During those days, Shi Min always walked home with Qing Ye after school. Pang Hu also came daily to listen in, but Qing Ye noticed that Pang Hu was quite different from Shi Min. While Shi Min struggled with the basics, Pang Hu had some foundation. Although he appeared simple-minded, most of the time, when Qing Ye explained things, he would quickly understand, so their progress differed significantly.
During leisure time, Qing Ye would occasionally hear Pang Hu humming songs. Ever since Xing Wu told her about the Top Ten Singers competition, she has perked up her ears whenever Pang Hu sang, and she discovered that he had quite a pleasant voice.
Pang Hu bashfully confessed to her, “I… I have an account on Chang Ba, and I have hundreds of followers!”
“…”
Recently, Xuan Dao’s hair salon business has gotten on track, with an average monthly income more than tripling. Li Lan Fang claimed she had no time for mahjong anymore, though she wasn’t exactly idle in the evenings.
While not particularly clever, Liu Nian was hardworking and dedicated to learning. Perhaps being the early bird that catches the worm, within just a month, he had mastered these hairstyles increasingly well. Lately, even Qing Ye addressed him as Stylist Liu Tony.
Even people from the county town specifically sought out Stylist Liu for styling. To expand their promotion, Qing Ye extraordinarily spared two hours from her weekend to teach Du Qi Yan how to set up a public account, how to push notifications and edit content, and then add all their in-store members to the group. They regularly posted before-and-after photos. As a result, Liu Nian couldn’t understand how he suddenly became popular, with various young ladies constantly tagging him in the group, affectionately calling him “Stylist Liu.”
Qing Ye would sometimes browse through the group messages on her way home from school and find it amusing. Liu Nian, being straightforward and simple, didn’t know how to communicate with people, so Qing Ye had to teach him hands-on how to charm the young ladies – essentially public relations, building customer relationships, instilling marketing concepts, and so forth, making her quite the jack of all trades.
Du Qi Yan’s mother had surgery, which went fairly smoothly. Although Yang Gang hadn’t gathered the full amount within a week, he had gradually repaid twelve thousand.
Du Qi Yan earned considerable commission this month, with her salary doubling. Probably to show gratitude to Xing Wu and Qing Ye, she brought several boxes of dried sweet potatoes from home for them.
Xing Wu and Qing Ye were quite bewildered by these boxes of dried sweet potatoes – the quantity was too much to finish even if they ate until sick, and it took up space. They thought about giving some to Pang Hu and Shi Min, but they flat-out refused.
Dried sweet potatoes weren’t considered special in An Zi County. People made them during festivals, so everyone had grown up eating them and was practically sick of them.
To get rid of these troublesome dried sweet potatoes, one day after Shi Min and Pang Hu left, Qing Ye opened a bag of dried sweet potatoes, found the most intact plate in Xing Wu’s house, arranged them artistically, and even secretly plucked some artificial flowers from Li Lan Fang’s vase. She took a very sophisticated photo using beauty mode, posted it to her Moments with mouth-watering copy, and had Liu Nian and others share it.
Xing Wu, lying in his upstairs room, saw Qing Ye’s Moments post and thought she must have reached a desperate level of wanting to make money, even trying to sell ordinary dried sweet potatoes. He wondered if she’d soon be selling his father’s forgotten wig too.
So when Qing Ye came upstairs, Xing Wu just smiled at her while shaking his head.
Qing Ye looked at him dissatisfied and said, “You were sneaking looks at my Moments, weren’t you?”
Xing Wu waved his phone, “I looked at it fair and square.”
Qing Ye sat at the desk, picked up a book, and said to him, “Well then, share it.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“What’s embarrassing about it?”
“You want me, a graceful, handsome young man who strikes fear into people’s hearts, to sell dried sweet potatoes? What’s that about?”
Qing Ye suddenly laughed, imagining those little boys who usually avoided Xing Wu like the plague suddenly seeing him promoting dried sweet potatoes – the thought alone was amusing.
She stopped pressuring him, after all, he still had to maintain his reputation at Zha Zha Pavilion. At least in others’ eyes, he was still an intimidating figure.
But in her eyes, she turned back to him and said, “My feet are cold.”
Xing Wu beckoned to her, “Put them up here.”
The desk was right next to Xing Wu’s bed. Qing Ye turned and stuck her feet under his blanket. Xing Wu held his phone watching a live match with one hand while holding her pair of small feet with the other. His palms were burning hot, instantly dispelling her coldness.
But who could have imagined that the next day, one of Qing Ye’s former foreign classmates in Beijing saw her Moments post early in the morning and wanted to buy some? So Qing Ye sent some to him, specifically giving Xing Wu the international school’s address, asking him to take a few packages to Shun Yi Express in the afternoon to send to Beijing. She particularly emphasized that it must be sent via SF Express, honestly worried that the packaging was too simple and the shelf life too short – she feared other courier services might take too many days in transit and the items would spoil.
Xing Wu didn’t think much of it and casually helped her send it in the afternoon. Who knew that when this guy received it on Friday, he would become addicted to the chewy dried sweet potatoes and recommend them to his classmates? As a result, the boxes piled up at home were converted into cash by Qing Ye within a day.
As soon as class ended, she urgently turned to Xing Wu and said, “Skip your class, let’s go quick.”
“???” Xing Wu looked up at her leisurely with lifeless eyes.
Qing Ye told him someone wanted all the dried sweet potatoes and asked him to hurry home to ship them, so by evening, those things that had troubled them for days were grandly dispatched to the capital.
When Qing Ye very generously split half the dried sweet potato money with Xing Wu, he stared dumbfounded at the not-insignificant cash in his hand and asked her, “How much did you sell them for per pack?”
“Three packs for one hundred yuan.”
“…” That’s quite cutthroat.
Qing Ye still felt she was selling them too cheaply, while Xing Wu was thinking that he wouldn’t even take these things for free, yet somehow people were spending hundreds of yuan to buy them.
Xing Wu recalled during summer vacation when Qing Ye was drinking with them, mysteriously confident that she would make lots of money in the future. They all laughed at her then, but now looking at her natural talent for business, at least in this place that couldn’t get any poorer in their eyes, she always somehow managed to sniff out business opportunities.
Xing Wu suddenly looked at her adoringly like she was a treasure, stroking her fluffy curly hair. Qing Ye was still checking accounts at the counter while Liu Nian and others were busy nearby. She abruptly turned around and glared at him: “Why are you touching my hair?”
“I want to fleece some wool.”
“Want to die?”
As she said this, Qing Ye reached out to pinch him. Xing Wu grabbed her hand under the counter. Du Qi Yan had just returned from the bathroom and glimpsed them as she passed by. Qing Ye quickly withdrew her hand and looked at the forms as if nothing had happened.
Du Qi Yan walked back to her client somewhat startled, blow-drying the client’s hair while occasionally casting dubious glances at Qing Ye. However, Qing Ye maintained her composure, showing no signs of anything suspicious. When she looked at Xing Wu, he was playing games with his legs crossed as usual, also showing no irregularities, making Du Qi Yan convince herself she must have seen wrong earlier.
But shortly after, she noticed Qing Ye staring at her with a sharp look that suggested silencing witnesses. Du Qi Yan’s heart was racing, then she saw Qing Ye walk over and say to her: “Let’s talk after you’re done.”
Du Qi Yan remained anxious for quite a while. After finishing with her client, she followed Qing Ye to the backyard and immediately said: “I didn’t see anything.”
“???” Qing Ye was stunned for a moment before suddenly realizing what Du Qi Yan meant, and she burst out laughing.
“What? What did you think I wanted to talk about?”
Du Qi Yan lowered her head embarrassedly. Qing Ye stopped teasing her and asked: “Where did you get so many dried sweet potatoes?”
Du Qi Yan told Qing Ye that her mother’s factory wasn’t doing well, and when she got sick, the boss couldn’t offer much money, so they gave her family lots of factory goods as consolation.
“…” Consoling sick employees with dried sweet potatoes? What an interesting factory.
So Qing Ye asked Du Qi Yan where this factory was and if she could help contact the person in charge, as she wanted to discuss potential cooperation. But Du Qi Yan said her mother’s factory was about to close down.
“…” Huh? Qing Ye was confused again.
She thought for a moment and said to Du Qi Yan: “Try to help me make contact first. If possible, I’d still like to meet with the person in charge.”
So Du Qi Yan went to make the call. In the evening, she told Qing Ye they could go tomorrow, but since tomorrow was Saturday and Qing Ye had to participate in that damn marathon, they set the meeting time for 2 PM.
Saturday morning, Qing Ye reluctantly put on that hideously ugly school uniform, then her clean white sneakers. While combing her hair in the mirror, she saw a figure in green clothing pass by in the reflection. She turned around to see that Xing Wu had dug out his school uniform. It was probably from his first year and now fit a bit tight, so he simply left the zipper open, wearing a white casual sweatshirt underneath.
The green track pants with red stripes that Qing Ye thoroughly despised somehow looked exceptionally sporty and incredibly handsome on Xing Wu’s long legs, and coincidentally, he also wore white Yeezy shoes.
Qing Ye tied up her hair, once again marveling at how her boyfriend was truly the most fashionable country bumpkin on the entire street, managing to make such an ugly school uniform look like designer sportswear with a color-blocking effect.
She walked over to him, unable to hide the smile in her eyes, tugging at his uniform as she snuggled into his embrace: “Are you going to run a marathon or flirt?”
Xing Wu wrapped his arms around her waist: “Do I need to flirt? The girl’s already throwing herself at me.”
Just as he finished speaking, they heard Li Lan Fang getting out of bed. The two sprang apart as if struck by lightning. When Li Lan Fang opened the door and saw Qing Ye in her school uniform, she said with surprise: “Oh, Qing Ye, that uniform looks quite good on you!”
“…” How does it look good?
Xing Wu and Qing Ye left together and walked toward school. Although all An Zhong students on the road were wearing uniforms, Qing Ye felt like she and Xing Wu were wearing a couple of outfits.
The two walked facing the morning sun, sometimes she stepped on his shadow, sometimes he stepped on hers, neither willing to yield, walking to school in this childishly competitive way.
The teaching building was crowded with people, everyone’s faces beaming with excitement. Pang Hu waved to them from afar, then squeezed through to them, handing them their number tags: “I got them for you already.”
Qing Ye took her number tag and angrily threw it to Xing Wu: “Let’s switch.”
Xing Wu looked – 425? Two-five? Who’s two-five? Well, two-five it is then. What could he do when his girlfriend, as a science genius, was so sensitive about numbers? He could only be this two-five.
Then Qing Ye snatched his number tag, 518, and immediately beamed with joy: “This is good, suits me perfectly.”
Xing Wu reminded her: “That has my name on it.”
Qing Ye tilted her head and whispered: “Then I’m taking your name early.”
People were all around them. Xing Wu just looked down at her like this – her eyes bright and clear, her delicate face radiating an alluring pride. If it weren’t for all the people around, Xing Wu would have grabbed her for a proper kiss.
His thick eyelashes drooped down, concealing the smile in his eyes as he took her 518 number and pinned it to her back, then Qing Ye raised her arms to help pin 425 on him.
Yellow Hair had just squeezed over from Class 4 and exclaimed: “Damn, Qing Ye, I almost didn’t recognize you in uniform. I was wondering why Brother Wu was properly hanging out with a girl.”
Then he stepped back and looked again: “You could be An Zhong’s spokesperson in that uniform, really proves that good-looking people look good in anything. You and my Brother Wu are truly relatives, your family’s got those looks on point.”
He then pulled out his phone: “Let me take a photo of you two.”
Qing Ye looked up and exchanged glances with Xing Wu, both looking somewhat speechless at Yellow Hair. As Yellow Hair counted down “3, 2, 1,” Xing Wu placed his hand on Qing Ye’s shoulder.
After Yellow Hair lowered his phone, Xing Wu casually withdrew his hand. Yellow Hair was still admiring the photo when he created a WeChat group and added everyone, including Liu Nian and the others. He might have accidentally added Li Lan Fang too, so when Yellow Hair posted their photo in the group, Li Lan Fang immediately gave it an enthusiastic like, emphasizing that they got their good looks from me.
Thus, the group died right after its creation, with no one responding, silent as chickens.
Several PE teachers came to organize everyone for pre-race warm-ups and then announced the route and competition rules.
Qing Ye flexed her wrists and said to Xing Wu and Yellow Hair beside her: “Let’s discuss, how should we run later?”
The group of guys immediately laughed, with Yellow Hair responding: “Just run like how we walk home after school.”
At first, Qing Ye didn’t understand what they meant, but when the marathon began, she immediately got it.
At least she made an effort to assume a running stance, but those guys behind her just stuck their hands in their pockets and continued chatting, exactly like walking home after school.
An Zhong and An Zhi students were preparing on two parallel roads. They could see An Zhi’s people from far away, dressed in all sorts of ways – there were even girls wearing mini skirts and high heels in winter to participate. They must be here as cheerleaders.
In comparison, they looked more like a proper high school. The road between the two schools was cordoned off. After the signal, Qing Ye immediately rushed forward with the crowd. After sprinting about a hundred meters, she turned back breathlessly to see Xing Wu and his group strolling like elderly gentlemen. No wonder Xing Wu looked so relaxed when he heard about the marathon that day – how could he not be relaxed? It was just like walking to and from school twice.
Perhaps Qing Ye’s zealous effort amused Xing Wu, as he was now staring at her with a faint smile. The morning light fell on him, giving off a mysteriously lazy air. With his school uniform open, he looked somewhat roguish as the group magnificently brought up the rear.
Qing Ye turned back and continued running. Although she couldn’t get first place, she never liked being last.