In the morning, as Xia Yu was thinking about what to do during the day, his academic advisor called him.
Answering the phone, Xia Yu felt puzzled about what the advisor could want now.
“Xia Yu, come to my office now to pick up the tickets for the Mid-Autumn Festival gala,” the advisor instructed.
At other universities, the Mid-Autumn Festival gala was hardly attended, but at Hua University, the seats were in high demand. As a result, tickets were required for entry.
Xia Yu could enter the gala with Liu Manman without tickets, but he thought about getting a ticket for You Xue.
She would definitely be very happy and could show off to her close female friends.
“Okay, I’ll come right away.”
Leaving his house, Xia Yu headed straight to campus. Forty minutes later, he arrived at the advisor’s office.
The advisor handed him seven tickets: “Three are for you, and four are for the class. You can distribute them to whoever in the class wants to go.”
Taking the tickets, Xia Yu realized the advisor was trying to use power to corrupt him. Since tickets were in short supply, distributing them was a significant power.
“Do come and watch. This year’s gala will have a secret surprise,” the advisor said mysteriously.
“What surprise?” Xia Yu asked curiously, planning to find out and then tell You Xue to make her happy.
“I heard it from Professor Shen. He said you young people would be really excited, but I don’t know the details myself,” the advisor said with a smug expression. Although he hadn’t received specific information from Shen Sheng, being able to talk with Professor Shen was already impressive.
Recently, the female teachers had clearly started looking at him differently.
He also knew that his ability to speak with Shen Sheng was entirely due to Xia Yu, so he treated Xia Yu very well.
Since the advisor didn’t know the specific details either, Xia Yu lost interest in the gossip and left the office with the tickets.
Looking at the tickets in his hand, Xia Yu considered how to distribute them.
He could give his three tickets to You Xue without hesitation. The problem was the four class tickets.
He could barely remember a few of his classmates’ names; how could he distribute the tickets?
Xia Yu fell into deep thought.
Should he give the tickets to Yi Shiyou or Duan Yi, letting the two class president candidates distribute them?
But soon after, Xia Yu dismissed this idea.
Distributing tickets was a demonstration of power. Giving them to anyone would boost that person’s influence.
It wasn’t that he worried about affecting the class president election, but rather:
Neither Yi Shiyou nor Duan Yi had any real relationship with him. Why should he give them an advantage? Especially Yi Shiyou, who had first tried to use schemes to prevent himself from running for class president, then tried to use his relationship with the advisor.
Even the help he received at the beginning of the semester, when Yi covered for him regarding his absence, had been purely out of self-interest.
Xia Yu didn’t hate this kind of person, but he didn’t like them either.
But if he didn’t give the tickets to either of them, how should he distribute them?
As he pondered, he walked along the road.
“Xia Yu!” At this moment, a voice came from behind him.
Turning around, Xia Yu saw Qin Youliang.
Qin Youliang, with his five friends, was on the way to the playground to play basketball.
“You’re actually on campus, that’s rare!” Qin Youliang looked at Xia Yu curiously. “Did the advisor call you? Don’t tell me the instructor reported you?”
“Do you think the instructor is someone who does their job conscientiously? He’d rather you all take leave and he gets his salary without working,” Xia Yu countered, and after thinking for two seconds, he had an idea about what to do with the tickets.
He handed the four tickets to Qin Youliang: “You came at just the right time. Here, these are for you.”
“What is this?” Qin Youliang took them and looked, “Tickets for the Mid-Autumn Festival gala? Who would go watch that?”
Qin Youliang, like Xia Yu, didn’t watch TV.
Among his friends, however, there were two who recognized the value. They snatched the tickets from Qin Youliang’s hand and examined them carefully.
“Really, these are really the gala tickets!” they exclaimed excitedly.
“What’s so great about this gala?” Qin Youliang asked curiously.
“Let me put it this way, the last gala had the following lineup…” The two listed several well-known names.
“That’s not even the main point. After all, those are too far removed from us, but many beautiful and famous senior female students will appear on stage, especially from the dance department. Their dancing, wow.”
Hearing the explanation, the remaining four became stirred up.
After the excitement, the six looked at Xia Yu with eager eyes.
Xia Yu shrugged: “I wanted to give them all to you, but these are our class’s tickets. I just got them from the advisor.”
“Then can we figure out a way to get two more?” one of them said.
“Anyway, I’ve already given the tickets to Qin Youliang. If you have ideas, go to him. Find a discreet way to get two more tickets. The girls won’t have too much objection anyway.” Xia Yu said.
University students were all adults, and everyone understood the unspoken rules. The advisor gave the tickets to Xia Yu precisely to give him the opportunity for such underhanded dealings.
The six men bowed to Xia Yu, saying things like “Great kindness needs no words,” “I will repay you in the future,” and “May you have a happy family,” before abandoning their basketball game and going back to figure out how to secretly secure two more tickets.
Xia Yu continued walking toward the school gate.
He was thinking about buying an electric scooter to keep on campus. The advisor’s office was relatively close to the school gate, yet it still took fifteen minutes to walk there.
Back home, Xia Yu gave his three tickets to You Xue. The girl excitedly hugged Xia Yu and went to her bedroom to consider which classmate to invite.
She didn’t close the door, so Xia Yu could hear her muttering.
“Lily won’t work; her family is too strict.”
“Nini won’t work either; her home is too far.”
“Leilei is nearby, but she’s too selfish.”
“Ruru is a candidate; she’s too timid, always relying on others.”
…
Xia Yu could understand the objective reasons mentioned earlier, but when she started analyzing personalities, he was somewhat taken aback.
However, these were indeed factors that needed to be considered.
At least it was reassuring knowing that You Xue wouldn’t be easily deceived by others.
Returning to his bedroom, Xia Yu hadn’t even had time to enjoy some free time when Liu Manman showed up again.
“Didn’t we agree to meet in the afternoon?” Xia Yu looked at Liu Manman helplessly.
“I’m nervous!” Liu Manman pulled Xia Yu’s clothes, saying, “I can already imagine tomorrow’s news headlines and the beating my phone will get tonight!”
To create a stunning debut effect for the piece, Liu Manman had even used her connections to avoid rehearsals.
“What does my being nervous have to do with you? I’m not nervous!” Xia Yu replied.
“How can you not be nervous? Don’t you remember how enthusiastic the audience was when we played ‘Isolated Dusty World’s Origin Palace’? This piece is even more valuable than that one!” Liu Manman said.
“Even if it’s more valuable, it won’t matter. The previous performance had professional audiences, but this time it’s not the case,” Xia Yu casually deflated Liu Manman’s excitement.
Realizing that this time wouldn’t create the same sensation as before, Liu Manman’s face turned blank.
She forcefully patted Xia Yu’s back: “How can you be like this!”
“However, even if the general audience doesn’t understand, the music circle people will! Tonight, a bunch of people will definitely come looking for me!” Liu Manman became happy again.
“Alright, go away. Don’t disturb me from playing games.”
Playing games until evening, the two went to the school together.
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