It was September the ninth.
Monkey King finished its run with a total box office of 956 million yuan. By Lü Cheng’s reckoning, the return on the investment came to six hundred percent.
He was in touch with the distributor about when the money could be paid into the company’s account.
The week passed quietly. Xu Ye went the same round every day, killing time between the dorm, the classroom and the company.
Zhang Xinzhou and Li Tongwen were much the same, the only difference being that neither of them skipped as many classes as Xu Ye did.
As for Yang Fei, he was out doing who knew what, day after day, and sometimes actually got back to the dorm later than the rest of them. Xu Ye asked and found out he had joined the student union so he could be around Li Lulu. Yang Fei didn’t seem to be well liked in it, though — he came back from its events with a long face more often than not.
Xu Ye didn’t step in. Whatever cause you plant, that’s the fruit you get; this was his own fate to make.
It was Friday.
Xu Ye was up early, and a call came in from Zhao Ming.
He answered, wedged the phone between his ear and his shoulder, and asked while he brushed his teeth, “Boss Zhao, what’s got into you, calling me this early?”
“Are you going to see your girlfriend tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Great. Then dinner’s on you tonight and karaoke’s on me.”
“You can sing?”
Zhao Ming chuckled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a KTV. I feel like singing.”
Xu Ye swore at him, laughing. “I’m almost too embarrassed to call you on it. You want to sing? You damn well want to chase a girl.”
“Don’t put it so crudely. I think she’s a good person and I’d like to get to know her a bit…”
“Weren’t you the one giving me the big speech? Life is precious, love is dearer still, but for freedom’s sake both may be cast away. And now suddenly she’s a good person?”
“What can I do? Fate came calling.”
Xu Ye spoke seriously. “Then you’d better mean it. I’m good friends with all of them. Don’t leave me stuck in the middle with nobody on my side.”
“How could I? Don’t you trust my character?”
“No.”
“Seriously. I need your help with this.”
“All right, I’ve got it. I’m brushing my teeth. Wait for word from me this afternoon.”
“Will do.”
Xu Ye finished washing up and went to the cafeteria for breakfast with his three roommates. They sat two required classes that morning, and after that Yang Fei was nowhere to be seen.
At the cafeteria at midday, though, a message did come in from him. “Xu Ye, can you lend me some money?”
“How much?”
“Five hundred would do.”
Xu Ye transferred it at once.
Two minutes went by.
Then he typed another line and sent it. “Yang Fei, one more thing. Money is for a woman to see, not for a woman to spend.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
In an upscale restaurant, Yang Fei put his phone down and looked at the food on the table with a dark face, thinking who knew what.
Li Lulu, across from him, saw that he hadn’t touched his chopsticks. She looked all concern. “Why aren’t you eating? No appetite?”
“Oh — no. I was thinking about something.”
He picked up his chopsticks and ate absently for a while, then suddenly worked up the courage to say, “Lulu.”
Li Lulu lifted her head and blinked at him. “What is it?”
Yang Fei’s face went red with the effort, and in the end he said the thing he had been holding in. “I… I… I like you. Will you be my girlfriend?”
Li Lulu went still, and for a long moment said nothing.
The atmosphere turned awkward by degrees, and just as Yang Fei felt his whole body burning, she said, “I need time to think about it. Could we go on as we are for a while first? That way we’ll get to know each other better.”
Yang Fei nodded quickly. “All right!”
Yang Fei was very happy.
He even started eating faster.
But before long he realized there was a problem.
There was that answer of hers just now.
Was it a yes?
Or was it a no?
……
Xu Ye finished lunch and drove to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
Chen Qingqing hadn’t expected him this early. Seeing him from the balcony, she immediately asked Zhang Ruowei to answer roll call for her that afternoon.
Zhang Ruowei agreed, and Chen Qingqing grabbed her bag and headed downstairs.
Watching how fast she went, Jiang Yu shook her head, struck by it. “Looks like Qingqing’s gone love-brained.”
“What do you mean, gone love-brained? She’s always been love-brained. Haven’t you noticed she’s completely different when she’s with him?”
“I noticed. At dinner last week — didn’t you see her shelling sunflower seeds for him and putting food in his bowl?”
“Of course I saw. I—”
The three of them were still talking when the door was pushed open from outside. Chen Qingqing had forgotten her phone, noticed only at the top of the stairs, and come back for it.
Finding all three of them staring blankly at her, Chen Qingqing was puzzled. “What are you all looking at me for?”
“Uh…”
“Were you talking about me behind my back again? I heard you saying something about love-brained.”
“No we weren’t. You must have misheard.”
Their faces told her she had guessed right, but she had stopped caring. Everyone around her knew about her and Xu Ye anyway. Love-brained, then, fine. Ever since she had met that dumb pig downstairs, her head hadn’t worked properly to begin with.
She picked up her phone and went down.
Seeing her arrive, Xu Ye asked with a smile, “Don’t you have class on Friday afternoons?”
“I got Ruowei to answer roll call for me.”
“You’re skipping class for me?”
“Skipping class is skipping class. What’s this ‘for you’?”
Xu Ye laughed. “If I hadn’t come, would you have gone?”
“Of course.”
“Then you are skipping it for me.”
“I am not~” Chen Qingqing gave a small snort and turned her head haughtily away.
Xu Ye reached over and pinched her cheek, laughing. “You never will admit it. So — where are we going?”
“Anywhere.”
“Anywhere, and I’ll pick the hotel.”
“No.”
“Then you say.”
Chen Qingqing thought for a while and finally said, “I want to look around a stationery shop.”
“What for?”
“I want to buy a set of drawing supplies.”
“You can draw?”
“I can. There’s a lot I can do.” Chen Qingqing pushed her lips out and said with some pride, “I took drawing classes for a while when I was little. One of my pictures even won a prize.”
Xu Ye laughed. “Then draw me one later.”
“All right.”
“Do I need to take my clothes off?”
“Take your clothes off?”
“Doesn’t life drawing always mean taking your clothes off? If you don’t mind, I could strip right down.”
Chen Qingqing raised a small fist and hit him with it, indignant. “I do not want to see you stripped right down.”
“But when a girl says she doesn’t want to, she usually does.”
“Say one more word and I’ll bite you.”
“Haha. I’ll stop, I’ll stop…”
Xu Ye navigated to a stationery shop, and once they were inside she led him around it.
She seemed to love small things like this. When Xu Ye had been in her room he had seen a pen holder on her desk full of every kind of pen, and a good many journals besides…
He didn’t hurry her. There was plenty of time, and he trailed along behind her like an idiot.
Before long a message came in from Zhao Ming.
Zhao Ming: “Have you gone to see your girlfriend?”
Xu Ye: “I’m already over here.”
Zhao Ming: “Do me a favor.”
Xu Ye: “Go on.”
Zhao Ming: “Find out what color she’s wearing today.”
Xu Ye didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He had thought the matching outfits last time were quite a coincidence. It hadn’t occurred to him that Zhao Ming would want to manufacture the same coincidence on purpose.
That is trying far too hard.
Xu Ye had been a little worried that Zhang Ruowei, who talked a big game and nothing more, might be no match for a rich man’s son like Zhao Ming.
On this evidence she would have him inside a minute.
“Qingqing?”
“Mm?”
“What’s Zhang Ruowei wearing today?”
“Just a little white dress. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.”
Xu Ye answered quickly. “She’s wearing a little white dress today.”
Zhao Ming sent back an OK. When he had driven home he went straight to the closet, took out a black polo shirt and a pair of black chinos, and changed.
Standing in front of the mirror, Zhao Ming smiled, satisfied, and thought with quiet pleasure: Black and white. A perfect match.
(End of Chapter 298)