The evening breeze was cool, blowing gently.
Chen Yansen sat on the city wall next to Tongfei Gate, his legs dangling over the edge. His gaze drifted toward the nearby Chunshen Square.
Old men waving cattail fans gathered in twos and threes to play chess and chat. A few barefoot children ran wildly across the grass. A crowd of young people swarmed the stall selling shaved ice.
"Should I go buy a couple bowls?"
Wang Zihao followed his line of sight and immediately spotted the shaved ice stall.
They made it by crushing ice into a fine slush, then adding fruit juice, raisins, crushed hawthorn, and red bean paste. A single bite in the summer could send a chill straight to the top of your head.
At the thought, Wang Zihao swallowed and made the offer.
"Get one for Meng Jie, too. She'll be here in a bit."
Chen Yansen snapped out of his daze and nodded with a smile.
With the school year about to start, Wang Zihao was filled with melancholy at the thought of leaving the small town where he'd grown up, insisting on dragging Chen Yansen along to watch the sunset.
'Like I give a damn about watching the sunset with you,' Chen Yansen thought. He decided he might as well call Meng Jie over and have her make good on their bet at the same time.
Wang Zihao agreed and scampered down happily.
Chen Yansen pulled out his phone and opened the QQ app. A long string of group notifications instantly popped up, and his list was full of pending join requests.
The few groups he had pinned to the top mostly had over two hundred members each.
The group chat names were fairly uniform, mostly following the format: "Xucheng Academy Class of 2010 - [School Name] New Student Exchange Group." For example, there were groups for the School of Information Engineering, the School of Business, the School of Literature and Communication, the Music Academy, and so on. There were a full twelve such groups.
Looking at the group files, one would find a PPT feast meticulously prepared by Chen Yansen—the Xucheng Academy New Student Guide.
The content was all-encompassing. It covered everything from major topics like enrollment procedures, campus facilities, and academic resources, to minor details like dorm conditions, food options, and library borrowing rules. It even included special reminders about sunscreen, mosquito nets, shoe insoles, water bottles, and umbrellas needed for military training.
All the freshmen in the groups assumed he was a sophomore or junior, an upperclassman. They never would have guessed that Chen Yansen, just like them, was also an incoming freshman.
"My information-gathering skills are still as awesome as ever."
Chen Yansen chuckled slyly.
He had gone to great lengths to gather information, create charts and tables, and plaster the PPTs with dense watermarks of his QQ group numbers. Naturally, it wasn't out of the goodness of his heart; he was planning to make his second fortune off these people.
BEEP BEEP BEEP—
"@Group Owner, upperclassman, I want to sign up for the 39-yuan-a-month telecom card. I sent my info to your email."
"@Group Owner, upperclassman, does the 59-yuan-a-month phone card really come with a Qzone Yellow Diamond and QQ Super VIP?"
"@The guy above me, what do you mean 'really'? The upperclassman wouldn't lie to us!"
"Oops, sorry, my hand slipped and I posted a selfie in the group."
"..."
He casually opened one of the group chats, glanced at it quickly, and replied with an 'OK' emoji.
"The upperclassman won't lie to you, that's true. But I'm not an upperclassman."
A wicked grin spread across Chen Yansen's face as he muttered to himself.
The plan prices and details mentioned in the chat group were all just "upgraded" creations he had based on last year's campus card offerings.
To put it bluntly, he had just pulled it all out of his ass!
As for how he would explain it to the freshmen, he wasn't the least bit worried.
By then, he would have the sign-up information for over a thousand new students. With that leverage, how could he fail to negotiate a dealership with the local carriers?
"Chen Yansen, why are you all alone? Where's Haozi?"
As Meng Jie approached, she saw Chen Yansen staring into space by himself and patted his thigh as she asked.
"Over there, buying shaved ice."
Chen Yansen snapped out of his thoughts and pointed to the chubby guy in the square.
"Give me a hand."
Meng Jie placed her foot in the socket for a flagpole, then held out her right hand, signaling for Chen Yansen to pull her up. She clearly intended to climb up and sit next to him.
"Just stay down there. It's windy and not safe up here."
Chen Yansen slapped her little hand away, showing her no courtesy as he flatly refused.
"Tch—I can get up by myself!"
Meng Jie tried a few times, but being too short, she always came up just a little shy. In the end, she had to give up, though she still said defiantly, "This part of the wall is too high. If it were that section over there, I'd have no problem."
"Yeah, yeah, you're the best!"
Chen Yansen gave a perfunctory reply and went back to his phone, tapping through the pending join requests one by one.
After all, making money was President Chen's main business!
"What would you think if I repeated a year?"
Seeing that he was ignoring her, Meng Jie first sulked for a while. But since Boss Chen remained unmoved, she then asked him tentatively.
"It'd be the right choice!"
Hearing this, Chen Yansen put down his phone and replied with a serious expression, "Don't be stubborn with your dad. Let Uncle Meng pull some strings and get you into First Middle School to study for a year. Slog through it, and getting into a Tier 1 university won't be a problem."
'Given Meng Jie's family circumstances, it was unlikely she would have attended Second Middle School in the first place. The only logical explanation was that the girl was stubborn and didn't want her dad to spend money pulling strings for her.'
"If I repeat the year, we... won't be able to see each other much."
Meng Jie trailed off mid-sentence, a flicker of conflict crossing her face. Then she changed tack and rephrased it.
"It's fine. We have phones, we can keep in touch anytime."
Chen Yansen's eyes narrowed as he spoke with a faint smile, pretending not to understand the subtext in her words.
"Are you playing dumb on purpose?"
Meng Jie finally realized what was happening. Her face tightened, and she clenched her small fists, demanding angrily.
"You were the one playing dumb first. Someone clearly lost a bet but is trying to welsh on it."
Chen Yansen stared intently at Meng Jie.
Ever since he started trying to collect on the bet a few days ago, she had been avoiding him. Naturally, he wasn't happy about it.
'How dare she try to welsh on a debt to me, Boss Chen? That's going too far!'
"You damn pervert! If you're going to look, then just get it over with!"
Stared at by him, Meng Jie lowered her head. Who knows what she was thinking, but suddenly, as if she had made up her mind, she abruptly rolled up her pant leg, revealing a section of snow-white stockings.
Meng Jie wasn't tall, maybe five-foot-one at most, with a petite frame.
But her proportions were absolutely perfect. Her calves were fair and slender, like they were carved from ivory, glowing with a soft, captivating luster.
'Stockings under jeans… what a wild style!'
"Can I see how they feel?"
Chen Yansen's eyes lit up. The words had barely left his mouth when, before Meng Jie could even answer, his hand was already on her leg.
"N-no, you can't!"
Meng Jie shook her head and quickly pulled her leg back, but the momentary warm touch still made her blush furiously, her head spinning.
"Big Sis, want some shaved ice?"
Just as her world was spinning, Wang Zihao came running back, laughing and carrying three bowls of shaved ice.
"Oh, oh, thanks."
Meng Jie flusteredly took the shaved ice, grabbed the spoon, and began to hastily shovel it into her mouth.
She didn't dare look up at Chen Yansen, as if one more second of eye contact would make her explode on the spot.
"Don't mention it. By the way, what day are you planning to go register?"
Wang Zihao took a big SLURP of his shaved ice, the cold making him stick his tongue out. Once he recovered, he turned his head and asked.
"I still haven't decided if I should go to university or repeat the year."
Meng Jie gathered her courage, glanced at Chen Yansen, and then replied.
"There's no need to repeat. According to Uncle Meng's plans, you're going to work in a bank in the future anyway. Around here, whether it's a key university, a Tier 1, or a Tier 2, they're all undergraduate degrees. There's no real difference, so it won't affect your future promotions."
"Rather than waste a year, you might as well start enjoying the good life at university a step sooner."
Chen Yansen pointed at the ground beneath his feet, speaking with deadpan seriousness. His words were a complete reversal of what he'd said just moments before.
'That son of a bitch Chen Yansen! That's not what you said before you touched my leg!'
Flames shot from Meng Jie's eyes as she cursed him silently in her heart.