Though Su Jing interrupted, Ning Xue completely ignored her, only waiting for Xia Xiaolan’s response.

Xia Xiaolan hesitated slightly, “Saturday or Sunday?”

Ning Xue glanced at her, “Both days of the weekend.”

“That won’t work—”

Just as Xia Xiaolan started to refuse, Su Jing pinched her harder.

Ning Xue hadn’t expected this response. Remembering her grandfather’s request, she patiently explained to Xia Xiaolan: “I need to be an assistant at a site this weekend, and they need two assistants.”

Who were “they”?

And what site?

It must be related to architecture.

“It requires two days?”

Seeing Ning Xue nod, Xia Xiaolan could only painfully decline – the pain being from Su Jing’s pinching. Even through winter clothing, that troublemaker’s grip was strong enough to hurt.

Ning Xue frowned, her expression changing. Xia Xiaolan felt the super-genius probably thought she was hopeless.

However, Ning Xue didn’t say anything else – she wasn’t the type to force people. If Xia Xiaolan said she wasn’t free, that was that.

As soon as Ning Xue left, Su Jing became agitated, “Xiaolan, are you stupid? What a great opportunity! Wherever Ning Xue is going as an assistant must be something special – how could you not grab it?”

Su Jing lowered her voice and pulled Xia Xiaolan aside: “What if you could meet Old Master Ning!”

Xia Xiaolan had already met Old Master Ning – same two eyes and one mouth as everyone else. Thanks to Grandmother Yu, she’d even toured his studio.

Saying this now would probably get her killed by Su Jing, so Xia Xiaolan chose to stay quiet as a chicken.

“Stop pinching, I’ll ask Ning Xue what it’s all about. We already planned to go to my house this weekend, how can I back out?”

Su Jing was exasperated, “Missing one meal won’t kill us. Besides, we can find your house ourselves. You go do whatever with Ning Xue – it won’t stop us from having fun at your place!”

Unable to resist such a fierce social sister as Su Jing, Xia Xiaolan fled under criticism, rushing to find the super-genius to admit her mistake.

But when she asked at the neighboring dorm, the super-genius wasn’t there.

“Ah Xue went home, it’s the Lantern Festival today!”

The residents of Room 305 spoke enviously. As a local, Ning Xue could go home whenever she didn’t have classes. Though she didn’t stay out during weekdays, she could sleep at home on weekends. Xia Xiaolan wanted to go home too – she should be celebrating the Lantern Festival with her family.

She’d only be going home for dinner. Xia Xiaolan had invited her dormmates to visit this weekend, and Liu Fen wasn’t bothered at all, but rather pleased.

“They’re coming Saturday?”

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “It’s just the start of the semester, Saturday should work for everyone. But you’re going to Yangcheng – will there be enough time?”

“It’s fine even if I leave on the 10th, I’ll be back by the 15th.”

Originally planning to leave on the 9th, Liu Fen hadn’t yet hosted any of Xia Xiaolan’s classmates. She remembered how friendly the high school students were when she attended the parent-teacher meeting at County No. 1 High School.

Among Room 307’s residents, Liu Fen had only met Yang Yonghong.

As a daughter-doting mother, she wanted to meet all of Xia Xiaolan’s classmates and friends to better understand her daughter. As a mother, she wasn’t afraid of trouble or of her child telling her everything – what scared her was her child keeping everything to herself, closing her heart, and building walls that parents couldn’t breach!

After some thought, Xia Xiaolan told Grandmother Yu about Ning Xue’s invitation to be an “assistant” over the weekend.

She and Ning Xue weren’t particularly close; Ning Xue’s invitation must be due to Grandmother Yu’s connection with Ning Yanfan.

“If she’s asking you to go, then go. Your roommates are coming? Your mom and I will take good care of them.”

Grandmother Yu had no intention of socializing at Ning Yanfan’s place. He was a master architect who, despite his age, still led many students and ran a private studio. As an unemployed old woman, wouldn’t she just be wasting Ning Yanfan’s time by visiting?

Grandmother Yu had her matters to attend to.

Besides training store clerks for Xia Xiaolan, she was secretly exchanging dollars in her spare time.

Of the 80,000 yuan in the bank, Grandmother Yu had withdrawn 20,000. She wasn’t greedy, only exchanging a little at a time on the black market. In her many days in Beijing, she’d gone twice, exchanging only a few hundred dollars in total.

Grandmother Yu feared attracting attention with large amounts, and as an old woman who couldn’t defend herself, she exchanged small amounts each time and changed locations for each transaction.

In Xia Xiaolan’s family of three, everyone was busy.

The custom in Southern Yu was “flat on the fifteenth, round on the sixteenth” – meaning dumplings were eaten on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

After eating dumplings at home, Xia Xiaolan took the bus back to school. At the school gate, she saw Ning Xue and Ji Jiangyuan together. Ning Xue was saying something that Ji Jiangyuan seemed to oppose – he had some nerve, making Ning Xue’s face turn pale with anger.

Pretty boy, how dare he bully the super-genius!

“Classmate Ning Xue, can I ask you something?”

Xia Xiaolan rescued Ning Xue. Because of Ji Ya’s previous incident, Ji Jiangyuan couldn’t hold his head up in front of Xia Xiaolan and always retreated when facing her. Seeing Xia Xiaolan appear, Ji Jiangyuan practically fled three steps back.

After driving away young Ji, Xia Xiaolan suddenly remembered that Tang Hong’en was pursuing her mother – what a complicated relationship web.

“What is it?”

Ning Xue still remembered Xia Xiaolan’s rejection and maintained a neutral attitude.

Xia Xiaolan shamelessly apologized to Ning Xue for her mistake, expressing willingness to accept her invitation. Ning Xue had never seen someone so thick-skinned – Xia Xiaolan even linked arms with her. She wasn’t used to such intimate contact and tried to pull her arm away, but Xia Xiaolan was surprisingly strong!

After several failed attempts, Ning Xue gave up and just wanted to quickly explain the situation and be done with it.

This was indeed because of Ning Yanfan, who had asked Ning Xue to find Xia Xiaolan. Ning Xue was just completing her task:

“Saturday morning at 8, let’s meet at Caiyuan Street.”

Ning Xue looked down at Xia Xiaolan’s leather boots and added: “Wear comfortable walking shoes – we don’t know what time we’ll get home.”

Caiyuan Street?

Xia Xiaolan felt it sounded familiar but didn’t think too much about it. Ning Xue wouldn’t kidnap her:

“Alright then, I’ll wait for you at the Caiyuan Street bus stop on Saturday.”

Ning Xue didn’t ask why Xia Xiaolan had changed her mind – she cared about results, not the process or reasons. The current result was that she could complete her task.

Xia Xiaolan was quite looking forward to it.

She had arranged with her Room 307 dormmates that they would go to Shichahai on Saturday afternoon – she gave them her home address. Saturday morning, she took the bus to Caiyuan Street. Ning Xue was already waiting at the bus stop. She checked Xia Xiaolan’s shoes first, noting with satisfaction that she had changed from boots to sneakers and brought paper and pen.

“Let’s go, my grandfather and the others are already in the garden.”

Garden? Which garden?

Xia Xiaolan discovered that Ning Xue had brought her to a garden, or rather a construction site – the three characters “Grand View Garden” were unmistakably clear to Xia Xiaolan!

She seemed to have quite a connection with “Grand View Garden” lately!