Jiang Yan had also made up his mind to pull himself back together.
He’d thought it through clearly. If Ruoqiao wasn’t willing to accept his explanations, then so be it — the matter of the countryside resort could end there. He didn’t need to explain his relationship with Lin Kexing, because regardless of what things had been like in the past, starting now, he had already decided he would have nothing more to do with her. At this point, in truth, he didn’t want to — or perhaps feared — confirming what Lin Kexing’s feelings toward him actually were.
The two of them had grown up together since childhood. Perhaps the way they’d always interacted had simply numbed him to it.
Whatever feelings Lin Kexing had for him, whether or not she harbored feelings of that kind — it didn’t matter that much anymore. He would definitely distance himself from her, and he was already doing so.
Going forward, he wouldn’t go back to the Lin household, and he wouldn’t see Lin Kexing. If the Lin family ever needed something from him, he would find other ways to repay the debt — but that would be the extent of it. If he truly had to choose one, he would follow the voice deepest in his heart. He couldn’t bear to let Ruoqiao go.
Don’t go back to the Lin household. Don’t see Lin Kexing. No matter how much his mother tried to persuade him, he wouldn’t listen.
Now, like this, he should be able to pursue her again, right?
Jiang Yan gave away all four sets of breakfast to other classmates. He still had things to do and needed to stop by the student organization office. He hadn’t yet reached the door when he heard a heated discussion going on inside. He stopped in his tracks when he heard a particular name mentioned.
“I heard Lu Yicheng went to work part-time at Senior Classmate He’s company — is that right?”
“Yes. Apparently Senior He has been inviting him since sophomore year, and he only recently agreed. Let me tell you, you don’t know what salary Senior He is paying him, do you?” the person said with an air of mystery. “I have inside information. Apparently, to keep Lu Yicheng, Senior He is paying him this much…”
“That much?? But I heard Senior He’s company hasn’t even made money yet?”
“A lean camel is still bigger than a horse. Those shareholder investors are all from wealthy families — it’s just a dream project for them.”
“I’m so jealous of that salary. I want to go too. Isn’t it way better than tutoring?”
The person snorted. “You’d have to be on Lu Yicheng’s level first. I heard from a faculty advisor before that Lu Yicheng is absolutely, definitively going to be a top talent in the field. He’s genuinely worth that salary. It’s only because he hasn’t finished his undergraduate degree yet — if he finished and went on to graduate school, Senior He’s salary wouldn’t be enough to attract him.”
The others fell quiet.
It was true. Lu Yicheng was the academic star of their department. His professional skills were beyond question, and it was easy to imagine his prospects were limitless.
“But Senior He has been inviting him for so long — why did he agree this time?” someone speculated. “Could it have something to do with Jiang Ruoqiao from the foreign languages department? You hear about those two everywhere you go these days.”
“Probably related. Pursuing a girl, being in a relationship — it costs money.”
One of the girls was visibly displeased at that. “What exactly are you implying? Are you sarcastically suggesting that the correct dynamic is for the guy to spend nothing on dating and the girl to even subsidize him?”
“And the two of them are perfectly normally dating. Why does it sound in your mouth like she’s some kind of gold-digger? Disgusting.”
“Whoa, whoa, hang on, please, I really didn’t mean it that way — do I look like someone who thinks like that?” the person defended himself. “What I meant is that being in a relationship obviously has more expenses than being single, and Lu Yicheng, that guy — he’s genuinely grounded. Maybe when he’s in a relationship, he just wants to have everything sorted out early, like saving up for a down payment and all that.”
“I mean, you can understand it. We’re all in our third year. When you like someone, of course you start thinking about the future. All you can say is that Lu Yicheng is responsible. And not just him — I’m dating my girlfriend now, and every time I look at housing prices in Jing Shi my head wants to split, but what can you do? We’re already in our third year. How much longer can we fool around in school? We have to enter society eventually, and once you do, every single problem comes at you at once…”
Jiang Yan couldn’t listen anymore.
He walked in.
The room went completely silent. Everyone felt rather awkward — discussing Jiang Yan’s ex-girlfriend and his best friend right there like that… no one knew how long he’d been standing outside. Whether he was embarrassed, they couldn’t tell. They, for their part, had mentally carved a dreamland castle right there in A’Da University.
Jiang Yan’s mood was not as calm as it appeared.
After the organization’s meeting was over, he instinctively took out his phone. Even though Ruoqiao had already blocked him on every contact method, he still couldn’t help himself. It had become a habit.
His finger paused.
There on the Moments feed was a post Lin Kexing had made ten minutes ago: 【Can anyone with experience tell me which student organizations are worth joining in college? I’m so stressed about this.】
Jiang Yan’s eyelids lowered.
As though he were cementing a decision he’d already made, he adjusted his settings — he muted Lin Kexing so she couldn’t see his Moments, and also stopped seeing hers.
Of course, Jiang Yan didn’t know that Lin Kexing’s post was visible only to him.
After the countryside resort trip, Jiang Yan hadn’t exchanged a single word with Lin Kexing — hadn’t even seen her in person.
—
Jiang Ruoqiao met up with Meili’s assistant.
Meili’s assistant was a woman in her mid-thirties. Compared to Meili’s warmth and easy humor, her assistant came across as far more sharp and serious, someone who rarely smiled. Fortunately, Jiang Ruoqiao knew exactly where she stood — she was essentially just a translator and guide for Meili, so when it came to work matters, Jiang Ruoqiao did her full best to cooperate with this assistant.
Sometimes people’s energies simply click.
Jiang Ruoqiao’s cooperative manner earned the assistant’s genuine goodwill, particularly because Jiang Ruoqiao handled things in a way that was genuinely pleasant to work with — she had thought of nearly every angle.
The Lin family’s charitable work was genuinely not without substance.
Jiang Ruoqiao took over the materials from Meili’s assistant — far more comprehensive than what the company had provided.
Madam Lin and her team had genuinely accomplished a great deal of tangible work. For example, they had provided specialized medical assistance to patients with spinal muscular atrophy; over the years, they had continuously funded families of missing children; they had also established a women’s and children’s protection organization — which was what had drawn Meili’s interest. Of course, Madam Lin’s work in this area hadn’t gone uncredited — there had been some publicity campaigns as well, which had naturally attracted considerable attention and goodwill.
Jiang Ruoqiao also had Madam Lin’s personal profile in hand.
In truth, Madam Lin was an impressive woman.
If you judged her by appearance alone, she was perhaps not particularly striking — but from Jiang Ruoqiao’s perspective, as someone who had benefited from her own looks, appearance wasn’t all that important sometimes. The breadth of learning that lived in her bones, the expansiveness of her worldview, and even the steadfastness of her character — those things probably mattered far more than surface appearance. These were realizations she’d arrived at gradually, through reading more and seeing more of the world.
Madam Lin and her husband were, in certain respects, a classic case of an older man with a younger wife.
Her husband was over a decade older than her. Before Madam Lin, he had been married once before, but his first wife had died of cancer at thirty, leaving behind two sons.
The couple had first connected through opera — her husband loved the art form, and Madam Lin’s mother had once been a celebrated performer in her prime.
All in all, it made for a rather charming story.
After their marriage, Madam Lin gave birth to a daughter for her husband and then threw herself wholeheartedly into philanthropic work. As her husband’s capable partner, she had always performed her role admirably, and over the years, her tireless efforts in every direction had played an enormous part in building the Lin Family Jewelry reputation.
This answered a question Jiang Ruoqiao had been carrying.
She’d actually found it quite puzzling before — Jiang Yan’s mother’s true intentions might be well-concealed, but Lin Kexing was still so young, and any feelings Lin Kexing had for Jiang Yan would, by all logic, not be invisible to someone as experienced as Madam Lin. But now, looking at how much effort Madam Lin poured into charitable causes each year and doing rough calculations, you could see how incredibly busy she was day to day. And when Jiang Yan had moved in with the Lin family, he had only been ten years old — perhaps everyone around them, after ten years, had simply grown accustomed to assuming that Lin Kexing’s attachment to Jiang Yan was the affection of a younger sister for an older brother.
The person who came to meet with her and Meili’s assistant today was one of Madam Lin’s executive assistants.
After all, compared to Lin Family Jewelry’s foothold in Jing Shi, Meili — a foreign visitor — amounted to very little, and she was by no means the owner of some large enterprise, simply someone who had built up a modest overseas business.
Madam Lin herself had two executive assistants.
This particular one hadn’t been in the role very long, and when she saw the schedule and realized she was meeting with a foreigner, she felt like crying: Why, heaven, why torment someone who had failed the National English Test Level 4 twice?!
The assistant frantically cramped last-minute preparations, rehearsing various greetings to herself the whole way. She had even specifically downloaded a translation app for the occasion.
Still feeling uncertain, she circled the office, begging her colleagues for help. “Could someone please come with me? My English is really too embarrassing to show anyone — I can sort of read it, and maybe write a few halting sentences, but asking me to actually speak? I genuinely cannot.”
Just as the assistant was on the verge of a breakdown, Madam Lin happened to come by to go over details for the charity gala.
The gala was critically important and couldn’t be handled carelessly. For the sake of getting everything right, Madam Lin had spent several nights staying in hotel suites recently.
The moment she walked into the office, she overheard her assistant making this declaration, and she looked curious. “English? What’s going on?”
Philanthropic projects might seem straightforward on the surface, but Madam Lin had a habit of personally overseeing every detail, and Lin Family Jewelry had a great many projects running simultaneously, so strictly speaking, Madam Lin’s schedule was even busier than most working professionals. Something as minor as Meili coming to inquire about the charitable projects would never have made it onto Madam Lin’s calendar.
The assistant was startled.
It was the other person in charge who stepped forward to explain: “Madam, there is a foreign woman who would like to learn about the charitable initiatives under our company.”
Madam Lin’s expression became thoughtful. “Why wasn’t this reported to me?”
The person in charge looked a little flustered. “We looked into it. That woman overseas… she runs a small medical equipment company.”
Madam Lin understood.
Because the foreign woman’s background wasn’t prestigious enough or influential enough, the staff below hadn’t given her much attention.
This mildly irritated her.
The company was currently in the hands of her two stepsons to oversee, and she’d also heard from her husband that the company’s future direction leaned toward expanding into overseas markets. Even setting aside the company’s future development — the fact that an overseas visitor had made the trip all the way to the mainland and specifically chosen Lin Family Jewelry for a charitable donation, wasn’t that something worth publicizing?
Madam Lin cast a glance at the person in charge. He was a very distant relative from her late mother-in-law’s side.
Madam Lin made a decisive call on the spot. “As it happens, I have time right now. Amy, come with me — we’ll go meet this woman ourselves.”
—
Jiang Ruoqiao never imagined that Madam Lin herself would come out to receive them.
Evidently, Meili’s assistant hadn’t anticipated this development either.
Madam Lin’s work assistant, Amy, was sufficiently fluent in spoken English, but still no match for Jiang Ruoqiao, a specialist in the field. Jiang Ruoqiao had put in intensive preparation over these past few days, memorizing a considerable number of professional terms related to charitable work, and the results showed — even Madam Lin couldn’t help but take notice, and she didn’t hold back her praise: “Miss Jiang is very impressive. You look quite young too — still a student, I’d imagine?”
Jiang Ruoqiao nodded. “I’m still in my third year.”
Meili’s assistant, after hearing the translation, added a note of praise on Jiang Ruoqiao’s behalf: “Qiao is a student at your country’s most prestigious institution. Truly remarkable.”
Madam Lin showed a trace of surprise. “Miss Jiang is very accomplished.”
Whether as a genuine gesture or simply to maintain appearances, Madam Lin produced her name card and said to Meili’s assistant, “Please feel free to call me with any questions.” Then she turned to Jiang Ruoqiao and said, “If Miss Jiang has any career plans in the future, she’s welcome to consider joining our company. To be candid, we’re in exactly the position of needing talented people like you.”
Jiang Ruoqiao placed the name card with deliberate care in the inner pocket of her bag.
Best to keep one eye open for every opportunity — perhaps one day this card would come in useful.
—