put down her spoon, leaned forward slightly, lowered her voice, and spoke with a hint of wisdom and mockery from someone who had been through it all: "But once they encounter girls who are more outstanding or prettier than themselves and who make them jealous, they can be a million times more ruthless than when they deal with boys."

Chen Lin froze instantly, forgetting to swallow the half-chewed spicy chicken wing in his mouth.

What kind of logic is this?

Yun Qing couldn't help but laugh at his bewildered expression. She tapped the table with her slender finger: "Think about it, when they gang up on boys, that's called 'external conflict,' it's about fighting for group interests or venting shared emotions. But if they get jealous of another girl, the nature of the conflict changes completely, that's called 'internal conflict,' and it's a life-or-death struggle!"

"She'll think, 'Why? Why are you prettier than me, better at studying than me, and more popular with boys than me?'"

Chen Lin was utterly astonished by what he heard.

He always believed that most conflicts between people stemmed from direct clashes of interests.

But after hearing what Yun Qing said, it turns out that just "disliking" and "jealousy" can give rise to such great malice.

This is like opening the door to a whole new world.

"Senior," he finally swallowed what was in his mouth and asked, puzzled, "how come you're so skilled?"

Yun Qing's smile faded slightly, and a complex emotion, barely perceptible, flashed in her bright eyes.

"Because I've encountered this before."

Her tone was calm: "When I was a freshman, not long after I entered university, my three roommates started to isolate me. Later, they even colluded with some other girls in the class to spread rumors about me behind my back, saying that I had a messy private life and that I was dating several people at the same time."

Chen Lin frowned.

Yun Qing continued, "So, in the second semester of my freshman year, I applied to move off-campus."

Chen Lin nodded silently, and he roughly understood.

Thinking about it this way, Shen Yan is quite lucky. The fact that Shen Yan was willing to let Li Zihan and the other two get on the coattails of the modeling competition shows that the four roommates get along quite well.

"It was from then on," Yun Qing's tone returned to its previous relaxed state, even with a hint of teasing, "that I seemed to have developed some kind of radar. This morning, I saw Yang Han's appearance and the way he spoke in the forum post, and I recognized him immediately."

She pursed her lips and said, "She's the type who always talks about 'sisters needing to stick together,' but if she catches a girl she doesn't like and can bully, she'll be more ruthless and vicious than anyone else."