315: Public universities without on-campus housing

After Lilia entered, she didn't search much. She casually grabbed a set of clothes and changed into them right in front of Li Qinghe.

It was a combination of a camisole and denim shorts. In Singapore, where the temperature is always very high, simple and cool clothing is favored by everyone.

Lilia

Lilia stood in front of the room's huge floor-to-ceiling window, glancing at the Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel across the Singapore River.

Her snow-white skin was dazzlingly bright under the sunlight.

"Darling, can you take me to school?" She looked at Li Qinghe with a slightly expectant gaze.

"Of course! What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Li Qinghe had already pulled on a T-shirt in a couple of swift movements, grabbed his car keys, and started walking out.

Lilia quickly followed closely behind him.

Their current location was on the southern tip of Singapore Island, while the Singapore University of Social Sciences, where Lilia studied, was on the western side of Singapore Island.

Although the university's name sounds a bit unusual, it is one of the six public universities on Singapore Island, holding a status comparable to Renmin University of China among Singaporean universities.

This is the youngest of Singapore's six public universities, and interestingly, it actually spun off from a private university in Singapore, the Singapore Institute of Management.

Even now, the two universities are still adjacent, and some teaching facilities are even shared.

The entire school has over 19,000 students and covers an area of 21.5 hectares.

It is a university of considerable size.

Li Qinghe quickly drove to the vicinity of the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

"Darling, can you drop me off at the apartment first? I need to bring my books to school."

At Lilia's request, Li Qinghe turned the steering wheel and first arrived at an apartment building near the Singapore University of Social Sciences, one subway stop away.

Only when he got downstairs did Li Qinghe realize that the Singapore University of Social Sciences was a university without on-campus dormitories.

Therefore, all students of the Singapore University of Social Sciences rent their own accommodation off-campus, and these rentals are not managed by the school. They rent self-managed apartments just like other members of society.

Lilia and two other female classmates rent a three-bedroom apartment together, with a monthly rent of 900 singapore dollars.

During their studies, the two biggest expenses are tuition fees and rent.

Although it only takes half an hour to get home by subway,

as independent university students, most of them still choose to rent outside because it allows them to enjoy a free lifestyle.

So, Lilia not returning home for the night was not unusual.

Her two roommates often did this; strictly speaking, this was Lilia's first time not returning to the apartment.

The apartment Lilia and her roommates rented was on the 8th floor, and the overall environment of the apartment was very good.

As Li Qinghe followed Lilia into the room, he saw a girl wearing a camisole and denim shorts, standing smiling in front of the living room sofa.

Her appearance was similar to girls from Yunnan Province and Guangxi Province in China, with a slight Malay outline, but much fairer than Malays, and her smile looked quite sweet.

She was not tall, about 1.6 meters, and could be considered a cute Singaporean girl.

Nina

"Hi, good morning everyone."

Seeing Li Qinghe follow Lilia in, the girl greeted them very generously.

"Oh, Nina, you haven't gone to school yet? Let me introduce you, this is my boyfriend Li, and this is my classmate Nina."

Li Qinghe and the girl named Nina gently shook hands.

"Oh oh oh, our peacock princess has finally found a partner for in-depth communication."

After shaking hands with Li Qinghe, Nina pulled Lilia's hand and walked aside, starting to tease her with a giggle.

"Was last night fun? Your boyfriend looks very strong."

"Of course, Li is as fierce as a Bengal tiger."

Facing Nina's teasing, Lilia responded without the slightest shyness.

"Are you sure?" Nina's eyes widened in surprise, then she turned her head to size up the tall Li Qinghe.

"Of course, I experienced it myself." Lilia made no secret of her pride.

After speaking, Lilia led Li Qinghe into her room.

The overall area of this apartment was not large, and Lilia's room only had enough space for a single bed, a wardrobe, and a desk.

"Your roommate seems quite interesting." Li Qinghe lay sprawled on Lilia's bed, watching her pack her things.

"Nina is of Dragon Country People-Malay descent, and we have another roommate, Susan, who is of Malay-Thai descent. Susan had something on this morning and went to school early."

Lilia put her textbooks for today's classes into her backpack, while continuously telling Li Qinghe about their dormitory situation.

Based on what Lilia said, Li Qinghe thought about it and found that their dormitory situation was quite complex.

Dragon Country People-Thai descent, Dragon Country People-Malay descent, Malay-Thai descent.

The three of them formed a perfect closed loop; each person could find another partner of the same bloodline in the dormitory.

No wonder, according to Lilia's account, their dormitory relationships were quite harmonious. After all, a dormitory like theirs was a model of multi-ethnic integration advocated by the Singaporean government.

"Darling, can you drop Nina and me off at school later?"

"Of course, no problem."

This was a trivial matter in Li Qinghe's eyes, but Lilia earnestly sought his opinion.

Perhaps this was a manifestation of cultural differences.

"Thank you, darling." Lilia hugged Li Qinghe, took a few deep breaths on his chest, then hooked her arms around his neck and gave him a deep kiss.

"Lilia, we can leave now. It's a bit of a walk to the subway station, or we'll be late."

Nina called out from outside the door, urging Lilia to leave for school.

"Coming! We don't need to take the subway today, Li is driving us." Lilia picked up her book-filled backpack and quickly opened the door to go out.

Li Qinghe got up, took his keys, and followed her out.

"Wow, your boyfriend actually has a car! Is it his own?"

Nina looked at Li Qinghe with some surprise and quickly asked a question.

Because of the Certificate of Entitlement (COE), having a car and owning one's own car are completely different concepts in Singapore.

"If no one comes out to object, I think this car is mine."

Li Qinghe made a small joke.

"Ah~~ Lilia, you're amazing! You're the first in our dorm to find a boyfriend who owns his own car."

Nina jumped up and hugged Lilia's neck.

The goal she and Susan had worked so hard for but couldn't achieve was easily accomplished by Lilia's first boyfriend.

Being able to own a COE in Singapore, this one condition alone already surpasses 80% of young Singaporeans.

It's just that she didn't know what kind of car Lilia's boyfriend drove.

Because for many people, the price of the car itself is less than the price of the COE, but just meeting this condition is already quite remarkable.

"Alright, Nina, aren't you worried about being late? Let's have Li take us to school quickly."

Seeing that Lilia and Li Qinghe had already left.

Nina also slung on a backpack she had prepared earlier and followed Lilia out the door.

When she saw Li Qinghe's blue Bentley Bentayga in the parking spot,

intense envy immediately flowed from her eyes.

"Oh my god, Lilia, does your boyfriend have any brothers?"