Xing Wu started the car. After Qing Ye closed the door, her peripheral gaze remained fixed on him. She still remembered how she'd once casually remarked that he must look handsome while driving. Yes, he was handsome—his arm resting on the car window, steering with one hand, his deep-set eyes holding a faint light. It felt intensely familiar yet strangely distant.
Until... Xing Wu turned and said something to her. She tilted her head toward him but registered nothing, her gaze fixed and vacant as if seeing him yet not truly seeing him. A vivid image surfaced in her mind: him sitting alone in the infusion room during Lunar New Year, the empty clinic, firecrackers popping outside, the IV needle in his hand.
The thought of the needle made her instinctively glance at his hand again, until Jiang Bo tapped her seatback from the passenger side: "Qing Ye."
She suddenly snapped out of it. "Huh?"
"I'm talking to you. Why are you spacing out?"
Struggling to suppress the emotions lodged in her chest, she turned to Xing Wu: "What did you say earlier?"
Xing Wu glanced sideways at her. "Can't hear me?"
Qing Ye felt completely disoriented. Xing Wu abruptly turned the steering wheel and pulled over, directly reaching for the passenger seat's seatbelt. As he leaned across, Qing Ye froze against her seat, her heart leaping into her throat. Her eyes grew misty. Xing Wu looked up at her—her nose and eyes were flushed red, making his expression flicker momentarily. They were merely a fist's distance apart, and in those two seconds, countless unspoken emotions converged in their locked gazes.
With a "click," he fastened her seatbelt, finally silencing the persistent alarm. The cramped car fell quiet again.
Xing Wu resumed driving, and Qing Ye quickly turned away, only to meet Jiang Bo's eyes in the rearview mirror at that exact moment.
They arrived at the Industry and Commerce Bureau, where Quan Ya was already waiting. All required documents were prepared, and the ownership transfer proceeded more smoothly than expected—everything was completed in just one morning.
Xing Wu and Qing Ye sat facing each other at a service desk in the hall. After reviewing the documents, Xing Wu signed and passed them to Qing Ye, who signed her name without scrutiny.
Jiang Bo inspected the papers beside them and joked, "Signing so carelessly—aren't you afraid someone might sell you off?"
Qing Ye ignored him. Xing Wu continued handing her documents, tapping his knuckled fingers on each signature line to indicate where to sign.
Wherever he pointed, she signed—without hesitation or question.
After leaving the bureau, Sunny Valley no longer had any connection to Qing Ye. It felt as if the last thread between them had snapped. From now on, she seemingly had no excuse to return to this place.
Xing Wu drove them to the hotel to check out and retrieve their luggage. Huang Mao arrived in his minivan with Pang Hu to see Qing Ye off at the hotel entrance.
Qing Ye pulled out a complete set of Chekhov's Plays from her suitcase and gave it to Pang Hu for recitation practice.
She also gave Huang Mao a book titled The Importance of Conversational Skills .
Huang Mao stared at the book with a pained smile. Pang Hu consoled him, "It's not bad—at least she gave you a book instead of blocking you."
"..."After chatting with them briefly, Xing Wu sent them to the bus station. As the bus pulled out, Qing Ye saw Xing Wu’s car parked by the roadside. He was leaning against the door, watching them leave.
Qing Ye opened the window and stuck her head out. For a moment, she almost felt the urge to jump off the bus, but soon his figure grew increasingly blurry. By the time she turned her head, he was completely out of sight.
Her phone suddenly vibrated. She quickly took it out—Xing Wu had sent her a text with just three words: “Take care.”
She stared at those three words for a long while, her eyes moist, before typing: “You too.”
They boarded the plane in the afternoon and arrived in Beijing by evening. After getting off the plane, Jiang Bo collected his luggage and walked alongside Qing Ye. Out of nowhere, he remarked, “You and Xing Wu aren’t related by blood, are you?”
Qing Ye shot him a sharp glare. Jiang Bo suddenly burst into laughter. Qing Ye swore she had never seen such an infuriating smile in her life. If there hadn’t been so many people around, she would have loved to grind his bones to dust on the spot.
Qing Ye stopped in her tracks and asked, “What do you want?”
Jiang Bo was still laughing, his expression utterly punchable as he said, “Just reporting the truth to your dad.”
Qing Ye sneered, “Got any proof?”
Jiang Bo replied casually, “Little girl, I told you I’ve been around. You’re still too naive. Do you think your dad would be furious with himself if he found out he’d sent a lamb straight into a wolf’s den?”
Qing Ye turned and walked away without even bothering to say goodbye.
She had expected her father to confront her within three days and had even prepared a whole speech, planning to dig up every old grievance from his past to confront him on the spot.
Surprisingly, though, her father never brought up the matter even by the time the new semester started. She wondered if Lawyer Jiang had suddenly grown a conscience or if he simply lacked sufficient evidence. After all, as a lawyer, he had to be meticulous. She was confident that, during this trip back, there had been basically no concrete evidence for Lawyer Jiang to catch her in the act.
After returning from Anzi County this time, it seemed that without the ties to Sunny Valley, Qing Ye and Xing Wu drifted apart like kites with severed strings. When she first started college, Qing Ye would occasionally call Pang Hu or chat with Du Qiyan. But once a person leaves a familiar environment, the distance from former people and events gradually widens.
Sunny Valley moved to a new factory site, complete with its own warehouse and independent production and packaging lines. Quan Ya officially took on the role of manager, even carrying business cards now. He traveled frequently for work, negotiating and integrating resources with franchisees. Meanwhile, Xing Wu spent his spare time building an internet team. With Fang Jie’s financial and manpower support, offline and online resources were developed simultaneously. From the time Qing Ye took over the factory, it took just a year and a half for Sunny Valley to grow from a four-person workshop into a formal internet-based food e-commerce enterprise.If Qing Ye had initially sown the seeds in that unremarkable land, then Xing Wu later nurtured this small seed into a towering tree. Carrying forward Qing Ye's internet sales philosophy, within six months, this team with an average age of just over twenty had rapidly captured their own market share through B2C models—despite having no physical stores—by focusing on brand culture, supply chain management, and customized services. As the first purely internet-based food enterprise in Anzi County, they also secured the first round of funding since the establishment of Sunny Valley.
Meanwhile, Qing Ye's university life was equally vibrant. During the second semester of her freshman year, several significant events occurred in her dormitory, Room 319. First, in Q University's prestigious M Cup sports competition, the School of Economics and Management won the most M Cups among all 21 departments. Notably, Xie Qianqian swept all three championships in the women's Group A track and field events, instantly transforming her from an unknown freshman into the campus spotlight. The entire department erupted with excitement on the first day, and that evening, Q University's forums and message boards were abuzz with discussions about this girl's background, speculating whether she was a national team athlete.
By the second day, every competitor who saw her felt intimidated. However, what truly made Xie Qianqian a hot topic at Q University was her participation in the orienteering competition. This event required a compass and a map, demanding strong logical thinking, analytical skills, decisive judgment, and robust physical stamina—all essential qualities. After fierce competition, she emerged victorious among over a hundred participants but accidentally injured a professor during the race. The key point was... she accidentally injured a professor.
How she managed to injure a professor while competing in orienteering remained a mystery. Because of this incident, the School of Economics and Management missed out on the "Ethical Conduct Award."
Consequently, she was suddenly thrust into the limelight, facing a wave of mixed opinions and criticisms. It was rumored that she encountered significant trouble, but later, her dormmates noticed she seemed unaffected.
Shortly after this incident, Qing Ye's previously viral short video imitating various accents inexplicably began circulating within her class and soon spread throughout the department. The academic advisor specifically approached her, hoping she would represent the department in the upcoming English debate competition.
The debate opened with a captivating English speech. While all participants delivered excellent content, Qing Ye's appearance quickly drew more attention. After several rounds, she faced off against a student from Q University's Foreign Languages Department, who was also highly articulate. However, Qing Ye remained unfazed, showcasing both beauty and talent as she delivered a logically rigorous, impromptu debate without notes, earning rounds of applause.
What made it even more interesting was Qing Ye's unique debate perspective. As the opposing side, she continuously set traps for her opponent. Though the other girl was meticulous, methodically defending her arguments, Qing Ye reacted swiftly, exploiting weaknesses in the opponent's points to validate her own stance. After several exchanges, the Foreign Languages student began struggling, resorting to various examples to overwhelm Qing Ye. However, the biggest taboo in debate is attempting to persuade the opponent rather than the judges.When Qing Ye noticed a gap in her opponent's rhythm and realized the other's train of thought was being led by her, a faint, almost imperceptible smile curled at the corners of her lips.
When it came to Western backgrounds and historical overviews, she was in no way inferior to students from the Foreign Languages Department. Her opponent even frowned several times, showing an awkward expression at the breadth of Qing Ye's knowledge. After Qing Ye presented extensive evidence based on Western development history, the debate began to tilt in her favor.
She then accelerated her pace, using her momentum and gaze to engage in psychological warfare with her opponent. Under her relentless attacks, the girl faltered for just half a second and inadvertently fell into the trap Qing Ye had set, contradicting her own arguments. The audience erupted in an uproar, and Qing Ye gracefully bowed to her opponent, saying, "Thank you for agreeing with my point."
With that single remark, she instantly became famous, and this debate became the most talked-about topic at Q University in recent times. It was later recorded and regarded as a textbook example of debating.
Meng Ruihang excitedly told Qing Ye that she had been crowned the new goddess of their department. Many from the Foreign Languages Department even directly called her the "Department Flower." The fact that a student from the School of Economics and Management was honored as the Department Flower by the Foreign Languages Department quickly became a popular topic of conversation between the two departments.
Meanwhile, Qu Bing was also keeping busy, never missing out on various social work and volunteer activities. Her presence was highly active, and she connected with many top students from different faculties. Most of the gossip in the dormitory came from her. Her goal was clear: she intended to run for student council officer, and to achieve this, she was developing herself comprehensively in morality, intellect, physique, aesthetics, and labor.
While the other dormitory members were flourishing in their own ways, the previously unnoticed Sun Wanjing quietly achieved the top score in their department by the end of their freshman year, despite having entered with the lowest grades among the four.
This directly made their Dorm 319 a unique presence in Building 36. In short, everyone in this dormitory seemed to operate on an almost superhuman rhythm.
What Xie Qianqian thought about all this, they didn't know. But after the results were released, Qu Bing and Qing Ye couldn't help but express their utmost respect for Sun Wanjing's remarkable comeback.
Before summer break, everyone discussed their holiday plans. Xie Qianqian said she was going to work part-time. The other three in the dormitory fell silent for a long time—how could someone whose family chauffeur drove a Rolls-Royce say she needed to work? Though it seemed illogical, they were used to her surprising remarks.
When asked if Sun Wanjing had any travel plans for the summer, she replied, "Vacations aren't for resting; they're for surpassing others. Some win during the holidays, while others lose." After her statement, the other three fell silent again. Qing Ye, who had initially thought about catching up on sleep, felt too embarrassed to mention it.
As for Qu Bing, she said her mother asked her to return to her hometown because her cousin had just finished the college entrance exams, and she wasn't sure how things had turned out.
Speaking of the college entrance exams—yes, this year's exams had concluded. From the end of the exams until the release of the results, Qing Ye felt increasingly anxious. She couldn't pinpoint the source of her unease, but a strange restlessness lingered.
Strangely, by July, she still hadn't received any news—whether good or bad.She hadn't been in contact with people from her past for a long time, and those from Zhazha Pavilion had gradually faded from her life. The only news she heard was from Shi Min, who told her after returning that Pang Hu had been admitted to the Central Academy of Drama. Beyond that, there was no further news about that person.
However, in early July, Qing Ye inexplicably received a transfer of 200,000 yuan from Du Qiyan. She even made a special call to Du Qiyan about it, and after chatting for half an hour, she learned that Sunny Valley was about to undergo its first round of financing. Things had been extremely busy over there lately. It wasn't until after hanging up that she realized she had forgotten to ask why Du Qiyan had suddenly sent her 200,000 yuan. Could it be some kind of hush money? Were they afraid that in the future, when CEO Xing achieved great success, she might try to extort him or something? Qing Ye found this notion unacceptable. Her studies weren't even complete yet—who could say who would end up more successful in the future!
What was this baffling 200,000 yuan all about?
OpenNovel