Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

"Mom, mom, did you watch the video? How was it, how was it!" After returning to the dorm, He Caiting couldn't wait to call her own mother.

On the other end of the phone was a middle-aged woman in her forties, with neat short hair and a black professional suit, sitting in a private office, with the brightly lit Zhujiang New Town behind her.

Chen Yan gently swirled the black-as-ink iced Americano in her cup, and only after clicking to replay the video did she smile and speak: "So this is the evening party you were talking about this afternoon? This kid looks handsome just from his silhouette, Tingting didn't fall for him at first sight, did she?"

"Ah, mom~ We're talking about music right now, okay? It's an original piece by a classmate of ours, isn't it awesome?" said He Caiting as she pouted on the dormitory's balcony, a look of admiration on her face.

"Alright, alright, the song really is excellent, it's regretful yet somewhat exhilarating; I've already played it on loop many times," Chen Yan said, looking at the boy in the video, a hint of nostalgia on her face.

During her high school days, she had also secretly admired a boy just like him, except that everyone's life encounters are different.

"Hehehe, mom, you agree it's impressive, right? He's a boy in our class, and yes, he is a bit handsome..." said He Caiting with a bright smile, her face reddening as she added in a whisper.

Chen Yan shook her head and laughed; her seventeen-year-old self was too shy and unsure to confess to the campus heartthrob, but that regret could perhaps be made up for through her daughter.

"Mom gets what you mean, you want me to help him release a single, right? Indeed, our company was planning on cultivating our own music producers. I'll send you the information on QQ; you find a chance to ask that classmate tomorrow," she said.

Chen Yan watched intently as the boy on the screen played the piano. Although the distance made it blurry, it was precisely because of that distance that she saw the shadow of her high school crush reflected in him.

"Hehehe, thank you so much, mom, you're the best!"

He Caiting was overjoyed, hugging her phone and showering it with kisses, now she had a perfect excuse to approach Brother Fan in a legitimate way.

"Alright, alright, don't tell your father, and don't let having a boyfriend affect your studies," Chen Yan's eyes curved into crescent moons, thinking of her daughter's happy face at the moment, it seemed as if her youthful regrets had faded quite a bit.

"I promise I won't tell Dad, and also, also, it's not a boyfriend, just a classmate, a classmate!" He Caiting raised her right fist tightly clenched.

[Don't think living together is anything special, I have a mom too!]

"Mom understands, just an ordinary classmate~" Chen Yan drew out her voice deliberately, continuing after her daughter's bombardment: "It's almost ten, get some rest soon and, send a photo of that 'ordinary classmate' to mom. If he has good looks, I might apply for the company to give him a big push."

"Mhm, mhm, mhm, I'll send it to mom right away, and you should rest early too, don't keep staying up late for work!" urged He Caiting, nodding vigorously, confident that Brother Fan's looks would definitely make the cut.

"If mom doesn't work hard and stay up late, how could you hang out with ordinary classmates, huh~"

"Oh, oh, oh, mom!"

Chen Yan ended the call at the right moment, not giving her daughter a chance to vent any further.

She clicked on the video which had finished playing, sipping her coffee as she listened to the soft piano music.

"Yay!" He Caiting leaped up excitedly after getting support from her mother.

"Mom is the Music Director of Ku Mao Music; it's definitely going to work out!" she murmured softly, sending a secretly snapped photo of Brother Fan to Chen Yan and stepping away from the balcony.

"Caiting, why did you come back to the dorm so early? We were sillily waiting for you at the entrance to grab a late-night snack!" her roommates came back just in time to say, with Roommate A speaking up.

"Yeah, we're already short one person in our dorm, and now you're not sticking with the group either, your punishment is to hand over the video you shot tonight!"

"Exactly, exactly!"

"That piano piece was too good, and the male god is really so handsome!"

"I feel like it's going to melt me!"

"You little pervert, shut up, don't corrupt others!"

The six roommates chattered back and forth, quickly surrounding her in a circle.

"Alright, I'll play it for everyone now because I rushed back to the dorm since my stomach was hurting," He Caiting surrendered with raised hands, sitting down on the lower bunk and opening the video that ran in the background.

As soon as the piano sounds started, the noisy dorm quieted down instantly.

After all, it's still 2011, and the vast majority of people use several hundred yuan knockoff phones, or even cheaper domestic feature phones.

Families like He Caiting's parents, who were willing to spend over four thousand yuan to buy a smartphone for their child, were few and far between.

Soon, girls from the other dorms gathered upon hearing the commotion, and the small dormitory quickly filled with over ten girls standing or sitting.

It had the feel of watching a play at the village square as a child, with the whole village crowding around He Caiting's Apple phone the size of a palm.

While the girls' dorm was enjoying Xu Qingfan's piano solo, Chen Yan, in the brightly lit office building, was checking out the photo her daughter had just sent over.

Her original expression of curious amusement vanished, replaced by surprise, shock, disbelief, it was as if she had seen a ghost!

Chen Yan examined the two photos over and over, enlarging them again and again.

"It's so alike, much too alike."

It wasn't just the spitting image of her unrequited crush from her youth, but!

Chen Yan's heart pounded wildly as she frantically searched through her drawer, wanting to find the business card that she didn't know where she'd tossed.