By the time they arrived at Shanghe Gardens, it was indeed almost noon. Spotting Yang Wei standing to one side, stealthily typing on her phone, Jian Shuang leaned over and asked, "What are you doing?"
Yang Wei had just sent off her text. Reading the name of the recipient, Jian Shuang raised an eyebrow. "Haven't you already divorced Professor Qi? Why are you still reporting back to him?"
Yang Wei put away her mobile phone with a smile. "I told him you were driving."
Jian Shuang: "..."
"You can take a bus back by yourself this afternoon." Jian Shuang grinned back, then pulled Xia Ying through the gate.
Shanghe Gardens contained several smaller parks. Yang Wei followed Jian Shuang and Xia Ying out from the rose garden and into another section.
"What on earth is this flower? It's gorgeous!" Jian Shuang held up her camera to take a close-up of the colorful blooms before her. "It's kinda like corn?"
Yang Wei gave a lopsided smile. "Lupines1. It was written at the door."
Jian Shuang turned to place her camera in Yang Wei's hands, pulling Xia Ying over to stand before the flower field. "Take a picture for us!" As she raised the camera, a tall, handsome boy approached her from the side and asked shyly, "Excuse me, would you mind taking a photo for us too?"
He pointed. Behind him were two other boys standing there, looking over at them with a smile. Jian Shuang approached, confiscating the boy's camera and thrusting it into Xia Ying's hand. "She's married, but this one here is still single. There's still hope!"
...
All three were embarrassed. Xia Ying took a photo for the boys before hurrying back. "How did it go?" Jian Shuang asked sneakily. “They look like college students, don't they? Little fresh meat.”
"I don't like younger guys." Xia Ying directed a farewell gesture toward her.
"Only love can quickly heal the heart wounded by your boss. Don't be so picky right now," Jian Shuang told her in disapproval.
Xia Ying bared her teeth in a smile, then dragged Yang Wei along. Behind them, Jian Shuang continued earnestly persuading, "Oh come on! When was the last time you even held hands?"
Xia Ying: "..."
Jian Shuang eyed Yang Wei. "You shouldn't ever have held hands with Professor Qi either, right? He seems like the kind of person who would just go straight to bed and solve the problem."
Yang Wei: "..."
Although she really wanted to deny it, she couldn't.
"Listen up. Women are like these flowers. We need love to rain on us in order to shine brightly, get it?" Jian Shuang said with deep feeling, then took a picture of a stand of lupines in front of them.
Yang Wei and Xia Ying ignored her and left her behind. As they approached the park entrance, they found people there selling flowers. Having watched them awhile, Jian Shuang inquired of Yang Wei, "By the way, are you growing those roses on your Weibo?"
"Yes."
"You actually kept flowers alive!." Jian Shuang thought of that odd poem on Weibo, then revealed an incredible expression. "Is this the power of love?"
"It's probably the power of water and fertilizer.”
As Jian Shuang lamented her ignorance of romance, the little brother selling flowers handed a rose to Xia Ying all of a sudden. A little taken aback, Xia Ying smiled at him. "How much is it?"
"Just your smile is enough," the little brother told her.
Xia Ying blushed immediately, and Jian Shuang looked at the little brother as though she had just seen a rare animal. "Good God! Men like you who can say such pretty words are on the verge of extinction nowadays!"
The little brother smiled at Xia Ying, "You have a lovely smile. I hope you'll do it more."
A little awkwardly, Xia Ying thanked him, then ran out of the flower shop. Jian Shuang and Yang Wei followed her out, beating the topic to death. "That little flower seller must be interested in you. Do you really not want to investigate a little?"
Xia Ying said nothing, so Jian Shuang continued on. "You guys wanna bet he was using some love phrasebook? I hear that nowadays you can plug some regular words into Google Translate, change them into Japanese, then Russian, then French, Spanish, Arabic, and finally back to Chinese and you'll get a love poem."
"Really?" Yang Wei asked in surprised.
"I haven't tried it. You can try it later yourself."
Yang Wei raised her eyebrows. Maybe Professor Qi could give it a try. He was better at her at figuring out these algorithm-ish things.
Xia Ying, who was walked in front of them, suddenly halted in her tracks. She turned around to hand them a business card. "It was with the rose."
Jian Shuang took a look. The card contained the address and contact information of the flower shop just now. She raised a brow and patted Xia Ying heavily on the shoulder, "Brave girl, be carefree! Spring is here, what are you waiting for?!"
Xia Ying never went back to the little flower seller in the end. Tired after walking, the three ordered a number of dishes from a snack bar by the roadside and found a place to sit down.
Jian Shuang played with her chopsticks as she spoke to Xia Ying, "Speaking of that, even though Wei Wei'er was our class's flower when we were in school, didn't the class secretary have a crush on you? I remember him putting a heart-shaped candle at the bottom of the dorm building once."
Xia Ying made a face. "I ended up being told off by the dorm auntie for a week."
Jian Shuang laughed. "Does he know you're back? I hear he's doing pretty well in A City nowadays. He said he'd host a reunion for all us classmates a few days ago. Are you going?"
"Nope," Xia Ying said firmly.
Jian Shuang whispered something in her ear. Xia Ying looked at her in disbelief, "Really? Maybe I'll go after all."
"What did you say to her?" Yang Wei asked Jian Shuang curiously.
"Oh, nothing much, just that the class secretary's bank card has quite a number of zeros."
Yang Wei was stunned for a moment. "How do you know how many zeroes are on his bank card?"
"Actually, I haven't the faintest idea," Jiang Shuang admitted.
Yang Wei: "..."
Xia Ying: "..."
After eating, the three drove back to the city. On the way, Yang Wei took out her phone, scrolling through online gossip, and ran across a shocking piece of news. "Wait for Three More Minutes is Octopus Ball's girlfriend?!"
The driver in front of her was so startled that the car made an S-curve on the road. "What did you say?! Isn't Wait For Three More Minutes the one writing stories for Pujiang?"
Yang Wei and Xia Ying were both in shock. "Don't get too worked up, I'll look."
Yang Wei continued reading Weibo, "Wait for Three More Minutes and Octopus Ball are both denying this matter..." She paused here. Jian Shuang urged impatiently, "And?"
"And then... someone broke the news that Wait For Three More Minutes and Octopus Ball were actually the same person..."
The car swerved again. Xia Ying sat up, holding on to the back of the driver's chair, and told Jiang Shuang, "I have a driver's license too. Let me drive."
..................
Once the driver had changed, Jian Shuang sat beside Yang Wei, scrolling through their phones together. The matter was in full swing on the Pujiang forum. Jian Shuang clicked on the thread with the most replies and began reading.
"I've always felt like the two have super similar styles of writing! Especially being able to update 110,000 characters in three days, only the Great God could do that!"
"Couldn't they just be writing ahead in that case? I know of a few authors who don't post their stories until the full text is written.”
"Wait, what are you talking about? Octopus Ball and Wait For Three More Minutes are the same person?...Octopus Ball is a woman?!!!"
"Check your IQ, Upstairs... obviously Wait for Three More Minutes is a man."
"Good heavens! I was in the same editorial group as Wait for Three More Minutes, and we even discussed choosing clothes! They answered me in such a clear and straightforward way!"
"...Upstairs, that's just too much information to process! I can't even look straight at it."
"Octopus Ball has been abroad all this time. It makes sense that they would be more open-minded. They probably know about that sort of thing from chatting with their girlfriends."
"I heard that he's a rich second generation, and his family has super deep pockets."
"That's just you hearing about it. If you've got evidence, go for it, if not, get lost."
......
Though the forum was very lively, neither Wait For Three More Minutes' page nor Octopus Ball's had posted anything official. Yang Wei frowned and sent a text message to Fang Cheng Ran. "Is Wait for Three More Minutes your alt?"
It was not until she got home that she received a reply. "...Yes. I used a classmate's ID to open it. ○| ̄|_ It was just an account I opened to play around casually in, I never expected it to get so hot. It was reported by another author this time, so I don't think I'll be able to use it again until this is over. I'm sorry I kept it from you."
Yang Wei felt cheated just thinking about how she had had such a good time chatting with Wait for Three More Minutes. She tossed her phone aside and didn't reply. After a little while, Fang Cheng Ran’s text message came through again, and she looked at it. Apologies filled the phone screen.
Pursing her lips, she still did not reply. A little later, the phone screen lit up again.
Fang Cheng Ran: Gomeeen2 qaq
Yang Wei: "..."
Playing cute was just too shameful!
She considered it, then wrote back, "I accept your apology, but I don't want to see you for a week [bye bye]"
Fang Cheng Ran: "..."
Yang Wei had no classes that night. After taking a shower, she sat comfortably in bed and watched TV. A box of yoghurt sat on the table, which Qi Xiao Yan had bought. Since that particular brand of yoghurt was rather pricey, Yang Wei felt very distressed whenever she bought it herself, and had specifically gotten three boxes the last time Qi Xiao Yan had taken her to the supermarket.
The phone on the table vibrated. Yang Wei glanced at the curly little avatar on the screen and paused the TV.
"What is it?"
"Did you have a good time today?"
"Not bad, a few college students chatted me up~"
On the other end of the line, Qi Xiao Yan was silent. "You married woman, don't you feel ashamed deceiving college students?"
Yang Wei patted the table. "Who are you calling a married woman?"
"Look up at the wedding photo on the wall. Who do you see? "
"I'm sorry, I only saw the divorce certificate in the drawer."
Qi Xiao Yan was speechless for three seconds. Yang Wei added a point to her tally.
He asked, "Are you free tomorrow?"
Yang Wei snorted. "What business is that of yours? Are you going to ask a married woman out to eat?"
"I think so." Qi Xiao Yan paused. "I checked the Labour Day film release. There's a romantic comedy showing. Do you want to go?"
"We'd better not. I'd be embarrassed if you fell asleep in the cinema."
Qi Xiao Yan: "..."
Yang Wei silently gave herself another point. She had once asked Qi Xiao Yan to the cinema before, and this was how he had replied--
'I have never understood why so many people like to spend time and money watching some fictional story in a cinema. Most of them are boring. There's no meaning in them except to help you fall asleep.'
After a moment of silence, Qi Xiao Yan said, "One of my colleagues told me that love makes people try things they thought they weren't good at, or which were previously impossible. I'm doing it now."
Yang Wei reflected on his words, then her eyebrows furrowed a little. "Are you saying that you love me?"
"Your logical thinking has improved."
She rolled her eyes at the phone. "What time tomorrow?"
By the time they arrived at Shanghe Gardens, it was indeed almost noon. Spotting Yang Wei standing to one side, stealthily typing on her phone, Jian Shuang leaned over and asked, "What are you doing?"
Yang Wei had just sent off her text. Reading the name of the recipient, Jian Shuang raised an eyebrow. "Haven't you already divorced Professor Qi? Why are you still reporting back to him?"
Yang Wei put away her mobile phone with a smile. "I told him you were driving."
Jian Shuang: "..."
"You can take a bus back by yourself this afternoon." Jian Shuang grinned back, then pulled Xia Ying through the gate.
Shanghe Gardens contained several smaller parks. Yang Wei followed Jian Shuang and Xia Ying out from the rose garden and into another section.
"What on earth is this flower? It's gorgeous!" Jian Shuang held up her camera to take a close-up of the colorful blooms before her. "It's kinda like corn?"
Yang Wei gave a lopsided smile. "Lupines1. It was written at the door."
Jian Shuang turned to place her camera in Yang Wei's hands, pulling Xia Ying over to stand before the flower field. "Take a picture for us!" As she raised the camera, a tall, handsome boy approached her from the side and asked shyly, "Excuse me, would you mind taking a photo for us too?"
He pointed. Behind him were two other boys standing there, looking over at them with a smile. Jian Shuang approached, confiscating the boy's camera and thrusting it into Xia Ying's hand. "She's married, but this one here is still single. There's still hope!"
...
All three were embarrassed. Xia Ying took a photo for the boys before hurrying back. "How did it go?" Jian Shuang asked sneakily. “They look like college students, don't they? Little fresh meat.”
"I don't like younger guys." Xia Ying directed a farewell gesture toward her.
"Only love can quickly heal the heart wounded by your boss. Don't be so picky right now," Jian Shuang told her in disapproval.
Xia Ying bared her teeth in a smile, then dragged Yang Wei along. Behind them, Jian Shuang continued earnestly persuading, "Oh come on! When was the last time you even held hands?"
Xia Ying: "..."
Jian Shuang eyed Yang Wei. "You shouldn't ever have held hands with Professor Qi either, right? He seems like the kind of person who would just go straight to bed and solve the problem."
Yang Wei: "..."
Although she really wanted to deny it, she couldn't.
"Listen up. Women are like these flowers. We need love to rain on us in order to shine brightly, get it?" Jian Shuang said with deep feeling, then took a picture of a stand of lupines in front of them.
Yang Wei and Xia Ying ignored her and left her behind. As they approached the park entrance, they found people there selling flowers. Having watched them awhile, Jian Shuang inquired of Yang Wei, "By the way, are you growing those roses on your Weibo?"
"Yes."
"You actually kept flowers alive!." Jian Shuang thought of that odd poem on Weibo, then revealed an incredible expression. "Is this the power of love?"
"It's probably the power of water and fertilizer.”
As Jian Shuang lamented her ignorance of romance, the little brother selling flowers handed a rose to Xia Ying all of a sudden. A little taken aback, Xia Ying smiled at him. "How much is it?"
"Just your smile is enough," the little brother told her.
Xia Ying blushed immediately, and Jian Shuang looked at the little brother as though she had just seen a rare animal. "Good God! Men like you who can say such pretty words are on the verge of extinction nowadays!"
The little brother smiled at Xia Ying, "You have a lovely smile. I hope you'll do it more."
A little awkwardly, Xia Ying thanked him, then ran out of the flower shop. Jian Shuang and Yang Wei followed her out, beating the topic to death. "That little flower seller must be interested in you. Do you really not want to investigate a little?"
Xia Ying said nothing, so Jian Shuang continued on. "You guys wanna bet he was using some love phrasebook? I hear that nowadays you can plug some regular words into Google Translate, change them into Japanese, then Russian, then French, Spanish, Arabic, and finally back to Chinese and you'll get a love poem."
"Really?" Yang Wei asked in surprised.
"I haven't tried it. You can try it later yourself."
Yang Wei raised her eyebrows. Maybe Professor Qi could give it a try. He was better at her at figuring out these algorithm-ish things.
Xia Ying, who was walked in front of them, suddenly halted in her tracks. She turned around to hand them a business card. "It was with the rose."
Jian Shuang took a look. The card contained the address and contact information of the flower shop just now. She raised a brow and patted Xia Ying heavily on the shoulder, "Brave girl, be carefree! Spring is here, what are you waiting for?!"
Xia Ying never went back to the little flower seller in the end. Tired after walking, the three ordered a number of dishes from a snack bar by the roadside and found a place to sit down.
Jian Shuang played with her chopsticks as she spoke to Xia Ying, "Speaking of that, even though Wei Wei'er was our class's flower when we were in school, didn't the class secretary have a crush on you? I remember him putting a heart-shaped candle at the bottom of the dorm building once."
Xia Ying made a face. "I ended up being told off by the dorm auntie for a week."
Jian Shuang laughed. "Does he know you're back? I hear he's doing pretty well in A City nowadays. He said he'd host a reunion for all us classmates a few days ago. Are you going?"
"Nope," Xia Ying said firmly.
Jian Shuang whispered something in her ear. Xia Ying looked at her in disbelief, "Really? Maybe I'll go after all."
"What did you say to her?" Yang Wei asked Jian Shuang curiously.
"Oh, nothing much, just that the class secretary's bank card has quite a number of zeros."
Yang Wei was stunned for a moment. "How do you know how many zeroes are on his bank card?"
"Actually, I haven't the faintest idea," Jiang Shuang admitted.
Yang Wei: "..."
Xia Ying: "..."
After eating, the three drove back to the city. On the way, Yang Wei took out her phone, scrolling through online gossip, and ran across a shocking piece of news. "Wait for Three More Minutes is Octopus Ball's girlfriend?!"
The driver in front of her was so startled that the car made an S-curve on the road. "What did you say?! Isn't Wait For Three More Minutes the one writing stories for Pujiang?"
Yang Wei and Xia Ying were both in shock. "Don't get too worked up, I'll look."
Yang Wei continued reading Weibo, "Wait for Three More Minutes and Octopus Ball are both denying this matter..." She paused here. Jian Shuang urged impatiently, "And?"
"And then... someone broke the news that Wait For Three More Minutes and Octopus Ball were actually the same person..."
The car swerved again. Xia Ying sat up, holding on to the back of the driver's chair, and told Jiang Shuang, "I have a driver's license too. Let me drive."
..................
Once the driver had changed, Jian Shuang sat beside Yang Wei, scrolling through their phones together. The matter was in full swing on the Pujiang forum. Jian Shuang clicked on the thread with the most replies and began reading.
"I've always felt like the two have super similar styles of writing! Especially being able to update 110,000 characters in three days, only the Great God could do that!"
"Couldn't they just be writing ahead in that case? I know of a few authors who don't post their stories until the full text is written.”
"Wait, what are you talking about? Octopus Ball and Wait For Three More Minutes are the same person?...Octopus Ball is a woman?!!!"
"Check your IQ, Upstairs... obviously Wait for Three More Minutes is a man."
"Good heavens! I was in the same editorial group as Wait for Three More Minutes, and we even discussed choosing clothes! They answered me in such a clear and straightforward way!"
"...Upstairs, that's just too much information to process! I can't even look straight at it."
"Octopus Ball has been abroad all this time. It makes sense that they would be more open-minded. They probably know about that sort of thing from chatting with their girlfriends."
"I heard that he's a rich second generation, and his family has super deep pockets."
"That's just you hearing about it. If you've got evidence, go for it, if not, get lost."
......
Though the forum was very lively, neither Wait For Three More Minutes' page nor Octopus Ball's had posted anything official. Yang Wei frowned and sent a text message to Fang Cheng Ran. "Is Wait for Three More Minutes your alt?"
It was not until she got home that she received a reply. "...Yes. I used a classmate's ID to open it. ○| ̄|_ It was just an account I opened to play around casually in, I never expected it to get so hot. It was reported by another author this time, so I don't think I'll be able to use it again until this is over. I'm sorry I kept it from you."
Yang Wei felt cheated just thinking about how she had had such a good time chatting with Wait for Three More Minutes. She tossed her phone aside and didn't reply. After a little while, Fang Cheng Ran’s text message came through again, and she looked at it. Apologies filled the phone screen.
Pursing her lips, she still did not reply. A little later, the phone screen lit up again.
Fang Cheng Ran: Gomeeen2 qaq
Yang Wei: "..."
Playing cute was just too shameful!
She considered it, then wrote back, "I accept your apology, but I don't want to see you for a week [bye bye]"
Fang Cheng Ran: "..."
Yang Wei had no classes that night. After taking a shower, she sat comfortably in bed and watched TV. A box of yoghurt sat on the table, which Qi Xiao Yan had bought. Since that particular brand of yoghurt was rather pricey, Yang Wei felt very distressed whenever she bought it herself, and had specifically gotten three boxes the last time Qi Xiao Yan had taken her to the supermarket.
The phone on the table vibrated. Yang Wei glanced at the curly little avatar on the screen and paused the TV.
"What is it?"
"Did you have a good time today?"
"Not bad, a few college students chatted me up~"
On the other end of the line, Qi Xiao Yan was silent. "You married woman, don't you feel ashamed deceiving college students?"
Yang Wei patted the table. "Who are you calling a married woman?"
"Look up at the wedding photo on the wall. Who do you see? "
"I'm sorry, I only saw the divorce certificate in the drawer."
Qi Xiao Yan was speechless for three seconds. Yang Wei added a point to her tally.
He asked, "Are you free tomorrow?"
Yang Wei snorted. "What business is that of yours? Are you going to ask a married woman out to eat?"
"I think so." Qi Xiao Yan paused. "I checked the Labour Day film release. There's a romantic comedy showing. Do you want to go?"
"We'd better not. I'd be embarrassed if you fell asleep in the cinema."
Qi Xiao Yan: "..."
Yang Wei silently gave herself another point. She had once asked Qi Xiao Yan to the cinema before, and this was how he had replied--
'I have never understood why so many people like to spend time and money watching some fictional story in a cinema. Most of them are boring. There's no meaning in them except to help you fall asleep.'
After a moment of silence, Qi Xiao Yan said, "One of my colleagues told me that love makes people try things they thought they weren't good at, or which were previously impossible. I'm doing it now."
Yang Wei reflected on his words, then her eyebrows furrowed a little. "Are you saying that you love me?"
"Your logical thinking has improved."
She rolled her eyes at the phone. "What time tomorrow?"
