CH 1

“Lin Yi, are you listening?”

The class adviser’s anxious voice came from the other end of the line, “Hello… Hello? Lin Yi!” 

Lin Yi slid the mouse, his eyes fixed on the selection page on the computer screen.

“Teacher, I’m listening.”

Lin Yi hurriedly responded and continued to moving the mouse. His eyes trembling slightly in his eye sockets as the page scrolled down.

His score on the college entrance exam was 450 points, not enough even for the waitlist of regular undergraduate courses. There weren’t many schools to choose from. 

He turned a page. His high school class adviser heard the the click of the mouse and roared:

“Lin Yi, don’t tell me you’re filling in your selections!?”

“Uh, yes, Teacher.”

Lin Yi was still concentrating on choosing his aspired university. The class adviser’s raging voice also shattered his phone and he hurriedly set the phone aside.

“With your grades couldn’t you have easily chosen Tsinghua or Peking University?! Even if you failed catastrophically this time, you can repeat and study for another year! Don’t give up on yourself!”

The class adviser was trying her very best to persuade him. She could not bear seeing Lin Yi give up when there was clearly a chance of making a comeback.

“You don’t have to worry that your score isn’t enough for a repeat year at our school. Teacher will help you apply. I’ll still be leading the senior year so you can come to the my class…”

The hand on his mouse paused for a moment. 

It wasn’t that he’d been moved by the class adviser’s words, rather——

Found it.

【Unnatural Engineering University】

【Professional School】 

[Admission score: 444 points]

[Number of admissions: unlimited]

Lin Yi’s lips curved up in relief. 444 — truly an unlucky number.

He picked up the phone. Having left the phone and his teacher hanging dry for too long, when his ear touch the screen, there is a biting chill. He didn’t hear what the teacher said, but he could feel his class adviser’s worry and concern. 

“Thank you, Teacher.”

Lin Yi clung to the phone tightly and gave his sincere thanks. “But… there’s no need. I have already submitted my application. Thank you very much for your concern for me, and wish you all the best in your work.”

Click.

With a soft click from the right mouse button: Submit application. 

Followed by a soft beep: First selection submission was successful.

The second and third selections were left empty.

Having been Lin Yi’s head teacher for three years, Lin Yi’s class adviser was familiar Lin Yi’s temper — he spoke little but was stubborn.

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“Which university did you apply to?”

“Unnatural Engineering University.” 

“Huh? Is there such a university?”

“A diploma mill.” Lin Yi whispered, “It’s normal that you haven’t heard of it, Teacher.”

Over the other end, his class adviser ‘Unnatural Engineering University’ into the computer search engine and hit the Enter key.

Error 404. 

–

Lin Yi leaned against the window and looked at the lush tree branches that were level with the floor of his apartment.

He heard the endless buzzing of cicadas, the chirping of swallows perched along the electrical wires, the honking of the cars, the indistinct commotion of pedestrians, all kinds of noises combined into the hustle and bustle of summer — all recorded into the MP4 player in Lin Yi’s hand.

“Lin Yi, your express delivery’s here!” 

The guard uncle waved frantically to Lin Yi holding the letter envelope in his hand. Lin Yi opened the window and was about to wave back but  in the end he only replied, “I’m on my way down.”

On his way out, he took the garbage with him. He ran to the guard.

The guard uncle said cheerfully, “Is it Tsinghua University or Peking University?”

Lin Yi had no intention of opening his parcel in front of the guard nor was he going to explain his failure in the college entrance exams. He simply offered a meek smile. 

The guard uncle asked him, “When are your parents coming back to throw you a celebration party?”

Lin Yi squeezed the courier tightly: “The Central Civilization Office says to abstain from feasts and drink.”

When he returned home, his mom and dad were still watching TV.

Seeing Lin Yi coming back, their eyes moved away from the TV and fell on Lin Yi, specifically at the parcel in Lin Yi’s hand. 

Lin Yi raised it and their gaze followed Lin Yi’s hand, a ‘gugugu’ sounding from their throats.

“I know you’re interested.”

Lin Yi stopped teasing them and tore open the parcel in front of them. He took out a stack of documents.

The most intriguing of the contents was the black and white admission letter. 

Lin Yi cleared his throat and read the letter: “Student Lin Yi, we regret—”

Student Lin Yi:

we regret to inform that you are admitted to the Unnatural Engineering University!

For your safety, please read the campus rules repeatedly until you can memorize everything. 

The campus rules have been printed into a booklet. For the safety of you, your family and friends, please do not lend the campus ruleboook to anyone.

Finally, please come report to the school with this written notice after daybreak on August 29, 2022!

Don’t be early. Don’t be late. Most importantly, do not not come!

– 

For most normal students, summer vacation was a fleeting thing.

A few days before the university registration, Lin Yi packed up his luggage. Before leaving home, Lin Yi made sure to check that the water and electricity in the house was turned off.

After confirming that everything was in order, Lin Yi looked at his parents seated on the sofa. “Mom, Dad, I’m leaving.”

The unpowered TV reflected the expressionless faces of his parents, only their eyeballs shifted to look out through the corner of their eyes as Lin Yi left. 

Bang——

Lin Yi closed the door or the house and locked it with a key from the outside.

The Unnatural Engineering University was not within the city where Lin Yi lived. His plan was to take a three days two nights trip aboard a green train in order to reach the school. After at the station, he would still need to make several transfers.

By the time of his last bus transfer, Lin Yi was tired as he leaned his head against the window. This was an urban-rural bus. Probably because the geographical location of the Unnatural Engineering University was too remote, there wasn’t anyone taking this route, it was only him and the bus driver onboard at this time. 

At the start, the bus would make a brief stop at every stop. However, towards the latter half of the trip, the bus driver no longer did the stops. The bus stops were getting farther and farther apart and the buildings and people grew sparse.

So when the bus showed signs of slowing down, Lin Yi raised his head.

It was already dark. Outside the window, it was a huge swath of darkness. There was no light to be seen at all. He had no idea how the driver even saw the person waiting for the bus at the stop.

No, that wasn’t completely right. The bus had headlights so it’s not surprising that the driver found that there was a person waiting to board. Lin Yi was the type to think about unimportant things. He thought, who would wait for a bus at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere, without a village or shop in sight? 

Would the person waiting be getting on the bus? Was he also heading to the Unnatural Engineering University? After all, the school was this bus’ last stop and it wasn’t far from it now.

If he wasn’t going to get on this bus then which bus line was he waiting for…

While lost in thought, he suddenly heard a somewhat vexxed ‘ah’.

At the front door of the bus, a tall boy was lazily leaning against a seat. “I haven’t got any loose change.” 

The driver looked at the hundred-yuan bill in his hand. “You can put it in, but you’re not gonna get any change.”

The boy snorted again, “Is that so—”

His voice sounded rather nice.

Lin Yi was just thinking to himself when suddenly the boy came towards him. A hint of beseeching appeared in his eyes but because the boy had his eyebrows raised, his appeal for help seemed less sincere. 

He probably wanted to ask two yuan from Lin Yi.

Lin Yi turned his head and ignored the request.

There was no other way. The boy put the hundred-yuan bill into the coin box. The door closed behind him and the sound mixed with his lazy voice.

The boy pointed to his face and said, “Master driver, you have to remember what I look like and don’t charge me the next time I get on.” 

Driver:”……”

“Believe in yourself.” The boy said with a smile, “With my handsome looks, you’ll definitely remember.”

The driver didn’t want to deal with him.

The bus started moving again and the boy left to find a place to sit. 

Right next to Lin Yi.

Lin Yi stiffened. With so many empty seats, why did this person have to sit next to him!

Lin Yi had to push his suitcase aside and had to stand up to make room for the boy to pass and get into the empty seat.

As he was thinking about finding some other seat, a couple of ‘clang clang’ noises resounded in the quiet compartment. It came from inside the suitcase that Lin Yi was pushing. 

After the boy sat down, he tilted his head to look at Lin Yi. “Hello, are you going to Unnatural Engineering University?”

Lin Yi held his suitcase. In order to prevent the contents from making any noise, he sat back down.

The boy looked at Lin Yi’s suitcase and guessed, “You’re a freshman.”

After making sure that the suitcase wouldn’t make any noise, Lin Yi gave out a soft “en”. 

The boy seemed to have what they called that ‘ Social Niubi Disease ‘. He said, “I’m a student of that diploma mill. I’m your senior.”

Lin Yi was restrained. “Oh.”

Boy: “Did you do terribly at the college entrance exams?”

Boy: “How many points did you get?” 

Boy: “Back then, I got 120. How about you, junior classmate?”

Lin Yi clutched the suitcase tightly with his fingers and while praying that this senior would stop talking with him, he lowered his eyes and said, “450.”

“That’s a pretty high score. Why did you come here?” The boy muttered and he glanced at Lin Yi’s nervous side profile. He said with a smile, “Don’t be afraid. Senior’s not a bad person and I won’t eat you.”

Lin Yi’s tense expression became even more obvious. People with the Social Niubi Disease never could understand the pain of a social phobic. 

“Looks like my junior’s the scaredy type.” The boy approached Lin Yi and said, sounding amused, “The campus rules are obviously more terrifying than I am, right? The admission letter wrote in blood-red letters  “Don’t be early.” So why are you going to school early? ”

“I’ve got a call.” Lin Yi made a random excuse to end the conversation. He stood up and walked down the aisle of the bus with his suitcase, intending to find another seat.

A seat farther away from this social bull senior.

He had just gotten up and was pushing his suitcase along. Before he could sit down, the bus driver suddenly stepped on the brakes. 

If it wasn’t for Lin Yi’s quick reaction, grabbing onto the handrail, he would have rolled directly to the driver’s feet.

Unfortunately, his luggage hadn’t been able to avoid an unpleasant fate.

After a burst of crackling and rattling, the driver let out a ‘f*ck’ and looked back at his only two passengers. “I hit a rabbit, it’s fine…”

He stopped abruptly and the expressions on the driver’s and the boy’s changed slightly. 

Lin Yi managed to steady himself but his suitcase obviously hadn’t been as lucky.

The 28-inch suitcase toppled over because of the emergency break. Not only had all four wheels fallen out but the suitcase had also burst open, scattering its contents everywhere.

Kitchen knives, fruit knives, daggers, all kinds of cutting tools…

Translator’s note: Hello! Thank you for checking out my new translation project. For now updates will be slow (thought there will be at least one release every week) until I find a rhythm juggling my current workload with translating. But the ultimate goal is around 2-3 chapters per week. Full disclosure, I’ve only read until chapter 50-60. I think its very good. This isn’t the author’s first work, it’s not even the first Unlimited Flow, though this is the highest rated of her works so far. It’s still on-going though. Hopefully it ends just as well as it started. In any case, let’s all discover it together. =)