Xu Ye got Zhang Bin’s message on Tuesday at noon.
The school side was all arranged — the vending machines could be installed anytime.
These past few days, the whole thing had been gnawing at Zhang Bin. He wanted it resolved quickly too, just to stop turning it over in his head constantly. He knew there was logic to what Xu Ye had said: once the machines were in, the longer Zhang Bin held the logistics director chair, the better it was for Xu Ye as well. So now he actually wanted Xu Ye to get everything installed as soon as possible, so the two of them could settle into a permanent well-water-doesn’t-touch-river-water arrangement and leave each other alone.
Xu Ye called the factory contact the moment he saw the message. The factory agreed to come out and install the following morning. He fired off a message to Qin Zhiwei — but got no response for a long stretch.
He headed to the fruit shop, where Zhang Xinzhou and the others were all gathered. Seeing Jiang Wei parked at the computer, Xu Ye walked over, planted one hand on the desk, and leaned his head in beside hers to look at the screen. “How’s Songjiang campus coming?”
“Person’s lined up, install locations are picked. My uncle says he can send someone over Saturday to install. See? Efficient, aren’t I?”
Jiang Wei was practically glowing, clearly expecting some praise — but Xu Ye just said, completely unbothered, “Shanghai Institute of Technology gets installed tomorrow. On top of that, I’ve already made contact with senior administrators at Fudan and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics — those two schools might come through as well.”
At the mention of Fudan, Jiang Wei visibly froze for a second. But it never occurred to her that this had anything to do with her own father, so she quickly recovered and asked, “How on earth did you manage that?”
Xu Ye kept it mysterious, chuckling. “A wise man keeps his methods to himself.”
Jiang Wei rolled her eyes and turned to fire something back — only to find Xu Ye’s head right beside hers. She shoved him away. “Move. Why are you this close to me?”
“I’m looking at the computer, not at you.”
She didn’t bother answering, just stood up and vacated the seat. Xu Ye sat down. “Who’d you find for the campus rep?”
“A high school classmate of mine.”
“Reliable?”
“Obviously whoever I pick is reliable. We dealt with each other back in high school.”
Xu Ye raised an eyebrow. “A girl?”
“What about it? Girls are way more reliable than you guys.”
“Jiang Wei, you can’t let what your dad did convince you every man on earth is bad news.”
She scoffed. “There’s not a single good one in the bunch.”
“Fine, say that about Zhang Xinzhou and Yang Fei if you want — but I’m a genuinely good person.”
“Say that on a rainy day and you’ll get struck by lightning.”
Yang Fei walked over. “Xu Ye, you absolute — chat all you want, but why are you dragging me and Zhang Xinzhou into it?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
Jiang Wei couldn’t be bothered trading barbs with them. Once she’d finished going through the morning’s sales figures, she headed back to her dorm alone.
Seeing Qin Zhiwei still hadn’t replied, Xu Ye sent another message.
Xu Ye: “Zhiwei, where are you?”
Still nothing.
Xu Ye tried again: “My girlfriend’s roommate wants your WeChat.”
The very next second—
Qin Zhiwei: “Really?? Did you give it to her?”
Xu Ye: “Nope. Just wanted to confirm you were there.”
Xu Ye: “The machines arrive tomorrow. I gave the installer your number — coordinate with him tomorrow, install them at the spots we already mapped out.”
Qin Zhiwei: “You son of a—”
Qin Zhiwei: “Are you even human?”
Qin Zhiwei: “I clenched so hard I cut my own crap in half and you’re telling me it was fake??”
…
The sports meet ran Thursday and Friday.
Once the morning’s opening ceremony wrapped, the campus livened up considerably, and the athletic field in particular became a sea of people.
Xu Ye, Zhang Xinzhou, and Yang Fei sat up in the surrounding stands, watching the crowd flow past below.
“Xu Ye, Zhang Xinzhou — check that one out, her legs are so pale.”
“Tsk tsk, some people really don’t feel the cold — down jacket up top, miniskirt down below.”
“Fresh milk needs to stay warm; cured ham keeps better refrigerated.”
“Hahaha.”
“Xu Ye, when do you run the 1500?”
Xu Ye shrugged. “Tomorrow morning. Not many people signed up for it apparently — just a single round, no heats.”
“Business at the machines is going to be absolutely insane these two days.”
“I’ve already squared it with Qin Yu and Gao Bohai — those two are handling restocking for the next couple days, nothing else to worry about.”
Zhang Xinzhou said, deeply content, “At this rate, once Songjiang’s sorted this week too, we’ll basically just be sitting back collecting money.”
“It’s alright,” Xu Ye said. “At least it builds up some starting capital.”
“Starting capital? What’s that supposed to mean — don’t tell me you’re still not satisfied?”
Xu Ye nodded. “Of course I’m not satisfied. This pie is too small, and the competition’s going to catch up fast. I’m going to be doing much bigger business than this.”
Yang Fei jumped in immediately. “Xu Ye, don’t leave me behind when the time comes. I’ve got no money to invest, but I can put in the labor.”
Zhang Xinzhou smacked him on the back, laughing. “Well would you look at you, finally waking up. Weren’t you always dragging your feet whenever we asked you to actually do anything?”
“Everybody wants to make money, don’t they.”
Watching Yang Fei’s dreamy expression, Xu Ye smiled and asked, “Yang Fei, if you had money, what’s the first thing you’d want to do?”
The question genuinely stumped him. He wanted to say buy a car, buy a house — but it felt too crass, and he worried Xu Ye and Zhang Xinzhou would laugh at him. After a long think, he finally said, “Maybe… go traveling?”
Zhang Xinzhou shook his head. “Travel’s actually pretty boring. My dad’s always driving off alone in his RV to go traveling, but every time he comes back, he never talks about the scenery — it’s always which place had the best foot-massage parlor service, or where all the pretty women were.”
“Your dad’s really figured life out.”
“My old man’s got no expectations of me. As long as I don’t break the law and don’t touch gambling or drugs, he’s happy.”
“Xu Ye, what about you? What would you do with money?”
Xu Ye smiled. “I haven’t really decided. I’d ask my parents and my girlfriend, see if there’s anything they want. My dad’s easy to please — he squirrels away a few hundred yuan of secret cash without my mom noticing and he’s happy for weeks. My mom’s the type where buying her a flower on Mother’s Day makes her whole day. Over winter break I want to buy her a gold bracelet, give her something to be happy about. As for my girlfriend — her family’s already well off, so she probably doesn’t want for anything material. I’ll just try to spend as much time with her as I can and keep her happy.”
When he finished, Zhang Xinzhou and Yang Fei both fell briefly silent.
After a while, Yang Fei looked out at the people crossing the field and asked, “Xu Ye, if I liked a girl, how would I go about getting her WeChat?”
“Just go up and ask her.”
“And what if she already has a boyfriend?”
Zhang Xinzhou said, “Then ask her if she’s single first.”
“Wrong.“
Xu Ye shook his head. “Never ask a woman whether she’s single. If she’s not into you, she won’t add you. And if she is into you — then she’ll be single.”
(End of Chapter 122)