Chapter 7: I’m Done Pretending, I’m Showing My Hand
Chapter 7: Chapter 7: I’m Done Pretending, I’m Showing My Hand
Zhang Yan deliberately waited until the others had just taken a mouthful of beer before he drawled, "I’m sorry for interacting with you all at Provincial University as an ordinary person all this time. But now that we’ve graduated, I’m not going to hide it anymore. I’ll lay my cards on the table—I’m actually a super-rich kid."
"PFFT!"
Jia Qian and Li Chao spat out their beer, hastily lowering their heads to frantically pull out tissues. Brother Gan had the best self-control; he just covered his mouth and held it in for a moment before swallowing it back down.
From an angle the guys hadn’t noticed, the small ears of a girl sitting behind Zhang Yan twitched.
"No, seriously, Brother Ying. Was breaking up with Cheng Lu really that huge of a blow to you?" Jia Qian asked as he wiped his mouth, half-concerned and half-teasing.
Li Chao had choked much harder. It took him a long time to recover, coughing several times before he could finally speak. "Brother Ying, if worse comes to worst, we bros can pool some money together and register you with a top neurologist. We can’t let this illness drag on."
"I’ll pitch in a hundred," Brother Gan chimed in, raising his hand with a chuckle.
Zhang Yan pulled out a few tissues and handed them over. "You guys just lack vision."
He didn’t bother explaining further. He had said his piece; whether they believed him or not was up to them. Zhang Yan wasn’t the type to lavish wealth on everyone he knew just because he struck it rich, but if a good friend truly came to him for help, he wouldn’t be stingy.
Right then, a girl from the table behind them tapped Zhang Yan lightly on the shoulder. "Are you guys seniors from Provincial University? What a coincidence, we go there too!"
The girl’s voice was crisp and melodious like an oriole, full of a cheerful vibe. Curious, Zhang Yan turned his head to look.
She had long, chestnut hair draped over her shoulders and swept to one side. Her facial features were pure and clean, and though she appeared to be wearing no makeup, her natural beauty was striking. Overall, she was an exceptionally stunning girl—easily outshining Cheng Lu by a fair margin.
Sitting next to her was another great beauty of equal caliber, though her makeup was much more pronounced. She was a completely different type of beauty from the first girl. At the moment, she was half-turned in her seat, looking over at them with curiosity. She also boasted a remarkably voluptuous figure.
"Yeah, we’re all from Provincial University. My name is Zhang Yan. The three of us are Computer Science graduates, and that handsome guy across from me who’s as skinny as a bamboo pole is a first-year grad student from the Art College."
"Li Chao."
"Si Mingcheng."
"Jia Qian."
The three of them gave timely nods to the junior girls. Getting to know such pure and beautiful juniors was something no male college student could possibly refuse.
"Hello, seniors. My name is Chi Xinyue. I’m also from the Art College, studying design."
The voluptuous beauty next to her cast a doubtful glance at Chi Xinyue. She wondered if Xinyue had fallen in love at first sight, since taking the initiative to talk to strangers wasn’t usually her style—even if two of the guys across from them were indeed quite handsome.
With Chi Xinyue taking the lead, and with handsome guys sitting across from them, the other two girls sitting furthest away also greeted them.
"Hello, seniors. I’m Liu Yingying."
"Hi, seniors. I’m Zhang Shu."
Seeing that all her classmates had introduced themselves, the last girl finally had to speak up. "I’m Xiaoyan."
"So you’re juniors from the Art College. You should be at the Central Campus like us. What brings you all the way out here for barbecue?"
Faced with such pretty and charming juniors, Li Chao was a bit reserved and Jia Qian was rather shy. However, Si Mingcheng, a veteran in the field of romance, effortlessly took the initiative to strike up a conversation.
"The name of this place is interesting, and the owner is pretty amusing too. We saw his livestream online, so we decided to come check it out." While the other three girls were still sizing up these strangers, Chi Xinyue chatted with an easy familiarity.
This barbecue joint, named the Joyful Union Sect, mostly attracted male customers. There were only a sparse few girls in the entire dining hall, and theirs was the only table comprised entirely of beauties. It was no wonder Brother Gan was curious.
Seeing that the girls behind him had to keep their bodies half-turned to chat, which looked quite uncomfortable, Zhang Yan called out, "It’s too much effort to talk like this. Boss! Do you have a large table? Can you merge our two tables?"
A middle-aged man who looked like the floor manager walked over. "Dear guests, there are no large tables available right now. We do have a few private rooms left, but there’s a cover charge. Plus, if you want to merge two tables, it’ll be complicated to split the bill..."
"That’s fine, we’ll take a private room. Just put both bills on my tab and help us carry our leftover food over."
The four girls wouldn’t rack up much of a bill anyway. Since Zhang Yan’s "pocket money" was now extremely abundant, he was more than willing to get to know these two pretty junior girls, as long as it wasn’t too much trouble.
After all, he was currently "a middle-aged uncle who had just gotten divorced and was emotionally empty."
"We couldn’t possibly impose. Better forget about it..." Xiaoyan was just about to politely decline, but her best friend Chi Xinyue beat her to the punch.
"You’re so generous, senior! Thank you so much!"
Xiaoyan looked at her other two classmates and saw that they were also tempted by the offer, so she couldn’t bring herself to be a wet blanket.
Many times, having a pretty face really did save a lot of trouble.
While they were changing tables, Jia Qian tugged at Zhang Yan’s sleeve. "Brother Ying, are you for real? Are you really a rich kid?"
Zhang Yan offered a faint, noncommittal smile.
The soundproofing in the private room was excellent, blocking out all the clamor from outside.
The four men and four women split into two groups, sitting across from each other around the circular table. A few seats were left empty on either side, maintaining a polite sense of distance.
Zhang Yan ordered a few new dishes and drinks for the girls. "Don’t hold back, everyone. Just treat this as a welcome gift from your senior."
"Brother Ying, you’re playing favorites here. We’ve only got a few cold skewers left on our side." Compared to the cute junior girls, Li Chao seemed much more interested in the food.
"You’re not handicapped. You have hands and feet, so if you want to eat, order it yourself. Since I already said it’s my treat tonight, did you think I’d go back on my word?"
"That’s exactly what I was waiting to hear! I’m adding ten more skewers of enoki mushrooms wrapped in pork belly!"
Through their brief conversation, the guys learned that although the four juniors across from them were roommates, they weren’t all in the same major.
Aside from Chi Xinyue, Xiaoyan was studying folk dance, while the other two were vocal majors.
Zhang Yan had heard that the dormitories for the Art College were quite old and dilapidated. Many girls who didn’t want to live on campus would find people to rent an apartment with nearby, though a mixed-major arrangement like theirs was probably still a rare sight.
After chatting for a while, the two groups became much more familiar with each other. Aside from the girl named Xiaoyan, who didn’t speak much, the other three girls were all very enthusiastic.
"Since you guys studied computer science, you’ll be working as those, um, programmers after graduation, right? I hear the salary is super high!" asked the girl named Liu Yingying curiously.
"It’s alright. Byte offered me thirty-six thousand a month, but I’m still considering it," Jia Qian replied.
Zhang Yan cast a glance at this usually straight-laced guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes. It seemed this oaf had finally wised up and learned how to show off in front of girls.
However, Liu Yingying across the table completely missed his humblebrag. Blinking her large eyes adorned with false eyelashes, she said with innocent naivete, "That doesn’t sound too high. I saw on short videos that programmers all make over a million a year!"