Of course, all of that was in the past. Now, it seemed that none of it really mattered much to William Carter anymore. The present William Carter could face everything in this world calmly, even with a confidence tinged with excitement and anticipation, no matter whether fate pushed him toward Nantang or Changzhou.

Thomas King and David White were the two classmates William Carter was closest to during his time at Factory 195’s school.

In Class 1 of the 1986 cohort at the children’s school, William Carter got along well with people, but there were really only two or three friends he was truly close with.

As the saying goes, “birds of a feather flock together.” The Factory 195 children’s school had always been one of the city’s key middle schools, and Class 1 was the honors class. Thomas King and David White had always monopolized the top three spots in science and liberal arts in their grade, while his own grades only hovered around the top ten in liberal arts. It was only because he performed exceptionally well in the college entrance exam that he was able to get into Lingnan University, something he’d never even considered before.

When he first applied to Lingnan University, William Carter honestly hadn’t expected anything. He thought he’d be satisfied just getting into an ordinary undergraduate program. He never imagined that the Lingnan University he’d filled in on a whim would end up accepting him as if by some miracle.

Thomas King got into Chengdu Institute of Telecommunications Engineering, which has now been renamed the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, fulfilling his dream of becoming an electronics expert.

David White, on the other hand, got into Fudan University, which was like launching a satellite for the Factory 195 children’s school.

Although the Factory 195 children’s school had always been a key middle school in the city, its reputation was mostly due to its good facilities. In terms of teaching quality and college entrance exam results, there was still a big gap compared to other key schools in the province and country. David White getting into Fudan was unprecedented; previously, the best anyone from the school had done was getting into Tongji or Zhejiang University.

Besides Thomas King and David White, there was another person close to William Carter who had to be mentioned: Jason Shaw. He didn’t have great grades, but he and William Carter really hit it off. Both were main players on the school basketball team—Jason Shaw played forward, while William Carter was the point guard.

“Thomas Stone just got back last night. I came back the night before. I came to your house to look for you, but you weren’t back yet. Yesterday morning and afternoon I came by twice more, but your mom said you hadn’t been home for two days. Who knows where you ran off to. Come on, confess—were you afraid Thomas Stone and I would bother you, so you ran off with Nancy Jennings to live your own little world?”

David White was easygoing and carefree—a classic type who didn’t sweat the small stuff but was clear-headed about the big things. He got along best with William Carter in class, and after they chose their academic tracks, he helped William Carter a lot. You could say William Carter getting into Lingnan University owed a lot to David White’s help.

“You can’t expect anything good out of your mouth! You’re still the same as ever!” William Carter was genuinely excited. Those muddled twenty-one years seemed to flow back in an instant. It was all so unbelievable, but the reality was right in front of him.

“Heh, feeling embarrassed now, huh? Big William, I was worried you’d be in a bad mood, but it turns out the power of love really can heal everything. Thomas Stone, wasn’t I right? What kind of person is Big William? How could he be knocked down by something like that? It’s the same wherever you go. If you’ve got what it takes, just fight your way back to Changzhou! Why hang yourself from a single tree at Factory 195? If I get fed up one day, I might just quit this lousy job and jump into the sea of business!” David White shot a glare at the pale, skinny young man beside him and said fiercely.

“Big William, seeing you like this, David Young and I can relax. We were worried you’d feel bad about not being able to come back to the factory.” The pale, skinny young man wore a simple white shirt and blue work pants issued by the factory. He said a bit sheepishly, “Looks like I was worrying for nothing.”

“At first, of course I felt bad. But what can you do? It’s not up to me. Man is the fish, fate is the knife. I can only let them do as they please.” William Carter shrugged and waved the two of them in. “Come in and sit. The sun’s brutal out there.”

“Forget it, the weather’s too much. Let’s go soak in the swimming pool. They just changed the water yesterday,” David White said cheerfully. “Way better than sitting around your house.”

“Sure. Did you guys bring your swim trunks?” William Carter also felt sticky and was thinking about taking a shower. The sun was a bit strong, but he didn’t mind—getting a little tanned looked healthier anyway.

“Brought them. Let’s go. The three of us haven’t seen each other for a whole semester. Good time to catch up.” David White smacked his lips. “Or do you want to call Nancy Jennings too?”

“Forget it, just the three of us.” William Carter shook his head as he went back inside. After searching for a while, he finally found a pair of red, slightly worn swim trunks in the old wardrobe. They had a tie on one side of the waist—a style of men’s swim trunks you’d never see in the twenty-first century.

William Carter stared at them for a while before realizing that this was what men’s swim trunks looked like in this era.

Chapter 13: Best Friends

The swimming pool at Factory 195 was well-known even in all of Changzhou. Among the four major state-owned enterprises in Changzhou, aside from Factory 195, neither the Hongqi Machinery Factory, Changzhou Steelworks, nor the Changjiang Cotton Mill No. 1 could compare to Factory 195 in terms of scale.