ATLAS TRANSLATES

After Manager Yin spoke, everyone present fell silent.

Bai Qiming’s gaze returned to the library entrance. He watched Bai Lian’s silhouette – she was completely different from his memories. Wearing a long dress, she was engaged in an animated discussion with someone who appeared to be a dean.

Under the lights outside the library, she appeared confident and composed, gentle yet powerful. Her spirit shone through, as elegant as a brush dipped in white ink.

Before seeing Bai Lian today, Bai Qiming had been consoling himself that Bai Shaoqi was already exceptional enough.

As a member of the Bai family, he should have been content.

But now that Bai Lian had appeared, he felt that both Bai Shaoqi and Bai Shaoqi’s sister were lacking something.

He turned his attention back to Manager Yin, though the latter could tell Bai Qiming was distracted.

Madam Song patted Bai Shaoqi’s sister’s shoulder beside her and asked gently, “Have you chosen your performance dress? Do you have time this week? I can take you to look at dresses.”

Bai Shaoqi’s sister’s expression remained unchanged as she walked slowly with Madam Song. “Let’s go on Saturday, Auntie. I don’t have classes then.”

After sending Bai Shaoqi’s sister back to her dorm, Song Min returned to the boys’ dormitory.

Bai Qiming was staying at a hotel in Chang’an District, not with the Yin family. After he left, Manager Yin asked Madam Song about Bai Lian.

“Bai Lian was the one who was previously engaged to Ming,” Outside Jiang University’s west gate, as the driver opened the car door, Madam Song sat inside with Manager Yin and explained about Bai Lian. “…you know how proud Ming has always been. Her becoming the top scorer put a lot of pressure on him.”

After hearing Madam Song’s explanation, Manager Yin exclaimed in shock: “So she’s Bai Qiming’s other daughter? What were you all thinking?”

Madam Song didn’t know how to continue listening.

Before Bai Lian left North City, she and Madam Song had maintained a decent relationship.

When Bai Lian came to cancel her household registration in North City, they could still have a proper conversation.

Madam Song recalled taking Song Min to Xiangcheng to ask Bai Lian for the jade pendant. Back then, she was still weighing the pros and cons, thinking Bai Lian wasn’t a match for Song Min in any aspect. Who knew that in less than a year, Bai Lian would leave both Bai Shaoqi’s sister and Song Min far behind…

When the engagement with Bai Lian was first arranged, Song Min had always been indifferent about it.

Until Guo Yueqing brought Bai Shaoqi’s sister into the picture. Bai Shaoqi’s sister was smart enough to converse with Song Min, especially excelling in mathematical logic, and Song Min enjoyed communicating with such people.

People with high intelligence had always attracted Song Min.

Madam Song lowered the car window, watching Jiang University fade into the distance. Deep down, she had a growing realization—

Bai Lian was the pinnacle of that type.

**

When Bai Lian returned to Room 407 from the library, her three roommates were still awake.

Kong Wei on the left had earphones in, watching variety shows. Like most Jiang University students, she was naturally gifted – balancing studies with entertainment without falling behind, managing to get into Jiang University with just enough points.

Hearing movement, she paused her show and turned to look at Bai Lian.

Yu Simin was already in bed but not asleep, peering down from her bunk.

Xu Qian was watching a professor’s lecture recording, though not very attentively. She also turned when she heard the door open.

Being stared at by three pairs of eyes didn’t faze Bai Lian. She casually closed the door.

Returning to her seat, she opened her wardrobe to find pajamas for her shower.

Finally, Kong Wei couldn’t hold back anymore. She removed her earphones and turned her chair toward Bai Lian, resting her hand on the armrest: “You’re this year’s perfect scorer?”

“Yes.” Bai Lian unhurriedly took out her towel.

“You’ve been going to the library because you signed up for the Tongfeng class?”

Bai Lian grabbed her clothes and walked to the bathroom door. With her hand on the doorknob, she thought for a moment, “More or less. Any other questions?”

Kong Wei shook her head, “No.”

“Okay.” Bai Lian pushed open the bathroom door and went in.

The room fell silent again for a moment.

Kong Wei took out her phone to check the forum. The post she had just been reading was already trending on the homepage.

Besides this, there were several other posts about this year’s freshmen—

‘These two photos feel like destiny’

‘Liang Wuyu, Bai Lian, this year’s freshmen seem incredibly strong’

‘Come on, place your bets, how many people will pass the Tongfeng class test this year?’

[Objectively speaking, this year’s Tongfeng class has 39 national team members, and usually only accepts 40 people. I’ve checked the grades of their freshman class, 67 people competing for one spot.]

[Of course, Tongfeng class might make an exception and accept one more. Besides Bai Lian and Liang Wuyu, is there any other controversy?]

[At most, I mean at most, add Xu Zhiyue. Others probably don’t stand a chance.]

Because of Bai Lian, the Tongfeng class’s second recruitment, which usually didn’t attract much attention from freshmen, was especially hot this year.

“Is it that hard to get in?” Kong Wei saw the introduction to Tongfeng class.

“Of course,” No one in the room knew the difficulty better than Xu Qian. “Tongfeng class is full of national team members. While we spent three years in high school studying, they were training with the national team. They’re taught by top professors, and the selection process is extremely rigorous.”

These were top science prodigies. They might not have scored higher than Bai Lian and Liang Wuyu in the college entrance exam, but in their specialized fields, they were the benchmarks.

That’s why few people attempted the Tongfeng class exam each year. Even college entrance exam top scorers felt intimidated by these national team students, so few participated in the second round of testing in previous years.

Bai Lian came out after her shower, casually drying her hair.

She didn’t use the hairdryer, letting her hair air dry instead. She checked her phone and saw a message from Jiang Fuli from ten minutes ago, and replied.

In less than a minute, Jiang Fuli called.

Bai Lian put on her Bluetooth earphones, resting her wrist on the blue desk, “Is little bird Jiang asleep?”

“Fell asleep downstairs,” Jiang Fuli was in Bai Lian’s study, standing by the window, looking at the dim lights below. His voice was somewhat lazy as he calculated her shower time, “You didn’t blow-dry your hair?”

Her hair was long now, and just using a towel wouldn’t dry it properly. Because she studied late, she always showered late, usually going to bed soon after, making it difficult for her hair to dry naturally.

Bai Lian calmly opened her basic music theory book and replied with a straight face, “I did.”

She now had a general understanding of modern musical notation, but still preferred using simplified notation when recording.

Jiang Fuli went silent, then hung up.

The next second, a WeChat video call came through.

Bai Lian: “…”

She calmly hung up.

Teacher Jiang sent a soul-searching period: [.]

Bai Lian replied: [,]

Then she stood up, took out the hairdryer from the wardrobe, and unhurriedly walked back to the bathroom to dry her hair for two minutes.

**

The next day.

Nine in the morning.

Yan Lu arrived in Xiangcheng.

She wore a white trench coat, black skinny jeans, a mask, and a bucket hat. She stopped at a flower shop and picked up a pre-ordered bouquet.

Then she turned to look at Xiao Tian and Ah Huang standing behind her, “You two head back to Jianjing first. You have two days off, Xin-jie already told you, right?”

“She did,” Xiao Tian looked at the flowers in Yan Lu’s hands but didn’t dare ask who they were for. “But Lu-jie, you alone…”

“I’ll be fine by myself.” Yan Lu took out her phone and ordered a car.

To Xiangcheng Prison.

The blue taxi drove away, leaving Xiao Tian and Ah Huang looking at each other.

“Who is Lu-jie going to see? Hope nothing goes wrong?” Ah Huang watched the car disappear. Yan Lu was now a phenomenal celebrity with many obsessed fans.

Xiao Tian checked Xin-jie’s reply and put away his phone, “Xin-jie says it’s fine, let’s go.”

At ten o’clock, under the blazing sun.

In prison, the guard handed Zhang Shize his bag and patted his shoulder firmly, “Go change into your own clothes, and be good when you get out.”

The bag contained clothes brought by Zhang’s family.

Zhang Shize took the bag to the changing room, changed into his own clothes, and was escorted by the guard to the heavy iron gates.

Guards on both sides took out their keys and opened the gates. Beyond the iron doors, the sky was brilliant blue.

Mr. and Mrs. Zhang stood side by side, Mrs. Zhang’s eyes glistening with tears.

Zhang Shize quickened his pace and hugged them both, “Dad, Mom.”

After talking with his parents, Zhang Shize looked up to see Yan Lu on the left. Her hair was cut short to shoulder length, with a strand tucked behind her left ear, and she held a large bunch of white iris flowers.

She shone brilliantly in the sunlight.

Seeing Zhang Shize look over, she handed him the iris flowers, “Glad I made it in time.”

Zhang Shize took the flowers. The past year hadn’t dimmed his spirit; he stood in the morning sun, graceful as the moon, his dark brown eyes concealing an untamed spirit.

He held the flowers and laughed, as spirited as ever: “Sister Yan.”

**

Saturday.

Today was the selection test for college entrance exam students entering the Tongfeng class.

At six in the morning, Bai Lian got up as usual, while her roommates were still asleep.

At six-thirty, Xu Qian woke up to find Bai Lian sitting below, quietly reading.

She looked back and saw that Bai Lian wasn’t doing practice problems, but reading basic music theory instead.

Xu Qian, who had just woken up to check what the genius was studying: “…”

Xu Qian had basically given up on the Tongfeng class second test but still went with Bai Lian to the Golden Lecture Hall for the exam.

At 7:40 AM, they arrived at the Golden Lecture Hall entrance.

Tang Ming and Ning Xiao were waiting for her to go in together.

Bai Lian stood at the entrance, quietly looking at the Golden Lecture Hall.

The hall was very classical, with its entrance recently renovated. Four large golden characters above read—

“Teachers of the World”

These familiar four characters had endured thousands of years, renovated countless times. Through these powerful strokes, one could faintly see an old man with books on his back, stroking his beard, slowly walking towards her.

This feeling of meeting and parting.

Tang Ming had spotted her from afar: “Sister Lian, the Golden Lecture Hall was where Liang Zewen used to teach. Legend has it that it only opens for academician lectures.”

He wanted to tell her about Zhang Shize’s arrival in Jianjing this morning.

Seeing Bai Lian somewhat quiet, he immediately stopped and greeted Xu Qian beside her, “Hi, I’m Tang Ming, Sister Lian’s high school classmate. This is Ning… Ning Xiao, haha don’t mind him, beautiful lady, he’s always this cool.”

They’re both being so cool and quiet, leaving him hanging.

After a week at Jiang University, most freshmen had gained some popularity, like Bai Lian, Liang Wuyu, Xu Zhiyue, and the Finance Department’s twin stars this year – Bai Shaoqi’s sister and Song Min.

Xu Qian hadn’t heard of Tang Ming and Ning Xiao. Being naturally reserved, she only introduced herself: “Xu Qian.”

Xu Qian was just surprised that all of Bai Lian’s friends had gotten into Jiang University.

**

The lecture hall was very spacious, with five seats per row but only two people seated. Bai Lian sat in the last row.

Among the 67 people taking the exam, most knew Bai Lian and Liang Wuyu.

The arrival of both drew attention from the examinees in the hall.

The chief examiner was Zhou Wenqing and a professor from the Physics Department. The professor, who had participated in creating this year’s questions, immediately spotted Bai Lian and said quietly: “Look, that’s the student who got a perfect score in physics on the college entrance exam.”

Zhou Wenqing’s gaze fell on the last row. The window in front hadn’t been opened, and sunlight streaming through the glass made dust particles clearly visible.

The girl had only brought a pen, nothing else, and was now calmly removing the black pen cap.

“Good intuition, why didn’t she join the national team?” Zhou Wenqing’s voice was very soft.

Missing three years of training would put her far behind the others, quite a pity.

Eight o’clock.

The professor handed out two test papers, four math questions and four physics questions, with an exam time from eight to twelve.

Eight questions in four hours already indicated their difficulty level.

Bai Lian received her paper and looked down at it first. The Tongfeng class’s second selection questions had completely departed from high school knowledge. The first major math question was about definite integrals, a short expression.

It contained only 0s and 1s, everything else was arctanx. This type of calculation had no other solution method – you had to power through it. Just expanding the integral took up half a page, followed by two more difficult integrals using parametric differentiation.

Bai Lian worked through the questions one by one.

Her handwriting was neat and beautiful. Zhou Wenqing came to the last row several times to look but didn’t see much. He didn’t want to affect the students’ mood either.

Eleven o’clock.

Bai Lian put away her black pen and turned in her four answer sheets.

Beside her was Xu Qian, who still had one math question left and was calculating the third physics problem.

The calculations were so extensive that each question basically took an hour. When Bai Lian turned in her paper at eleven, not just Xu Qian but even Liang Wuyu in the last row on the right raised his head.

Zhou Wenqing sat in front, watching her submit her answer sheets and unhurriedly walk out the front door.

Bai Lian left the lecture hall but didn’t leave immediately. She stood at the entrance, looking back at the characters above, which gleamed coldly in the sunlight.

After looking for a while, she took out her phone and saw a missed call.

It was from Yan Lu.

She called back, and Yan Lu answered after just one ring.

“Miss Bai,” Yan Lu’s voice was as usual, but with more cheerfulness today, “We’ve arrived.”

Yan Lu had come with Zhang’s family.

“Okay,” Bai Lian held her hand to her forehead, blocking the light. She estimated the time, “Ning Xiao and the others need another half hour.”

In the lecture hall.

11:20 AM.

Ning Xiao stood up and turned in his paper.

Another early submission. Xu Qian, like other examinees, looked up to see it was Ning Xiao. She was stunned for a moment, recognizing him as Bai Lian’s high school classmate.

11:30 AM.

Tang Ming stood up to submit his paper.

The Tongfeng class papers were designed to be impossible for these fresh college entrance exam graduates to complete, giving them an early taste of the pressure.

In previous years, even when the questions weren’t this difficult, no one would submit early. This was more important to them than the college entrance exam.

It was already bold enough for one new student to submit early this year, but three of them?

The many geniuses in the exam room began to feel confused.

Zhou Wenqing looked at the three answer sheets in his hands, filled with answers, and couldn’t help but check the other two names—

Ning Xiao.

Tang Ming.

Wait, where did these two come from?