ECG -Chapter 28 Senior, Why Do You Say That?

The green-skinned train wound its way through the mountains, with lush primeval forests stretching out on both sides.

Chunhe was only 320 kilometers away from the provincial capital in a straight line, but the old green train stopped at every station. When going uphill, they could occasionally see old farmers slowly passing alongside the train, driving ox carts.

It wasn’t until after 6 p.m. that the train finally wheezed and puffed its way into the provincial capital.

Before getting off, the two of them exchanged contact information with Jiang Rong and Xia Yumeng. Unfortunately, only Xia Yumeng had a cellphone; the other three didn’t, so they could only repeat their schools and majors again.

Xia Yumeng told them her phone number, and Lin Hao asked Wu Xiaozhou to write it down.

Jiang Rong and Xia Yumeng were both in the Primary Education major at the Normal University. The two of them were truly brought together by fate. They hadn’t known each other before, but after sitting opposite each other on the train, they unexpectedly found out they were going to be classmates in the same university and the same major.

There were too many people, and before they even made it out of the train station, Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou were separated from the two girls by the crowd.

Wu Xiaozhou carried his electric bass on his back, shouldered his luggage, and dragged his suitcase along. Looking at the crowd surging like a tide, his face was full of regret.

Lin Hao really wanted to kick him and scolded, “Hurry up and go! In a while, the two of us will get separated too!”

The huge army of new students poured out of the train station. Not far from the exit, rows of large buses were waiting for them.

After squeezing through the crowd until their heads and faces were covered in sweat, Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou finally found the bus with the red banner that said “Art Academy.” A round-faced female senior was calling out for students to get on.

While helping them put their luggage into the storage compartment on the right side of the bus, the senior said to Wu Xiaozhou, “Why didn’t you put your instrument in a case? This is too dangerous!”

Wu Xiaozhou glanced sideways at Lin Hao.

He himself had no idea about this at all, and Lin Hao hadn’t told him to buy one either. By the time they were packing their luggage, they had discovered the problem, but it was already too late to buy one.

After putting away their luggage, the two of them climbed onto the bus and immediately saw Wan Yong walking over with a fat guy, both carrying luggage.

Wu Xiaozhou gave a cheeky smile and whispered, “I guessed right. This bastard really is also from the Art Academy!”

Lin Hao nodded without saying anything.

The provincial capital’s roads were extremely congested at this time. By the time they arrived at the Art Academy located in Jiangbei, it was already past 8 p.m.

There was no air conditioning on the bus. Although the windows were open, everyone was drenched in sweat.

Lin Hao hadn’t slept much on the train, but after getting on the bus he became sleepy instead. So, while sweating all over, he drifted in and out of sleep until they arrived. On his first day, he didn’t even get a proper look at what the school gate looked like.

There weren’t many freshmen on their bus, only 24 in total.

On campus, two male teachers and several senior students were already waiting.

A short, chubby male teacher wearing glasses held a loudspeaker and shouted:

“First line up and register, then go to the dormitory to put away your luggage, and after that go to the cafeteria to grab something to eat!”

Registration, collecting luggage…

Afterward, Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou, along with six other students, followed a senior student from the Fine Arts Department toward the dormitory.

The Fine Arts Department dormitory building was an old three-story building. The senior student was quite talkative along the way and led them up to the second floor.

Lin Hao and the others glanced curiously at the metal gate leading to the third floor.

The senior student smiled and said, “The third floor is the girls’ dormitory. This gate is our Chu River and Han Border—it’s an uncrossable line!”

All eight of them burst out laughing.

In the corridor, the senior student asked Wu Xiaozhou curiously, “I suspect you might have gone to the wrong place. Are you really from the Fine Arts Department?”

Wu Xiaozhou was stunned, then deliberately said, “Senior, why do you say that?”

The senior student pointed at the other students. “Look at them. Besides their luggage, every one of them has a drawing board. But you’re carrying a guitar!”

“Senior, this is an electric bass!” Wu Xiaozhou quickly corrected him.

“Oh, I don’t really understand either. Anyway, no matter how I look at you two, you don’t seem like people from our Fine Arts Department!”

Wu Xiaozhou chuckled. “What? Are students in the Fine Arts Department not allowed to have a few hobbies?”

The senior student burst out laughing and patted his shoulder.

“Fair point!”

Lin Hao felt that what the senior said was quite reasonable. Looking at those six students, each of them had a drawing board strapped to their backs—except for the two of them.

“There are still two spots left in Room 309. Room 310 is empty, and it can fit six people!” The senior continued, “You two should see how you want to arrange things.”

Wu Xiaozhou asked with a cheeky smile, “Senior, there aren’t any single rooms?”

The senior burst out laughing. “Forget students, even many of our teachers have to share a room with someone else!”

Wu Xiaozhou put on an exaggerated bitter expression.

Lin Hao thought for a moment, then said, “The two of us will go to 309.”

The senior nodded in satisfaction. He knocked a few times on the door of Room 309. After someone inside shouted for them to come in, he pushed the door open.

“Two new students are here. Everyone, give them a welcome!” The senior spoke enthusiastically.

Inside the dormitory, on the left side was a metal bunk bed, with a desk near the door.

On the right side against the wall were two more bunk beds, and in the middle, by the south-facing window, there was another desk.

The room was quite hot. The four young men inside were all shirtless. Two of them were lying on their beds reading, one was sitting on the lower bunk washing his feet, and the other was sitting in front of an easel drawing something.

All four raised their heads and looked toward the door. The three who were reading or drawing didn’t say anything; after taking one glance, they went back to what they were doing.

The one washing his feet was a tall, thin guy. He smiled and said, “Welcome, welcome! Our 309 has new members again!”

The senior nodded, then said to Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou, “Put your luggage down first. Come back and organize everything after dinner.”

The cafeteria was a little far away, but the food was pretty good: rice with four dishes, two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes.

They finished quickly. The senior gave them a few more reminders.

“Today is just a simple check-in. Tomorrow I’ll take you to your department to report and register. For the remaining two days, get familiar with the campus first. Our Art Academy is quite large!”

“The day after tomorrow, freshman military training will begin. Half a month later, the opening ceremony and the military training closing ceremony will be held together…”

On the way back to the dorm, Lin Hao walked while thinking.

Next, he needed to hurry up and handle the matter of changing majors. He didn’t want to wait until after military training to do it. He wanted to settle it tomorrow if possible!

“After we finish registering tomorrow, we’ll go deal with changing majors,” he lowered his voice and said to Wu Xiaozhou.

Wu Xiaozhou looked doubtful. “Can it be done that quickly? How about we attend classes first and then think about it?”

Lin Hao rolled his eyes at him. “We didn’t bring any art supplies at all. What the hell are we supposed to do in class? Besides, the longer you wait, the more problems there’ll be. Just listen to me.”

Although Lin Hao had never attended university before, he knew that changing majors was not a simple matter.

While Wu Xiaozhou had been practicing the guitar, Lin Hao had searched online as well. If a student wanted to change majors, they needed to have a genuine specialty. The student had to submit an application, be recommended by their current department, and then pass an assessment by the new department before they could successfully transfer.

Right now, there were two biggest obstacles:

First, freshmen who had been enrolled for less than one semester were not allowed to change majors.

Second, students were not allowed to change to a major with a large academic gap from their original one.

The two of them had just enrolled, and they were trying to switch from the Fine Arts Department to the Music Department. The difficulty would be very high.

The only thing they could rely on now was that their professional skills were strong enough.

Lin Hao had checked. The head of the Music Department at the Art Academy was Fan Gang, a piano major who had graduated from Central Conservatory of Music and had also studied in the United States for many years. He was highly renowned in China.

He had already prepared a plan in his mind.

He would win by surprise and use his professional ability to convince the department head.

As long as the department head valued talent and couldn’t bear to let the two of them go, this matter would become much easier!

The two returned to the dormitory. The tall, thin guy who had been washing his feet earlier was already lying down. The person who had been drawing was still painting, and the two people reading had not even changed their positions.

The two smiled and greeted everyone, then opened their luggage and started making their beds. There were only two top bunks left, but they didn’t mind. They didn’t even know how many days they would be sleeping here anyway, so there was no need to be picky.

Their suitcases only contained some clothes and toiletries. The two took their toothbrushes and cups and went to wash up.

After they left, the guy with glasses who had been reading raised his head and said to the tall, thin guy, “Boss, are these two from our department?”

The tall, thin guy chuckled. “I was wondering if they walked into the wrong room. That guy even brought a guitar!”

“Is that an electric guitar?”

“Oh, anyway, no matter how I look at it, they seem like undercover agents who infiltrated our army!”

After sitting on the train for an entire day, Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou were also exhausted. After washing up, they returned to the dormitory and climbed onto their beds.