Chapter 312: Moving In

"We’re on the same floor!" Chen Mo said with a laugh. "It’ll be easy to see each other from across the way."

"Xingyuan Apartments are just over there," a helpful male volunteer said, pointing them toward several new, identical-looking high-rises in the distance. "Follow this path straight ahead. When you see the sign for the ’Student Life Center,’ take a right. The new buildings with balconies at the very end of the path are the Xingyuan Apartments. The duty office is at the first-floor entrance of each building."

Saying goodbye to the volunteer, the two pushed their suitcases along the tree-lined path toward the dormitory area.

The campus was shaded by green trees. Although they were still young and didn’t provide the dense, sun-blocking canopy of the old campus, the freshly laid lawns and meticulously designed flowerbeds added a great deal of vitality.

Along the way, they occasionally ran into other freshmen, also dragging luggage and searching for their dorms, all sizing up their new surroundings.

Before Chen Mo and Su Yuqing even got close, they could see the sign for "Xingyuan Apartments" and several off-white high-rises from a distance.

"Well... I’ll head to Building A, then?" Su Yuqing asked, standing at a fork in the path of the Xingyuan Apartment District. She pointed to the building on the left, which had a sign labeled "Building A," her voice betraying a slight nervousness about the unfamiliar surroundings.

"Yeah, go on." Chen Mo nodded with a smile and pointed to Building B on the right. "I’ll get in touch once I’ve dropped my things off."

"Okay." Su Yuqing took a deep breath, gave a little nod as if to psych herself up, and pulled her suitcase into the stream of people heading toward Building A.

Chen Mo watched her back disappear behind the glass doors of Building A before turning and pushing his own suitcase toward Building B.

The atmosphere in the boys’ dorm was noticeably more "boisterous" than over at the girls’ dorm.

Most of the boys coming and going from the entrance were bustling about, their luggage piled up haphazardly, and their greetings were much louder.

The air held the faint, mixed scent of sweat and new plastic.

The duty office was to the right of the entrance, where a stern-faced dorm manager in her forties sat behind a glass window.

Chen Mo handed over his assignment slip. "Hello, ma’am. Room 504. I’m here for my key and residence card."

The woman glanced up at him. When she saw he was a handsome young man, her perfunctory expression instantly melted into a smile. She looked down to verify his ID, and after confirming it was correct, she retrieved a set of keys and a hard plastic card from the cabinet behind her. Handing them over, she grabbed his hand and tapped the card, rattling off instructions, "This is your key and your residence card. Keep the card safe—you need it for building access, taking showers, and using electricity. The door has an electronic lock, so you can use either the card or the key to open it. Dorm rules are posted on the back of the door, so read them yourself. Utility bills are settled at the end of the month; you pay them through the app."

"Okay, thank you, ma’am." Chen Mo took the key and card, thanking her promptly. He then walked toward the elevators under her watchful gaze.

Since it was freshman move-in day, the building was packed. A line had already formed at the elevators, so after a quick glance at the crowd, Chen Mo decided to just carry his suitcase up the stairs.

With his physique, carrying a suitcase up five flights of stairs was no big deal.

He quickly reached the fifth floor. While five stories wasn’t particularly high for him, climbing them with a large suitcase in tow still caused him to break a light sweat.

The hallway was bustling. Many of the dorm room doors were propped open, with freshmen and their parents moving in and out. The air was filled with a medley of sounds: luggage being hauled, rooms being cleaned, and people calling out greetings to one another.

He found Room 504. The door was ajar.

Chen Mo pushed the door open and went inside. Two other guys were already there.

The guy on the bottom bunk to the right, near the door, was stockily built. He was struggling to hoist a massive hiking backpack onto the bed, his face flushed red from the effort.

When he saw Chen Mo, the guy broke into a wide grin. "Hey, man, perfect timing!" he said, his voice carrying a thick Northeastern accent. "Can you give me a hand? This thing weighs a ton!"

Chen Mo put down his suitcase and easily helped him hoist the bag up.

"Thanks, man! I’m Wang Lan, from the Northeast!" the stocky guy said, wiping sweat from his brow and enthusiastically extending his hand. "What’s your name?"

"Chen Mo, from Jiang Province," Chen Mo replied with a smile, shaking his hand.

"We got here first, so we already picked our beds," Wang Lan said, pointing to the empty top bunk above his. "If you want this spot near the door, I can swap with you."

In reality, there wasn’t much difference between the four bunks. The only one that was arguably undesirable was the one next to the bathroom.

If the ventilation was poor, and you were stuck with messy roommates, whoever slept in that bunk would have to endure any and all odors wafting out of the bathroom.

Chen Mo glanced around the dorm. The room seemed decent, and since there was still an available bunk further inside and away from the bathroom, he wasn’t concerned. He shook his head and said with a smile, "I’m fine with that one over there."

"Guess that makes us bunkmates!" said the other guy in that set of bunks, seeing Chen Mo pick the one on the left side by the balcony. He smiled. "I’m Li Zhe, from Su Province."

’He’s from the south, but his Mandarin is surprisingly standard.’

"Nice to meet you," Chen Mo replied with a nod.

The final roommate had yet to arrive. The remaining empty spot was the top bunk on the right side of the balcony—the one right next to the bathroom.

After getting acquainted with his two roommates, Chen Mo started unpacking his luggage.

Wang Lan was a real chatterbox. "Hey, guys," he said while stuffing clothes away, "I heard our schedule for the first semester of this eight-year program is totally packed. Human Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology, Medical Immunology... a whole ton of stuff. And what about that legendary, super-’intense’ anatomy lab? I’m actually getting a little excited just thinking about it!"

Li Zhe, who was quietly organizing his desk, pushed up his glasses at Wang Lan’s words, a flicker of scholarly anticipation in his eyes. "Yeah, I saw the draft of the course schedule. It’s definitely intense. I always heard that university was supposed to be relaxed. I guess we picked the least relaxing major, huh?"

Hearing this, Chen Mo smiled.

’This idea of a "relaxed" university life really only exists at ordinary schools with a light academic load. At top-tier universities, the work is still incredibly demanding.’

’The biggest difference is that professors don’t micromanage you like high school teachers do. But if you don’t stay on top of things yourself and fall behind, you’ll have a tough time catching up.’

’He knew from experience. The scores he’d needed to get into the police academy had been the result of a life-or-death academic grind.’

Chen Mo took out a towel he’d brought, dampened it with water, and thoroughly wiped down his bunk. Only then did he put his clothes away in the wardrobe, store his suitcase, and set up his school supplies and laptop on his desk.

As for bedding, it had been too much of a hassle to pack, so he had already decided to buy it on campus after he arrived.

After he finished organizing, Chen Mo took out the two Peace Talismans he’d been given, one by Su Yuqing and one by his mother. He carefully hung his mother’s talisman on the railing at the head of his bed, its red tassel standing out starkly in the new room.

He kept the one from Su Yuqing on his person.

Having done all this, he walked out onto the balcony and looked outside.

The view from the fifth floor was, as expected, excellent. It even faced directly toward Building A, not too far in the distance.