Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"Heh." Auntie Zhang smiled, plainly unconvinced. Once the medicine was ready, she said, "Xiaolu, shall I put it on your tab again this time?"

"Yes. At the end of the month when I get my pay, I'll settle it all at once," Jing Yu said with a nod. She used her usual bonus for household goods and saved her salary to cover her grandmother's medical bills—no surplus, but carefully budgeted all the same.

"How much is it?" Yang Jiyan raised his head and asked.

Jing Yu was stunned, staring at Yang Ce in disbelief. As she saw it, Yang Ce should not be concerning himself with her affairs at all—better to draw a clear line between them. Yet here he was, offering to pay for her.

Auntie Zhang was taken aback too, then laughed. "Let me add it up." Seeing the look on Yang Juehuan's face, her doubts only vanished—the two of them must be together. Otherwise, was Yang Ce a fool, paying for Jing Yu out of his own pocket?

"It comes to one thousand three hundred and sixty-eight in all," Auntie Zhang said after reckoning it up.

Yang Yuting nodded, counted out two thousand yuan from his wallet, and handed it to Auntie Zhang. "Let's put down two thousand for now. Leave the rest on account here—Xiaolu will still be coming for medicine."

Seeing that Jing Yu did not object, Auntie Zhang took the money. Her own circumstances were not good either, and the shop needed cash flow; recovering some funds sooner rather than later was all to the good, so she did not decline.

Once they were out of the pharmacy, Jing Yu asked in surprise, "Why did you pay for me?"

"I told you—whatever you buy today, I'm paying," Yang Ce said. "Within reason, of course. Anything beyond that, there's nothing I can do."

Truth be told, Yang Ce felt a little sorry for Jing Yu. The girl had it hard, and if he could lend a hand, he would. Even if they could not be lovers, friends should still reach out.

"Hmph, boring." Jing Yu tossed her head. "And here I thought you'd had a change of heart and wanted to keep me."

"Don't joke around like that." Yang Ce frowned. "We're already downstairs at your place, and you're still carrying on. If you don't want me to pay, just pay me back when you get your salary."

"Not a chance—do I look like an idiot?" Jing Yu scolded playfully. "You should pay for me every time. Saves me money for cosmetics."

"Cosmetics—forget it. Your face looks better with nothing on it." Yang Ce shook his head with a bitter smile.

"What's that supposed to mean? The stuff I used before was cheap, just a few yuan off the street—how could that look good? Once I have money, I'll buy the few-hundred-yuan kind," Jing Yu said, a little wistful.

Yang Ce could not help laughing at her words. "If you know the cheap stuff is no good and still use it, isn't that a bit off?"

"I hate you." Jing Yu was a little annoyed. In her heart she thought: it's because I have no money. What girl doesn't love beauty? With no money, if not the few-yuan kind, what else could I buy?

He drove Jing Yu all the way to the foot of an old three-story walk-up. "This is it. I'm home," Jing Yu said.

"Mm. See you." Yang Ce stopped the car.

Jing Yu got out, stood outside with her hand on the door, and waved at Yang Ce. "All right, enough with the goodbyes," Yang Ce said. "Any minute now you'll let out all the heat I've got in this car."

Suddenly Jing Yu leaned down and quickly kissed Yang Ce on the cheek. Yang Ce was stunned and was about to get angry when he heard Jing Yu say softly, "Thank you, Yang Ce. Today was the happiest day of my life. It feels so good to have someone spoil me."

With that, she shut the door and hurried off toward the stairwell, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Seeing that Jing Yu was in earnest, Yang Ce hesitated, gave a faint sigh, and felt a stir in his heart. The Jing Yu of before and the Jing Yu of today were simply worlds apart from each other. Still, he had hardly spoiled her—walking with her, buying her things, all of it had been out of gratitude for her help in analyzing his feelings.

After leaving Jing Yu's place, Yang Ce checked the time on his phone. It was already past two in the afternoon; in a little while Zhao Ying would probably be out of class. Yang Ce thought he should call her ahead of time to arrange something, so she would not be tied up later.

With that in mind, he dialed Zhao Ying's number. After it connected and rang a few times, it was hung up. Yang Ce was startled and dialed again—this time it was worse: it rang once and was cut off.

Yang Ce wondered why Zhao Ying was not answering. Then a sudden alarm went through him—could Zhao Ying be angry? Thinking back to what they had said when they chatted yesterday, he immediately grew tense.

Surely the girl had not held a grudge? Yes, very likely. Yesterday she had seen him eating noodles with Wang Yanqiu, and she must have been unhappy about it; that was why she was deliberately ignoring his call now.

Yang Ce hesitated, then called Zhao Ying once more. This time it was worse than the last—Zhao Ying had actually turned her phone off. Yang Ce smiled and rubbed his chin. This was going to be tricky.

But what could he do if Zhao Ying's phone was off? Helpless, there was nothing for it but to head straight to the school. Whatever he had to say, he would say it to Zhao Ying's face.

Yang Ce drove toward the school. Halfway there, his phone chimed with the alert of an incoming text. While waiting at a red light, he picked up the phone and glanced at it—it was Zhao Ying's number.

Yang Ce hurriedly opened the message and read it.

"I'm in class. What do you want? Once wasn't enough—you had to call a second time. My classmates are all staring at me."

Reading Zhao Ying's message, Yang Ce was torn between laughter and tears. Clearly he had been overthinking things, complicating matters for himself. Thinking it over carefully now, it made sense: Zhao Ying had seen him eating noodles with Wang Yanqiu, but she had not come over to call him out on it, which meant she did not want to bring the matter out into the open—and so she would not use it as grounds to be angry with him.

Yang Ce quickly texted back: "Sister Ying, I brought you some gifts from Macau. Are you free in a bit?"

After sending the message, he waited a long while with no reply—probably because Zhao Ying's phone was off. Yang Ce thought no more of it and went on into the school, casually finding a study room to prepare for the grand undertaking of filling out his memory tree.

Most universities had plenty of study rooms; unless the school was truly tiny with too few classroom buildings, there were always many empty ones to be found. The situation Yang Ce had once heard sung about in a song called College Study Rooms—not being able to find a seat—was actually rather rare, unless it was just before final exams, when everyone and their dog turned studious.

Right now, there were not many people in the study room where Yang Ce was. Only a man and a woman—lovers, most likely—were canoodling at the back of the room. Yang Ce paid them no mind and sat down at a desk at random.

He took out paper and pen, ready to fill in his memory tree. He had just gotten set up and was about to let his thoughts flow like a spring when he heard a woman's moans from behind him—mm, ah—distinctly.

Yang Ce turned around and saw the young man groping and fondling the girl, treating Yang Ce as if he did not exist. Yang Ce felt a chill of disgust, a few beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead. Since when had college students become so brazen?

Yang Ce had thought he was open-minded enough—dating back in high school, and even having Chen Shutang do that for him in the cinema—but even then it had been furtive, for fear of being seen. These two, on the other hand, had ascended to a state of total self-forgetfulness.