"Down a March road of mist and orioles and new grass, willow catkins drifting past — there I saw home again…"

Yang Fei, after being cursed out for it more times than he could count, had finally changed his morning alarm to something gentler: Moon Over Luzhou.

For some reason, hearing that song again — released back in '09 — left Xu Ye with a strange, out-of-time feeling.

Like the first time he'd ever heard it had been a very, very long time ago.

Get up, show his face in the classroom, then head to the company — Monday through Friday, that was the whole shape of Xu Ye's week. Monotonous.

After talking things over with Yu Jiaying about investing in her beauty center, she'd wasted no time — the contract was signed within two days. What she did with it after that, Xu Ye didn't pay much attention to. The center wouldn't actually open for another two or three months at least, one way or another.

Thursday afternoon.

Zhao Ming called Xu Ye and said they should all get dinner together Friday night — Yu Jiaying would be there too — and asked Xu Ye to help run interference so the tomboy didn't turn her guns on him alone again. Xu Ye agreed without hesitation.

He spent the day at the company, then came back to the dorm that evening.

Yang Fei dragged Zhang Xinzhou and Xu Ye into a game of Fight the Landlord, the stakes a round of starch sausage from the snack street. Li Tongwen sat by himself with a book, but he hadn't turned a page in a good while, staring off into space, clearly turning something over in his head.

Zhang Xinzhou drew the landlord and said, laying down a card, "Now that Lü Cheng's taken Liu Daqing off to the capital, this Zhang Quan seems kind of thrown off balance. I've noticed he's got no drive at the office lately."

"Makes sense."

"You going to talk to him?"

Xu Ye shook his head. "No need yet. Whether he stays or goes doesn't affect…