They say one day apart is like three seasons apart.
Xu Ye hadn’t seen Chen Qingqing in half a month, and he had been missing her more than he could stand.
Seeing Chen Qingqing come trotting toward him, he opened his arms and pulled her in. She twisted a couple of times for form’s sake and then gave in like a good girl, and just as he was about to go in for the kiss, she got in a quick warning. “My dad’s back there.”
“Your dad?”
Xu Ye was puzzled. “Your dad drove you here?”
“He did.” Chen Qingqing added, “My mom made him.”
“That explains it.”
The two of them walked toward the curb hand in hand, and only when they were nearly at the car did Chen Qingqing pull her hand back. Then she followed Xu Ye into the back seat.
The car was very quiet on the way back.
Xu Ye looked perfectly well behaved on the surface, but the wandering hand had already crossed the line several times. Every time he got it onto Chen Qingqing’s thigh she pushed it off and gave him a small “threatening” look. And every time, he would make a show of looking hurt, at which Chen Qingqing would turn straight to the window and fight down a laugh…
Chen Hansong took in every bit of the “flirting and squabbling” going on in the back seat.
This time, though, he acted as though he had seen nothing at all, and drove steadily the whole way back to Red Leaf Estate.
“Mom~” Chen Qingqing walked quickly into the living room, her whole face delighted. “We’re back.”
“Go wash your hands. We’re about to eat.”
“Okay.”
The four of them were soon sitting around the dining table, eating and talking…
“Xiao Xu, is it hot in Shanghai?”
“Not as hot as here, I don’t think.”
“You’ll be a sophomore when term starts. Will there be more coursework in the second year than the first?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Chen Qingqing laughed. “More classes won’t matter. He skipped plenty of them freshman year.”
“The ones I skipped were the electives. I went to every single required class. Don’t slander me.”
“Ha. You make yourself sound like a model student.”
“I’ve never failed a class.”
“That’s because you copied it all.”
“Being able to copy it is a skill too.”
“Oh — have Xinyi and Qin Zhiwei gotten back to Shanghai?”
“Coming back today too, I think. Those two really got their fill of it — four or five days in Chongqing, then a few more days in Wuhan on the way back. Anyway, Zhiwei enjoyed himself on this trip.”
“……”
It was Jiang Meilin who had started the conversation, but somewhere along the way it turned into Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing going back and forth between themselves.
The two of them seemed to be ignoring Jiang Meilin and Chen Hansong beside them entirely, and they were enjoying themselves enormously.
Jiang Meilin said nothing, and quietly went on setting food into both their bowls.
Near the end of the meal Chen Hansong got a call from the bank. He gathered his things in a hurry, but he didn’t forget to say on his way out, “You two be safe on the road. Send a message in the group when you get to the school.”
When he had finished, Chen Hansong made a point of glancing at Xu Ye, a look that said: Kid. Take care of my precious daughter. If anything happens to her, I won’t let you off.
Once Chen Hansong was gone, Chen Qingqing called Xu Ye upstairs to help her carry her suitcase down.
He had gone to bed late the night before and been up early, and this was the season when everyone went back to school — the train that morning had been full of college students, and it was too noisy to sleep at all.
Xu Ye walked into Chen Qingqing’s room and dropped straight onto her bed, then lay there like a dead pig without moving an inch.
“What are you doing?”
“There’s no rush. I’m exhausted. Let me lie here a while and call me at one thirty.”
Chen Qingqing knew he had been up late the night before and had gotten up early to spend the whole morning on the train. At that, all she did was turn the air conditioner on, and then she went quietly back downstairs.
Jiang Meilin saw Chen Qingqing come down alone and asked with a frown, “Where’s Xiao Xu?”
“He said he’s tired. He wants to lie down for a bit.”
……
Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi got off the train at one in the afternoon. Once they were out of the station, they found a restaurant nearby and ate.
As it turned out, a plain rice bowl next to the train station cost thirty-odd yuan, close to forty — expensive, and not even very good.
The little Qin Zhiwei had earned working the summer job at the factory was long gone. Even the tickets from Chongqing to Wuhan had been bought with money borrowed from Xu Ye. He had hardly anything left on him, but he gritted his teeth anyway and scanned the code to pay for the meal.
In fact, on the flight to Chongqing that first day, Shen Xinyi had told him the two of them were each paying their half on this trip. Qin Zhiwei had agreed readily enough at the time — and then once they arrived, he rushed to pay for all of it: food, drink, lodging, the entrance tickets at every site.
Shen Xinyi knew that every yuan he had came from the summer job. Once they were seated in the restaurant she came straight to the point. “Go back and work out what this trip cost altogether. I’m transferring you half.”
Qin Zhiwei shook his head with a smile at once. “No need. It didn’t really cost that much.”
“Don’t pretend. I know you borrowed money from Xu Ye partway through. Never mind anything else — over these ten-odd days the hotels alone came to at least five thousand, and then there were the tickets, the fares and the food. I’d guess it’s well over ten thousand.”
Shen Xinyi set it out point by point. “If you don’t tell me what it cost, I’ll transfer five thousand straight to Xu Ye.”
Hearing her keep the accounts this precisely, Qin Zhiwei assumed he had upset her somehow. His face fell. “Xinyi, have I done something wrong?”
“Why would you ask that?”
“Why are you keeping such careful accounts?”
“We agreed from the start we’d each pay our half.”
“But the whole point of me earning it was to spend it on you.”
At that, Shen Xinyi had no idea what to say. She lowered her head, a little shy, and started eating her rice bowl distractedly.
Twenty minutes later.
The two of them got on the subway toward the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. It was packed with college students — never mind a seat, the car was body to body and there wasn’t even a slightly open patch of floor.
Once Qin Zhiwei was on and saw people everywhere, he hauled both suitcases and steered Shen Xinyi into a corner to stand. He held the rail with one hand and steadied them with the other, and Shen Xinyi rested a hand on his arm. Every time the train was coming into a station it gave a lurch, and every time it lurched, her head bumped into his chest.
Half an hour later the two of them finally got off the packed-to-bursting subway. Walking to the school gate, they found the campus already hung with banners welcoming the new students, and plenty of part-timers around selling phone cards and broadband.
Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi reached the foot of the dormitory building and stopped almost at the same moment.
Shen Xinyi asked quietly, “Do you… want to come up and rest a while?”
Qin Zhiwei scratched his head, awkward. “Uh… am I allowed up?”
“In the first couple of days of term a lot of parents go up. The dorm auntie doesn’t stop anybody.”
“All right. Give me your suitcase then.”
It was exactly as Shen Xinyi had said. Qin Zhiwei made it all the way into Room 205 of the women’s dormitory without anyone stopping him, and to her own surprise, she turned out to be the first one back.
She took all the clothes out of her suitcase first, put some of them in the washing machine and hung the rest in the wardrobe, then started wiping down the desks and cabinets with a cloth. She didn’t only do her own — she did the same for her other three roommates.
Qin Zhiwei watched her working without a pause and thought it wasn’t right for him to just sit there the whole time. He went out to the balcony, picked up a mop of his own accord and started mopping their floor.
Barely a dozen minutes of cleaning and his forehead was already covered in sweat.
Shen Xinyi saw it and pulled two tissues from the desk to wipe the sweat off him — and he lifted his head at once and looked at her without blinking. Seeing that he wouldn’t stop, she felt her heart go fluttering.
Sensing him leaning slowly toward her, Shen Xinyi closed her eyes at once.
But she waited a long time and nothing happened.
She opened her eyes slowly and found Qin Zhiwei still planted there in front of her, nerves written all over him. Her face burning, she asked, “Are you… are you going to kiss me or not?!”
Qin Zhiwei went completely to pieces on the spot.
(End of Chapter 285)