Chapter 292

In the finals of the Jingnan Province college freshman public speaking competition, the first place winner was surprisingly not a student from Qingmeng University, but rather from a private university.

It was shocking.

However, Enhua University had always promoted itself as having many foreign teachers and strong faculty. No one had believed them before, but now quite a few people were inquiring about Enhua University after this incident.

Enhua did have a comparatively large number of foreign teachers. Compared to other universities, they had an absolute advantage in terms of the number of foreign teachers, with each class assigned one or two foreign teachers. Things like English corners, while ambiguous to those unfamiliar, gave off an air of mystery and intrigue.

Even Qingmeng University's own students were a bit confused. They had assumed the first place winner would be Tang Baolin. After all, Tang Baolin had been the MC at the freshman gala, speaking fluent Chinese and English, especially articulate, with a long face. They did not expect the winner would be a student from Enhua.

And it happened at their home court, so they could not even claim unfairness. Out of curiosity, some people went to check out the competition video on the school website, leaving them with nothing more to say. Watching the video and listening to the other student’s speech left them inexplicably moved to tears.

Tragedies always seem to have more power and leave a deeper impression than comedies.

Additionally, the girl standing on the stage in the video was especially beautiful, with an aura distinctly cooler than Tang Baolin’s sweet and delicate beauty. If Tang Baolin resembled the girl-next-door type that everyone had a first love crush on, the girl in the video was more like the type of girl who would steal your heart, then break it.

Some curious people even went to find information on this dark horse champion. According to the competition program, she was the women’s 200m freestyle champion of Jingnan Province. This was already mind-blowing by itself. At first glance, people wondered if Enhua also recruited varsity athletes. They needed varsity athletes just to get into Enhua University? Then how bad must their academic scores be...

In contrast, Qingmeng University did actually recruit varsity athletes.

Students could use their athletic talents to make up for lacking cultural course scores. But this girl was also the women’s category record breaker in the marathon this year. She excelled in calligraphy and singing, comparable to students at Qingmeng University in every aspect.

On the bus ride back after the competition, Xiao Qi felt rather tired and rested with her eyes half-open, half-asleep.

She heard a sudden, abrupt mechanical voice next to her ear: “The host has opened her heart and shared her growth story, moving countless people, spreading positive energy, and harvesting 899 sincere tears. She is rewarded with a chance to revisit a dream from her life. Would you like to use it now?”

She seemed to have fallen asleep yet also awake, hazily nodding her head.

She had a long, long dream in which she unexpectedly saw her past self, still muddling along aimlessly after failing the college entrance exam.

To allow her to attend university, her parents gritted their teeth and borrowed money from everywhere, eventually scraping together enough tuition for her to attend Enhua University. She was even more undeserving than Wei Cheng, clearly very poor yet too proud to admit it. Because appearance-wise, she had always believed herself to be better looking, she started dating a boy she knew from the student union. She did not apply herself in her studies, and the boy came from a well-off family, his father an important official in Fucheng, so she was always careful to restrain her emotions. However, he soon grew tired of her and they broke up in the first summer vacation of their freshman year. Every year, her expensive tuition forced her parents to borrow money everywhere. As a result, her temper grew increasingly gloomy and pessimistic. During summer and winter breaks, she worked odd jobs outside but did not earn much money. She just muddled along this way until graduation.

After graduation, relying on the reputation of Enhua University, she still could not find a good job. By then, Enhua University’s prestige had diminished because the founder passed away when she was in her third year. The management became chaotic and the school declined rapidly as people panicked. Rumor had it that the successor wanted to divide up the campus land and sell it off because he did not want to stay in the country. In Xiao Qi’s senior year, the number of admitted new students dropped from over ten thousand to just over one thousand.

Xiao Qi left Lian City and went to Magic City where she rented a room with some other people and found a job as a cosmetics store clerk. So many years after graduation, she still had not paid off her student loans, let alone started repaying the relatives she had borrowed money from. As a result, she did not dare to return home. But what she never could have imagined was that by the time she returned, her mother would be gone. Her mother had always had a slight cough that she never took care of. The high altitude and poor air quality of Gumula Village made respiratory issues a norm. She kept coughing and eventually the pain felt abnormal so she went in for an examination. It was already late-stage lung cancer.

She passed very rapidly in less than half a year. During that half year, what was Xiao Qi doing? She had finally entered into a formal relationship, relying on her decent looks. Their relationship was turbulent with many breakups and makeups. It consumed her energy and wore down her spirit. She wanted to marry the man. He owned an apartment and had a stable job, but he always gave her vague responses, sometimes treating her very well, other times very cold. Later he claimed it was because his mother looked down on Xiao Qi for being an outsider from the countryside.

After attending her mother’s funeral without even staying to accompany her suddenly aged, limping father, she returned, determined to break up with the man. But he was even faster to act—because they had been out of contact, he had already found a new girlfriend during that period. His mother had introduced a friend’s daughter and they were already preparing for marriage with a date set and everything.

Xiao Qi cried, cried until she started laughing, laughed until she cried again, weeping bitterly over this terrible life and everything in it. So full of despair, that despair within despair, she felt as if life would always remain stuck at rock bottom, sinking ever deeper into the abyss.

The despair in the dream was so intense she felt her entire body convulse in pain.

Did the dream version of herself try hard enough? She had made attempts to study hard, work properly, live well, but she could never grasp the crux of the matter. She remained forever disoriented, forever missing her chance.

As the bus hit a large bump, Xiao Qi awoke, still feeling somewhat groggy.

She wiped at her wet face.

Her heart was still beating rapidly from lingering fear.

Outside the window, dark mountains surrounded them on all sides. They had arrived at that large bend in the road. The interior of the bus was dark. Her roommates all seemed to be asleep. Honey’s head bobbed limply with the swaying of the bus.

Xiao Qi took a deep breath. Fortunately, it was only a dream.

Yet that extremely vivid and detailed dream which struck such a deep emotional chord made her feel frightened. Even now, she felt a tingling numbness in her hands and feet, as if still immersed in that despairing mood.

After rounding this bend and continuing a bit further, the bright lights and lake views of the city would come into sight. They were close to Enhua University.

The dazzling lights slowly emerged, growing ever brighter. The bus dropped Xiao Qi and her companions off at their dorm entrance.

Their supervisor reminded them to rest well as he boarded the bus again to return to the faculty housing.

The four girls disembarked and returned to their dorm room, collapsing onto their beds feeling rather tired.

None felt like even checking their cell phones.

Still, Xiao Qi got up to change and go for a run.

Lying on her bed, Honey stuck out her head and asked: “Aren’t you tired? Why not take today to rest? You’ve brought honor to our school, you should celebrate properly!”

As Xiao Qi walked to the door, she casually ruffled Honey’s hair. In the dream, Honey’s father had died unexpectedly in their sophomore year due to binge drinking. With the factory bankrupt and swarms of creditors coming to collect, she also ended up eating white rice broth with Xiao Qi and Wei Cheng, gathered in their dorm room no longer worrying about dieting.

No longer so lazy and carefree, laughing merrily without a care in the world.

“I still need to go. If I miss a day I feel off. You guys shower first. By the time I get back from my run, it’ll be my turn!” Xiao Qi said with a smile.

Jogging into the night breeze, the cool air also cleared her head, dispelling the dreamscape. Unlike usual, she did not immediately forget it—instead, it seemed to lodge itself in a corner of her heart.

One grayed-out tab disappeared from the interface.

She continued running, sprinting forward.

She did not look back. She did not glance behind her.