Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 21 - 20 Who Told You I Was Fine?

Yan Yan and Qi Yi, when they were in high school at Wenzhou High School, there wasn’t really anything like a class for top students.

The performance of each class was quite similar, with the only exception being the class Yan Yan and Qi Yi were in—it was especially poor.

Their class, Class Four, remained at the bottom in terms of average score for the entire grade even until the senior year mock exams; they had never risen to second-to-last.

Class teacher Teacher Ge was never anxious about this matter. A week before the college entrance exams, she even organized a trip for the class, saying that it would be difficult to have the opportunity to gather together like this after graduation.

Teacher Ge was a distinguished teacher and an outstanding class leader. The onlookers all thought that Teacher Ge’s lifelong reputation would be ruined by Yan Yan’s class.

But the results of the college entrance exams took everyone by surprise.

In Yan Yan’s year, Wenzhou High School had eight science classes and two liberal arts classes.

Class Four of senior year, which had always ranked last in science, became famous in one fell swoop after the exams.

Three students went to Qinghua and Peking University, sixteen to Zhejiang University, and five to Fudan and Tongji.

Most of the remaining students were also spread across prestigious universities like the University of Science and Technology of China, Nanjing University, Dalian University of Technology, and Harbin Institute of Technology.

They leapt to the top of the grade, with not a single person failing to get into a key university.

So truly, Yan Yan felt that it was quite average to have gotten into Xiamen University; from Yan Yan’s perspective, it was hard to imagine that such a genuine statement would make her the target of everyone’s criticism in her first year of university.

Although all outsiders were shocked, the students of Class Four were well aware that this outcome was inevitable.

The reason Class Four achieved such results was not that every student performed beyond their abilities but that Class Four was originally a "basket class."

Teacher Ge had a reputation, and most students who came in through "unconventional means" were assigned to "Teacher Ge’s class" at the request of their parents.

The so-called unconventional means was not about paying their way in, but rather they were special admissions to Wenzhou High School.

Apart from the main group of Class Four, who scored more than 600 in the entrance exams, there were about a dozen special admission students whose scores were less than half of the main group’s, constantly dragging down the class average.

But the special admissions of Class Four were "genuine goods at a fair price without any water added." These students, who usually lowered everyone’s average, not only made Class Four shine in various cultural and sports competitions at the school.

While the main force was still struggling for the college entrance exams, the special admission students had already completed the recommendation process.

And they were all admitted to prestigious schools: Central Music College, Central Dance Academy, Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Fine Arts, and "Central Sports College." (note 1)

It seemed that you’d be embarrassed to greet anyone if the school you were recommended for didn’t have the word "national" in its title.

Only in a class like Class Four could there be such a sharp polarization where the good students didn’t look down on the poor students, and the poor students didn’t envy the good students.

The class atmosphere was so good that not even Yan Yan was targeted.

...

All these memories were vivid in her mind, but Yan Yan still couldn’t understand. She thought Qi Yi’s logic was problematic:

"I guess I haven’t hung out with your kind of super-intelligent non-humans for too long; I still can’t comprehend why you would control your test scores—it’s not like you’re worried about them not being high enough. Are you all just bored with nothing better to do? Which school would reject you because your scores are too high?"

"It’s not that the schools would reject us, but if you score close to 700, Peking University and Qinghua’s admission offices will come knocking one after the other to recruit students, and they’ll even guarantee that the majors we apply for will admit us. If the parents find out about this, it’ll be hard to get by. In the end, I was forced to choose Peking University," Qi Yi explained Yan Yan’s doubts.

Peking University and Qinghua fighting over students! Well, that’s not something normal people can understand.

Qi Yi’s college entrance exam score was 696.

In the year 2007, when Yan Yan and Qi Yi took the exams, Zhejiang Province’s top science score was 699, just one point shy of 700 and only three points higher than Qi Yi, who hadn’t been particularly driven to study hard.

"No matter what, you first got into Peking University and then went on to Stanford; that’s definitely the best arrangement," Yan Yan forced a smile.

Yan Yan knew in her heart that even if she was aware of Qi Yi’s desire to go to Zhejiang University, she probably would have still chosen to break up at that time, after all, Qi Yi’s mother wasn’t wrong. Someone like Qi Yi should be going to Peking University or Qinghua.

"Who told you I was doing well?" Qi Yi asked seriously.

Who else could have told her? After Qi Yi went to university, he stopped contacting his friends, so apart from the rumors such as those from Stanford’s announcements, naturally, nobody would know whether Qi Yi was doing well or not at Peking University.

But the rumors about Qi Yi were always positive.

Now that Qi Yi was asking this, Yan Yan started to wonder, maybe Qi Yi wasn’t doing well at Peking University?

How could that be?

"Do I need someone else to tell me that? Our Wenzhou High School’s handsome and charming school hunk, Qi Yi—not to mention anything else—just based on your looks alone, wherever you go you’d be the talk of the school, stunning scores of girls. Plus, with your super popularity, if you’re not doing well then who is?" Yan Yan felt that their conversation was getting too oppressive, so she tried to lighten the mood.

"I haven’t even dazzled you, where am I supposed to find those ’scores’?" Qi Yi asked in annoyance.

Qi Yi was not playing along, and Yan Yan’s attempt to lighten the mood failed.

The cliff box at the Eureka88 observation deck is a popular place for marriage proposals. Right when Qi Yi and Yan Yan arrived, they had encountered a couple.

Qi Yi and Yan Yan had entered the Skydeck in high spirits but left with an awkward atmosphere.

"Do you have any plans for tomorrow?" Yan Yan asked Qi Yi while they were getting into the elevator.

"I’ll follow your plans," Qi Yi answered succinctly.

So succinctly that Yan Yan was still baffled as they exited the elevator.

They had clearly bumped into each other by chance, but why had it turned into him specifically coming to see her?

Qi Yi’s recent reply, once again, made it seem likely that what he had mentioned earlier about coming to Melbourne specifically to see her, might actually be true.

It was the possibility of that truth that left Yan Yan a bit taken aback.

Let’s say that when they met today, Qi Yi wasn’t prepared to say anything in particular upon seeing Yan Yan.

But at the very least, he knew he was there to see her and knew she lived in Eureka.

The one completely unprepared for their encounter turned out to be Yan Yan herself.

It wasn’t until Qi Yi escorted Yan Yan to the residents’ elevator at Eureka that she came to her senses and said, "Then I’ll look for you tomorrow morning."

After saying that, Yan Yan entered the elevator somewhat absentmindedly.

But Qi Yi reached out to stop the elevator doors from closing.

...

Note 1: Central Sports College has long since been renamed to Beijing Sports University, but some people still refer to it as Central Sports College to signify its status in sports education.