"Yes, but don't worry, we'll probably just get stuck in traffic on the highway today."
...
What she said makes a lot of sense.
Jian Shuang glanced at Xia Ying in the rearview mirror and asked, "More than that, I'm curious about how your boss is harassing you."
Speaking of this, Xia Ying's face turned angry: "At first, he just touched your face. Then one time he followed me to a department store. When we came out, it was raining. He picked me up from behind and spun me around in the rain! While spinning me around, he happily said, 'It's raining! It's raining!'"
Jian Shuang: "...They don't portray it like that in idol dramas anymore, do they?"
Yang Wei grabbed Xia Ying's arm, her expression grave: "Why didn't you call an ambulance for him?"
Jian Shuang chuckled: "Is your boss handsome?"
Yang Wei sternly reprimanded her: "Shuang'er, what's wrong with you? Why are you asking this question at a time like this? If she were handsome, she wouldn't have come back."
Jian Shuang burst into laughter: "Hahahaha."
Xia Ying: "..."
She was somewhat desperate: "I feel like I no longer have the courage to live."
Jian Shuang comforted her, "Don't be so pessimistic. Life is still full of hope."
"Oh, really? Then tell me three reasons why you should live?"
Jian Shuang thought for a moment and said, "Because someone challenged the sixth one."
Yang Wei: "..."
Xia Ying finally broke down completely: "Is the class you run just to teach people how to play mahjong?!"
Jian Shuang's eyes lit up: "Oh, this is a good idea!"
Xia Ying: "..."
She should have stayed home and slept all day.
Author's Note: Special thanks to: 1. "For the sake of preserving innocence, I threw a landmine" (time: 2015-04-20 21:26:51); 2. "Little Jade Soup" (time: 2015-04-20 21:27:10); 3. "Lestat" (time: 2015-04-20 22:16:50); 4. "Rain-chan" (time: 2015-04-20 23:03:32); 5. "Have a glass of water" (time: 2015-04-20 23:13:39); 6. "17610861" (time: 2015-04-21 07:22:45). Thank you, little angels, for throwing these landmines! Love you, mwah! (* ￣3)(ε￣ *)
38
When they arrived at Shanghe Garden, it was indeed almost noon. Jian Shuang saw Yang Wei standing to the side, furtively using her phone, and leaned over to ask, "What are you doing?"
Just as Yang Wei sent the text message, Jian Shuang looked at the recipient's name and raised an eyebrow: "Didn't you already divorce Professor Qi? Why do you still need to report your itinerary to him?"
Yang Wei put away her phone and smiled at her: "Because I told him that you were the one driving."
Jian Shuang: "..."
"Take the bus home yourself this afternoon." Jian Shuang smiled back at her and pulled Xia Ying through the gate.
Shanghe Garden has several sections. Yang Wei followed Jian Shuang and Xia Ying out of the Rose Garden and into another section.
"What kind of flower is this? It's so pretty!" Jian Shuang held up her camera and took a close-up shot of the colorful flowers in front of her. "Doesn't it look a lot like corn?"
Yang Wei gave a slight smirk: "The sign at the door just said 'Lupine Flower'."
Jian Shuang turned around and handed the camera to Yang Wei, then pulled Xia Ying to stand in front of the flower field: "Take a picture of the two of us." Yang Wei dutifully raised the camera to take a picture for them. A tall, handsome boy walked over and said shyly to Yang Wei, "Excuse me, could you take a picture of us?"
The boy pointed behind him, where two other boys were standing, smiling at them. Jian Shuang walked over and shoved the camera from the boy's hand into Xia Ying's: "She's already married, and this one is single. You still have a chance."
...
After Jian Shuang finished speaking, all three of them felt awkward. Xia Ying went over and took a picture of them, then quickly returned. Jian Shuang, with a sly look on her face, said, "How is it? Looks like a college student, a real heartthrob."
“I don’t like people younger than me.” Xia Ying waved goodbye to her. Jian Shuang disagreed, saying, “Only love can quickly heal your heart wounded by your boss. Don’t be so picky at this time.”
Xia Ying smiled at her and took Yang Wei's arm, walking forward. Jian Shuang was still earnestly trying to persuade her: "Tell me, when was the last time someone held your hand?"
Xia Ying: "..."
Jian Shuang then looked at Yang Wei: "You've probably never been led by Professor Qi before, right? He's the kind of person who just takes care of things in bed."
Yang Wei: "..."
Although I really wanted to refute it, I had absolutely no way to refute it.
"Women are like these flowers; they need the nourishment of love to bloom beautifully, do you understand?" Jian Shuang said affectionately, then pressed the shutter on a bunch of lupins in front of her.
Yang Wei and Xia Ying ignored her and walked straight away. There were flower vendors at the park entrance. Jian Shuang went over and looked at them for a while, then, as if remembering something, said to Yang Wei, "By the way, I saw the roses you posted on Weibo. Did you grow them yourself?"
"yes."
"You actually managed to grow the flowers! That's amazing!" Jian Shuang thought of the awkward poem she'd posted on Weibo and looked incredulous. "Could it be the power of love?"
Yang Wei said, "I think it should be the power of water and soil fertilizer."
Jian Shuang was still lamenting Yang Wei's lack of romantic understanding when the florist suddenly handed Xia Ying a rose. Xia Ying paused for a moment, then smiled slightly at the florist: "How much is this?"
The deliveryman said, "Your smile is enough to cover the cost."
Xia Ying's face immediately turned red. Jian Shuang looked at the flower seller as if he were a rare animal: "My God! Men who are as good at sweet talk as you are almost extinct these days!"
The young man smiled at Xia Ying and said, "Your smile is beautiful; you should smile more often."
Xia Ying awkwardly tossed out a thank you and ran out of the flower shop. Jian Shuang and Yang Wei walked beside her, constantly probing, "That flower seller must be interested in you. Aren't you going to try and develop a relationship with him?"
Xia Ying didn't speak, and Jian Shuang continued, "Do you think he looked it up in a book of love quotes? Oh, I heard that you can use Google Translate to translate a few plain sentences into Japanese, then into Russian, then into French, Spanish, Arabic and all sorts of other languages, and finally translate them back into Chinese to get a love poem."
Yang Wei asked in surprise, "Really?"
"I haven't tried it, but you can go back and give it a try."
Yang Wei's eyebrows twitched. "Professor Qi, you can give it a try. This is better than 'I am the equation, you are the solution.'"
Xia Ying, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped, turned around, and handed them a business card: "I just slipped it into the roses."
Jian Shuang took a look and saw it was the address and contact information of the flower shop from earlier. She raised an eyebrow and patted Xia Ying's shoulder heavily: "Brave girl, go for it! Spring is here, what are you waiting for!"
In the end, Xia Ying did not go back to find the flower seller. The three of them were tired from walking, so they ordered a bunch of things at a roadside snack shop and found a place to sit down.
Jian fiddled with her chopsticks in her hands and said to Xia Ying, "Speaking of which, back in school, although Weiwei was the prettiest girl in our class, didn't the Youth League Secretary always like you? I remember he even put up a heart-shaped candle downstairs in the dormitory to confess to you!"
Xia Ying twitched the corner of her mouth: "In the end, I got scolded by the dorm supervisor for a week."
Jian Shuang chuckled twice: "Does he know you're back in City A? I heard he's doing very well there now. He was just talking about a class reunion in the class group a few days ago. Are you going?"
Xia Ying replied firmly, "I'm not going."
Jian Shuang blinked at her, then leaned close and whispered something in her ear. Xia Ying looked at her incredulously: "Really? Then I'll think about whether or not to go to the class reunion."
Yang Wei looked at Jian Shuang and asked curiously, "What did you say to her?"
"It's nothing, I just told her that the branch secretary's bank card has a few zeros."
Yang Wei paused for a moment, then asked in confusion, "How do you know how many zeros are on the Youth League Secretary's bank card?"
Jian Shuang said, "I don't know."
Yang Wei: "..."
Xia Ying: "..."
After finishing their meal, the three drove back to the city. On the way, Yang Wei took out her phone and scrolled through Weibo, only to stumble upon a shocking post: "Wait three more minutes and it's Takoyaki's girlfriend?!"
Jian Shuang, who was driving in the front seat, jumped up, and the car drew an S on the road: "What did you say? In three more minutes, is it that guy who writes newspaper articles in Pujiang?"
Yang Wei and Xia Ying were still a little shaken from the shove they had just been thrown: "Don't get excited, let me take another look."
Yang Wei continued scrolling through Weibo: "Wait three more minutes, both Takoyaki and I have denied this..." She paused here, and Jian Shuang, seeing that she hadn't continued, impatiently urged, "And then?"
"Then... someone revealed that 'Wait Three More Minutes' and 'Takoyaki' are actually the same person..."
The car jolted on the road again. Xia Ying stood up, held onto the back of the driver's seat, and leaned close to Jian Shuang, saying, "I have a driver's license too, let me drive."
...
After the driver was changed, Jian Shuang sat next to Yang Wei, also engrossed in her phone. The forum on P was abuzz with discussion about the matter, and Jian Shuang clicked on the tallest thread to read it.
"I've always felt that these two writers have very similar writing styles! Especially their speed of updating 110,000 words in three days—only a top-tier author like Dingdian can do that!"
"Aren't people allowed to have drafts? I know several authors who write the entire article before publishing it."
"Wait, what are you talking about? Takoyaki and 'Wait Three More Minutes' are the same person?... Takoyaki is a girl?!?"
"The person upstairs has such low intelligence... it's obvious they're a guy, okay? Wait three more minutes."
"Oh my god! I'm in the same editing group as 'Wait Three More Minutes,' and we even discussed how to choose underwear! He even gave me a very detailed answer!"
"...There's too much information upstairs, I can't bear to look at it."
"Takoyaki has been living abroad for a long time, so it's normal for him to have a more open mind, and I bet he's had quite a few girlfriends."
"I heard he's from a wealthy family."
"Stop just listening to rumors, okay? If you have something useful to share, then show us; if not, then get lost."
...
The forum was buzzing with arguments, but neither "Wait Three More Minutes" nor "Octopus Balls'" Weibo account made a move. Yang Wei frowned and sent a text message to Fang Chengran: "Wait Three More Minutes, is that your alternate account?"
It wasn't until she got home that Yang Wei received Fang Chengran's reply: "...Yes, the contract was signed using one of my classmates' ID cards ○|￣|_. I just registered it to write casually before, I didn't expect this pseudonym to become so popular. This time, another author leaked it, and I won't use this account anymore after finishing this piece in three minutes. I'm sorry for keeping it from you."
Yang Wei felt betrayed, remembering how happily she had chatted with him before, even just three more minutes. She tossed her phone aside without replying. A while later, Fang Chengran sent another text message. Yang Wei opened it and saw a screen full of apologies.
Yang Wei pursed her lips but still didn't reply. After a while, her phone screen lit up again.
Fang Chengran: What? QAQ
Yang Wei: "..."
Acting cute is absolutely shameful!
After thinking for a while, she edited a reply: "I accept your apology, but I don't want to talk to you for the next week [bye]"
Fang Chengran: "..."
Yang Wei had no classes tonight, so after taking a shower, she comfortably snuggled in bed watching TV. There was a carton of yogurt on the table, which Qi Xiaoyan had bought last time. Because this yogurt was quite expensive, Yang Wei always felt a pang of guilt when buying it, so she bought three large boxes when Qi Xiaoyan accompanied her to the supermarket last time.
The phone on the table vibrated. Yang Wei glanced at the lit-up profile picture of Juanjuanzi on the screen and paused the TV series.
"What's up?"