On a summer evening, sitting down with a handful of good friends over skewers and drinks, talking about anything and everything — there was simply no better feeling.
Halfway through the meal Xu Ye put a hand to his forehead, moved his chair over next to Chen Qingqing’s and rested his head on her shoulder, muttering, “I’ve drunk too much. I’m a bit dizzy.”
He had barely finished before Chen Qingqing bestowed a dirty look on him, then pushed his head gently away with one hand and came straight back at him. “You’ve quite obviously been drinking Sprite. What’s the act for?”
Seeing that his scheme had been seen through, Xu Ye simply turned shameless. “Just let me lean on you a minute.”
“No. There are too many people.”
“What does it matter how many people there are? We’re in a proper relationship. It isn’t as if we’ve come out to have an affair.”
Hearing that, Chen Qingqing finally couldn’t hold back and gave Xu Ye’s thigh a hard pinch. Beside them, Pei Youwei stuck her thumb up. “Nicely done. That’s exactly how you have to handle men.”
Xu Ye was lost for words. “Boss, going on like that, you’ll never get married off.”
“Not getting married off suits me fine. Then I earn my own money and spend my own money, and go traveling wherever I like and enjoy myself.”
“…”
The several of them were talking away happily.
Not far off.
Gu Mengyao’s high school best friend Liu Qian had run into Xu Ye by chance once again — and seeing Xu Ye sitting with three girls, she once again took out her phone and started filming on the sly.
Jiangzhou was a small city. Nothing was more ordinary than classmates running into each other out on the street.
But this time Xu Ye didn’t spot Liu Qian at all. He was completely absorbed in the conversation.
Once Liu Qian had recorded two minutes of video she turned and left, and then sent Gu Mengyao a message. “Mengyao, I ran into Xu Ye on the street again just now.”
After Gu Mengyao started university, contact between her and Xu Ye had been broken off without any choice on her part.
Because Xu Ye had blocked her on everything.
Seeing Liu Qian’s message, Gu Mengyao hesitated over whether to reply. She and Liu Qian rarely talked these days either — ever since getting a boyfriend she had moved in a new circle, a circle a good deal classier than her high school one, and she felt that still keeping up a high school “best friend” relationship with Liu Qian would make the people in her present circle look down on her.
But seeing Xu Ye’s name, Gu Mengyao still felt something move in her.
She did very much want to know how Xu Ye was doing. If she could, she would even have liked to take her present boyfriend over to meet him. She wanted Xu Ye to know that her boyfriend now was a great deal better than he was.
Gu Mengyao asked, pretending she wasn’t curious, “Did he see you?”
Liu Qian: “No.”
Liu Qian: “He’s eating barbecue with three women.”
Liu Qian: “I recorded a video, want me to send it to you?”
Gu Mengyao hesitated a moment, then still sent back a very aloof “Mm.”
Liu Qian sent the video over quickly, but the network was poor and Gu Mengyao had to wait a good few minutes before she could see it.
And when she saw Xu Ye talking away happily with three beautiful companions, she was immediately a little unhappy about it.
As everybody knows, most couples, once they have broken up, don’t want the other one to be doing better than they are.
But Gu Mengyao soon comforted herself.
Her boyfriend now was the son of a rich family. However good Xu Ye’s way with women might be, the best he could manage these days was a roadside stall.
…
Well fed and watered, Xu Ye and Pei Youwei split up and went two ways — one taking Zhang Xiaonuan home, the other supposedly taking Chen Qingqing home, except that halfway there the car changed lanes.
However bad Chen Qingqing’s sense of direction was, she knew the way home.
Seeing Xu Ye change lanes, she asked quickly, “Aren’t you taking me home? Where are you taking me?”
“It’s still early. We’ll go back a bit later and give your dad more time.”
“My dad?”
“That’s right.” Xu Ye gave a heh-heh laugh. “On the way to pick you up I sent your dad a message saying your mom was home alone this evening. If your dad has any sense he’ll have gone to find her by now.”
Chen Qingqing asked at once, “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
Xu Ye: “You don’t need to worry about it, just leave it to me. I’m going to get your mom and dad remarried before the two of us get married.”
Chen Qingqing turned her head to look out the window and muttered, “Did I ever say I was going to marry you?”
“Hey. If you’re not marrying me, who are you marrying?”
Chen Qingqing wrinkled her small nose and said haughtily, “I’m staying single, same as Boss.”
“So it’s the bad habits you pick up, is it?”
“Yes. What of it?”
“You wait. I’ll drive somewhere with nobody around first, and then we’ll see if you’re still talking this tough.”
“Stop the car. I want to get out.”
“Ha. Once you’re aboard my pirate ship, don’t imagine you’re getting off.”
…
Red Leaf Estate.
“Are you still not going?”
“I’m waiting for my daughter to get back.”
“What are you waiting for her to get back for?”
“I… I’ve got something I want to say to my daughter.”
“Chen Hansong, have some shame. Now you can’t wait to come over and see your daughter every day. What about before? Where the hell were you before?”
Any other time, Chen Hansong would certainly have come straight back with, “All you can do is criticize me. Weren’t you exactly the same?”
But now Chen Hansong had learned better.
You never win an argument with a woman.
So he steeled himself and said nothing, and simply sat there refusing to move off the sofa.
Jiang Meilin said, huffing, “If your daughter doesn’t come back tonight, are you planning to stay here overnight?”
“My daughter would never stay out overnight.”
“That was before.”
“What do you mean?” Chen Hansong looked up. “You don’t mean… our Qingqing has already stayed out overnight with that little bastard?”
Jiang Meilin folded her arms across her chest and didn’t answer.
She didn’t know either.
But going by what she had observed over these summer days, Jiang Meilin didn’t think it was out of the question.
Chen Hansong got worked up at once. “Say something!”
“…”
Chen Hansong: “Jiang Meilin, sometimes I genuinely don’t know what you’re thinking. The two of them have only just finished their first year. What if — I’m only saying what if — what if one day your daughter suddenly came home and told you she was pregnant? What would you do?”
“That won’t happen. I trust Xiao Xu.”
“What do you trust him about? Is he going to think that far ahead at his age?”
Jiang Meilin nodded. “I think he would.”
Then she added, “I’ve always thought he was a great deal more mature than others his age.”
Hearing that, Chen Hansong was struck dumb on the spot.
“Yes. I’ll grant you that. In certain respects he has his strengths. But…” In the end Chen Hansong softened after all. He sighed. “But Qingqing is our daughter, when all’s said and done.”
The living room was quiet for a moment.
Jiang Meilin suddenly said, softly, “All you have to do is watch the way your daughter is when she’s with him and you’ll know. Your daughter has fallen for him completely, so there’s nothing the two of us can do about the pair of them anymore.”
Chen Hansong heard her out, glanced at his watch and said, equally softly, “It’s nearly ten. Call him and ask when he’s planning to bring Qingqing back.”
“If you want to call, call yourself.”
“I’m not calling that boy.”
“Wasn’t it him who told you to come over?”
“Of course not.”
“Ha. That habit of not daring to look me in the eye when you lie — you still haven’t gotten rid of it.”
“…”
(End of Chapter 259)