Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 74 - 71 Zhifei’s Ignorance (For the 13th Alliance @Lust Emperor’s Full Uncle, Additional - )

Chapter 74: Chapter 71 Zhifei’s Ignorance (For the 13th Alliance @Lust Emperor’s Full Uncle, Additional Chapter)

After attending Ning Xuan’s graduation ceremony, delivering Bao Bao’s graduation gift to Meina, and treating her dorm mates to a meal, Yan Yan left Xiamen to return to Wenzhou.

By the end of June, all the high school classmates had graduated one after another, and those planning to work back in Wenzhou had almost all returned.

After graduation, those who opted not to return to Wenzhou mostly stayed to work in the cities where they had attended university, like Shanghai or Hangzhou.

There were also some rather unusual choices, like preparing to work in Shenzhen.

For instance, Yan Yan’s "younger brother," Jiao Zhifei, who was the class president of the liberal arts class.

It was difficult to find the words to describe this "younger brother" of Yan Yan’s. The simplest and most accurate description would probably be "willful."

Willful girls are common, but Yan Yan had met only one willful boy so far—Jiao Zhifei.

His level of willfulness, much like Bao Bao’s grand gesture in gift-giving, left Yan Yan in awe.

Back in high school, with a guaranteed spot at Peking University, he was dissatisfied with the major and insisted on giving up the spot to take the college entrance exam on his own.

Taking the college entrance exam wasn’t a problem in itself.

Jiao Zhifei’s final Gaokao scores indeed exceeded Peking University’s admission cutoff in Zhejiang by a good dozen points.

But he was willful; he didn’t apply to Peking University but chose Ren Da instead.

Applying to Ren Da wasn’t an issue either.

However, he only applied to Ren Da in his entire college preference list.

And even more willfully, he listed Journalism at the School of Journalism as his lone major preference and boldly opted not to comply with the school’s assignment.

Objectively, given Jiao Zhifei’s Gaokao scores, he should have had no problems with admissions anywhere; he could have gotten into Peking University, so where couldn’t he get in?

Yet, Jiao Zhifei’s choice of Ren Da’s School of Journalism had only one spot available in the entire Zhejiang Province.

Jiao Zhifei knew his scores were high and going to Ren Da would be a bit of a "demeaning" feat for him—one spot, so what? After all, it was meant to be his.

Unfortunately, that year, there happened to be another Zhejiang candidate harboring a dream of studying journalism.

Another top scorer’s Gaokao results were one point higher than Jiao Zhifei’s, and like him, had applied for Journalism.

The candidate from Ren Da not only scored higher than Jiao Zhifei but also indicated willingness to comply with the university’s assignment.

One point isn’t a lot, but it was enough to secure the single Journalism spot at Ren Da’s School of Journalism in Zhejiang.

Willfulness cost Jiao Zhifei dearly, transforming him from one of the top liberal arts students at Wenzhou High School to a student who failed the Gaokao.

Even so, Jiao Zhifei never regretted the way he filled out his college preferences.

He thought if he couldn’t attend the school or study the major he liked, he might as well retake the exam.

Yan Yan and Jiao Zhifei were classmates in junior high.

Perhaps because Jiao Zhifei’s thought process had always been unconventional from a young age, when Yan Yan faced ostracization from her classmates in junior high, Jiao Zhifei was the only "misfit."

Not only did he not ostracize Yan Yan but also acknowledged her as his "Old Sister."

The truly willful Jiao Zhifei was in fact almost a year older than Yan Yan.

Their sibling-like bond had started from the very first day of junior high.

During their junior high days, Yan Yan’s family no longer lived in the factory, so Yan Yan had also left the "suburb" school to start junior high in the city.

Yan Yan didn’t have a single classmate from her elementary school when she moved up to junior high, and she saw this as the beginning of a new life, free from being targeted. She was full of anticipation for her future junior high school life.

Junior high was different from elementary school; many students lived far away, which meant some needed to eat their lunch at the school dining hall.

Yan Yan’s new home wasn’t far from the school, but even if she went home, there would be no one to cook for her.

Therefore, Yan Yan’s lunch would definitely be settled at the school cafeteria.

Back then, her junior high school cafeteria didn’t use meal cards and couldn’t accept cash; instead, students had to use meal tickets.

On registration day, when school fees were paid, students who would eat at the school also needed to buy their meal tickets for the entire term.

On the first day of school, when Yan Yan went to the cafeteria at noon, she realized she had forgotten her meal tickets and had to return to the classroom to fetch them.

When Yan Yan got back to the classroom, she found a person sitting in the back row, looking dazed and daydreaming.

Yan Yan was about to embark on her new junior high life, free from being targeted, and felt she didn’t need to keep avoiding her classmates like the plague.

"Why haven’t you gone to eat yet?" Yan Yan greeted him casually.

"I didn’t bring any meal tickets," Jiao Zhifei said, sounding a bit aggrieved.

"Then I’ll give you one, hurry up and go eat," Yan Yan handed over a meal ticket with ease.

"Thanks, Old Sister, for treating me to a meal," Jiao Zhifei suddenly showed an especially happy smile.

But Yan Yan was somewhat on the verge of a breakdown. Jiao Zhifei, who sat in the last row, was a good half a head taller than her in the front row.

"You really called me Old Sister; then don’t ever forget that I’m your sister," Yan Yan said this with a bit of annoyance at herself, feeling she might have meddled too much.

Was Jiao Zhifei calling her sister because she was short and sat in the front row, or what did he mean by that?

But from then on, Jiao Zhifei really treated Yan Yan as his "Old Sister," and no matter how the other students targeted Yan Yan, Jiao Zhifei never changed his behavior toward his "sister."

Gradually, Yan Yan really started to see herself as Jiao Zhifei’s "Old Sister."

As an "Old Sister," not only did Yan Yan think of Jiao Zhifei whenever there was a good opportunity, but even Jiao Zhifei’s mother became quite familiar with her.

In their first year of high school, Jiao Zhifei didn’t have a cellphone, and Yan Yan had called his home several times.

After the college entrance exam results were announced, Jiao Zhifei’s phone was switched off, so Yan Yan could only call his family.

When Jiao Zhifei’s mom answered the phone, she said that her son was about to drive her to faint.

Who had ever heard of a liberal arts student who scored nearly seven hundred points wanting to retake the exam?

As Yan Yan listened, she felt like Zhifei’s mom was about to cry.

"Before, everyone was advising him not to joke around with his university preferences.

But with such high scores and applying to Ren Da, he certainly couldn’t have foreseen such a situation.

Auntie, don’t worry just yet.

I have a relative who works in the provincial education department; I’ll ask if there’s still a way to handle this.

After all, Zhifei’s exam results are there for all to see," Yan Yan tried to comfort Jiao Zhifei’s mother.

The result Yan Yan found out was that there was definitely no way for the distant Ren Da from the province’s perspective, but Zhejiang University still had some less popular programs that hadn’t filled up and which could be applied for during the adjustment process.

If Jiao Zhifei had chosen Zhejiang University at the time, any major would have been waiting for him to pick; now he could only pick up the leftovers that others didn’t want, and he had absolutely no interest in that.

Yan Yan went to Jiao Zhifei’s house and scolded him relentlessly.

Together with Mrs. Jiao’s tearful and earnest persuasion, Jiao Zhifei finally gave up on the idea of retaking the college entrance exam just before the deadline for supplementary applications.

He very reluctantly went to study Information Engineering at Zhejiang University.

Just from the name, it wasn’t obvious that Jiao Zhifei was studying a less popular major.

But this was the name after the department’s renaming; originally, this major was called Library Science.

Such a major would probably only appeal to Yan Yan.

Luckily, Jiao Zhifei was much better than the other students in his department.

At Zhejiang University, if a student is particularly talented, for example, scoring above 90 in every subject...

And ranking at the top of his major, he could apply to transfer to another major.

During his sophomore year, Jiao Zhifei transferred to Zhejiang University’s very popular Management School with all of his scores no lower than 95.

In the end, Jiao Zhifei wasn’t doomed by the way he filled out his college application.

However, that didn’t mean Zhifei would only be troublesome when it came to applying for universities.

For example, in his senior year, at the prime time for job hunting, Jiao Zhifei chose to go to France as an exchange student.

By the time he returned, all the good companies had already completed their recruitment plans.

Someone who should have had plenty of job offers to choose from was now worrying about not being able to find a single good job after returning from the exchange.

The more desirable international companies had all closed their doors to fresh graduates while Jiao Zhifei was in France.

Fortunately, times had changed, and there were now many very good domestic companies.

The particularly troublesome Jiao Zhifei ultimately chose Shenzhen Vanke.