At nine the next morning Xu Ye was outside the school president’s office in the administration building, right on time. He knocked twice, and only when a voice came from inside did he push the door open and go in.
“President Yang, you wanted to see me?”
There was nobody in the office but the school president, Yang Chao. Xu Ye had seen him once before, at the closing ceremony for military training when he first started freshman year.
Seeing him come in, Yang Chao put down what he was working on at once and waved him over with a smile. “Xu Ye, come sit down.”
Xu Ye walked forward but didn’t sit down right away. He waited until the president invited him a second time before pulling out a chair and taking a seat.
“I’ve heard all about you. I asked you here today mainly to have a short talk, since we have very few students at this school who’ve done what you’ve done in starting a business.”
“I just got lucky.”
“Luck is part of ability too. I’ve looked into your situation a little, and to my mind, achieving what you have at your age already proves you have a gift for it…”
The president talked on at length. When he had finished he seemed thirsty, and reached for his teacup, meaning to take a drink.
But once the cup was at his lips he found it was empty, so he had to put it back down.
Xu Ye saw this and ran his eyes quickly around the office. Spotting a water cooler near the door, he got up at once, took the president’s travel mug and came back with it filled.
As the president took the cup back he went on, still smiling. “What are you thinking of doing next? Or rather — do you have a plan?”
“The company is more or less on a proper footing now. I’m planning to launch a program in October to fund student startups and see whether there are any good projects worth investing in. Most of my energy is going into work at the moment, though, so as far as my studies go…”
“You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll have a word with your dean. And if there’s anything you need the school to support you with, you can come straight to me.”
“Thank you, President Yang.”
Xu Ye understood perfectly well why he had been called in, so once he had said his thanks he went on unprompted, “If I ever do achieve anything in my career, I certainly won’t forget what my alma mater has done to bring me along.”
The president nodded with a faint smile, and his eyes seemed to say: Now there’s a sensible young man.
Xu Ye was in the president’s office for about half an hour, and it was only nine thirty when he left. There was a long lecture at ten, but once he came down from the administration building he drove straight to the company.
Once he got there he sent Zhang Xinzhou a message. “I’m skipping this class. If the teacher asks, say the president called me in for a talk.”
Zhang Xinzhou sent back an OK emoji.
……
Then there was the company.
The Yingke deal was coming to a close. The three parties had agreed to sign the contracts at Lisheng Capital on Friday morning, formally completing the first round of funding.
Zhang Xinzhou had found a firm that specialized in building corporate websites and paid the deposit. According to the contractor, the site would reach testing in about twenty-five days and go formally live within a month.
Meanwhile.
In Jiangzhou, Pei Youwei had started on the expansion plan. She had already leased a floor of an office building and was preparing to follow Xu Ye’s advice and separate the company from the factory — the company handling brand operations, the factory handling production only.
The fit-out on the office floor had already started, and since commercial work went much faster than residential it would be finished around the end of September. Pei Youwei planned to move the company over after National Day, and to add two more production lines on the factory’s second floor when she did.
On Friday Xu Ye was up early. He took two Panpan French-style rolls out of Zhang Xinzhou’s drawer and ate them, then went to the company to meet Lü Cheng and Tang Bowen, and the three of them drove to Lisheng Capital together.
Yingke was the first deal Zhao Ming had handled since taking over the fifth general group, so he was treating it as seriously as Xu Ye was. He had come in early, and the moment Xu Ye’s message arrived he had his assistant bring them up.
Once Yingke’s delegation had all arrived, the three parties signed several contracts in Lisheng Capital’s conference room and the deal was done.
Having landed ten million in angel investment all at once, Yingke’s representatives were visibly excited. They didn’t stay long, and left the company shortly after.
Xu Ye, meanwhile, hung back with Zhao Ming and mooched a meal in Lisheng Capital’s cafeteria.
Before he went, Xu Ye made a point of setting something up with him — dinner together the following evening — and Zhao Ming naturally agreed readily.
……
After two months at home, Chen Qingqing was still finding the first week back at school a little hard to settle into.
Having class every day was one part of it.
The other was that time went too slowly at school. At home she could see Xu Ye every day; here she had to wait a whole week…
It was Friday afternoon.
Sitting through an elective, Chen Qingqing quietly took out her phone and sent Xu Ye a message. She waited several minutes and got no reply, so she put the phone away and started drawing pigs’ heads in her notebook out of boredom.
Because it was an elective, there were no more than twenty people in the whole room actually paying attention.
Shen Xinyi, on her left, was chatting with Qin Zhiwei.
Zhang Ruowei, on her right, had a great stack of outfit photos up on her phone and was going through them.
And Jiang Yu, next to Zhang Ruowei, was scrolling Weibo on her phone. She came across a post about a BL novel [TL: BL — “boys’ love,” a genre of romance fiction between male characters, read largely by young women.] and settled in to read.
Time crawled by.
Then the bell rang.
The students in the room couldn’t wait to get back and enjoy the first weekend of term.
Shen Xinyi stood up, saw that Chen Qingqing hadn’t moved, and leaned over to see what she was doing with the pen — and found a whole page of Xu Ye’s name.
Caught, Chen Qingqing shut the notebook at once.
Shen Xinyi pretended she had seen nothing. “Is Xu Ye coming over today?”
“I don’t know.”
Chen Qingqing shook her head. “He hasn’t answered my message.”
Shen Xinyi said, “Qin Zhiwei’s coming over in a bit. Shall I get him to ask?”
“Mm.”
……
Back at school from Lisheng Capital, Xu Ye stuffed two changes of clothes into a backpack and drove straight for the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
It was only while he was waiting at a red light that he answered Chen Qingqing’s and Qin Zhiwei’s messages.
Seeing that he was already on the way, Chen Qingqing cheered up considerably. She had assumed he wouldn’t have time to come over so soon after term started.
Qin Zhiwei had come over early and booked a twin room near the school, planning to sleep at the hotel with Xu Ye that night.
Once he had the room he had meant to go straight to Shen Xinyi, but she insisted he go over with Xu Ye.
So he waited.
Half an hour went by at the hotel.
Then Qin Zhiwei messaged Xu Ye again. “Xu Ye, where are you?”
Xu Ye replied at once. “Quit your damn rushing. Your old man’s almost there.”
Remembering that Xu Ye was driving, Qin Zhiwei meekly replied with an okay.
What he didn’t know was this.
While he was messaging Xu Ye, Chen Qingqing had sent almost exactly the same thing. “Dumb pig, where are you?”
And Chen Qingqing got a completely different reply.
“In your heart, baby.”
(End of Chapter 291)