August went by fast.

Two weeks had slipped past in a blur.

His Second Aunt's family of three stayed in Jiangzhou until the fifth of August, then spent another week up on Mount Lu, and took the high-speed train back to Suzhou three days ago.

That girl Wang Manning — when she first arrived she had been so put off by Xu Ye, and by the time she left it was cousin this and cousin that. She had even arranged to meet him in Shanghai next spring, when she came for her arts entrance exams.

Xu Ye had agreed, naturally.

On the fifteenth, a little after seven in the morning, Xu Ye drove over to Qin Zhiwei's building.

Qin Wenliang and Wang Mei saw him pull up and hurried into their own little supermarket, grabbed a few bottles of NutriExpress and stuffed them into the car. Then they shouted up at the windows a few times until Qin Zhiwei came down.

"Xiao Ye, drive safe now."

"Don't worry."

Qin Zhiwei put his suitcase in the trunk, got into the passenger seat, and waved a hand at them impatiently. "All right, all right, that's enough nagging. I'm not three years old."

After half an hour on the provincial highway, they got onto the expressway without any trouble.

Qin Zhiwei was excited.

This was the first time he had ever been away on a trip, and he was going with Shen Xinyi, no less.

He hadn't slept well the night before, but he was still wide awake. He got out his phone and sent her two messages.

"We're on the road."

"Should be there around two."

Shen Xinyi was quite nervous when she saw the messages, because she had told her family she was going on a trip with roommates from college. She still hadn't told them she was dating anyone, or that she had a boyfriend.

The thought of eating and drinking and living alongside Qin Zhiwei for the next few days left her a little uneasy.

She wrote back, "Then wait for me at Suzhou Station."

Qin Zhiwei passed it…