As Cheng You's new semester began, students from the March intake of the '78 cohort were required to arrive two days early to help welcome the incoming September batch.
This year, the school saw two waves of new students.
What was once an empty campus gradually filled with more students.
Her life remained a three-point routine: classes, home, and the Zhen Shan Tang, with occasional visits to the medicinal herb garden.
Her days were fulfilling.
Song Qinglan continued her relentless pressure for grandchildren, showing signs of escalating. Cheng You had been avoiding her lately.
"Cheng You, do you know what happened to Feng Xue?" Fang Yunbao asked.
"What happened to her?" Cheng You glanced at her, surprised.
Fang Yunbao propped her chin on her hand. "When school started a few days ago, I almost didn't recognize her. She looked so gaunt."
Cheng You gave a cold smile. "I don't know."
After being kicked out by the Feng family, her living standards had naturally declined significantly.
Without the Feng family's financial support, it was no wonder she looked so worn out.
Fang Yunbao whispered conspiratorially, "I heard she's moved back into the dorms."
"Isn't it normal for students to live in dorms?" Cheng You wasn't too concerned about Feng Xue's affairs.
Fang Yunbao fell silent, finding it all very peculiar.
However, she didn't know the details of the Feng family's situation, so she couldn't gossip further.
After class, the four roommates headed to the canteen together.
Cheng You surveyed the day's dishes. After eating them for several days, she felt a bit jaded and opted for two dishes with little meat.
Fang Yunbao, a carnivore, couldn't live without meat.
Cao Yanyan balanced meat and vegetables.
Only Lin Yutian got plain white rice.
She was accustomed to eyeing the dishes on the plates of her three roommates.
Just like the first time Cheng You ate with her in the canteen, she had ordered an extra portion of braised pork for her.
Since then, Lin Yutian always got a bowl of white rice first to reserve a spot and waited for them to bring back their dishes.
Today, however, Cheng You wasn't carrying a separate small bowl. Lin Yutian felt a pang of disappointment, realizing she hadn't ordered extra food.
But she quickly adjusted her mindset; Cheng You didn't add extra dishes every day.
Her gaze shifted to Fang Yunbao's plate, and seeing the fatty, lean pork belly, she couldn't help but swallow.
After waiting for a long time, none of the three spoke; they were all engrossed in their own meals.
Lin Yutian was unhappy, her mouth tasting of nothing, her appetite whetted by Fang Yunbao's pork.
By the time they finished eating, Lin Yutian was still pushing grains of rice around her plate.
"Yunbao, could you... could you..."
Fang Yunbao feigned confusion. "Do what?"
"Could you pour the soup from your dish over for me?"
Without meat, even the vegetable soup would be good with plain white rice.
Fang Yunbao looked a bit embarrassed. "But I've already finished it."
Lin Yutian immediately said, "It's okay, I don't mind!"
Fang Yunbao looked crestfallen. *I* mind.
"Lin Yutian, doesn't the school provide a subsidy every month? Even if that money can't get you meat every meal, you can still afford dishes, can't you?"
The three of them had been harboring resentment for a while. For the entire previous semester, Lin Yutian had almost exclusively eaten their dishes.
In the dorms, she also "borrowed" their shampoo and face cream.
Over time, no one was happy about it.
Lin Yutian bit her lip. "My family's financial situation isn't good."
"I know your family's financial situation isn't good, but no matter how bad it is, there's the school subsidy. You shouldn't be eating plain white rice for every meal, should you?"
Lin Yutian, displeased, picked up her plate and moved to another spot.
"If you're not willing, then forget it."
All three of them felt a bit awkward, as if they had bullied Lin Yutian.
Cheng You tugged on Fang Yunbao's sleeve. "Let's go."
Lin Yutian glared resentfully at their retreating backs, fiercely chewing the tasteless white rice in her mouth.
Clearly, the three of them came from well-off families. Fang Yunbao was so plump and ate meat every meal, yet she wouldn't even give her a bit of soup!
She cursed inwardly and continued to shovel rice into her mouth.
Before long, a shadow fell over her.
Lin Yutian looked up. "Feng Xue?"
Feng Xue placed her bowl down and said gently, "Why are you just eating plain rice? I got you an extra dish."
Lin Yutian was immediately touched. "Thank you!"
From that day on, Lin Yutian stopped eating with her roommates and instead followed Feng Xue around like a little shadow.
Fang Yunbao and Cao Yanyan were starting to dislike living in the dorms. Every time they saw Lin Yutian bragging about what Feng Xue had gifted her or treated her to, they felt awkward.
Truly, a drop of kindness could be repaid with immense animosity.
After eating their food for a whole semester, Lin Yutian hadn't offered a single word of thanks.
But after Feng Xue treated her to a meal, she praised Feng Xue to the skies.
Fang Yunbao wasn't one to tolerate such behavior. After finishing her nightly ablutions in the dorm, she started locking up her shampoo and toothpaste.
Cao Yanyan followed suit, seeing no reason to let her own belongings be taken by an ungrateful person.
The conflict erupted when Cheng You was taking a nap in the dorm.
The reason was that Lin Yutian hadn't washed her hair in days and was too stingy to buy shampoo.
Her hair was naturally oily, and it was so greasy today it looked like a large oil field.
She mustered the courage to ask Fang Yunbao for shampoo today and was flatly refused.
Fang Yunbao not only refused but also voiced her pent-up frustration: "Didn't you tell Feng Xue how stingy we are? Then let Feng Xue lend you shampoo!"
Lin Yutian hadn't expected her private complaints to Feng Xue to be overheard. She was so ashamed she couldn't lift her head.
"I... I didn't say those things. You must have misunderstood."
Fang Yunbao scoffed. "Misunderstood? Half the gossip in school comes from your mouth. And you call it a misunderstanding? Taking advantage of us, are we?"
Everyone in their class, and even in the neighboring classes, knew Lin Yutian's penchant for freeloading.
But others didn't know, and they assumed Fang Yunbao and the others were indeed mistreating Lin Yutian.
Fang Yunbao's words left Lin Yutian mortified. She shouted angrily, "It's just a bit of shampoo, is it worth making such a fuss!"
Fang Yunbao's voice also rose. "Just a bit of shampoo? If it were really just a bit, who would care! Shampoo, toothpaste, face cream, laundry detergent, which of these haven't you borrowed from us? You're even using our towels and toothbrush cups from last semester!"
They were supposed to change their toothbrushes every so often. One day, they discovered Lin Yutian rummaging through the trash, trying to salvage their used toothbrushes to continue using them.
She had to give up when they caught her, but it had grossed them out immensely.
Seeing that Lin Yutian was on the verge of tears, Fang Yunbao wasn't finished.
"For the entire last semester, every mealtime you only got plain white rice and ate our dishes. Cheng You added a portion of pork belly for you every week. Did you ever say thank you?"
Lin Yutian bit her lip. "We're all in the same dorm, why be so distant."
"Tch, you know we're just in the same dorm, not biological sisters born to the same parents, right?" Fang Yunbao rolled her eyes.