At the start, I had to choose one of four options, and I immediately picked the Brahmin from the cou

"Drink slowly. We're a bunch of brothers, we don't follow those rules at the dinner table."

After saying that, Li Xiao picked up the wine glass in front of him and drank it all in one gulp. Although he said he didn't follow any of those drinking etiquette rules, since his brother had emptied his glass, he naturally couldn't leave any more empty-handed.

Zheng Hao, of course, joined the group. Seeing that his two brothers had both emptied their glasses, he chuckled, tilted his head back, and poured the full glass of Moutai straight down his throat.

"Ha—that feels great!"

Zheng Hao wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth, casually unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, and said loudly, fueled by the alcohol.

"Old Zhou, when you get to Beijing, don't just focus on climbing the ladder and forget about us brothers. I, Zheng Hao, am not very bright, I can't do business as well as Brother Xiao, and I'm no match for you in cunning, but I stick to my principles! No matter how high you two fly or how far you go, as long as you need me, even if there are mountains of knives and seas of fire in front of you, I, Zheng Hao, will be the first to rush up and shield you from harm!"

Zhou Yanhuai felt a surge of warmth in his heart as he listened to these rough and unrefined words, which carried a rough and untamed spirit yet were incredibly sincere.

He reached out and punched Zheng Hao's broad chest, chuckling, "Rat, I'll take your words to heart. If I ever run into anyone in Beijing who's too stupid to mess with me, I'll really call you and have you bring a sack to behead them."

"Bringing sacks to Beijing to trap people?"

After hearing this, Li Xiao couldn't help but laugh out loud, picked up a piece of cucumber dipped in aged vinegar, and threw it into his mouth.

"Rat, if you're going to Beijing to catch people, you'd better prepare a few sturdier handcuffs and bulletproof vests. That place is so dangerous that a brick could easily hit a mid-level official. Your street fighting skills from Jiangyang County won't cut it."

Zheng Hao, neck stiff, waved his hand dismissively: "What's there to be afraid of! Who cares what level they are? If they dare to touch my brother, I'll rip a few of their beards off even if it's the Heavenly King himself!"

Looking at Zheng Hao's fearless and reckless demeanor, Zhou Yanhuai couldn't help but shake his head with a smile, but a pure warmth flowed through his eyes.

"Rat, that's enough. But remember, the path we brothers are taking is definitely not the violent and ruthless underworld."

……

In a village in the south of the city, in a tenement building where even the hallway lights had been broken for more than half a year, Xia Kexin was standing on a creaking stool, looking up as she repaired her mother's oscillating fan, which had been running for twenty years without breaking down, but had broken down during these hottest days.

Sweat clung to her forehead, and her hands were covered in dust and machine oil. Before she could wipe them off, the deliveryman's voice rang out from outside the door.

She jumped off the stool, wiped her hands on her apron, and took the red EMS envelope with gold lettering, her fingers trembling. She opened it, pulled out the admission notice with the logo of the Provincial Normal University, and stared at it for a long time, so long that the deliveryman couldn't help but urge her to sign it.

The teacher training program was tuition-free, and she even received a monthly living allowance. She stuck the acceptance letter to her chest, squatted on the doorstep, and tears fell onto the red cover with gold lettering, which she quickly wiped away with her sleeve.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the county town, the atmosphere at Lin Xiaoran's home was rather somber.

The admission notice she received was not from Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan, or Shanghai Jiao Tong Universities, which she had always longed for, but from a university that, although also a top-tier 985 university, was always a step below in her eyes.

Congratulations are still sporadically popping up in the class group chat.

Some students got into second-tier universities in the provincial capital, some went to engineering colleges in other provinces, and some applied directly to vocational colleges. Wang Lei was admitted to the 985 university in Nanjing as he wished. He posted a long string of thanks in the group chat. His words were humble, but every word revealed his undisguised pride.

The names of Li Xiao and Zheng Hao never appeared in the group chat.

In the waterside pavilion by Guilan, Zheng Hao had just finished his third glass of Moutai when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and saw that someone in the class group had tagged him, asking how far he had gotten on the exam.

Zheng Hao held his phone up to his eyes, squinted to see the messages in the group chat, grinned, and typed a line of text on the screen with his thumb. After finishing, he flipped the phone over and slammed it on the table, then picked up his wine glass and took another swig.

"Who asked that?"

"Who else could it be but Zhao Qiang? That kid got into the provincial sports academy and bragged about it in the group chat all morning. He probably thought we hadn't said anything, so he tagged us to test the waters. The others joined in, asking if I failed the exam and was too ashamed to show my face—damn, do you think I'm the kind of person who hides things?"

Zhou Yanhuai listened but didn't say anything more.

That's just Zheng Hao's personality. He can't keep things to himself, nor does he care to. In the past, when he failed an exam, he would announce it before anyone even asked, and he never felt ashamed.

Now that he's passed the exam, no matter how he passed, he's even less likely to hide it. As for what others think or what they say, he doesn't care at all.

But the reaction in the class group was even more enthusiastic than he had expected.

Zhao Qiang replied instantly with three question marks, followed by a long string of exclamation marks: "Huaqing Business School?! Are you serious? That school's cutoff score is at least a third-tier university, didn't you score over 200? How much money did your family donate?"

Then a few more people popped up. Someone sent a thumbs-up emoji, someone asked which campus Huaqing Business School was on, and someone even tagged the class teacher to ask if Zheng Hao was really on this year's admission list.

Zheng Hao chuckled as he peeled shrimp and muttered to himself while looking at his phone screen, "Donating money? I went through the sports scholarship program, all aboveboard. You mere mortals wouldn't understand."

Li Xiao picked up his wine glass, took a sip, and glanced at him indifferently: "Don't post your second-place finish in the provincial youth track and field shot put competition in the group chat, since only five people from the whole school signed up for it."

"Brother Xiao! Why do you always undermine me!" Zheng Hao protested verbally, but his smile widened.

The group chat was buzzing when someone suddenly tagged Li Xiao's account and asked, "Li Xiao, where did you get in? You and Zheng Hao are the only ones in our class who haven't shared their good news yet."

Zheng Hao saw the message and replied instantly, "Where else could I go? Of course, to someone from my school!"

As soon as Zheng Hao sent the message, the class group chat exploded. Zhao Qiang even sent three shocked emojis in a row, "Really? Xiao Ge is going to Huaqing Business School too? You two planned this, didn't you?!"

Then several more people appeared.

A boy who usually talks to Zheng Hao sent a message saying, "You're something else, Haozi. You even managed to fool a sports specialist," followed by a string of thumbs up.

Several girls were more curious about Li Xiao—after all, although Li Xiao didn't socialize much in class, he was handsome, rich, and usually kept a low profile like an invisible person. This contrast was always a hot topic in the girls' dormitory late-night chats.

But some people don't buy it.

Sun Lei, the math class representative, the bookworm who usually wears thick-rimmed glasses and competes with Lin Xiaoran for the top three in the class, suddenly posted a sarcastic comment in the group chat: "Sports talent? These days, if your family is rich, you can get anywhere."

After the message was sent, the group chat fell silent for several seconds, and no one dared to respond.

Everyone knew that Sun Lei's words were aimed at Zheng Hao, implying that Zheng Hao's sports talent spot was obtained through improper means. Several people who had been spamming the chat with congratulations wisely shut up, and the group chat remained silent for a good ten seconds, the atmosphere subtly awkward.

Zheng Hao leaned back in his chair, held his phone up to his eyes, and chuckled when he saw who sent the message. "Hey, isn't this our class's math whiz? He usually doesn't say a word in class except to recite answers, but today he's got the nerve to check up on my background. Does he think I stole three of his spots in a good university?"