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

Zheng Hao didn't tolerate his behavior and retorted without hesitation. He had never been teased like this before, and he felt he had to fight back to maintain his public image.

"Hey Sun, stop being so sour. You go to your top university and become a high-level employee in a big company, while I'll go to my third-tier university and go back to Jiangyang County to inherit my dad's few run-down building materials markets and KTV. We both have bright futures, so why are you worrying about this? Or do you want me to buy Huaqing Business School and hire you as a visiting professor?"

Sun Lei felt a surge of excitement rush to his head when he saw the text Zheng Hao posted that blatantly flaunted his wealth.

"Vulgar. He's nothing but a spendthrift. His family spent who knows how much money to get him into a lousy third-tier university. What's there to be proud of?"

Sun Lei cursed Zheng Hao in his heart. When he was in school, he looked down on students like Zheng Hao who relied on their good fathers, did nothing all day, slept in class, and urinated after class.

In his opinion, these people didn't deserve to go to school and were wasting their time. Although Zheng Hao slept during class and never bothered him, he still disliked Zheng Hao.

So what if he has a good father? So what if he was born into a good family? What else is he? What does he have left?!

He originally thought that this college entrance examination would be a great slap in Zheng Hao's face, making him understand what it means for knowledge to change destiny, and making him realize that a poor student like him was destined not to get into university. However, he, who always competed with Lin Xiaoran and class monitor Wang Lei for the top three in the class, ended up falling far behind. This time, he didn't even score 600 points in the college entrance examination, only scoring 598.

This score might earn him some encouragement from a teacher in a regular class, but for this top student who constantly talks about Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan, and Shanghai Jiao Tong Universities and considers himself a chosen one, it's nothing short of a resounding slap in the face.

He had originally hoped to use this college entrance examination to completely widen the class gap between himself and these spoiled brats, and to smash Zheng Hao's face with an admission letter from a top university, crushing Zheng Hao's ridiculous sense of superiority based on his father's generation.

But reality is like a cold, absurd black comedy. Not only did he fail to go to the highest hall of learning he dreamed of and study with the person he liked, but he also had to watch helplessly as the academic failure he looked down on the most, who couldn't even get into a university, actually got into a university.

Although it was just an ordinary third-tier university with tuition fees of tens of thousands of yuan a year, he still felt deeply humiliated.

It felt like he had painstakingly climbed stairs for over a decade, finally reaching the top floor after all that effort, and was about to swagger over to the people at the bottom when he discovered that they had landed in a helicopter on his private helipad and were even mocking him for not being graceful enough when he climbed the stairs.

Although Zheng Hao didn't say anything, the contempt he felt was sharper than any words. He read Zheng Hao's words over and over again, each word like a knife, cutting into his pitiful self-esteem.

"You used your father's hard-earned money to buy a diploma from a dubious university, what's there to be proud of?"

"When Uncle Zheng gets old, with your useless and ignorant mind, you'll squander the Zheng family's fortune sooner or later!"

……

Unfortunately, he only dared to think these words in his mind and didn't dare to actually click send.

In just a short while, dozens of messages had been sent to the class group chat.

Zhao Qiang tried to lighten the mood with jokes, while Wang Lei, after making a few modest remarks, began to discuss the climate and dormitory conditions in Nanjing with Lin Xiaoran.

Zheng Hao and Li Xiao's names disappeared, as if the conflict had been nothing more than a pebble thrown into water, the ripples dissipating before the surface returned to calm. But Sun Lei knew something was different.

He left the class group chat, clicked on Lin Xiaoran's profile picture, and saw the chat history stopped at the long, impassioned accusation he had sent the night before, and the three words the other party had replied with.

He read that chat log over and over again, until her smiling expression became increasingly blurry in his eyes, less and less like comforting words, and more like she was just brushing off an insignificant stranger.

He originally planned to confess his feelings to Lin Xiaoran as soon as the results came out.

In his script, everything should fall into place naturally. Based on his usual mock exam scores, he couldn't guarantee admission to Tsinghua or Peking University, but admission to the best 985 university in the province was definitely a sure thing.

When I receive my acceptance letter, I'll take a picture and send it to her with the caption, "Our universities aren't far apart, so we can go back to Jiangyang together on weekends." It won't seem deliberate, but it will still let her know how I feel.

He even wrote several versions of his opening remarks on draft paper, repeatedly revising the wording, and finally chose the most restrained one. He didn't want her to think he was too eager, but he was also afraid that if he was too subtle, she wouldn't be able to tell.

But now, everything he did has become a piece of waste paper. What right does a loser like him, who can only go to an ordinary 211 university, have to say "Let's go home together this weekend" to a high-achieving girl who is about to go to a top 985 university?

He no longer had the confidence to stand in front of the same school gate as her.

……

Looking at Sun Lei, who had completely disappeared from the chat group, Zheng Hao felt a little confused. He had only gotten into a third-tier university, not some 985 or 211 university, so why was he so jealous?

"Is the matter resolved?"

Zhou Yanhuai swallowed the steamed sea bass in his mouth and glanced at Zheng Hao.

"I guess it's settled. We exchanged a couple of words and then it went quiet. With Sun Lei's mentality, he's probably still agonizing over this at home. Honestly, Lao Zhou, I'm just baffled. I didn't do anything to him from beginning to end, so why does he dislike me so much? I'm from a third-tier university, and he's from a 211 or 985 university. By any measure, he wins, but he's the one who broke down first."

"You still don't understand? In Sun Lei's worldview, grades are the only ticket to transcend social classes. He thinks that by scoring higher than you, he can trample you underfoot and satisfy his pathetic sense of superiority. But you just opened your mouth and told him directly that the finish line he desperately wanted to cross was just the starting line of your family's building materials market. You're killing him with your spirit, you rat."

Zheng Hao seemed to understand only half of what he was saying, and dismissively curled his lip. "Tsk, these bookworms are just being pretentious. They think it's inspiring to give up a perfectly good family business and go begging on the streets instead of working hard?"

"Look at the others, has anyone said anything about me? It's just that Sun Lei who didn't do well on the test, and now he's finding fault with me. He's really spoiled."

"He didn't do well on the exam, so he needs to vent to someone. He can blame the questions for being too difficult, blame the proctor for walking too loudly, blame someone like you who sleeps in class for getting into university. He can't blame himself. Blaming himself means he's already lost. Your comment about everyone having a bright future really hurts, it's more painful than cursing him a hundred times."

"Well, I wasn't wrong either." Zheng Hao chuckled, picked up his wine glass, and stopped worrying about it, continuing to drink.