Chapter 90: Mandarin Ducks' Bath

  The campus, which had been quiet for the summer vacation, finally welcomed the long-lost bustle a week after the start of school. The annual freshman registration unfolded one after another, also heralding that another batch of people would continue to wait for the torment of society after being exhausted by the university.

  A batch of freshmen, full of passion, with the entrustment of their parents and relatives, carrying their longing, dreams, and a letter of admission that contains sweat, were ruthlessly drained of every bit of passion, energy, and dream by the four years of university life. Like a worn-out rubber raft disposing of waste, they were callously pushed into society as graduates who had been tortured by the university to the point of exhaustion, losing their dreams and passion, like walking corpses...

  So every year at this time, when I see those newcomers with passionate smiles on their faces, I silently pray that the diligent gardeners who have drawn a magnificent blueprint for their university life in high school did not add too many fantastical and romantic elements. I hope they will not become disillusioned when they suddenly realize that the university life they yearned for is just a beautiful utopia, and then become disheartened. Unfortunately, every year I see many people joining this group one after another.

  These days, Qin Ke and his model team members had to play the role of etiquette. Some were at the entrance and in the hall where students paid their fees, acting as greeters, while others were being competed for by various student organizations to recruit new members. Every year when freshmen reported to school was also the best season for campus clubs to emerge like mushrooms after a spring rain, and it was only during this time that one would suddenly realize that such a small school actually had so many clubs with different names.

  Watching the members of various clubs recruiting at the scene, one by one, the "handsome guys and beautiful girls" were shouting and promoting their own clubs with great enthusiasm. It made me think of the scholars from all over the country who came to Beijing for the imperial examination during the Song Dynasty, and the women who welcomed them on both sides of the Suzhou River, taking the opportunity to sell themselves as "goods". As a result, many freshmen who had experienced nine years of compulsory education and were extremely suppressed would see the numerous handsome guys and beautiful girls and convert their inner longing for certain activities into simple sex hormone-driven impulses, blindly signing up. However, in ancient times, scholars like them could at least experience sexual pleasure after paying the registration fee, while freshmen gained nothing except for a lesson learned from being cheated.

  At the beginning, I joined the literature club for the same reason as many freshmen, relying on a simple impulse. Fortunately, I didn't end up like some other freshmen who paid the registration fee and then never found the club again.

  The literary society, however, organized a meeting that was quite like a model, where each member had to contribute an article about military training. When I saw that almost everyone's submissions were about the hardships of the officers and how their classmates were working hard for the sake of national security, I, who always liked to be different, decided to write from another angle, with topics such as "An officer flirting with a female student", "How classmates avoid military training" and "How instructors torment the country's flowers". I thought that because my topic was novel and my content was realistic, I would receive unanimous praise from the president and the club members. But what awaited me after I finished reading my article with full confidence was indeed a gaze of contempt and the president's evaluation that "I couldn't write articles", which made me realize the stupid essence of the club earlier...

  At 5 pm, the dormitory elder called and said that some discordant factors had been exposed in the dormitory recently. In order to let the dormitory spend its last year at Hainan Institute in a stable and harmonious atmosphere, the whole dormitory decided to come out for a drink. Since I was also a brother who lived and studied with them in the dormitory, although I have retired from the front line, they never forgot my existence, so they hoped that I could attend as an accompaniment.

  After hanging up the phone and sending a text message to Qin Ke telling her about tonight's activities, I headed towards the restaurant that Lao Da told me.

  When I walked into the private room where they were, everyone else in the dormitory had already arrived. After I unfortunately became the last one to arrive, I reluctantly followed some idiot's rules and downed three beers in one breath.

  After a round of clinking glasses and bragging, the topic naturally turned to freshmen. Lao Er first used his unique professional perspective to summarize his observations of the past few days and gave a detailed explanation of the overall level and tier of freshman girls, and conducted an in-depth analysis of the distribution of high-level and high-tier girls.

  "It's been a while since we've all become seniors..." After everyone's analysis and evaluation of Lao Er's major had passed, Lao Si suddenly blurted out a sentence, and upon hearing it, everyone fell into silence without saying a word.

  Before entering university, teachers would constantly paint a picture of a heavenly university life for us, and parents would also tempt us with the idea that once we enter university, we can do as we please. As a result, almost every student before taking the college entrance exam has a common goal - to get into university, although each person's purpose is different. Under these complex purposes and societal pressures, we begin to experience 12 years or more of educational torment.

  China's education has always been raping students and parents, with each reform only changing the posture and position, but unable to change its nature. The most tragic thing is that there are still a group of victims and media playing the role of onlookers shouting: "It's coming." So we stepped into university with scars from being raped for 12 years or more, but full of excitement, only to find that waiting for us is a new round of abuse.

  So we began to accept the slaughter of this university like a lost sheep, but did not know what to do next. Many people started to squander their youth second by second, and from time to time used "still early to graduate" to numb themselves. But when the life of senior year suddenly arrived in front of us one day, we had no extra reaction except for the panic-stricken appearance.

  Perhaps it was because everyone, like me, felt the helplessness, and the atmosphere at the dinner table began to become gloomy and even oppressive. As a result, they chose to toast each other to numb our own depressed mood at this time. Such an atmosphere and action also led us to enter a state of intoxication too early and disperse...

  I walked home in a daze, relying on my instincts, and after knocking heavily on the door several times, I suddenly felt my legs go weak, as if I had sat down on the ground. Then, vaguely, I felt Qin Ke open the door, scold me anxiously for a few sentences, before helping me into the house, putting me to bed, and undressing me...

  Dazed and confused, I didn't know how long I had been lying in bed. Gradually, I felt a bit more awake, but suddenly my stomach started churning violently, so I instinctively jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, where I began vomiting loudly into the toilet.

  "What's wrong?!" After vomiting out the last bit of stuff in my stomach, Qin Ke suddenly stood beside me and patted my back while saying that. I got up and turned around to look at her, only to see her wrapped in a bath towel, anxiously looking at me. So I realized that when I rushed in, she was taking a shower, and due to my dazed state and the urgency of wanting to vomit, I missed the best opportunity to appreciate this long-anticipated scene.

  When the beautiful woman's half-concealed, half-revealing figure appears before you, it often makes you even more alluring in front of her. So Qin Ke Yi's pose stirred up a certain desire within me, and with the catalyzing effect of alcohol, I suddenly hugged Qin Ke Yi tightly and kissed her wildly.

  "What are you doing?! I hate it!! Don't get drunk and be so flirtatious!" Qin Ke pushed me away, her face red as she said to me.

  "I'm awake now... but, I also want to take a bath, let's take one together..." I said with a sly smile to Qin Ke Yi, and after finishing speaking, I hugged her again, then tried to kiss her.

  "Wait a minute..." Qin Ke said softly with a red face, "First brush your teeth... such a strong smell of wine..."

  (ps: Some views in this article are dedicated to readers who are about to enter or leave the university campus, hoping you all the best)