Saturday brought rain, just as forecast — and a cold snap along with it.

The moment Xu Ye got up, he pulled on the long down jacket he’d bought last week. After washing up, he sat down and started messing around on his phone.

Seeing his other two roommates still asleep, Li Tongwen quietly sat below and read. Once the hot water had boiled, he poured some into a basin to wash his face, then took two eggs out of the thermos, walked over to Xu Ye, and handed him one.

Xu Ye took it without saying thanks, just asking, “Has your financial aid come through?”

“Not yet.” Li Tongwen shook his head.

Xu Ye said, “If it still hasn’t come by next week, I’ll go ask about it for you.”

Li Tongwen smiled and nodded.

Around 8:20, Xu Ye got a call from Qin Zhiwei. He grabbed an umbrella, headed downstairs, and rode out through the rain to pick Qin Zhiwei up from the subway station and bring him to campus.

“I was up before seven today. Good thing the rain was light this morning.”

“Why are you dressed so lightly? Aren’t you cold?”

Qin Zhiwei said, “Didn’t you say you were going to introduce me to the campus belle?”

“What’s that got to do with how you’re dressed?”

“This outfit’s the coolest one I’ve got.”

“…”

Xu Ye rode Qin Zhiwei straight to the school gymnasium — the college student entrepreneurship center was housed inside it. Normally the gym only saw people playing basketball or badminton, and aside from a few important occasions, it was mostly empty.

Xu Ye didn’t know where the office was, so once he’d parked the scooter, he called Jiang Wei.

She was still eating breakfast in the cafeteria. She picked up and held the phone to her ear. “What?”

Xu Ye: “I’m at the gym. Where’s our office?”

Jiang Wei: “107. But it’s no use you being there — I’ve got the key, you can’t get in.”

Xu Ye: “Where are you right now?”

Jiang Wei: “Cafeteria.”

Xu Ye: “How much longer?”

Jiang Wei: “Ten minutes for breakfast, fifteen on the way — half an hour or so?”

Xu Ye: “I’ll ride over and pick you up.”

Jiang Wei: “Sure, works.”

Xu Ye hung up and told Qin Zhiwei, “Zhiwei, wait here a bit — I’m going to go get our campus belle.”

Qin Zhiwei: “Okay!”

The second Xu Ye rode off on the scooter, Qin Zhiwei whipped out his phone, opened the selfie camera, and started fixing his hair.

Because of the rain, the cafeteria was nearly empty, and Xu Ye spotted Jiang Wei the moment he walked in.

“How’d you get here so fast?”

“How are you eating so slowly?”

Jiang Wei shot him a look and went back to sipping her congee, head down.

Xu Ye sat down across from her and asked with interest, “So what are you planning to buy today?”

“Just the stuff we need for the office.”

“It’s a pain going out in the rain. You could just order online, you know.”

Jiang Wei pulled out her phone, opened her Taobao page, and handed it to him. “I placed a bunch of orders last night already.”

The “pending shipment” tab did show over twenty items. Xu Ye tapped in — all sorts of odds and ends: pens, notebooks, folders, a stapler…

“You’ve already bought this much, what else is there to buy?”

Jiang Wei counted on her fingers. “The most important things are a printer and a landline. Printers with copy and scan functions are expensive, but they can apparently be rented — if the price is right, we could just rent one. We also need a filing cabinet, and the chairs in the office are those backless stools, so I want to buy a few proper office chairs.”

“Can you handle all that on your own?”

“Don’t underestimate me. I’m a lot more useful than those roommates of yours.”

Xu Ye scratched his head and smiled. “If you go alone I’d feel kind of bad about it. How about I come with you today?”

“Don’t you have to go see your girlfriend?”

“It’s raining, isn’t it.”

Jiang Wei set down her congee spoon, thought about it, and finally agreed. “Fine. You can be my laborer today then.”

“No need — someone’s coming specifically to be our laborer.”

“Who?”

“My best friend. I had him come over to build the computers for us — he can come buy the parts with us while we’re at it.”

“You’re rotten. Calling someone over to help and making him do grunt work.”

Xu Ye smiled. “We’re good buddies. Besides, he’s happy to do it.”

Jiang Wei couldn’t be bothered engaging with him. She finished her congee, head down, and had a leftover mantou she couldn’t finish. She bagged it back up, meaning to slip it into her pocket — if she got hungry in the morning she’d eat it then, and if not, she’d save it for lunch. [TL: 馒头, a plain steamed bun — the frugal, filling staple.]

Xu Ye hadn’t expected Jiang Wei to be this thrifty. Thinking about how cold it was, and how eating a cold mantou might be hard on her stomach, he held out his hand with a smile. “I only had an egg this morning. Give me the mantou.”

“Can’t you buy your own?”

“This’ll do.”

Jiang Wei rolled her eyes, took the mantou back out of her pocket, and handed it to him, and the two of them walked out of the cafeteria together.

Xu Ye handed Jiang Wei the umbrella and got on the scooter first. Jiang Wei lifted her pant legs, swung onto the back seat, held the umbrella over her head with one hand, and lightly gripped Xu Ye’s down jacket with the other, and they rode to the gymnasium entrance.

Qin Zhiwei spotted Xu Ye coming from a distance, and seeing a girl on the back, felt his heart leap — while thinking to himself: You dog. Finally came through for once.

Xu Ye parked. Jiang Wei got off the scooter, shook the water off the umbrella, tucked the hair at the front of her face behind her ear, and walked in alongside Xu Ye.

“Introductions — Qin Zhiwei, my best friend.” Xu Ye grinned. “And this is Jiang Wei. Our campus belle.”

Qin Zhiwei felt his heart pounding like a drum. He said, a little nervously, “Hello.”

Thinking about how Qin Zhiwei had been lured over here by Xu Ye and was about to be put to hard labor, Jiang Wei even felt a little sorry for him. She gave a small nod and replied, “Hello~”

The three of them went to take a look at the office first.

It was just as Jiang Wei had described — fifty or sixty square meters, like a teacher’s office, each workstation partitioned into its own little cubicle, with a small meeting room walled off, though it could seat at most twenty or so people.

Xu Ye looked around and said, “It hasn’t been cleaned yet. I’ll message Zhang Xinzhou and Yang Fei in a bit and have them come tidy up.”

“It’s getting late — let’s head out.”

“Mm.”

Xu Ye and Jiang Wei walked back out, and Qin Zhiwei hurried after them. “Where are we going?”

Xu Ye answered, “To buy the stuff for the office. And weren’t you going to help me buy the computer parts too?”

Qin Zhiwei asked, dropping his voice, “She’s coming too?”

“Mm-hm.”

At the gym entrance, Jiang Wei said, “Three’s too many for the scooter. Should we just walk?”

“Sure, it’s not far anyway.”

(End of Chapter 137)