Gu Mengyao started crying before they’d made it far from the bar.

Coming here tonight had taken real effort. She’d spent a long time working herself up to it.

It had always been Xu Ye who sought her out. Tonight was the first time she’d ever gone to find him.

She’d told herself that was a concession. A significant one.

And he’d looked straight through her.

The shift — of who was coming to whom, and how little it had mattered — sat in her chest like something she couldn’t swallow.

Liu Qian rubbed her back. “Mengyao, don’t do this to yourself. You weren’t even thinking about dating him in the first place.”

“I said I didn’t want to date in high school. I never said anything about university.”

“You actually like him?”

Gu Mengyao sniffled. “I just — having him around made me feel safe. And now he’s gone and I feel like something’s missing.”

“You’ll be fine once university starts. There’ll be way better-looking guys there. Plenty of them will come after you.”

“Do you think he was telling the truth?”

“About what?”

“Having a girlfriend.”

“Come on — it’s been barely two weeks since the gaokao. He’s been working a bar job the whole time. When would he have found a girlfriend?”

Gu Mengyao said, quietly, “I want to know for certain.”

Liu Qian thought about it. “Ask Qin Zhiwei. He and Xu Ye are close — he’d know.”

Gu Mengyao nodded and pulled out her phone.

Rose Girl: you there?

Social Anxiety Patient: mid-game, make it quick.

Rose Girl: does Xu Ye have a new girlfriend?

Social Anxiety Patient: you saw?

Rose Girl: is it true?

Social Anxiety Patient: should be. he mentioned it a few days ago.

No reply after that.

Liu Qian read the exchange over her shoulder and smiled. “It doesn’t matter. She’s definitely not as pretty as you. Once you find someone better than him, he’s going to regret everything.”

Gu Mengyao said nothing. She stared at the middle distance with an expression nobody could quite read.

The moment they were out the door, Pei Youwei’s freshly manicured hand landed on Xu Ye’s shoulder.

“Tell me everything.”

“It’s a long story.”

“Long night ahead. Take your time.”

Xu Ye glanced over at her. His eyes started at the top and drifted — then snapped back up to her face.

“Boss — you’re so nosy.”

She gave him a light smack on the back. “Talk, or I dock your pay.”

“That girl. I spent all of high school chasing her. Then I figured out she was stringing me along the whole time — keeping me on the back burner. So after the gaokao, I stopped. That’s the whole story.”

“And her showing up tonight — was that because your score came out?”

“Probably. Though I think more than anything, she just got used to having someone around who’d do anything for her. And when that stopped, she didn’t like how it felt.”

“Impressive. Turning it off like that.” Pei Youwei tilted her head. “Most people can’t just stop.”

Xu Ye smiled. “The wise don’t fall in love.”

“And Chen Qingqing?”

“Friends. You know what friends are, right?”

“I think you two suit each other, personally.”

Xu Ye threw an arm around her shoulder and turned to the rest of the bar with maximum shamelessness. “Xiaonuan, Zhou Ying — honestly, between me and the boss, who do you think makes the better couple?”

“Are you trying to get yourself fired—”

Pei Youwei reached around and pinched him on the side. He yelped dramatically and bolted.

Home. Driving school. The bar.

The three-point routine held all the way to the end of the month.

One morning, Xu Ye arrived early at Zhiwei’s place. Today they were filing their university applications.

Xu Ye had known his choice for weeks — Shanghai University of Finance. Zhiwei had been agonizing. Staying in the province, his 507 could land him a decent school. Going to Shanghai, where the cutoffs were higher, he’d be scraping into the bottom of the bracket.

“Why Shanghai?” Zhiwei asked.

“It’s a first-tier city. More opportunity. If you stay in the province and graduate, odds are you end up working somewhere else anyway — might as well start somewhere else.”

Zhiwei had no plan for the future. Most people his age didn’t. They didn’t realize that the university they picked, the major they chose, could set the trajectory of everything that followed.

“Just tell me where to apply.”

“Shanghai Institute of Technology.” [TL: 上海应用技术学院 (Shanghai Institute of Technology) was renamed 上海应用技术大学 (Shanghai University of Applied Technology) in 2016. Xu Ye knows this and recommends it for that reason.]

Xu Ye’s reasoning was quiet: the school would be upgraded in two years, which meant Zhiwei’s diploma would carry more weight than it looked like now.

Zhiwei still wavered.

“You want to ask your parents?”

“They’ll just tell me to decide for myself.”

Xu Ye clapped him on the shoulder. “Then trust me. You won’t regret it.”

“Alright. And if I can’t find work after, I’ll just start prepping for the civil service exam in my third year.”

They filed their applications. Simple enough.

That afternoon, both of them went to the licensing center and sat the Module One written exam.

Xu Ye passed without breaking a sweat. Zhiwei, brain still sharp from the gaokao and weeks of theory drilling, cleared it just as easily.

They parted ways and headed home.

Xu Ye pushed open the front door and found a guest in the living room.

“Auntie Xiao?” [TL: 小姨 (xiǎoyí) — maternal younger aunt. Xu Ye calls her 小姨, a common and affectionate term for a mother’s younger sister.]

The woman laughing with Zhang Hong on the couch was Zhang Lan — thirty-six years old, a nurse at one of the city’s public hospitals.

“Xiao Ye! You’re back.”

“Xu Ye ge ge!” [TL: 哥哥 (gēgē) — older brother, used affectionately by younger relatives and close friends.]

A girl on the couch beside Zhang Lan launched herself off the cushion the moment she saw him.

Wang Yuxin. His younger cousin, about to start middle school. He’d spent a stretch living at their grandmother’s place when she was small and had watched her grow up from toddler to this.

“Yuxin — you’ve gotten so tall.”

The happiness on her face vanished instantly. She stood with her hands on her hips, cheeks puffed.

She was exactly one-and-a-half meters. Standing next to Xu Ye, the top of her head barely cleared his chest.

Girls generally stopped growing around fifteen. The window was closing.

Looking at her in her little denim overalls, scowling, Xu Ye stepped forward and ruffled her hair thoroughly.

“Hey! Mom, look what he’s doing!”

Zhang Lan laughed. “He’s just teasing you.”

“Xu Ye ge ge, if you mess up my hair one more time, I won’t grow another centimeter and it’ll be your fault.” She spun on her heel and walked away.

Xu Ye sat down with the adults and chatted for a while. When Zhang Lan got up to leave, she pressed a red packet into Xu Ye’s hand.

He accepted it without hesitation.

Couldn’t afford not to.

“Xiao Ye — your skin is getting thicker by the day. Your aunt gives you money and you can’t even pretend to refuse once?”

“Mom, when Yuxin gets into university someday I’ll give it all back. Actually — wait.” Xu Ye looked around. “Why is she still here?”

Zhang Hong explained: Zhang Lan was going to another city for a medical exchange program. Yuxin would be staying with them for a while.

“We only have two bedrooms,” Xu Ye said slowly.

“She’ll take yours.”

“Mom.” Xu Ye stood up straight. “Yuxin’s basically a young adult now. Propriety between boys and girls—”

“You’re sleeping on the couch.”

“What the—!”

(End of Chapter)