Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

It was the same for Yang Ce. He could not possibly live here every day. An occasional visit with Chen Shutang and Lin Yanhe to enjoy each other's company was all very well, but to move in together openly—his own parents would never agree to that.

Yang Ce's dormitory, however, was the deluxe-apartment kind, fully furnished, and there was no need to worry about things being stolen over the holidays, so all the basic supplies were there. There was nothing he needed to bring.

Before long it was dinnertime. Yang Ce and Zhou Yanning had a meal together, just the two of them, warm and intimate. Zhou Yanning had grown a little used to this kind of life, though she could not help feeling a pang of disappointment. "From now on, there probably won't be many chances for just the two of us, will there?"

"Why wouldn't there be?" Yang Ce laughed. "Four years of university, and you and I will be desk-mates the whole time. You've got it better than Chen Shutang—you're going to make the others jealous."

Zhou Yanning thought about it and decided he was right. Indeed, from now on she would be sitting next to Yan every day. Just thinking about it filled her with anticipation.

To be continued

1053. The Little Box in the Wardrobe

That evening, Yang Ce would have loved to hold Zhou Yanning while they slept, but he had already given his word and could not go back on it—and besides, Zhou Yanning did need some time to adjust. So after dinner, Yang Ce and Zhou Yanning went to their separate rooms.

Zhou Yanning returned to her own room, while Yang Ce did not go to the master bedroom but to the guest room where he had slept before.

Back in his room, Yang Ce turned on the computer, intending to talk Zhao Ying round in the guise of a fellow netizen—but then it struck him that Zhao Ying's new flat still had no internet access. She had applied for broadband installation, but there were too many new households in the complex and the queue would take days.

He opened QQ at random and saw a little avatar flashing away—it was Little Fox Fairy.

"Are you there?" "You there?" "Urgent matter." "Contact me the moment you're online." Little Fox Fairy had sent more than a dozen messages of that sort. Yang Ce was baffled and had no idea what she wanted with him, so he replied, "I'm here. What's the matter?"

Not long after he sent the message, Little Fox Fairy answered: "Something's happened to Lele. Did you know?"

Yang Ce frowned, unsure which Lele she meant. True enough, something had happened to Huang Yan—but Yang Ce had only just learned of it. How did Little Fox Fairy know?

So Yang Ce neither said he knew nor said he did not; he simply typed, "What happened?"

"Lele's family is forcing her to get married, and a thing this big—you really didn't know? What kind of boyfriend are you?" Little Fox Fairy sent an indignant emoji.

Reading her message, Yang Ce was taken aback. So Little Fox Fairy really did know about Lele's affairs. Somewhat suspicious, he asked, "How did you find out?"

"Never mind how I found out—do you know about this or don't you? Why aren't you worried at all?" Little Fox Fairy said anxiously.

"Lele is my wife. If I'm not worried, what are you worried about?" Yang Ce sent a sweating emoji.

"Nonsense—Lele is my good friend. Of course I'm worried!" Little Fox Fairy said.

"I only just got word of it myself, through another channel. How did you find out?" Yang Ce was somewhat suspicious of Little Fox Fairy's identity. By any reasonable account, she should not have known about Huang Yan—Huang Yan had been placed under house arrest, clearly unable to contact the outside world. So how had she gotten to Little Fox Fairy?

Yang Ce thought of fetching Zhou Yanning to help investigate Little Fox Fairy's background. He was confident that with Zhou Yanning's technical skill, tracing where Little Fox Fairy was logging in from would be a simple matter. But Yang Ce hesitated, and decided against it.

Was he not making a mountain out of a molehill? It was only when Yang Ce saw what Little Fox Fairy said next that the truth dawned on him—he really had nearly made a mountain out of a molehill.

"Lele can get online, but her computer's been restricted—no QQ or any of the chat apps, only games. She talked to me inside the game," Little Fox Fairy explained.

"So that's how it is. Don't worry, I know about this now," Yang Yanzhou said.

"What good is knowing? You have to think of a way to fix it!" Little Fox Fairy said anxiously.

"Of course I'll fix it. I'm more anxious than you are. But going abroad isn't that easy—these things take time," Yang Yanzhou said.

"Oh, heh, I was getting ahead of myself. Then go do what you need to do. I won't bother you for a while. Once Lele's all right, just leave me a message to let me know she's safe." Little Fox Fairy was unusually well-behaved today; she didn't pester Yang Ce for a gaming match.

"I will." Seeing that Little Fox Fairy truly cared about Lele and treated her as a good friend, Yang Shuoxuan was pleased and became considerably more courteous to her. Ordinary online friends—who would ever fret over such things for someone else's sake? Lele really was a fool with a fool's luck, to have a friend willing to worry so much on her behalf.

"All right then, I'm logging off. These past few days I've waited for you until late every night, and only today did you finally come online," Little Fox Fairy grumbled.

"Sorry about that. I've been busy with other things these past few days and haven't had a chance to get online," Yang Ce explained apologetically.

"Fine, I won't talk to you anymore. I'm going to sleep—school starts tomorrow, so I have to get up early," Little Fox Fairy said.

Yang Ce was taken aback. He hadn't expected Little Fox Fairy to be a student too. Tomorrow was March first, the day all the universities in Songjiang officially opened for registration. So it seemed Little Fox Fairy must be a university student.

Still, what she did for a living had little to do with Yan. Yang Shuoxuan had no intention of meeting her, so he didn't give it much thought. He glanced at the other messages, and there was one from "I'm a Big Star" for Yang Ce: "Performing every day, worn out. I miss you."

Just a few simple words, yet they held Su Ya's deep affection. As a big star, Su Ya was under the public eye in everything she did, so she rarely said such childish things—but Yang Ce was the exception.

"I miss you too. Jiajia's already awake. If there's a chance, the two of you should meet," Yang Ce replied.

After leaving the message, Yang Ce shut down the computer and set it aside. Using his penetrating vision, he looked into Zhou Yanning's room and found she had already fallen peacefully asleep, though her door was unlocked—he couldn't tell whether she'd forgotten or truly felt no need to guard against him.

But given Zhou Yanning's meticulous nature, the second possibility seemed more likely: she trusted him. And even if he were to do something, he believed Zhou Yanning wouldn't object.

But Yang Yongjin could never be the sort to go back on his word. Having promised Zhou Yanning, he would not break that promise.

He checked the time on his phone—not yet midnight, still early—so Yang Ce tiptoed out the window and made his way to Wang Yanqiu's villa.

This sneaking-around feeling struck Yang Ce as exciting, like having an affair.

Wang Yanqiu was sleeping soundly when she groggily sensed that someone had suddenly appeared beside her. Startled, she snapped fully awake and demanded, "Who's there?"

Wang Yanqiu was puzzled—how could someone have come in without the villa's alarms going off? When she made out the familiar figure in the darkness, she breathed a sigh of relief and complained, "Yang Ce, what are you doing tiptoeing in here? You scared me to death."

The alarms in the villa had all been installed by Yang Ce himself, so he knew them exceptionally well. It was only natural that his entry hadn't triggered them.