Chapter 32: Yu Yingying's Decision

Page 1 of 3

At the end of July, An Songyu and Yu Yingying stood at the school gates and saw off the last of their roommates.

Their dormitory had housed eight people. Now, some had found jobs and others had gone home, leaving only An Songyu and Yu Yingying behind.

“Yingying, have you really made up your mind?” An Songyu asked again as they walked back to the dormitory.

Even now, she still had not quite taken it in.

Originally, her best friend should already have returned to her hometown.

She might even have been working for several days by now.

But after graduation, when everyone had gone their separate ways, the girls in the dormitory had remained in touch, though not as frequently as before.

So while they generally knew what everyone else was doing, they were not always certain of the exact dates.

But now…

Yu Yingying linked her arm through her friend’s and smiled. “What, are you afraid you’ll have to take responsibility for me?”

An Songyu was even more speechless. “I already told you I’m not going back to work in a hotel after graduation.”

“Yes, yes, you’re going home to inherit the family business and become the first orchard owner in the history of Nanshi University.” Yu Yingying continued teasing her.

But when she saw the helpless expression on her friend’s face, she put away her grin and said seriously, for once, “A-Yu, I really was influenced by you when I decided to stay in Xianquan.”

“You know how much I love making pastries.”

“And my master says I have real talent.”

“But if I followed my parents’ wishes and returned to our hometown, I would probably end up like many of our classmates, starting at the bottom of a hotel.”

“Compared with that, I might as well stay at Xianquan Hotel!”

“Even though it has nothing to do with what we studied.”

“At least it will let me keep learning the Western pastries I love.”

“And Xianquan is such a large hotel. What I can see and learn there is far beyond what I could find in a small hotel back home.”

“There’s nothing we can do. We studied hotel management, but our families don’t own a hotel for us to inherit!”

An Songyu nodded repeatedly as she listened.

But what did any of this have to do with her?

“Of course it has something to do with you!” Yu Yingying said with absolute certainty. Seeing that An Songyu still looked completely bewildered, she quickly glanced around before lowering her voice. “A-Yu, do you really not know, or are you pretending?”

“I heard our homeroom teacher specifically recommended you to the First Hotel of Nanshi.”

Page 1 of 3

Page 2 of 3

“That’s why you didn’t go on the day of the campus recruitment.”

“If you had gone, you definitely would have received one of the First Hotel of Nanshi’s offers.”

An Songyu paused, utterly surprised. She had never imagined that there had been such a reason behind the job opportunity at the First Hotel of Nanshi.

Yet even though she had once worked there for more than twenty years, she had never heard a word about it.

She had remained in Nanshi for work and stayed in the hotel industry, so she had never lost touch with her former homeroom teacher.

Later, after becoming a junior manager, whenever the hotel had internship opportunities in departments with some decision-making authority, she would give priority to the younger students taught by her former teacher.

“Don’t think about it too much!” Seeing her friend’s reaction, Yu Yingying quickly reassured her. “You got that opportunity not only because you usually performed well.”

“You also made a good impression during the summer jobs you had at hotels in Nanshi over the previous two years.”

“Do you really think our homeroom teacher would hand out recommendations casually?”

The system in place now was one of mutual selection. A teacher’s recommendation could not guarantee anything.

In fact, with the future in mind, many teachers would not recommend students unless they were confident in them.

Recommending a student like An Songyu, who had already worked summer jobs at a hotel and received favorable evaluations, could be considered a win-win situation.

Once An Songyu thought it through, she felt relieved.

A little embarrassed, she said, “It’s not that I’m thinking about anything else. I just feel that not even attending the recruitment event was a waste of the recommendation our homeroom teacher gave me.”

“That’s why our homeroom teacher asked you about it a couple of days ago!” Yu Yingying was even more speechless.

She almost admired her friend’s astonishing slowness to catch on.

“Uh… I thought it was because I hadn’t found a job, so our homeroom teacher was simply showing me extra concern.” An Songyu did remember that conversation.

She recalled that when they had graduated in her previous life, there had been several classmates who could not find work for a long time.

Their homeroom teacher had worried about them constantly.

She just had not expected that after returning to this point in time, she would become one of them.

Besides, to most people, a university graduate who still wanted to return home and farm seemed hopelessly unambitious.

So whenever she spoke with her former homeroom teacher, An Songyu had felt more guilt than anything else. She had never considered the matter from that angle.

“It wouldn’t be right to say that had nothing to do with it.” Yu Yingying was rather amused.

At least her friend was not entirely lacking in self-awareness!

Page 2 of 3

Page 3 of 3

An Songyu thought for a moment before suddenly realizing something. She hurriedly asked, “So what does any of this have to do with the decision you made?”

Yu Yingying helplessly spread her hands. “I thought you knew you had a recommendation and had still firmly chosen to give up going home to farm. That was why I admired your courage.”

“Your actions encouraged me to pursue what I truly like, too.”

“But who could have guessed that you genuinely knew nothing?”

By the end, Yu Yingying sounded somewhat dejected.

So, had she really made the right decision?

An Songyu laughed as well. She stretched out an arm, put it around her friend’s shoulders, and said with a smile, “Then you can stop worrying.”

“The choices we sisters have made are both definitely the right ones.”

She did not mention her own situation. After all, not everyone would have the chance to benefit from a demolition and relocation project.

But An Songyu felt that helping Yu Yingying embark early on the path she was destined to follow was a good thing.

After all, Yu Yingying was still young.

She could learn faster and was better able to innovate.

Simply studying under the pastry chefs at Xianquan Hotel would certainly be far better than the classes An Songyu had once spent both money and time enrolling in.

What was more, Yu Yingying’s hometown was not a particularly large city.

Shuncheng was not especially large either.

But it was located in the Southern Province, and it was close to Nanshi.

Even Harbor Island and Deep City were not far away.

Here, the people she could meet and the varieties and techniques of Western pastry she could learn were at the forefront of the field.

An entire lifetime of benefits might be too much to claim.

But at the very least, Yu Yingying’s starting point would be far higher than it had been in her previous life.

Only An Songyu had experienced that future firsthand.

Yu Yingying did not understand where her friend’s certainty came from.

But she was deeply influenced by An Songyu’s confidence all the same.

When the two of them left Nanshi once more with their packed luggage, Yu Yingying felt not the slightest trace of hesitation.

Her heart was filled entirely with anticipation and confidence for the future.

Page 3 of 3