Two lectures that morning.

Xu Ye was distracted the whole time.

He desperately wanted to know how the Peace Apple gift boxes were moving in the vending machines.

The moment the noon bell rang, the four of them split up. Li Tongwen took Yang Fei over to the fruit shop to help — Xu Wanying couldn’t possibly handle it alone. Xu Ye and Zhang Xinzhou made straight for the Entrepreneurship Center.

By coincidence, they ran into Jiang Wei on the way.

The three of them got up to the office and the first thing they did was pull up the vending machine backend. The moment the dashboard loaded, alerts stacked up on the page.

“Holy hell. Look at all the out-of-stock machines.”

Jiang Wei was already moving. “That means the Peace Apple boxes are flying. I’ll call Xia Minghui and Ruan Xiaolu now — have them come straight over after lunch.”

Xu Ye turned to Zhang Xinzhou. “Ping the campus agents in the group chat. Tell them to get restocks moving immediately.”

“On it.”

Xu Ye had barely sat down when Yang Fei called. The moment he picked up, the noise on the other end was overwhelming.

“Yo — Xu Ye — damn, there’s a crowd in the shop. Feels like we don’t have enough stock.”

“Got it. I’m calling Old Chen now to send another hundred crates over. When the truck arrives, ride down with him to the office. We’ll pack everything from here.”

“All right, got it.”

At the fruit shop, the Peace Apple gift boxes were being fought over.

Xu Ye had known they’d sell well. He hadn’t expected this well. He got on the phone with Chen Jianjun and told him to send another hundred crates of apples as fast as possible.

Xia Minghui and Ruan Xiaolu made it to the office in a hurry, and the whole team fell into rhythm.

“Sales just crossed fifty thousand!”

“Three thousand boxes moved already?”

“Yeah, three thousand five hundred. And the number’s climbing fast.”

Every time the backend refreshed, the total stepped up.

At three, Chen Jianjun’s truck finally pulled up outside the gymnasium with the apples. Xu Ye rallied everyone to help unload and pack on site. When they ran out of hands, he dropped a message in the class group chat — and before long, a stream of classmates showed up to help.

Many hands made light work. The apples were boxed up quickly, and whenever a batch was done, Xu Ye had the driver run it out to whichever campus was short.

Once the office was humming along cleanly, he messaged Qin Zhiwei. Learning that Qin Zhiwei was almost off the subway, Xu Ye rode over on his scooter and picked him up. Back at the school, he handed him the four Peace Apple gift boxes he’d prepared the night before, along with instructions:

“The one with the smiley face on the outside — that’s for Chen Qingqing. These two are for Shen Xinyi’s two roommates. And this one, I left un-sealed on purpose. You can decide for yourself whether you want to put a note inside like I did.”

The night before, when Xu Ye had mentioned handwriting a note, Qin Zhiwei had been chewing on the same question ever since — should he write one too? But after a whole night of thinking about it, he still had no idea what he was supposed to say.

He asked directly. “Xu Ye. What did you write?”

Xu Ye told him what was on his own slip. Qin Zhiwei promptly grabbed his hand, pleading. “Bro. Help me come up with one.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Xu Ye laughed. “I can write it for you, but once it’s written you have to put it in. No swapping it out.”

“Why?”

“Because you turn red just talking to a girl. If I write anything even mildly sappy, you won’t be able to stand it.”

“As long as Shen Xinyi can stand it, that’s what matters.”

“Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

“Then write it.”

“You idiot. What if Shen Xinyi recognizes the handwriting?”

Qin Zhiwei scratched his head. “So — I write it?”

“Yes.”

Qin Zhiwei took the pen and sat down, perfectly upright.

Xu Ye thought for a moment. “Just write: I’m not great with words, and I’ve never been great at relationships. But after I met you, I realized it wasn’t that I wasn’t any good at them — it’s just that I hadn’t met the right person yet.“

Qin Zhiwei’s head snapped up. “Wait wait wait. Slower.”

Xu Ye rolled his eyes and repeated the whole thing.

Qin Zhiwei got it down, scratched his head again, and frowned. “Isn’t that too direct?”

“That’s direct? Qingqing and I were holding hands by our third meeting.”

“You’re sure this is fine?”

“Fine.”

“All right. Then this it is.” Qin Zhiwei decided that when it came to matters like this, Xu Ye had more experience. He read over the slip once more, folded it carefully, tucked it into the box, and taped the box shut.

He stood up. “I’m heading over now.”

“Yeah. I’ll walk you out.”

Xu Ye knew Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi had been chatting steadily — often, actually.

A girl with Shen Xinyi’s personality — if she found Qin Zhiwei off-putting, she wouldn’t have kept the conversation going.

Which meant her impression of him was actually decent.

And Qin Zhiwei — total dolt that he was — if Xu Ye didn’t push, he’d probably never make the first move on his own.

The slip Qin Zhiwei had just written should, Xu Ye figured, function as the fuse — the thing that moved things along between the two of them.

As long as Shen Xinyi read it and didn’t deliberately pull away afterward, Qin Zhiwei was more than halfway there. The rest was just time.

Xu Ye saw him off, then went back to watching the vending machines and the shop.

Qin Zhiwei made his way to the Conservatory.

Xu Ye had given him directions to the girls’ dorm before sending him off. He followed the main road all the way in, arrived at the base of the dorm building, and — before messaging Shen Xinyi — snapped a photo and sent it to Xu Ye to confirm he was at the right place.

Once he’d verified she really lived in the building in front of him, he finally opened his chat with her.

He hesitated a long time before he could type. “I’m downstairs at your dorm now. Can you come down?”

Sitting in the dorm chatting with Zhang Ruowei and the others, Shen Xinyi saw the message and felt her pulse jump. She hadn’t imagined he’d come find her.

For a moment she had no idea how to reply.

Fortunately, a second message from Qin Zhiwei came through quickly: “Xu Ye asked me to bring Peace Apples over to Chen Qingqing. I brought some for you and your two roommates too. Bring them down with you if you’d like.”

She turned to Chen Qingqing. “Qingqing.”

Chen Qingqing looked up. “Mm?”

“Your Xu Ye had Qin Zhiwei bring Peace Apples over to you. All three of us have one too. He’s downstairs. Should we go down and get them?”

Chen Qingqing got up and went to the balcony to check — sure enough, there was Qin Zhiwei standing below. But Xu Ye had already told her about Qin Zhiwei pursuing Shen Xinyi, so it took her about half a second to work out that the whole thing was probably Xu Ye’s staging.

She didn’t say so. She just nodded. “Let’s go down.”

The four of them went downstairs together. Seeing them come out, Qin Zhiwei took a couple of steps forward.

He handed the one with the smiley face to Chen Qingqing first. “This is from Xu Ye.”

Then handed his own to Shen Xinyi. “This is — this is from me.”

Then, last, the remaining two to Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu. “Yours.”

Zhang Ruowei took hers and smiled at once. “Divided up so carefully. Are they not all the same, then?”

“Ah…”

“Only Qingqing’s is different from the rest of ours, I’d guess.”

“M-maybe.”

Zhang Ruowei, tone dripping with mischief: “Shen Xinyi, why don’t the two of us swap.”

Qin Zhiwei practically shouted. “You can’t!”

That single “you can’t” gave the whole thing away.

Zhang Ruowei covered her mouth and laughed — twice — then pulled Jiang Yu back inside.

Chen Qingqing looked at Qin Zhiwei, then at Shen Xinyi, and decided her presence was starting to be an obstacle. She followed Zhang Ruowei back up.

Qin Zhiwei looked at Shen Xinyi. Shen Xinyi looked at him. They realized they were looking at each other at the same moment and immediately looked away, both at once.

Then, haltingly: “So — so I’ll — I’ll be heading back. Xu Ye set up a Christmas Eve campaign, tonight’s going to be really busy.”

“Oh.”

“To-tonight, will you wait up for me?”

“Mm.”

“Then I’ll go. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Qin Zhiwei turned and left. His steps were as fast as his heartbeat.

Shen Xinyi looked down at the gift box in her hands, then at Qin Zhiwei’s retreating back, and thought: So this is what it feels like — having someone waiting for you at the base of your dorm.

(End of Chapter 165)