Chapter 2
Jiang Yan and I were not in the same department.
But Su Wan, my roommate, and I had happened to take part in the same competition.
She invited both of us to her birthday party.
Traffic was heavy, and by the time I arrived, almost everyone else was already there.
I handed the birthday girl the gift we had prepared. When I turned around, I happened to see Jiang Yan and his friends.
Jiang Yan froze when he saw me too.
“Hey, your little childhood sweetheart is here again.”
“Guess the hypnosis didn’t work. She followed you all the way here.”
“Don’t tell me she heard about you and Su Wan…”
His friends were all talking over one another across the room.
My eyes met Jiang Yan’s from a distance. I quickly frowned and looked away.
As everyone took their seats, Jiang Yan automatically shoved a friend aside to make room for me.
Without so much as glancing at him, I found another place and sat down.
A classmate I knew beside me asked,
“Did you and Jiang Yan have a fight? Why aren’t you sitting with him?”
I gave my classmate a puzzled look. My voice was neither loud nor soft—just loud enough for the other side of the room to hear.
“Jiang Yan is the person I hate most.”
“If I sat over there, I’d be afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from hitting him.”
They heard every word clearly.
Jiang Yan’s friends were visibly delighted that the hypnosis had succeeded and he had finally shaken me off.
But Jiang Yan himself did not look pleased.
Su Wan and I were not particularly close. After sitting for a while, I made an excuse to leave early.
“Qin Jiayi!”
At Su Wan’s call, every eye in the private room turned toward us.
“Thank you for coming.”
She cast Jiang Yan a subtle glance.
“And thank you for being willing to let go.”
I smiled at her and ignored the loaded remark.
“Happy birthday.”
Jiang Yan came after me on his own.
I had not even made it out of the hotel before I heard him calling my name from behind.
“Qin Jiayi!”
His chest rose and fell, and his expression was grim.
“Su Wan and I aren’t…”
His friends had followed close behind.
“Yan, what are you doing? They’re about to cut the cake.”
Jiang Yan swallowed the unfinished half of his sentence. The look he gave me was complicated.
“Oh, right, Yan—guess who I saw when I came out just now?”
“Song Yaozhou! I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen him myself. He’s actually working part-time here.”
“He always acts so aloof at school that you’d never guess he was broke. Su Wan liked him for so long, but wasn’t he too good for everyone? Now she’s holding her birthday banquet here while all he can do is carry plates.”
“Yan, go stand next to him right now and Su Wan will know exactly which one of you she should choose.”
Song Yaozhou.
The name sounded so familiar.
Wasn’t that the person I had “liked for a long time and secretly loved for a long time”?
I changed direction and walked toward Jiang Yan.
The deep furrow in Jiang Yan’s brow relaxed.
In the slightly wheedling tone he usually used with me, he said,
“Jiayi, I knew you wouldn’t…”
I stopped in front of Jiang Yan’s friend.
My cheeks flushed faintly, my delight and excitement plain for all to see.
“You just said Song Yaozhou was here. Where is he?”
The hotel lobby fell dead silent.
Jiang Yan’s face turned deathly pale.
The classmate in front of me stumbled over his words.
“S-Song Yaozhou? Su Wan stopped him to talk just now.”
I nodded.
“Thank you.”
Then, without a moment’s hesitation, I walked in that direction.
Jiang Yan and the others followed me.
Even from a distance, I could hear Su Wan’s voice.
“Are you working part-time here?”
“It’s my birthday today. Would you like to join us for the cake?”
Before the man she had stopped could answer, Su Wan’s roommate spoke first.
“Forget it, Wanwan. Don’t bother him while he’s working.”
“That dress of yours is a new design. It cost over ten thousand yuan. Look at what he’s wearing—what if he gets it dirty?”
Su Wan quickly objected.
“We’re classmates. Don’t talk like that.”
Her roommate pouted.
“You’re just too kind.”
This birthday party had been worth attending. I even got to watch them play good cop, bad cop.
The man surrounded by their little performance seemed completely unconcerned.
All I could see clearly was his back.
“Excuse me, guests. Please let me through.”
With that, Song Yaozhou pushed his service cart away.
They had put on that entire song and dance, and he did not even care who Su Wan was.
I took the opportunity to follow him.
Behind me, Jiang Yan was held back.
His friends teasingly pushed him toward Su Wan.
“Hurry up and help the prettiest girl in the department cut her cake!”
…
The noise gradually faded behind me.
After following Song Yaozhou around a corner, I changed direction and left through the hotel’s side entrance.
It was only an act.
There was no need to drag anyone else into it.
As for Jiang Yan,
making him unhappy was something I could do without even trying.
I had barely eaten at the birthday banquet.
I found a nearby convenience store and ordered some oden.
After taking my time finishing it, I called a cab and waited at the intersection.
“Where’s the money?”
“What good does it do to throw all your money at that sickly wretch?”
I turned and looked into the dark alley.