Chapter 12

Conversation flowed around the lively private room. A round-faced girl put down her chopsticks and pouted. “Our class counselor looks so fierce. She was scowling on registration day, and I didn’t dare speak to her.”

The girl beside her nodded. “Exactly! When I handed in my paperwork, she didn’t smile once. She scared me to death.”

After several glasses of Jinro, Wang Guowei was feeling the alcohol. He slapped the table and raised his voice. “A counselor? You should’ve seen my high school head teacher! They called her the Extermination Abbess!”

“But so what? Whenever she saw me, she’d walk the other way. She didn’t dare mess with me. Class Monitor Xia, if your counselor gives you trouble, tell me. I’ll take care of it!”

Everyone smiled without calling his bluff.

Wu Kai hadn’t stopped eating. The two orders of chicken wings contained nine altogether, one per person. Before he’d finished his first, he’d quietly taken a second while the others talked. When only one remained and everyone else was too polite to take it, he deliberately raised a topic and slipped it onto his own plate.

Liu Xun didn’t get a wing, but he wasn’t bothered; he assumed Wu Kai simply hadn’t had many good things to eat. What bothered him more was Xia Wei. He’d seen how uncomfortable she was and knew why. Working part-time as a massage therapist might sound disreputable, even at a legitimate five-star hotel. But he wasn’t some monster, nor was he a gossip. What was she afraid of? Did she really distrust his character that much?

Feeling mischievous, he quietly stretched out his leg and brushed her calf beneath her skirt with his bare ankle. Her skin felt smooth, and his thoughts began to wander. The first time, she didn’t understand and merely shifted aside. The second time, she looked up and met his eyes. Her face reddened all the way to her ears, and she lowered her head until she nearly disappeared beneath the table edge.

Liu Xun was amused. No wonder spoiled young men in dramas liked teasing respectable women; it really was entertaining.

Li Lei had hardly eaten. He was occupied with finding a way to get Shen Man’s QQ. Asking outright would make his intentions obvious, and a rejection in front of everyone would be humiliating. After much thought, his eyes lit up. He stood and cleared his throat.

“Everyone, since we’re getting along so well, why don’t I make a QQ group and add us all? We can keep in touch and arrange meals when we’re free.”

“Good idea!”

“Sure, make one!”

Everyone took out their phones. Li Lei quickly created the group and announced its number. Heads bent over keypads, they applied to join one after another, including Liu Xun.

Shen Man, seated opposite him, had kept her head down. But when he raised his phone, she glanced up and spotted it. “An iPhone 4? Hong Kong or US version?”

Liu Xun paused. “Hong Kong.”

She put down her chopsticks. “How much was it? Can I see?”

He hesitated; he generally disliked handing his phone to other people. Li Lei hurriedly gave him a look. “Xun, brother, Shen Man wants to see it. Let her have a look!”

Liu Xun glanced at him and passed it over. As he reached out, Shen Man spotted the green Rolex on his wrist. She raised her eyes and assessed him without showing it: Rolex Submariner, Armani shirt and trousers.

Her expression unchanged, she took the phone and turned it over in her red-nailed hands, examining it like an interesting object. “I’m jealous. You already have an iPhone 4. How much was it? I’m planning to get one when the mainland version comes out at the end of the month.”

“Not too bad. Over eight thousand.”

“Wow!” Several girls gathered around to study the black phone. Android hadn’t really spread yet, and most people still used Symbian phones.

Li Lei, however, fell silent. While the others crowded forward, he stared at his own phone. From the corner of his eye, Liu Xun saw him browsing university-district part-time jobs on an online forum, looking at posts for daily pay and weekend work.

Wang Guowei and Wu Kai felt uncomfortable watching Liu Xun impress the women. Wang Guowei in particular had assumed that, handsome as he was, his clothes were no-name brands, and even his “girlfriend” wore a faded T-shirt. Now a single phone of his cost over eight thousand. Wang had been completely outshone.

Then his gaze found Xia Wei in the corner. Unlike the other girls, she hadn’t joined the crowd around the phone. She sat quietly, as if the excitement had nothing to do with her. Comforted, Wang Guowei nodded inwardly. The woman he’d set his sights on really was different, not the shallow sort to flock to expensive things. He’d judged her correctly.

Wu Kai, meanwhile, used the distraction to sneak two more pieces of beef.

Xia Wei could bear it no longer. Liu Xun had touched her a third time. With the wall behind her, she had nowhere to retreat. She wanted to leave, but feared upsetting him and having him reveal her secret. She muttered that she was going to the restroom and hurried out without waiting for a response.

Leaning against the wall, she drew a deep breath. Before she could release it, she sensed something wrong. She looked back. Liu Xun was coming out of the room, hands in his pockets.

She spun around and doubled her pace, turned left down the corridor, and slipped through a side door into an alley. Head lowered, she walked faster and faster, her heels clacking on the paving stones.

Liu Xun hurried after her. “Xia Wei, wait!”

He’d followed only to make it clear he wouldn’t broadcast her business, so she wouldn’t keep avoiding him like the plague. But as soon as he reached her, she turned and dropped to her knees.

“P-please… don’t tell anyone about me…”