Life at school was a completely different world from the one outside.
It was April.
The grass was growing, the orioles were in flight, and the weather was pleasant. The whole world was impossibly warm.
Chen Yuan rushed back from Kyoto early in the morning, arriving at the school gates just after seven. The sun was already high in the sky, bathing everything in brilliant light. The tree-lined avenue was quiet, as most students were still in their dorms, sleeping in.
The few who were rushing back from off-campus, their faces haggard, were presumably the night owls who hadn't made it back to their dorms at all.
Stepping onto campus, Chen Yuan felt a profound sense of relief. The feeling was, of course, a direct result of his trip to Kyoto. He'd had two meetings a day, each lasting over an hour, argued with Jiang Zhengfeng in the afternoon, and then been dragged to greet a crowd of board members in the evening.
