Chapter 42: The Senior Female Student

When Lin Nian, dressed in the Cassel College uniform, found himself standing among a crowd of blooming beauties, he felt a slight sense of bewilderment. Around him, girls in off-the-shoulder, low-cut gowns with hemlines as vibrant as March begonias smiled softly as they stepped over the red carpet and into the Annerly Hall. Gentlemen in elegant suits, escorting their female companions, walked across the carpet of flower petals with a subtle yet proud grace.

The frequency of the flashbulbs from the paparazzi lining both sides of the walkway was dazzling. If Lin Nian were not entirely certain he had followed the directional signs pointing to Annerly Hall, he would have thought he had stumbled into the Grammys or the red-carpet venue of a celebrity charity gala.

Standing at the far end of the red carpet, he gazed at the scene, feeling unsure whether to advance or retreat. He had a lingering suspicion that if he were to charge ahead like this, he would be stopped at the entrance by a waiter with a towel over his arm and a tray of invitations, who would politely remind him that loiterers and dogs were not allowed.

This spectacle made Lin Nian question reality. He repeatedly turned his head to confirm he hadn't come to the wrong place, while pairs of impeccably dressed ladies and gentlemen glided past him with polite and intriguing laughter, their gazes and footsteps slipping right by. It left him completely baffled.

Why was he even here?

Actually, this whole affair started back in the afternoon.

Following the morning's course in Dragon Genealogy, and under Principal Angel's thoughtful suggestion, Lin Nian had ultimately chosen to skip class.

It was his first-time skipping class ever. He had failed to bring his title of "Shi Lan High's Perfect Attendance King" over to Cassel College, but he soon realized that the Principal's advice was not unfounded; his experiences this afternoon made him wish he had just honestly sat through a class in Spiritual Speech instead.

That afternoon, Lin Nian had nearly run his legs off dashing around the Information Department to change his file number. It was only at moments like this that he truly comprehended the sheer scale of Cassel College. Anyway, he couldn't quite figure out why a perfectly normal Information Department was run like a secret agent rendezvous. Within the same building, one office was on the ground floor, while another processing window suddenly popped up on the fifth basement level, and after dealing with that window, he had to climb all the way back up to the sixth floor.

This left Lin Nian being bounced around like a ping-pong ball inside the Information Department, taking the elevator back and forth numerous times. Even the burly maintenance worker at the elevator entrance couldn't help but remind him in broken Chinese, "Hey there, classmate, elevators aren't toys. If you want to play, go to the teaching building elevators; class is over now, and no one uses those."

Furthermore, whenever he mentioned that he was here to update his student records, the members of the Information Department behind the windows displayed a unanimously identical reaction: they reached their hands under the counter and asked with a smile, "Are you looking to delete some history from your personal profile? We're awfully sorry, but the Information Department does not provide this service! If you have any complaints, please submit an appeal to the school leadership."

At first, Lin Nian didn't quite grasp the situation, but when he accidentally glanced at a line in his own file—*"Target individual mistakenly entered the women's restroom at age 8; suspected to be intentional, with a suspected history of severe violent and pornographic tendencies since childhood"*—he almost rolled up his sleeves to demolish the Information Department's service window. Unfortunately, ever since a student had previously pulled out a Magnum revolver and fired at the Information Department's window, all glass products had been upgraded to explosion-proof levels. To break the glass with sheer wrist strength and drag the person inside out required an Almighty-class physical reinforcement Spiritual Speech; otherwise, it was rather difficult.

Anyway, after much talking and reasoning, Lin Nian finally got everything sorted out. When the young man from the Information Department finished his cola, flicked two index fingers across his forehead, and flashed him an OK sign, he finally turned around and walked out with a sense of relief.

By then, dusk had fallen. The white lampposts along the school walls had been lit one by one, casting elongated shadows of the benches on the ground. Lin Nian pulled out his phone to check the time—it was precisely seven o'clock. He suddenly realized that after running around all afternoon, he hadn't even had time for dinner, and his stomach obligingly began to rumble with hunger.

Though the cafeteria wasn't closed at this hour—specifically, Cassel College's cafeteria operated twenty-four hours a day, ensuring that even if you woke up in the middle of the night wearing pajamas and wandered over, a chef would still warmly serve you a cup of warm milk and goose liver drizzled with lemon juice—wouldn't it be a bit too pathetic to sit alone in that intimidatingly massive cafeteria to eat?

Ultimately, Lin Nian was left with only one viable option. He remembered there was a party at Annerly Hall tonight. Hearing the word "party" subconsciously brought to mind high-calorie foods like pizza, champagne, and buffets. If there were no pork knuckles, hot dogs would do in a pinch. Caesar Gattuso hadn't left a bad impression on him, and although Lin Xian was busy with her thesis and couldn't make it, he wouldn't feel stage fright entirely on his own.

Once he made up his mind, the closer Lin Nian walked toward Annerly Hall, the stranger things felt, because he kept passing a continuous stream of luxury cars along the way.

The first vehicle to honk its horn at him and signal him to make way was an Aston Martin. The young man inside wore a custom-tailored suit, his gelled hair shining brightly enough to reflect the streetlights and attract moths. His female companion wore a low-cut dress so dazzling it was dizzying, and as she spotted Lin Nian by the roadside, she even offered a hint of a "common-people-friendly smile."

That cursed "common-people-friendly smile"—for a split second, Lin Nian felt as if he had been demoted to a eunuch kneeling to watch an imperial consort's procession. But he immediately realized this was far beyond a mere imperial consort; it was more like eighteen royal heirs cruising the lantern festival with their beauties!

Following that, luxury cars emerged one after another in a flurry, honking their horns in turns to urge him to yield. The vehicles included, but were not limited to, Bentleys, Shelby SuperCars, Lamborghinis, and McLarens. Lin Nian hadn't even noticed where any parking lots were nearby. Though he had never deliberately memorized the brands of these luxury cars, he couldn't help the constant brainwashing by his classmates back at Shi Lan High. Through sheer exposure, he felt that failing to recognize those distinct logos would be a disgrace to any male animal. By now, the sheer number of luxury cars appearing was enough to host an entire auto show. With so many cars squeezing toward a single destination, did Cassel College perhaps offer a course in luxury car appreciation, where the textbooks were top-tier sports cars purchased by the students themselves?

Driven by curiosity, and because his path happened to align remarkably well, Lin Nian pondered all the way while following in the exhaust pipes of the luxury cars until he reached his ultimate destination: the front entrance of Annerly Hall, where he now stood.

A red carpet was rolled out for ten meters in front of the glass doors of Annerly Hall. Over the course of those ten meters, ladies in stunning and alluring evening gowns practically walked it like a runway show. The crisp indentation of high heels stepping on flower petals felt as forceful as fingers tracing across the hearts of the men present. The dedicated paparazzi stationed along the red carpet occasionally gasped in admiration when a girl boldly flaunted a plunging V-neck, high-shouldered white evening gown with a zipper.

Lin Nian looked down at himself: standard Cassel College uniform. While it had felt quite aristocratic and upper-crust when he first put it on, placed in this grand environment, it instantly lost its charm. It was a pity he washed his hair quite frequently; otherwise, if he went a few days without washing it to achieve the greasy, shining perfection of his roommate Finger, he might have been able to pass off an oiled-up look and compete with the elegant gentlemen present.

"I must have taken the wrong path," Lin Nian muttered thoughtfully, turning around to leave.

He wasn't stupid; seeing this situation, he couldn't help but realize that the "party" Caesar Gattuso had mentioned differed greatly from the "party" he had envisioned.

To some people, a party meant champagne, hard liquor, DJs, a dance floor, and multicolored laser lights.

To others, a party should look just like this: everyone dressed in their most respectable attire, accompanied by their proudest female partners, exchanging polite smiles and subtle greetings amidst the shimmering evening gowns and the clean lines of tailored suits.

This was a matter of different classes understanding things differently—not an intentional conspiracy, but merely a simple, innocent little misunderstanding.

The people gathered in front of Annerly Hall had already noticed the hesitant boy in the school uniform standing not far away, but no one stepped forward to guide or question him. Everyone was reluctant to lose their composure before one another, remaining in their respective spots without stirring up trouble or asking questions, as if an invisible boundary separated two distinct worlds, keeping the pure and the turbid unmixed.

Realizing this, the uniformed Lin Nian smiled indifferently and turned to leave. He figured that compared to the champagne and fruit inside Annerly Hall, the pork knuckles in the cafeteria might actually fill his stomach better.

Yet at that very moment, a wave of fragrance mingled with rose petals drifted onto Lin Nian's wrist.

As the smooth silk hem of a deep red fishtail evening gown brushed against his hand, a light, teasing voice sounded beside his ear:

"Help your Senior Sister hold it up, don't let it drag on the ground."

Lin Nian looked in surprise at the girl who had suddenly appeared beside him. For a fleeting second, he didn't recognize who she was, but a fragmented image flashed through his mind—inside a golden hall, a girl had similarly stood by his side, smiling silently as she looked at him.

"Senior Sister Mandy? What are you doing here?" Lin Nian finally snapped back to reality, lowering his head to ask the girl beside him in a soft voice.

Mandy, having appeared out of nowhere, stood right beside Lin Nian and linked her arm through his wrist. Her usual long golden hair had been styled into soft, cascading waves that rested upon her fragrant shoulders, and an audaciously gorgeous fishtail evening gown accentuated her waistline with fluid grace, drawing sideways glances from the surrounding gentlemen.

"The moment I arrived, I saw you standing here looking all dazed and petrified like a waiting husband. Since nobody else is taking you out to play, Senior Sister will play with you!" Mandy tilted her head, her silver earrings swaying slightly beside a mischievous, elf-like smile that Lin Nian had never seen before.

With that, she smiled radiantly and escorted Lin Nian by the wrist onto the crowd-captivating red carpet in front of Annerly Hall.