I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

Bai Xiaoqi on the other side was also marveling. She had never been to a place like this before, and everything seemed new and exciting. She walked and looked around as she went. After completing the enrollment procedures, she followed her daughter up to the dormitory building to visit the dormitories.

Chen Shuo didn't go up with them. What was so interesting about visiting the dormitory? He would just take a look at the famous Weiming Lake for a while, then spend a few days in Beijing with his wife before going home.

"Excuse me, senior, is this dormitory building number three in Yanyuan?"

He was standing under a tree downstairs when a girl wearing glasses walked over with a suitcase. She looked like a freshman who was also there to register.

Chen Shuo looked around, somewhat uncertainly, and asked, "Are you asking me?"

"correct."

Upon receiving an affirmative reply, Chen Shuo was overjoyed. "What did you just say?"

"This is Yenching University..."

"No, the previous sentence."

"Excuse me...."

"The previous sentence."

"Senior, senior..."

"Yes, yes, that's it, say it again."

"Senior?" The girl was a little stunned, not quite understanding why this mature-looking senior was so excited.

Chen Shuo was secretly pleased. At over forty years old, he was used to being called "uncle," but he never expected that someone would still call him "senior."

Young lady, you have excellent taste! It's a pity your senior isn't a school leader, otherwise he would have recommended you for graduate school directly.

"Um, what were you trying to ask just now?"

The girl paused for a moment before cautiously asking, "Senior, is this Building No. 2 of the Yanyuan dormitory?"

"Senior doesn't know."

"......"

The girl who asked for directions dragged her suitcase away, but after she had gone a little further away, she kept turning back. She had heard that there were many eccentric people at Peking University, and judging from the age of that senior student, he must be pursuing a doctorate.

Hmm, it seems that doctoral students at Peking University are under a lot of pressure.

Chen Shuo had no idea what the girl was thinking. When his wife came downstairs, he still had a happy expression on his face. That's how people are; sometimes, when something good happens, they can feel happy for days on end.

When people are happy, they like to share their joy. After listening to him talk animatedly for a while, Bai Xiaoqi said at the end, "I just went up to check the dorms, and a girl asked me which bed I wanted to sleep in."

"..." Chen Shuo choked. People are afraid of comparisons. He was mistaken for an upperclassman, and this upperclassman was definitely not an undergraduate, but at least a graduate student, while his wife was mistaken for a freshman.

No, it's incomparable.

“Unfortunately, none of us are real,” he said.

"If only I had studied harder and taken the adult college entrance examination..."

There was once an opportunity presented to me. A guy said he could buy me a vocational school diploma, and then I could use that diploma to take the adult college entrance examination.

I didn't cherish it at the time and gave up decisively.

Now, after twenty years of trials and tribulations, Bai Xiaoqi arrives at this prestigious university, mistaken for a freshman. She begins to wonder what she would have done if...

"Stop thinking about it. No matter how hard you study, it's useless. Even if you take the adult college entrance exam, you can only get into a diploma mill. There's no chance here." Chen Shuo interrupted her reverie and pointed to his head. "The hardware and CPU can't keep up. No matter how hard you try, it's all in vain."

“…”

Bai Xiaoqi was furious. She really wanted to beat him up and then bite him a few times.

"So we should thank Da Bao, without her we wouldn't have had the chance to get into this school."

"Us? You won't pass the exam either?"

"Oh, I won't pass the exam."

"Oh..."

Bai Xiaoqi wasn't angry anymore. It turned out I wasn't the only one whose hardware CPU couldn't keep up.

Chapter 364 Extra 6

After returning home from Beijing, I suddenly felt very uncomfortable; the whole house became unusually quiet.

Without Chen Qi'an's constant shouting, Chen Qinghan could no longer be seen on the sofa or bed, glued to her phone watching dramas.

No one would come and go from the siblings' bedroom anymore. Sometimes Chen Shuo would go to their respective rooms to take a look. The furnishings and objects inside had not changed, and the furniture was still there, but suddenly it felt empty.

I used to find having two third wheels annoying, but now that my siblings are both studying in other cities, I suddenly want them to come back...

Time is a truly wondrous thing. It brings everything into the world and takes everything away. Everyone is being dragged forward by time, whether willingly or unwillingly, and no one can resist its pull.

Sometimes people get so absorbed in time that they don't feel its passage and always feel young, with every scene and frame of the past vivid in their minds, as if it were yesterday.

We just have to wait until some moment to belatedly realize and sigh, "Oh, so much time has passed."

I'm already over forty.

Chen Shuo suddenly understood why his mother's eyes were red when she sent his siblings to school, and why she kept telling them to come back after graduation and not stay in other places.

At the time, he didn't understand. He thought that his children and grandchildren would have their own fortunes. If they were capable, they could stay in the capital and live a life of luxury. Even if they couldn't make it there one day and came back in disgrace, no one would say anything to them.

But now, as the melancholy of parting lingers in his heart, he finally understands his parents.

When I left home to study at a university in another city more than 20 years ago, were they also bound by this melancholy, just like I am now?

I'm sure I will.

The weather at the end of August was still a bit muggy. A gentle breeze brought a slight coolness, but soon my heart was filled with restlessness again.

Chen Shuo looked up at the night sky and let out a long sigh. He didn't know if it was because the hot weather made him feel bad, or if it was because he was middle-aged and approaching the age of fifty that he was prone to sentimentality.

"It's good that you left; it saves me from staying at home every day and bothering people."

Muttering to himself, Chen Shuo gently touched the back of Walnut. Not only was he old, but Walnut was also very old. Calculating, it was probably twenty or twenty-one years old this year.

Cats have an average lifespan of only a little over ten years, so Walnut is already very, very old. Her fur has long lost its luster, and her once chubby, even slightly bloated body has become slender.

I still lie still every day without moving, but before it was simply because I was lazy, but now it's because of my age and physical limitations.

In this family of four, no, five, perhaps the only one who hasn't changed is that silly little cat. She's still just as young and beautiful as ever, only now her face bears the marks of time.

It is said that if one possesses poetry and literature, time will never defeat a beauty. Foolish Ah Miao has little knowledge and knows only a few poems, yet she has not been defeated by time.

Chen Shuo raised his hand to touch his face. Fortunately, although he was over forty years old, he did not look old at all. He had hardly developed any wrinkles. When they went out together, although people could tell at a glance that he was several years older than her, they would not say that he was an old man and a young woman.

"If you don't get old soon, I won't be able to hold on any longer." Hearing footsteps behind him, Chen Shuo knew it was her coming. He didn't turn around, but just said this.

It's not yet a case of an old man and a young woman being married, but in a few years, or even a decade or more, I will eventually show signs of aging, and I hope she will still look this young then.

When you go out, people will definitely say that you are very rich, and you might even be on the rich list.

"?"

Bai Xiaoqi was taken aback for a moment, then realized what he meant, walked over and sat down next to him, and said with a smile, "Aren't you satisfied with how young I am?"

"I'm satisfied, but I suspect I've been lied to. We clearly agreed to grow old together, but now only I've gotten old, and you haven't changed at all."

"Where have you aged? Aren't you still the same as before?" Bai Xiaoqi's fingers gently touched his forehead, feeling a barely perceptible fine line. It was as if if she could just cover up that fine line with her fingers, he would still be the same as he was when he was young.

"is it?"

Chen Shuo took her hand off her forehead and held it in his own. Her small hand was still as soft and gentle as before, slightly cool yet warm.

"Yes, and it's just as good as before."

"No way?" Chen Shuo was skeptical. He would believe that he hadn't aged, but he absolutely did not believe that he was still as good as before. Even if he did believe it, he wouldn't believe it.

"I'm telling the truth, it's really amazing."

"You're not lying to me?"

"I'm not lying to you. If you still don't believe me, then let's go..."

"No, no, no, I believe you, I believe you..." Before she could finish speaking, Chen Shuo quickly waved his hands. He believed her, and even if he didn't, his kidneys believed her.

"snort...."

Seeing him waving his hands repeatedly, Bai Xiaoqi couldn't help but snort. That bastard, he used to do it two or three times a day, but now he might not even do it twice a week.

Before, as soon as I entered the room, before anything even happened, he would take off his pants. Now, as soon as I enter the room, I snuggle into his arms and kiss and hug him. Everything is ready, and then he starts rambling on and on, going on and on. When he's done, he looks at the clock and says in surprise, "It's so late, let's go to sleep."

Before, when she wanted to be intimate, he would always come and coax her. Now it's her turn to coax him, but most of the time it doesn't work.

Hmph, what a dog of a man.

"Tell me about your past," Chen Shuo began his habitual attempt to change the subject.

"Haven't we said it so many times already?"

"I'd like to hear it again, this time in more detail."

"I want to hear it again..."

Although she knew this guy was trying to change the subject, Bai Xiaoqi didn't call him out on it. Instead, she looked up at the night sky. With the severe pollution these days, there were hardly any stars to be seen in the city. It seemed like she hadn't seen a sky full of stars in a long time, and sometimes she couldn't even see the moon.

"I used to be a cat..."

----------------------

I used to be a cat.

I don't know how long I've been a cat, and at the beginning I didn't even know what I was.

The process of figuring out what one is only begins after one has developed the ability to think.

Before that, I hadn't thought about it, or rather, I was rather naive back then.

Even back then, when I looked at the water and saw that big, round, white face in it, I would wonder, "Who is that?"

I bared my teeth at my reflection in the water, and the big round face in the water also bared its teeth at me. I stretched out my claws, and it stretched out its claws too.

I scratched it with my claws, but it didn't scratch me. Ripples spread across the water, and then it disappeared.

I think I won.

Later, I would sometimes go to play with it, but it wouldn't make a sound, but I think we were friends.

I seem to have been a little silly back then.