novelraw Chapter 499 : Salute to This Encounter
Chapter 499 : Salute to This Encounter
Chapter 499: Salute to This Encounter
On June 15, the school issued a notice.
Fourth-year students were to leave campus before the end of June.
All students understood that this time, it was really graduation.
These days, the dormitory buildings where the fourth-year seniors lived became incredibly lively at night, with noisy sounds continuing until very late.
The aunties responsible for managing the dormitory buildings tacitly ignored this.
With the imminent departure from campus, some rules could be flexibly relaxed.
For instance, normally it wasn't allowed to bring alcohol bottles into the dorms, and they had to be smuggled in backpacks.
Now, even if you directly carried a case of beer into the dorm, the aunties wouldn't say a word.
At night, each dorm room spent these last few days of college in their own way.
Some were howling and singing, some were crying their eyes out over breakups, some guys got drunk and, emboldened by alcohol, rushed to the balcony to shout at the girls' dormitory across the way.
"Any beauties over there? Make a sound if there are!"
Soon, a response came from the girls' dorm opposite.
"What's up?"
A guy yelled at the top of his lungs: "Beauties, we're about to graduate, do you have boyfriends?"
A group of girls joined in the commotion.
"No!"
Then this guy directly came out with:
"I do!"
This instantly caused uproarious laughter from the surrounding dormitory buildings.
All at once, guys started running out onto the balconies of various dorm rooms, beginning a grand shouting event.
Some took this opportunity to boldly confess to girls they liked on the opposite side.
And the girls across the way gave enthusiastic responses in return.
Some guys, emboldened by alcohol, mustered up the courage to run to the foot of the girls' dormitory building, shouting the names of the girls they liked.
They wanted to leave no regrets in their youth.
Unfortunately.
The beautiful is destined to be a fairy tale.
College romances that could last to the end were few and far between, more often faced with cold reality and tears.
College love is the purest, fresh, naive, passionate and bright, unforgettable.
College love is also the cruelest, brief, bitter, painful and helpless, leaving one nostalgic, heartbroken and devastated.
Before leaving campus, dorm 519 extended an invitation to their paired dorm 326.
The girls from 326 agreed.
The dining location was still the same restaurant where they first met, in that same private room.
This time, no one was late, everyone arrived at the agreed time.
Just like the first meeting, the boys from 519 sat in one row, the girls from 326 in another.
In 326, Liu Qianqian, who had fallen out and hadn't spoken for a long time, came, and Li Jiao came too.
Evidently, they still valued this gathering very much.
Unfortunately, 519 was missing one person.
Youth is destined to be imperfect.
Both sides took their seats, silence fell, and for a moment no one spoke.
Chen Fan called over a waiter, asking him to bring another chair and set of tableware.
Everyone knew whose place setting this was, but no one mentioned it.
Usually at times like this, Wu Di would be the first to give an opening speech.
But today, Wu Di's state seemed off, as his gaze kept fixating on Su Qing.
Wu Di had been accepted as a civil servant in Yunhai, while Su Qing had been admitted to a graduate program at a university in the west.
From now on, the two would begin a long three-year long-distance relationship.
With Wu Di not in the right state, Chen Fan's gaze turned to Sun Hao and Han Xu on his left, but these two were both introverted, especially in front of girls. Having them host such an occasion would probably not yield results for quite some time.
So Chen Fan had no choice but to give a look to Ma Xiaoshuai, the last one.
Ma Xiaoshuai and Song Linlin sat next to each other, among the two dorms, only their relationship was the most sincere and stable.
Getting Chen Fan's hint, Ma Xiaoshuai cleared his throat and raised his glass.
"How about... we start with a drink?"
"Pff..."
Sun Min and Lu Wei across couldn't help but laugh.
Chen Fan sighed.
What a bunch of useless guys.
At the crucial moment, not one could step up.
He'd have to do it himself.
Chen Fan raised his glass and stood up. At once, all eyes turned to him.
Chen Fan cleared his throat: "Four years ago, our two dorm rooms met here for the first dinner together."
"In such a large campus, among tens of thousands of students, for the people in our two dorm rooms to meet and get to know each other, this is fate."
"During these four years, we've had gatherings, misunderstandings, conflicts, and even hurt... but I'm very glad that in the end, the friendship between our two dorm rooms withstood the test, and what's more fortunate is that it even brought about several couples, who have persevered to the end."
"For this first toast, let's raise our glasses together, to our dorm friendship, may it last as long as the earth and sky, never fading."
With that, Chen Fan drained his glass.
The people from the two dorm rooms in the room looked at each other, raised their glasses, and regardless of gender, all emptied their drinks.
Chen Fan filled the second glass and continued speaking.
"This second toast, blessings to those who became couples, may you persevere to complete this marathon, and finally enter the hall of marriage. To those still single, may you find your true love soon."
Everyone raised their glasses again.
Chen Fan poured the third glass.
"This third glass..."
"After drinking this third glass, we'll all be graduating, leaving school, and our future paths will diverge. Even if our paths are different, it's been an honor to walk a part of the journey with you all."
"These four years of university, we briefly intersected, and now as the tide ebbs, we salute this encounter."
"In the days to come, I wish for you all to have someone to share the sunset with, someone to ask if your porridge is warm enough."
"May we complete thousands of journeys through mountains and waters, not forgetting our original aspirations, still meeting with our ideals. May we set out for mountains and seas, each achieving our own greatness, and then..."
"Meet again at greater heights."
Chen Fan raised his glass.
"Let's encourage each other!"
"Cheers!"
This time, everyone stood up.
"Cheers!"
After three drinks, the atmosphere among everyone finally livened up.
The girls from 326 changed from their usual personalities, starting to actively drink with the boys.
Liu Qianqian pulled Sun Hao to drink, hearing that Sun Hao and his girlfriend had persevered through four years of long-distance relationship without breaking up, Liu Qianqian insisted on drinking a couple of glasses with this guy.
"If I had known you were so faithful, I was blind back then, spilling all my passion on a dog. If I had known, I would have had a passionate romance with you."
Sun Hao looked very awkward, while Li Jiao across also seemed a bit uncomfortable.
Lu Wei and Sun Min surrounded Ma Xiaoshuai, at one moment teasing that if they had known he was a rich second generation, they wouldn't have let Song Linlin have him no matter what.
The next moment, they were laughing and blessing the two to definitely persevere.
Li Jiao was consoling Han Xu: "That girlfriend of yours was short-sighted, you deserve better in the future, come on! Let's have a drink."
As for Chen Fan, he was the most popular one, with several girls coming to drink with him in turns.
Especially when they first entered university, Li Jiao and Liu Qianqian and the others had privately discussed Chen Fan, having good impressions of him, but unfortunately, Chen Fan never gave them a chance.
Finally, Su Qing took the initiative to bring her beer to Chen Fan's front.
"What you said just now was really good."
Chen Fan smiled: "To avoid embarrassment, I prepared some notes from the internet in advance."
Su Qing pouted: "I don't believe you."
Chen Fan's gaze glanced at Wu Di over there, who was currently drinking with Liu Qianqian and Lu Wei.
"You and Wu Di... are you two okay?"
Su Qing glanced at Chen Fan.
"You noticed?"