STH Chapter 03 The Present

Although Ye Fan hasn’t achieved his professional success, for some unknown reasons, he was in a good living with sufficient savings. He just bought a Benz several days ago, whose price was far higher than the Toyota car of Liu Yunzhi. However, judging people by wealth or social status was a vulgar thing to Ye Fan.

Ten minutes later, Ye Fan drove to their meeting place, an entertainment center called “Bright Moon over the Sea”. It is a super entertainment center that integrates catering and leisure activities, located in a prime area surrounded by hustle and bustle. The social status of its consumers was presented by those various high-end cars in the parking lot.

Graduating from college for only three years, most of the classmates were still unsuccessful at work. Ye Fan felt that choosing such a meeting place is kind of extravagant. When he left the parking lot and walked towards the center, Ye Fan saw several familiar figures ahead of him. They were all his classmates coming to the party, some of whom had not been seen for three years.

"Ye Fan!" A comely and elegant young man standing near the entrance of the center recognized Ye Fan and greeted him with a smile.

"You should have been the one who initiated and organized our party, treating us in a spirit of hospitality. You show up so late today. It’s your fault."

The young man named Wang Ziwen was one of the organizers and initiators of today's gathering. He was very active in college. It was said that his business had developed smoothly as expected in another city for the past three years, which brought him a great fortune.

There were more and more classmates coming by. Although they haven’t seen each other for a long time, they were still in an intimate relationship. Obviously, Wang Ziwen was waiting for someone else near the entrance. There were few people worth his waiting today so it’s easy to guess the guy he was waiting for.

Wang Ziwen was clever. He stopped his waiting and led the way to the party for the classmates. He was very sociable and got along well with his old friends.

There was a reserved private room on the fifth floor, which could accommodate thirty to fifty people. At that moment, the sky turned dark outside. Almost all classmates were there.

The arrival of Ye Fan and several other classmates brought a more boisterous atmosphere to the party. Many people who had been seated stood up immediately and greeted them warmly. How time flies! For all of them, it felt like spatial dislocation, and many memories of the past reoccurred in their mind.

After three years, they were all at the age of twenty-five or twenty-six years old. A few of them got married, and two became mothers. Everyone had their own life track, but generally speaking, most of them lived a normal life.

Time wiped out their dreams and ambitions in the college, pushing them to be an ordinary. The dream escaped far away. Most of them have gotten used to the fact that they are just ordinary people.

Ye Fan was taken to another corner of the room by Wang Ziwen. Lin Jia also sat here. She had beautiful slanted eyes, with a slender and curvaceous figure. After his careful observation, Ye Fan found that classmates sitting here were either with great professional success or with powerful family background.

"Ye Fan, you came here so late. Three shots as a forfeit"

"Three glasses of wine are not enough. Are you looking down on our old friend?"

"Which beauty wants to punish me?" Ye Fan made a joke on those male students who planned to get him drunk.

"Making fun of us? How brave you are, Ye Fan. We must punish you !" Liu Yunzhi was somewhat influential in that area.

He sat near Ye Fan and sneered at him: "I forgot that you had to wait for the taxi to pick you up. It was understandable that you were late."

His words brought an unfriendly atmosphere to the party. Everyone knew that Liu Yunzhi had a grudge with Ye Fan in college. Liu Yunzhi’s business has developed rapidly in this city. Now he impolitely pointed out how Ye Fan came to the party, with a clear intent to belittle his enemy.

Other students also noticed what was happening between Liu Yunzhi and Ye Fan. However, Ye Fan just smiled slightly and didn't say anything on it.

"I’ll go out and pick up Zhou Yi." Wang Ziwen made an excuse, then walked away the dining room.

Lin Jia talked with other two female classmates about cosmetics and luxurious cloth brands. Others shared some interesting things of the past. The unfriendly atmosphere created by Liu Yunzhi gradually faded away. The atmosphere of the party became pleasant and delightful again.

However, their relationship was still somewhat subtle after the incident. No one said a word to Ye Fan, instead everyone was chatting happily with Liu Yunzhi, one of the most successful businessmen in the city.

Although Ye Fan was popular in college, it didn’t matter anymore after they graduated from college. Now career success was most valued.

　

The dining table where Ye Fan sat was like a special circle, made of successful classmates. Ye Fan was not pretty involved here and got a feeling of being marginalized.

However, Ye Fan didn’t care about it. Finally, he stood up and went to sit with other students. He did not want to be regarded as an arrogant man who had a special circle.

Cosmetics and luxurious clothes were always the favorite topics of female students, while male students had a wide range of hobbies from football to social issues.

Half an hour later, everyone was here, and the gathering started. There were 33 students in the class, three of whom were studying abroad. Other five didn’t show up due to some special reasons. A total of 25 classmates attended the party tonight.

Initiators and organizers delivered speeches one by one, warming up the party. Then all participants were divided into several small circles and chatted happily with each other.

Everyone proposed a toast to celebrate the reunion. Group division hadn’t been deliberately arranged before, which were supposed to be based on the fame and wealth of participants. Ye Fan did not sit together with Lin Jia and Liu Yunzhi, instead he casually choose another dining table.

After rounds of speech, the party got more and more casual. Some left their seats and came to toast others. Some were surrounded by a bunch of classmates holding wine, which made them difficult to leave before finish drinking.

Lots of things had happened in the past three years, and everyone had changed a lot. Stimulated by alcohol, many classmates began to talk about their experiences. Some were proud of their current lives while others were unsatisfied.

Some people hate their bosses for being hypercritical. They were required to work overtime, with a pitiful salary.

One girl said that her boyfriend was a department manager of a well-known company. Another girl said that her husband had been promoted to vice president of the company. Someone said that his fiancée was the niece of a bank executive.

However, many classmates just listened to the story of others and kept silent, because they didn’t live happily.

There was one girl who was particularly depressed. Someone said that she married to a guy she didn’t love. She was upset after the marriage. Her husband got drunk all day. Some classmates even saw bruises on her body.

"If you need my help, just give me a call." Ye Fan showed his compassion for that pitiful girl, who impressed him a lot in college. The girl was shy and cute three tears ago, once standing outside the football field and waving to Ye Fan.

She nodded thankfully and expressed her sincere gratitude to Ye Fan in a low voice.

"Ye Fan, maybe you should help yourself at first." The girl who said that her husband had been promoted to vice president rudely interrupted Ye Fan: "You should learn from Liu Yunzhi. Look how successful he is. "

All participants looked at Ye Fan, and then compared him with Liu Yunzhi, who were surround by a group of future high-flyers.

"Ye Fan, your legend has stopped from the day we graduated from the college. Everything has changed after we left the campus. You can't succeed without being diligent. Do you know what I mean?" The boy who said that his fiancée was the niece of a bank executive started his preaching.

Comparing themselves with Liu Yunzhi, many classmates got thwarted. Although they got a far better score at school, Liu Yunzhi was incomparable now.

Others got drunk and complained that the party was initiated with the aim to show off the wealth.

Some girls began to joke Ye Fan, saying that they all got crushes on Ye Fan in college, but now they regretted turning down the courtship of Liu Yunzhi.

The city remained the same. The classmates remained unchanged. But they were in different moods after the reunion.

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