In the eastern quarter of the Golden Market, the young and privileged rode on silver saddles and white horses through the spring breeze. Chapter 97: Christmas, the Lovers’ Calamity (3)

In the end, Fang Yu had no choice but to accept Qin Lu’s advice and drive to Culture Park. It was Christmas Eve, and the park was holding a themed event, no doubt to attract business.

“Heehee, this cotton candy is delicious. Here, have a taste.” With a bright, girlish laugh, she held the candy to his lips.

At last they found a stone bench in the park and sat down to rest. Qin Lu carefully took a beautifully wrapped little box from her shoulder bag.

“Here. A gift for you.”

Looking at the hopeful light in the girl’s eyes, Fang Yu suddenly smiled. All that nonsense about the white moonlight and the red rose—how could a young girl’s feelings be so complicated? It was nothing more than a wish for one person, for a lifetime.

“Ha, Lu Lu, this is for me? May I open it?”

“Of course~”

Under Qin Lu’s delighted gaze, he carefully unwrapped it. Inside was a heart-shaped glass bottle filled with little hearts folded by hand.

“Mm, I’m not as rich as you, but I folded every one of these myself.”

He drew Qin Lu’s slender waist into his arms and lightly touched his lips to hers. The girl responded with graceful warmth, her arms circling his neck; plainly, she had been moved.

It was outdoors, and he did not dare be too bold. After a gentle kiss, he wrapped the box back up with care.

“I love this gift so much. If I’d received it two years earlier, maybe I would’ve even gotten into college,” he joked.

Qin Lu blushed prettily and nestled in his arms.

“Humph, spare me. With your grades, our homeroom teacher said it was questionable whether you’d even have books to study. But I do wonder—why is it that once boys get into college, they become so popular?”

“Ha, I was actually pretty popular in high school too, all right? I just couldn’t compare with Cheng Chen. You’re the one with no eye for people.”

“That’s not it at all. Back then, getting into college was a lot more important than dating.”

The afternoon unfolded in a haze of springlike tenderness. By noon they were hungry, but in the park there were only snacks like starch sausages and grilled corn. Fang Yu could not bear the hunger any longer, so he led Qin Lu out of the park and found a steakhouse nearby that served watered-down steaks.

“Damn, these watered-down steaks are still this expensive today!” he muttered as he stared at the Christmas Eve special menu.

On a holiday, couples were the best business. A 188-yuan set meal for two left him only half full. Qin Lu, on the other hand, ate with obvious relish, even finishing the complimentary borscht down to the last drop.

“What do you want to do this afternoon, baby?” he asked, smiling as he put an arm around the girl beside him.

“Didn’t Cheng Chen and the others come out with you today?” Qin Lu asked in some surprise. Normally the three of them were like conjoined twins.

“Nah. It’s Christmas Eve, after all. Cheng Chen has a girlfriend, and Lu Zhen seems to have picked up some young girl recently. Who would bother looking for a third wheel on a day like this?”

Qin Lu tilted her head, as though imagining what sort of girl Lu Zhen might be dating. After a moment, she turned back to look at him.

“Let’s go sing this afternoon, okay? You still haven’t sung that ‘A Lifetime of Love’ for me like you promised last time.”

“Sing? Just the two of us? That’s a little dull, isn’t it?”

“No, I want to go. Don’t you care about me?” Rarely, the girl pouted and leaned against his neck, shaking him insistently.

“All right, all right, of course I care about you. Let’s go.”

Seeing Qin Lu so sweet and tender, how could he bear to refuse?

By the afternoon, the karaoke place had already formed a line. Thinking about it, that made sense: people going to sing at night were either not fully coupled up or didn’t have girlfriends. Otherwise, wouldn’t they have rented a room early and be done with it? Who the hell would grab a microphone and howl for nothing?

At Qin Lu’s repeated urging, Fang Yu had no choice but to take the mic and sing her several love songs in earnest. His throat had not yet been ruined by smoke and alcohol; it was clean and clear, and he could handle plenty of difficult songs with ease.

“Heehee, so nice to listen to. I want to hear that one again—oh, wait, my phone…” Qin Lu glanced at her mobile and signaled for him to turn the sound down a little.

“Mm, mm, okay. I’m coming back now.” The girl ended the call and threw herself into his arms with a disgruntled look, apologizing as she acted spoiled.

“Waaah, my advisor told me to go back. There’s a doctoral supervisor coming to give a lecture today, and he wants me back to prepare.”

“Damn, your advisor’s a single dog? No holiday on Christmas Eve?”

“It’s not the weekend, so of course there’s no holiday. I don’t want to be apart from you either.”

If Qin Lu had not said her advisor was a woman, Fang Yu would have torn the offender apart with his own hands. After seeing the girl back to campus, he checked the time. It was only two-thirty in the afternoon, and the streets were packed with couples. The sight was enough to give anyone a headache.

“Forget it, forget it. Bad luck for me. I’ll go back to the internet café.”

The engine roared, and in just forty minutes he was at the internet café entrance.

“Hey, Fang Yu, why are you back so early?” Zhao Bin looked up in surprise.

“Shit, Qin Lu had class at school. Hm? Why are you on the day shift today?”

“Lu Zhen and Zhang Yan went out, and Cheng Chen said he was going to the city center with Li Jing.” Zhao Bin’s voice sounded muffled.

“Oh, all right.” He did not dare ask more. Shen Mo Lan did not seem to be pestering Zhao Bin lately.

It was Christmas Eve, and business at the internet café was ordinary. Many couples from the nearby schools had not come here today. When people are in love, naturally they do not want to sit at a computer and stare into space. There were still several machines free at the moment.

He flopped onto the sofa carelessly, turned on the computer, and picked a movie to watch.

At 3:15, he glanced at the clock and, a little puzzled, walked over to the cashier’s counter.

“Hey, Li Jing and Cheng Chen are out. Where’s Xia Churan? Why isn’t she here for work?”

Zhao Bin looked a bit uneasy and glanced at him cautiously.

“You didn’t know? Xia Churan was taken out by Zhu Wei. He even said they were having a candlelight dinner tonight.”

“Oh? Tsk tsk, Zhu Wei at the peak of life.” He laughed heartily, not taking it to heart.

“You’re not angry?” Zhao Bin found that strange.

“What’s there to be angry about? Even if she went and slept with Zhu Wei, I wouldn’t find it odd. After all, there are plenty of bootlickers who end up with everything.”

He digested the watered-down steak from noon very quickly and soon felt hungry again. He wandered to the snack street, thinking to grab something to eat.

“Boss, give me twenty skewers. More chicken hearts. And five chicken wings.”

By now, there was no snack-street vendor who did not know Fang Yu. The barbecue owner broke into a broad smile and hurriedly put the ingredients he wanted over the charcoal grill.

Carrying a heap of grilled skewers, he ate with grease shining around his mouth, drifting unconsciously out of the snack street and toward the school gate.

Beep beep beep.

An obnoxious horn blared and interrupted his steps. He looked up to see a bright red motorcycle stopped in front of him, its headlight flashing twice.

Fang Yu’s temper flared at once. He kicked the front of the bike, bending the license plate right out of shape.

“Beep your mother’s ass. Can’t you see I’m eating?”

Zhu Wei jumped down from the bike with a wounded look. Even while sitting on it, he had felt the weight of Fang Yu’s kick, and he hurried to inspect it with distress. One look was enough: that kick had ripped the bumper clean off.