Off the subway, Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing put their luggage in the car first.

They met up with Zhang Ruowei, Jiang Yu and Shen Xinyi without any trouble, and the five of them went to a chain restaurant and sat down together.

Over the two months of summer vacation, all three of Chen Qingqing’s roommates had changed a little.

Jiang Yu had grown her hair long.

Zhang Ruowei dressed more grown-up than before.

Even Shen Xinyi had started wearing glasses, which made her look more like a good girl than ever.

The one who had changed most, in fact, was Xu Ye. He had worked at the factory over the summer and then spent all that time learning to swim, and the lines of his muscles were sharper, his skin gone to a healthy tan.

With the label “multimillionaire” attached to him, Zhang Ruowei and the others thought he even seemed to carry himself better.

“Xu Ye, where’s your investment company?”

“In an industrial park near my school.”

“Is what Xinyi said true? Did you really make that much money all at once?”

Shen Xinyi had to have gotten it from Qin Zhiwei, and anything he knew was hardly going to be false.

Xu Ye had no intention of hiding it from them, and he nodded. “Got lucky. The first investment paid off. The movie’s still in theaters, though, so it’ll be a while before the money reaches the company account.”

Zhang Ruowei was up at once. She picked up the pitcher, fussed over pouring him a glass of water, and beamed. “Director Xu, if we can’t find jobs after we graduate, you’ll have to take me in.”

“What would you do at the company?”

“Serve tea and pour water.”

Jiang Yu jumped in. “I can do that too.”

“How about this, then.”

Zhang Ruowei said with a smile, “I’ll be your secretary and Jiang Yu can be your assistant. The salary doesn’t have to be high — four or five thousand would do.”

Xu Ye knew she was joking, of course. She was a Shanghai local with both parents working in Australia — there was no chance she would look twice at a job paying four or five thousand a month. He guessed her monthly allowance came to more than that.

He played along all the same. “Sure. As long as Qingqing has no objection, I have no objection. You’re both so good-looking anyway.”

That line of his landed right where Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu wanted it to.

After all, there wasn’t a girl alive who didn’t like being told she was pretty.

Once the food was on the table Xu Ye started eating right away. He had eaten his fill at lunch, but it was eight in the evening and he had been starving for a while.

The girls, meanwhile, kept on talking about the funny things that had happened over the summer.

Halfway through the meal Xu Ye’s phone suddenly rang.

Seeing that it was Zhao Ming, he set down his chopsticks, answered and put the phone to his ear.

“Hello, Boss Zhao.”

At that form of address, Chen Qingqing, Zhang Ruowei and the rest assumed he was about to talk business, and they quieted down fast.

“Xu Ye, free tonight? I’ll wait for you at the usual place.”

The usual place Zhao Ming meant was the Dongfang foot-massage parlor.

In the half month Xu Ye had spent in Shanghai he had already been there with Zhao Ming four times.

He answered quickly. “Not today. I’ve only just gotten back to Shanghai — term starts any day now, and I went back to pick up my girlfriend.”

“Damn. I keep forgetting you’re still a college student.”

“Another time. Once the Yingke deal is settled I’ll buy you dinner.”

“Fine. We’ll leave it there for now.”

“Mm.”

Once the call ended Chen Qingqing and her three roommates picked their conversation back up. Xu Ye went on eating, picking up his phone as he did, and the moment he opened WeChat he saw a Moments post Zhao Ming had put up five minutes earlier.

Attached to it was a selfie.

There was a line of caption above the photo: Working overtime till this hour. Somebody come save me.

Xu Ye left an offhand comment. “You’re such a slut.”

Once he had posted it, he put down his chopsticks with sudden interest and asked, “Zhang Ruowei, do you want to stop being single?”

Zhang Ruowei was a little puzzled. “Why do you ask?”

Xu Ye laughed. “I know a friend — the one who just called me. What he has matches what you’re looking for. I think the two of you would be a good match.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Is there a photo? Let me see first.”

Xu Ye opened the photo from the Moments post and handed the phone across to Zhang Ruowei, and once she had taken it Shen Xinyi and Jiang Yu leaned straight in to look too.

As men went, Zhao Ming was good-looking, and he was about Xu Ye’s height. Apart from smoking, Xu Ye hadn’t yet found any other bad habits in him. This was an introduction for Zhang Ruowei, after all — if he knew nothing about the man, or if there were anything wrong with Zhao Ming’s character, he would never have gone to the trouble.

Zhang Ruowei held the phone and looked for a good while. By the time it registered how long she had been staring at the photo, she found the two roommates beside her already grinning with bad intent.

She handed the phone back to Xu Ye in a hurry and said to the pair of them, “What are you laughing at? What’s so funny?”

“Xu Ye, push this handsome guy’s WeChat over to Zhang Ruowei. Her eyes were lighting up just now.”

Zhang Ruowei was about to argue her way out of it.

Xu Ye laughed. “I’ll find a chance for the two of you to meet sometime. This sort of thing only works if both people are interested.”

“What does he do?”

“He works at Lisheng Capital. The boss of the company is his uncle. From what I’ve seen of him, anyway, I haven’t found anything much wrong with his character so far.”

Jiang Yu asked pointedly, “Ruowei, say something. Do you like him or not?”

Zhang Ruowei said with a whine, “He’s all right looking, I suppose. Just about passable…”

“Ooh~”

Xu Ye picked the thread back up. “All I can do is introduce you, though. Where it goes after that has nothing to do with me.”

Zhang Ruowei had a mountain of experience when it came to coaching other people through dating, but now that it was her own turn she was, of all things, a little embarrassed.

Xu Ye didn’t keep at it. After dinner he drove them back to the foot of their dormitory building.

Chen Qingqing deliberately didn’t get out with Shen Xinyi and the others. Only once they had all gone into the dorm did she mumble, “Drive slowly tonight, okay?”

“Mm.”

“Remember to message me when you get to your school.”

“Mm.”

The car was quiet for a moment. Then Chen Qingqing suddenly leaned up and planted a small kiss on his cheek, and just as she made to get straight out again, Xu Ye caught hold of her.

Chen Qingqing knew perfectly well, but she asked anyway. “What? I need to get back to the dorm~”

“One good turn deserves another. You kissed me, so I have to kiss you.”

He leaned his head in as he said it. With Chen Qingqing’s reflexes, if she had wanted to dodge she would have gotten away with it ninety-nine times out of a hundred. But she didn’t dodge. She only closed her eyes slowly.

Perhaps the air conditioning in the car was set too low. The tip of her nose was cold — icy where it touched his face — and mixed with the heat of her breath it left him stirred up for no reason he could name.

Chen Qingqing didn’t move and let him do as he liked, and only when Xu Ye’s hands, with nowhere safe to settle, went to her waist and began working steadily upward did she start mumbling — “You’re not allowed to do that,” “Not there,” “I’m going to bite you”…

When Xu Ye drove away there was a fresh set of toothmarks on his arm.

He hadn’t been out of the school long when his phone buzzed.

He opened it up.

It was a message from Zhang Ruowei.

“Xu Ye, what’s his name?”

(End of Chapter 287)