In the past few days, Evan Lin has been attending classes as usual, and life seems to have settled back into a calm routine.
Sometimes he would call Joy Zheng for a chat.
Right now, Charles Chen's business in Capitalview City is booming, with lots of social events. Lucy Lu often heads over to keep Joy company—they eat, live, and go shopping together like family.
Lynn Chen occasionally calls from Beijing to talk about daily life; from her tone, Evan can sense a hint of grievance that he never goes to visit her.
"Oh, by the way, Yolanda Fang came to hang out with me a few days ago."
On the other end of the call, Lynn Chen suddenly changed the subject.
Evan Lin was walking back with Eric Wang and the others after picking up some fried rice outside the school when he heard this and paused: "Her? She went to see you?"
"Yeah, she even stayed in my dorm for two nights, but she didn’t seem very happy. I’m not sure if something happened."
Lynn Chen sounded a bit worried.
"It’s probably nothing. What could possibly happen to her?"
Ever since resolving the Fang Qiuji incident in Oceanport and publicly taking down No. 3 on the Young Tigers List, Evan Lin hasn't heard from Yolanda Fang in a long while.
She was probably deliberately avoiding him.
Since she never came out to meet him, Evan never tried to seek her out either.
Whenever Yolanda Fang was mentioned, Evan would unconsciously think of Selina Wu.
At heart, Selina Wu and Yolanda Fang were the same kind of girl.
Independent and free-spirited, living boldly and happily.
But Selina Wu’s powerful family background gave her confidence—her ease was natural and open-hearted.
By contrast, Yolanda Fang’s toughness was more like armor—a protective shell she wore to keep from being hurt by the outside world.
The ‘bad girl’ attitude Yolanda used to show was really just her way of protecting herself from getting hurt.
"I don't really know. She just didn't seem happy, and when I asked, she didn't want to talk about it."
Lynn Chen spoke into the phone.
She had just stepped out of the university library, looked up at the sky, and felt the autumn chill. Even in Beijing, the sky felt heavy and gray.
"If she needs anything, just let me know."
After a few polite words, silence fell between them again.
"By the way, last time I saw Jill Jing, she seemed pretty down too."
Lynn Chen remembered seeing Jill Jing sitting on a bench outside the Clearwater University Mathematics Department, suddenly bursting into tears. The memory left her feeling uneasy.
"Okay, got it."
Evan Lin wondered if he should make a trip to Beijing.
Over in Beijing, Evan had always asked Allen Ju to keep an eye on things for him.
With Jill Jing surrounded by Gordon Guo and Gavin Duan, plus Allen Ju helping out, there really shouldn’t have been any trouble.