The next day at noon, Jiang Wei stood outside the cafeteria entrance, scanning the incoming crowd.

She was wearing a fitted grey tank top today with a white overall dress over it, the silhouette doing everything right — she was already on the taller end to begin with, and the combination made her look even more so. Her hair hung loosely behind her, catching a slight reddish tint in the sunlight. Fair skin, precise features, brow furrowed as she waited. It was the kind of image that could satisfy virtually any campus’s definition of the word “belle.”

Nine out of ten people at this school knew her by face. The bolder ones even said hello as they passed.

“Senior Jiang Wei, aren’t you going in?”

“I’m waiting for someone.”

The moment those words were out, curiosity spread through the people around her like ripples.

Campus belle Jiang Wei is waiting for someone outside the cafeteria?

Who?

A good number of people went inside but kept their attention on the entrance.

Until—

Xu Ye came jogging up, spotted her, and waved. “Sorry, sorry — my counselor needed me for something. I’m a bit late.”

“Talk inside.” Jiang Wei knew he was class president. She let it go this time.

Xu Ye gestured for Zhang Xinzhou to follow, and the three of them went in, bypassing the food stations and finding a corner table. Jiang Wei reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. “Give me your account number. I’ll transfer the money.”

“It’s not actually that urgent. The company registration won’t be done that quickly — probably Thursday or Friday at the earliest. The company seal hasn’t come back yet, so there’s no way to sign the equity agreement.”

“Do you think I can’t tell when someone’s trying to swindle me?”

“I wouldn’t dare. Without your uncle, none of this works, and we’re in this together now.”

“Partners is the word. Don’t get creative with it.”

“Right, right. Whatever you say.”

Xu Ye didn’t stand on ceremony — he read her his bank account number from his phone. Jiang Wei entered it, typed in the name, and was one tap away from confirming when she asked, “How much are you two each putting in?”

“A hundred thousand each.”

“So you’re putting in two hundred thousand total?”

Xu Ye said, “Of course I’m putting in two hundred.”

“You actually have that much?”

“Do you want to know what really hurts?” Xu Ye said, with genuine grievance in his voice. “Is there no such thing as basic trust between people anymore?”

“You’ll need to prove it.”

He opened his brokerage account on his phone and turned it toward her. “Count for yourself.”

Jiang Wei looked at the screen and her eyes went wide. “Nine hundred thousand?!”

He hadn’t checked the market that morning. He took his phone back and looked at it properly. “Believe me now?”

“How do you have this much money?”

“Starting capital was around four hundred thousand. But everything the fruit shop earns goes straight into the account, and the market’s been running hot — several of my positions have been hitting limit-up every session, so—”

Jiang Wei’s read on him updated again.

She hadn’t pegged him as someone who could play the market. But he was nineteen. How had he even learned?

“I’ve confirmed the transfer. Check if it came through.”

“It’s in.”

She nodded, then looked at Zhang Xinzhou. “You’re Zhang Xinzhou, right?”

“Yeah.”

She pointed at Xu Ye. “I want to speak with him privately for a moment. Do you mind?”

Zhang Xinzhou had never in his life expected to be dismissed as a third wheel by a campus belle. He got up promptly and went to get food from the serving window.

Jiang Wei turned back to Xu Ye and asked directly, “What do you want to eat? My treat.”

“Why are you being so generous today?”

“Don’t make me ask twice. What do you want?”

“Braised pork rib rice.”

“I can’t carry everything myself. Come with me.”

Xu Ye got up and followed her to the window.

The cafeteria, already watching, began to murmur.

“What’s going on? Did a freshman actually get the campus belle?”

“This is a disgrace to the rest of us.”

“It’s basically confirmed at this point. There were three people, and one just got shooed away as a third wheel.”

“Absolutely unbelievable.”

“Half the school is going to have a broken heart after this.”

“…”

They found a spot across from each other and sat down. The noise around them continued. Xu Ye kept his head down and ate.

Jiang Wei glanced at him. “Can you at least slow down while you eat?”

“Mind your own food. Why do you keep watching me?”

“I—” She was left without a comeback. After a moment, she asked, more quietly, “That thing about stocks. Are you actually good at it?”

He nodded. “Pretty decent. Right now, getting into the market is basically picking money off the ground.”

She ate a few bites without much focus, lost in some private calculation. Then: “If that’s the case, could you invest for me?”

He put his chopsticks down and looked at her. “Invest for you? As in… stocks?”

“Yes. Stocks.”

“How much do you have?”

“Two hundred thousand.”

He was genuinely curious. He was only rich because of rebirth — how did someone her age have two hundred thousand yuan? He asked outright: “Where did you get that much money?”

“My mother left it to me.”

“Why did she leave you that much?”

Jiang Wei’s expression dimmed, but she didn’t hide it. She said it plainly. “She passed away. This is her inheritance — she set it aside for my dowry. It’s been at my grandmother’s house all this time. I went to get it from her yesterday.”

Xu Ye realized immediately that he’d walked into territory he hadn’t read at all. He said sorry first, then: “But putting that much money in my hands — are you really comfortable with that?”

“Your files are all at school. It’s not like you can run off. But you have to promise me one thing: don’t lose any of it.”

Anyone else in this situation would have hesitated to make that promise.

Xu Ye didn’t hesitate.

He thought for a moment. “Here’s what I’ll do. You put the money with me, and I won’t tell you what the returns are. For the money you hand over, I’ll pay you five percent annual interest, paid monthly. If the stock positions do particularly well, I’ll give you a dividend on top of that. And you can take the money back at any time.”

He added, “Even a five-year fixed deposit at a bank doesn’t get you five percent annually. And with me you can withdraw whenever you want.”

Jiang Wei agreed almost without thinking. “Fine. I’ll transfer it now.”

“Eat first. It’ll get cold.”

“It’s fine. Money first.”

After she’d moved in with her grandmother, money had become Jiang Wei’s central concern. The clothes she wore now — none of them were name brands. Everything on her body combined didn’t add up to five hundred yuan. She’d had the idea of doing campus work-study for a while, even planning to ask her uncle to put her in the library. The moment Jiang Ping heard she was considering work-study, he’d immediately said: “You need money, you come to me. Don’t even think about taking a job.” And that had ended that.

But the desire to earn her own money never left. She wanted her grandmother to live comfortably in her old age. And because she’d never quite been able to shake the feeling of having nothing secure beneath her, she’d always wanted to own an apartment that was hers alone.

As for a boyfriend?

Absolutely not.

Since the year after her mother died — when her father had married her mother’s closest friend — no man had been trustworthy in Jiang Wei’s eyes. Not one.

The reason she’d decided to go into business with Xu Ye, and let him manage her mother’s inheritance money, was simply this: she’d seen his commercial instincts at work, and the fruit shop had already proved they were real.

As long as she was going to make money, she didn’t particularly care what anyone said or thought about it.

(End of Chapter 99)