Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

The four flowers of Room 205 were up bright and early, because today they were going to Xu Ye’s school to find him.

Girls this age all loved to look their best, and especially when going somewhere crowded, they’d dress themselves up beautifully.

“Ruowei, you’re so calculating — you even put on tights.”

One long leg, freshly sheathed in tights, propped up on a chair, Zhang Ruowei laughed. “So? Don’t these tights make my legs look extra long?”

“Are they thick?”

Zhang Ruowei pinched a bit of her calf between thumb and forefinger and gave it a tug. “Very thick. Warmer than long johns plus pants.”

“Send me the link later.”

Zhang Ruowei laughed. “No problem. Qingqing, you want the link too?”

Chen Qingqing looked at how long and slender Zhang Ruowei’s legs looked in the tights, and suddenly hesitated. She was about to speak when Zhang Ruowei added, “You definitely want it, because Xu Ye would like it.”

Chen Qingqing immediately changed her tune. “I do not!”

She pulled on a pair of little leather boots, then opened the wardrobe.

Girls’ wardrobes were always full — hers alone held four or five down jackets, plus several trench coats, fleece-lined hoodies, and wool coats. Chen Qingqing couldn’t quite decide. Her pants and boots were both black, and black always went with everything. She deliberated for a few dozen seconds before finally settling on the long white down jacket she’d bought together with Xu Ye that time.

Once she’d put it on, she walked over to the mirror to check herself, then, while her three roommates were busy with makeup and not paying attention, quietly slipped a black scarf into her bag.

You bought me a jacket, so I’ll give you a scarf in return.

Chen Qingqing thought this was perfectly reasonable.

She just hadn’t figured out how to give Xu Ye the scarf yet — but it had to be somewhere with only the two of them.

“I’m ready.”

“Me too.”

“Qingqing, shall we head out?”

“Okay~”

The four of them closed the windows, locked the door, and left the dorm. Once they’d walked to the school gate, they flagged down a taxi straight to Shanghai University of Finance.

The reason Chen Qingqing hadn’t taken a faster taxi last time was, first, that most taxis had a smell she found harsh — though that she could tolerate — and, more to the point, she felt every driver was a chatterbox, and she happened to hate talking to strangers most of all. So last time, she’d rather cram onto the subway.

The taxi drove forty minutes and finally stopped at the south gate of the finance university. Chen Qingqing had been here before, but she still didn’t go straight in to find Xu Ye — instead she called him first.

Xu Ye, guessing at the time, was already waiting at the fruit shop. When Chen Qingqing’s call came, he jogged all the way to the school gate.

From a distance, he spotted the four beauties standing at the curb.

“Long time no see, ladies.”

Xu Ye jogged up in greeting, and seeing they’d all done their makeup today, immediately praised them. “Wow, how are you all so gorgeous today?!”

That single line instantly swept away the four girls’ forty-minute-taxi weariness — they even felt a little cheerful now. Girls being girls, being called pretty at any time made them happy.

Zhang Ruowei laughed. “The four of us got up at the crack of dawn to do our makeup just to see you. So? Satisfied with that answer?”

“Haha, satisfied. Very satisfied.”

While talking with Zhang Ruowei, Xu Ye had already made his way over beside Chen Qingqing, and while she wasn’t paying attention, he quickly took her hand. “Come on, let me show you around my school first.”

“Sure.”

Xu Ye led Chen Qingqing into the school by the hand. She tugged a couple of times, found his grip firm, and after muttering a few endearments along the lines of pervert, jerk, dumb pig, obediently fell into step with him.

It had rained all last weekend, and a lot of people had spent two days cooped up in their dorms. This weekend was overcast both days, so there were plenty of people wandering the campus.

The finance school didn’t exactly lack for girls, but good-looking ones were still a rarity — and with Chen Qingqing, Zhang Ruowei, Shen Xinyi, and Jiang Yu, four art-school students, appearing on campus at once, the head-turn rate was absolutely maxed out.

Standing in the middle of them, Xu Ye instantly became the target of everyone’s attention…

How does this dog always have so many beauties around him?

Damn, it’s feast or famine — some drown while others die of thirst.

This bastard’s going to have ED before he hits thirty. [TL: 杨伟 (Yáng Wěi) is a homophone for 阳痿, “impotence” — a common internet pun used to mock someone assumed to be overindulging.]

These beauties aren’t from our school, are they?

“…”

Xu Ye had already imagined the inner monologues of the guys passing by, and watching their envious, jealous, resentful looks, he was getting a little full of himself.

“Zhang Ruowei, I never noticed before what a great figure you have.”

Zhang Ruowei crossed her arms and huffed. “Qingqing, rein in your man — don’t let him go shooting his shifty little eyes around everywhere.”

Xu Ye hurried to explain. “I was just offering a comment from a purely aesthetic standpoint.”

Chen Qingqing finally spoke up. “Can you shut it?”

Xu Ye immediately mimed zipping his lips, and obediently led them to the door of the fruit shop.

Looking at the five characters “Qingqing Fruit Shop” on the sign, Zhang Ruowei, Jiang Yu, and Shen Xinyi glanced at one another, faint smiles on their faces — everything understood without a word said.

“Grab whatever you want to eat. Tongwen, put it all on my tab.”

“Oh.”

Jiang Yu didn’t stand on ceremony — she took a boxed pack of winter jujubes, tried one herself, shared them with her three roommates, then asked, “Xu Ye, how much does this fruit shop make a month?”

“That’s a trade secret.”

Jiang Yu turned to Chen Qingqing. “Qingqing, do you know?”

Chen Qingqing quickly shook her head. “I… how would I know?”

“How could you not know? Xu Ye’s the boss, which makes you the boss’s wife. Don’t you care how much Xu Ye earns a month?”

“I don’t care~”

Chen Qingqing’s blank expression seemed to say: Why would I care how much money he makes?

Jiang Yu rolled her eyes, at a loss for words.

Qin Zhiwei called at the most inopportune moment, saying he’d already gotten off the subway and was heading toward the school, asking where Xu Ye was now.

Xu Ye thought about it and told him, “Just go straight to the office, we’ll head over in a bit.”

Hanging up, Chen Qingqing looked up. “Who was that?”

“Zhiwei.”

Zhang Ruowei pressed, “Who’s Zhiwei?”

Xu Ye smiled. “A childhood friend of mine, he comes over to hang out a lot. Come on, the fruit shop’s a bit small — let me show you around my company.”

“Okay, okay~”

The four of them quickly followed Xu Ye toward the gymnasium.

Out of the fruit shop, Xu Ye deliberately edged toward Chen Qingqing, but this time she’d seen it coming — every step he took toward her, she dodged a step to the side. By the time he’d herded her from one side of the road to the other, she just crossed her arms over her chest; the point being, she simply didn’t want to hold hands.

Xu Ye asked quietly, “Not even holding hands is allowed?”

Chen Qingqing lowered her head. “There are a lot of people around right now.”

Chen Qingqing was thin-skinned. To her, holding hands in front of a crowd counted as a pretty intimate gesture. Before the gaokao, she hadn’t even had a single friend. In the half-year she’d known Xu Ye, she already felt she’d done plenty of “out-of-line” things.

“So what if there are people? It’s not against the law.”

Chen Qingqing raised her head, saw Xu Ye frowning, and said softly, “To… tonight, we’ll hold hands, okay?”

(End of Chapter 144)