Chapter 249: The Super Active Best Friend

Chapter 249: The Super Proactive Best Friend

The usually bustling little restaurant was nearly empty during the break.

The rusty metal fan squeaked as it rotated, barely alleviating the summer heat.

Ye Xiaoxiao asked Chu Yunxiao if he knew who the other exchange students from the medical school were.

Chu Yunxiao: "They're all top students from our class—Cui Yuan, Xu Zhong, and Jia Yu."

The first two were male, while Jia Yu was female.

The school chose candidates based on their overall grades and their willingness to study abroad.

Although the school covered most of the expenses, students had to cover their own living expenses.

So, those who could go abroad usually came from well-off families.

Xiao Xiao wasn’t familiar with the others, but Jia Yu was from the forensic medicine program. They had met in anatomy class, where Jia Yu often demonstrated dissection techniques, earning her the nickname "The Ice Queen of Anatomy."

Though she knew their names, Ye Xiaoxiao wasn’t close to any of them.

Chu Yunxiao said, "We'll probably be roommates overseas, so let’s arrange a meetup when we have time."

Xiao Xiao gave a slow nod.

After the meal, Chu Yunxiao got ready to leave, saying goodbye to everyone.

"Goodbye, it was nice meeting you all today," he said to the others.

Bai Mengan: "You're based in Beijing, right? We should totally hang out!"

Chu Yunxiao responded politely.

Once he was gone, Bai Mengan burst out excitedly. "Xiao Xiao, your class rep totally lives up to being a top student at Jinghua University. He's leagues better than those setup dates my parents keep arranging."

Ye Xiaoxiao: "So, you’re interested in him?"

Bai Mengan stroked her chin. "He's definitely got potential. Give me his digits."

Straight-up asking for his digits meant Bai Mengan was quite satisfied.

Ye Xiaoxiao: "You sure you won't come off as desperate?"

Bai Mengan patted her friend’s shoulder. "Gotta shoot your shot, girl! If he already likes someone, I’ll back off immediately and move on."

Bai Mengan’s chill attitude convinced Ye Xiaoxiao, who eventually gave her Chu Yunxiao’s phone number.

"It's his family's landline, so don’t disturb his family."

Bai Mengan: "I just want to talk to Chu Yunxiao. If his family answers, I'd be totally tongue-tied."

Before leaving with Su Tong, Bai Mengan kept insisting that she had it under control and told Ye Xiaoxiao not to worry.

What Ye Xiaoxiao didn’t know was that Bai Mengan moved fast. As soon as she got home, she dusted off old sheet music she hadn’t touched in ages and called Chu Yunxiao, using them as an excuse, and scored herself a date.

Xiao Xiao was always the one getting chased, so she was way out of her depth compared to her best friend.

...

After submitting the documents to the school, Ye Xiaoxiao continued working at Rende Pharmacy every day.

Her classmates already knew she was going abroad with Chu Yunxiao.

Zhang Kaining and Qu Miao were both working part-time at Rende Pharmacy.

"Xiao Xiao, why didn’t you tell us about you and the class monitor going abroad? I’ve been so busy lately that I didn’t even pay attention to this."

Zhang Kaining’s research on Hemostatic No. 1 had already been launched, and a new factory was establishing production lines.

He'd finally gotten some free time.

Zhang Kaining used to be quite overweight, but he had lost a lot of weight recently from all the stress/work.

Ye Xiaoxiao looked up: "We figured we’d mention it when the semester starts."

Zhang Kaining: "That's cutting it too close! Do you guys need anything now? Let me help out in some way."

Ye Xiaoxiao laughed.

"We’re going abroad, not doing hard labor. What exactly did you have in mind?"

Zhang Kaining had gotten so much help from Ye Xiaoxiao that he always felt he should do something in return.

Now that Xiao Xiao said this, he scratched his head in frustration, unsure what to do.

"Alright, I don’t need anything prepared. Just need to bring myself and some cash."

Zhang Kaining had money, but then he thought—Xiao Xiao wasn’t exactly hurting for money either.

So there really wasn’t anything he could do to help.

"If you really want to help me, then maybe look after my master when you have time. He’s getting up there in years, and I’m a little concerned about him."

Originally, Song Guangjing had been keeping in great shape.

But after that rough patch he went through, he had developed some chronic issues.

Zhang Kaining pounded his chest: "Don’t worry about that. I’ll handle it."

In the days that followed, Ye Xiaoxiao made sincere efforts to say proper goodbyes to her friends.

Had she not been going abroad, she wouldn’t have realized how many good friends she had made in the capital.

Jiang Ling, who had previously talked about starting a company, spent a month in Shanghai during the summer and got to experience a more vibrant city with more advanced technology.

He felt that Shanghai was a better fit for his business than the capital and had already decided to establish his first company there.

Knowing that Ye Xiaoxiao would be abroad for two years, Jiang Ling gave her a gift.

It was a black box-like game console, a foreign brand and quite expensive.

Though Ye Xiaoxiao thanked him for the gesture, she wasn’t interested in such primitive gaming devices and just left it on display at home.

She thought some friends might get a kick out of playing with it when they visited.

Summer vacation flew by. Over that month, Ye Xiaoxiao read many books and racked up more practical experience, taking her medical skills up a notch.

After the semester started, Ye Xiaoxiao and the others finished their study abroad paperwork.

They would leave for Country A after just one week of classes.

Ye Xiaoxiao's roommates only found out about the news after the semester began.

Some were envious of Ye Xiaoxiao, as this was kind of an honor.

He Jing: "Xiao Xiao is good at foreign languages, so she’ll definitely be able to communicate normally there. If it were me, I wouldn’t even understand what people were saying, let alone attend classes."

There were also those who were unconvinced. Wang Jiao scoffed, "Country A doesn’t even have traditional Chinese medicine. What can you learn there? Honestly, all the slots should have gone to us studying Western medicine."

Xia Li: "Even if all the slots were given to Western medicine students, your grades wouldn’t qualify. You barely passed one of your final exams this semester, and that was only because the teacher cut you some slack."

Though Wang Jiao was angry at Xia Li’s words, she couldn’t refute them.

Ye Xiaoxiao: "Guys, chill. Western medicine was chosen because our school has a partnership with the university in Country A, and they’ve invited our traditional Chinese medicine professors to give lectures there before. Besides, apart from TCM, we can also study pharmacology."

Tang Xiuxiu: "Going abroad isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sure, it might give you some prestige, but it’s expensive, communication is difficult, and being in a foreign country can be really tough. I’ve heard some students even have to work part-time jobs there to scrape by—it’s nothing like life back home. Xiao Xiao, take good care of yourself over there."

Ye Xiaoxiao cleared out her dorm stuff—there wasn’t much left.

She packed mostly books and cash.

"I will. By the time I come back, you guys will likely already be interns."

Tang Xiuxiu hugged Ye Xiaoxiao, her heart heavy.

They had lived together in the dorm for two years, forging close bonds.

Even though Xiao Xiao had moved out later, those two years counted.

Ye Xiaoxiao hugged her back.

When they pulled apart, she left the dorm with her suitcase.

Luggage in those days lacked spinner wheels, so moving it alone was a real struggle for Ye Xiaoxiao.

The day before departure, Lu Hanchuan came over to help her get ready.