The card was done to a very high standard.

Zhang Xinzhou hadn't given Xu Ye any advance notice about it either.

He took the view that as the head of a company, Xu Ye ought to have the trappings that went with it, so this card was a good deal grander than the ones they'd had made for the trading company. In design and in content both, it was more than one class above.

Yang Lin's brows drew tight. She held the card between her fingers, not following any of it. "Aren't you still in university?"

"Oh."

Xu Ye explained it with a smile. "I started my first business right after I began university. Then I got fairly lucky — several ventures in a row made a decent amount of money. This investment company only opened this year, and it's still fairly small."

Yang Lin was well aware that investment had one of the highest barriers to entry of any industry, and that a few million wouldn't so much as make a ripple. Looking at the card in her hand, she found herself abruptly curious about him.

Chen Qingqing started speaking up for Xu Ye at this point too, telling her about the fruit shop, about the vending machines, about him investing in a film…

Chen Qingqing may not have realized it herself, but she was smiling the whole time she talked, and the happiness was all over her face.

Like a little girl at kindergarten showing off her mom and dad to the other children.

Listening to Chen Qingqing go on and on, Yang Lin couldn't help a question of her own: is this really the same quiet little thing I knew, the one who never smiled and never talked?

"All right."

Once Chen Qingqing had gotten through most of what she knew, Xu Ye stopped her. "It's not as impressive as you're making it sound. Why are you talking so much today?"

Aren't I speaking up for you? Chen Qingqing thought. And now you're blaming me for it.

Mortified and furious, Chen Qingqing swung a fist at him,…