The sales associate seemed momentarily thrown.
She blinked for a beat before asking, “Aren’t you buying shoes for yourself?”
Chen Qingqing shook her head.
“Oh, for your boyfriend, then!” the associate said with a smile. “Guys usually wear a 42 here — let me grab a pair so you can compare against your own measurement.”
Chen Qingqing opened her mouth to correct her, then thought better of it — she’d never see this associate again anyway, so why bother.
“Does this size look about right?”
The associate set the shoe on the floor. Chen Qingqing put her foot beside it and eyeballed the comparison.
“Close enough.”
“Want me to wrap it up?”
“Yeah.”
After buying the shoes, she also picked out a pair of socks for herself in the store — already planning ahead so that when she handed Xu Ye the shoes, she could say: I was just here buying socks, and grabbed you a pair of shoes while I was at it.
She paid, left the store, and headed back to the hotel.
Ding-dong~
Hearing the doorbell, Xu Ye sprang up off the couch and ran to open it. Seeing Chen Qingqing standing there, he scratched his head with a grin. “I’ve been waiting forever. What were you up to all morning?”
She ignored the question, brushed past him into the room, set the bag down on the coffee table, and sat down on the couch — saying nothing on purpose.
Xu Ye frowned, looked her over, then looked at the bag on the table. He picked it up, and since she didn’t object, pulled out the shoebox inside. He opened it to find a pair of shoes — and judging by the size, ones that looked like they’d fit him.
“These for me?”
Chen Qingqing put on her best unbothered expression. “Your shoes got soaked, so I picked these up while I was out.”
“So when you said you were busy earlier, you were actually out buying me shoes?”
“I was not!” She shot up off the couch, explaining hurriedly, “I was… buying a pair of socks. The shoes were just an afterthought.”
Xu Ye had heard of buying socks as an afterthought to shoes before. He’d never once heard of buying shoes as an afterthought to socks.
He knew perfectly well it was an excuse, but he didn’t call her out on it — just sat right down and tried the shoes on in front of her.
“Fits perfectly. How’d you know my size?”
She turned her head away, doing her best impression of indifference. “I just guessed.”
Xu Ye gestured at his backpack. “Hotel checkout’s at noon. I’ve gotta head back to school after lunch.”
She just said “oh,” and nothing else.
“It’s supposed to keep raining the next few days, getting colder by the day. Make sure you dress warm.”
“You’re so nagging.”
“Come on, let’s go get lunch. Once we eat, I’m out of your hair.”
He couldn’t bring himself to throw out his old shoes, so he bagged them in plastic and stuffed them in his backpack. The two of them found a fast-food place near the hotel.
Chen Qingqing barely had an appetite. The moment the food arrived, she scooped half her portion straight into Xu Ye’s bowl.
“Not hungry?”
“Mm.”
He slid the soup over to her. “It’s hot — drink plenty of it. Lay off the spicy and cold stuff for a bit.”
That made her think of the brown sugar ginger tea from the night before. She glanced up at him and found him already watching her — so she quickly picked up her spoon and started sipping the soup in small, careful mouthfuls.
…
“If you miss me, video call me.”
“I will not.”
“Then I’ll call you.”
They reached the subway station entrance. Xu Ye pulled out his phone, checked the forecast, and said, “Moderate rain coming in at three. I should head back now.”
“Oh.”
He took a couple steps forward, then turned and saw her standing perfectly still — so he turned back, walked right up to her, and wrapped both arms around her in a sudden hug.
“You—!”
She pressed both hands against his chest, struggling for a second, but once it became clear she couldn’t push him off, she just gave in and let it happen.
“I’m off,” he murmured softly in her ear, then headed straight for the escalator, his whole body sinking out of view, head last, until he was gone.
Chen Qingqing pressed her lips together, the tips of her ears burning red, stamping her foot lightly and muttering to herself, “Jerk. Pulling that stunt again.”
She turned and headed back to campus. For some reason, the whole walk back, she kept feeling like something was hollow inside her, like something was missing.
She’d forgotten to ask if he was coming back next week. She’d forgotten to ask about that female business partner of his, too.
She regretted it now — though even if he’d still been there, she probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to ask anyway.
She found herself wondering… should she go find him next weekend instead?
…
The moderate rain kept falling all the way into the evening.
Coming out of the subway, Xu Ye couldn’t bear the thought of getting Chen Qingqing’s brand-new shoes wet, so he’d changed back into his old pair specifically and jogged the whole way back to the dorm.
With the rain, the fruit shop’s business had been lackluster — only Li Tongwen and Xu Wanying were minding the store, while Zhang Xinzhou and Yang Fei sat around in the dorm.
The moment Xu Ye walked in, Yang Fei was on him immediately. “Xu Ye, was that really your girlfriend’s mom who came by the shop on Friday?”
“Yeah.”
“How old’s your future mother-in-law?”
“Why are you asking that?”
“She had real presence. She married?”
Xu Ye pulled off his jacket, grabbed a towel, and said, “If she wasn’t married, where do you think my girlfriend came from? Get out of here, you absolute dog. What, you trying to angle for stepfather now?”
Yang Fei just grinned shamelessly. “Heh heh, just asking.”
Xu Ye ignored him, toweled off his hair, peeled off his wet clothes piece by piece, then borrowed Zhang Xinzhou’s water card and went to take a shower.
When he came out, he dumped two days’ worth of dirty laundry into the wash bucket, added some detergent, and stood there stomping the clothes barefoot in the bucket while asking, “Zhang Xinzhou, has the vending machine business been slow these last couple days?”
“Manageable. The weekend machines by the teaching building were pretty quiet, but the ones at the library, the student activity center, and the gym have been selling really well. Yang Fei and I have already restocked them twice.”
Xu Ye nodded. “Let’s get Jiang Wei out tomorrow, have her have a word with her uncle. Push to get our machines into Songjiang campus before the end of this month.”
“And then what?”
Zhang Xinzhou was honestly a little worried about where this was all heading. The vending machine business had only gone this smoothly because Jiang Wei had been there to broker the connection — once the machines were in both campuses, what was the plan after that? They couldn’t just stop at two campuses forever, could they?
Xu Ye already had it mapped out. He smiled. “I’m going to Shanghai Institute of Technology this week to talk to their logistics director directly.”
“You’ve got a connection there?”
“Not exactly a connection, but I think I can land it. Don’t sit idle either — Second Industrial University is close by, go take a trip over there and feel things out.”
“Sure, I’ll give it a shot.”
“Get business cards printed at a print shop tomorrow too — makes things go smoother going forward. Walking in with just a student face on, most people aren’t going to take us seriously.”
“Got it.”
While the two of them were still talking, League branch secretary Zhang Yiyang suddenly knocked and walked into the dorm. The moment he stepped in, he addressed Xu Ye directly. “Xu Ye, has Counselor Su Tong messaged you yet? The school’s holding a sports meet the week after next — the two of us are supposed to collect event sign-ups from the class.”
Xu Ye smiled. “I was just in the shower — I might be pretty busy next week. I’ll leave this one to you.”
Zhang Yiyang didn’t object. He saw it as a chance to prove himself.
“Sure, I’ll take care of it.”
“Appreciate it.”
Zhang Yiyang, already turning to head back to his own dorm, stopped dead in his tracks at that. He turned back, clearly displeased. “‘Appreciate it’ is usually something a superior says to a subordinate.”
Xu Ye hadn’t expected him to take issue with something so small. He waved a hand. “Fine, fine, noted. Go on, get to it.”
“…???”
(End of Chapter 107)