You Are Still Here

Chapter 10

Post-examination, the students had to estimate the marks they would attain and apply for university accordingly even before knowing their true performance. Thus, choosing a university was likened to a gamble; good grades were not enough, one needed luck to enter the university of his choice.

Cheng Zheng was indubitably a lucky chap. He topped the city in Physics and was second overall in the school's Science cohort. In addition, his university of choice was his father's alma mater thus his getting into Q University, the country's top civil engineering university, came as no surprise to anyone. But even as he was surrounded by the hearty congratulations of his peers and tutors, he felt an emptiness inside.

He had learnt from Old Sun that although Su Yun Jin's university application results had not emerged, with her poor performance, she could only make it to a second rate university. Moreover, her choices were varied and were literally scattered across the country with the only common factor being that all were far from Beijing.

Cheng Zheng knew what this implied. It didn't matter which university accepted her; in the subsequent four years, they would be thousands of miles apart. He had already made clear to her where he intended to go... that and his feelings for her.

The night of their second kiss, he had been jubilant because he assumed his feelings were finally being reciprocated. Now he could see how laughably wrong he was.

He wanted to contact her so he asked everyone but no one knew her household number or address. Even the address listed for the receipt of the university application results was the school and not her home.

The entire summer, Cheng Zheng's home had no lack of well-wishers or opportunists who seized this opportunity to fawn over him. This included his relatives and father's colleagues, subordinates and clients. Everyone was proud of this good-looking boy's achievements but only he was privy to how he truly felt in the dead of the night when sleep eluded him and he could only stare at the ceiling.

Before university commenced, there were two frequent visitors to the Cheng household – Zhou Zi Yi and Meng Xue. Since they were acquainted early on in life, Cheng Zheng didn't dislike Meng Xue. On the contrary, he found her one of the easiest girls to get along with. Moreover, their two families were close so he was considerably polite to her whenever she visited.

Meng Xue had been accepted into a third rate Beijing university. With her grades, she could have easily qualified for a better university so Cheng Zheng was baffled that she was delighted with this arrangement. Meng Xue had explained that this way, she could be his companion in the subsequent four years. Cheng Zheng found it absurd; he wasn't a kid or handicapped, why would he require a companion?

Whenever Meng Xue visited, she always brought news of Su Yun Jin although it was not known if it was intentional or otherwise. Yun Jin had been accepted into a second-rate university in G-city. She had returned home after the university entrance examinations and didn't even attend the teacher appreciation ceremony that their senior high school hosted.

There was an instance when Meng Xue magically produced the Su household number. To her surprise, not only did Cheng Zheng refuse the sheet of paper, his temper flared and he showed Meng Xue the door while demanding to know why she wanted to give him that country bumpkin's number.

Meng Xue was vexed. Although she didn't take offense at his behaviour, she visited less often though she still called every other day.

When Cheng Zheng finally calmed down and reflected on his actions, he knew he had over-reacted. Ever since he received his university application result, he had been feeling down. He apologised to Meng Xue but subsequently refused all her other calls by getting his parents to inform her that he was out. However, soon even the housekeeper felt it was too awkward to repeat the blatant lie so Cheng Zheng said irritatedly "Tell her I'm dead and to stop bothering me." His mother who had been listening in on the side was horrified and she chided him on his ill choice of words.