Kiss her!
Of course Qin Zhiwei wanted to kiss her.
But it was so sudden that he wasn’t quite ready.
Still, what Shen Xinyi had said worked on him like a shot of adrenaline. He suddenly reached out and put both hands on her shoulders, and just as he was leaning in—
“Bang!”
The dorm door was shoved open from outside without warning.
Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu, of all people, appeared in the doorway at the same moment. The four of them stared at one another, eyes going round, like people who had all just walked in on some tremendous secret.
Qin Zhiwei snatched his hands back.
Shen Xinyi’s face had gone scarlet, right down to her ears.
Jiang Yu had been about to step inside; instead she grabbed Zhang Ruowei and hauled her back. “Just pretend we were never here,” she said, and shut the door.
Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi looked at each other. Then Shen Xinyi, too mortified to stand it, kicked him, ran to the door and yanked it open.
As it turned out, Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu had shut the door and then pressed their ears straight to it to eavesdrop. When Shen Xinyi pulled it open the two of them nearly fell over.
“Um…”
“Sorry.”
“We weren’t trying to spoil things for you two on purpose.”
Shen Xinyi didn’t explain anything. Red in the face, she went off to hang up the laundry.
Qin Zhiwei was too awkward to know what to say either, and there was more sweat on his forehead than before.
Zhang Ruowei, though, clapped him on the shoulder and put her thumb up on the sly, and laughed. “Not bad. You’ve come a long way. Spent the summer picking up tips from Xu Ye, I take it?”
“Uh…”
Qin Zhiwei figured that if he stayed any longer an old hand like Zhang Ruowei would mock him to death, so he turned around fast. “Xinyi, I’ll head back then. We’ll talk tonight.”
Shen Xinyi gave an offhand “Oh.”
Qin Zhiwei left the women’s dormitory quickly.
Once he was gone, Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu went straight to Shen Xinyi and took up positions on either side of her like a pair of temple guardians. Zhang Ruowei gave her a wicked grin. “Xinyi, I had no idea you and Qin Zhiwei were moving this fast. Out with it — what happened on that trip?”
“Why are you such a gossip?”
“Oh, come on. Tell us.”
“Nothing happened. What could have happened? We just went away together, that’s all.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t either.”
Shen Xinyi gave her shoulders a shake. “Go away, both of you. You’re so annoying.”
“Ruowei, when’s Qingqing getting back?”
“Today too. She should get in this evening.”
“I wonder what those two got up to over the summer.”
Shen Xinyi moved the subject along fast. “Don’t tell me you two still don’t know Xu Ye is a multimillionaire now?”
“Huh?”
“Are you serious?”
“Really. Qin Zhiwei told me all about it. Xu Ye opened an investment company and put money into Monkey King: Hero Is Back, the movie that blew up over the summer. They say he’ll make at least ten million.”
“Good grief.”
“Aaah!!!” Zhang Ruowei started hollering at once. “I want a multimillionaire boyfriend too!”
……
On the high-speed train back from Jiangzhou to Shanghai, Xu Ye had run into two junior girls.
He hadn’t known it at first. Partway through he overheard the two girls sitting opposite talking, and the subject happened to come up — that was how he learned they were both incoming freshmen at the School of Finance.
Xu Ye hadn’t expected the coincidence, so he struck up a conversation. “First day of registration and your parents aren’t bringing you?”
The one with the oval face and round-framed glasses glanced at her companion and explained, “They both have jobs. They couldn’t get away.”
Xu Ye laughed. “Oh, I’m School of Finance too, a year ahead of you. You should be calling me Senior.”
“Senior?”
The two of them were astonished, and once they learned he was a sophomore they started pumping him for information about the school — nothing more than what the dorms were like, whether the cafeteria food was any good, whether the finals were hard, when the best time was to take the CET-4.
Xu Ye answered them one by one.
Neither of them had been through a day of college yet, and from head to foot they still carried themselves like high schoolers. A senior in high school and a freshman in college were on average only a year apart, and yet the difference in bearing between them was enormous.
After a good many questions one of them finally ventured, “Senior, is your girlfriend at our school too?”
“She isn’t. She’s at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.”
“No wonder she’s so pretty.”
Complimented out of nowhere, Chen Qingqing was a little embarrassed. She asked with a smile, “The train doesn’t get in until seven. What are you two doing tonight?”
“It’s fine. We’ll find a hotel outside the school for the night and go register in the morning.”
Chen Qingqing nodded. “Then you can ride the subway with us later. You’ll want Line 2, and then transfer at… at… Dumb pig, where do they change for their school?”
“Transfer to Line 9 at Century Avenue. Go in through Gate 2 of the school and you’ll see a hotel.”
“Okay~ Thank you, Senior.”
The two of them had their phones out and asked with a smile, “Senior, could we add you on WeChat?”
Xu Ye put an arm around Chen Qingqing. “You’ll have to ask her first. I can only add you if she says yes.”
Chen Qingqing went red on the spot. She pushed him off quickly and pulled a face. “Is there something wrong with you?”
“It’s a joke.”
“I’ll hit you.”
Xu Ye added them both in the end. The train was pulling in by then, and it was only as they were about to get off that the two girls asked his name.
Out of the railway station and down into the subway, the two junior girls took Line 2 first, and Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing got on Line 10.
The train at that hour wasn’t as packed as it had been during the day, and after a few stops the two of them even found seats.
Xu Ye asked quietly, “Hungry?”
“A little~”
“Message them in the group. Ask if they’ve eaten, and if they haven’t, tell them to come out and eat with us. My treat.”
Chen Qingqing obediently got out her phone and started asking in the group.
Chen Qingqing: “Hello.”
Chen Qingqing: “Have you eaten?”
Zhang Ruowei: “Not yet, waiting for you to get back.”
Chen Qingqing: “We’re almost there. Get yourselves ready — Xu Ye’s treating tonight.”
Jiang Yu: “Of course he is.”
Jiang Yu: “He’s a big boss now.”
Zhang Ruowei: “@Xu Ye”
Zhang Ruowei: “If you come into wealth, don’t forget us!”
Jiang Yu: “If you come into wealth, don’t forget us!”
Shen Xinyi was too embarrassed to type it herself, so she just copied and pasted it into the group.
Chen Qingqing held the phone up for Xu Ye to see, and he took it and typed a message into the group. “Enough nonsense. My car’s parked downstairs at the IAPM Mall. Let’s meet there in a bit.”
Zhang Ruowei: “Yes, Director Xu.”
Jiang Yu: “Yes, Director Xu.”
Shen Xinyi: “Yes, Director Xu.”
Chen Qingqing took the phone back and typed with a laugh, “You three are unbelievable. Can you stop messing around?”
Zhang Ruowei: “Yes, Mrs. Xu.”
Jiang Yu: “Yes, Mrs. Xu.”
Shen Xinyi: “Yes, Mrs. Xu.”
(End of Chapter 286)