It had only been about ten minutes, but the restaurant was already filling up. There were three universities in the area, and with the semester just starting, the mall was packed almost entirely with college freshmen.

While Xu Ye and his three roommates were busy talking nonsense, four girls walked into the same barbecue-hot pot combo restaurant. From the way they were dressed, they were clearly freshmen too. The one leading the group wore round wire-frame glasses and had two high ponytails that swung with every step — the kind of walk that turned heads, cute in a way that was hard to ignore.

Yang Fei spotted them first. He smacked Zhang Xinzhou on the arm, then turned and whistled at Xu Ye. Xu Ye glanced back and saw the four girls settling in at the table right next to theirs. He turned back around, smirking. “You know, I’m starting to feel like it’s a little embarrassing being seen in public with Yang Fei.”

Zhang Xinzhou nodded with the conviction of a man who’d reached the same conclusion independently. “Same.”

Yang Fei opened his mouth to fire back, then thought better of it — the four girls were right there, well within earshot — and swallowed his complaints, sulking instead.

Zhang Xinzhou and Xu Ye kept the conversation going, trading lines back and forth. Li Tongwen ate quietly. Yang Fei, meanwhile, kept sneaking glances at the cute one in the double ponytails and short skirt. Four roommates, four very different jobs at this table.

At the next table, the new arrivals placed their order and dove straight into conversation — first complaining about their dorm situations, then moving on to military training. By the time the food came out, they’d drifted into zodiac signs and idols.

Xu Ye and Zhang Xinzhou were deep in conversation when someone tapped Xu Ye on the shoulder from behind. He turned around and found it was the ponytail girl from next door. He raised an eyebrow. “Something up?”

“Hey, handsome, we’re out of napkins over here — mind passing some over?”

Xu Ye handed them over without a second thought.

She smiled. “Thanks, handsome.”

Yang Fei nearly lost his mind. How did we pick these seats? I should’ve sat where Xu Ye’s sitting!!

Xu Ye, completely unbothered, went right back to his conversation with Zhang Xinzhou.

Sure, ponytail girl was cute. Jiang Wei, his school’s reigning campus belle, was undeniably good-looking too. But neither of them held a candle to Chen Qingqing. Once a pig’s had a taste of the good feed, why would it ever go back to scraps?

By the time Xu Ye and Zhang Xinzhou had wandered from Romance of the Three Kingdoms [TL: one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature — a sprawling historical epic about warlords, strategists, and the fall of the Han dynasty] to the state of the domestic economy, the table next door had moved on to a round of Truth or Dare.

“Bathroom break,” Xu Ye said, getting up. By the time he came back, the ponytail girl had risen from her seat and was blocking his path.

She had on a pair of platform “dad shoes” [TL: “dad shoes” — bulky, retro-style platform sneakers that were having a major fashion moment around this time] for the extra height, and she still had to tilt her head back to look up at him.

Xu Ye blinked at her, not following.

She smiled brightly. “Hey, handsome — I lost the dare. Can I add your WeChat?”

“Add me?” That caught him off guard.

“Yeah.”

“…Sure.” Xu Ye pulled out his phone, and they exchanged contacts. She’d already saved her own name as a note: Wang Shiyu.

“So what’s your name, handsome?” she asked.

“Xu Ye.”

“Got it.”

Satisfied, she stepped aside and went back to her seat, where her two roommates immediately leaned in, giggling, whispering amongst themselves.

Xu Ye didn’t think much of it and sat back down next to Li Tongwen.

Yang Fei looked like he was about to grind his teeth to powder. “Xu Ye,” he hissed under his breath, “you absolute menace.”

Xu Ye blinked. “What’d I do?”

Zhang Xinzhou answered for him. “You just rode in on horseback and stole the girl right out from under him.”

It clicked. “You little gremlin, I was literally about to send you her contact tonight, and you’re cursing me out instead?”

“Dad! I take it back!”

Yang Fei’s apology was so heartfelt that even Zhang Xinzhou, mid-glare, cracked up.

“Alright, if everyone’s full, let’s head back.”

Li Tongwen glanced at the food still left on the table. Such a waste, he thought — but he couldn’t fit any more in, and he wondered if they could box it up to take home. In the end, worried about making another scene, he held his tongue and got up to leave with the other three.

Zhang Xinzhou covered the bill. The second they stepped outside, Yang Fei whipped out his phone. “Dad. Forward me her WeChat. Now.”

“What’s the rush?”

“No, listen, I’m serious about this one. The second she showed up I’d already picked out names for our kids.”

“Get lost.”

“I wonder if she even goes to our school.” Yang Fei drifted off into a daydream.

Xu Ye threw an arm around his shoulder, all mock solemnity. “Speaking as someone who’s been there — I don’t recommend adding her.”

“Why not?”

“They spent half of dinner talking about zodiac signs. Never chase a girl who’s into astrology.”

Zhang Xinzhou chimed in. “Never chase a girl who calls herself ‘slow to warm up,’ either.”

“Never chase a girl with a little brother at home.”

“Never chase a girl who’s obsessed with her idols.”

“And once you graduate, never touch the pretty ones working government jobs.”

“Why not?”

“The pretty ones — you never know who her ‘godfather’ is. Don’t touch the plain ones either.” [TL: a jab at workplace gossip around government and state-owned-enterprise jobs — the implication being that a pretty hire must owe her position to a powerful, unofficial sponsor, while a plain one must have gotten in through nepotism via her actual father]

“And that?”

“The plain ones — you never know who her actual father is.”

There was no getting through to Yang Fei. He rolled his eyes. “You two can stop ganging up on me. I read like ten romance novels this summer. Hand over her WeChat and I guarantee I’ll have her locked down within a month.”

Xu Ye let it go without pushing further. To Yang Fei, love was sacred and beautiful, and right now there wasn’t a word of advice that was getting through. Xu Ye decided it wasn’t worth the breath.

They walked back to campus.

The four of them showered in turn. When Xu Ye came out, he climbed straight into bed. Back home he was used to a big, soft mattress; the narrow, hard upper bunk still felt foreign to him. It occurred to him that if he was struggling to adjust, Chen Qingqing was probably having an even harder time. He called her.

She picked up on the first ring.

“Did you sleep okay last night?” he asked. “You’re probably not used to the dorm bed yet.”

“Yeah. Took forever to fall asleep.”

“Same, actually. Lying here right now and it’s not exactly comfortable.”

“How are your roommates?”

“Pretty good. One’s loaded — second-generation demolition money — one barely talks, real refined type, and then there’s the golden retriever of the group.”

“…What?”

“Just a clown, don’t worry about him. What’d you get up to today?”

“Walked around campus this morning. This afternoon the girls were saying we need breathable underwear for military training, so I—”

“I’ll probably start training tomorrow or the day after. Not sure if we get our phones during break time, so if I don’t text back, just assume I’m out there marching.”

“Oh.”

“You’re doing two weeks too?”

“Fourteen days, I think.”

“The weekend training ends, I’m coming to see you.”

“…Ugh, my phone’s dying again.”

“Why don’t you just get a new one?”

“I will, I will. I’m replacing this piece of junk in a few days, I swear.”

“My mom’s calling.”

“Go ahead and pick up. I’ll let you go — we’ll talk on WeChat later.”

“Okay.”

…

“Qingqing, has training started yet?” Jiang Meilin asked.

“Not yet.”

“Are you settling into the dorm all right? Should I have your dad look into an apartment near the school?”

“No need.”

“How are things with your roommates?”

“Fine.”

Jiang Meilin fell quiet. Faced with her daughter’s two-word answers, she genuinely didn’t know what else to say.

But after a moment, Chen Qingqing spoke up on her own. “Mom, I want a new phone.”

“Of course!” Jiang Meilin said, brightening immediately. “Apple’s about to release the new model — the second it’s out, I’ll order it.”

“Can you get two?”

There was a brief pause. “Sure. I’ll have them both shipped to you — or should one go to Xu—”

“Just send them both to me,” Qingqing cut in before she could finish.

“Okay. Got it.”

(End of Chapter)