Chapter 2

“Gentlemen, what are your names?”

Liu Xun spoke quietly, showing none of the panic a boy his age might have felt facing the two toughs.

This hardly counted as a major confrontation. In his previous life, he’d handled external relations for a construction company. Villagers had chased him around with hoes by day, and he’d drunk with local bosses until he developed stomach ulcers by night. There wasn’t much he hadn’t seen.

He wasn’t going to fight them. He only needed to say a few words, steady the situation, and keep it from turning violent.

The man on the left, whose hair was dyed blond, stared at him. “Who the hell are you? The owner? Take my advice and stay out of this.”

“Didn’t you say the debt isn’t due until tomorrow? Look how scared the poor girl is! Young people these days, honestly, they’re so easily frightened.”

“Oh, and the Double Bubble here is pretty good… What are you waiting for? Make our guests a couple of milk teas!”

As he spoke, Liu Xun reached into his pocket out of habit, then remembered again that he had no cigarettes.

“The fuck are you babbling about? You’re just a kid. You trying to play hero?” The blond man glared. “Keep your nose out of it!”

His slightly heavier companion folded his arms and sneered. “You want to rescue her? Fine. She owes us thirty-two thousand, principal and interest. Pay it today and we’ll turn around and leave.”

“If you can’t, quit showing off!”

Before Liu Xun could reply, Li Qian, who had been silent behind the counter, looked up and studied him earnestly.

“Thank you,” she said softly, stubbornness in her voice. “But this has nothing to do with you. I can handle it myself. Please go.”

Well, that was just great. He’d stepped in to help, and now neither side was happy with him.

Liu Xun was getting anxious. He liked to offer people something when he talked to them, but Li Qian apparently knew nothing about social niceties. She hadn’t even made them tea. How were they supposed to back down without losing face?

In desperation, he snatched two straws from the counter and handed them over.

“Take it easy, guys. Have a drink first… Do you know Officer Hu?”

The blond man had been about to shove him aside. At the mention of Officer Hu, he froze for a moment and, without thinking, accepted a straw.

Officer Hu was the policeman Liu Xun remembered arriving to settle the dispute. He’d stood close enough in the crowd to hear the questioning clearly. The two men had been caught by Officer Hu before, but he’d let them off lightly because they hadn’t caused serious trouble. The previous Lunar New Year, they’d even visited him with a gift of potatoes.

“Officer Hu? You know him?” the blond man asked, his tone noticeably softer.

“Sure. He’s a relative. I had hot pot at his place last New Year. Those Liangshan potatoes were something else!”

“Well…”

The two men exchanged a glance, much of their hostility melting away. If the young man had merely claimed to know Officer Hu, they might have doubted him. But the potatoes were a specialty from their hometown, the very ones they’d given the officer. Of course they were good!

The blond man sighed. “Look, brother, we’re collecting for someone else. If we don’t get the money, we’ll be in trouble too.”

“Debts should be repaid. I never said otherwise.” Liu Xun sounded sincere. “But look at her. She’s so young, working to support herself. Give her a little leeway and some time to raise the money. Even if you hound her to death today, the money won’t magically appear, will it?”

The men looked at each other and weighed it over. At last, the blond man gritted his teeth. “Fine! For Officer Hu’s sake, two days. We’ll come back then, and if we don’t see the money, we won’t be so easy to talk to!”

Li Qian stared at Liu Xun in disbelief. He’d kept calling her a “young girl” and sounded like a seasoned operator. She’d assumed some middle-aged stranger had come to her aid.

Only now, with the immediate danger past, did she look at him properly. He was a young man about her own age, around six feet tall, wearing a plain white T-shirt. He had a straight nose, a clean-cut jaw, and the fresh, wholesome good looks of an eighteen-year-old. But his eyes held the composure of someone who had seen a great deal of life.

Who was he?

As her thoughts raced, Liu Xun turned and winked at her furiously. She snapped back to the present and realized the two men were still standing there. She hurriedly made two of the shop’s signature milk teas and handed them over.

“Remember, two days!” the blond man warned again. Then he and his companion pushed through the door, slurping their drinks as they went.

Li Qian let out a long breath and bowed. “Thank you!”

“Don’t thank me yet. Will you have the money in two days?”

She shook her head, dejected.

“I thought so…”

Liu Xun could guess how she’d paid them in his previous life: probably by borrowing from one lender to pay another and sinking deeper into debt.

“Do you have a card terminal here? Can I borrow it?”

Li Qian blinked, then found one behind the counter. Liu Xun took it, inserted his card, and printed a receipt. Sure enough, the balance had seven digits.

It worked!

So… should he pay off Li Qian’s debt and get her through the crisis?

No. He had no obligation to pay anyone else’s bills, even if she was the future Most Beautiful Woman Professor. He didn’t want to spend his life groveling after women anymore. It hurt too much.

Liu Xun straightened and looked at Li Qian. Even the loose, bulky yellow uniform couldn’t conceal her shapely figure. The fabric stretched tight across her full chest, rising and falling with her breathing, its curves a striking contrast to her slender waist.

Her cool, aloof bearing was nothing like that of the internet celebrities in his later years, who relied on filters and retouching. In his previous life, how many years would he have had to grind away, how much bride price would he have had to pay, just to earn a glance from a girl like her?

“I can lend you the money,” he said suddenly. “But in return… you’ll have to work for me.”

Li Qian went pale, apparently imagining something sordid. She stepped back, instinctively shielding her chest with her hands.

“…I’m very grateful for what you did today, but I can’t accept the loan. Thank you. I’ll find a way myself.”

Did she really have to take that step back?

Liu Xun sighed. The legendary ice beauty was every bit as difficult as he’d imagined. He laid out the facts.

“If you keep borrowing to plug this hole, how much interest will you owe every day? A month of part-time work gets you, what, a little over a thousand yuan at most?”

“Relax. My freshman year starts tomorrow. I’ve only just arrived in the university district, and I don’t know my way around yet.”

“Be my personal assistant. I’ll pay you four thousand a month. No interest on the loan; we’ll deduct it from your pay until it’s paid off.”

He tore off a receipt and wrote his number on it. “I’m Liu Xun, from the Qing Institute of Science and Technology. Don’t worry about whether I have the money. Call me when you’ve made up your mind.”

With that, he turned and walked out through the glass door.

The late-August sun in Qingdu was dazzling and fierce. The asphalt radiated heat, and the air shimmered with it. Groups of young people in light summer clothes streamed along West Street, full of energy.

This was Qingdu’s university district. By 2010, more than ten universities had already moved in. Six out of every ten people here were students, and another two worked in restaurants, internet cafés, KTV lounges, and other entertainment and service businesses.

Countless young faces, countless fervent dreams, all poured from this lively place into a vibrant sea.

Liu Xun lifted his face to the blazing sun and drew a deep breath. His blood seemed to boil with excitement.

The breeze at eighteen felt wonderful.