Marrying My Bestie's Ferocious Brother - He Calls Me His Baby!

Chapter 334 - 332: Her Choice, a Vision That Stunned All the Big Shots

The police car’s siren didn’t wail; the red and blue lights silently rotated, reflected on Su Jiaojiao’s paper-white face.

Two uniformed police officers stood in front of her, their expressions stern. One of them unfolded a piece of paper and read it aloud in an emotionless tone: "Su Jiaojiao, you are suspected of malicious accusation and attempting political entrapment. Please come with us."

Political entrapment.

These four words were like four nails, harshly driven into Su Jiaojiao’s mind.

Her body went limp, and she collapsed on the ground. Old clothes from her canvas bag scattered, covered in dust. She finally understood how outrageous her mistake was. In this era, cheating on an exam was a scandal, but political entrapment was a crime enough to destroy a person or even a family.

Lin Wan Yi, from beginning to end, hadn’t even considered her a rival.

...

A few days later, the gossip about Su Jiaojiao vanished completely from the campus, as if she never existed.

But the name Lin Wan Yi spread like a level-12 earthquake, continuously resonating and shaking the entire Chinese academic circle.

Beijing Agricultural College, Dean’s Office.

"Ring ring ring——!"

The black, old-fashioned telephone on the desk hadn’t stopped ringing since eight in the morning.

Dean Li, with dark circles under his eyes, clutched the receiver, saliva flying: "...Yes, yes, yes, that’s Lin Wan Yi! What? You want her to join your Chinese Academy of Sciences’ resistant wheat project? I say Old Zhang, your institute’s calculations are too loud! She’s just a sophomore!"

He had just hung up the phone with a snap, not even having time to drink a sip of water, when the specially used red long-distance phone started shrill ringing.

The secretary quickly picked up, covering the receiver, spoke in a low voice to Dean Li: "Dean, it’s... the president of Fudan from Shanghai calling personally!"

Dean Li snatched the receiver, cleared his throat, and couldn’t hide his smugness, "Hello? Principal Chen! Ah, long time no see!... Oh, you’ve heard about it too? Not to boast, she’s a student of our college... What? A direct admission to your school’s master’s and doctorate programs? Offering an associate professor position upon graduation? Principal Chen, you’re... you’re too unscrupulous! Poaching right in front of me!"

The office door knocked, and Lin Wan Yi walked in.

Dean Li’s eyes lit up when he saw her. He shouted into the phone, "There’s no negotiating this," and hung up immediately. He triumphantly pulled out a large stack of letters and telegrams from the drawer, piling them in front of Lin Wan Yi.

"Look!" He pointed at the pile of papers, his face glowing, "The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Agricultural Academy, Jinling Agricultural College... All the top institutions in the country are naming you! You can set whatever conditions you want! Wan Yi, you’ve earned tremendous honor for our Beijing Agricultural College!"

Lin Wan Yi glanced at the envelopes with various headers, her expression unchanged.

She quietly waited for Dean Li to calm down before speaking softly.

"Dean, thank you for thinking so highly of me."

Her voice was calm, like a clear spring flowing over stones, "However, knowledge is a towering building; my own foundation isn’t complete yet, and I don’t want to build a castle in the air."

The smile on Dean Li’s face froze.

He thought she would be excited, thrilled, at least flattered. But what he saw was only a clarity and determination beyond her years.

Lin Wan Yi didn’t even look at those enticing conditions that would make any student crazy, she looked directly into Dean Li’s eyes and said earnestly, "During my undergraduate years, I want to deepen my roots further. As for these projects, I’m not qualified yet."

The office was silent.

After a long time, Dean Li let out a long sigh, in which there was no disappointment, only deeper shock and admiration.

He had misjudged.

This was not just a good seedling; this was clearly a sapling that had planned to grow into a towering tree by itself. Any action trying to make it bloom prematurely was blasphemy.

"However," Lin Wan Yi slightly shifted the conversation, taking a German dictionary out of her backpack, "I heard that the Plant Institute recently got a new batch of research documents on plant cell antifreeze protein from West Germany. If they don’t mind, I’d like to try my hand at it over the winter break."

Dean Li was completely stunned.

He knew about those documents, filled with cutting-edge biochemical terminology and complex molecular structure descriptions. Even several German professors working together found it slow-going...

And she... she actually wanted to take it on by herself?

Looking into Lin Wan Yi’s clear and confident eyes, he suddenly realized how unnecessary his previous efforts to shield her from those invitations had been.

This student, she herself, possessed the clearest blueprint and the strongest heart.

Upon leaving the dean’s office, the sky was already nearing dusk.

When she returned to the dormitory, the class monitor was waiting for her with a bulging cloth bag in his arms.

"Wan Yi, this is... what everyone sold their notes to collect." The class monitor handed over the cloth bag, eyes full of reverence, "A total of three hundred and twenty-seven yuan and fifty cents, along with various meal tickets, cloth tickets, and industrial tickets... It’s all here."

In an era where an ordinary worker only earned thirty yuan a month, this was a real fortune.

The other three girls in the dormitory held their breath, staring straight at the cloth bag.

Lin Wan Yi took the cloth bag, untied the string.

Under everyone’s gaze, she reached out and carefully picked out five one-dime bills from the thick stack of money and vouchers.

Then, she tied the bag back up and pushed the heavy cloth bag back to the stunned monitor.

"This fifty cents is the cost of mimeographing." Her voice was light, yet it fell clearly onto everyone’s hearts, "The rest can be used as class funds, to buy some new reference books for everyone, or organize an activity."

"But... but how is this fair!" The class monitor panicked, "This is rightfully yours!"

"I’ve gained enough already." Lin Wan Yi smiled slightly.

What she had received was the echo of knowledge, the recognition of her classmates, all of which were far more precious than money or vouchers.

The class monitor held the cloth bag, looked at Lin Wan Yi’s smile, and his eyes suddenly reddened. He couldn’t say a word, just bowed deeply to Lin Wan Yi.

The winter break arrived quietly.

The first snow of the winter had fallen in Beijing, and Lin Wan Yi packed her bags, preparing to go home with Gu Yanshen the next day.

Before leaving, the old man in the post office called out to her and handed her a package with a hard shell from Shanghai.

The package wasn’t big, but it was heavy; the address and sender were unfamiliar.

Back in the now empty dormitory, Lin Wan Yi used a small knife to cut open the seal.

Inside was an old wooden box with a faint wood fragrance and exquisite craftsmanship.

She gently opened the lid.

The box was lined with deep purple velvet, on which lay a yellowed letter. Under the letter was a meticulously folded, complex drawing paper.

Unfolding the letter, the unfamiliar handwriting was strong and vigorous.

"Niece Wan Yi, my words to you. I am an old friend of your grandfather’s, surname Bai, an unremarkable perfumer. Your grandfather left in a hurry, many of his beloved items were scattered, but I was fortunate to keep this one. He always said, fragrance carries memory; he wanted to create one that could capture the elegance and spirit of that era in Shanghai. Regrettably, time was against him, and it remained a dream."

Lin Wan Yi’s heart trembled slightly.

She picked up the drawing paper, carefully unfolding it.

It was covered with densely packed hand-drawn molecular structure diagrams, and one line after another of elegant annotations, noting the proportions and extraction methods of various fragrance ingredients. This was an extremely complex, even somewhat whimsical, perfume formula.

In the lower right corner of the paper, she saw her grandfather’s flamboyant signature, with an unfinished name beside it—[Old Dreams at Sea].

The end of the letter contained Mr. Bai’s final words.

"This formula, considered the most failed among his works. But I always felt it was simply born in the wrong era. Now I am old, and perhaps only you, carrying his blood, can fulfill this wish."

"Wan Yi, are you interested in bringing this thirty-year-old dream ’Old Dreams at Sea’ back to light?"