Old Xu actually did send Xu Ye a red packet — two hundred yuan.

Once Xu Ye had it, he turned around and sent one back for two thousand. He had been going to add “go easy on it,” but he smiled and changed that line to: “Don’t let Mom find out.”

Old Xu opened the packet at once, withdrew the money to his bank card, replied with an OK emoji, and cleared the chat history.

In excellent spirits, Old Xu started humming to himself without a care in the world, and even went off to the kitchen of his own accord to wash the dishes.

Seeing this, Zhang Hong assumed Xu Ye had sent Old Xu something nice, and she reached out and smacked him on the back, laughing as she scolded him. “Look at the state of you~”

Old Xu didn’t even turn his head. He kept wiggling his backside and singing: “You’re my little, little apple, no matter how much I love you, it’s never too much~”

…

With Tang Bowen on board, the contract for the Journey to the West project was quickly nailed down.

The film’s release was finally set for the tenth of July. By Lü Cheng’s estimate, as long as it took more than a hundred and fifty million at the box office, the company’s first investment would turn a profit.

Two days later the curtain went up on the second-semester finals for the first year. Xu Ye picked up one pen and was ready to head for the exam hall. Seeing that he hadn’t prepared anything at all, Yang Fei stared and asked, “You’re going to the exam hall with one pen?”

“What else should I take?”

Besides several pens, Yang Fei had prepared an exam board and a set of notes on the key points copied from Li Tongwen.

Xu Ye laughed. “The worse the student, the more stationery. However much you bring, you still won’t do better than me.”

“You damn—!”

Zhang Xinzhou pulled his drawer open, took out a Pilot gel pen and handed it to Xu Ye. “Take a spare. In case it breaks halfway through.”

“If it breaks I’ll ask the invigilator for one.”

The exams ran four days, sometimes two subjects in a day and sometimes one. Xu Ye sat in the exam hall and spent nearly the whole first half sleepwalking and staring into space, then copied Li Tongwen’s answers in the second half. He didn’t copy too much either — on a hundred-point paper he copied eighty points’ worth at most, so his front section was usually filled in while the last few long-answer questions sat blank.

The truth was that from up on the platform, invigilators could see not just the people copying answers below but every small movement perfectly clearly.

But the invigilators all turned a blind eye.

Those four days passed quickly for Xu Ye, and when the last exam finished, the first-years of the Shanghai Institute of Finance finally reached their first summer break since starting university.

A good many of them had planned their summer out long ago.

Some meant to work a summer job for a month and then spend the money from it traveling the next month.

Some meant to go home and lie around for two months, tutoring the children of assorted aunts on the side.

People like Li Tongwen, who meant to earn their tuition with a summer job, were a very small minority at the finance school.

Once the exams were over Xu Ye didn’t go straight back to Jiangzhou. He stayed at the company until the last day of the month, and over that time he and Lü Cheng interviewed a lot of people and finally hired three new employees.

The first was named Ge Pingping, a 2014 economics graduate of Nanjing University. After graduating last year he had gone into a Nanjing fund company, and because his girlfriend worked in Shanghai he had resigned from his previous company without hesitation and come to Shanghai. Lü Cheng put him in the investment department as an investment analyst.

The second was named Fang Xiaowen, a graduate of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, also with a year’s experience, and she was assigned to the finance department.

The third was named Chen Xiaoru, currently the oldest person on the staff — older even than Lü Cheng — with close to ten years’ experience in accounting. She had always worked at small companies before, but the thing Xu Ye valued was exactly that wealth of experience. Jiang Wei was still young, after all, and when something unusual came up she couldn’t handle it alone; finding somebody to bring her along would let her sit more securely in the head of finance’s chair.

Counting Jiang Wei, Zhang Xinzhou, Li Tongwen and Xu Ye himself, the company was now up to ten people.

Once Xu Ye had everything at the company arranged as it needed to be, he went to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music first thing on the first of July, picked up Qin Zhiwei and Chen Qingqing, and the three of them drove the highway all the way back to Jiangzhou.

At five o’clock he dropped Qin Zhiwei at the foot of his building first, then drove on to Red Leaf Estate. Jiang Meilin had asked him before they set off when they would be back, so when the car horn sounded outside the yard she guessed it was probably Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing.

She came out at a trot in her house slippers, and when she opened the gate, sure enough, there was Xu Ye helping Chen Qingqing get the suitcase down from the car.

“Xiao Xu, you’re back?”

“Mm. We could have been here at four, but I got a bit sleepy in the afternoon and rested at a service area for a while.”

“Let me, let me.” Jiang Meilin stepped forward, trying to take the suitcase out of Xu Ye’s hand.

Xu Ye said quickly, “It’s a bit heavy. Better let me.”

In the end Jiang Meilin didn’t manage to take it off him. She held Xu Ye’s hand with a broad smile, walking toward the house as she said, “I worked out exactly when you’d get back, so I’ve only just finished cooking. Have dinner before you go home.”

“Good. I only had a pot of instant noodles at lunch, so I’m starving.”

Chen Qingqing stood at the gate watching Jiang Meilin lead Xu Ye into the house, and felt slightly unreal about the whole thing.

Hang on.

Mom?

I’m still out here.

Chen Qingqing wrinkled her small nose, gave a light stamp of her foot, and walked into her own home “thoroughly out of sorts.”

Xu Ye put the suitcase down and went to wash his hands in the bathroom with practiced ease, and when he came out Jiang Meilin had already dished up his rice for him.

Seeing this, Chen Qingqing felt inexplicably jealous.

Jiang Meilin hadn’t noticed that yet. Seeing Chen Qingqing standing there without moving, she even prompted her. “Qingqing, go wash your hands, dinner’s ready.”

Chen Qingqing pouted, and when she came out from washing her hands she sat down beside Xu Ye. Seeing him make himself even more at home than she did, her jealousy came up in full and she reached over and pinched him on the thigh.

Xu Ye let out a cry of pain, and Jiang Meilin asked at once, “What’s the matter?”

Xu Ye glanced at Chen Qingqing, and seeing her acting as though nothing whatever had happened, he hurriedly made up an excuse. “I bit my tongue by accident.”

Jiang Meilin picked up a pork rib and put it in Xu Ye’s bowl, smiling. “Eat slowly. There’s no rush.”

Xu Ye finished his meal and stayed at the house another twenty minutes. It was only after a call came in from Zhang Hong that he took his car keys and left Red Leaf Estate.

Jiang Meilin watched him go. Then, seeing Chen Qingqing sitting on the sofa sulking, she asked, “What’s the matter with you?”

Chen Qingqing mumbled, “Why are you so nice to him?”

“He’s good to you, so of course your mom’s good to him… Is that what you’ve been pulling a long face about all this time?”

“I have not.” Chen Qingqing was naturally never going to admit it.

Jiang Meilin came over, rubbed her daughter’s small head and laughed. “All right, all right. Your room’s been made up. Go up and have a shower, and remember to come back down again in a bit.”

“I’m going straight to sleep.”

“Your dad’s coming over later.”

Only then did Chen Qingqing change her answer. “All right.”

(End of Chapter 252)