Xu Ye's hands were fast, and he barely seemed to think while he wrote, as though the first draft were already finished in his head.

For the first half of it Chen Qingqing's attention was all on the side of Xu Ye's face; for the second half it settled on his long hands.

His hands were big, a size larger than most boys', which made his knuckles long, like something carefully carved.

Pei Youwei had said a short meeting, but it was nearly an hour before she came back.

She found Xu Ye typing away with total concentration. She came over for a look, and her brows drew tight. "You're writing the plan yourself?"

"Mm."

Xu Ye nodded. "There's not one new idea in what they gave us. Go with theirs and there's no hook at all. I'll take this one. Assign somebody to coordinate with me and get my plan carried out."

"All right."

Pei Youwei had complete faith in what Xu Ye could do, and on top of that he was the company's largest shareholder. Handing this to anyone else would have left her uneasy. Handing it to Xu Ye, she had no worries at all.

"Qingqing, Xu Ye may have to come in here every day this month. You're not going to hold it against me for hogging the time you two get alone together, are you?"

Chen Qingqing said shyly, "I'll come with him."

"That's true."

Something in Pei Youwei settled without her knowing why, and a string that had been pulled tight inside her gave a little. She looked Xu Ye up and down and laughed. "Xu Ye, you do run your own company now. School was one thing, but you're on break. Could you do something about how you look? Buy yourself a couple of suits."

Xu Ye glanced down at himself — plain white T-shirt, black casual trousers, white shoes. "I think it looks fine."

Pei Youwei rolled her eyes and waved it off. "If you say it's fine, it's fine."

Pei Youwei was called out again a moment later, and Xu Ye…