Right at this moment, Meng Qingyan walked over dressed in casual wear. Today, not only was he dressed casually, but he had also specially styled his hair, leaving a few wispy bangs on his forehead that made him look less stern.
Because of their chat on the subway last time, he learned from Song Xinxin's words that he was a full seven years older than her, and since he usually liked to wear formal suits, his overall look seemed a bit too mature. Standing next to Song Xinxin, it always felt somewhat out of place wherever you looked, which gave him the idea to change his image.
Song Xinxin spotted him at a glance, but didn't dare to step forward, because this look was indeed quite different from the way she had previously encountered him. It wasn't until he drew closer that Song Xinxin still stretched out her neck and looked all over his face before finally confirming that the person in front of her was him, and then she greeted him with a cheerful grin, "Hoodlum Bro, you're here?"
Meng Qingyan, on the other hand, was caught somewhat off guard by her intense gaze. Perhaps feeling a bit shy—after all, in all his years growing up, no one had ever leaned in so close to examine his face—he didn't know what to say for a moment, and after a long while, he managed just a single syllable: "Yeah..."
"You look both young and cute today." Because she was in a good mood, Song Xinxin spoke with a sweet smile hanging at the corners of her mouth.
Being called cute for the first time, Meng Qingyan felt a bit awkward and reminded her, "A man shouldn't be described as cute..."
Regarding his statement, Song Xinxin expressed her disagreement. "Why not? But I just think the way you have your bangs down looks really cute!"
*"Fine, I can't win an argument against her, I might as well just go along with her,"* Meng Qingyan thought to himself, and stopped refuting the word cute.
"You can say I'm cute if you want, but the way you're smiling today is very cute too. Did you encounter something happy today?" Meng Qingyan was more curious about her good mood.
Song Xinxin gave a dry chuckle. "I don't like people calling me cute either! As for happy things, does beating someone up count?" After saying that, Song Xinxin flashed a smug smile.
Meng Qingyan froze for a moment, thinking, *"What's wrong with this girl? She likes beating people up! Should I go practice my tolerance for physical blows?"*
Watching the changing expressions on his face, Song Xinxin smiled even more happily and then asked, "How did you suddenly think of changing your image?"
Fearing that his little secret would be exposed, Meng Qingyan had no choice but to find an excuse to cover it up. "I didn't suddenly change my image. It's just that I had to wear formal suits for negotiations before, but now that I'm seeing you, I'm not here for a business talk, so I naturally went back to my original look."
"Huh, this is your original look? Then your previous look certainly wasn't as popular with young girls as your original look, was it?" Song Xinxin joked.
"Young girls—are you a young girl?" Meng Qingyan stared at Song Xinxin with a smile and asked. He actually just wanted to know whether she liked his current image.
"Me?" How should she put it? After experiencing life-and-death betrayal, could her state of mind still return to that of a young girl? She was very unsure.
"Is that hard to say?"
"What I probably mean is that maybe I'll be very much like a young girl at certain times, and perhaps at other times I'll be a different person altogether," Song Xinxin explained on her own.
Yet Meng Qingyan felt she was giving an irrelevant answer. His meaning was very clear: did she like his current image or not? Oh well! But her answer was very vague, amounting to an explanation that she might not be a young girl. Was this a disguised rejection, or did she really not grasp the meaning behind his words?
"I understand this." Regarding matters she didn't want to admit, as an older person, he didn't want to push her too much. After all, they hadn't known each other for very long, and feelings were cultivated slowly; he wasn't in a rush.
Although he said he understood, Song Xinxin felt that he didn't understand at all, so she continued to explain, "People don't stay the same, after all. Under different circumstances, a person's mindset will change. It's just like placing people in different environments; the choices everyone makes might be different. Or perhaps placing people in the exact same environment, the choices everyone makes are actually still the same."
Hearing this, Meng Qingyan shook his head helplessly. Was this a tongue-twister? He thought to himself, letting out a faint sigh, "Saying things like this to you acting majors, I feel like I'm asking for humiliation."
Realizing that her words had caused him a certain amount of trouble, Song Xinxin ended that conversation and changed the subject. "Still, I think whether it's your current look or your previous look, both suit you quite well."
Being called good-looking by a woman made Meng Qingyan somewhat unaccustomed to it. After all, quite a few people "appreciated" his sternness, but very few appreciated his looks.
"I almost forgot, this is for you!" It was only then that he remembered what he was holding in his hand, so he handed one of the bags to Song Xinxin.
Song Xinxin hesitated slightly, took it, and opened it to find her silver sequined halter dress, that silver wig, and her handbag tucked right at the very edge.
"You kept these things! My dazzling nightclub outfit is back!" Song Xinxin laughed like a child, not just because the clothes were back, but because she inadvertently imagined what Meng Qingyan looked like wearing this outfit, and it was beyond ridiculous.
"They've all been washed clean. Everything in the handbag is there, except for your actor's ID card."
"Got it, got it. Let's go, let's go pick up the suit at the dry cleaner's." Without rummaging through the things in the bag, Song Xinxin just held it like that in her hand.
"Alright! Let me pay for the dry cleaning!" Meng Qingyan figured that since she was a female student, her handbag probably just contained a few credit cards and she didn't look like she had much money.
"No need," Song Xinxin refused with a smile. "I shot a drama not long ago; although the pay wasn't much, it's enough to last me for a while. Dry cleaning fees are a piece of cake!" Although Song Xinxin's financial situation wasn't exactly rock-solid right now, compared to the days when she had to stretch out her hand for money and receive cold glares from people, she felt much more at ease now.
A woman, after all, should rely on herself. No matter when it is, she should never just think about relying on a man to support her.
Listening to her words, Meng Qingyan's lips curled into an amused smile. He had someone check those credit cards of hers, and every single one of them had an outstanding balance. Judging from the debt status of those credit cards, her financial condition wasn't very good at all.
Yet even so, she still... Meng Qingyan sighed and said nothing.
Clearly short on money, yet she wouldn't say so. Could it be that she thought he, a hoodlum brother, had no money?
"Um, I..." Meng Qingyan originally wanted to say that he had money, but the words stuck in his throat, and he didn't know how to bring it up. How much money could a hoodlum possibly have? If he had too much money, would people suspect him?
Sure enough, before he could figure it out, someone else grew suspicious.
The owner of the dry cleaner's handed the dry-cleaned suit to Song Xinxin and put on a flattering smile. "Young lady, is this your boyfriend's suit? It certainly isn't cheap!"
"I know, you said it wasn't cheap last time." Not catching the drift, Song Xinxin took the clothes and prepared to leave after paying.
At this moment, the shop owner was unhappy. He grabbed the bag containing the clothes and said, "Young lady, it's not that I want to lecture you, but if you're going around stealing people's clothes to sell, I really have to say a word to you!" The owner's face went flat; the flattery was gone, replaced by a completely different expression.
Meng Qingyan, standing right behind Song Xinxin, heard the owner's remark and roughly guessed that the owner recognized his suit as custom-made, costing millions. The boyfriend of an ordinary female college student most likely couldn't afford to wear such a suit. Just as he was wondering how to explain...
He saw Song Xinxin place one hand on her hip, raise her chin, and put on a feisty look. "Listen here, Shop Owner, aren't you sticking your nose a bit too far into other people's business? You run a laundry shop—do you want to dabble in some other kind of business as well? Besides, whether I sell this clothes or wear it, what business is it of yours? If you don't want to run this business anymore, or if you have something on your mind, you can just say it directly instead of beating around the bush. And furthermore, if you think this isn't my clothes, that I stole someone else's clothes, then you can call the police right now and let them ask us. We can naturally explain things clearly. If you can't give a valid reason and insist on holding onto my clothes and refusing to let me go today, then you know what? I'm just going to camp out right here in your shop. I'd like to see whether it affects your business or my life more!" Song Xinxin's mouth fired off like a machine gun, rattling off a long string of words that left the shop owner completely dumbfounded. Yet it also hit uncomfortably close to the owner's petty thoughts, making him feel thoroughly ashamed, though he put on a strong front and didn't really show it.
"Why are you young people... talking nonsense!" Losing face, the owner let go of the clothes, practically harboring the urge to chase them out. "Take your clothes and get out of here right now, don't delay my business!"
"How could I dare delay your business? Clearly you were the one holding onto me and refusing to let me go! How come you're regretting it now, not letting me stay and instead chasing me away..." Song Xinxin wore the expression of a villain who had gained the upper hand and was now leveling false accusations.
Seeing this scene from behind, Meng Qingyan found it inexplicably amusing, thinking, *"This girl is certainly sharp-witted, and bold too. If she had shown any timidity just now, she'd probably have been extorted by the shop owner. It's just that her mouth is indeed a bit too formidable."*
"Young lady, if you don't leave right now, I really am calling the police!" By this point, the owner's expression was extremely ugly. "Don't ever come back to my shop for dry cleaning again. As for you, this humble shop can't afford your patronage!"
"Rest assured, not only will I never come back here again, but I'll also notify every single student at our school never to wash their clothes at your shop. You can rest one hundred million percent assured—I will definitely publicize your shop far and wide and make everyone steer clear of it. Hmph!" Having said that, Song Xinxin took her clothes, casually grabbed Meng Qingyan behind her, and strode out quickly.
Before the two of them even stepped out of the shop doors, they heard the owner cursing behind them, "I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to actually run into such a living Bodhisattva!"
"You're too kind, just remember to burn a few more joss sticks from now on. In your next life, maybe you'll have it better!" Unforgiving as ever, Song Xinxin shouted back at the owner.
"Isn't this habit of yours of refusing to let others off when you're in the right going a bit too far?" Meng Qingyan whispered.
Song Xinxin let go of his hand. "I used to be way too easygoing, and everyone thought I was a pushover. Starting right now, I'm going to be a total villain—whoever bites me, I'll bite right back!"
Hearing Song Xinxin's declaration, Meng Qingyan found it utterly ridiculous; who goes around openly proclaiming themselves a villain? Besides, was it true that whoever bit her, she would bite back? If he were to bite her on the cheek right now, would she immediately bite him on the cheek in return?
At that thought, Meng Qingyan felt a sudden surge of anticipation and couldn't help letting his imagination run wild.
Right at that moment, Song Xinxin grabbed his hand and shoved the bag containing the suit into his arms. "Hold on tight to this—this is the very expensive suit in certain people's mouths!"
At this point, Meng Qingyan couldn't even see the suit anymore; his eyes were entirely consumed by the hand SongXinxin had been holding. Her hand was white and soft, and holding his hand gave him an inexplicable sense of an electric shock.
"What are you daydreaming about?" Song Xinxin gave him a light smack on the head.
Stung by the blow, Meng Qingyan snapped back to reality. Thinking of those wild fantasies just now, his gaze grew somewhat timid and he didn't dare meet Song Xinxin's eyes.
"I..." For a moment Meng Qingyan didn't know what to say, so he just stood there frozen. He completely forgot that ever since growing up, practically no one besides his hair stylist had ever touched his head.
Song Xinxin didn't care about any of that. "You've got your clothes, so I'm heading off first. See you another day!"
*"What? We're parting ways just like this?"* Meng Qingyan thought to himself. He had wanted to spend a bit more time with her, which was why he arrived so early, and now after barely spending a dozen minutes together, they were parting ways?
"I... should I walk you back to school?" Meng Qingyan made a final attempt.
"No need, I'll be fine by myself." Having answered, Song Xinxin already turned and dashed away quickly.
*"I'm not heading back to school anyway, I'm going to work at the coffee shop. If you tag along, you'll definitely get conned by my coworkers into buying a cup. The coffee at the shop isn't cheap; I'd better not fleece you! A cup of coffee costs dozens of yuan, which in our small hometown is almost enough for a meal,"* Song Xinxin thought to herself, while also feeling that this Hoodlum Bro was quite interesting. To put on a front, he actually went and rented such an expensive suit—even the dry cleaner's shop owner turned green with envy at the sight of it. Most likely he had just recently become a boss and didn't know how harsh the real world was.
Watching Song Xinxin sprint away at top speed, Meng Qingyan felt profoundly disappointed. *"Does she hate me? Is that why she ran away so fast?"*
Yuan Lai took quite a severe beating and went to the city hospital to be admitted as an inpatient that very evening. He asked the school for half a month's leave.
School remained just as it usually did, with no special changes.
Except for that veteran-pairing-with-novice drama performance: because the male lead Yuan Lai suddenly took a leave of absence, the teacher, left with no other options, selected another senior student to play the male lead.
The originally designated female lead was still Lin Miaoke, but Lin Miaoke's recent state of mind was not good at all, and her comprehension of acting was extremely poor, which made the senior student acting opposite her extremely furious. After several run-throughs, she still couldn't find the right feel; even if she were a wooden statue carved with eyes, just reading the lines should have involved putting some emotion into them.
Midway through rehearsal, the senior student suddenly threw a fit.
"Lin Miaoke, please, can you go back and read the script carefully? You're playing a little maid, not a young mistress of a wealthy family. Her emotions toward the young master are a mix of shyness mixed with temptation, apprehension mixed with excitement... It's a very contradictory psychology, and the love sprouts from within that contradictory mentality. But it is definitely not what you're acting out—that overbearing attitude, that unshakeable arrogance as if the young master had to like you and couldn't possibly like anyone else. This feeling is completely wrong, this emotion is totally off!" The senior student was also exasperated and unsparingly pointed out the shortcomings in her performance.