“This, this isn’t quite right…”
It wasn’t Wen Ying questioning Xie Qian, but Peng Guoqing, holding his tray.
Xie Qian and Wen Ying both looked up at him. Peng Guoqing hurriedly placed his tray on the table.
The senior students had finished their college entrance exams and left school, while other grades continued classes, awaiting final exams. Peng Guoqing, the academic slacker, hadn’t even taken the exam and was held back a year.
He had hoped to be in Xie Qian’s class, but after Teacher Liang coldly rejected him, Peng Guoqing decisively clung to her thigh—
Teacher Liang also taught the second-year students and was the homeroom teacher for a parallel class. Her initial intention was not to accept Peng Guoqing.
Having taught at the provincial key school for years, Liang had never encountered a student as academically weak as Peng Guoqing. Taking him on could drag down her class’s university admission rate!
But Peng’s mother was very tactful. On her last visit to Rongcheng, she got the contact details of several tutoring teachers and kept in touch, occasionally sending thoughtful, modestly priced “local specialties”. Liang couldn’t bring herself to refuse Peng’s mother’s request.
With the combined efforts of Peng’s mother and son, Peng Guoqing successfully repeated the year and joined Liang’s class.
It was obviously inappropriate for a homeroom teacher to take money to tutor a student privately, as it could raise suspicions of withholding effort in class to earn extra tutoring fees.
So Liang made it clear to the Peng family upfront: if Peng Guoqing joined her class, he would need a new math tutor.
Peng Guoqing agreed instantly.
What a golden opportunity!
With Wang Shuang done with the college entrance exam, unless he failed, there would definitely be a vacancy in Xie Qian’s “tutoring class”.
This was heaven helping Peng Guoqing.
He had to seize the spot Wang Shuang would leave behind before Xie Qian picked up another slacker!
After all, with Liang no longer tutoring him in math, where else could he find a suitable math teacher?
The only one on par with Liang was Xie Qian!
Peng Guoqing had it all planned out, constantly making his presence felt around Xie Qian.
Overhearing Xie Qian’s “filial son” behaviour, Peng Guoqing had a sudden idea:
He couldn’t just agree with Xie Qian all the time. He needed to voice his own opinions boldly to catch Xie Qian’s attention, to make Xie Qian think he was still salvageable—yes, that was it. It definitely wasn’t because he noticed Xie Qian seemed to prioritise Wen Ying’s interests over his own mother, Zou Weijun, prompting a last-minute shift to a roundabout strategy of pleasing Wen Ying instead of Xie Qian!
“What’s wrong with it?”
Xie Qian asked Peng Guoqing.
Peng Guoqing puffed out his chest, looking resolute. “Xie Qian, you’re not doing this right. Sure, Wen Ying is your good friend, but Aunt Zou is your mother. How can you encourage Wen Ying to threaten Aunt Zou? That’s valuing a friend over your mother, er, you get the idea!”
He emphasised “good friend” and “valuing a friend over your mother” heavily.
On the surface, Peng Guoqing was scolding Xie Qian, but in reality, he was playing matchmaker.
“Good friend” could mean “girlfriend”, and “valuing a friend over your mother” could be read as “forgetting your mother for your wife”. What girl wouldn’t be thrilled to hear her boyfriend valued her so much?
Peng Guoqing’s little manoeuvre was noticed by both Xie Qian and Wen Ying.
Xie Qian frowned, thinking Peng Guoqing was talking too much.
That wasn’t what he meant at all. After Peng Guoqing’s presumptuous interpretation, would Hamster misunderstand?
Xie Qian looked at Wen Ying, who happened to look up at him. Their eyes met, and Wen Ying’s mind flashed with memories of their moments together: holding hands at Hunan Airport, the pink paper star under the wisteria. These unspoken moments made Wen Ying, with two lifetimes of experience, unable to remain calm.
Even if Xie Qian did have feelings for her, would he really, as Peng Guoqing said, “value a friend over his mother”?
No.
Some clueless boys might do such things to show they valued a girl, but Xie Qian wouldn’t—not with his intelligence. He wouldn’t deliberately create conflict between the girl he liked and his mother!
The girl Xie Qian liked… The mere thought of that phrase made Wen Ying’s cheeks flush slightly. She suppressed the strange emotion, regained her rationality, and refuted Peng Guoqing:
“Xie Qian isn’t valuing a friend over his mother, nor is he encouraging me to threaten Aunt Zou with jumping ship. Rongcheng Literature Press and Aunt Zou aren’t the same. Aunt Zou just works there, she’s not the boss. When I negotiate higher royalties with Aunt Zou, I’m essentially negotiating with the publisher!”
Zou Weijun was the bridge between Wen Ying and the publisher. It was because of Zou Weijun that Wen Ying signed with Rongcheng Literature Press.
Without Zou Weijun, Rongcheng Literature Press was no different from any other publisher to Wen Ying.
Zou Weijun had to be responsible for her job and couldn’t offer Wen Ying excessively high royalties right away. Similarly, Wen Ying could be responsible for her work, insisting on royalties that matched her work’s quality and personal popularity.
That was what Xie Qian meant by “speaking business”!
After Wen Ying said this, Xie Qian’s expression softened.
There was no moment more perfect than this.
His words, his intentions, didn’t need others’ overinterpretation—Hamster understood him!
So what was Peng Guoqing doing here with his tray?
Xie Qian couldn’t be bothered with the presumptuous slacker.
Uh—
Feeling Xie Qian’s disdain, Peng Guoqing realised he had become the odd one out.
Wen Ying and Xie Qian hadn’t even said anything romantic, so why did it make a single guy like him so uncomfortable!
Peng Guoqing looked at his tray, now on the table, and struggled internally: Should he pick it up and leave, or crawl under the table to eat?
Poor Peng the slacker, his face red, finally came up with a second topic to get closer to Wen Ying:
“Hey, Wen Ying, isn’t that drama you wrote about to air? I heard girls in our class talking about it today. They said they’ll support your drama, but they talked more about that Yu Tianlin and Hu Man scandal. That won’t affect your drama, will it?”
Of course it would!
Wen Ying perked up. “What did the girls in your class say?”
Peng Guoqing breathed a sigh of relief.
He didn’t care about celebrity scandals, but because the girls mentioned “The Galaxy and You”, he listened a bit longer.
The girls only briefly mentioned “The Galaxy and You”, but their eyes lit up like little bulbs when discussing Yu Tianlin and Hu Man’s scandal, chattering endlessly. They analysed Yu Tianlin’s past rumoured girlfriends and Hu Man’s romantic history, trying to decipher their real relationship.
Some clear-headed ones thought it was a publicity stunt since Yu Tianlin’s new drama was about to air.
This view was quickly dismissed by other girls.
Some girls, who used to like Yu Tianlin, said if he was really with Hu Man, they wouldn’t like him anymore.
Amid the jumble of gossip, Peng Guoqing had his own takeaway: So many people were talking about Yu Tianlin’s scandal, inevitably mentioning his new drama. In contrast, fewer discussed “The Galaxy and You”. Wen Ying’s first independently written drama—would it just flop inexplicably?
As he spoke, Peng Guoqing sneaked glances at Xie Qian.
—Xie Qian could be a “filial son” for Wen Ying, so why wasn’t he worried now? Was he just going to watch Wen Ying’s drama go cold?!
