You Can't Bear to Let Her Go, Can You?

The next morning, Shen Qiong brought Gu Liming to his old shop, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion.

The night before, Gu Liming had scrolled through Shen Qiong's Weibo from beginning to end. Now he arrived at the shop full of curiosity.

The first thing Shen Qiong did after entering was put the kettle on, then sweep the floor. The shop wasn't dirty, really, but he was in the habit of giving it a quick clean.

Gu Liming took a sip of tea and exclaimed, "This tea's pretty good!"

"A neighbor gave it to me. This pot's YN Pu'er tea," Shen Qiong explained.

Before long, a white sedan pulled up outside. Gu Liming called out, "Look, could that be a customer?"

Shen Qiong glanced over. "No, it's our gorgeous assistant."

Ren Tianxue walked into the shop and stared at Gu Liming in confusion. She murmured, "A customer this early? Did he make an appointment?"

Shen Qiong smiled. "He's a friend of mine. From now on, he'll be managing my Weibo. When he has some free time, he'll come by the shop and collect some material to take back with him."

As she sorted the appointment box, she smiled. "You call those few followers something that needs managing? I bet half of them have cursed you out."

Shen Qiong rolled his eyes at her. Couldn't she leave him a little dignity?

Gu Liming, meanwhile, leaned over to whisper in Shen Qiong's ear. "That girl's a real knockout. Does she have a boyfriend?"

Shen Qiong knew the guy was incorrigible, so he warned him at once, "Don't you dare make a move on her."

Gu Liming bared his teeth in a grin, giving him the look of a man who knew exactly what was what.

Seeing the two men exchanging knowing looks, Ren Tianxue immediately frowned. "What are you two up to? Why all the secrecy?"

Shen Qiong hurriedly said, "This guy's trying to hit on you! Don't pay him any attention."

Seeing how nervous Shen Qiong looked, Ren Tianxue deliberately turned to Gu Liming and said, "Is that so? Sounds fine to me! Want to ask me out? How about a movie tonight?"

Holy crap! Shen Qiong was instantly crushed. This girl was obviously doing it just to mess with him!

Gu Liming had seen plenty of women, but he rarely came across a stunner like this one: a perfect figure, beautiful face, and an extraordinary air about her. Of course he was interested. But Shen Qiong had already spoken, so he knew he couldn't touch her. He smiled and said, "I'm afraid Shen Qiong will kill me."

Ren Tianxue deliberately glanced at Shen Qiong. "Why be afraid of him? It's not like our date would get in his way."

Shen Qiong gritted his teeth, but there wasn't a thing he could do.

She loved seeing him like this, and smiled, revealing her charming dimples.

Gu Liming could tell the beauty was deliberately teasing Shen Qiong, so he played along. "Sure! Let's pick a time. I don't mind what movie we see—you can choose. The main thing is, we can get a room afterward..." He wore a leering grin.

"Get out of here! A room, seriously?" Before he could finish, Shen Qiong stepped forward and kicked him. Damn it, what a friend—throwing friendship away for a pretty face.

Gu Liming pretended to be in pain and clutched his backside. "Ow, ow, that hurts! It's over, Master Shen's angry. Just don't dock my pay."

"Ahem. Can you be serious for once? No flirting during work hours," Shen Qiong said sternly.

Gu Liming immediately stood at attention, looking like a model employee ready to follow orders. "Yes, boss! I swear I won't flirt with anyone on the clock—especially not a girl the boss has his eye on." He cast a pointed glance at Ren Tianxue.

Ren Tianxue's face turned red. She immediately turned and walked away. "I can't be bothered with you two."

Shen Qiong poured himself a cup of tea. "When you're here with nothing to do, help me boil some water. We can't run out of hot tea, since customers will keep coming in."

That was an easy enough task, but Gu Liming was curious. "What about her?"

"Ahem, I can't get her to do it. I usually do it myself," Shen Qiong explained.

Gu Liming looked at Shen Qiong with an amused expression. "I think you just can't bear to let her do it, can you?" He deliberately said it loudly enough for Ren Tianxue to hear.

Shen Qiong shot him a look.

Ren Tianxue was sorting through the customers' appointment information. When she heard that, she suppressed a laugh, bit her lip, and muttered, "No wonder Shen Qiong's such a shameless flirt all the time. He must've learned it from that rascal of a friend."

Fang Yongkang was in a terrible mood today. The results of his last exam had come out, and his total score was still stuck below the cutoff for a second-tier university. His class ranking had dropped another seven or eight places.

"I don't want to see you on the computer tonight, understand? Study your books properly. The girl next door never went online during her senior year, and now she's gotten into a first-tier university," his mother nagged.

"I don't play games," Fang Yongkang protested.

"Exactly! If you don't play games, why turn on the computer? Listen to your mother. Don't touch it this year. Once you get into college, you and your father can't stop me from playing as much as I want."

The neighbor's kid, once you get into college...

They were two of the most mocked clichés around, but he couldn't argue against them. Fang Yongkang felt miserable.

"Mom, it's really fine. It won't affect my studies. I just didn't do well this time," Fang Yongkang explained.

"No. If you insist, I'll have your father cut off the internet. We won't reconnect it until next year," his mother said firmly.

In the end, Fang Yongkang had no choice but to give in to his mother's demands. He managed to negotiate the right to use the computer on holidays.

He lay alone on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

He'd heard today that she'd made it into the top five in their class, while his own rank kept slipping. The gap between them seemed to grow wider by the day.

The girl Fang Yongkang had a crush on was called Fu Panxue. She was a little chubby in the cheeks, but she looked lovely when she smiled.

Aside from playing music, Fang Yongkang's only other interest was checking her WeChat and Weibo, and secretly saving her photos.

He was rather introverted, so he'd been secretly in love with his classmate for two years without ever confessing. Now, seeing the gap between their grades grow wider and wider, he felt even more troubled.

Maybe he really should give up music and work hard for a year?

Could he give it up? The answer was no!

Whenever Fang Yongkang stopped, he couldn't help humming a song. He just couldn't control himself.

"After we part, I'll smile and tell them, when our friends ask about you,"

"I'll play it off like I never loved you."

"The truth is, I have no one to tell."

"The truth is, I can't live without you."

"The truth is, I loved you more than you knew..."

The words slipped out before he could stop them, and then his mother's voice came from outside the door. "Study hard!"

His enthusiasm was instantly doused. He replied helplessly, "I know!"

Some things, if you keep them bottled up long enough, you eventually forget about them.

But other things are just the opposite. The longer you bottle them up, the more you want to do them.

Fang Yongkang gritted his teeth. Tomorrow was Saturday, and he decided to go to the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion first thing in the morning to make an appointment. Whether Master Shen could really tell fortunes or not, he needed an answer for himself.

Was he suited to singing or not?

At this moment, to Fang Yongkang, Shen Qiong was more like something to hold on to—a reason he could use to convince himself.

Whether Shen Qiong was really as miraculous as people online claimed no longer seemed that important.