Xu Ye set off early the next morning.
Once they were clear of Jiangzhou he took the expressway toward Shanghai. There was a lot of traffic on it, but mercifully it kept moving.
He stopped at three service areas along the way. He never let Qin Zhiwei take a turn, driving the whole way himself. By around four in the afternoon they were finally inside the Shanghai city limits.
“Wake up. We’re nearly there.”
Qin Zhiwei in the passenger seat and Chen Qingqing in the back had both very nearly fallen asleep. At the sound of Xu Ye’s voice they came round, and Qin Zhiwei put his window down, looked out, and said, “Drop me at the subway entrance. I can get back to school on my own.”
Xu Ye smiled. “I’ll take you to the school gate. I looked at the map — it’s barely a detour. Are your dorms open yet?”
“They opened the day before yesterday. But the canteen isn’t open, so it’s out to eat or order in.”
Chen Qingqing yawned and asked lazily, “How much longer?”
“Twenty minutes or so.”
Xu Ye dropped Qin Zhiwei at his school gate first, then drove straight to the hotel near the Shanghai Conservatory of Music that the two of them had stayed at several times by now.
“Out you get.”
Before coming to Shanghai, Chen Qingqing had already asked her three roommates when they were coming back. Jiang Yu and Shen Xinyi were both waiting until after the Lantern Festival; Zhang Ruowei had agreed to come tomorrow and keep her company. Which meant that tonight, Chen Qingqing would be staying in a hotel alone with Xu Ye.
It wasn’t the first time, but she still felt uneasy about it.
They walked into the lobby together. Xu Ye found his ID card in his wallet, handed it to the front desk and took a twin room, and then Chen Qingqing followed him straight into the elevator and up.
She felt the way an elementary school kid feels going into an internet café for the first time — half excited, half nervous.
Inside the room, the bathroom was on the left, and there were two beds with a nightstand between them. Xu Ye turned the air conditioning on first, slid the disposable slippers into the plastic sandals and put them on, then sat down on the bed and called Zhang Xinzhou.
“Hey. I’m in Shanghai. When are you back?”
“Right, I’ll come and meet you at the station tomorrow evening.”
“Mm. Picked the car up on the fifth day of the New Year.”
“We’ll leave it there, then.”
A few hurried lines and Xu Ye hung up. Chen Qingqing had already sat down on the other bed, her back against the headboard and a pillow held against her chest, phone in hand, trying to decide whether to message her parents.
Xu Ye seemed to see straight through her. He opened WeChat, created a group, and pulled Jiang Meilin, Chen Hansong and Chen Qingqing all into it. Once they were all in, he changed the group name to One Big Happy Family. [TL: 相亲相爱一家人 is the stock name Chinese families give their group chats — so common it has become a joke in itself.]
Chen Qingqing saw a new group appear in her list and opened it at once. Apart from herself and Xu Ye, her mother and father had both been pulled in — and worse than that was the name he had given it.
One big. Happy. Family.
She looked over at him at once. “What are you doing, making groups like that?”
“With this group, at least your dad and your mom have somewhere to talk,” Xu Ye explained. “Otherwise, now you’re in Shanghai, the two of them will go straight back to keeping out of each other’s way.”
Chen Qingqing thought about it and decided there was something in that.
But what about the name.
He was still only a boyfriend.
He hadn’t even been made permanent yet!
How had this become one big happy family?
She was about to tell him to change it when Xu Ye posted the group’s first message.
Xu Ye: We’ve arrived in Shanghai safely. Uncle, Auntie, you don’t need to worry.
Jiang Meilin was at home watching television. When she heard her phone, she guessed it might be Xu Ye — and then opened WeChat to find it was a group message.
She glanced at what he had written, and then at the group name, and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly. And at that moment Chen Hansong suddenly spoke up in the group.
Chen Hansong: Good to hear it.
“Why has he pulled him in too,” Jiang Meilin muttered to herself, complaining.
Complaint or not, the faint smile stayed on her face.
She wasn’t stupid. After all these years in business there was no kind of person she hadn’t met and no kind of situation she hadn’t been through. On Valentine’s Day, when Chen Hansong had suddenly turned up with flowers, she had thought it over carefully that night and worked out that it probably had something to do with Xu Ye.
Then there were the sugar-roasted chestnuts the next day, and the fact that for several days after that, Chen Hansong had managed to find an excellent excuse to come to the house every single time.
Jiang Meilin had concluded that Xu Ye was the strategist behind Chen Hansong — that he was the one coaching Chen Qingqing on how to manufacture chances for her father to come round, and coaching Chen Hansong on how to keep her happy.
Jiang Meilin was deliberately behaving as though she knew nothing about any of it.
Since the divorce she had carried a quiet guilt toward Chen Qingqing, at not being able to give her a whole family.
Now, if Chen Hansong wanted to put the broken mirror back together, Jiang Meilin was willing to give him the chance. In short, her position on Chen Hansong now came down to four characters: let’s see how you do.
So she posted a message in the group herself.
Jiang Meilin: Eat at proper times, sleep at proper times, and look after yourselves, both of you.
Xu Ye saw it, held the phone up and laughed. “Feeling the warmth of family yet?”
Chen Qingqing looked at the two messages in the group and said the opposite of what she meant. “No.”
Xu Ye got up at once and came over with his arms open, laughing. “Then let me give you a bit more warmth.”
“Don’t~”
“Go ‘way~”
“I’ll shout~”
Xu Ye paid her no attention and didn’t stop. He sat down at the head of her bed as well, then pulled her firmly into him. Chen Qingqing gave a small cry and fell straight against his chest, and then his arms closed hard around her.
Chen Qingqing had been refusing a moment earlier; the instant she was held she went silent, as though somebody had pressed the point that takes away speech.
A small room, a single bed, and once Xu Ye had her in his arms he did nothing further. Chen Qingqing’s mind was entirely blank. She had no idea at all what she was supposed to do now. All she could think was that a minute ago the room had been twenty-five degrees, and now it had shot straight past thirty.
Her ears were scarlet, her heart was going fast, and even her breathing had turned quick and shallow.
Xu Ye said quietly, “I’m only holding you. I’m not playing the rogue.”
That took a great deal of the tension out of her, and she really did stop struggling, and instead found a more comfortable position against him.
“What time is Zhang Ruowei coming tomorrow?”
“I don’t know. She only said tomorrow, not what time.”
“I’ll ask her, then.”
Xu Ye replied to his mother-in-law in One Big Happy Family first, then opened the Room 205 group and tagged Zhang Ruowei.
Xu Ye: what time are you back at school tomorrow?
Zhang Ruowei: getting in around noon
Zhang Ruowei: you’re buying lunch
Xu Ye: you really don’t hold back at all, do you
Zhang Ruowei: get it straight. I’m going back to school this early to keep your girlfriend company
Xu Ye: fine, fine, lunch is on me. call Qingqing when you get in tomorrow
Zhang Ruowei: noted
Zhang Ruowei: are you two in a hotel right now?
Xu Ye: mm
Zhang Ruowei: be safe. /wicked grin/
Jiang Yu: be safe.
Shen Xinyi: be safe.
Xu Ye quit WeChat outright, threw the phone onto his own bed, then rubbed his eyes and said, “My eyes are so dry. I keep blinking.”
“Did you not sleep well last night?” Chen Qingqing asked quietly.
“I don’t know. It’s just uncomfortable. I do know how to cure it, though.”
“How?”
“Watching you shower. I guarantee I wouldn’t blink once.”
(End of Chapter 198)