The retaliation came quickly.
They went to the cinema after the meal, and Zhang Ruowei volunteered to buy the five tickets. The five seats were in a row: Qin Zhiwei at the far inside end, Xu Ye at the far outside end, and Shen Xinyi, Zhang Ruowei and Chen Qingqing in the middle.
Xu Ye had been thinking that the film was trash and there’d be nothing worth watching in it, so sitting beside Chen Qingqing, rubbing her hand and squeezing her leg and building the relationship a little, would do very nicely.
And instead?
The moment they sat down, Zhang Ruowei lifted the armrest between herself and Chen Qingqing, and the two of them settled in with their heads leaning together.
Xu Ye took one look and was in agony.
Stupid Zhang Ruowei. Can’t find herself a boyfriend and has to steal your old man’s girlfriend instead. Serves you right you’re a singleton.
The film was From Vegas to Macau II, starring Chow Yun-fat and Nick Cheung — an absolute trash film. Xu Ye lasted twenty minutes, then leaned back against the seat and went to sleep.
It wasn’t until the film ended that Chen Qingqing patted his hand and woke him up.
It was still early. Coming out of the cinema, Shen Xinyi suggested a walk outside the mall, and since the weather happened to be good, the suggestion was agreed on unanimously.
Surely Zhang Ruowei can’t cause any trouble now, Xu Ye thought.
As it turned out, the moment they came out of the elevator, just as he was about to go over and take Chen Qingqing’s hand, Zhang Ruowei stepped up and hooked her arm through Chen Qingqing’s, and the two of them walked off perfectly happily.
Qin Zhiwei glanced at Xu Ye, thought that Zhang Ruowei was very probably getting her own back on him, and fell in behind Shen Xinyi feeling somewhat uneasy.
Xu Ye was certain she was doing it on purpose.
But for every foot the devil climbs, virtue climbs ten.
There was no chance Xu Ye was going to let her keep swaggering like this. The five of them hadn’t been walking long before he steered them all into a billiard hall.
Xu Ye paid for two tables, then picked up the cue ball, walked over to Chen Qingqing and asked with a smile, “Do you know how?”
Chen Qingqing had no idea how to play billiards. In her whole life she had never so much as been inside a billiard hall before, so she shook her head at once.
Xu Ye caught hold of her wrist. “It’s fine. I’ll teach you.”
He went over to the table, racked the balls with practiced ease, then found a cue and handed it straight to her.
Chen Qingqing tilted her head up at him and asked, wide-eyed, “How am I supposed to hold it?”
Xu Ye set about teaching her straight away.
“That’s it. Just like that.”
“I’ll show you how to hit the ball.”
“Bend over like I’m doing first, and line the cue up.”
Chen Qingqing bent over the table, holding the cue very clumsily, and Xu Ye stood behind her, bent over in the same way, the two of them pressed together almost from the waist up, with both her hands held in his. She felt the position was far too charged, her face went pink, and she wanted to turn her head away in embarrassment — but he insisted she keep her eye on the ball, so all she could do was obey.
“Is that all right?” Chen Qingqing said, squirming.
“That’s it.”
Xu Ye picked his moment and drove the cue forward.
The cluster of balls in front of them broke apart in an instant, and two of them dropped straight into pockets.
It was Chen Qingqing’s first time at any of this, and seeing the balls go in she called out, genuinely excited, “They went in! They went in! Did you see?”
“I saw.” Xu Ye smiled. “Let’s keep going.”
Then he raised his head, looked over at Zhang Ruowei, and flashed her a V-sign — a taunt.
Zhang Ruowei gave him a look of utter contempt and put up a middle finger. She opened her mouth and shaped two syllables without making any sound, and Xu Ye read them at a glance: Player.
Qin Zhiwei, having witnessed the whole exchange, thought: when two masters trade blows, it really is a fine thing to watch.
Watching Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing playing billiards together so sweetly, he thought he’d follow the template exactly and teach Shen Xinyi himself — only for it to turn out that Shen Xinyi could play. It took some questioning to get the story: her second uncle’s family had a billiard table at home, and she’d played on it with her cousins constantly when she was small. She just wasn’t very good at it.
Once they’d finished talking, Qin Zhiwei started a game with her at once.
Zhang Ruowei looked left at Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi, then right at Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing, and finally sat down in a thoroughly bad mood, folded her arms across her chest, and in a huff took a photo and sent it to Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu: Haha. How’s the third-wheel life treating you?
Zhang Ruowei: Terrible.
Zhang Ruowei: I am definitely finding a boyfriend this year.
Zhang Ruowei: Definitely!
Jiang Yu: I could introduce you to my cousin.
Zhang Ruowei: Is he good-looking?
Jiang Yu: He’s all right.
Zhang Ruowei: Does he have abs?
Jiang Yu: He does.
Jiang Yu: Does one ab count?
Zhang Ruowei: Get lost!
…
Half past five in the evening.
The five of them went back to the mall to have hotpot together.
The mall hadn’t been all that busy during the day, but by this hour it had turned into a sea of heads.
They waited a full forty minutes outside before a table came free in the hotpot restaurant. Once Xu Ye had ordered, they all set about washing their tableware in hot water. He finished a bowl and a pair of chopsticks and passed them to Chen Qingqing, then picked up another pair and said, laughing, “Zhang Ruowei, look. What are these?”
She glanced over and said sourly, “Chopsticks.”
Xu Ye grinned wickedly. “Look at that — even the chopsticks come in pairs. How is it you’re still on your own?”
Zhang Ruowei pointed at him immediately, furious. “Qingqing, look at him. He’s awful!”
Hearing that, Chen Qingqing pinched Xu Ye’s thigh under the table on Zhang Ruowei’s behalf, and Xu Ye promptly put on a show of being hurt.
Zhang Ruowei rolled her eyes, exasperated. “All right, that’s enough, stop putting it on. Next time I’d rather stay in the dorm on my own than come out with the lot of you.”
“You were the one who declared war this afternoon.”
“But I still lost to you, you rotten player.”
Xu Ye asked, teasing, “Aren’t there plenty of good-looking boys at your school? Nobody’s chasing you?”
“Loads of them.”
Zhang Ruowei waved a hand and sighed with the weariness of someone much older. “But none of them are any good. Not one I’d look twice at.”
“Your standards are too high.”
“I’ve never even told you what I want in a partner. How do you know they’re high?”
The hotpot hadn’t arrived yet in any case, so Xu Ye followed the topic and got talking with her about it.
He pressed her. “Go on, then. Tell me.”
“First off, his looks only have to be passable, but he has to look clean overall. That’s not asking too much, is it?”
“Not too much.”
“I can accept up to five years older than me, but if he’s already graduated then I require him to have a stable job, and if he hasn’t graduated then I’d want his education to be no lower than mine. That’s not asking too much, is it?”
“Not too much.”
“Family-wise, I don’t require his family to be rich, but they can’t be too far below mine either. I’m not hoping for great wealth, but don’t expect me to be running a poverty-relief program. That’s not asking too much.”
“Not too much.”
“And besides those three, he just mustn’t have any bad habits. Smoking, drinking, whoring, gambling.”
Xu Ye laughed. “You haven’t said anything about personality. Going by those three points, this man is very likely to be a blunt instrument.”
“Doesn’t matter. A bit slow is fine. I’ll train him up gradually.”
Xu Ye put his thumb up at once. “Sister Zhang. Badass.”
“Tch.”
Xu Ye laughed out loud. “If I run into anyone who fits all that later on, I’ll definitely introduce you — as long as you stop playing the meddling strategist in the dorm.”
“You’ve got some nerve saying that to me. Aren’t you Qin Zhiwei’s meddling strategist yourself?”
“Hahahaha~”
(End of Chapter 204)