The whole film ran 139 minutes.
A little over two hours, and when it ended and they came out of the theater, Chen Qingqing had absolutely no idea what story the movie had told.
But Qin Zhiwei was another matter entirely. The moment he came out of the theater, he was chattering away, pulling Xu Ye into a discussion of the plot — going on about how phenomenal Deng Chao’s acting was, how that final scene had his heart in knots.
Xu Ye cursed him for an idiot ten thousand times internally, thinking: I bought the tickets so you’d sit next to Shen Xinyi — was that so you could watch the movie?
How was he to know that Qin Zhiwei, over those two-plus hours, had sat bolt upright the entire time trying to make a good impression, and hadn’t managed a single word to Shen Xinyi from start to finish.
“Wait here a bit, Zhiwei and I are going to buy you all some bubble tea.”
Zhang Ruowei said quickly, “I want mine with honey beans.”
Jiang Yu said, “Me too.”
Shen Xinyi: “Hot is fine for me, preferably piping hot.”
Xu Ye nodded, tugged Qin Zhiwei off toward the bubble tea shop at a brisk pace, and about a dozen steps in, threw an arm over his shoulder, put him in a headlock, and demanded, “Can you use your brain a little? I specifically arranged for you to sit with Shen Xinyi so you’d talk to her — who the hell told you to watch the movie?”
“Huh?”
Qin Zhiwei said, “Wasn’t it because there were no other seats that we sat together?”
Xu Ye: “You imbecile, the theater wasn’t even full — how could there be no seats? And even if there weren’t, why do you think I sat you next to Shen Xinyi and not next to Zhang Ruowei or Jiang Yu?”
Qin Zhiwei got it, and immediately looked pained. “I didn’t know what to say. I saw she was watching the movie too, so I didn’t dare bother her.”
“Handed you the opportunity and you still blew it!”
“Bro, help me out again.” Qin Zhiwei looked utterly wretched.
“What more do you want me to do?”
“Anything, bro, I’m begging you — I really like this one.”
Xu Ye sighed, thoroughly exasperated. “Let me ask you: at lunch, what soup base did Shen Xinyi have?”
“Tomato base.”
“When I ate at their school before, Shen Xinyi’s taste ran fairly heavy. Think about it — why would a girl who likes strong flavors go for tomato base at hotpot today?”
“Why?”
Xu Ye rolled his eyes and asked, patiently, “Just now when I said I’d buy bubble tea, what did she say?”
“She said she wanted hers hot.”
“And?”
“And what?”
Xu Ye drove a knee into Qin Zhiwei’s backside and cursed, “You absolute idiot — from those two things you can tell she’s probably on her period. A girl at that time is fragile, emotional.”
Qin Zhiwei’s eyes went wide.
Xu Ye continued, “They head back to school tomorrow afternoon, so lunch will definitely be out somewhere, but tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast will both be at the hotel. So you’re handling tonight’s dinner. For everyone else, just grab whatever, but the portion for Shen Xinyi has to be different.”
“So what do I buy her?”
“Millet porridge, something like that. They eat little at night, and warm porridge at a time like this would feel really nice.”
Qin Zhiwei was suddenly enlightened, as if struck by a bolt of clarity. He grabbed Xu Ye’s hand and pressed, dropping his voice, “So what do I say when I give it to her?”
“Whatever you do, don’t say you bought it specially for her — that’s too direct. You can say, ‘I noticed you ate light at lunch, so I grabbed you some porridge.’ Remember — details make or break it.”
“Got it.”
Xu Ye clapped Qin Zhiwei’s shoulder twice, walked up to the bubble tea shop, and said, “Hi, six red bean milk teas, all hot, the hotter the better, and four of them at fifty-percent sweetness.”
Qin Zhiwei was puzzled. “Why four at fifty percent?”
“They worry about gaining weight. Fifty percent sweet means they won’t get figure anxiety from drinking bubble tea.”
“You’re way too good at this.”
The two waited a few minutes at the shop, and once the staff had made the drinks, three fifty-percent-sweet ones plus one at normal sweetness were handed to Qin Zhiwei.
“Go give them out.”
“Okay.”
“One’s normal sweetness — sort it out when you hand them over, don’t separate it out now.”
“Got it.”
Watching Qin Zhiwei scamper eagerly off toward Shen Xinyi and the others, Xu Ye sighed helplessly.
Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi actually looked reasonably well-matched, their personalities suited too — it was just that for a steel-plated straight man like Qin Zhiwei, pursuing someone was going to be an uphill battle.
Forget it, I’ll properly coach him later.
Xu Ye took the last two drinks and walked over.
Chen Qingqing seemed a little thirsty — seeing Xu Ye approach, she took two steps forward to meet him. Xu Ye inserted the straw for her, and she immediately cupped the drink and took a sip, while Xu Ye smoothly took the bag from her hand.
“Come on, let’s go to the hotel.”
“Okay.”
The group left Baolong Plaza and found a decent hotel nearby. Xu Ye booked three rooms, took the keycards from the front desk, and handed one to Zhang Ruowei and one to Shen Xinyi.
“You four pair up, two to a room. Zhiwei and I are across from you. It’s four o’clock now — should we buy a deck of cards and play at the hotel like last time?”
“Anything besides cards that’s fun?”
Qin Zhiwei offered a suggestion. “Legends of the Three Kingdoms — a whole group can play.” [TL: 三国杀, a popular Chinese card game similar to Bang!, with hidden roles and Three Kingdoms characters.]
“Legends of the Three Kingdoms?”
None of Chen Qingqing’s dorm had any interest in games, let alone a card-based strategy game like that.
Xu Ye thought about it, then suddenly said, “Have you all heard of Werewolf?”
“Werewolf? How do you play?”
“Everyone draws an identity card. With six people, that’s two werewolves, two villagers, one seer, and one guard. The seer and guard are called ‘special roles.’ During the day, everyone speaks in turn — you can tell the truth or lie. The werewolves’ job is to disguise their identities and kill villagers and special roles at night. And after speaking, the good side can vote to pick out a werewolf. If they pick a real werewolf, that werewolf’s out.”
“Sounds pretty fun.”
“There’s just a bit few of us — let me see about calling Zhang Xinzhou over.”
Werewolf wouldn’t blow up in popularity until 2017, so at this point naturally few people had heard of it. But the game wasn’t hard to pick up.
Since they were missing a god’s-eye-view moderator, once they got to the room Xu Ye called Zhang Xinzhou over — and as it happened, Yanqing had come to see him today too, so now they weren’t short on people at all.
After Xu Ye explained the rules and ran them through a couple of rounds, the group quickly got the hang of it, and no matter which side won a given game, the post-game breakdown was all laughter and cheer.
Before they knew it, evening had arrived.
Xu Ye rubbed his stomach and stood. “I’m getting a little hungry. Qingqing and I are going out to eat first — you all wait at the hotel, and I’ll have Zhiwei pack up some meals and bring them over in a bit.”
“Okay~”
Chen Qingqing was led out of the hotel by Xu Ye, and Qin Zhiwei followed all the way down too. A dozen steps out, seeing Qin Zhiwei still tagging along beside him, Xu Ye finally stopped. “What are you doing?”
“Aren’t we going to eat?”
“Don’t you feel kind of redundant right now?”
“Huh?”
Chen Qingqing had caught Xu Ye’s meaning, but Qin Zhiwei still hadn’t reacted. Seeing the look in Xu Ye’s eyes, though — and remembering everything Xu Ye had coached him on during the bubble tea run — he quickly came around. “Then you two go eat, I’ll go buy their dinner.”
Only then did Xu Ye turn and keep walking with Chen Qingqing.
A dozen-odd meters on, Xu Ye suddenly called out, “Qingqing?”
She turned to look at him.
Xu Ye smiled. “That black scarf in your bag — is it for me?”
“…!!!”
(End of Chapter 147)