At the Broadcasting Department interview, Chen Yannian fell in love at first sight with an upperclasswoman in black-rimmed glasses.
Her name was Li Yingying. She was the deputy head of the Production Department, had a tiny beauty mark between her eyebrows, and smiled with her eyes curved like crescent moons.
The interviewer asked if he could be on call to fill in at a moment's notice. He nodded like a bobblehead. “Any time, day or night, twenty-four seven!”
He didn't get in. Late that night, he crouched in the hallway and messaged her: “Senior, did I not get accepted?” She replied instantly: “What's your name?” “I didn't call you, Senior!” “...I asked what your name is!!!”
She thought this underclassman was a little dim. She decided to mentor him herself. Once, when she was drunk, she sent him a voice message: “Chen, come pick me up.”
She asked him, “Is there someone you like?”
After a long pause, Chen Yannian said, “Yes.” She asked who it was, and he replied, “You're drunk. Ask me again when you've sobered up tomorrow.”
The next day, she woke up and spent the whole day agonizing over it before finally messaging him first to ask him out to dinner.
At the hot pot restaurant, she said, “How about I spend this day with you every year from now on?” Chen Yannian rushed out and came back with a bouquet of flowers. “This time, let me ask you.”
From bombing the interview to checking dorms on a rainy day, from drunken late-night calls to a hot pot restaurant confession, from dates at East Lake to a surprise at a concert, the senior made the first move, and the underclassman made an even bigger one. Chen Yannian never believed in love at first sight, but now he was personally proving himself wrong.
Over winter break, she didn't go home for New Year's. She stayed at school and worked to save money. After the New Year, she took a three-hour high-speed train from Hancheng to Luocheng. Standing at the station exit, she sent him a message:
“Guess where I am?”
