Chen Hansong read the message and had no idea what to make of it.

Is this little bastard telling me what to do?

But he found himself wavering. Since the winter holiday ended they had both been buried in work, and the two of them hadn’t spoken privately once. He could see this was an opening — otherwise the next chance to see her would be when Chen Qingqing came home for the summer.

He thought about it for a full ten minutes, then opened a delivery app and ordered a coffee under Jiang Meilin’s name and number.

From the moment the order went through he was uneasy.

He kept wondering how she would react when the coffee arrived, and whether she would be able to guess it had come from him.

Half an hour later.

Jiang Meilin’s assistant, Zhou Hui, knocked and came into the office again. She carried the coffee over to the desk and set it down gently. “Director Jiang, your coffee’s here.”

“My coffee?”

Jiang Meilin had assumed Zhou Hui ordered it for her. She looked up at the cup on the desk.

Zhou Hui explained, “It should be right. It has your name and phone number on it.”

Jiang Meilin picked it up, looked at it, and nodded. “I see. If there’s nothing else you can go home. Don’t wait for me.”

“All right.”

Zhou Hui turned and went out, pulling the door gently shut behind her.

Once she had gone, Jiang Meilin picked the coffee up again and looked at what was printed on it. The name was right, the phone number was right, the address was right.

It was unlikely to be from a colleague. There was coffee in the office kitchen, and several cafés downstairs — no colleague would have gone to that much trouble.

And Jiang Meilin put most of her time into work. She had very few friends she saw socially.

Ruling out colleagues and friends left only family.

A delivery took twenty or thirty minutes, and half an hour ago she had happened to be on a video call with Xu Ye. But if it had been him, he wouldn’t have written her full name in the name field — and he shouldn’t yet know where her office was.

Thinking back to what Xu Ye had pulled over the New Year, Jiang Meilin worked out easily enough that the coffee was from Chen Hansong.

And the thought that Xu Ye had told him to do it left her not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Chen Hansong, Chen Hansong. You couldn’t stand Xiao Xu before. How is it you do exactly as he says now?

At that she picked up her phone, enjoying herself now, and took a photograph of the cup and posted it to Moments with the caption: Thank you to my darling daughter for the coffee.

Then she went back to work with the coffee beside her.

The company was always busy at this time of year. A batch of new summer products was about to launch, and as vice-president Jiang Meilin had to sign off on a great deal of it herself.

While she was working:

Chen Hansong, home from the office, looked at the post she had just put up and panicked.

She had guessed wrong after all.

It had taken a lot to make himself order that coffee, and the last thing he wanted was for her to think Chen Qingqing had sent it. So he messaged his daughter.

Chen Hansong: Qingqing, are you asleep?

Chen Qingqing had been about to get in the shower. She sat back down and answered.

Chen Qingqing: Not yet.

Chen Hansong: Did you see what your mother just posted?

Chen Qingqing: I’ll look now.

She opened Moments, saw her mother’s new post and the photograph, and was puzzled herself.

Chen Hansong: I bought the coffee.

Chen Qingqing understood at once. A faint smile crossed her face, and she typed, “Do you want me to explain it to Mom?”

Chen Hansong answered with enormous dignity. “Just tell her you didn’t buy it.”

Chen Qingqing: All right. I understand.

Chen Hansong read that and let out a long breath.

Done with her father, Chen Qingqing opened the chat with her mother.

Chen Qingqing: Mom, I didn’t buy the coffee.

Jiang Meilin came straight back. “I know.”

Chen Qingqing: You know? Then why did you post it?

Jiang Meilin: I did it on purpose.

Chen Qingqing stared for a second, and then she saw the whole of it.

Her father had bought the coffee. He could perfectly well have put his own name on the order and hadn’t — which came down to not being able to set his pride aside. And her mother had already worked out that he had bought it, so she had put the post up for him to see.

Her meaning was plain enough: if you won’t make the move, don’t expect this old woman to come round.

The two of them were like people with a sheet of paper between them. Both wanted to see the other, and neither could bring themselves to be the first to put a finger through it.

Jiang Meilin: Don’t tell your father.

Jiang Meilin: And don’t pay any attention to him.

Chen Qingqing sent back an obedient oh.

Once her phone was off, the more she thought about it the less it sat right. She knew her father well enough to know he would never think up a thoughtful coffee like that on his own, which meant there had to be somebody behind it.

At that thought:

She messaged Xu Ye at once. “The coffee. Did it have something to do with you?”

Xu Ye admitted it freely. “Your father really is slow, isn’t he? I told him to send your mother a coffee — could he not think to put a note on it?”

Chen Qingqing: You’re the slow one.

Xu Ye: Your mother will have worked out he bought it, though.

Chen Qingqing: How do you know?

Xu Ye: Because I messaged your father right after I got off the phone with your mother. Work out the timing and she can put it together. Your mother is very sharp.

Chen Qingqing: My mother doesn’t need you to tell her so.

Xu Ye: You’re very sharp too, then.

Chen Qingqing: Tch. I’m going for a shower. I’m done talking to you.

Xu Ye: Please. Let’s video call.

Chen Qingqing: Get lost~

…

The next day Xu Ye was up at eight. He messaged Chen Qingqing, then went to the Shanghai Institute of Technology to collect Qin Zhiwei.

He handed him the key card. “Checkout isn’t till noon. I’ve got to go and buy Shen Xinyi a present with my girlfriend, so either wait at the hotel or go and find Shen Xinyi at her school yourself.”

Qin Zhiwei took it, laughing. “I’ll wait for you two.”

Xu Ye dropped him at the hotel, went to collect Chen Qingqing, and the two of them went on to a large shopping mall.

Chen Qingqing, Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu had compared notes the night before. Zhang Ruowei was getting Shen Xinyi a custom wooden comb, Jiang Yu a lighted makeup mirror — said to be flattering — and Chen Qingqing had settled on a lipstick.

The moment they arrived she pulled Xu Ye around the brand stores, trying colors.

Xu Ye understood none of it.

She spent half an hour before settling on a YSL lipstick at two hundred and sixty-five yuan, and then he drove her back to the dormitory.

Seeing him back so soon, Qin Zhiwei was puzzled. “How are you back already?”

“I took Qingqing back once we’d bought it.”

“What are we doing this afternoon?”

“No idea. We were out all yesterday afternoon and they’re not going out till the evening today. We’ll find somewhere to eat shortly, then somewhere to kill the afternoon. How about an internet café?”

“Let’s not. I’ve kicked the internet habit.”

“Your old man doesn’t believe you.”

“I really have. Shen Xinyi messaged me once while I was playing a game and I didn’t see it, and after I explained she ignored me the whole day. I apologized for ages before she forgave me.”

Xu Ye smiled and said nothing more.

He knew that if things between Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi had reached that point, it was probably nearly settled.

(End of Chapter 218)