Xu Ye regretted it.

Popcorn and Coke did absolutely nothing in the way of sustenance. He’d been at the bar for less than two hours and his stomach was already protesting.

He leaned against the counter, pulled out his phone, and sent Qingqing a message.

Xu Ye: I’m regretting not letting you buy me dinner earlier. I’m starving right now.

Qingqing was at the dining table with Chen Hansong and Jiang Meilin, working through the birthday cake, when her phone buzzed. She had a pretty good idea who it was. She unlocked the screen right there in front of both her parents and typed back.

Qingqing: serves you right~

Xu Ye: YOUR BOYFRIEND IS HUNGRY.

Qingqing’s cheeks went pink. Qingqing: shut up!!

Across the table, Chen Hansong watched the expression flicker across his daughter’s face and felt his eye twitch.

His brain immediately filled in the blanks:

Idiot: babe, you home yet? Precious daughter: eating cake rn Idiot: I’m hungry too Precious daughter: you want some? Idiot: not the cake Idiot: I want to eat you

Chen Hansong’s scalp crawled.

Qingqing typed back at speed. Qingqing: say one more thing and I’m blocking you.

Xu Ye: customer just walked in anyway. talk later.

The exchange ended there.

Qingqing put her phone down. Chen Hansong, for reasons he couldn’t quite explain, let out a long quiet breath.

Jiang Meilin looked at the half-eaten cake on the table and turned to Wang Ruxue. “Ruxue — take the rest of this home with you.”

Wang Ruxue shifted uncomfortably. “Jiang Zong, I’ve been trying to cut back lately — something this sweet at night, I’m not sure I should—”

“Auntie Wang.”

Qingqing cut in.

“Could you take the rest to that bar we went to the other night?”

Chen Hansong and Jiang Meilin exchanged a look.

Wang Ruxue stared. “You want me to bring it to… to Xu Ye?”

“Yes.”

Chen Hansong stood up from the couch very slowly, adjusted his belt with great dignity, and said in a measured tone, “I need to use the bathroom.”

Jiang Meilin looked at her daughter for a long moment, then nodded at Ruxue.

Wang Ruxue boxed up the cake and headed for the door.

Around ten o’clock.

Wang Ruxue walked into the bar carrying the cake box.

Pei Youwei looked up, surprised — Ruxue usually only stopped by every few weeks.

“You’re not usually around this much, Ruxue.”

“I’m on a mission tonight.”

“A mission?”

“Where’s Xu Ye?”

“He was just here—”

Zhang Xiaonuan chimed in from nearby. “He went to the bathroom, boss.”

Pei Youwei’s curiosity got the better of her. “What do you need him for?”

Ruxue held up the cake box. “Qingqing asked me to bring this to him.”

Pei Youwei went completely still.

Women and gossip had an unbreakable bond — at eighteen, twenty-eight, thirty-eight, it didn’t matter.

She was out from behind the counter in an instant. “Are those two… together?“

“It’s complicated.”

Ruxue was about to elaborate when Xu Ye came out of the bathroom. She stepped forward and held out the box.

Xu Ye blinked. “What’s this?”

“From Qingqing.”

“Wait — really?”

He took it, the confusion on his face giving way to a slow grin. “She’s got a conscience after all.”

Ruxue thought about asking more questions, then decided against it. This wasn’t her place to pry. Jiang Zong already knew — she’d handle it in her own way.

She said a quick goodbye to Pei Youwei and left.

Xu Ye carried the box to the counter and opened it. Black Forest cake — the expensive kind, the kind he’d genuinely never had before. He cut himself a large slice without hesitation and prepared to finally end his suffering.

He opened his mouth—

—and found three pairs of eyes fixed on him.

“What?”

“Start talking. What’s going on?”

“What do you mean, what’s going on?”

“The cake. You’re the one who said dating was pointless. So why is Chen Qingqing sending you cake?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Make it short.”

Xu Ye sighed. “I did her a favor. She owed me one. I messaged her that I was hungry, and she sent Auntie Wang over with the cake.”

“What favor?”

“That part… stays confidential for now.”

Pei Youwei made a drawn-out noise of exaggerated suspicion, her expression saying everything her words weren’t: I know exactly what kind of favor that was.

Xu Ye, operating at critical hunger levels, didn’t bother defending himself. He picked up the fork and got to work.

Two slices later, he felt human again.

“There’s a bit left — you three want some?”

Zhou Ying crossed her arms with a dramatic huff. “That is someone’s heartfelt late-night delivery. I am not eating that.”

“Same.”

Xu Ye pressed a hand to his forehead. “You two are unbelievable.”

Eleven-twenty.

After closing, Xu Ye ran the whole way home. By the time he’d showered and gotten into bed, it was past midnight.

Tired as he was, he didn’t go straight to sleep.

He downloaded a stock trading app, worked through the registration, identity verification, and bank card linking, and finally had a live account of his own.

He transferred everything he had into it.

Nine hundred yuan total.

Five hundred from his mom’s pocket money, deposited into the card that afternoon at the bank. The other four hundred — the red packets Pei Youwei had sent him over the past few nights.

It wasn’t much. But it was a start.

He’d already decided: from here on, every yuan beyond basic living expenses went into the account.

The Shanghai Composite was sitting just above 2,000 points. [TL: The Shanghai Composite Index (上证指数) is the main benchmark for China’s A-share stock market. It measures the performance of all stocks traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.] Five thousand was still a long way off — which, for Xu Ye, meant the window was wide open. A full year of runway, in a market he already knew the ending of.

So which stock do I buy first?

The Belt and Road Initiative had been announced back in September and October of last year. [TL: The Belt and Road Initiative (一带一路) is China’s large-scale infrastructure and investment program connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa. Its announcement in late 2013 had significant effects on related industry sectors in the stock market.] Once that policy landed, anything connected to it should start moving — trade, infrastructure, construction…

He browsed for a while, then settled on a trade-sector stock sitting at just over three yuan a share. He put all nine hundred in and queued the buy order.

With that done, he plugged his phone in, turned off the light, and went to sleep.

The next morning, just past ten.

“This Malphite is such an idiot — missed the ult three times in a row, what the hell — if I’d known you were this bad I wouldn’t have picked Yasuo.” [TL: Malphite and Yasuo are champions from League of Legends (英雄联盟). Malphite’s ultimate ability, Unstoppable Force, is a team fight initiator that requires precise timing — missing it repeatedly is a common source of frustration.]

Qin Zhiwei sat shirtless at his desk, hammering out a stream of abuse at the top lane Malphite over the public chat. The Malphite, to his credit, gave as good as he got. For the next several minutes, the two of them went back and forth in all-chat with the kind of energy usually reserved for people who genuinely despised each other.

The game ended in a surrender at the twenty-minute mark.

Final stats:

Malphite: 2/9/3. Yasuo: 1/7/5.

Absolutely equal. Neither had any ground to stand on.

Zhiwei was mid-composing a challenge to 1v1 when the QQ icon in the corner of his screen lit up.

He looked.

It was Gu Mengyao.

Rose Girl: you there?

(End of Chapter)