"Haha, Xiao Liu, you've got to keep it up."
"It's such a hot day, and this young lady is still out here helping you run a stall. You don't see many girls willing to share hardships like this these days."
"You better step it up. Don't let a catch like her slip away."
"That's right, that's right."
"Worker Zhang is spot on."
After Worker Zhang finished speaking while holding his boxed meal, a crowd of workers chimed in. They were all experienced men with kids of their own. On a scorching day like this, even sending their own children to driving school brought endless complaints, let alone dragging them out to run a street stall. On top of that, this girl was exceptionally pretty; her features suggested a gentle and yielding temperament, the absolute picture of a good homemaker. She was prime wife material.
Zhang Jingyi's eyes curved into crescent moons as she listened, her gaze shimmering with delight. Her hands moved even more briskly as she handed out the lunchboxes. These people weren't customers at all; they were practically the best teammates imaginable. And they spoke such sweet words—please, keep going.
"Hehehe."
Liu Chuanfeng didn't reply, just offering a faint smile. These people loved playing matchmaker every single day. Just a few days ago, this same Worker Zhang had claimed his daughter was a catch and tried to set her up with him. Liu Chuanfeng had taken one look at the man's face, sensed trouble, and brushed it off without a second thought. And now today, he was at it again with this nonsense.
Wang Yaofa firmly believed in his heart that the two of them were a match made in heaven. With Zhang Jingyi joining in, he could finally slack off a bit. He quietly pulled out his phone and snapped a photo from behind. In the frame, Zhang Jingyi was handing out lunchboxes to the workers and collecting money, while Liu Chuanfeng stood nearby passing out lemon iced tea. The woman was gorgeous, the man was handsome, and the two standing together looked completely harmonious, just like a young married couple.
"Time to post on QQ Zone."
"And WeChat Moments."
Wang Yaofa posted the same picture across two different platforms, determined to make sure everyone saw it.
A few days ago, those internet trolls had been running their mouths about them running a street stall. Using the campus belle to shut them up was just the ticket, and who knows, it might even boost their sales a bit.
During summer vacation, high school graduates had very few items on their daily agendas: playing video games, learning to drive, sleeping, scrolling through WeChat Moments, and reading web novels.
Everyone had plenty of spare time. Less than five minutes after he hit post, it spread like wildfire through the school circle.
One was the number-one campus belle; the other was the notoriously unattached school hunk.
The hype from the campus belle confessing to the school hunk and getting rejected had only just died down not long ago, and today brought a fresh wave of gossip.
It quickly shot to the top of the day's campus trending topics.
"What the hell! Did I wake up too late, or has the world been spinning for half a day? My sleeping posture must have been wrong—I need to go to sleep and wake up all over again."
At home, a bearded handsome guy slammed his phone face-down onto the table.
"What? Zhang Jingyi is actually helping Liu Chuanfeng run his stall? The last shred of hope in my heart has officially died. As expected, nobody can resist my goddess—not even Liu Chuanfeng. I hereby unilaterally announce that he is no longer my idol."
On a bus, a guy wearing a hat twisted his features into a grimace as he stared at his phone.
"So, they finally ended up together after all? They will never, ever have my blessing."
A guy in a black shirt stared with wide, round eyes, his face full of sheer disbelief.
"I keep telling you, running a street stall is a deeply meaningful endeavor! Not only do you gain a career, but you also win love. Any bros want to team up?"
Another handsome guy was already on the phone with his homie, getting ready to make their joint fortune.
Hmph, manipulating public opinion only takes a single picture.
Wang Yaofa put away his phone, put his hands behind his back, and looked up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, feeling a sudden sense of lightness floating through his body: ordinary mortals, simply ordinary mortals.
"Fatty, what are you standing there daydreaming for? You have zero situational awareness, all you know how to do is slack off! Can't you see we're completely swamped?"
"Oh, oh, coming!"
Yelled at by Liu Chuanfeng, Wang Yaofa snapped out of it in an instant. His swagger vanished, and he scurried over in a panic to help out, a complete 180-degree turnaround from his previous demeanor.
His photo had indeed caused a huge sensation, being forwarded not only across the various chat groups for the newly graduated high school seniors, but even spreading into the freshman and sophomore groups, and catching the eyes of quite a few parents.
"Heh, I keep saying Liu Lu's boy has got what it takes."
Sitting in his office with a cigarette hanging from one hand and looking at his phone with the other, Wang Defa showed off to the coach drinking tea nearby: "Look at that, these are my son's friends. Now *that* is what you call real capability."
"A future big-shot director who not only gets good grades and knows how to make money, but even snags the campus belle as a girlfriend. Heh, good bloodlines really do show."
"Unlike that kid of mine, who only managed to pick up a few superficial tricks about making money and nothing else."
The coach nearby let out a hollow laugh, thinking to himself: *Let him pick up even less, so when he inherits the family business, he doesn't start pulling some corporate KPI bullshit like you.*
Meanwhile, Gao Shuai, who was out taking driving lessons, also saw the picture. He checked the comments below and found very few that were to his liking.
These netizens were nothing more than a bunch of fence-sitters. Did any of them even know that Zhang Jingyi was a total hopeless romantic? The two of them had known each other for years, alright? Anyone who hadn't confessed their feelings didn't know a damn thing.
The crucial part was that Liu Chuanfeng was also flirting with that other girl from their school, Sun Qianyao.
Gao Shuai felt like he possessed the sole clear mind while everyone else was drunk. He couldn't control what other people did, but he couldn't let his other goddess fall into a trap. Without a second thought, he took a screenshot and forwarded it directly to Sun Qianyao.
"The two of them are together?"
Gao Shuai was beyond thrilled when he saw the reply, feeling as though he'd been pumped full of adrenaline. This was the first time the goddess had replied to him instantly! Did she realize the immense value of an instant reply?
It proved that the goddess kept her eyes on him at all times.
"I'm not entirely sure, but a lot of the comments are saying that."
Gao Shuai thought he was being clever. His goal was to let the goddess know that Liu Chuanfeng already had a girlfriend—and a campus belle at that—so she would lose interest in him entirely.
Yet he hadn't verified the rumor, and logically it didn't hold much water either; after all, Liu Chuanfeng had rejected the other girl's confession just days ago, so how could they possibly be together so fast? To cover his bases, he threw out a disclaimer beforehand: he wasn't the one saying it, the comments were. If it turned out they weren't together after all, well, it had nothing to do with him.
"Oh, right."
He had expected the goddess to keep chatting with him about this topic, but upon seeing this message, he realized things weren't quite turning out that way. From her tone, somehow it felt like the goddess was a little displeased.
Sun Qianyao actually was feeling somewhat displeased, or perhaps "disappointed" was a better word.
Dressed rather coolly at home, she wore only a pink cropped camisole on top. Blessed with the kind of cold, fair skin that many envied, the sunlight streaming through the window cast a slight sheen across her body. Her waist was slender and trim, showing not an ounce of fat as she lay on her side; instead, a faint, wispy vest line was vaguely visible.
On the lower half, she wore a matching pair of pink pure-cotton shorts. These form-fitting shorts outlined the curves and contours of her buttocks to perfection, while her most prized assets—her legs—were casually exposed to the air. They were straight and slender, with smooth yet unexaggerated muscle lines, her calves fine and resilient, a dead giveaway that she worked out regularly.
Unlike Zhang Jingyi's gentle and graceful demeanor, Sun Qianyao radiated the unique youthful vitality of a girl her age, and her most formidable competitive edge wasn't even her pretty face, but those killer legs of hers.