mental note to self | meteor garden [REVAMPING]

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this is a retelling of the 2018 meteor garden series, with some scenes rewrittem to include my own original character. this is a work of fan fiction, not part of the meteor garden canon, and was posted for entertainment purposes only.

.o0o.

Liu Yuxin was tired.

Although, she supposed, three years in Ming De University's prestigious medical technology program would be enough to take the life out of anyone. Unfortunately for her, being her parents' daughter meant that she was also sole heiress to a globally-renowned medical supplies distribution company, Liu Yuxin was not just anyone.

Despite the abundance of luxuries her lifestyle provided, the one luxury she could not afford was to stop. To stop would be to give up and admit defeat. To stop would be to let her parents down. To stop would be to let herself down.

Time is of the essence, her Ba was always saying. Time is gold. 

And that is why, power walking down the hallway leading to the auditorium twenty minutes later than she was supposed to be, Yuxin was the most flustered she had been in a very, very long time. Though no one looking at her would be able to guess.

Her thoroughly perfected easy smile and air of feigned nonchalance (Fake it until you make it! her Ma's voice repeated in her mind like a broken record) filled the pristine white hallway along with the rhythmic clacking of her cream-colored Miu Miu heels. The only indication that she'd stayed up all night doing work for some school organizations and slept through seven of her alarms (and had consequently spent the last half hour rushing about to get ready for some famous foreign professor's speech) was her right hand, which she was using to ritually count her jewelry with light taps in a valiant effort to calm herself.

Left earring. Right earring. Nainai's necklace. Ring. Bracelet. Watch.

...Watch?

Yuxin cursed inwardly. She hated running late. 

The last—or, well, what was supposed to have been the last—time she was late was the very first day of freshman year. Trying to navigate her way around a campus as large as a small town and attending university classes for the first time was the most confusing and utterly frazzling experience she had ever been through. (At that point anyway, her last Biostatistics final now held that title.) She had made a mental note then to be nice to her underclassmen when she was older. University was a crowded, loud, daunting new world, and standoffish upperclassmen definitely would not help the matter. The memory of one senior glaring and telling her to get lost when she'd asked where the cafeteria was would forever be seared into her brain. 

Yuxin always made an effort to break past her natural shyness, even just for the first few weeks or so. She helped lost-looking freshmen find their lecture halls and made sure to shoot reassuring smiles when she passed any in the corridors. Sometimes, she would catch up with the second and third years who approached her, gave them tips for the semesters to come.

Her 'True Altruist' behavior, as her best friend Jing liked to call it, had unintentionally garnered her some popularity at Ming De.

She neither loved nor hated it. Being a natural introvert, she was often drained from all the social interactions she had to partake in; however, she could not bring herself to resent the fact that being generally well-liked came with having little to no drama. Less distractions, straighter path, more time. Conveniently, it was also great practice for all the fancy business parties she had to attend every now and then.

But for the most part, she was just happy that she could be of help, and had given people an actual reason to like her that surpassed the superficiality of wealth.

The auditorium's lofty double mahogany doors were thrown wide open, the student body's quiet conversations wafting out in a collective hum. As she passed the threshold, Liu Yuxin made a mental note to continue her streak of peaceful semesters at Ming De. To study diligently, avoid trouble, and keep smiling.

Time always marched forward, and so would she.

a/n: yuxin is actually yüxin but that's tiring and may look a bit intimidating for non chinese speakers trying to pronounce names. it's pronounced ee but with your mouth in the oo shape (just try it lmao) and x is pronounced like s.