Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Having gotten a rough idea of Sun Jie's thinking, Yang Shuoxuan didn't dare say more—if he were found out, it would be the end of him. He'd already reaped a major harvest; a man mustn't be too greedy.

So he said: "It's about time. I still have to go meet the new graduate students in a bit. Let's stop here for now."

"Oh, that's right—now that you mention meeting the new graduate students, I just remembered. I forgot all about it. What am I going to do?" Xiaojie said.

Forgot what? You forgot—what does that have to do with me? Yang Moyi was baffled: "What do you mean, what are you going to do? As long as I haven't forgot, that's fine."

Xiaojie's side went silent for a moment. Yang Ce thought she must have assumed he'd already left, and was about to log off QQ, when Xiaojie sent another line that instantly left him trembling with fear.

"Yang Ce, you put on quite an act."

Damn, no way—found out just like that? Yang Juehuan's forehead broke out in sweat at once. How did Sun Jie know? Could she be bluffing him? At that thought, Yang Ce forced himself to stay calm and said: "What Yang Ce? Yang Ce left long ago. You miss him that much?"

"Yang Ce, don't play dumb with me. I know it's you," Xiaojie said.

What was going on? Had he given something away? Yang Lanxu was startled and hurriedly scrolled back through the chat log, but look as he might, there was nothing improper in it.

Besides, up until then Sun Jie's side had been perfectly normal—she plainly hadn't suspected him. So why the sudden suspicion? It had to be his last line.

Yang Ce examined his final sentence carefully: "What do you mean, what are you going to do? As long as I haven't forgot, that's fine."

There was nothing wrong with that either. In tone, it wasn't especially odd—Xiao Qing could absolutely talk that way. So just what had made Sun Jie suspect him?

He thought for a long while and couldn't figure it out. Yang Ce had no choice but to brazen it out: "Sun Jie, what are you talking about? What Yang Ce? What act? I've got to hurry off to meet the freshmen. Talk next time."

"You, meeting the freshmen? What a joke." Sun Jie sent a look of contempt.

Yang Xu was helpless. It seemed Sun Jie truly suspected him—she wasn't bluffing. He had no choice but to say: "All right, dear Miss Sun Jie, I was only joking."

"Tch. Don't I know your dirty little mind? You just want a threesome, so you were testing my reaction." Sun Jie sent a knife emoji.

"Heh heh. But how did you know I wasn't Xiao Qing?" Yang Ce hurriedly steered the topic away and asked.

"The reason's simple. I'm Xiao Qing's student now, and I'm supposed to go to the freshman meeting too in a bit—but I forgot all about it," Sun Jie said.

Damn! Yang Puqi slapped his thigh, utterly crestfallen. He'd schemed and calculated every angle, yet it had never occurred to him that Sun Jie had actually become Xiao Qing's student. There was simply no guarding against it.

"So you're Teacher Xiao's student. Haha." Yang Ce sent a message with a dry laugh.

"I know exactly what you're thinking right now—student and teacher together, right?" Sun Jie said without mincing words. But oh, those words were tempting indeed. Reading them, Yang Ce felt an unbearable itch in his heart. This Sun Jie really was a top-grade vixen—great minds truly think alike. What she thought was exactly what he thought.

"Ahem, ahem. A man as upright as me—how could I engage in such lowbrow tastes? Still, an occasional experiment isn't out of the question. Life, after all, must advance through bold exploration and experiment," Yang Puqi said with perfect seriousness.

Sun Jie sent a rolling-eyes emoji: "I'm off. Go explore by yourself. I'm meeting a client tonight, no time to study this with you."

"Go on, go on." Yang Ce breathed a sigh of relief—his only fear was that you'd pursue it endlessly. Yang Ce thought.

After closing QQ, Yang Ce let out a breath. Why were his hands so itchy? It was all his fault for replying that one extra line—if he hadn't replied, none of this would have happened.

But Yang Jiyan had made one mistake out of nerves: he hadn't cleared the QQ chat log. And so that chat log became a time bomb. True, many people never bother to scroll back through chat logs—but the world always has its accidents.

After closing QQ, Yang Ce logged into his own QQ and added both Sun Jie's and Xiao Qing's QQ numbers to his own. He glanced over them—no one he knew was online—so Yang Ce shut the computer down directly.

He sat in Xiao Qing's office for a while, then, bored, locked the door and came out. By his estimate, Zhao Ying should be out of class by now.

Walking across campus, sure enough, before long he received a message from Zhao Ying. Yang Ce hurriedly pressed the key.

"I just got out of class, but there's still a bit of other business at school, so it might be a little while. How about we just call it off for today?"

Yang Ce replied at once: "No problem, I'm already at school. Just get in touch with me when you're done."

"All right, then," Zhao Ying replied.

Only once he had that definite answer did Yang Ce set his mind at ease. He found a bench, sat down, and watched the crowds coming and going across campus. The start of term was close at hand now, and the campus had filled with students returning to school.

That he could count himself a member of a university campus still struck Yang Ce as a wonder. He had been sure he would never get into university, but a whole chain of lucky chances had come together and made him a college student after all.

In the blink of an eye, the first half of freshman year had passed. It felt like a daze, and in that half year so much had happened—Lan Ling, Lin Yanhe, Chen Shutang, Zhao Ying, Xiao Qing, Sun Jie—joys and sorrows, meetings and partings.

Wang Lin, that formidable rival who used to make trouble for him at every turn, now seemed too trivial to mention. Yang Ce sighed to himself; life really was a strange and wondrous thing.

Lost in thought and sighs, he let the time slip by without noticing, and by the time his phone rang again, the sky had gone dark. Yang Ce took out his phone—it was Zhao Ying calling.

"Sister Ying, are you finished over there?" Yang Ce answered the call.

"Yes, just finished." There was an apologetic note in Zhao Ying's voice. "Yang Ce, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting this long. Are you still at school?"

"Still here. How could I leave without seeing you?" Yang Ce said. "No need to stand on ceremony with me. Where are you? I'll come find you."

"I'm over by Graduate Building No. 3. Tell you what—wait for me at the school gate, and we'll meet there," Zhao Ying said after a moment's thought. "There are too many people around here and it's dark. I'm afraid we'll miss each other."

"All right, I'll wait for you at the school gate," Yang Ce said, and hung up.

The two of them reached the school gate at almost the same moment, but Zhao Ying's eyes were not as sharp as Yang Ce's. Just as she was looking this way and that, he slipped up quietly behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Ah!" Zhao Ying gave a great start and spun around. Only when she saw that it was Yang Ce did she breathe a sigh of relief. "Yang Ce, what do you think you're doing? You nearly frightened me to death!"

"Heh heh, I never thought Sister Ying would be so timid," Yang Ce chuckled.

"Timid? Let me tap you like that next time and see if you don't jump." Zhao Ying scolded him half in jest. "A grown man like you, carrying on like a child."

"Sister Ying, you're not my teacher anymore, so you shouldn't take that tone with me," Yang Ce said with perfect solemnity.

At that, Zhao Ying burst out laughing. "What made you suddenly decide to come looking for me—without even calling first?"