“I—!”
Qin Zhiwei’s face went red in a flash.
The feeling was exactly like back in middle school, when he’d been secretly watching videos in his room and his dad had pushed the door open and caught him.
Right now, Qin Zhiwei wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the floor and crawl into it.
He was flushed to the ears, completely at a loss for how to answer Zhang Ruowei.
Shen Xinyi, meanwhile, was equally on edge. She shot Zhang Ruowei a look and said, full of reproach, “Zhang Ruowei, what nonsense are you talking?”
Only then did Zhang Ruowei cover her mouth and laugh. “Oh, come on, I was joking~”
She said it in a joking tone, but she knew perfectly well — because at yesterday’s hotpot lunch, she’d caught Qin Zhiwei sneaking looks at Shen Xinyi beside her several times over.
Qin Zhiwei was close with Xu Ye, but in this particular area, the two of them were completely different creatures.
If Xu Ye had been caught by Zhang Ruowei sneaking looks at Chen Qingqing, he probably wouldn’t have felt the least bit embarrassed — he’d have shot Zhang Ruowei a look right back, and might even have turned the tables entirely with a “What are you looking at me for?”
But Qin Zhiwei was another matter. If Qin Zhiwei knew he’d been caught by Zhang Ruowei sneaking looks at Shen Xinyi, he’d immediately dodge her gaze and lower his head with a guilty conscience.
That morning, coming out of the haunted house and seeing Qin Zhiwei’s face flushed pork-liver red, Zhang Ruowei had gotten a pretty good read on what kind of person he was. Having teased him just now, she didn’t push the topic any further.
But that one line had left Qin Zhiwei terrified out of his mind, his heart like a war drum being pounded with a mallet.
The subway required a line change partway, and after the transfer there were no seats left. But the train soon pulled into the station nearest the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and when the doors opened, Zhang Ruowei and the others got ready to get off.
Despite having been anxious the whole ride, Qin Zhiwei still raised a hand. He’d meant to say “bye” — but by the time the words reached his lips, they’d become: “See you again~”
“See you again~”
See you again. Meaning: I hope we’ll meet again.
Qin Zhiwei had no idea whether Shen Xinyi caught his meaning. But the moment they stepped onto the escalator, he pulled out his phone and fired off a message to Xu Ye.
Qin Zhiwei: “Bro!”
Qin Zhiwei: “Help!”
Xu Ye: “What?”
Qin Zhiwei: “Zhang Ruowei figured out I like Shen Xinyi. She just asked me right in front of Shen Xinyi on the subway.”
Xu Ye: “Completely normal that she figured it out.”
Xu Ye: “What was Shen Xinyi’s reaction?”
Qin Zhiwei: “She told Zhang Ruowei not to talk nonsense.”
Xu Ye: “Did she blush?”
Qin Zhiwei: “I think so.”
Xu Ye: “Then you’re fine.”
Xu Ye: “Calm down a bit.”
Xu Ye: “Around eight tonight, remember to message Shen Xinyi. Tonight’s conversation is critical for you.”
Qin Zhiwei: “Then don’t wander off tonight.”
Xu Ye: “Why?”
Qin Zhiwei: “In case I don’t know what to say and have to ask you.”
Xu Ye: “You absolute dog. You’re going to work me to death getting yourself a girlfriend.”
Qin Zhiwei: “Bro, teach your little brother a few more lessons.”
Seeing that message, Xu Ye suddenly thought of what had happened to Qin Zhiwei’s marriage before the rebirth. He quickly replied: “Fine. Come to me anytime, I’ll give you a plan whenever you need one.”
Qin Zhiwei: “I’m so moved I could cry.”
Xu Ye: “Get lost.”
…
Xu Ye didn’t go back to the dorm — he went straight to the company office.
The 25th of this month was Christmas, and the day before was Christmas Eve. Xu Ye personally had no feelings about foreign holidays like this, but at university, these two days were taken quite seriously. Though for most people, it was really just an excuse to give a gift to someone they liked, or to get a date out of it.
For Xu Ye, this was a fine opportunity to make money.
He pushed open the office door and, seeing Jiang Wei, Ruan Xiaolu, Xia Minghui, Zhang Xinzhou, and Yang Fei all present, immediately called Li Tongwen and Xu Wanying over from the fruit shop as well.
Once everyone had assembled, Xu Ye gathered them all into the conference room.
“The main reason I’ve called everyone here is to talk about running a joint marketing campaign — the company and the fruit shop together — for Christmas.”
“Since the temperature dropped, the fruit shop’s business has been on a steady decline. But Christmas Eve, the week after next, is an opportunity for us.”
Xu Wanying asked, “What kind of campaign are we running?”
“The theme is ‘An Apple Represents My Heart.’ The campaign is built around ‘buy more, get more.’ Let me go over what we need to prepare in advance — listen closely.” [TL: In China, apples are the signature Christmas Eve gift. Christmas Eve is 平安夜 (“Peaceful Night”), and 苹果 (apple) shares its first syllable with 平安 (píng’ān, “peace/safety”), so gifting a “peace apple” (平安果) became a nationwide custom — an entirely homegrown tradition with no Western counterpart.]
“First, I need you to prepare campaign banners, roll-up displays, and boxes for packaging the apples. The boxes have to be high-end — nothing that looks visibly cheap.”
“But the box-packaging trick has already been done by others. So I need you to prepare one more thing.”
“Go online, copy some lines of text, print them on slips of paper, roll the slips up, and put them in the boxes along with the apples.”
Zhang Xinzhou asked quickly, “What kind of lines?”
“Mostly romantic ones. Then copy some about friendship, family, teacher-student relationships — and remember to sort them into categories.”
“When someone comes into the shop to buy apples, ask them in advance who it’s for.”
“Picture it: suppose you’re in a relationship, and on Christmas Eve you give your partner an apple you bought at our shop. They open it up, and inside — besides the apple — there’s a slip of paper. And on that slip it says, I hope to walk through every beautiful moment of life with you. How do you think they’d feel?”
Yang Fei blurted out instinctively, “Holy—!”
“I’m not finished. Besides the slips, I want you to prepare some red-string bracelets and put them randomly in the boxes — like a blind-box lottery. Some people’s apples will have a bracelet, some won’t. At that point, the apple itself has stopped being the point. My guess is that plenty of people will buy our Peace Apple gift boxes multiple times just to make their girlfriends happy.” [TL: 红绳手链, red-string bracelets — a traditional Chinese good-luck charm, also carrying connotations of the “red thread of fate” binding destined lovers.]
Xu Ye smiled. “I want to run this campaign through our vending machines too. Everything has to be loaded into the machines before next weekend. Until then, the details of this campaign stay between the people in this room — nobody breathes a word. Now let me assign your tasks.”
“Yang Fei — procuring the banners, roll-up displays, Peace Apple gift boxes, and red-string bracelets is on you. Apply to Jiang Wei for the funds.”
“Understood.”
“Zhang Xinzhou — the slips are your job. Make the content as non-repetitive as possible. Also, find me a few cargo vehicles — we’ll need to haul goods from our school out to all the other campuses.”
“No problem.”
“Xia Minghui — once we’ve got everything prepared, inform our agents at each school about the campaign. Have them line up several more day-rate part-timers for the three days before Christmas Eve. We’ll likely need frequent restocking, and I’m worried two people won’t be able to keep up.”
“Got it.”
“Jiang Wei — you just handle your own duties as head of finance.”
“Mm.”
“Ruan Xiaolu — wherever anyone needs help, go help them.”
“Okay~”
“As for Xu Wanying and Li Tongwen, you two are on packing. I’ll get Qin Yu and Gao Bohai to come help you.”
“If you run into any problems in the process, come to me. And once Christmas is over, I’ll be rewarding you according to your merits, ha.”
Having finished the business, Xu Ye slipped right back into joking around — but the eyes of his companions in the conference room had changed somewhat as they looked at him now.
(End of Chapter 152)