Super Zoo

If it were up to Suming's stereotypical impression of "class reunions," he initially had a certain aversion to such gatherings.

Back in school, there was not much difference between the students.

While some came from families with good economic conditions and others from poorer ones, and the family backgrounds of different students could be worlds apart, there were those like Wang Hao, whose father held a high official position, and those like Suming, whose parents were both in the countryside.

But thanks to the particular environment of the university, regardless of whether one was the pride of the heavens or an ordinary person, everyone ate in the same large cafeteria, where at most one person might spend ten yuan on a meal while another might eat less meat and spend only two or three; everyone lived in the same dormitory buildings, with six people to a room regardless of wealth, enduring biting cold in the winter and searing heat in the summer, with the most well-off perhaps using a ten thousand yuan laptop in their room, while the less wealthy used second-hand desktop computers.

So campus life greatly diminished the material and class disparities between people. Nobody wore labels of wealth or power on their foreheads. Differences were more about each person's individual personality.

In school, the most popular person often wasn't the one with the wealthiest family, or the largest official in their family, or even the one with the best external conditions.

The first type included students with talents. For instance, boys who were good at soccer, could play the guitar, or were handsome; the second type were those with good personalities, like the straightforward and broad-minded Wang Hao who didn't sweat the small stuff, or those like Shen Yan, who were usually quiet but would always lend a hand when needed, or like the class monitor Yang Tao, who took care of other students like a big brother.

All in all, in the school environment, interaction and attraction between people diminished external factors to the greatest extent. People liked each other for who they were, not because of any added value.

But once in society, it was a different story altogether.

People with inherently different personalities, like commodities, were tagged with various labels. He is a civil servant, he is a small business owner, he has a permanent position at a school, he's a state-owned enterprise employee, he is a city dweller with two houses... With these labels came snap judgments about a person, while their actual character was often overlooked.

In school, young students would often say, "So what if you have money?" In society, a common refrain became, "A good person? Can being good feed you?"

After entering society, it's inevitable that one's values would change. What was once deemed very important would, in no time, become inconsequential, while things that were never considered before suddenly became a lifelong pursuit under the pressure of reality.

It's said that one does not return to their hometown dressed in wealth as though walking through it in the stealth of night. Now, many class reunions have, under the guise of reconnecting with old classmates, turned into a performance for boasting one's achievements in front of former schoolmates.

The wealthy flaunt their wealth. If someone arrives late, they promptly punish themselves with a drink, sheepishly explaining they just signed another multimillion deal and couldn't help being late; their classmates are asked to understand.

A few who don't usually care much about money suddenly shift conversations to recent housing prices, complaining about how prices in the east district are hitting thirty thousand per square meter, only for someone to chuckle and mention how lucky they were to buy a property earlier in the year.

Those with houses boast about their homes, those without houses flaunt their cars. Casually sitting down, they inadvertently place their phone and car keys on the table; a classmate notices and exclaims, "Oh, you came in a Mercedes, not bad!" Meanwhile, someone else might laugh self-deprecatingly and say, "Look at him! He used to have lower grades than me, and now he's driving a Mercedes while I'm stuck with a Cadillac, a second-tier brand." There'd always be someone to play along in such occasions, especially the few who didn't even have a car. A Toyota owner would jokingly add that a Cadillac is still a luxury car, unlike their Toyota...

While the male classmates competed over houses, cars, and money, the females compared husbands. With a feigned dissatisfaction, one would say, "Don't be envious of me. My husband is always socializing outside for business, so busy he doesn't have time to travel with me. He couldn't even join me on my Dubai trip. I'll show you the pictures!" Saying this, she would casually head to the cloakroom, take out her LV bag, pull out her phone, and start sharing selfies from her Dubai trip with a few 'besties'. Then, she would carelessly place her bag on the table, the side with the brand facing outward...

Seeing this, a quietly composed girl sighed and said, "You're so lucky, married to a rich man. My guy, on the other hand, is stuck in the office all day. To the outside world, he's a big shot leader, but all he makes is a fixed salary each month, and he's not even free."

The LV-bag lady smiled and asked what her husband did. The quiet girl simply smiled and responded, "He's just a minor bureau chief."

The whole table fell silent with respect, as the serene girl showed a content smile of satiety from a full meal, saying casually, "Ah, a tiny official as insignificant as a sesame seed. But he's young, only in his thirties this year. He has prospects for career advancement. Otherwise, I would have made him resign and enter the private sector long ago."

Speaking of youth, there was a slight twitch on the LV lady's young face.

As the wine went round thrice, and everyone became tipsy, understanding each other's current situation, the atmosphere at the table gradually warmed and became lively, and unconsciously, a few small cliques formed.

Those with children at home got closer to the ones who were teachers, as future school enrollments for their kids might require a favor; the doctors and civil servants discussed staffing structures, inquiring if there were any whispers of hospital reforms on the bureaucratic side. A few who were doing so-so started to gossip loudly. Their voices carried across the private room, discussing which part of the world conflict was brewing again, whose region was unstable, pontificating like they were in the United Nations...

The former class belle watched her old classmate, now a big-time boss, with mixed feelings. How could she have been so blind to reject him back then? Aside from being handsome, her current husband had nothing notable to offer. She squinted and scrutinized; that guy seemed more masculine by the minute... The class belle's gaze naturally didn't escape the wealthy classmate, and they toasted each other, jostled playfully, reliving the school days vibe. They joked about the past, half-jokingly saying if only she'd known he would be so successful, she wouldn't have rejected him. After a few drinks, he found the once-belle had ripened into a distinctive charm; now successful, it was time to make up for past regrets...

By the end of the banquet, someone flushed with drink pulled out their wallet, loudly insisting on paying the bill, declaring anyone not letting them was an affront to their dignity. You couldn't stop them. Those who had fared poorly at life were just freeloaders for the meal, while those who had succeeded flaunted their achievements to old classmates, leaving content and satisfied. The big spender, all smiles, offered to drive the tipsy class belle home, to which she feigned naivety warning, "Okay, but don't you dare try anything naughty..." They both jumped into the car and sped away...

After a few reunions, the attendance was no longer as full as the first time. Those who were most successful quickly lost interest in these gatherings; those who hadn't done well felt a stab of jealousy each time, leaving only those in the middle to continue showing off their modest successes at the banquets while secretly gossiping about the absentees—whose wealthy husband got divorced, who fled after their business went under, who hooked up with someone in a hotel after the last reunion, and got caught by their spouse...

Many reunions had lost their original flavor, no longer simply occasions for old friends to catch up and chat, but filled with all sorts of uncomfortable stuff. So Suming originally wasn't very interested in reunions.

His presence this time was mainly because the years since graduation weren't too many, and the stench of society shouldn't be too strong; his own business was doing quite well. He wasn't one to flaunt it, knowing it would be asking for trouble if someone tried boasting in front of him.

The most important reason, however, was the organizer of this reunion, Yang Tao.

Yang Tao was Suming's class monitor in college, a high school classmate, and his and Wang Hao's roommate. They had a good relationship even in high school, not best buddies, but often hung out together, and by coincidence, ended up in the same dorm at university.

Suming was willing to go mainly out of respect for Yang Tao. Yang Tao's election as class monitor was uncontested; of the more than fifty-class members, nearly all voted for him because he was extremely loyal!

Wang Hao was loyal too, but his loyalty differed from Yang Tao's. Wang Hao was the kind-hearted, boisterous type, who would pat his chest in a crisis saying, "Bro, don't worry, I've got this!" and then he'd spectacularly resolve it.

Yang Tao was different; he wasn't much for conversation and didn't stage dramatic scenes. When someone needed help, he'd often silently take care of it without making a fuss. Sometimes, the person didn't even realize he had been helped.

Over time, it became clear to everyone that Yang Tao was genuinely altruistic. This isn't to say that Wang Hao's altruism was false. Wang Hao's was more extroverted, while Yang Tao's was more stable, managing to handle things smoothly with minimal impact.

Some class presidents were merely the teacher's assistants and spies, helping to supervise the students, but after Yang Tao became class monitor, he consistently stood with his classmates, mediating conflicts or misunderstandings between the students and the teachers or the school authorities, always fighting for the students' best interests.

Strangely enough, despite standing up for the students, his prestige wasn't just high among his classmates but also with the teachers and school management, who thought highly of his leadership as a student representative.

Yang Tao served as class monitor from the second semester of sophomore year until graduation. His family was from out of town, running a small business. After graduation, he seemed to have joined the family enterprise.

————End of Chapter————

Today's chapter is a solid 3,000 words. I'm hustling to revise previous manuscripts, and many chapters require major reworking—a headache indeed... There are almost fifty chapters out of the first three hundred that underwent revisions...