Jiang Yu cut the music in a hurry.
Everyone else in the room saw it, and every pair of eyes went wide.
Zhang Ruowei scrambled up off Zhao Ming, saw that the coconut milk had soaked through his polo shirt, and immediately pulled out a fistful of tissues. She wiped at his chest and stomach, talking the whole time. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
Zhao Ming hadn’t quite caught up yet.
What just happened.
How did I end up flat on my back?
Except… why am I enjoying this so much?
“It’s fine, you don’t have to do that.” Zhao Ming stood up and shook out his shirt, then grinned. “I’ll take it to the dry cleaner’s later and it’ll be as good as new.”
“I’m really sorry~”
“It’s honestly nothing.” Watching Zhang Ruowei apologize to him in that soft, helpless way turned Zhao Ming to mush. He laughed. “I’ve got a set of workout clothes in the car. I’ll go change now. Carry on, don’t mind me.”
And off he went, perfectly happy.
The second he was gone, Zhang Ruowei sat straight back down and started in on the watermelon like nothing had happened at all.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Xu Ye couldn’t help himself. He applauded, roaring with laughter. “Zhang Ruowei, it’s a waste — acting like that and not being an actress.”
“Don’t start.”
Zhang Ruowei favored him with an eye-roll. “I’m telling you now, quit cutting the ground out from under me.”
“Give it up. Zhao Ming’s the only one here who’s never spent time around you and doesn’t know what you’re normally like. Everyone else in this room could tell you did that on purpose.”
“Shut up!”
“All right, all right, I’ll say nothing, nothing at all.”
What?
On purpose?
The others were completely lost.
Xu Ye was the only one who had watched the whole thing, and the only one who understood what Zhang Ruowei was after. She had written and staged that entire little scene for two reasons: to give Zhao Ming a nudge, and to put herself in his debt — so that next time she would have her excuse to ask him out.
A romance has to start with contact, and plenty of it, and what Zhang Ruowei had just done was manufacture a chance for some.
The spark comes out of exactly that — contact, collision.
Chen Qingqing, Shen Xinyi and Jiang Yu had all learned something today.
But the three of them spent a good deal of time around her and knew she was breezy and loud by nature, and inclined to go off the rails now and then. So once the shock wore off, they all landed in the same place: this was very much the sort of thing Zhang Ruowei would do.
Qin Zhiwei, on the other hand — where was a blunt instrument like him ever going to have seen a maneuver like that?
He was thinking that if the one who had just emptied a bottle of coconut milk over him had been Shen Xinyi, he would have surrendered on the spot.
If he’d come across a plot like this online, he’d have left a string of Legendarys in the comments.
But right now.
What surfaced in his head was a scene from a movie…
“Miss Zhang plays it high!”
“Young master Zhao plays it hard!”
“Boss Xu plays it both high and hard!”
High, as in a high grade of scheming.
Hard, as in a hard, fat wallet.
And as for the man who was both at once, that could only be Xu Ye, who saw straight through all of it.
…
It was already nine thirty at night when the group came out of the KTV.
Once they reached the parking lot.
Xu Ye came straight to the point. “Which of you is riding back with me?”
“Me.”
Jiang Yu had her hand up first.
And Qin Zhiwei and Shen Xinyi were obviously going to pick Xu Ye’s car too.
Which left Zhao Ming and Zhang Ruowei, and this time she volunteered without being asked. “I’ll ride with Zhao Ming, then.”
Zhao Ming led her over to his car in high spirits and opened the passenger door for her like a gentleman.
“Thank you.”
Zhang Ruowei got in and buckled her seat belt like a model citizen.
Once Zhao Ming was in as well, she spoke up again, her voice low. “About today… I really am sorry.”
“Hey, I already told you it’s nothing. Don’t give it another thought.”
“Your shirt is so expensive. Dry cleaning it has to cost a fortune. I’ll transfer you the money later.”
“You don’t need to.”
That polo shirt wasn’t cheap by ordinary standards, but to Zhao Ming it was pocket change, and he was never going to take her money.
Zhang Ruowei, though, put on a show of blaming herself. “If… if you’re not afraid I’ll ruin it, give me the dirty shirt and I’ll wash it for you.”
Watching her look that guilty set Zhao Ming’s heart going again. It occurred to him that if he handed the shirt over, he wouldn’t need Xu Ye to get her out for him. He agreed fast. “Sure. And it’s fine if it does get ruined. It’s only a shirt.”
The car was quiet for a little while.
Once they were over the Huangpu River, Zhang Ruowei suddenly sniffed and asked, “Do you smell cigarette smoke?”
Hearing that, something in Zhao Ming’s chest gave a lurch.
This is bad.
He’d gone down to change and helped himself to one while he was at it. How was he supposed to know she’d still smell it on him this long afterward?
Zhao Ming came back fast. “Do you? I don’t smell anything.”
Then he put the window down.
The corners of Zhang Ruowei’s mouth lifted very slightly, and she went along with it. “Then it’s probably something outside I’m smelling.”
“It has to be. I don’t smoke.”
“I hate men who smoke.”
“Do you?”
“Mm.”
…
Xu Ye and Zhao Ming drove back one after the other and pulled up below the girls’ dormitory.
Once Zhao Ming had watched the girls go up, he got into Xu Ye’s car the way he had last time and handed over a pack of cigarettes he had just fetched from his own.
Xu Ye went blank. “What’s this for?”
“They’re yours.”
“What do I want them for? I don’t smoke.”
“I’m quitting. If you don’t smoke them, just throw them out for me later. Oh — the lighter too.”
As he said it Zhao Ming dug a Zippo out of his pocket and handed that over as well, and Xu Ye finally caught on. He laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re quitting because of Zhang Ruowei.”
“Didn’t you see her take my dirty shirt with her just now? In my whole life, apart from my mom and the housekeeper, not one other person has ever washed anything of mine. A girl that good — what’s quitting smoking?”
“Uh…”
“She doesn’t know I smoke yet, so don’t go letting it slip in front of her. I’m serious this time. I’m going to have her before the year’s out.”
Hearing that, Qin Zhiwei suddenly felt a little sorry for Zhao Ming.
He put in a word. “Young master Zhao, let me give you some advice.”
“Go ahead.”
“On the subject of chasing girls — anything you don’t understand, you’re better off asking Xu Ye.”
Instead, Zhao Ming answered with open disdain. “Ask him? Give it up. When I was out working the field, he was still learning to solve equations.”
Qin Zhiwei hadn’t actually finished. What he had meant to say next was: Otherwise I’m worried Zhang Ruowei will run you in circles and leave you looking like the clown of the whole thing.
But seeing how sure of himself Zhao Ming was, he swallowed the rest of it.
Zhao Ming said it with complete confidence. “Zhang Ruowei is my prey now. You wait and see. I’ll have her sooner or later.”
Qin Zhiwei didn’t answer.
Xu Ye sat there for a good long while before he caught up late and asked, “Say again who the prey is?”
(End of Chapter 302)