Lu Fan returned to the pastry shop.

Seeing he was in a good mood, Chen He smiled and asked, "Boss, did you manage to get some of the missus’s soup?"

"You’re finally sharp for once, kid," Lu Fan said with a nod.

After all these days of trying to get along, he had finally gotten a taste of Jiang Yixia’s homemade soup.

It was a small step for him, but a giant leap in their journey toward reconciliation.

Seeing that Jiang Yixia wouldn’t be back at the flower shop anytime soon, Lu Fan said to Jiali, "Let’s head back to Jinling, then."

He hadn’t seen Jiang Silu in a long time and wanted to see his daughter.

Meanwhile, Jiang Silu was heading to the academic building with her laptop.

Over half an hour ago, the senior students had decided to gather the group members to report on their individual design progress.

As a first-year student, Jiang Silu naturally didn’t dare to be late or neglect her duties.

She arrived at the classroom and saw the senior students were all there. She immediately greeted them respectfully, "Hello, seniors. Teacher Chen asked me to come report on my design progress."

Since all the tasks had been assigned through online chat, this was the first time everyone was meeting in person.

When Jiang Silu appeared before them, the eyes of some of the male students instantly lit up.

"Hello, junior!" The first to speak was a tall, spectacled guy. He immediately introduced himself, "I’m a second-year senior. My name is Kong Le."

He took out his phone, opened the group chat, and pointed to a QQ profile picture. "This James profile pic, that’s me."

"Hello, senior," Jiang Silu said, bowing immediately.

Another guy also spoke up, "Hello, junior! I’m a third-year senior. My name is Peng Chengshuai—the ’shuai’ as in ’handsome.’"

"Haha, hello, Brother Peng," Jiang Silu responded.

The other students also introduced themselves one by one.

It was as if Jiang Silu’s arrival had given everyone a new, common topic of conversation.

After all, a first-year, a girl, and a pretty girl at that—she had all the buffs stacked to the max.

Although there were two senior female students present, they seemed very friendly, and both praised Jiang Silu for her looks.

This made Jiang Silu feel a sense of camaraderie.

But just then, a female voice cut in. "Are all your design drafts ready?"

Everyone turned to look.

A girl wearing black-framed glasses walked in.

She wasn’t one for smiling, with the build and looks of an average girl, but she carried an unapproachable, heavy air about her.

The senior students, who had been laughing and chatting just moments ago, immediately fell silent. They all opened their laptops and took out their design drafts.

The girl stood before them and scanned the room.

In fact, she had been watching them from the window at the back of the classroom for the past five minutes.

She was like an elementary school homeroom teacher, always looking for a chance to catch someone misbehaving.

When she saw them all joking around, not taking the competition seriously at all, she had gotten angry and stormed in.

Seeing the atmosphere suddenly turn cold, Jiang Silu followed their lead and took out her laptop as well.

But the sharp-eyed Peng Chengshuai noticed Jiang Silu’s computer and exclaimed in surprise, "Silu, is your laptop an Alienware? How much did that cost?"

Jiang Silu was suddenly embarrassed.

Although she knew the price, she wanted to be low-key, so she just gave a vague answer. "An elder bought it for me. I don’t know."

"Whoa, that model must be expensive. A computer like that won’t lag when you’re doing design work," Peng Chengshuai marveled.

Their conversation made Kong Le look over at Jiang Silu’s laptop too.

He exclaimed, "Oh my god, that laptop is so sick! Compared to that, my Hasee is a piece of junk."

"Haha, Kong Le, my ASUS is the same. It’s junk by comparison," Peng Chengshuai chuckled.

"Kong Xuedi, Peng Xuedi, I expect you not to discuss irrelevant topics when we’re supposed to be sharing our design progress," the girl in black-framed glasses at the front demanded forcefully.

At her words, the two guys immediately shut up. They could only lower their heads and silently open AutoCAD.

Jiang Silu was surprised that two tall guys could be shut down so completely by one girl.

She instinctively knew this senior must be a force to be reckoned with. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Sure enough, the girl’s gaze turned to Jiang Silu.

It seemed she was pinning all the blame for the group’s chatter on Jiang Silu.

"Are you the first-year, Jiang Silu?" the girl asked.

Jiang Silu immediately stood up and answered earnestly, "Yes, senior, I am."

"Right. I’m Shen Hong, a fourth-year, and I’m the one who assigned the tasks. I don’t know why Teacher Chen would put a first-year with no experience in our design group, but I expect you not to drag us down," Shen Hong said sternly.

Jiang Silu replied at once, "Don’t worry, Senior Shen Hong. I’ll work hard and do my best not to drag everyone down."

"You’d better."

Shen Hong then gestured for her to open AutoCAD to check the drafting assignment she had given a few days ago.

Jiang Silu opened AutoCAD, turned the screen toward Shen Hong, and waited nervously.

"The proportions of this line are wrong, this column is drawn too thick, and we’re designing a pocket park, but this entrance is too exaggerated..." Shen Hong listed off a string of problems in one breath.

This left Jiang Silu feeling very embarrassed.

But what hurt the most was Shen Hong’s next sentence. "But it doesn’t matter. Just help out with odd jobs. Your name won’t be on the final list of members for the competition entry anyway."

When Peng Chengshuai heard this, he asked awkwardly, "Senior Shen Hong, can’t we add Junior Silu to the final list of members for the submission?"

"No," Shen Hong said coldly. "Our design group has won awards in every competition we’ve entered for the past two years. The list of members has always been fixed. If Teacher Chen hadn’t recommended you, I wouldn’t have wanted a first-year at all. What can a first-year even do? You can’t draft, you can’t do sketches, and let’s not even talk about rendering."

She looked back at the others. "Of course, if anyone wants to let Junior Silu onto the list, they can voluntarily withdraw themselves."

Seeing the situation, Jiang Silu quickly replied, "Senior Shen Hong, you don’t have to add me to the list. I joined this project mainly to learn from everyone."

"Hmph. It’s best you have that understanding," Shen Hong said before turning to look at the other members’ drafts.

For the rest of the afternoon, although Jiang Silu kept a smile on her face, she felt absolutely terrible inside.

After all that effort, she wouldn’t even get her name on the project.

She could only comfort herself that this was all just paving the way for future success.

After the meeting, Kong Le wanted to ask Jiang Silu to go grab some snacks off-campus, but she politely declined. "Sorry, my roommate is waiting for me. We already made plans to eat out together tonight."

"All right then, some other time~" Kong Le said with a wave. Before leaving, he bad-mouthed Shen Hong a bit. "Don’t mind what that senior said. That’s just her personality. We’ve all been putting up with it for the past two years."

Jiang Silu nodded. "It’s okay. I’m actually really happy that she’s giving me a chance to learn."

She then went downstairs, where Song Miaomiao was waiting in the plaza.

Seeing that Jiang Silu was in a bad mood, Song Miaomiao asked, "What’s wrong? Why the long face all of a sudden?"

Jiang Silu told her what had just happened.

When Song Miaomiao heard, she flew into a rage. "No way! What gives that senior the right? You got Teacher Chen’s approval, which means you have the ability to be on that list! How can she just dismiss you with a single sentence?"

Although Jiang Silu was upset, she ended up comforting her friend instead. "Maybe the number of members is limited. It’s fine. Maybe I’ll be selected next time."

"I’m so... angry!" Song Miaomiao said, clenching her fists. "If I had been there, I would’ve given her a piece of my mind."

Seeing her best friend stand up for her like this actually made Jiang Silu feel a little better.

Just as they were discussing where to eat, Lu Fan appeared before them.

When Jiang Silu saw Lu Fan, she didn’t have much of a reaction.

She said to Song Miaomiao, "Wait here for a second. I’ll be right back."

"Okay."

Seeing Jiang Silu walk over, Lu Fan smiled. "Silu, what a coincidence. I was just passing by the school and thought I’d try my luck to see if I could find you on campus. And here you are."

"I’m starting to think you put a GPS tracker on me," Jiang Silu retorted.

"Actually, I think it’s just that we father and daughter are on the same wavelength." Lu Fan noticed that Jiang Silu seemed to be in a bad mood and asked, "What’s wrong? Did something happen?"

"It’s nothing," Jiang Silu said, shaking her head. Then she asked, "Did you need me for something?"

"I really was just passing by, hoping I might run into you. It happens to be dinnertime. Are you hungry? How about I take you and your friend out to eat? Don’t worry—your mom should have told you. This is my way of making it up to you, so you absolutely shouldn’t feel guilty. Silu, just give your dad a chance. Can I please treat you to a meal?"

As it turned out, women really are emotional creatures.

No matter how much Jiang Silu hated the man before her, after that speech, she couldn’t help but soften a little.

Still, she took out her phone and said, "Let me call Mom first."

Seeing this, Lu Fan silently prayed, ’Yixia, my beautiful, kind, wonderful wife, you have to say yes to your daughter. If you do, I’ll reward you by letting you have another eight kids with me.’

Far away in Yangcheng, Jiang Yixia couldn’t help but sneeze...