My IQ has been increasing year by year.

July 4th.

Downstairs in the girls' dormitory building at USTC.

The ground was littered with discarded old washbasins, broken thermos shells, and colorful banners torn into strips.

Several tricycles used for collecting recyclables were parked on the roadside, with loudspeakers playing a loop announcement about collecting old books, newspapers, and computers.

The door to senior student Zhou Yun's dormitory was open.

Zhou Yun squatted on the ground, holding a roll of wide tape in her hand, and was straining it against a woven bag.

The bag was full of books, so full that the four corners were bulging and the zipper couldn't be closed.

Lin Xia stood beside her, holding a pair of scissors, and helped her hold the bag closed.

"Put a little more effort into pressing that communication studies textbook down."

Zhou Yun gritted her teeth and pulled hard on the tape, trying to seal the bag tightly.

"It's too hard to press down, it's all solid inside."

Lin Xia pressed down hard with both hands.

"Zhou Yun, how are you going to get these huge bags of books downstairs? I'm taking the train to Guangzhou tomorrow morning, so I can only lend a hand today. If I have to carry them all, my back will break." Zhou Yun forcefully tore the tape, patted the sealed area twice with her palm, and stood up.

"I don't expect you to carry the load."

Zhou Yun bent down and grabbed a corner of the woven bag.

"Come on, give me a hand, let's drag it down."

Two girls, one in front and one behind, managed to drag the woven bag down the stairs from the third floor.

After finally dragging them to the lobby on the first floor, Zhou Yun and Lin Xia were both covered in sweat, their palms covered in red marks from the plastic handles.

The two slumped against the wall, ready to catch their breath.

A person emerged from the shadows outside the hall door.

Lu Jia glanced at the two girls who were panting heavily, then at the woven bag on the ground, and strode into the hall.

"Lu Jia, you've come at the perfect time."

Zhou Yun rubbed her reddened palms and pointed to the bag on the ground.

"It's all textbooks and past exam papers, I'm counting on you."

Lin Xia leaned against the wall, glanced at Lu Jia, and teased him with a smile.

"Junior, you'd better put in some effort today. Your senior sister Zhou Yun has staked everything on this pile of books."

Lu Jia nodded, but didn't respond.

He walked up to the largest woven bag, bent down, grabbed the handles on both sides of the bag with both hands, and tried to lift it up.

It was very heavy and didn't budge.

Lu Jia let go and vigorously rubbed the side of his trouser leg twice.

He squatted down again with his back to the woven bag, gripping the handles with both hands.

"Help me hold the bottom up," Lu Jia said.

Zhou Yun and Lin Xia quickly came over, each holding one side of the bag and supporting the bottom.

Lu Jia took a deep breath, strained his waist, and with a muffled groan, hoisted the woven bag onto his right shoulder.

Are the remaining two bags upstairs heavy?

Lu Jia turned her head and asked.

"Clothes and miscellaneous items, not heavy," Zhou Yun replied.

"You guys go up and get it, I'll wait outside by the tricycle."

After Lu Jia finished speaking, she picked up the bag and walked out without waiting for their reply.

"This junior student stays outside without budging an inch, and he's really dedicated to his work."

Lin Xia watched Lu Jia's back as he walked under the sun carrying heavy objects, and muttered something under her breath.

Zhou Yun smiled and patted the dust off her hands.

"Let's go, hurry upstairs and get it. I'll treat you to a farewell dinner this afternoon."

Outside the gate, the sun was blazing brightly, so bright that it was hard to open one's eyes.

Lu Jia put the bag down by the roadside, pulled up the collar of her short-sleeved shirt, and wiped her face haphazardly.

A short while later, Zhou Yun and Lin Xia came out of the building carrying the remaining two bags.

"Where to?" Lu Jia asked.

"The village outside the South Gate, near Yao Gong Temple."

Zhou Yun pointed in the direction.

Lu Jia nodded, walked to the roadside, and flagged down a three-wheeled vehicle carrying goods.

I haggled with the old man pedaling the tricycle for a long time over a five-yuan delivery fee, and finally settled on fifteen yuan.

The three bags were thrown onto the tricycle.

Zhou Yun and Lin Xia sat on the edge of the bag.

Lu Jia didn't sit down; instead, he borrowed an old bicycle from the driver and rode slowly alongside the tricycle.

The car exited the south gate and turned into the urban village near Yaogong Temple.

The road here is narrow, lined with all sorts of small shops—selling cooked food, repairing bicycles, selling clothes, you name it. The air is thick with the mixed smells of fried skewers and sewage.

The tricycle stopped in front of a small building.

Lu Jia returned the bicycle to the shopkeeper and paid him fifteen yuan.

The stairwell was narrow and dark inside, without even a motion-activated light.

The walls were covered with posters of people offering advice on unclogging drains and painless abortions.

Which floor?

Lu Jia hoisted the largest bag of books back onto her shoulder.

"Sixth floor."

Zhou Yun bit her lip.

"No elevator, top floor."

Lu Jia didn't say anything, but simply adjusted the position of the bag on her shoulder and stepped onto the first step.

The stairwell was as stuffy as an airtight jar.

With each floor you go up, the temperature seems to rise by one degree.

Zhou Yun and Lin Xia followed behind, carrying the remaining two huge bags.

First floor, second floor, third floor.

When Lin Xia reached the fourth floor, she was too exhausted to walk any further.

She put the bag on the ground and leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

"I can't take it anymore, I need to rest. Zhou Yun, what kind of awful place did you find? Is this even fit for a human to live in?"

Lin Xia fanned herself with her hand, her face turning bright red.

Zhou Yun also put down the bag, panting heavily without saying a word.

Lu Jia, who was ahead, stopped in her tracks.

He didn't put the bag off his shoulder, but leaned against the railing at the corner of the stairs, breathing heavily.

"It's alright, take your time."

Lu Jia's voice was a little hoarse.

He didn't urge or complain; he just leaned there quietly and waited.

After resting for two minutes, the three continued climbing.

Upon reaching the sixth floor, Zhou Yun took a key out of her pocket.

After turning the knob twice, the door opened.

A wave of heat, even more stifling than the stairwell and carrying a dusty smell, hit me.

The room wasn't big, only about ten square meters.

The floor was covered with simple white tiles, there was a single bed in the corner, next to an old wooden table with peeling paint, and the window was small.

There is a three-bladed ceiling fan overhead.

Lu Jia walked into the house and placed the woven bag directly in the corner.

Zhou Yun and Lin Xia also threw the bags they were holding on the ground.

Lin Xia didn't care about her image anymore and went straight to the window, trying to open it to let in some fresh air.

The window creaked and groaned, and was barely pushed open halfway.

There wasn't a breath of wind outside.

Lu Jia walked to the switch on the wall and pressed it.

The old ceiling fan overhead slowly started spinning, accompanied by a clanging sound.

Even the wind blowing down was hot.

Zhou Yun pulled out a few old newspapers from her bag, spread them out on the ground, and sat down on them.

She stretched out her legs, tilted her head back, and looked at the fan spinning on the ceiling, her chest heaving violently.

Lin Xia also came over and sat down next to Zhou Yun on the newspaper.

Lu Jia did not sit down.

He walked to the old wooden table, touched the surface with the back of his hand, and his hand got covered in dust.

He wiped his hands on his pants, then turned and walked to the bed in the corner, standing against it.

His short-sleeved shirt was completely soaked and stuck to his back.

He took off his glasses, wiped the sweat off the lenses with the hem of his shirt, and put them back on.

The only sound in the room was the ceiling fan turning; none of the three spoke.

About five or six minutes later.

Lin Xia wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, and looking at the woven bags and broken cardboard boxes all over the room, she finally couldn't hold back anymore.

"Zhou Yun".

Lin Xia turned her head and looked at Zhou Yun, who was resting with her eyes closed.

"I still don't understand, what are you after?"

Zhou Yun opened her eyes, turned her head to look at Lin Xia, and didn't say anything.

"I'm taking the train to Guangzhou tomorrow. I'm an intern reporter for the Southern Metropolis Daily. It's tiring, but at least it's a respectable organization. What about you?" Lin Xia pointed to the dilapidated room.

"That spot for permanent employment in the province is so coveted, so many people in our department are fighting tooth and nail for it. You interned there for more than half a year, and the director even said you could stay. The three-party agreement was already sent to the school. But at the last minute, you changed your mind." Lin Xia's voice grew louder and louder, filled with obvious incomprehension and heartache.

"I paid the penalty for breach of contract, and instead of sitting in an air-conditioned office with a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius, I came to this rooftop sauna in an urban village without even a private bathroom. All for the sake of taking the postgraduate entrance exam, I've made myself look like a refugee." Lin Xia sighed and shook her head.

"Have you gone crazy from studying so much? Even if you pass the exam next year, after three years you'll still have to work for a newspaper or TV station, right? What are you doing these three years for? Just for the dust in this room?" Zhou Yun listened quietly.

She wasn't angry, nor did she immediately refute.

She simply stared quietly at the woven bag on the ground containing the complete set of journalism textbooks.

It was very hot inside, and her nose was covered in fine beads of sweat.

She reached up and pulled off the hair tie that was wrapped around the back of her head, casually ruffled her hair a couple of times, and then tied it back up tightly.

"Lin Xia, do you know why I suddenly resigned a few days ago?"

Zhou Yun's voice was very flat.

Lin Xia was stunned for a moment.

"Didn't you say it was because you were preparing for the postgraduate entrance exam?"

That's just an excuse.

Zhou Yun twitched the corner of her mouth.

She changed her posture and hugged her knees with both hands.

"In the middle of last month, we received a tip that a chemical plant in the county was discharging wastewater into the irrigation canal in the middle of the night. All the fish in the village died, and the crops turned yellow. The villagers went to the county to make a fuss, but it was suppressed." Zhou Yun looked at the wall in front of her, her eyes somewhat unfocused.

"The director sent me to follow an old reporter, and the two of us stayed in that village for two days and two nights."

"In summer, the mosquitoes by the river were deadly. I would wear rubber boots and wade through the mud, going from house to house asking around, taking pictures of the dead fish, and taking pictures of the black water coming out of the chemical plant's sewage pipes. The smell of that water was so pungent that it could make you vomit."

Zhou Yun paused for a moment.

"After I came back, I stayed up for three nights in a row and wrote a 4,000-word investigation report. I checked every piece of data, every photo, and every interview recording with a villager very clearly." Zhou Yun turned her head and looked at Lin Xia.

"Then I handed the manuscript to the director."

Lin Xia didn't speak, waiting for her to continue.

"The director glanced at it and threw the manuscript into the shredder right in front of me."

Zhou Yun smiled, but there was no warmth in that smile.

"He told me that the owner of that chemical plant was a star entrepreneur in the city and a long-time GG advertising client. That day's page was to be dedicated to a personal interview with that owner." The room was so quiet that only the sound of the ceiling fan could be heard.

"I was standing in front of his desk when I asked him, 'What are we going to do with the dead fish from the villagers? What are we going to do with the stinking river?'" Zhou Yun stared into Lin Xia's eyes.

"Guess what he said?"

He said, "Zhou Yun, you're just a young girl who just graduated from university. Sending you to the scene is to practice your writing skills, not to be a judge. You write whatever I tell you to write. It's not your place to make value judgments."

Zhou Yun took a deep breath and exhaled the stale air from her chest.

"Lin Xia, I decided to leave the day I left the director's office."

Zhou Yun reached out and patted the old newspapers beneath her.

"I could be a microphone-holding machine for others, or I could sit in an air-conditioned room every day writing those eulogistic articles. That would be very comfortable; I could get a salary and dress neatly." "But I wouldn't be happy inside."

Zhou Yun's voice gradually deepened, carrying an undeniable firmness.

"I studied journalism for four years, and I'm not willing to castrate myself so early to conform to those rules."

She glanced at the woven bag full of books.

"I want to take the entrance exam for our dean's graduate program."

She tapped the pile of books next to her with the back of her hand.

"Do you remember that mine disaster in Shanxi Province a couple of years ago? The local authorities were so tight-lipped that even the cameras of the reporters who went undercover were smashed." Zhou Yun looked at Lin Xia.

"The dean led several PhDs down there, posing as specially appointed experts, and carrying official documents for a key national research project. When the mine owner came to the hotel with a bag of cash, he didn't even look at it. He wrote up the real account books he found overnight as an internal report, bypassed the local authorities, and handed them directly to the desk above."

"In less than half a month, a whole string of people in that province were brought down."

Zhou Yun twitched the corners of her mouth, a fierce glint in her eyes.

"When I was an intern at a local chemical plant, those people dared to set dogs on me. But once I became their student and went to conduct research with the official seal of a state-owned research group, even if that boss had ten times the courage, he wouldn't dare to touch a hair on my head."

Zhou Yun turned her head and looked at the blinding sunlight outside the window.

"I've paid the penalty for breach of contract, and I accept this dilapidated house. At worst, I'll just be skinned alive."

Lin Xia sat beside him, opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything for a long time.

She sighed, reached out and put her arm around Zhou Yun's shoulder, squeezing it hard.

"Your attitude... is just like a bull."

Lin Xia's eyes were a little red, but she didn't cry; she just cursed.

"Fine, I'll be waiting in Guangzhou to see what kind of earth-shattering manuscript you'll write in the future."

Standing by the bed, Lu Jia listened to Zhou Yun's words without missing a single one.

He didn't interrupt, nor did he come over and pat Zhou Yun on the shoulder to say "I support you."

He remained leaning against the bedpost.

But when Zhou Yun finished saying "I don't regret it," Lu Jia pushed up his glasses.

He turned around and walked silently to the heaviest woven bag.

He crouched down and untied the rope at the top of the bag.

"Is the desk placed right under the window?"

With her back to them, Lu Jia suddenly asked a question.

Zhou Yun paused for a moment, then nodded.

"Yes, put it under the window where the light is better."

Lu Jia didn't say anything more.

He took the books out of the woven bag, one stack at a time.

Those weighty histories of journalism, introductions to communication studies, and selections of Chinese and foreign news works.

He moved the book steadily, then walked to the old wooden table under the window and neatly stacked the books on the corner of the table.

His movements were neither hurried nor slow, and he didn't waste any unnecessary words.

It was like setting up an extremely precise experiment.

A few minutes later, he had moved most of the bag of books onto the table.

Lu Jia patted the dust off his hands.

I'm going out for a bit.

Without waiting for the two girls to reply, he turned and walked out of the room.

"Hey, where is he going?"

Lin Xia watched Lu Jia's departing figure, somewhat puzzled.

"have no idea."

Zhou Yun replied casually.

"They probably went to buy water; there isn't even a kettle in this house."

The two ignored Lu Jia and began taking the remaining clothes and miscellaneous items out of the woven bag, piling them on the bed in sorting order. About twenty minutes later...

Lu Jia walked in.

His short-sleeved shirt, which was already soaked, looked like it had just been pulled out of the water, and his hair was also wet and stuck to his forehead.

He was carrying a fan that was still in its packaging in his left hand.

He was carrying a red plastic bag in his right hand.

The bag contained half a sliced ​​watermelon, with wisps of cold air rising from it.

Lin Xia turned around and saw what Lu Jia was holding; her eyes lit up instantly.

"Oh my goodness."

Lin Xia stood up from the ground and went to meet her.

"Junior, you've saved my life!"

Zhou Yun also looked up at Lu Jia, who was covered in sweat.

Lu Jia placed the fan on the ground, squatted down, opened the packaging box, and pulled out the power cord.

He found a socket in the corner and plugged it in.

Press the switch.

The fan made a whooshing sound, and the airflow was much stronger than the broken ceiling fan above my head.

Lu Jia moved the fan next to the two of them.

Then he stood up and gently placed the plastic bag containing half a chilled watermelon on the old wooden table where books had just been stacked. "There's a small shop downstairs."

Lu Jia's voice was somewhat hoarse.

Lin Xia eagerly opened the plastic bag, inside which were two plastic spoons given to her by the boss.

"Come on, Zhou Yun, come and eat! On this hot day, iced watermelon is just perfect."

Lin Xia handed Zhou Yun a spoon, scooped out a large piece and stuffed it into her mouth, letting out a satisfied sigh.

Zhou Yun took a spoon and walked to the table.

She glanced at the watermelon on the table, then at Lu Jia standing beside her, constantly wiping away sweat.

"Have you eaten?" Zhou Yun asked.

Lin Xia, munching on a watermelon beside her, joked.

"Oh my, look at our junior, he's really hardworking and considerate."

Lin Xia praised him so directly.

Lu Jia's movements visibly stiffened for a moment.

He stopped in his tracks as he was about to go to the sink to wash his hands.

He didn't look into Zhou Yun's eyes, nor did he look into Lin Xia's.

He subconsciously raised his hand and pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose with his dusty fingers.

His ears were visibly a little red.

In this stuffy, bustling rented room, facing two girls, Lu Jia's usual composure and rationality when doing homework vanished completely. Lu Jia cleared her throat and glanced towards the door.

He stammered and spoke in an extremely stiff tone.

"Um... I don't want to eat. I just drank a bottle of water downstairs."

He paused for a moment, seemingly feeling that the reason was not sufficient, and quickly added another sentence.

"This room is too small, cluttered, and the air circulation is below standard. The empty cardboard boxes and woven bags that were just brought up are piled up in the corridor, posing a fire safety hazard," Lu Jia pointed outside the door.

"I...I'll go flatten those cardboard boxes outside and take them down to throw away. You guys eat first."

After saying that...

Lu Jia fled as if running away, not even bothering to drink a sip of water, and quickly turned and walked out of the room.

They were walking so fast that their shoes even bumped against the steps at the doorway.

He didn't turn around and disappeared into the dark stairwell.

Lin Xia, with watermelon still in her mouth, stared blankly at the empty corridor outside the door for a few seconds.

Then she couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"My God."

Lin Xia nudged Zhou Yun with her elbow.

"Zhou Yun, your junior is hilarious! You praise him, and he can bring up fire hazards and run faster than a rabbit." Zhou Yun was holding a plastic spoon.

She did not speak.

She heard Lu Jia clumsily stomping on cardboard from the hallway outside the door.

"Crack, crack."

The sound echoed in the empty corridor.

It was still stuffy inside.

The old wooden table still smelled musty.

The exhaustion and lingering sense of grievance from struggling with reality still lingered in Zhou Yun's chest.

But at this moment, looking at the half watermelon on the table that was still emitting cold air, and listening to the whirring sound of the fan.

Zhou Yun suddenly felt that this dilapidated house wasn't so unbearable after all.

She scooped out a large spoonful of the seedless watermelon from the very center and put it in her mouth.

The cool sweetness melted instantly in my mouth, cooling down my throat all the way to my stomach.

"Him?"

Zhou Yun looked out the door, and a slight smile crept onto her lips.

The tension and sharpness in her voice were gone when she recounted her resignation; only a relaxed and reassuring quality remained.

"He's just a simpleton who can't even speak properly."

Zhou Yun laughed and cursed.

Then she turned around, took a spoon, sat down next to the pile of books on journalism history and communication studies, and started eating watermelon in large bites.

The sound of footsteps on cardboard boxes continued in the stairwell.

Summer sunlight streamed in through that dirty little window, falling onto the old newspapers on the floor.