Genius Club

Chapter 153: Chapter 2 Classmate Reunion Chapter 153: Chapter 2 Classmate Reunion New Year’s Day.

The festive atmosphere of the small county town was still very lively.

Lin Xian was in the yard, replying to Chu Anqing’s New Year’s blessings—

“Good brother!”

Gao Yang laughed heartily as he rushed over like a human cannonball, landing a critical hit on Lin Xian’s stomach with his belly.

“Just finished with everything, huh.”

Lin Xian looked at Gao Yang, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time.

These past few days, he had no idea what he had been up to; although they lived in the same residential compound and weren’t far from each other, this was the first time he had seen Gao Yang since he returned two days ago.

“Ah, my family has many relatives and lots of New Year’s traditions, so I’ve been really busy.”

Lin Xian’s mother called the two in to sit and brought out some snacks, looking at Gao Yang:

“It’s been a year, and Lin Xian has maintained his figure quite well, but you, Gao Yang, have put on quite a bit of weight.”

“Hey, auntie, why bring that up!”

Gao Yang wrapped his arm around Lin Xian’s neck:

“You know, Lin Xian is the top male model of our company, highly favored by our female boss.

He has to keep a good image, right?”

“Get lost!

What nonsense are you spouting!”

Lin Xian pushed Gao Yang’s hand away.

Others might overhear and think he was living off a woman.

Lucky for Lin Xian, his mother had watched Gao Yang grow up and knew he was always running his mouth.

She chuckled and said:

“Still, at your ages, you really should start looking for partners.

You don’t necessarily have to find someone in Donghai, finding a local from Hang City is fine, too.

High-speed trains make travel convenient nowadays, and it wouldn’t be bad to find someone from your hometown.”

“Don’t worry, auntie!”

Gao Yang grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and began counting on his fingers:

“Lin Xian has plenty of options.

Let’s not even mention the ones in Donghai.

Just take this high school reunion, for instance; several girls specifically asked me about Lin Xian’s relationship status!

Tang Xin, Wen Jing, Li Ling…”

“Enough already, stop talking nonsense.”

Lin Xian interrupted him:

“Isn’t the reunion on the night of the fifth?

How are the arrangements going?

How many people are coming?”

“It’s hard to say right now.

People are adding and dropping out; one moment someone says they’re coming, the next they say they’re not.

Anyway, for now, it looks like more than thirty have confirmed, and our homeroom teacher is coming too.”

More than thirty…

That’s not too few.

Lin Xian remembered there were over fifty or maybe sixty students in his high school class.

Having more than half attend was quite good.

Four years of college had passed, and he had little recollection of many high school classmates, with mostly just names left in memory.

As for those three girls just mentioned, his impression was vague, especially Tang Xin…

He had absolutely no memory of her at all.

She had only been a classmate for a few days before going abroad to study.

Lin Xian couldn’t understand why someone who was barely a classmate for a few days would bother attending the reunion…

Wouldn’t it be awkward for her?

“Do you remember Tang Xin?”

Lin Xian asked Gao Yang,

“Do you know what she looks like?”

“I don’t,” Gao Yang unsurprisingly shook his head:

“No impression at all, I just know she’s a girl.”

“Didn’t you ask around?”

“Who’s there to ask…

No one was close to her.” Gao Yang spat out the shell of the sunflower seeds and turned to Lin Xian:

“Hey, why so curious?

Won’t you know when you see her there?”

“Fine.”

…

These New Year’s days.

They were even busier than when working.

During the daytime, there were various things to do, like visiting friends and relatives…

And at night, he would be dragged out for drinks and cards, usually sleeping past midnight, which left little time for dreaming.

Only on the third day of the New Year did he go to bed slightly earlier, around 11:30 PM.

When he arrived in the poor little village, the streets were silent with not a soul in sight.

Lin Xian then stole Big Face Cat’s motorcycle and rode around for a while, glimpsing the nightscape of New Donghai City from afar.

When he arrived at the Waste Treatment Plant at address 221, there was no sign of activity or any trace outside the wall.

And on the small hill where everyone was supposed to meet, the van was nowhere to be seen.

This puzzled Lin Xian.

Could it be that because he hadn’t joined the evening’s plans, Big Face Cat and the others had canceled their schedule for tonight?

Or had something happened along the way?

They couldn’t possibly have gotten into a real fight with CC…

could they?

“It’s not impossible.”

But that had nothing to do with the subsequent plans.

According to his own plot design, CC would also join Lian Gang like him, becoming the sixth Saint in the gang, and the rabble from The First Dreamland came together once again.

…

The fifth day of the first lunar month.

In the evening, at Guihe Hotel.

“Oh!

Xia Lin, Xia Yuan!

You twins, getting chubby together!”

Gao Yang chuckled as he playfully slapped the beer bellies of the twin brothers, then ticked off their names on the list he was holding:

“You guys are so late!

No sense of time, just like back when we were in school!”

Xia Lin and Xia Yuan, the pair of twins with the same chubby appearance, laughed heartily.

But actually, you didn’t need to look closely to tell them apart.

Lin Xian was never wrong in distinguishing them during high school, let alone after five years; there were noticeable differences in their appearances.

This was also the reason Lin Xian firmly believed that Chu Anqing and CC must share some sort of connection…

Even identical twins, due to factors such as subsequent growth, couldn’t possibly look exactly alike.

Their kind of carbon-copy similarity was really pushing it.

“Is anyone else coming?” Xia Yuan asked with his frank voice.

“A few more are on the way.

You two go upstairs and chat with the classmates first.

Lin Xian and I will greet people down here,” Gao Yang replied.

The twin brothers went upstairs.

Lin Xian and Gao Yang then welcomed a few female classmates who arrived together, telling them they could sit at any of the four large dining tables in the largest private room upstairs.

Watching the beauties ascend, Gao Yang leaned in and whispered with a snicker:

“Did you notice?

Four years of college really make a difference.

The girls from our class have all gotten prettier!”

“Well, they’ve learned how to do makeup and dress up.

It’s normal,” replied Lin Xian.

“You have a good chance to choose, Lin Xian.

None of our female classmates are married yet.”

“Isn’t that obvious…

We just graduated from college.

Who’s getting married now?”

“`

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“`

Gao Yang nodded and, looking at the list covered in check marks, said,

“It seems like everyone in our class got into college, regardless of the quality of the college…

After all, we’re all college students, which is quite something to be proud of.

Other classes have many who stopped studying after high school, some are even married with kids now.”

“Just two people left to arrive…

Tang Xin, Zhou Duanyun, why are they being so slow?”

“Why don’t you give Tang Xin a call?” Lin Xian suddenly suggested, instructing Gao Yang,

“Tang Xin was only our classmate for a few days after all, she doesn’t know what you or I look like…

There are many people here for the meal today, someone else might get the wrong place.”

“You make a good point.”

Gao Yang nodded, took out his phone, and started to look for Tang Xin’s WeChat to initiate a voice chat—

“Hi, Lin Xian.”

A coquettish greeting, extremely sweet-sounding.

Lin Xian and Gao Yang couldn’t help but raise their heads…

Standing in front of Lin Xian was a tall, short-haired girl in a brown coat.

The key point is, she was very pretty.

The kind of pretty that had an aura about it, just like a TV hostess.

Gao Yang with his uneven eyes looked at Lin Xian, a theatric expression of someone watching a drama on his face.

“Do you remember me?”

The girl’s voice was sweet and clear; she smoothed back the hair behind her ear and bashfully smiled,

“I’m Tang Xin.”

“Oh—oh oh oh oh oh oh!!!” Gao Yang, shrieking like a goose coming to its senses, pretended to laugh heartily,

“Hi!

Look at you!

How could we forget!

With a beauty like you, how could we forget!

Right Lin Xian?”

Lin Xian smiled and nodded his head.

No matter whether they remembered or not…

at this time, they had to say they remembered, otherwise, they would embarrass the girl too much:

“It’s been a long time, I didn’t recognize you at first, after all, you went abroad to study not long after school started, when did you come back?”

Lin Xian casually threw out the only two bits of information he knew, feigning familiarity.

“Oh my, you really do remember me.”

Tang Xin was somewhat surprised but more than surprise, it was the joy radiating from her face as she looked at Lin Xian and smiled slightly,

“I thought you had forgotten about me.”

“How could that be, we’re classmates after all, that’s not easily forgotten.” Lin Xian and Gao Yang laughed awkwardly.

“I only came back a few days ago.” Tang Xin ran her fingers through the short hair behind her ear, her gaze never leaving Lin Xian,

“I heard from Gao Yang that you’re working in Donghai now?

I’ve heard you’re already a Vice President at a big company, that’s really impressive.”

“Not really, just lucky, I guess.”

“I should be going to work in Donghai after the New Year, too.” Tang Xin smiled, her knees nudging her handbag,

“I’ll be looking forward to your guidance since I’ve never been to the city of Donghai before.”

“Of course, welcome.”

Lin Xian patted Gao Yang’s shoulder,

“Gao Yang is also in Donghai, you can come to us for anything, we’re all classmates so don’t be a stranger.”

“Then I’ll thank you in advance.”

Tang Xin smiled sweetly,

“You haven’t changed at all, Lin Xian, I recognized you from a distance.”

“Then you have a really good memory…”

Tang Xin’s unexpectedly warm attitude toward him caught Lin Xian a little off guard.

Indeed, he had completely forgotten about her and had no recollection at all, but to think that just a few days as classmates was enough for Tang Xin to remember his face so clearly…

even after five years to recognize him at a glance.

“Of course, because it was an unforgettable impression!” Tang Xin giggled, her bright teeth and red lips facing Lin Xian,

“Do you remember…””Holy shit!!

Lin Xian look!!

A Rolls-Royce!!

Holy shit!!”

Gao Yang’s shouts interrupted their conversation, and Lin Xian looked toward the hotel entrance following Gao Yang’s loud gesticulations.

A black and purple Rolls-Royce Phantom arrogantly parked diagonally in front of the hotel!

The receptionist at the entrance immediately went up to welcome it; the car door to the rear seat of the Rolls-Royce directly opened, and a man in a crisp suit with a neatly combed hairstyle smiled as he stepped out of the car.

He straightened his collar briefly before strutting over in gleaming leather shoes.

“Lin Xian…

Dragon King Asura, Chen Beixuan has arrived,” Gao Yang whispered in Lin Xian’s ear.

“Who’s that?

Someone from our class?” Lin Xian whispered back.

“Yeah!

Didn’t you recognize him?

That’s Zhou Duanyun!”

Lin Xian blinked.

He really didn’t recognize him.

His memory of Zhou Duanyun…

was of a poor kid wearing very old clothes, with long hair, sitting in the back of the classroom…

always looking down, not fond of talking, and seemingly very self-conscious.

Lin Xian also didn’t remember having any conversations with Zhou Duanyun, so he didn’t have much impression of him.

But that pufferfish haircut and the memory of him not talking were still there, yet the shiny business elite in front of him, clearly a successful person who had just wrapped up some deals worth hundreds of millions.

He just didn’t match up with the memory of that self-conscious, plain boy.

Does money really make such a difference in a person?

“Leader Gao.”

The shining Zhou Duanyun had every inch of his smile under control; he walked up to Gao Yang, extended his hand, and shook hands with him.

“Not bad Zhou Duanyun, you’ve made a fortune!”

“Just joking…

I was busy negotiating deals and didn’t have time to change before coming, otherwise I wouldn’t have dressed like this for a class reunion, don’t want to make everyone laugh.”

After saying this, Zhou Duanyun turned his head to look at Lin Xian and also stretched out his hand with a smile,

“Lin Xian, long time no see, you’re still so handsome.”

“You too, really, you’ve matured a lot more than us.” Lin Xian smiled and shook hands with Zhou Duanyun.

He found that there were indeed many memory savants at this class reunion, how come everyone had such good memories?

Or was he really that remarkable, a fleeting glimpse, never to be forgotten?

“Lin Xian, where are you working now?”

“In Donghai, just making a living.”

“Oh, what a coincidence?” Zhou Duanyun said with a chuckle looking at Lin Xian,

“After the New Year…

I’m also planning to go develop in Donghai!”

“`