Qin Zhiwei’s head buzzed.

This was Xu Ye’s new car, bought less than half a month ago.

He had never regretted anything more than he did right then. If slapping himself in the face a few times could have undone it, he would have done it hard and without a moment’s hesitation.

But as things stood…

Looking at the scrape on the fender, Qin Zhiwei made himself get his phone out, hesitated a long while, and called Xu Ye anyway.

Xu Ye’s voice came through almost at once. “What now? Can you stop calling me every five minutes over nothing?”

“Xu… Xu Ye.” Qin Zhiwei said it haltingly. “There’s something I have to tell you. Can you not yell at me?”

Xu Ye heard that something was wrong and frowned. “What is it?”

Qin Zhiwei: “I… I scraped your car.”

Xu Ye was on his feet at once. “Were you in a crash?!”

“No.” Qin Zhiwei explained quickly. “I’d already got to the dorm. I was parallel parking and caught the curb.”

“How bad?”

Qin Zhiwei: “I’ll take a photo and send it to you.”

He took one and sent it through to Xu Ye’s WeChat, then went on, “Should I run it over to an auto repair shop now and see if they can touch it up?”

Xu Ye opened the picture, glanced at it and answered quickly. “It hasn’t gone through to the primer. I’ll buy a touch-up pen and do it myself later. I thought you’d been in a crash just now — as long as you’re all right. A scrape’s a scrape.”

Hearing that, Qin Zhiwei was so moved he had no idea what to say back.

If it had been his own car, just bought, and he’d lent it out and someone had scraped it, he would certainly have been angry.

He had braced himself to have strips torn off him, and instead Xu Ye had waved the whole thing away as though it were nothing.

Even a real brother — how many of them would do that?

Qin Zhiwei looked simple enough, but underneath he was a fairly sentimental man, and the moment something moved him there was an ache in his chest and his eyes went a little red.

“Xu Ye, I’m sorry. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have asked to borrow the car today.”

Xu Ye swore at him outright. “Christ. Don’t go all girly on me. It’s a beat-up car, a scrape’s a scrape, it isn’t a big deal.”

“All right, I’ve got a girlfriend to talk to. That’s that.” And without waiting for Qin Zhiwei to answer, Xu Ye hung up in a hurry.

…

The fifteenth of the first month. The Lantern Festival.

Qin Zhiwei was up early. Xu Ye had said yesterday that the car didn’t need fixing, but he still couldn’t get past it. He was out of bed before seven, didn’t eat breakfast at all, and went straight to an auto repair shop to leave the car for its paint, then went to a breakfast place nearby and bought himself two pork buns to eat.

It was about half past ten before the car was done. He looked it over carefully, saw that the touched-up paint was barely any different from before, and only then did the weight come off his chest.

He drove to the subway station nearest the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and waited about twenty minutes before Xu Ye came up out of it.

Xu Ye walked around to the right side of the car, took a look at the fender, and frowned. “Zhiwei, are you messing with me? There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Qin Zhiwei grinned. “I took it in first thing to get the paint done. The guy said it’s best not to wash it for a couple of days.”

“You really do have too much time on your hands.”

Qin Zhiwei handed the keys back and took the passenger seat without being asked, and Xu Ye drove them over to the foot of the girls’ dormitory.

Xu Ye sent Chen Qingqing a voice message: “I’m here. You can come down.”

They waited about five or six minutes.

Then Chen Qingqing, Zhang Ruowei and Shen Xinyi came down together.

Chen Qingqing had dressed simply today — a gray hooded jacket over a white T-shirt, a plain black A-line skirt below, and a cream-white cap on her head. She looked sweet and well-behaved.

Zhang Ruowei was still the most grown-up dresser in their dorm: a woman’s casual blazer over a short black skirt, and a pair of glasses with no prescription in them, which really was the dot on the dragon’s eye. [TL: 画龙点睛 — from a story about a painter whose dragons flew off the wall the moment he added their eyes; the small final touch that brings the whole thing to life.] Go out in that and the head-turn rate would certainly not be low.

As for Shen Xinyi: a baseball jacket, jeans, and canvas Converse — the outfit that looked the most like an actual college girl’s.

“Xu Ye, I didn’t think you’d really go and buy a car!”

“I did, and now I’m broke. Don’t invite me to anything over fifty yuan from here on.”

“Tell that to someone who’ll believe you.”

Xu Ye laughed and drove off toward the mall in high spirits.

Zhang Ruowei had already arranged the afternoon and the evening in the group chat: something easy for lunch, one of the Spring Festival releases at the cinema in the afternoon, dinner together in the evening, and after that the Bund for the light show.

Xu Ye had been about to say that this year’s Spring Festival releases were all terrible, but on reflection, if they didn’t go to the cinema there was nothing else to do, so he simply kept his mouth shut.

At lunch the five of them found a mall and ate Zhang Liang Malatang on the food street in the first basement level.

The tables in the place seated four at most, so Xu Ye pulled Chen Qingqing over to a two-seater beside it. Zhang Ruowei, for her part, sat down next to Shen Xinyi and found nothing awkward about it, but Qin Zhiwei was in agony — with Zhang Ruowei sitting beside Shen Xinyi, he found he couldn’t say a word.

So when Zhang Ruowei got up to go to the bathroom, Qin Zhiwei quickly followed her out. He bought two cups of bubble tea from the shop next door, then went and waited by the bathroom door, and when she came out he walked over and handed one to her.

Zhang Ruowei’s brow furrowed. “For me?”

Qin Zhiwei nodded. “Mm.”

One look at him and Zhang Ruowei knew he had something he wanted to say to her, so she asked him outright. “Whatever it is you want to say, just say it.”

What Qin Zhiwei had meant to do was tell her to stop making things difficult for him.

But said out loud like that it was too hurtful, and he couldn’t quite get it out.

Zhang Ruowei was nothing if not sharp. She laughed. “Do you want me to help you chase Shen Xinyi?”

I’d thank god if you just stopped causing trouble, Qin Zhiwei thought.

But he nodded all the same.

Zhang Ruowei picked up the bubble tea and laughed. “I can help you. But this is what you’re bringing to impress a party official? Xinyi and I are very good friends, you know.”

Qin Zhiwei hadn’t expected her to help him at all. He hurriedly cupped one fist in the other. “If Shen Xinyi is willing to be my girlfriend, one day I shall repay you handsomely!”

“Tch~” Zhang Ruowei gave him a flat look and asked, washing her hands as she did, “Did Xu Ye put you up to coming to me?”

“Mm.”

“And what exactly did he say?”

“He said you’re the meddling strategist at Shen Xinyi’s elbow, and if I want to get anywhere with her I have to get past you first.”

“The meddling strategist?” Zhang Ruowei shook the water off her hands and gave a snort. “Xu Ye, that bastard. Running me down in front of other people again!”

“Don’t tell him it came from me.”

Qin Zhiwei dropped that and hurried back into the malatang place.

(End of Chapter 203)