"We’re here."

He thought for a moment and replied to a few messages.

"Yep."

"Rest well."

He typed many words but deleted them all. Saying too much was meaningless; only time could give the answer.

Speaking of which, this was his first time being caught in such a chaotic scene, just centered around him.

A small trial then.

Firstly, this matter couldn’t be delayed, and sooner or later, he’d have to face it. Secondly, this was just the beginning.

On Zhang Ningzhi’s side, she only knew about the class monitor. Most likely unaware, there was Xu Shuang and Xu Qianqian as well.

When it truly blows up, it’s a disaster either way.

This matter can’t be rushed, whether it’s the relationship or various reasons; it’s entirely different from Chen Yunyun’s situation.

After returning, he specifically found a time to meet with Li Qingrong and gave her a good scolding.

"Why are you spreading bad things about me?"

"Hmm~~ I didn’t." Li Qingrong tilted her head.

"Don’t avoid, look at me." Jiang Nian grabbed her hand, making an upward gesture.

Men are more inclined towards tactile, visual, and auditory interactions, saying stimulating words and such.

Women prefer kissing, holding hands, hugging. When deeply in love, alternating is fine.

"I... I forgot." Li Qingrong pursed her lips, "Maybe last semester or perhaps next semester."

Humorous, evenly distributed, huh?

"You really talked badly about me?" Jiang Nian found it hard to maintain composure, no wonder his reputation was consistently poor.

"No."

"I was just..." Li Qingrong spoke halfway, then suddenly stopped, tightly furrowing her brow.

"Just what?"

"Just..."

Ultimately, Jiang Nian wrapped things up vaguely. Saying too much, Li Qingrong might guess the truth.

Time hurriedly passed, a week later.

Chen Yunyun still hadn’t contacted Jiang Nian, along with the elementary student, who barely messaged him too.

This time’s good, two for one.

Though he could understand, the other side had cooled down. In a short time, a turnaround was unlikely.

Half a month?

A month.

Ultimately, this wouldn’t stay stalemated forever; no matter what, there’d be an explanation.

He figured he might as well focus on work.

While unlucky in love, successful at work. Then, a week later, Banyu had explosive traffic growth.

A blogger wore Banyu’s clothes. The click rate soared, and the operation seized that tag.

As such, it went viral.

Nearly this past half month, he’d been busy with company matters, barely meeting with Xu Qianqian and the others.

End of March.

Yao Beibei called on Jiang Nian, just as she dialed, she heard noise, "Busy?"

"In Yuhang, what’s up?"

"Nothing much, you carry on." Yao Beibei waved, "Things on my end are mostly small matters."

"Alright then." Jiang Nian thought for a moment, then told Yao Beibei, "Give me twenty minutes."

After a while, the call really came back.

Yao Beibei sat in the cafeteria, coincidentally dining alone. Only then did she think of calling Jiang Nian to inquire.

Who knew, Jiang Nian had flown to Yuhang again.

It seemed, quite busy. Although he had said twenty minutes, Yao Beibei didn’t mind much.

Yet, he truly called back.

"Hello?"

"I can hear." Yao Beibei felt a bit nervous, "I wanted to ask you about something, regarding my parents..."

Just finished speaking, someone on the other side shouted again.

"Boss!"

"Forget it, you should go first." She gave up, "I’ll ask you next time."

"Tonight. I’m planning to return to school this afternoon." Jiang Nian said, "Let’s meet somewhere."

"Alright."

On the other side, Jiang Nian hung up the phone. Glancing at the sample clothing, he pointed out some modification suggestions.

Mainly about the fabric, which was crucial.

Additionally, a factory’s goods ran into issues. The store received a surge in orders, urgently needing someone else to take over production. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Fortunately, Jiang Nian had assessed alternative suppliers before, keeping them with small orders as a buffer, filling the emergency slot.

This took solid effort.

Parallel structure had no downside except exhausting the general manager, or exhausting the own boss.

Everything meticulously handled, every detail overseen.

Evening arrival in Beijing.

Jiang Nian, while there, prepared small gifts. Found the appointed place, yet only saw Yao Beibei.

He was slightly taken aback, "Where’s Zhizhi?"

"Didn’t come." Yao Beibei seemed more puzzled, looking up at him, "Weren’t you meeting just me?"

Jiang Nian: "..."

Careless, indeed treated the two girls like a pair. Different majors, naturally varied class times.

......

Restaurant.

Jiang Nian accustomed to discussing matters while dining, naturally looked at Yao Beibei and asked.

"Born?"

Upon hearing, Yao Beibei nodded, thinking that he didn’t beat around the bush, guessed it immediately.

"Yes."

"Under pressure from your parents?" Jiang Nian reached out, naturally pouring her a drink.

"I want to drink a little." Yao Beibei said.

"Don’t; it’ll impact discussing matters." Jiang Nian declined, "They’ve arranged for you to help with the kid, right?"

"Hmm." Yao Beibei nodded.

Somewhat amazed at how he knew everything; she hadn’t spoken of it outside.

"What’s the story?" he asked.

"What’s there to tell? The old eldest sister acts like mother thing, let me look after him, and later he’ll take care of me in old age."

"Entertaining." Jiang Nian barely kept composure.

Yao Beibei: "....."

"If you want to laugh, just do it. No need to hold back for my sake. Right now... I just want to drown my sorrows."

Jiang Nian naturally ignored her and pondered for a moment saying.

"Ultimately, it boils down to money."

The two chatted for a while, roughly coming up with some strategies. Delay the progress and gain personal freedom after graduation.

Kids are hardest to care for only those few years.

Not going home during New Year was standard for Yao Beibei. If truly wanting to hide, there were ways.

Listening to Jiang Nian, Yao Beibei felt much better.

"You want to see Zhizhi, right?"

"Yes."

"Tomorrow she doesn’t have class, probably heading to the duplex." Yao Beibei joked, mood improved.

"I won’t disturb you; you can just go directly tomorrow."

Jiang Nian’s eyelid slightly twitched, thinking disturbance?

Said wrongly.

However, Huang Beibei was always bold-hearted, though inexperienced, theoretically sound.

"Okay." Jiang Nian gestured an OK sign.

After dinner.

Jiang Nian escorted Yao Beibei back to school, made no stop, promptly driving away.

On the way to the dorm, Yao Beibei walked with downcast head, mind a swirl, one moment thinking of home.

After a while, other messy thoughts surfaced.

The wave’s crash on the shore was powerful, audibly quite intense. Easy to imagine, the sea breeze lowly moaned.

Even if swapped, she would moan too.

How Zhizhi could bear it.

On the other side.

Jiang Nian was replying to messages. Besides the routine responses, Yu Zhiyi also messaged.

"You’ve bailed on me again, jerk!!"

"Honestly..." He also felt embarrassed, "Next time, next time I’ll take you to West Lake, how about it?"

"Will you keep your word?" Yu Zhiyi sent a few confused emojis, plus a cold sweat.

Jiang Nian: "I will."

Yu Zhiyi: "Okay, I’ll trust you one last time, you really are a jerk, bailed eight times!!"

Jiang Nian: "...."

True, but since it wasn’t far, when free, they occasionally met.

Just that, lacking personal space.

Besides, Beijing really had nothing interesting. Too far, Jiang Nian lacking motivation to go.

Another reason was having gone several times.

Honestly unpleasant.

Jiang Nian was mulling over this when suddenly a message popped up from Chen Yunyun.

"Hm?"

Half a month without hearing from Chen Yunyun, unexpected, at this juncture came a message.

"(Smile)"

"What’s up?" Jiang Nian found the emoji somewhat unbearable.