Chapter 11#
Chapter 11#
At lunch time, Tan Xiao left the library to eat. Walking on the campus road, he heard an electric scooter honking behind him. Not blocking the middle of the road, Tan Xiao thought it had nothing to do with him and didn’t look back.
The boy on the scooter called out to him: “Brother in front!”
Tan Xiao: “?”
It was the “male Bodhisattva” who had delivered him to the West Campus Gate to see Zhang Xingchuan last week, now following him on his scooter and honking “beep-beep.”
Since that day, they had met twice more on campus and naturally got to know each other. The boy’s name was Chen Shu, a junior architecture student.
Tan Xiao, though young, was a third-year PhD student. Chen Shu was quite particular about titles and asked him: “Senior, where are you going? I’ll deliver you.”
Tan Xiao was happy not to have to walk and straddled the back seat of the scooter, saying, “To Bauhinia Garden. I’m going to ‘beg for alms’ (eat).”
“Hold on tight.” Chen Shu twisted the handle and set off for the canteen.
“Have you eaten yet?” Tan Xiao said. “Senior’s treat.”
He always liked playing with others. With one more person, they could order a couple more small stir-fry dishes, so he invited Chen Shu, who had kindly given him a ride.
Chen Shu, however, said, “Rain check. Treat me next time. I’ve already made a date with my girlfriend today; I’m having lunch with her.”
Tan Xiao asked, “Is she also a student at our school?”
Mentioning his girlfriend, Chen Shu said proudly, “No, she’s from next door (Peking University), Computer Science, first year of her master’s.”
It was actually a relationship with an older woman. Tan Xiao asked, “How did you win over a senior sister from next door?”
Chen Shu said, " I didn’t ‘chase’ her. We just clicked and got together."
Tan Xiao had never experienced love, and every time he heard others talk about it, he was curious.
On the premise of not offending anyone, he always wanted to ask how they found their partners and how they dated. Listening to others talk seemed to allow him to slightly experience that kind of heartbeat and joy.
“It’s that simple?” Tan Xiao, on the back seat of the scooter, was so curious he almost wanted to stand up and ask Chen Shu. “Then how did you know you clicked?”
Chen Shu said, “You just feel it. You can’t lie to yourself. You just know naturally.”
“You’re being too exaggerated,” Tan Xiao said.
He felt this explanation was too unscientific.
Humans are animals prone to illusions. What if it was just one-sided wishful thinking and the other person didn’t feel the same way at all? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?
“Senior?” Chen Shu suddenly realized something and said in a fuss, “Don’t tell me you’ve never been in a relationship?”
Tan Xiao sat upright on the back seat of the scooter, unconsciously crossing his arms. Never dated, so what.
Chen Shu found it hard to believe this was a fact and said, “What’s going on? You’re so handsome and almost finished with your PhD, yet you’ve always been single?”
Tan Xiao played the role of a single dog with a broken “Dao heart” and said, “Don’t say anymore. My defenses are breached. If you say more, I’ll jump off the scooter.”
Chen Shu heard that he was acting and laughed out loud in front.
What is this kid so cheerful about? Tan Xiao thought.
Is having lunch with a master’s student in computer science worth being this happy? If he wanted to find a computer science master’s student for lunch, it would just be a phone call away.
“Senior, I’m off!” Chen Shu dropped Tan Xiao off at the entrance of Bauhinia Garden and whizzed away to find his girlfriend.
Tan Xiao didn’t run into anyone he knew in the canteen, so he had to eat alone, boredly observing others in the restaurant. Student couples were truly refreshing themselves in every corner at all times.
Both Tsinghua and the neighbor school advocate all-around development. Student dating has never been a taboo; it’s even a default encouraged campus culture. Environmental facilities everywhere provide natural catalysts for young men and women’s love.
Everyone is generally under great academic pressure. Finding a partner for mutual support and encouragement is also an important psychological reliance.
Tan Xiao enrolled at sixteen and has been in this school for almost eight years. During these eight years, classmates have come and gone in several waves, but those who have remained single are very few, countable on one hand.
He thought of Zhang Xingchuan, who had also spent four years here for his undergraduate degree. With Zhang Xingchuan’s looks and personality, it would be only natural for him to have had several relationships with well-matched female classmates.
That “white moonlight” sister who went to America was likely the most unforgettable of several. Maybe she was his first love?
Many books have written that no matter how many people a man loves in his life, the most unforgettable one is always his first love.
Tan Xiao began to worry about Zhang Xingchuan’s lifelong affairs.
Once Zhang Xingchuan lets go of his obsession with his “white moonlight,” he wondered what kind of sister-in-law he would find. Would she be a “queen” like Tan Xiao’s sister Tan Yun, a “capable assistant” similar to special assistant Sister Jiaxin, or a cute and charming young girl? They all seemed like well-matched CP (couple) types. Zhang Xingchuan truly was a very versatile type of CEO.
No matter what type, the sister-in-law must be beautiful and intelligent to barely match the handsome and gentle Zhang Xingchuan.
And when Zhang Xingchuan has a wife, if the “white moonlight” suddenly returns to the country… Please see: How will the CEO choose between his new love wife and his old love white moonlight?
Tan Xiao finished his lunch, having imagined eighty episodes of an urban melodramatic “sad love” vertical screen short drama starring Zhang Xingchuan.
Two days later, Tan Xiao was basking in the sun on the green space near Teaching Building 6, casually playing with a stray cat on campus.
The large framework of his defense PPT was already done. The details would have to wait for the blind review results of his thesis to be adjusted, and the results would take another month to come out.
Dr. Tan was bored out of his mind. Initially, he kept revising the PPT and made himself a bit anxious.
One day, he dreamed of a delayed graduation, was woken up by a fright at past four, and couldn’t go back to sleep.
To protect his physical and mental health, he gave himself a holiday.
This week, his schedule was to bask in the sun full-time in the morning to help his body synthesize Vitamin D, stimulate his brain to secrete serotonin, improve his mood, and drive away anxiety. He had to take a one-hour nap every day.
In the afternoon, he had free activities: reading, watching movies, and exercising.
While stroking an orange cat, he saw a girl he knew nearby also playing with a stray cat. It was a notorious cow cat, and sure enough, while things were going well, it suddenly turned hostile, gave the girl two cat punches, and ran away.
Tan Xiao laughed out loud.
The girl also saw him and said with a smile, “You, the ‘fully automatic thesis production machine,’ why have you shut down today?”
“There’s a problem with the underlying code,” Tan Xiao said. “I’m performing self-repair.”
The girl didn’t walk toward him, saying from a distance, “Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re already excellent enough.”
Tan Xiao smiled at her.
He and this girl were classmates at one time and had a decent relationship, helping each other with studies.
Until the girl once proactively invited him to see a movie and was flatly rejected by him. After that, she became cold toward Tan Xiao. Tan Xiao had tried to ease the classmate relationship without success, so he soon gave up.
Tan Xiao often felt that he didn’t care much about others. He was good with everyone during interactions, but from the bottom of his heart, he didn’t consider anyone an indispensable presence. If they came, he welcomed them; if they left, he wouldn’t be too regretful.
If you say it was his defensiveness leading to a barrier, it wasn’t really that either. He would have heart-to-heart moments with every friend. Except for family background and wealth, regarding himself, there was nothing he couldn’t tell a friend. His mood, preferences, and big or small things in life—he would pour them all out before anyone even asked.
He always longed for a sufficiently passionate starting point at the beginning of every relationship with everyone he liked.
He could be considered a classic ENFP. When he gets to know someone, they start at a full score in his heart. As the relationship deepens, he starts deducting points based on circumstances. Once the person’s score falls below passing, it’s time to say goodbye.
The girl basked in the sun on the grass for a while, then stood up and waved to Tan Xiao. Tan Xiao also waved, and without either of them speaking, the girl left.
Tan Xiao didn’t know if she had once had romantic feelings for him. He knew very well he didn’t have them for her. Toward this girl and all the girls he had met, he hadn’t yet felt the kind of liking a boy has for a girl.
In the past, he hadn’t felt that anyone he met was someone he couldn’t just say goodbye to casually.
Recently, there was someone.
His favorite friend lately, Zhang Xingchuan—or it could be said, his favorite friend of his life—won by a large margin, with no competitors at all.
Zhang Xingchuan had only had points deducted once. It was when he just started interning at Wencheng and was assigned to the marketing operations position. He was very dissatisfied and deduct some of Zhang Xingchuan’s points in a small fit of temper. Later, the score quickly went back up.
Zhang Xingchuan’s “test score” was 100 points because the full score was only 100. After being together for a long time, Chief Examiner Tan Xiao sometimes wanted to find fault, but the result was that not only could he not deduct Zhang Xingchuan’s points, but after each additional test, he couldn’t help adding a 0 after Zhang Xingchuan’s 100, then another 0, and countless 0s.
Currently, Zhang Xingchuan’s score in Tan Xiao’s heart has exceeded Zhang Xingchuan’s total assets.
There’s really nothing to be done about it. Who told this CEO to not have much money in total and even have a mortgage?
Tan Xiao missed Zhang Xingchuan again.
It was close to noon; Zhang Xingchuan should be having his lunch break.
So Tan Xiao sent him a message, saying: Look at the flowers.
Zhang Xingchuan replied: Not at the company.
Such a brief reply meant he must be busy. Tan Xiao didn’t send any more messages to disturb him.
Zhang Xingchuan soon sent another: Very busy, talk later.
He was out participating in a meeting, and at noon the attendees were going to have a working meal together. The leader of the culture and tourism department wanted to take him along for a few words. He hurriedly replied to Tan Xiao and then put away his phone.
Tan Xiao rarely took the initiative to send him messages; it seemed Dr. Tan wasn’t too busy today.
Tan Xiao knew he was busy, so he closed the dialog box, flipped through the WeChat interface, and clicked on all the little red dots. Many group chats were muted. He didn’t have much time to participate in group chats usually.
A group of Wencheng colleagues was chatting. Tan Xiao had just clicked it off, but it soon had new messages and went back to the top. Tan Xiao clicked on it and took a look.
This group was one an operations colleague he got along well with while interning at Wencheng had pulled him into. It wasn’t a work group, just for casual chatting and complaining, as well as sharing “Pin-Hao-Fan” (group buying food). People would go there to vent when they were angry with stupid leaders and colleagues; there were all kinds of messages.
Although Tan Xiao’s internship at Wencheng was short, he had changed three departments and was very outstanding, so many people knew him. However, he hadn’t had time to make many friends. Therefore, he couldn’t understand many of the internal Wencheng memes in the group, and if he didn’t understand, he wouldn’t be interested. Less than half an hour after joining the group, he had already turned off the constant notifications.
The reason he hadn’t left the group was because they occasionally chatted about things he was interested in. For example, the gossip about Zhang Xingchuan having a married “white moonlight” originated from this group.
The main subject of the current chat in the group was Vice President Sun of the Finance Division.
Seeing it was an acquaintance, Tan Xiao also looked out of curiosity.
Vice President Sun, this former Wall Street wolf with thunderous methods, was always full of “fun” (amusement) in topics outside of work. He was a man who often “darkly crawled” (acted out of bitterness/eccentricity) but was always seen by everyone while doing so.
The group was currently saying: Have you heard? Have you heard? Vice President Sun is acting out again.
The incident was that Vice President Sun had lost his temper again, smashed a cup, and spilled water all over the floor.
The cleaning lady came in to mop. While mopping, she made cynical remarks about how some people have such poor manners.
Shameful and angry, Vice President Sun wanted to slam the door and leave, but the door hinge was broken and the engineering department hadn’t come to fix it yet. When Vice President Sun exerted force, the door crashed down. Fortunately, he dodged quickly, but his big toe was hit and swollen.
There was “hahaha” after “hahaha” in the group, filled with an atmosphere of joy.
There was certainly artistic processing in this. Internet company employees know well how to catch eyes. When they gossip about people, especially leaders, they love to add fuel to the fire.
In this group, Vice President Sun was always depicted as a pufferfish less than 1.7 meters tall, puffed up with anger all day long.
Actually, Vice President Sun was more than 1.8 meters tall and didn’t look bad at all—he could be considered talented and handsome. Whatever his inner thoughts were, on the surface, he was polite when speaking to others, definitely not in the style of a pufferfish.
In the group, someone who, like Tan Xiao, came late and didn’t catch the beginning, asked: What was he angry about this time?
An insider replied: Same as last time, still because of the new ‘Feng Daying’ (a lowly concubine rank in the Qing Dynasty) in the CEO’s office.
After Tan Xiao left Wencheng, he rarely contacted his former colleagues. When Zhang Xingchuan met him, they didn’t chat about company matters either. He didn’t know that as soon as he left, there were new personnel changes.
A returnee surnamed Feng had joined the CEO’s office. He was twenty-seven years old with a Master’s in Public Administration. After joining, he quickly gained the CEO’s favor and was carefully cultivated, often being taken along when going out on business. The colleague group jokingly called this person “Feng Daying.”