Chapter 16: Class Monitor Su

After Qin Yun graduated, he naturally had less contact with his classmates and friends. Especially with those classmates who had left Beijing—they became people who only existed in his WeChat Moments.

After he got married, at Song Ya's request, he didn't even keep in touch with any of his former female classmates. Even if there were replies on his Moments, he would just pretend he hadn't seen them. Because once Song Ya saw them, it would inevitably earn him a round of complaints and nagging.

After a long time, he got used to it.

Apart from a few friends in Beijing, his former friends had basically become nothing more than memories of the past.

Thinking about it now, he really had been out of his mind.

What kind of damned life had these three years been? He couldn't believe he had actually managed to endure it. Surely it wasn't because he loved Song Ya too much?

Qin Yun shook his head hard—impossible, absolutely impossible.

He must have been hexed.

Su Huan was his college class monitor. She was beautiful, had a great figure, and her grades were outstandingly excellent. On campus, she was a campus celebrity. Right after graduation, she entered Alibaba through the campus recruitment. A few years on, judging from the content she occasionally posted on her Moments, she had already been promoted to P8—almost climbing one step every year.

Compared to her, Qin Yun, muddling along in Beijing, was actually somewhat inferior, whether in experience or money. Still, he didn't think he was worse than her in his professional field. In fact, because he had always been on the front line, he could be certain his technical skills were definitely better than Su Huan's.

In college, he had always gotten along very well with Su Huan. For a period, because of experiments, they had even been quite close, and classmates had spread rumors that they were dating.

However, neither of them had actually entertained such a thought—at least, he hadn't.

After all, in his third year, he had gotten together with Song Ya. Today's Song Ya aside, back in college, her looks and figure were both very outstanding. With a girlfriend like that, even if she had some personality issues, he hadn't paid them much mind.

When it came to romance, to put it nicely he was devoted; to put it bluntly, he was hopelessly stubborn.

Back then, he accepted every unreasonable demand Song Ya made without refusal—his eyes held only her. Later, the daily grind of married life hit him like someone taking an iron rod and smashing it hard against the back of his skull.

After the sharp pain passed, all that remained was a mess of wreckage and a broken self.

Lost in thought, Qin Yun casually tapped open Su Huan's Moments. The most recent photo was a group shot of her with a bride and groom—she stood in the middle, the bride and groom on either side, smiles on their faces, eyes full of light.

"Looks like she's doing pretty well."

Qin Yun casually scrolled through and found that Su Huan really liked selfies—one out of every three Moments posts had a selfie of hers.

Although she really did look like a flower, she still seemed as narcissistic as in her college days. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and before he knew it, he had scrolled through nearly a year of Su Huan's Moments.

Just as he was looking, his phone suddenly buzzed.

He exited Su Huan's Moments and saw the message was from Su Huan herself.

"I'm going back to my parents' place with my cousin right now. Don't you dare sneak off early, or I won't let you off easy."

Qin Yun replied: "Don't worry. It's just one dinner—I can still afford that."

"Oh… Your Song Ya isn't docking your pocket money anymore? I heard that now even slightly bigger expenses have to be reported and approved by her."

"……"

Qin Yun thought to himself, who has such a big mouth, spilling my private details? From what he remembered, he had only complained about it a few times when getting together with Shen Hu and a few other friends who had stayed in Beijing.

He thought about it—since she'd find out eventually anyway, he couldn't be bothered to hide it. Besides, he didn't think it was anything to be ashamed of.

"I'm divorced!"

Su Huan, sitting in the back seat, saw the message and her expression couldn't help but change.

Qin Yun is divorced? This……

She found a few classmates who were still in Beijing in her contacts and sent out a group message: "Do you guys know about Qin Yun's situation?"

Before long, Shen Hu replied with a message: "Class Monitor Su, you also know about Qin Yun's divorce?"

Su Huan hurriedly replied: "What's going on exactly? Tell me in detail."

"What else could it be? You know what Song Ya is like—a total piece of work. But if you knew there were four more like her in her family, it wouldn't be surprising that Qin Yun ended up where he did. I don't think it's a bad thing either—after the divorce, the whole person seems much more relaxed. At our old get-togethers, I always felt like he was on the verge of depression."

Although Song Ya wasn't from their class, she was from the same department. They had had some contact, though not much. Just from the usual evaluations among classmates, she was a spoiled girl with a bad temper. They had no idea how she'd gotten Qin Yun so completely smitten.

She hesitated for a moment, then sent Qin Yun a message: "Does that mean I have a chance now?"

Qin Yun replied: "Σ(っ°Д°;)っ, Is Alibaba really that magical? You've turned into this?"

"Pfft, just comforting you, that's all."

"Fine, I knew nothing that good could happen."

The jokes between old classmates quickly bridged the original distance, and the tone of their words carried quite a bit of the casualness from their college days.

"I'll send you a location in a bit. Let's meet up there at five. We'll talk then."

"Sure!"

Once the plans were set, Qin Yun had nothing to do anyway, so he simply turned on the TV to watch.

Then he discovered he was on TV. Hebei TV was broadcasting the car accident that had happened that morning on the Beijing-Kunming Expressway. Although they had pixelated his face, the effect was the same as not having done it—no one could recognize him anyway.

【…On September 2nd, at 10 a. m., a three-vehicle pile-up occurred suddenly on the G5 Beijing-Kunming Expressway. One of the vehicles caught fire after the collision, and the scene was critical. At the crucial moment, a young man surnamed Qin stepped forward, single-handedly smashing the windows of the damaged vehicle and successfully rescuing seven trapped people. Regrettably, one of them died from injuries too severe to save despite resuscitation efforts. According to preliminary feedback from on-site witnesses and the expressway traffic police investigation, the cause of the accident was…】

【According to the reporter's understanding from the traffic police, given that this young man surnamed Qin acted bravely for a righteous cause without regard for his personal safety, the municipal government authorities will give corresponding rewards for this. This station will continue to follow up…】

"Oh, there's actually a reward."

He picked up his phone and looked up the rewards for acts of bravery. He had assumed it would be just a few thousand yuan—an honor more than a substantive reward. He hadn't expected that rewards for acts of bravery actually varied from place to place.

In Hebei, for deeds that were particularly outstanding and had a major impact across the province, the reward ranged from 100,000 to 300,000 yuan; for deeds with a major impact within the city, it ranged from 50,000 to 100,000 yuan.

"Uh, how should mine be counted?"

Qin Yun fell into thought. With self-media so developed nowadays, his news had long since spread beyond Hebei Province. Did that mean it had a major impact nationwide? Could it be that the reward might even exceed 300,000 yuan?

He shook his head, feeling like he was dreaming.

Time flew by, and it was now four in the afternoon. Qin Yun, with navigation running, headed toward the destination Su Huan had sent. Perhaps considering his situation, the place Su Huan had chosen was less than three kilometers from the hotel he was staying at.

He couldn't be bothered to drive, so he ambled over at a leisurely pace.

Hengshui's economy is average, but it is a famous historical and cultural city. Quite a few ancient and modern celebrities have come from Hengshui. For example, Dong Zhongshu and Kong Yingda from ancient times, and in more modern times, Lan Tianye, Zhang Guoli, and Ge You all trace their ancestral homes to Hengshui.

Compared to Zhejiang, it's roughly equivalent to Zhejiang's Shaoxing.

Walking along the pedestrian road, interesting snippets of local dialect drifted over from time to time.

Such as "Don't suck your zitou, it's dirty," "Erpa'er, give me some of that," "Yelaige…"

"Zitou" means "finger"—the local pronunciation tends to mix up the initial consonants; "Erpa'er" means "Erpang'er," with a slight retroflex; "yelaige" means "yesterday."

Overall, the Hebei dialect is still quite close to Mandarin, unlike in Zhejiang, where even Zhoushan's local speech sounds like people are arguing, let alone Wenzhou's—where the dialect changes every ten li.

"I told you a hundred times to fix up the bike, but you wouldn't listen—now look, it's broken! What do we do now?"

"What can I do if it breaks? It's not my fault!"

"It's all your fault!"

"Fine, fine, it's my fault."

Qin Yun looked ahead and saw a man and woman arguing beside a motorcycle—clearly, the man was no match for the woman; he was quickly silenced after just a few words, making Qin Yun smile.

He had no intention of meddling, but one glance at the motorcycle told him the bike was still in decent condition; despite its age, it shouldn't have failed to start.

He thought for a moment, stepped over, and turned the ignition. Immediately, he heard the carburetor's "zzzz" suction sound, but the exhaust pipe remained silent. He casually traced the vacuum line's path and instantly understood the issue.

"Hey… what are you doing?"

The woman, seeing a stranger touching her motorcycle, immediately grew annoyed.

The man, still on the phone, turned around and glared, ready to shout.

"Does the engine start reluctantly when cold but idle roughly, and stall when you twist the throttle past one-third?"

At Qin Yun's words, the man's eyes lit up: "Bro, you know what's wrong?"

"Heh." Qin Yun smiled. "The bike's not seriously broken—just a crack in the vacuum line. Replace it, costs less than ten yuan."

The man glanced at his phone and gestured for Qin Yun to wait while he finished his call.

"Hello? How much to fix it? Five hundred? My bike's not worth five hundred even if I sold it. Forget it, I won't fix it. Goodbye."

After hanging up, the man rubbed his hands and looked at Qin Yun: "Bro, is there any way to start it right now? I've got something urgent to handle with my wife."

"Who's your wife? Shameless." The girl muttered under her breath, blushing, but didn't contradict him.

"Easy. Got tape? If not, go buy a roll across the street—it'll take less than two minutes."

"Got it, I'm on it!"

The man dashed across the street. The girl, curious, sized up Qin Yun.

"Handsome, you're from out of town?"

Qin Yun nodded. "Yeah, I'm traveling."

"Then I wouldn't recommend the Ji Zhou Ancient City ruins—nothing to see. But check out the Bamboo Forest Temple ruins. The farmhouse's firewood tofu feast is really unique."

"Thanks."

Just then, the boy returned, holding a roll of tape.

Qin Yun took it, tightly wrapped three loops around the vacuum line near the cylinder head, sealing the invisible crack completely. He turned the ignition—the engine roared to life, idling smoothly.

Seeing Qin Yun fix the problem in seconds, both the boy and girl looked at him with admiration, thanking him repeatedly. Had they not been in a hurry, they might have dragged him off for a meal.

After bidding them farewell, Qin Yun arrived at the restaurant Su Huan had booked. Before he even stepped inside, a commanding female voice called from behind.

"Qin Yun!"

Qin Yun turned and saw a bright, elegant figure approaching—thick, jet-black hair, loose and voluminous; a light beige short-sleeved shirt paired with tight jeans that accentuated her long, straight, well-proportioned legs.

He smiled. "Long time no see, Senior Class President Su."