"Zhou Yuwen!"
Zheng Yanyan was nearly furious at what she saw.
But honestly, her emotions were hard to describe. At first glance, Zhou Yuwen was driving a convertible sports car!? Then she noticed what he was doing—this was awkward.
The girl asking for Zhou Yuwen’s WeChat looked over and asked, "Who’s she?"
"My girlfriend."
"Oh, so should I still add you on WeChat?"
"Uh, if it’s just as friends..."
"Add, add, add—Add your head! Zhou Yuwen, you better explain yourself!"
Zheng Yanyan finally snapped out of it—damn, he was her boyfriend! She stormed over and put Zhou Yuwen in a headlock, squeezing his neck tightly. This move, of course, pressed her chest against him, but since they were a couple, neither minded. Zhou Yuwen pushed her head away, saying, "What’s there to explain?"
Meanwhile, the girl who had asked for his WeChat was still waiting. Zheng Yanyan turned to her and said, "Sis, what are you waiting for? You really want to add my boyfriend on WeChat?"
This made the girl snap out of it. Although reluctant, she eventually walked away.
After the girl left, Zheng Yanyan angrily demanded an explanation from Zhou Yuwen. "Why were you trying to add another girl on WeChat?"
"She asked if I rented out this car. She offered me a thousand yuan a day. I thought, why not make some extra cash? But now, thanks to you, I lost that opportunity."
Zheng Yanyan let go of Zhou Yuwen and scrutinized the car. "Where did this car come from?"
Not just Zheng Yanyan, but Su Qing and Shen Yu were also curious, standing nearby.
Lu Lin was the first to recognize that the person in the car was Zhou Yuwen, but her expression had subtly changed, and she hadn't fully processed it. She knew Zhou Yuwen had money, but not this much.
Zhou Yuwen retracted the convertible top, got out, and locked the car. "Didn’t I just tell you?"
Zheng Yanyan’s excitement was beyond words.
"You mean...!?"
"Yeah, just got it."
"No way! You’re kidding me, right? This car costs around seven or eight hundred thousand!" Despite everything, Zheng Yanyan was still just a young girl. This was too unbelievable, like she’d struck gold. She had just started dating Zhou Yuwen, and now he was driving a car worth seven or eight hundred thousand.
What kind of background did Zhou Yuwen have?
A rich second-generation? Or an official's child?
Either way, he was rich!
Zheng Yanyan couldn’t believe her luck.
"A bit over 800,000 yuan after taxes."
"Zhou Yuwen, where did you get the money?" Su Qing asked.
They knew Zhou Yuwen was making money from selling SIM cards, but that couldn’t have earned him enough to buy a car like this. Even if he controlled the entire university town’s market, at most, he could make three to five hundred thousand in a semester—nowhere near enough for this car.
Su Qing had always doubted Zhou Yuwen, and Zhou Yuwen had been trying to steer Su Qing away from the truth. So he simply said, "What do you mean, where? Of course, it’s from my family."
"Your family’s that rich? Aren’t you from Xu Zhou?" Zheng Yanyan, thrilled at her good fortune, asked excitedly.
"Why can’t someone from Xu Zhou be rich? What kind of logic is that? My family can't run a business?" Zhou Yuwen replied, annoyed. Then he asked if she still wanted to eat, as he was starving.
It wasn’t until Zhou Yuwen mentioned food that everyone snapped out of it and went into the cafeteria to find a spot to eat.
The M4 was parked by the cafeteria, drawing looks from everyone passing by.
Once inside, Zheng Yanyan seemed more concerned about the new car than Zhou Yuwen, constantly looking outside, afraid someone might scratch it. While getting food, she kept glancing out the window.
Zhou Yuwen asked what she was looking at, and she replied, "So many people are taking pictures. I’m worried they’ll scratch your car."
Zhou Yuwen was exasperated. While getting food, he suddenly remembered he was out of money on his meal card and said he needed to reload it.
"What’s the point of that? Just use mine," Zheng Yanyan said.
Zhou Yuwen pretended to be surprised, "Since when did you become so generous?"
Zheng Yanyan wasn’t pleased with his comment. She said, "You’re my boyfriend, aren’t you? If I’m not generous with you, who should I be generous with?"
With that, she turned and hugged Zhou Yuwen's neck, leaning into his arms.
Zhou Yuwen put his arms around her waist and said, "You should tone it down a bit."
"We’re outside, so what?"
"What’s there to worry about? We’re not doing anything illegal."
By 12:30, the cafeteria wasn’t too crowded, but Shen Yu and the others were standing in line, so they shouldn’t have come to eat with Zheng Yanyan. She had planned it that way.
They quickly grabbed some fast food, and Zheng Yanyan wanted a Coke, so she and Zhou Yuwen went to another counter, standing in line a bit longer while Shen Yu and the others found a table.
Shen Yu and Su Qing were quiet, eating in silence for a while before Shen Yu asked, "Is Zhou Yuwen’s family in business?"
"I don’t know," Su Qing replied. She had known before that his parents were public sector employees, with his father holding a minor official position. Zhou Yuwen’s family wasn’t poor, but they certainly weren’t wealthy enough to buy a convertible sports car in his freshman year.
But if he had bought a convertible, it meant this world’s Zhou Yuwen was very different from the one in her world.
There was also the possibility that Zhou Yuwen earned the money himself.
But Su Qing couldn’t figure out how Zhou Yuwen made so much money.
She was also reborn, and no matter how slow she was, she knew a few ways to make money.
The first was the lottery. But neither she nor Zhou Yuwen were lottery enthusiasts, so that was out of the question.
The second was the stock market. Su Qing knew Zhou Yuwen dabbled in stocks, but to make big money in stocks, you needed significant capital. Even if Zhou Yuwen used his campus card profits as capital, with a daily increase cap of 10%, he’d need a memory as sharp as a knife to consistently hit the market’s peak.
This was possible, but highly unlikely.
Su Qing had always suspected Zhou Yuwen was also reborn, but she needed to be 100% sure.
The third method was Bitcoin, which Su Qing planned to use to achieve financial freedom. As a woman, even with knowledge of the future, her foresight was limited. The only thing she knew was Bitcoin, so she planned to buy Bitcoin and wait for its explosive growth in 2019.
But earning millions in just a month? Su Qing couldn’t figure out how Zhou Yuwen managed that, especially with him deliberately misleading her, making her believe it was all due to the butterfly effect.
So Su Qing was genuinely puzzled.
Could this world be different from her own?
As she pondered, Zhou Yuwen and Zheng Yanyan returned with their food.
Zhou Yuwen teased Zheng Yanyan for not keeping her word, saying she promised that if he bought a car, she’d let him do as he pleased, but now she was backing out, claiming she never made such a promise.
This made things dull.
Zhou Yuwen seemed a bit upset, and Zheng Yanyan quickly tried to soothe him, saying, "Come on, you have to give me some time to prepare, right?"
Once they sat down, they didn’t continue the conversation.
Su Qing asked if Zhou Yuwen planned to drive home.
"No, I’m not going home for National Day," Zhou Yuwen replied.
"Oh," Su Qing felt a bit disappointed. She had hoped to go home with Zhou Yuwen to spend more time alone with him and maybe figure out his true identity.
Shen Yu was curious and asked if Zhou Yuwen wasn’t going home for the nine-day holiday.
"My parents are busy with work. Even if I go home, I probably won’t see them much," Zhou Yuwen said.
"They must be doing big business," Shen Yu joked.
Zhou Yuwen just smiled, leaving it at that.
It seemed that most freshmen were eating late today, with more students trickling into the cafeteria. Most of them were coming from class meetings, some dragging suitcases as they prepared to head to the station after lunch.
Zhou Yuwen and his group were halfway through their meal when Chang Hao and his friends came in. They didn’t notice Zhou Yuwen until Li Qiang’s loud voice caught Zhou Yuwen’s attention.
Zhou Yuwen turned to look, and only then did Li Qiang spot him.
"Hey, Lao Zhou’s over there," Li Qiang nudged Chang Hao.
Chang Hao noticed Zhou Yuwen and Zheng Yanyan sitting together.
It stung a little. Chang Hao was about to find a seat when Li Qiang insisted on joining Zhou Yuwen’s table.
Chang Hao thought it might seem cowardly not to join them. He told himself he couldn’t back down. He was from Beijing, with assets and property worth millions. How could he be defeated by someone from the countryside?
Besides, thinking about how Zheng Yanyan was watching him, Chang Hao finally let Li Qiang pull him over.
"Hey, Lao Zhou, why didn’t you come to the class meeting?" Li Qiang casually sat next to Zhou Yuwen, asking with a grin.
Zhou Yuwen simply replied that he had something to do.
"You weren’t off having fun with your girlfriend, were you?" Li Qiang teased, glancing at Zheng Yanyan sitting on Zhou Yuwen's other side.
Zheng Yanyan ignored him.
Since Li Qiang and Chang Hao had joined the table, the conversation noticeably dwindled. Li Qiang’s question didn’t land well, and after a few awkward minutes, Chang Hao changed the subject, asking, "So, have you guys booked your tickets yet?"
With the holidays approaching, it was hard to get a taxi near the school, especially for the first trip home, when everyone had a lot of luggage. Chang Hao had mentioned earlier that he’d borrowed a car from his uncle, and if it was convenient, he could give them a ride to the station.
Bringing up this topic made Chang Hao feel a bit melancholic. He and Zheng Yanyan had talked about driving around Jinling for a few days before heading home together. But now, in just a few days, she had become someone else’s girlfriend. What was the point of borrowing the car?
Chang Hao’s uncle was a mid-level manager at a state-owned enterprise, sent from Beijing, earning around 400,000 yuan a year with salary and bonuses.
For some reason, a conversation about cars led Chang Hao to talk about his uncle.
Though the group didn’t seem very interested, Chang Hao continued anyway. After he finished, he couldn’t help but glance at Zhou Yuwen to see his reaction.
What he saw made his mood plummet—Zhou Yuwen’s hand was resting on Zheng Yanyan’s thigh!?
Zhou Yuwen had already finished eating and was just waiting for Zheng Yanyan. With nothing else to do, and since Zheng Yanyan’s legs, in denim shorts, looked particularly attractive, Zhou Yuwen casually rested his hand there. After all, what was wrong with a boyfriend touching his girlfriend's leg?
Zheng Yanyan didn’t seem to mind at all.
But it made Chang Hao feel awful.
As the conversation turned to the difficulty of getting a taxi, Lu Lin asked Shen Yu and Su Qing when their train tickets were for. Both had tickets for the next morning since they planned to attend the student association recruitment activities in the afternoon and also had interviews with the student council.
"What about you, Lu Lin?" Zheng Yanyan asked.
"I’m not going home for National Day," Lu Lin replied.
"I’m not going home either!" Li Qiang quickly chimed in, chuckling as he spoke to Lu Lin. He asked if she planned to do some part-time work during the holiday.
Lu Lin was indeed thinking about finding a part-time job, but she hadn’t found anything suitable yet.
Li Qiang then mentioned that he had a good relationship with the head of the school’s external affairs department, who had found them a part-time job.
"If you want a part-time job, Lu Lin, I can ask the department head to find one for you," Li Qiang offered.
Zheng Yanyan chimed in, "What’s the point of doing part-time work? It’s a waste of time—you might as well have some fun instead."
Chang Hao laughed, "Not everyone is like you, Miss Beijing Princess, with no worries in the world. Some of us are poor, you know?"
Zheng Yanyan had been avoiding talking to Chang Hao, but he kept trying to engage her.
By this time, Zheng Yanyan had finished her meal. She grabbed her Coke with one hand and naturally wrapped the other around Zhou Yuwen’s arm. Zhou Yuwen’s hand was still between her legs, their fingers interlocked under the table.
Zheng Yanyan had already joined the Arts Department, while Lu Lin wasn’t planning on joining any department. Zheng Yanyan asked, "Are you busy this afternoon, Lu Lin?"
"If not, let’s go out for a spin. I’ll have Zhou Yuwen drive us around," she said, holding onto Zhou Yuwen as she spoke.
Chang Hao’s eyelid twitched, and he looked over at Zhou Yuwen.
"Drive? Lao Zhou, what car are you driving?"
Chang Hao was actually grateful that Li Qiang asked this question.
Zhou Yuwen casually replied, "It’s just a car, you know, one with four wheels."
Li Qiang rolled his eyes, "Seriously, where’d you get a car?"
"Take a guess."
Zheng Yanyan was still waiting for Lu Lin’s response, but Lu Lin declined, saying, "No, thanks. I don’t want to intrude on your alone time."
"It’s broad daylight—what’s the harm? It’ll be more fun with everyone," Zheng Yanyan said with a mischievous wink.
She was sharp; she could tell that Shen Yu and Su Qing weren’t exactly thrilled with her. So she knew she had to play her cards right. If they liked Zhou Yuwen, they’d have to get close to her. If they distanced themselves from her, they wouldn’t even get a chance to see Zhou Yuwen.
Lu Lin still seemed hesitant and glanced at Zhou Yuwen.
Zhou Yuwen said, "Don’t look at me, I’m fine with whatever."
"Come along, it’ll be more lively."
"Aren’t you going to the department recruitment this afternoon?" Su Qing asked.
Before Zhou Yuwen could answer, Zheng Yanyan jumped in, "We’ve already been specially recruited."
She then exaggerated last night’s events, emphasizing how Zhou Yuwen played the guitar and serenaded her with a song.
"Really, it was a shame you guys weren’t there. It was so romantic, and after the song, we officially got together."
Zheng Yanyan was so caught up in boasting to Su Qing and Shen Yu that she didn’t realize she was unintentionally hurting someone else.
After lunch, they had a random chat about nothing in particular, and by the time they finished, it was almost 1 PM. Chang Hao mentioned that he’d borrowed a car for tomorrow and could give them a ride to the station. He first offered to take Su Qing and Shen Yu.
Then, hesitating a bit, he asked Zheng Yanyan when she was leaving.
"Want me to drive you to the station?" Chang Hao now found himself being overly cautious even when talking to Zheng Yanyan.
"No need, my boyfriend will take me," Zheng Yanyan replied.
"My uncle’s car is probably more comfortable—it’s a business vehicle," Chang Hao muttered, not even sure what he was saying.
"Even if your uncle’s car is good, it’s not better than my boyfriend’s car."
Zheng Yanyan said this with a cheerful smile, completely unbothered.
Chang Hao felt a bit defiant, wanting to say more, but Zheng Yanyan stretched lazily and said, "Alright, I’m done talking. We’re leaving now."