Xie Huai brought back Xia Xia’s thermos that she had left on the sports field.
Her thermos were old, and the cartoon print on the white body had worn off beyond recognition.
The water inside had a sweet taste. Xia Xia looked at Xie Huai: “Where did the brown sugar come from?”
“Bought it,” Xie Huai sat on the windowsill, leaning against the glass behind him.
His expression was neutral as he said this, his fingers restlessly poking at the pothos leaves on the windowsill.
Xia Xia gulped down most of the cup: “The supermarket is so far, don’t go buying it next time.”
Xie Huai came down from the windowsill, approached the hospital bed, and examined Xia Xia: “Brother Huai usually charges for deliveries. This is the first time I’ve run errands for someone without charging a penny, yet you’re not grateful. How inconsiderate.”
He pulled out two hundred yuan from his wallet and handed it to her: “This is your wages.”
Xia Xia didn’t take it, her eyes clear and transparent as she met his gaze: “It’s too much.”
Her pay for these few days should only be a hundred yuan, yet Xie Huai gave her two hundred.
She didn’t want to ask why he was giving her an extra hundred yuan – obviously because he saw how poor and hungry she was, but she couldn’t accept this money.
“It’s not too much,” Xie Huai said, “Calculate it again carefully.”
“It’s too much,” Xia Xia’s tone was firmer, emphasizing her point, “Xie Huai, you don’t need to do this. We had an agreement.”
She pulled out one hundred yuan bill from it, then took twenty yuan from her pocket, handing it all back to him along with the takeout money.
Xie Huai stood by the bed, feeling this scene was somewhat familiar.
The same enclosed room, the same two people, the same bed, the same positioning, and the same gesture of handing over money.
Xie Huai smiled playfully: “Do I dare accept your money?”
Having eaten and drunk hot water, Xia Xia’s pale face had gradually gained some color.
Her wrists were white and thin, and though she looked weak and delicate, her movements carried a hint of stubbornness.
Early autumn wind seeped through the window gap, carrying the scent of freshly watered grass and the oily smell of sun-baked asphalt. The distant sky was a clear deep blue, studded with thick clouds, reflecting a faint backdrop on the transparent glass windows.
Xia Xia: “Xie Huai, I’m not joking.”
“I may be poor, but it’s not hard to make money these days. After military training, I’ll find part-time work. What’s the meaning of taking your money?”
Xie Huai didn’t address her words directly, instead, his casual gaze swept over her: “You’re a girl. I let the deaf comment slide before, but now you dare to call me by my full name?”
His gaze carried consideration as he looked at her, and Xia Xia quickly corrected herself: “Brother Huai.”
She lowered her eyes submissively, her voice soft.
Xie Huai looked at her, contemplative: “You came to study, didn’t your family give you living expenses?”
Xia Xia maintained her money-offering posture without answering.
Xie Huai didn’t ask further. He took the money, pulled out the takeout money, and placed it on the table corner: “Zhao Yilei and Jiang Jingzhou say I’m stingy, just hear it and let it pass, don’t take it too seriously.”
“No matter how stingy I am, I wouldn’t take food money from a girl.”
He said calmly: “I won’t let you call me brother for nothing.”
He bent down to pick up Xia Xia’s empty food box and left. At the door, he turned back to look at her: “You can’t sell milk tea anymore. When you’ve rested well, continue working for Brother Huai.”
In the evening, Zhu Ziyu came, followed by Zhao Shanqi and Cai Yun.
The three were divided into two groups. After entering, Zhu Ziyu didn’t speak, going straight to sit by the window to play with her phone.
But Zhao Shanqi came over: “Xia Xia, are you okay? I heard you fainted, I couldn’t focus on military training all afternoon.”
Cai Yun smiled and said: “Yeah, we both came running here without even eating.”
Since selecting the temporary class monitor, Cai Yun had suddenly become friendly with Xia Xia, offering her snacks and calling her to go to the training field together in the morning. Xia Xia hadn’t heard her gossip behind her back anymore, and occasionally saw her buying milk tea from Xie Huai’s stall.
Since she changed her attitude, Xia Xia acted as if nothing had happened, chatting with her cheerfully.
Zhao Shanqi suddenly asked: “Is Xie Huai not here? I heard he brought you here.”
Xia Xia said: “He left.”
Zhao Shanqi looked somewhat disappointed: “Oh, he left.”
After chatting with Xia Xia for a while, Zhao Shanqi was pulled away by Cai Yun to use the bathroom.
Zhu Ziyu finally lifted her eyes from her phone, her tone unfriendly: “What do you have to chat about with Cai Yun?”
“What’s it to you?” Xia Xia said coolly.
After that night at the barbecue, Zhu Ziyu never mentioned what happened on the bus – it became an unspoken secret between them.
Zhu Ziyu often shared gossip with her. Xia Xia would listen quietly, responding occasionally but mostly remaining silent. Yet even when she didn’t speak, Zhu Ziyu seemed to have mind-reading abilities and knew what she was thinking.
It was like a natural spiritual connection, a matching of temperaments.
Since Zhu Ziyu knew what kind of person she was anyway, Xia Xia didn’t bother pretending with her.
Zhu Ziyu crossed her legs: “If it’s not my business, is it yours then? Don’t you know that Cai Yun was the one who leaked the news about Xie Huai selling milk tea to Yi Meixian?”
Xia Xia watched her beautiful face show a smug expression and said languidly: “Zhu Ziyu, you’re truly consistently bad. I’ve heard you say lots of bad things about Cai Yun, but you’ve never shown any evidence. What good does it do you to incite me to fight with Cai Yun?”
“I do have evidence this time.” Zhu Ziyu scrolled through her phone and played an audio clip.
Cai Yun’s voice came through: “It’s not just Xie Huai himself, it’s Xia Xia and Xie Huai together, they’ve influenced so many classmates…”
Xia Xia: “…”
Zhu Ziyu said regretfully: “I didn’t want to be like a creep eavesdropping on her calls, but when I went to the bathroom this morning, she was making these reports in the next stall. She emphasized three times to Yi Meixian that it wasn’t just Xie Huai alone, that you were a key member. How could I not tell you?”
Xia Xia rubbed her temples: “She hasn’t been talking behind my back lately, I thought she had changed.”
Zhu Ziyu sneered: “She’s nice to you because she’s afraid you’ll compete with her for class monitor after military training, but why wouldn’t she do things to smear you in front of teachers? This way, even if you compete with her later, the counselor will already have a bad impression of you.”
Xia Xia glanced at her: “You see through it all so clearly, yet who was it that insisted I should be class monitor?”
Zhu Ziyu said shamelessly: “I was doing it for your good.”
“Please don’t,” Xia Xia said, “I don’t know if it’s for my good, but it irritates Cai Yun.”
Zhu Ziyu held her hand and caressed it, smiling coyly: “Xia Xia, don’t hesitate, show the same spirit as when you dealt with that pervert. If you want to fight with Cai Yun, I’ll help you. What she did was too unethical – going after you is one thing, but what does it have to do with Xie Huai?”
After a long silence, Xia Xia said: “Go find me an apple.”
Zhu Ziyu was stunned: “In this godforsaken school hospital, where am I supposed to find an apple?”
Xia Xia’s bright dark eyes stared at her: “I don’t care where you find it, just go now.”
Zhu Ziyu had to get up and leave. Two minutes later, she returned with a red apple she’d snatched from a fruit basket in the next ward.
Just as she entered, Zhao Shanqi and Cai Yun returned from the bathroom.
Cai Yun smiled intimately: “We have something to do tonight, so Shanqi and I will leave first.”
Xia Xia returned to her quiet and fragile demeanor, her pale face from weakness looking pitiful.
“Cai Yun,” she called softly, “wait.”
She took Cai Yun’s hand and placed the apple in her palm: “Take this with you.”
Cai Yun and Zhao Shanqi exchanged glances: “Just for me? None for Shanqi?”
Xia Xia smiled at her.
“I don’t want it.”
As Cai Yun tried to put the apple back, her wrist was gripped by Xia Xia.
Xia Xia’s hands were small, soft, and white with delicate bones, the veins on the back of her hands showing a faint blue.
But her grip was strong. When Cai Yun instinctively tried to pull away, she was surprised by the girl’s shocking strength and couldn’t break free at all.
She met Xia Xia’s eyes.
Though the girl was smiling, her eyes held an indescribable light. The light should be warm, but what reflected from her curved eyes and brows made Cai Yun’s palms sweat.
Cai Yun felt inexplicably nervous.
She didn’t understand what Xia Xia wanted to do, and her voice lowered: “Xia Xia, I don’t want to eat an apple right now.”
The girl released her hand and leaned back against the soft bedding.
She smiled sweetly at Cai Yun: “Then go throw it away.”
The day after Yi Meixian ruined the milk tea business, Xie Huai started delivering food.
Nan University had a new principal this year who, true to the saying about new officials lighting three fires, began reforming school rules as soon as he took office.
Takeout was the grave of youth – the new principal despised laziness and decadence, and by extension, takeout food.
Delivery platform workers wore uniforms and were stopped by security at the gate.
Even restaurant delivery staff who didn’t look like college students by age or dress were stopped at the gate for ID checks.
The dormitories were some distance from the school gate. In the time it took to walk to the gate for takeout, one could finish eating at the cafeteria and return. After nearly two weeks since school started, the cafeteria business flourished while off-campus shops sat empty, with both students and businesses complaining.
Xie Huai found a loophole in the rules.
The school rules only prohibited delivery platform workers and restaurant delivery staff from entering campus – they didn’t say anything about students delivering food.
The WeChat group he built while selling milk tea provided a huge customer base.
On the first day, Xie Huai decided to deliver food, and the group exploded with activity.
Xie Huai didn’t work as a courier between students and restaurants.
There were too many restaurants in the university town. He was just one person who still had military training and classes. Running between shops based on student demands would earn too little and be impossible to manage.
He only acted as a middleman for unified purchasing.
Xie Huai carefully selected several fast-food restaurants in the university town that offered good taste at low prices, delivering only one type of meal per mealtime.
He would announce the next day’s menu in the WeChat group the night before. Those who wanted to eat could place orders in the group. He would then contact the restaurant, and the next day, he would pick up all the prepared meals in thermal boxes and bring them back by electric scooter.
Nan University’s dormitory management was quite lax, with male and female students freely entering each other’s buildings.
Regardless of gender, Xie Huai delivered food right to the dorm room door, more convenient than delivery riders.
He charged four yuan per order for delivery. As for kickbacks from the restaurants, Xia Xia didn’t know and didn’t ask.
Zhu Ziyu had ordered grilled meat rice in the group last night and was already hungry by just past noon.
“Xia Xia, when is Xie Huai coming?”
Xia Xia’s lunch hadn’t changed since school started. She sat at the table nibbling on a bun and said flatly: “Soon, probably.”
Zhu Ziyu smacked her lips, her words carrying admiration: “Xie Huai has business sense. Even though he can only take fifty orders per meal, that’s still two hundred yuan. With lunch and dinner each day, that’s four hundred yuan daily. I’m so envious. Why don’t we learn from him and deliver food to make money?”
Xia Xia slowly finished her last bite of bun: “You think it’s that easy for him to make money?”
“It is easy,” Zhu Ziyu said. “Look at Xie Huai, is he working hard? Not at all.”
“It’s just running up and down delivering food, right? I can do that too, it’ll count as exercise.”
“You only see what’s visible to you, not what’s hidden,” Xia Xia said. “You want to deliver food, but can you ride an electric scooter? Can you build good relationships with restaurants to get them to prepare your orders quickly and give you kickbacks? Can you get the security guards to let you into school with food?”
“Most importantly,” Xia Xia finished her bun and wiped her mouth with paper, “why do you think Xie Huai isn’t working hard?”
“Nan City’s sun is so harsh, can you ride an electric scooter around without sunscreen? Given your habits, you’d need to cover your entire body and use up a whole bottle. Your sunscreen costs over three hundred yuan – a day of deliveries would just cover the sunscreen cost.”
Zhu Ziyu: “…”
Xia Xia wasn’t trying to discourage Zhu Ziyu.
The night before last, she had walked around the pedestrian street in university town, trying to find part-time work.
The night street was brightly lit, with late summer insects hovering around tables and trash bins.
She walked aimlessly and saw Xie Huai outside a shop in the dim lights.
Xie Huai sat at a plastic table outside a grilled meat restaurant, chatting playfully with the owner.
His proud, rebellious young face was under the greasy smoke from the grill. Though he smiled and made small talk, he was open and sincere, showing no sign of servility.
That night, Xia Xia returned empty-handed. When walking back to the school gate, she saw him again.
Xie Huai squatted at the security office door, making casual conversation with the guard who was smoking the cigarette he had offered, exhaling layers of white smoke rings.
Xie Huai didn’t smoke himself, holding a can of cola and casually greeting Xia Xia.
“…You can’t copy Xie Huai. Even if you could handle the work, where would your customers come from? If you want to deliver food, first try building a WeChat group with hundreds of people,” Xia Xia mercilessly burst Zhu Ziyu’s bubble. “Not just you – there won’t be a second person like him in all of Nan University.”
Zhu Ziyu blinked: “Aren’t you helping Xie Huai record orders? Let’s steal his customers.”
Xia Xia glared at her: “Don’t joke about that.”
After she fainted that day, Xie Huai asked her to help record orders from the group.
Who ordered how many meals? Which building and floor did they live on? Every detail, no matter how small, had to be written down and given to him.
He paid her twenty yuan daily, but this small amount of work wasn’t worth twenty yuan.
Perhaps Xie Huai did it out of pity, boredom, or kindness.
Xia Xia didn’t ask and wasn’t foolish enough to refuse a chance to earn money.
Though she didn’t say it, she understood everything clearly.
—Xie Huai had helped her, regardless of his motivation, help was help.
The dorm door was open, and Xie Huai stood at the doorway, knocking symbolically: “Whose meal?”
Zhu Ziyu raised her hand: “Mine.”
Today Xie Huai wore a black tank top that highlighted his broad shoulders and narrow waist, the lean build of a young man. He was thin but not weak, with subtly defined yet attractive muscles on his bare arms.
He had climbed dozens of flights of stairs in the midday heat, the fabric on his chest soaked with sweat, his temples also covered in sweat that ran down his face to his neck.
At first glance, he looked devastatingly sexy.
Xie Huai handed the takeout to Zhu Ziyu and walked to Xia Xia: “It’s too hot, let me have some water.”
Xia Xia gave him her cup.
Xie Huai drank it empty in a few gulps.
He wiped the water from his lips: “I drank from it directly, wash it yourself.”
Xia Xia said: “No need.”
She looked down at his knee: “Is your leg better?”
Xie Huai made a sound: “Still hurts a bit, but it’s fine.”
Just as he was about to leave, Zhao Shanqi called out: “Wait.”
Her pretty face slightly flushed, she tied up the garbage bag from the trash can: “Xie Huai, could you take the garbage down for me?”
Xie Huai looked at her once and reached out to take the garbage.
Cai Yun joined in, throwing an apple core into the garbage bag: “Thanks.”
After Xie Huai left, Cai Yun smiled at Zhao Shanqi: “See, I told you he would help take it.”
Her tone carried some contempt: “He’s short on money, selling this and that, yet still wearing such expensive shoes to show off – who knows if they’re even real? When you talk to him, he’s eager to please you, he’d even lick your feet if you asked, what’s taking out garbage compared to that…”
Xia Xia: “…”
Listening to Cai Yun’s words, she felt inexplicably disgusted and spoke sharply: “Cai Yun, do you know how to talk? Xie Huai is helping out of goodwill…”
Before Xia Xia could finish, the door was knocked three times heavily.
She turned to see Xie Huai had returned.
He stood at the door, holding Zhao Shanqi’s garbage, his expression unnaturally calm: “May I come in?”
Zhu Ziyu, enjoying the drama: “Come in.”
Xie Huai entered, walking straight to Zhao Shanqi.
Zhao Shanqi lowered her eyes, not daring to look at him, her face reddening again.
Xie Huai stood before her, and just when Zhao Shanqi thought he was going to speak, he bent down and stuffed her garbage back into the trash can.
His expression was neutral, showing neither anger nor the humiliation of being insulted.
His long fingers slowly untied Zhao Shanqi’s garbage bag and pulled out the apple core Cai Yun had thrown in, and while Cai Yun stared blankly, he flicked it back onto her desk.
Xie Huai rolled up the hem of his tank top to wipe the juice from his hands.
After finishing all this, he walked to Xia Xia, casually picked up her half-full garbage bag, and turned to flash a sunny, gentle smile at Cai Yun:
“Xia Xia is my little brother, I’m happy to take out her garbage.”
His lips curved up in a mocking arc: “But who the fuck are you?”