I'm a scientist, why can't I have faith?

"Hmm... empty gang."

Wang Dong was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously greeted him.

In fact, his brain was still debating whether or not to greet him, but his body did react subconsciously.

That's still too polite.

Kensuke Sugiyama was completely taken aback to run into Wang Dong here. The two had only met a few times before, and he was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses.

"...empty-handed..."

"Are you here for an exchange program at the University of Tokyo?"

Kensuke Sugiyama instinctively spoke in Japanese. He quickly realized what was happening, but before he could switch back to English, Wang Dong replied in Japanese as well.

"Yes, I am indeed here for an exchange."

Kensuke Sugiyama never expected that Wang Dong could speak Japanese, since their previous meetings and conversations had been mainly in English.

"Your Japanese is quite good."

"I studied a bit during the previous holiday and recently passed the N1 exam."

Have you ever passed the N1 exam through self-study...?

How long did he study? Two months?

The N1 level of Japanese language proficiency is considered too authoritative; even Kensuke Sugiyama, a native Japanese speaker, wasn't entirely confident about passing the N1 exam.

His only advantage is his listening comprehension. After all, he has been immersed in the environment for so many years. Just like a native speaker of Daxia taking the HSK exam, he can easily solve tongue twisters and complex combinations of polyphonic characters by virtue of his native language.

Of course, if it's a Jay Chou song, then it depends on the person.

But this only applies to listening comprehension. In terms of written grammar and vocabulary, Sugiyama Kensuke, this native, might not even be as good as Wang Dong.

They are likely to be far behind in academic writing.

However, Wang Dong felt that this was not something to brag about, since language was not his strong suit.

The two exchanged a few words briefly, then fell into a tacit silence.

In fact, neither Wang Dong nor Sugiyama Kensuke are nearly as adept at real-world social interaction as they are at communicating with computers.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before it was Sugiyama Kensuke's turn to pay, thanks to the part-time cashier who was a great help.

"I'll be going now, see you again sometime."

Kensuke Sugiyama left the convenience store quickly, carrying his packed items.

Then it was Wang Dong's turn to pay the bill. He deliberately lingered for a while, and only after estimating that Sugiyama Kensuke had almost walked away did he leisurely take the dinner he had just bought and head back to the dormitory.

The safest approach is to eat at a convenience store before leaving, which will definitely prevent you from running into Kensuke Sugiyama.

However, eating a bento box at a convenience store, especially in a foreign country like Japan, made Wang Dong's social anxiety far exceed the silence he felt while queuing.

So he resolutely chose to go back to his dormitory for a meal.

After all, according to his calculations, the chances of meeting Kensuke Sugiyama again after he had dawdled for a while were no more than 2%.

And that 2% chance is that the two of them live in the same dormitory building—what a coincidence!

What Wang Dong didn't expect was that this 2% possibility not only happened, but it was the more likely one.

Not only did Kensuke Sugiyama live in the same dormitory building as him, but coincidentally, Sugiyama lived right across from him.

The probability of this is almost one in a thousand.

However, this story of such a low probability event actually happened.

Perhaps because Wang Dong walks fast, he first saw the familiar figure he had just parted ways with at the entrance of the dormitory building.

I never expected it to be this bad situation. Fortunately, the other person didn't notice me and went straight into the stairwell.

Wang Dong breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't taken the elevator; it seemed the floor wasn't high, and it wasn't on the same floor as his.

He comforted himself with this thought, quietly waiting for the elevator to return to the first floor.

But when he arrived at his target floor and opened the door, he was met with a familiar gaze.

"Hey Kongbang, we meet again..."

Kensuke Sugiyama clearly hadn't expected this situation.

Silence remained as the two walked side by side down the corridor.

The silence reached its peak when both parties stopped and turned their backs to open the door at the same time, in perfect unison.

Clearly, neither of them expected that the other would live right across from them.

"We live across the hall from each other, what a coincidence..."

At this point, remaining silent would be too incompetent, so Wang Dong took the initiative to speak and break the deadlock.

"Please take care of me from now on."

Even though it should have been Wang Dong who said that, Sugiyama Kensuke didn't care about logic anymore and slammed the door shut after he finished speaking.

This guy is really ruthless...

In fact, from Wang Dong's perspective, he only thought of Sugiyama Kensuke as a cold and aloof person, without realizing that he was actually a socially anxious person just like him.

Although separated by a corridor, the people in both rooms were simultaneously worried about how to leave without running into the guy across the hall.

Fortunately, this is not a big worry, because judging from the courses, the two people's lifestyles do not overlap at all, so it's all unnecessary worry.

The start of the school year was fast approaching, and Wang Dong filled his days with activities.

Aside from attending classes in the classroom, I study in the library.

This is the method Wang Dong came up with to avoid Sugiyama Kensuke, since it would be quite awkward to unexpectedly run into him.

The classrooms in Japan are quite different from those in Daxia.

The concept of a class seems to be downplayed here, and students plan their own schedules. Compared to traditional lectures, it sounds more like a seminar. Each class is almost 90 minutes long with no breaks in between.

There's only one hour for lunch, but the advantage is that it ends relatively early if there are no evening classes.

Wang Dong was quite satisfied with this. Free time is always precious, and if he wanted to get some good deals from Japan at J-SCIENCE, he would need to put in a lot of effort to make up for his shortcomings.

So he has been focusing on chemistry these days.

Even though he was making progress every day, Wang Dong still felt depressed from time to time.

Because of that guy who likes pink bears.

As luck would have it, Qian Ting appeared in almost all of Wang Dong's courses.

This guy was also a student at Yuanpei College, just like him, only he enrolled a year earlier.

Wang Dong chose mostly basic courses, which Qian Ting should have already taken.

I never expected to be studying with a senior who is a year ahead of me, and judging from his appearance, his course schedule is even fuller than mine.

Under such intense conditions, the opponent actually demonstrated a higher score than himself, which earned him the appreciation of many professors.

They were practically monsters.

What shocked Wang Dong even more was that this guy was practically a genius.