The moment she walked in, one of the girls openly looked her up and down. Linlin felt uncomfortable and frowned.
“Which major are you in?”
“Aircraft Design.”
“Oh…” The girl pursed her lips, and the words she had been about to say suddenly caught in her throat.
Aircraft Design was one of the university’s flagship majors. She herself was in Political Science, and had worked incredibly hard to get admitted.
Back home in the hutongs, she had been the pride of everyone around her. But once she arrived at the university, she found that nearly everyone had better grades than she did, and most of her sense of superiority vanished.
Still, that wasn’t important. She had just looked around the room.
The other girls in the dorm were all from out of town, and their families were not particularly well-off.
Except for the girl who had just arrived.
Linlin was wearing a fitted georgette dress. It had been a gift from her second aunt by marriage, passed on to her by her grandparents.
It was the latest fashion, something Su Jue had bought for the three girls in the family while traveling on business. Even very few girls in the capital owned dresses like it. Anyone could tell it wasn’t cheap.
And then there was her face…
The weather was scorching, and Linlin had just come in from outside. After being kissed by the sun, her skin looked even paler, while her eyeliner appeared especially dark and her lips especially red. She looked as though she were wearing heavy makeup.
Sun Lina leaned toward her and stared at Linlin. “Where did you buy your makeup? Are we even allowed to wear makeup at school?”
Linlin turned her face away in discomfort. “I’m not wearing makeup.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe it or not, I don’t care.”
Linlin was beginning to feel annoyed. Her parents had encouraged her to make lots of friends at university, but now she didn’t want any friends at all.
Seeing that Linlin refused to admit it, Sun Lina rolled her eyes inwardly and continued, “Hey, classmate, I’m not used to sleeping on the top bunk. Trade beds with me.”
Sun Lina had been the last one to arrive at the dormitory, and all the beds had already been claimed.
She had originally thought Dong Xiaomin would be the easiest to bully, but Dong Xiaomin had refused. When Sun Lina pressed her, Dong Xiaomin simply stopped responding.
None of the others were willing to switch either, so Sun Lina had finally come to Linlin.
Linlin had no intention of giving in. “I’m not switching.”
There had never been any rule assigning the beds to particular people. Whoever arrived first and made up a bed was the one who got it.
When Sun Lina saw that Linlin refused, her face immediately fell, as if someone had offended her.
The other girls remained silent. None of them wanted to get involved and invite trouble.
Dong Xiaomin looked at Linlin, seeming as though she wanted to say something but couldn’t.
Linlin walked over to her and handed her the lunchbox in her hands. “My mother asked me to give this to you. No need to thank me.”
Before Dong Xiaomin could refuse, Linlin had already picked up her washbasin and gone to the bathhouse.
Linlin had had a close friend back in high school. Sister Nannan was a year older than her, but they had been in the same grade and often played together.
Now that she was at a new school, with neither her parents nor any close friends around, it was Linlin’s first time living with other people. Experiencing such blatant hostility left her feeling deeply upset.
She cried as she washed, secretly swearing to herself that from tomorrow onward, she would become nothing but a studying machine. She would never make friends again!
The island had been Linlin’s own paradise.
Because of her parents’ connections, and because she had always been an outstanding child, Linlin had grown up surrounded by kindness.
Though the young girl had been admitted to such an excellent university, she was still a child raised in a greenhouse. When confronted with malice, all she could do was punish the other person by ignoring her.
After bathing and washing her clothes, Linlin dried her tears and prepared to go to bed.
Sun Lina had been secretly watching her the entire time.
She refused to believe that Linlin wasn’t wearing makeup. How could anyone naturally look like that?
But…
Sun Lina stared at Linlin as she emerged from the bathhouse and was momentarily stunned.
Linlin had just finished bathing and was wearing nothing but a loose nightdress.
Her wet black hair hung over her shoulders, droplets of water gathering at the ends before sliding down the delicate line of her jaw and disappearing into the hollow of her neck.
Linlin had just finished crying. Moisture clung to her thick, dark lashes, while her cheeks glowed with a smooth, translucent flush. Even the fine skin of her shoulders seemed to radiate a soft light.
She casually lifted a hand and swept back the hair hanging in front of her. Her fingers were slender and pale, and even such a simple movement was beautiful enough to make it impossible to look away.
Sun Lina swallowed the cutting remark on the tip of her tongue and turned away.
Dong Xiaomin hesitantly walked over and asked in a soft voice, “Were you crying?”
“No. How could I be?” Linlin put on a brave front. “What is there to cry about?”
Dong Xiaomin pointed to the corners of her eyes. “Your eyes are all red.”
Linlin covered Dong Xiaomin’s eyes with one hand. “I wasn’t crying. I just got water in my eyes while washing my hair.”
Dong Xiaomin’s entire view was blocked. Then she caught the scent rising from Linlin’s body.
She swallowed. “All right. You weren’t crying.”
Watching this scene, Sun Lina suddenly felt uncomfortable. She raised her voice and said, “Where is everyone from? We’ll be living together for the next four years, so why don’t we introduce ourselves?”
Everyone thought that made sense and began introducing themselves.
There were eight girls in the dormitory. Sun Lina was the only one from the capital; the others were all from provincial capitals.
That was the way things were. Educational resources always leaned toward more developed places, and it was rare for someone from a poor family to rise to the top.
When it was Dong Xiaomin’s turn, her voice immediately grew quieter. “I’m from Shahe Town in Wuyuan City.”
“Never heard of it.” Sun Lina gave a mocking laugh. “Why not tell us which village you’re from too? Just name the province.”
Dong Xiaomin pressed her lips together. “Shuofang Province.”
“You’re from the countryside, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
Dong Xiaomin lowered her head further and further.
Linlin took her hand and said happily, “I’m from the countryside too. We’re the same.”
Dong Xiaomin looked up at her, somewhat disbelieving.
But Linlin seemed delighted to have found something in common with Dong Xiaomin, and grew animated. “It’s true. Though the village I’m from is different from yours. There isn’t much farmland back home. Most people have to rely on fishing to trade for grain.”
The others grew curious and turned their attention toward them.
Linlin truly didn’t look like someone from the countryside. People in those days tended to have a romanticized view of the capital, and to the other girls, Linlin looked even more like a girl from Beijing than Sun Lina did.
Sun Lina curled her lip. “Your hometown must be very poor, then?”
Linlin had been sharing the local specialties of their respective hometowns with Dong Xiaomin. At those words, she turned to Sun Lina and wrinkled her nose.
“You’re so rude. You’re giving people from the capital a bad name.”
Sun Lina’s face flushed. “What did you say?”
Linlin looked her straight in the eye. “You’re the only person from the capital in our dormitory. That means you represent the capital now. If you speak rudely, you’re giving everyone from the capital a bad name.”
Sun Lina’s chest heaved with anger. She wanted to argue back, but she had the uncomfortable feeling that Linlin had hit the nail on the head—as though her behavior had made people think that capital residents were uncivilized.
In the end, she could only glare at Linlin.
She kicked the leg of the bed, picked up her washbasin, and went into the bathroom.
The moment Sun Lina was gone, Linlin’s eyes turned red again.
Dong Xiaomin grew so anxious that she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t dare touch Linlin and could only fidget helplessly.
“Why are you crying? Didn’t you say you won?”
Linlin took the handkerchief from beneath her pillow and wiped her tears. Then she folded it neatly and set it aside. Only after doing all that did she sniffle slowly and say, “I can cry even if I won…”
The other girls were all stunned.
What an adorable little treasure!
