Aside from classroom discipline continuously improving and the teaching faculty getting stronger, all kinds of student clubs at Ming University were now springing up like wildfire.
First came the Crosstalk Club.
It was started by the students who’d stayed up chatting that night. They spread invitations far and wide, asked around in every direction, and finally gathered a few like-minded partners from across campus.
Once they had people, the next step was finding a venue.
They submitted a written application that morning, it was approved by the afternoon.
Rumor had it the approval came straight from the principal himself!
After that, they prepared a detailed plan and submitted it to request funding.
Honestly, the funding amount didn’t really matter. It was only about a week’s worth of living expenses anyway, no big deal. But the process couldn’t be skipped; everything had to be done by the book.
Normally, it would take at least two days for the funds to arrive. But they couldn’t wait, you have to strike while the iron’s hot!
So, each person threw in three days’ worth of living expenses. They pooled around 100,000 yuan and bought what they needed in advance: tables, chairs, coffee tables, sofas…
Since they picked only the expensive stuff, even that 100,000 wasn’t enough, they overspent quite a bit.
“So we went over budget, big deal, it’s not like we’re broke.”
“Agreed! Price isn’t the issue; what matters is quality.”
“Well, since we’re already over, what’s a little more? Why don’t we go with that 80,000-yuan sofa set? It’s got armrests and way more comfortable.”
“I’m in.”
They took turns swiping their cards without even blinking.
The world of the rich second generation: so simple, so boring.
By evening, the furniture arrived at the school.
After they finished setting everything up, it was already past midnight. To celebrate, they decided to grab a late-night snack.
After eating, it felt too late to go home, so they just each booked a room at a nearby hotel for the night.
The next morning, alarms rang on time.
They shot up, barely had time to wash their faces, and dashed to campus.
Nothing could stop them from going to class especially today’s class, taught by Professor Xu himself…
It had been a brutal fight to get a seat in that class, so no way they were slacking off now.
Even if they could only understand about 10% of the lecture…
Still, as Sister Yue said: “Success or failure is about ability, but doing or not doing is about attitude.”
Their ability might fall short but their attitude could never.
Two days later, the club’s funding came through and it was even more than expected: 150,000 yuan.
They decided to leave that untouched for future activities.
Everything they’d already bought would count as their own contribution.
Now they had members and a venue, the only thing left was to invite a big name!
First, a famous face could give their club credibility.
Second, with their own limited skills, having a “celebrity” not only anchored the group but could also teach and guide them.
But who to invite?
At first, they’d wanted to hire a major performer from a top crosstalk troupe, someone with national fame, on par with a mainstream celebrity.
Unfortunately, that person was already teaching at the Capital Drama Academy and had no time to bother with their “backyard troupe.”
After being turned down, they set their sights on the mascot of Q University’s Crosstalk Club also a well-known performer. Not as famous as the first one, but extremely skilled and known for being a great mentor.
Rumor had it that he’d trained many outstanding apprentices though half of them ended up in the entertainment industry, and few carried on his legacy.
At first, he flat-out refused to join Ming University’s newly-formed “Crosstalk Club.”
To be honest, it was beneath him.
But after being moved by their sincerity and persistence, he reluctantly agreed.
Once he saw the generous treatment and perks they offered, he quickly came around… real fast.
And so, through effort and the irresistible pull of money, they successfully poached yet another talent from Q University.
One could only imagine how furious Zhou Zhengqi would be when he heard about it. Then again, let him be mad! A poach that can be done must be done!
With the Crosstalk Club thriving, others started to stir restlessly.
After all, before this, Ming University barely had any clubs. The few listed on the official site like the Go Club or Table Tennis Club were purely decorative, with no real members. They’d been defunct for ages.
“How about we start a Model Club?”
“A Beauty & Makeup Club could work! But if it’s just makeup, that feels too narrow. We girls often talk about luxury brands, new clothes, shoes, handbags. So what name could cover all that?”
“How about the Fashion Club?”
“Perfect! Fashion Club, a.k.a. F-Club and we need a bold slogan.”
“—As long as you run fast enough, fashion is just your follower.”
“Brilliant! Done! I’m submitting the application now!”
“Since everyone’s doing it, I’ll start a Golf Club!”
“But we don’t have a golf course…”
“Then we’ll build one! My family owns golf courses, leave it to my dad!”
Soon, the Model Club, Fashion Club, and Golf Club were all officially approved, and recruitment began.
The Model Club had both male and female teams: all good-looking students, height requirements mandatory.
The school granted each club the same 150,000-yuan startup fund.
But that wasn’t nearly enough to build a runway not to mention lighting, sound, and outfits, which together could easily reach seven figures.
Luckily, Ming students weren’t short on cash. The club president went home, and the next day came back with a 2-million-yuan check.
The vice president scratched his head: “Uh, I brought one too…” (only 500,000 though).
And the newly elected officers chimed in: “We chipped in too!”
Were checks… toilet paper now?
“You can’t say that…”
“…But you’re not exactly wrong.”
Once they’d fully equipped themselves, the Model Club faced the same problem as the Crosstalk Club:
Who to hire as instructor?
Too weak? Not acceptable.
Too unknown? Also no good.
Bad reputation? Definitely not.
Any scandals? Forget it.
After much searching, they finally set their sights on the guest instructor of the Capital Film Academy’s modeling department, Mars.
A foreign male supermodel whose peak years shook the fashion world. His runway fee was counted per step.
He’d debuted at the top and stayed there for five years. Never once dropped out of the top ten on Forbes’ male model list.
A frequent guest of the world’s top blue-blood and red-blood luxury brands, holding multiple global endorsements.
The Capital Film Academy had only managed to hire him through personal connections.
He spent most of his time abroad, returning to China every two months just to teach a few classes.
“That’s… not someone we can just poach, right?”
“He’s not short on money. Even the Film Academy had to rely on favors and we’re just a tiny club. He probably wouldn’t even glance our way.”
“It’s hard, but not impossible, it just depends on the method.”
“Meaning?”
“You’ve got a plan, President?”
The president cleared his throat.
“From what I know, Mars isn’t just a model, he’s also a genius painter, especially skilled at portraits. He only entered fashion because he couldn’t find a muse that satisfied him.”
“D*mn… talk about being willful!”
“The truly extraordinary succeed no matter what they do just like Sister Yue.”
“But how’s that related to us hiring him?”
“Of course it’s related. Let me finish. Mars never gave up searching for his ‘perfect model.’ He even treats fashion as a way to meet more exceptional people but all these years later, he still hasn’t picked up a paintbrush again.”
“Why not?”
“Didn’t I just say? He hasn’t found the perfect muse.”
“Come on, with all those gorgeous models in fashion, not one caught his eye?”
“So what, you think we can help him find one? That’s impossible!”
“He’s been searching for years, what could we possibly do?”
“Even if we could, it’d take forever!”
The president just smiled mysteriously.
“We don’t need to find one. Mars already has someone in mind but that person’s too aloof to pay him any attention.”
“What the h*ll! Who’s that? Someone even an international supermodel can’t get to look his way?!”
“Sounds like tabloid gossip to me…”
“It’s true,” the president swore. “My friend’s aunt is Mars’s personal lawyer in China, she’s been handling his contracts for five years. And she’s best friends with Mars’s famously difficult agent.”
A little gathering, a few drinks, what secrets couldn’t they coax out that way?
“Mars’s chosen perfect model is Chinese, a girl, very young. And everyone knows her.”
“Huh? We know her? Who is it?”
“Some celebrity from China?”
“Or a singer?”
“A TV host?”
“…”
To each guess, the club president shook their head.
Only after milking the suspense did they finally say, unhurriedly, “Not a public figure. She’s a student from our university.”
“What the—?!”
“So explosive?”
“Perfect model… perfect… who could it be?”
“No way, it’s not Sister Yue, is it?!”
Everyone thought of the same person.
Because really, who else could deserve the word perfect?
The president clapped their hands. “Bingo! It is Sister Yue!”
Mars first saw Jiang Fuyue in an online news article from a foreign portal site.
Chinese girl wins gold at IPhO, also takes home the special award. Team China ranks first overall, a clean sweep of the competition.
Normally, he’d just glance at such a headline and scroll past. But this time, for some inexplicable reason, he found himself staring at one of the accompanying photos for a long, long time.
So long, in fact, that he missed a luxury brand’s spring/summer runway audition and lost a million-dollar contract because of it.
His agent nearly exploded, but Mars remained fixated on the computer screen, eyes locked on the photo.
Finally, after measuring and comparing the picture from every angle, his gaze lit up with dazzling brightness.
He jumped to his feet, ecstatic. “Found her! I finally found her!”
Agent: “???”
…
“So the person in the photo is Sister Yue?”
The president gave him a side-eye. “Is there any other Chinese girl who’s won IPhO gold and the special prize, and led her team to first overall?”
“The Goddess Yue is the Goddess Yue, supermodels should kneel in awe.”
“So what do we do now? Ask Sister Yue to come forward? Have her convince Mars herself?”
“No way! That’d mean she owes him a favor for nothing!”
“Yeah! Besides, who are we to order Sister Yue around?”
“Even if we could, we shouldn’t! Even if she agreed, we’d still say no!”
“Why?”
“A goddess should be worshiped! You ever seen a goddess in debt? Especially a debt of gratitude? Absolutely not!”
Their goddess had to be protected, she couldn’t be sullied by so much as a speck of dust.
Everyone nodded in firm agreement.
“Exactly! A goddess belongs on her pedestal. Supermodels, celebrities, whoever, they can dream, but the goddess doesn’t descend to mortal soil.”
“So… drop it? Find someone else? Forget Mars?”
“It’s not like there aren’t other models. We don’t need to hang ourselves from one tree.”
The president said, “Hold on, no need to panic. We might not even need Sister Yue to do anything.”
“How so?”
“Mars has reached out to her several times, all ignored. Once, he even DM’d Jiang’s Private Kitchen’s official Weibo account like a lovesick fool, gushing over her and begging her to model for him, offering an insane sum. But the admin thought he was a scam account and blocked him.”
HAHAHAHAHAHA—
“This poor supermodel!”
“Forbes Top 10? So what! My Goddess Yue ignores who she wants, money’s useless.”
“Just thinking that we’re at the same university as Sister Yue, sometimes even see her at the cafeteria, why do I feel… oddly superior?”
“Understandable! A top model can’t even meet her, while we bump into her casually and chat. How not to feel smug?”
“So what happened next? After getting blocked?”
The president coughed. “Rumor has it, in desperation, Mars even thought about @-ing her publicly to beg for a follow. But she doesn’t have social media. He couldn’t tag her. His agent said that’d look too desperate and begged him to stop. Eventually, he gave up.”
“Well… all I can say is, even supermodels can lose their minds.”
“That’s the power of Sister Yue’s charm.”
The president went on, “If we tell Mars that Sister Yue’s at Ming University, do you think he’ll come? We don’t have to pressure him, if he comes, great; if not, fine. It’s voluntary, no debts either way.”
“Perfect!”
“We’ll leave the choice to him, his call.”
“I bet a bag of spicy strips he’ll agree and be over the moon about it.”
“I’ll double that two bags.”
…
And sure enough, Sister Yue’s charm proved unstoppable. Barely moments after the modeling club contacted Mars’s agent, Mars himself called back—
“Oh! What a rare opportunity! I’d be absolutely delighted! When can we start? The day after tomorrow? Perfect!”
He sounded so enthusiastic it was hard to believe he was a top model.
With that, the modeling club had everything locked in, ready for takeoff!
That night, after two months of silence, Mars suddenly posted on social media. No words, just emojis—
[✌️][✌️][✌️]
Happy as a child.
Fans were puzzled, tabloids speculated wildly, but the Ming University modeling club knew exactly what those three emojis meant.
“…He really is a simp.”
“All I can say, Sister Yue’s a legend.”
…
In the lab.
Jiang Fuyue and Xu Kaiqing were locked in an argument over the order of the final two experimental steps.
Xu Kaiqing: “I still say Step 2 should come before Step 1.”
Jiang Fuyue insisted, “The original sequence is correct. I don’t think it needs changing.”
Neither would yield.
Old Peter from the next lab overheard and hurried over to mediate.
“Alright, alright, take a break, both of you. You’ve been working nonstop for a week, even Superman would crack. Rest a bit, clear your heads.”
Xu Kaiqing sighed. “Fine.”
Jiang Fuyue shrugged. She didn’t mind a break, her thinking had been clear all along.
“I’ll go buy a drink,” she said, hanging up her lab coat and leaving.
There was a water dispenser in the lab; she just wanted to give Xu some quiet space to think.
Old Peter chuckled. “See? Look at Chou, so considerate.”
Xu Kaiqing groaned, “I just get loud when I’m worked up, you know that. I didn’t mean to yell…”
She wasn’t kidding about buying drinks, she even brought back coconut milk for both Xu and Peter.
Those two old guys loved the stuff.
On her way back, she received an invitation—
“From the Fashion Club?”
“Yes! The F Club. The application’s been approved and we’re launching soon. We’d like to invite you to be the first issue’s ‘Fashion Icon.’ We’ll need to take a photo set and do a short interview, would that be okay?”
Jiang Fuyue closed the letter. “When?”
“Anytime! Whenever you’re free!”
They arranged a time, and she returned to the lab.
Xu Kaiqing had figured things out and immediately grabbed her excitedly. “You were right! The sequence shouldn’t be swapped because—”
He launched into a long, rapid explanation, ending with, “Chou, you’re brilliant.”
Jiang Fuyue: “…”
The day of the shoot.
The fashion club had hired a well-known photographer. He was flamboyant, with quite the attitude.
The president greeted him politely: “Our model is very busy, she only has one hour. Styling will take twenty minutes, so we’ll have maybe forty minutes for the actual shoot. I’m sorry to rush you, but please work quickly…”
“Ha,” the photographer snorted. “Finish in forty minutes? You’re joking, right? I’ve worked in this field for over ten years and never heard such nonsense. Even A-list stars aren’t this ‘busy.’ She’s not above an international film queen.”
The president, a rich girl with a sharp tongue and long legs, didn’t flinch. She smiled coolly. “Well, you’ve heard it now. You’re welcome, for broadening your horizons, free of charge.”
“And no, our model can’t be compared to some ‘A-list’ or ‘film queen.’ They don’t deserve it. Who are they to even be mentioned in the same breath as Sister Yue? What a joke.”
“Lastly, shoot if you want, walk if you don’t. I don’t care who you are or what connections you’ve got. The one paying is the boss! We paid you six figures, not to stand around whining like a diva. Save that entertainment-industry cr*p for someone else!”
The photographer froze.
His flamboyance evaporated instantly. “Ahem…”
These university girls really didn’t play by the usual rules.
He’d done shoots for clubs at top universities before—Finance U, Central U—where the girls were all overly polite, eager, deferential. They’d ask him about celebrity gossip, hang on his every word, all wide-eyed and starry.
That was when he always felt superior, like a big shot.
But now…
These girls just minded their own business. Didn’t even offer him water.
No gossip, no fawning.
And from the president’s attitude, it was clear, they didn’t look up to the entertainment world at all. In fact, they seemed to despise it a little.
Then, when the president went to touch up her makeup, she rummaged through a pile of stuff and casually pulled out a Himalaya 30 Birkin with a diamond clasp.
The ultimate luxury bag treated like junk?
And none of the other girls even blinked.
The photographer was stunned.
Celebrities who owned one would worship it like an ancestor but this girl just tossed it on a cluttered table?
His first thought: It must be a fake.
But after a closer look, triple-checking every detail, no doubt. It was real.
And very possibly the one that had just sold for half a million dollars at Christie’s.
He looked again, every girl was wearing the latest designer pieces. Even the trash bin in the corner was LV.
While he was still reeling, a voice rang out—
“Sister Yue’s here!”
In an instant, all the girls turned, faces lighting up as they rushed to the door.
Even the photographer couldn’t help feeling curious…
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