The corners of Linlin’s lips lifted slightly. “It should be possible.”
Su Li gazed at her admiringly. “Sis, you’re amazing.”
Linlin patted him on the head. “If you study hard, you can be just as amazing.”
Su Li wasn’t stupid; he just had trouble concentrating. His grades had always hovered around the middle of the class.
The main reason was that his older brother and sister were both too outstanding. His teachers liked to use them as examples, so as their younger brother, Su Li had always lived under the glow of their achievements.
He had always been carefree. Whenever his teachers sighed and said he wasn’t as clever as his brother and sister, Su Li never took it to heart.
When he did poorly on a test, his parents never scolded him or insisted that he rank among the top students in his class like his siblings.
Su Li had always felt that there was nothing wrong with getting mediocre grades.
He was happy every day, and no worry stayed in his head for more than a minute.
Jiang Chengzhou had suffered hardships as a child, and Linlin had also gone through several periods when there was only a mother at home and no father.
Su Li, on the other hand, had grown up with both parents and his older brother and sister around him. Everything had been perfect for as long as he could remember.
Different environments had shaped Su Li into someone who neither fought nor competed for anything. Since he lacked nothing, he had little ambition, either.
But he wanted to ride on an airplane!
How impressive would that be?
Su Li’s mind was completely free of lofty ideals or grand ambitions. Mostly, he just wanted to ride on an airplane.
“I’ll definitely study hard!”
Su Li stared at the airplane displayed on the athletic field without blinking.
Jiang Chengzhou found it amusing, though he also wondered whether Su Li’s enthusiasm would last longer than three minutes this time.
Female dormitory. No boys allowed.
Linlin’s major, aircraft design, had only three female students among the entire freshman class.
Ultimately, this was because society expected girls to choose majors that offered stability and comfort, such as education, healthcare, or foreign languages.
Over time, society had developed a stereotyped view of the differences between men and women in science and engineering.
Perhaps only when girls stopped limiting themselves and the proportion of women in science and engineering caught up would this stereotype gradually disappear—and then be passed on to, and influence, the next generation of women.
When Lin Zhilan and Shen Man accompanied Linlin to her dormitory, one of her roommates had already arrived.
The room wasn’t as large as Linlin’s room on the island. Four iron bunk beds stood inside, while two desks had been pushed together in the middle to make one large study table.
The lower bunk by the window had already been made. A girl with two long braids was standing with her back to the door, hanging a towel on the metal frame at the head of the bed.
Linlin knocked softly on the door. “Hello.”
The girl spun around and seemed startled when she saw them.
“My name is Linlin—Lin as in the character made up of two trees, and Lin as in linlang,” Linlin said with a smile. “This is my mother, and this is my older sister.”
Lin Zhilan and Shen Man also greeted the girl politely.
The girl opened and closed her mouth a few times before finally speaking in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s hum. “My name is Dong Xiaomin. I’m majoring in physics.”
After saying that, she lowered her head again and hurriedly finished hanging up her towel before turning around to tidy her bed.
Linlin exchanged a glance with her mother and shrugged. Then they began quietly putting away their things.
Once the bed was made, Shen Man took a pear from her bag and pressed it into Linlin’s hand. She nodded toward Dong Xiaomin and whispered, “Go give it to your roommate.”
Shen Man had spent four years at university and knew how important it was to get along with one’s roommates.
Linlin would inevitably need help at school. With her parents away, she would have to rely on her classmates.
Even though Linlin would only be living at school for half a month, there was certainly no harm in making friends with her roommates.
Lin Zhilan listened from the side and smiled helplessly.
Linlin’s older brothers and sisters protected her like she was a duckling. Sometimes, they didn’t even leave anything for her mother to worry about.
Linlin walked over and held out the pear to Dong Xiaomin. “Xiaomin, this is for you.”
Dong Xiaomin froze for a moment before accepting it. Then she hurriedly took a handful of dried dates from her bag and offered them to Linlin in return. “Here. They’re clean.”
Linlin’s eyes curved into a smile as she accepted one and ate it immediately.
“They’re so sweet. Mom, Sister Manman, you should try some too.”
Dong Xiaomin’s face flushed. She didn’t dare look at Lin Zhilan and the others.
She came from a small mountain village in the northwest where water was scarce year-round. She had been admitted to Capital Aviation University because of an excellent teacher—an elderly man who had once been sent down to work in their village.
The old man had taught there before returning to the city after being politically rehabilitated a few years earlier. Dong Xiaomin was exceptionally intelligent and had a gift for physics. The old man couldn’t bear to let such a promising student go to waste, so he had urged her to study over the years and mailed her learning materials.
He had also recommended Capital Aviation University to her. Otherwise, she would never even have heard of the school in her remote hometown.
This was her first time in a big city, and compared with her home, it was so prosperous that the difference was impossible to describe.
Dong Xiaomin had never been outgoing to begin with, and now she was even more reserved.
She had never seen a girl as beautiful as Linlin, nor had she seen a mother and daughter as attractive as Lin Zhilan and Shen Man. Dong Xiaomin felt too embarrassed even to look at them.
Before long, Su Li managed to sneak in by virtue of his age. He was also carrying two thermos flasks.
“Sis, Brother told me to tell you that if you want hot water, you have to go to the boiler room in the next building. It’s open from six to seven-thirty in the morning and from five to six-thirty in the afternoon. There won’t be any water if you’re late.”
“Got it.”
Lin Zhilan pulled Su Li over to her side. “How did you get in here?”
Su Li grinned. “One of the teachers downstairs let me in.”
Su Lang and several other boys were waiting downstairs, and they had already become a spectacle outside the women’s dormitory.
The dorm supervisor had reluctantly agreed to let them enter, but Su Lang said it wouldn’t be appropriate, so they had finally allowed only Su Li to go up and pass on the message.
“Then sit here and don’t run around.”
“Okay.”
The moment Su Li agreed, he went over to Dong Xiaomin. “Are you my sister’s classmate?”
Dong Xiaomin glanced toward Linlin and nervously tugged at the edge of her faded shirt. “Yes.”
“Then you must be very clever too. Will you be able to ride on an airplane in the future?” Su Li blurted out.
Dong Xiaomin shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“You definitely will. There are airplanes displayed all over your school.”
Su Li was naturally outgoing. Even when Dong Xiaomin answered him with only a few monosyllables, he carried on the conversation by himself.
Dong Xiaomin didn’t even need to respond. The dormitory soon became lively with Su Li doing all the talking.
Linlin secretly laughed. Once Su Li went to university, she was sure her parents and siblings wouldn’t have to worry about him making friends.
After they finished arranging the bed, Lin Zhilan prepared to take the children out for a meal. Since the other students hadn’t arrived yet, she called to Dong Xiaomin, “Xiaomin, would you like to come eat with us?”
Dong Xiaomin hurriedly waved her hands. “No, no, I’m not hungry yet.”
She looked as though she had been frightened. Lin Zhilan couldn’t bring herself to pressure her, so she took Linlin and the others outside.
When Linlin returned to the dormitory that afternoon, several more students had already arrived.
