“Pull over.”
Jiang Meilin had spotted the fruit shop’s sign and felt a sudden flicker of interest. The words were barely out of her mouth before she’d pushed open the car door and stepped out.
Xu Ye scrambled out right behind her.
The shop happened to be fully staffed at that moment, and when Zhang Xinzhou and the others spotted Xu Ye walking up with Jiang Meilin, they felt the unmistakable aura of a high-powered career woman radiating off her from a good ten meters away. It turned all three of them — normally loud, easygoing guys — into shy, tongue-tied schoolboys on the spot, none of them quite brave enough to step forward and say hello first.
“These three are my roommates,” Xu Ye said, making introductions. “Zhang Xinzhou, from Shenzhen. Yang Fei, local boy. Li Tongwen, from Yuzhou. And this one’s basically my upperclassman — Xu Wanying.”
Jiang Meilin was dressed in a cream-colored women’s business suit, white heels, a Prada bag in hand, and a Cartier Tank watch on her wrist. Ever since stepping out of the car, she’d worn a faint, pleasant smile — but there was something about her gaze, like it could see straight through whatever you were trying to hide, that kept Zhang Xinzhou and the others firmly in line, not daring to say anything out of turn.
The atmosphere was, to put it mildly, awkward.
That’s when Jiang Wei came jogging up to the shop straight from class, slightly out of breath, calling out before she’d even crossed the threshold: “Xu Ye, how’s it looking — did afternoon sales beat the morning by a lot? I saw a whole line at our vending machines on my way out of class.”
It was only once she actually stepped inside that Jiang Wei noticed the atmosphere was off.
She scanned the room, and her eyes landed naturally on Jiang Meilin — and the instant she crossed the threshold, Jiang Meilin’s eyes had already found her.
Jiang Wei’s appearance triggered something protective in Jiang Meilin, a flicker of concern on her daughter’s behalf. She’d always assumed a boy with Xu Ye’s personality would be popular at university — but she wasn’t actually worried about him falling for some other girl, not really, because she had complete confidence in her own daughter. Still, in this moment, she found herself a little caught off guard. She hadn’t expected there’d be a girl this pretty hanging around Xu Ye.
Jiang Meilin even found herself thinking: that silly girl Qingqing is probably still completely in the dark about this.
While she was lost in that thought, Xu Ye, standing beside her, was carefully reading the micro-expressions crossing Jiang Meilin’s face, trying to guess exactly what she was thinking. Just as Jiang Meilin started to turn toward him, clearly winding up to interrogate him, Xu Ye stepped in first — slinging an arm over her shoulder with zero regard for propriety, grinning ear to ear, and announcing:
“Let me introduce everyone — this is my future… mother-in-law.”
The whole shop froze.
Nobody had seen that coming. Future mother-in-law? Classic Xu Ye. Absolutely shameless.
Jiang Meilin herself clearly hadn’t expected to be introduced that way either. For a split second her heart skipped — and then the faint crease in her brow smoothed out on its own, and that same gentle smile crept back onto her lips.
She didn’t scold him for the cheeky overstep. Instead, she turned to Jiang Wei and asked, “Xiao Xu, is this also a classmate of yours?”
“This is Jiang Wei. She, Zhang Xinzhou, and I started a trading company together — we run the vending machine business. Haven’t had the chance to tell you about it yet.”
Jiang Meilin’s surprise deepened. A freshman managing to open a fruit shop was already impressive enough — and now he’d gone and started a trading company on top of it? She’d used unmanned vending machines before, of course, but they were still far from widespread in most places. It genuinely sounded like a business with real potential.
Xu Ye’s standing in Jiang Meilin’s eyes ticked up another notch.
Jiang Wei, sharp as ever, caught the strange undercurrent in Jiang Meilin’s gaze almost immediately. The moment Xu Ye finished his introduction, she jumped in on her own: “Xu Ye, is this auntie your girlfriend’s mom?”
“Yep,” Xu Ye admitted without missing a beat.
“Auntie, you look so young.”
Jiang Meilin laughed right away. “You share my surname — Jiang. Must be fate.”
“Mm-hm.”
Jiang Meilin offered a few warm, elder-to-younger pleasantries, then turned to Xu Ye. “Xiao Xu, it’s getting late. Let’s head out.”
Xu Ye nodded, gave the others quick instructions, swung by the dorm to grab two changes of clothes, and then climbed into the Audi with Jiang Meilin, heading toward the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
Once the car merged onto the elevated highway, Jiang Meilin broke the silence first.
“What made you want to take on this much business, your very first year?”
“Gotta make money somehow.”
The line made Jiang Meilin think, unbidden, of Chen Hansong. Back when he was young, he’d thrown himself entirely into his career too — and it was exactly that single-mindedness that had slowly driven a wedge between him and her.
“So which do you think matters more,” she asked, “career, or family?”
“I think a career exists to give a family a financial foundation. You build the career for the family — so if you’re forcing me to pick one as more important, it’s family.”
“But a career often eats up more and more of your time. And then there’s none left for the people at home.”
Xu Ye grinned. “That’s exactly why I started my own thing. I’m my own boss now — I can clock in whenever I feel like it.”
Jiang Meilin went quiet for a beat, her rosy lips pressing together slightly. She didn’t bring up what he’d said back at the shop again, either.
Neither of them spoke for the rest of the drive.
Bored in the car, Xu Ye pulled out his phone and texted Chen Qingqing.
Xu Ye: In the car now~
Chen Qingqing: How much longer?
Xu Ye: Probably twenty minutes or so
Chen Qingqing: Okay, I’ll wash my hair first~
Chen Qingqing: Call me when you get here.
Xu Ye: Mm-hm.
…
Twenty minutes later, the Audi pulled up right outside the Shanghai Conservatory of Music’s women’s dormitory.
It was Jiang Meilin’s first time setting foot on her own daughter’s campus. When Xu Ye got out to make the call, Jiang Meilin stayed behind in the car — she wanted to watch how her daughter acted when she saw Xu Ye, and figured she’d make her own surprise appearance after.
Ring ring~
Chen Qingqing had just finished washing her hair and was blow-drying it when she heard her phone going off on the desk. She killed the dryer mid-stroke and snatched up the phone, dashing straight out of the dorm.
Her roommates barely reacted anymore — they were used to this by now.
Zhang Ruowei, penciling in her eyebrows in front of the mirror, laughed. “Look at her go, so impatient. That’s gotta be Xu Ye.”
Jiang Yu, setting down her violin, chimed in. “Obviously. She didn’t even finish drying her hair.”
Shen Xinyi, sprawled on the top bunk reading some domineering-CEO romance novel [TL: a wildly popular Chinese web-fiction genre — wealthy, overbearing, possessive male love interest, usually paired with a more ordinary female protagonist], set down her phone too, grinning. “Should we go play third wheel again tomorrow?”
“…”
Chen Qingqing jogged the whole way down. The second she stepped out the dorm’s front doors, there he was — Xu Ye, standing around with a goofy grin on his face.
She walked up, tilting her head up slightly. “How’d you get here so fast? My hair’s not even dry yet.”
Xu Ye held up his hands. “I told you, twenty minutes.”
Chen Qingqing checked the time on her phone. “Let’s go eat first, then. Ruowei and I found this amazing noodle soup place this week.”
“You sure you don’t want to dry your hair first?”
“It’ll dry on the walk over.”
“It’s still early, no rush.”
Fed up with his fussing, Chen Qingqing planted both hands on his back and shoved, pushing him forward as she walked. “Come on, come on, stop talking, I’m already starving.”
Back in the car, Jiang Meilin watched the whole scene play out, her expression going slack with disbelief, something turning over hard in her chest.
This…
This is… my daughter?
(End of Chapter 101)