Chapter 156: Slipping Away on the Pretext of a Bathroom Break

Zhao Mian had already taken a few steps away with his water cup, but Lin Luyao's words made him stop in his tracks:

"The prestige of University A has always been the responsibility of you top students. Oh no, or rather, it's a shackle placed on you by those professors. But that kind of thing is just fleeting clouds to someone like me. Why should I care about all of that?"

"Besides," Zhao Mian walked a few steps closer to Lin Luyao, "once you enter the workplace and step into a real company, academic qualifications don't matter all that much... Your grades are decent, but when it comes to the ways of the workplace, you're no match for a slacker like me."

With that, Zhao Mian paid Lin Luyao no further mind, took his cup, and walked straight away. However, he didn't return to his seat; judging by his route, Lin Luyao guessed he was probably heading downstairs to wander around again.

Lin Luyao stood in place, lost in thought as she pondered what Zhao Mian had just said. But a few seconds later, she snapped back to reality:

Ugh, ugh, ugh! What kind of distorted logic was that? Since when did freeloading and dawdling become justified?

Lin Luyao pouted, grabbed her own water cup, left the pantry, and returned to her desk.

Sitting in her chair and looking at the mountain of tasks, she couldn't help feeling annoyed all over again.

The Business Operations Group Two was already understaffed, and everyone was practically wishing they could split themselves in half just to keep up. Yet, they had the misfortune of being saddled with an intern like Zhao Mian, who couldn't be scolded and refused to do any work. The heavy burden of the project group thus fell entirely on the shoulders of Cheng Li and Lin Luyao.

Yet precisely because of this, Lin Luyao couldn't help feeling a sliver of curiosity about this thorny individual. She wondered how someone so devoid of team spirit and with such a carefree, bohemian attitude had managed to survive four years at University A.

She couldn't resist sending a message to Jiang Xiaohan. Compared to herself, Jiang Xiaohan, who held positions in both the student union and the departmental association, had her ears to the ground for all sorts of campus gossip.

[Lin Luyao: Xiaohan, let me ask you about someone.]

[Lin Luyao: Have you ever heard of a guy named Zhao Mian? I heard he used to be in the finance department, but later transferred to study advertising.]

Not long after, Jiang Xiaohan replied. But upon seeing her response, Lin Luyao felt her jaw practically drop to the floor.

She had assumed Zhao Mian's grades were, just as he claimed earlier, merely at the very bottom of the class.

Yet, goodness knows where Jiang Xiaohan had dug up the photo from—when their department was awarding the first-class scholarships, Zhao Mian's name was prominently listed, and he was standing just four people away from Lin Luyao herself.

Lin Luyao sent five exclamation marks in a row. Even so, she felt these punctuation marks were wholly inadequate to express her astonishment.

[Lin Luyao: He was actually there too?!]

[Lin Luyao: Where did you dig this picture up? Did someone photoshop this or something?]

[Jiang Xiaohan: This is an on-site photo taken by the Student Union Media Department, okay! They even have a video, do you want me to pull that up for you too?]

[Jiang Xiaohan: Besides, why would I have nothing better to do than photoshop pictures?]

[Jiang Xiaohan: But this Zhao Mian is quite the legendary figure anyway. How on earth do you have no recollection of him?]

Hearing her friend say this, Lin Luyao's curiosity was piqued even further.

At this moment, she felt like someone reading a mystery novel, following the author's train of thought to guess the murderer, only to find out she had guessed wrong when the answer was finally revealed. Her curiosity about the true story behind it all grew tenfold.

Thus, for the very first time, Lin Luyao resorted to the classic excuse of a bathroom break, clutching her phone as she sneaked off to the restroom to slack off.