“Xu Ye, let me see the card too.”
Zhang Ruowei and the others had caught up, curious about what was printed on it. Xu Ye fished out a card and handed it over. Zhang Ruowei took it, and Jiang Yu and Shen Xinyi leaned in to read it alongside her.
“Shanghai Xinye Trading Co., Ltd.”
“Xu Ye, this is really a company you started?”
He shrugged. “My name’s right there on it, isn’t it?”
“You’re unbelievable.”
A few months into the semester, plenty of freshmen hadn’t yet shed their “high schooler” identity. That Xu Ye had managed to open a fruit shop at this stage was already impressive to them — they certainly hadn’t expected him to have started a whole trading company on top of it.
“It’s alright,” Xu Ye said. “I got a bit lucky.”
Zhang Ruowei handed the card back, narrowing her eyes into a smile. “Didn’t realize you were so shrewd and capable.”
“Somehow that doesn’t sound like a compliment coming from you.”
“How could it not be? Absolutely a compliment.”
Xu Ye turned to Shen Xinyi. “Shen Xinyi, your turn.”
“My turn for what?”
“Give me a few words to describe me.” He wanted to know what kind of figure he cut in the minds of Chen Qingqing’s three roommates.
Seeing how pleased with himself Xu Ye looked, Jiang Yu jumped in deliberately. “Flippant. Slippery. Thick-skinned.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“That’s genuinely hurtful.”
Xu Ye turned to Shen Xinyi with a grin. “Shen Xinyi, what about you?”
Shen Xinyi couldn’t come up with a fitting adjective on the spot, and since Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu had both described his personality, she just blurted out two characters: “Tall.” [TL: the word she uses, 高大, literally combines “tall” (高) and “big” (大) — read together it means “tall and imposing,” but the two characters can also be split into two separate descriptors, which sets up Xu Ye’s joke]
Xu Ye stood a clean 178 centimeters, close to 180 with shoes — solidly above average for the south, especially in 2014, before the younger generations had hit their growth spurts. In Shen Xinyi’s eyes, his build genuinely counted as tall and imposing.
But Xu Ye smiled. “Shen Xinyi, I asked you for one word to describe me. I didn’t ask for two.”
“Huh?”
Shen Xinyi didn’t follow. Tall — how is that two words?
Zhang Ruowei caught it instantly and smacked him on the back, laughing as she scolded, “Xu Ye, being crude again, are you?” [TL: the joke splits 高大 into 高 “tall” and 大 “big/large” — the second character carries a suggestive double meaning about a certain part of the male anatomy]
Xu Ye laughed, grabbed Chen Qingqing’s hand before she could work out the meaning, and hurried her across the crosswalk. The light at the intersection turned red right behind them.
After puzzling over it for a good while, Shen Xinyi finally got it, and her face went red. She looked across the road at Xu Ye and muttered, “That Xu Ye is such a menace.”
Zhang Ruowei slung an arm around her, laughing. “You’re only realizing that now?”
…
Once they’d checked into the hotel, the group gathered around again to watch Xu Ye fill in the last two lines of lyrics.
By Zhang Ruowei’s original plan, the entire day’s task had been to write one song. Instead, Xu Ye had produced a complete one, start to finish, in a little over an hour.
He set his handwritten score on the table, cradled the guitar, strummed the strings, and began to sing softly…
“Green bricks paired with glazed tile / a white horse treads fresh mud / mountain blossoms and plantain leaves, dusk-thickets dyeing a red kerchief…” [TL: these are the opening lines of 《声声慢》(“Sheng Sheng Man”), a well-known modern Chinese folk-pop song — its title borrowed from a classical ci form, and its lyrics deliberately evoking the imagery and cadence of classical poetry. Not to be confused with Li Qingzhao’s Song-dynasty ci of the same name; this is a contemporary composition. Xu Ye is drawing it from his post-2015 memory.]
Xu Ye’s voice had a real magnetism to it. The song wasn’t hard to sing at all — how good it sounded came down to the feeling you put into it.
“Searching, searching; cold, so cold and still; the moon sinks, crows cry, a crescent falls into the lonely well…”
“Scattered fragments, drop by drop; in dreams there are flowers, in dreams green grass…”
He sang a passage, then set the guitar down, glanced around at the four of them seated beside him, and asked with a fresh smile, “So? What do you think?”
“Amazing!”
“So good!”
“You’re this talented — why didn’t you come to our Conservatory?”
Xu Ye gave a perfectly fair answer: “Music’s just my hobby. Making money is the reason I went to university… Alright, the job’s done. Practice it a bit this afternoon and you’ll be fine.”
“Thank you, master.”
“Thank you, master!”
Xu Ye waved them off. “Saying thanks doesn’t count for much. Don’t forget what you promised me downstairs at the dorm.”
“So what do you want?”
“Uh…”
Seeing Xu Ye actually stop to think, Zhang Ruowei — worried he’d come up with some scandalous request — quickly warned, “Qingqing, if he says something out of line, remember to hit him!”
Chen Qingqing nodded firmly, already braced, hand at the ready to pinch him the moment he stepped over the line.
Xu Ye said, “Just treat me to lunch, all of you together. That’s not too much to ask, right?”
“No problem!”
It was already past eleven by then. The five of them left the hotel for a nearby mall, and after a big meal, wandered the mall for a while. Zhang Ruowei generously bought everyone a bubble tea.
Full and content, Xu Ye led them back to the hotel to practice the song — Sheng Sheng Man.
…
Meanwhile.
At Hongqiao Airport.
Chen Hansong, in a suit with a trench coat thrown over it, walked toward the airport exit while dialing Jiang Meilin.
The moment the call connected, her irritated voice came through from the other end. “Chen Hansong, didn’t I tell you not to call me unless it’s important?”
Chen Hansong was long used to this. He said flatly, “I just landed, heading out of Hongqiao now. You’ve been to our daughter’s school — tell me where her dorm is, I’ll go find her directly.”
Silence on the other end for a long moment, then: “You came to Shanghai?”
“Mm. The bank’s going to be swamped next month, so I carved out two days to come see Qingqing.”
“Why didn’t you tell me in advance?”
“Qingqing’s my daughter too. Why would I need to notify you in advance to come see her?”
“Hold on.”
“Just send me the location.”
“Let me check with Xu Ye first, see whether Qingqing’s even on campus.”
“Why are you asking him?“
“Qingqing went to see Xu Ye last week. I’m worried she might not be at school this week either.”
Hearing that, Chen Hansong’s expression darkened a shade.
Jiang Meilin hung up, sent Xu Ye a few WeChat messages, and once she’d gotten the situation clear, called Chen Hansong back.
“When you get near the school, just call Qingqing directly.”
“That little bastard is with Qingqing?”
“Mm. They’re at a hotel right now.”
“A HOTEL!!!”
Chen Hansong’s shout burst out of him, and the people exiting the airport alongside him all turned to stare.
“The two of them are at a hotel?!” he demanded, his voice shaking with agitation.
Even through the phone, Jiang Meilin could feel her ex-husband’s frantic, furious mood. And the more miserable Chen Hansong got, the happier it made her — because since Qingqing had started university, it was through Xu Ye that Jiang Meilin had learned so much about her daughter’s life, right down to her daily movements. Her ex-husband, meanwhile, knew nothing whatsoever about Qingqing’s college life.
Jiang Meilin deliberately let him stew a while before explaining, “You’re overthinking it. Qingqing’s three roommates are there too.”
“Are the two of them dating now or not?”
“Probably.”
“How far has it gone?”
“No idea.”
“You trust that little bastard just like that?” Chen Hansong pressed, agitated. “How many boys his age are actually any good?”
Jiang Meilin scoffed. “The way I see it, you’re the one who’s no good.”
Beep beep beep~
“Hello? Hello?!”
(End of Chapter 126)