Chapter 329 — A Word of Advice

This was a bad idea, and he had to nip it in the bud. So Xu Qianhang smiled and said, "You're the martial arts man, and Lin Yanhe is the literary one—how could the two of you possibly perform together? Joke about it all you like, but if you two actually put on a joint act, the students wouldn't stand for it. Everyone's waiting to see your martial arts!"

Yang Ce grinned and gave a noncommittal shrug, though inwardly he was all the more certain that this Xu Qianhang had designs on Lin Yanhe—the fellow was simply more subtle about it, knowing how to take things step by step and keep himself in check.

"By the way, Yang Ce, your girlfriend Chen Shutang is also a student-cadre, isn't she? She's vice-chair of the student union at the School of Economics and Management—how could she not take part in the arts festival? You ought to have a word with her. I know she's busy with her work-study job off campus, but she should join the activities the school organizes too. If she doesn't, how can she set an example?" Xu Qianhang said it as though the thought had only just crossed his mind.

In fact, Xu Qianhang was quite deliberate. He had brought up Chen Shutang on purpose, and his aim was simple: to give Lin Yanhe a reminder that Yang Ce had a girlfriend, and she should not get too close to him. It was also an oblique warning to Yang Ce—letting him know that he, Xu Qianhang, was aware of his relationship with Chen Shutang, and that he had better not go around philandering here. Otherwise he would go straight to Chen Shutang, and then Yang Ce would be in for it.

Yang Ce was no fool. The moment he heard Xu Qianhang mention Chen Shutang's name, he understood what was going through the man's mind—the fellow was reminding him that Chen Shutang was his girlfriend, and Lin Yanhe was not.

Yang Ce pretended not to have caught the innuendo and smiled faintly. "Zhiyun works at the same company as Mengyan, you know. Zhiyun, if you're busy too, why not tell Chairman Xu and skip the arts festival performance as well?"

"Can I?" Lin Yanhe said, and hearing Yang Ce put it that way, she was rather tempted.

Xu Qianhang nearly exploded with rage at Yang Ce's words. What kind of nonsense was this? Had the boy really not understood, or had he understood and was playing dumb? With him stirring the pot like that, in another moment Lin Yanhe would be backing out of the arts festival too!

And yet, from the exchange between Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe, Xu Qianhang caught a whiff of something: Lin Yanhe knew Chen Shutang! Not only that, the two of them worked a work-study job at the same company. Which made the relationship between Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe rather murky.

Since Lin Yanhe knew Chen Shutang, then she could not possibly be unaware that Chen Shutang was Yang Ce's girlfriend. And if that were so, was the relationship between Lin Yanhe and Yang Ce now merely that of very good friends, and not at all what he had imagined? Had he been overthinking it?

The waiter came in pushing the serving cart, ready to begin serving. Looking at the exquisite dishes one after another, Xu Qianhang felt the money had been spent for nothing—it wasn't going to win him any favor in Lin Yanhe's eyes.

Seeing how unruffled Lin Yanhe looked, Xu Qianhang understood: the fare before them had not made much of an impression on her. Perhaps she ate like this all the time. His strategy had been wrong from the very start—he should never have tried to attract Lin Yanhe by showing off his family's wealth. He ought to have drawn her in some other way.

And yet Lin Yanhe always dressed plainly, nothing at all like the daughter of a wealthy family. No wonder Xu Qianhang had misjudged her. In his view, most girls these days were money-worshippers. You couldn't exactly call it a flaw, but that was simply how reality worked—if you had no money and still wanted to chase girls, what were you going to do, let them drink the northwest wind?

That was why Xu Qianhang kept flaunting his comfortable family circumstances from time to time. But he had never imagined that he would be repeatedly thwarted in front of Yang Ce, nor that it would win him any goodwill from Lin Yanhe.

After the waiter set the dishes on the table, he bowed and withdrew. Xu Qianhang glanced at the spread, then smiled and gestured to Lin Yanhe and Yang Ce. "Please, Yang Ce, Lin Yanhe—we're all friends here, no need for formalities. Let's dig in."

Yang Ce found it amusing. In his heart he thought: I never expected you to foot the bill anyway, so who would bother being polite with you? He was willing to take advantage of Xu Qianhang, but he was not the same as Jin Gang had been back then, and Lin Yanhe was not Zhao Ying either.

Zhao Ying had been Yang Ce's teacher, and there had been nothing special between them at the time. Jin Gang had also counted as Yang Ce's teacher, and even after Yang Ce played him, he had swallowed the loss in silence, with no one to complain to.

Was he supposed to go around proclaiming that a student had made a fool of him? People would certainly ask him why a student had made a fool of him, and then he would have to bring up the matter of Zhao Ying.

Even so, it would not implicate Yang Ce in any way—it would only make Jin Gang look more foolish still.

But the situation now was different. Lin Yanhe and Yang Ce already had a substantive relationship, and Xu Qianhang was their classmate besides. Yang Ce was willing to take advantage of him, to hand him ammunition, to let him go around afterwards spreading word that Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe's family had taken advantage of him.

Not that Yang Ce cared what people said, but Lin Yanhe was a girl, and being talked about that way would hardly be flattering to her. So Yang Ce meant to keep his dealings with Xu Qianhang clean.

There was another consideration, too: Yang Ce did not wish to make a great enemy of someone like Xu Qianhang. His father was the boss of Songjiang Mining and a man of considerable standing in Songjiang. And Xu Qianhang was not like Wang Lin—he was not the sort to ooze malice at every turn. He was simply pursuing Lin Yanhe in the normal way; there really was no way for Yang Ce to do anything to him, and letting him retreat in the face of difficulties would have to suffice.

Without ceremony, Yang Ce picked up a crab and put it on Lin Yanhe's plate. "Zhiyun—"

Xu Qianhang naturally had no idea who Jiajia was, nor did it occur to him that she was Zhou Yanning, one of the campus beauties on the forum's ranking. He only felt that the way Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe spoke to each other was far too intimate, and it grated on him. He thought: I'm the one treating here, and you act as though you're the host. Unwilling to be outdone, he said, "That's right, Lin Yanhe, eat up. A girl who's too thin doesn't look good either."

Yang Ce paid Xu Qianhang no mind, and Lin Yanhe was busy with her crab and said nothing. He had spoken, and no one had answered. Xu Qianhang was thoroughly embarrassed.

Delicious as the dishes were, Xu Qianhang was in no mood to eat. He felt he needed to win Lin Yanhe over by some other means—plain showing off was simply too vulgar.

For one thing, Lin Yanhe's family circumstances were probably quite good, and she was simply not moved by all this so-called wealth. For another, Lin Yanhe's character probably meant she was not the sort to despise poverty and fawn on riches.

So Xu Qianhang thought he should change his approach in pursuing Lin Yanhe. Didn't they say girls loved romance? It seemed that from now on he ought to think more about romantic gestures to win her over.

The meal was thoroughly miserable for Xu Qianhang. He kept watching Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe eat, while he himself was like a waiter sitting off to one side in attendance, and from start to finish he ate hardly anything.