"Nothing." Meeting Jiaojiao’s questioning gaze, Duan Xi’s expression eased a bit. He shook his head, then glanced at Rou Rou, who was sulking because the TV had shown a photo of her falling down, his eyes not looking very friendly.

Feeling the little knives in Duan Xi’s gaze, Rou Rou’s wriggling body stiffened. She squinted at him, and when she saw that he was indeed looking at her with cold eyes, she didn’t dare make any more trouble. She turned around and went back to Xiaoxue’s side to seek shelter.

In the next two days, Duan Xi’s direct-PhD spot was finalized. He went to school to do the paperwork, while Jiaojiao lugged a bunch of bags over to the Shu Family, staying three days with Little Potato—who could already call her "big sis"—and with Old Master Shu, who supposedly missed her so much his heart hurt.

September 1st.

Yuan Xiaodong arrived in Beidu with his parents, who were dropping him off at college. He was the same year as Ruan Qun. Ruan Qun had applied to Aerospace University, while Yuan Xiaodong’s grades weren’t as good, so he chose a mid-tier university’s hottest major at the moment—the same computer science department Duan Xi was in—saying he wanted to keep pace with his bro Xi.

Jiaojiao was jumping straight into junior year, and she was already more than familiar with the school. She turned down Ruan the Big Spender’s offer to drive her, and swaggered off with Duan Xi, both of them hauling big bags.

Watching her dashing little back as she left, Ruan the Big Spender felt a sharp sourness in his chest. One moment he was muttering that his little cabbage didn’t care about home, the next he was cursing that brat Duan Xi for having a wolf’s heart and being utterly no good.

Beside him, the Ruanlin Family was long used to him being like this, too annoyed to even spare him another look, and turned back into the courtyard.

In the car, Jiaojiao had her head lowered, fiddling with the dried vegetables and specialties from Xiahe Village that the Ruanlin Family had prepared for Dorm Supervisor Auntie Tang. She felt like the car had barely gone a few meters before it stopped. Puzzled, she looked up, only to see Shen Ting standing in front of them.

Duan Xi stopped the car. Shen Ting walked to the back seat, pulled the door open, and got in, the motion so practiced it was ridiculous.

After getting in, he didn’t even greet her, and went straight into chatting with Duan Xi.

This time Shen Ting was also going straight into a PhD, just like Duan Xi. Jiaojiao had even heard that he’d ditched the chemistry major he’d been studying all along and switched to the same major as Duan Xi, even choosing the same advisor. She couldn’t help asking, "Shen Ting, why did you change majors?"

Chemistry and electronic computer science—that’s a pretty big leap, isn’t it?

Shen Ting glanced at Duan Xi in the front, his eyes shining. "Got sick of it. Wanted to try something else."

Chemistry, after all, wasn’t in the same field as Duan Xi. If they wanted to truly compete, there wasn’t any good standard for comparison, so he switched majors.

Even though he’d long since let things go after being reborn, it wasn’t until he cleared up the misunderstanding last time and ran into Duan Xi that his fighting spirit really reignited. It was like life suddenly didn’t seem so boring anymore.

Jiaojiao later also learned about that steamed-mugwort-cake misunderstanding from the previous life. She herself didn’t remember anything like that, but there was a period of time when she’d actually been pretty scared that he might be into her.

But as it turned out, she’d really overthought it.

This man, never mind liking her—he practically outright ignored her every time, and his mouth was vicious too!

And what she disliked the most was the way his eyes lit up every time he looked at her Xi-gege. That bright, shining look was really infuriating.

Thinking of this, Jiaojiao puffed out her cheeks and pouted on purpose, mocking him: "Where’s your car? Sent it in for maintenance again?"

Because whenever Shen Ting hitched a ride with them, nine times out of ten that was his excuse.