Before the end of the workday Xu Ye got a call from Yang Fei, so he and Li Tongwen drove to the subway station and picked him up.
This guy had lost at least five jin over the summer.
He looked listless, like someone who had been hollowed out.
Xu Ye asked with a laugh, “What did you do all summer, dumbass?”
“Don’t ask.” Yang Fei didn’t explain much. He just sighed and changed the subject. “The money I transferred you yesterday — you got it?”
“Got it.”
Before the summer Yang Fei had borrowed three thousand from Xu Ye, the agreement being that he would pay it back in July. Xu Ye had never chased him for it, and it had only come through the day before.
Yang Fei rubbed his stomach. “Food first. I’m starving.”
Xu Ye nodded. “Zhang Xinzhou’s already waiting at the restaurant. He’s bought a Civic, so dinner’s on him tonight.”
“Zhang Xinzhou’s bought a car too?”
“Mm.”
Yang Fei went still for a moment, his eyes a little lost.
Over the two months of summer, apart from the concert he had gone to with Li Lulu at the start of July, he had spent the whole time working in an electronics factory in Suzhou — ten hours a day at the least. He had only quit the day before yesterday and still hadn’t come back to himself. He had gone somewhat numb.
In just under two months he had earned eight thousand four hundred or so. A thousand of it had gone on living expenses, and after paying Xu Ye back the three thousand there was only about four thousand left. And in his suitcase was an Estée Lauder skincare set worth 1,498 yuan.
By the time they reached the restaurant most of the dishes were already on the table. Yang Fei took a seat and started wolfing them down.
Because Yang Fei hadn’t joined Qingye Investment, none of them — Zhang Xinzhou, Li Tongwen or Xu Ye — brought up the company at the table. It was understood without anyone saying so.
It was a quiet meal.
Back at the dorm Yang Fei made his bed up briskly, showered, then sat down at his desk and spent a good ten minutes messaging Li Lulu on his phone. At around eight he shouldered a backpack and sneaked out of the room.
Only once he had gone did Zhang Xinzhou ask, “Xu Ye, what’s the deal with this guy? Why does he look so beaten down?”
“He didn’t tell me either, but my guess is he spent the summer working.”
“His monthly allowance is about the same as mine. Why would he need a summer job?”
“Heh.”
Xu Ye laughed. “The money he earns isn’t necessarily for spending on himself.”
Zhang Xinzhou was astonished. “He’s actually serious about chasing that Li Lulu?”
Seeing Xu Ye nod, he pressed on. “You’ve crossed paths with her a few times. What’s she actually like?”
“She’s had a hand on your old man’s thigh.”
“What?!”
“I’d say she’s operating on a higher level than Wang Shiyu. Wang Shiyu at least wouldn’t string Yang Fei along.”
Zhang Xinzhou said at once, “Then why don’t you tell him?”
“Tell him? How? A single-celled organism like him — if I said it to his face, would he believe me? If I came right out and told him Li Lulu was green tea, you think he wouldn’t be silently cursing my ancestors?”
“So you just stand by and watch him fall into the pit?”
“Wang Shiyu before, Li Lulu now. Someone like him has to take one real beating over this kind of thing, or he’ll never change.”
……
Night fell, the moon bright and the stars sparse.
At the entrance to the school sports field, Yang Fei stood with his backpack on, glancing at his phone every so often, and every so often looking up toward the way she would come.
He waited about a quarter of an hour.
Li Lulu finally appeared in the distance and came toward him. She was wearing a tight black pencil skirt with sheer black stockings and black heels to match, and she looked extremely sexy.
The moment Yang Fei saw her coming, the dull, lifeless look in his eyes lit up and a smile appeared on his face.
He raised a hand and waved hard. “Lulu, over here!”
Li Lulu reached him without hurrying. She ran her eyes over him and forced a smile. “Did you want something, calling me out here?”
Yang Fei looked at her, and the words that had been on the tip of his tongue a moment ago wouldn’t come out. So he took the backpack off first, lifted the 1,498-yuan skincare set out and handed it to her. “I got you a start-of-term present.”
Li Lulu was genuinely surprised to see what was in his hands.
Over the summer Yang Fei had messaged her on WeChat at midday and again in the evening almost every day. It had been fine at first, but later she had found it a bit much, and often let two or three days go by before replying.
She had assumed he was calling her out to ask her why. She hadn’t expected a present.
She smiled at once. “This must have been expensive.”
“Not really.”
Yang Fei scratched his head, a little shy. “I earned it myself over the summer anyway.”
“You had a summer job?”
“Mm.”
“Then why not work at Xu Ye’s company? I heard—”
Yang Fei cut her off. “I didn’t have time at the start, so Xu Ye didn’t ask me, and after that I was too embarrassed to bring it up again.”
“Oh. I see.”
“Lulu, why do you always take so long to reply when I message you?” Yang Fei had finally put the question he had wanted to put from the start.
Li Lulu blinked, then found an excuse. “I’ve been minding a kid at home. Not much time for my phone.”
“Minding a kid?”
“My brother’s. He’s only two this year, and a total handful.”
“So that’s it.”
Yang Fei brightened, and all the unhappiness that had built up over her not replying vanished like smoke.
Li Lulu, holding the Estée Lauder gift box, was the one who did the inviting. “There are so many people at the field tonight. Why don’t we walk a bit?”
“Sure.”
The two of them stepped onto the rubber track, gradually disappeared into the crowd, and were soon out of sight.
……
By the time Yang Fei got back to the dorm, all three roommates were already in bed.
Earlier that day Su Tong, their counselor, had posted the new term’s timetable in the group. They had an early eight the next morning, and there was one more class in the sophomore schedule than there had been in freshman year.
Yang Fei put the backpack in the wardrobe, washed his face quickly and got into bed.
He turned on his phone, and the moment he opened WeChat there was a Moments post Li Lulu had just put up.
Below it was a picture of the Estée Lauder gift box.
Above the picture was one simple line of caption: A present on the first day of term. So happy.
Yang Fei liked it and then lay there grinning like a fool.
It wasn’t long after that.
Yang Fei suddenly called out. “Xu Ye?”
Xu Ye rolled over. “What?”
“I want to ask you a relationship question.”
The words were barely out before Xu Ye said, flatly and with total finality, “Break up!”
“???”
Yang Fei: “I haven’t even asked yet?”
Xu Ye laughed. “By the time you need the jungler to come help, it means your lane has already collapsed.” [TL: a League of Legends metaphor. In a lane matchup you are meant to hold your own one-on-one; calling the jungler over is an admission that you are already losing it.]
“Bullshit. What I want to ask is — if I give someone a present, and they accept it, and they even post it to Moments, does that mean I can think about confessing?”
Xu Ye heard him out and opened Moments. He had Li Lulu on WeChat too, but he refreshed two or three times and saw nothing from her that day.
So he answered quickly. “Yes. Go confess. You have my support.”
(End of Chapter 289)